Mega Dungeon march 3

No matter how big or small your creation is, there has to be a reason for most of the stuff that’s there. Sure you can toss in a few things that are just cool but for the most part each part of the dungeon should tell a story.

Now when you are talking 5-8 levels, each with 80 to 100 rooms then that story can get confusing?

Most Mega-Dungeon builders have a main theme for each level and then a story or theme for each zone of the level. Much of that depends on the history of the location and the overall direction the Gm wants his Mega-Dungeon to go.

Your average Mega – Dungeon level is about 25 to 50 rooms on the small side and can go up to 500 rooms on the larger Mega Dungeons. The average level is usually divided in to 4 zones and the Gm starts from there, its like putting a complex puzzle together. Layer after layer goes in so even the most pointless broom closet has something to do with the story.

I have begun my March Mega- Dungeon game (At Seths Games and Anime in ventura CA) most of my Dungeon is stolen from other dungeons and mashed together but I have decided to take parts of the product I own and begin to add on to them to create my eventual Mega dungeon.

So with the whole, level/zone story idea, lets take a look at one of the Zones the players explored this week and the story I was telling.

The Zone they were exploring was a series of rooms built around a giant bridge stretching across a deep chasm, with bubbling lava far below (my dungeon is starting in a Volcano because Volcanoes are cool).

Almost from the moment they entered the zone they began to get the idea that they were not the first people in this area, this was deduced by the discovery of beds and discarded food stuff. It seemed someone had lived here before and had some control over the bridge.

What happened to them? Well when the party discovered a Beholder who was the victim of a Summon monster spell. It informed them the “Wizard” had summoned him and told him to guard the room till he got back, sadly for our Beholder the wizard has yet to come back.

Further clues were discovered when the party captured and interrogated an ogre who told them of a band of Evil Adventures led by a man named VANE(Like Bane but with a V). These criminals were wandering about the dungeon killing things and asking about the strange pool of bubbling liquid..

Thus the theme of the Zone continues, that this place has a history of being used by adventures as a base. Usually to control the bridge and charge people (or things) to cross it.

But who built the bridge originally, well that part of the story came to pass when the party stumbled across 4 Lich's.

These undead fellows were busy going about summoning something.

So now we have 4 Lich's, a lost beholder and a band of evil adventures going about slaughtering the ogre inhabitants of the level. Meanwhile what's up with the strange pool of bubbling black liquid that has been worshiped in the past? Could it be what brought the Lich's? Could it be some connection to our old pal Jubilex?

See how the story of the Zone takes shape as the party explores, which in turn leads to the theme of the whole level.

Toss in a strange fountain that has the unusual ability to pop up killer frogs every now and then for the typical mega dungeon weird thing and we have another 3-4 sessions worth of adventuring in and around the rooms that make up this part of one level of the mega-dungeon.

See in closing the mega-dungeon is not about the fact that its huge and full of weird stuff, its about the small things that will keep the party interested enough to remain in the dungeon. With out those themes and story’s and weird corners where strange puzzles lurk, its just a large empty space with Ogres. And if its just rooms with Ogres and 20 ft sharks then the party will lose interest and seek ether rewards else where.

The Dungeon has to remain interesting.

Next Tuesday the party will explore deeper into the Volcano dungeon and we will have further shenanigans with the Lich's and other mysteries to explore.

Till next time.

Be excellent.