Mega Dungeon march PT 2

Who built this and why?

While many of the Mega Dungeon products donate many pages to the history of the location and it's many factions the fact of the matter is, who built this and why.

I'm an all powerful arch mage and I dedicate the last few years of my life to a trap and riddle filled, monster infested summer home? Why, well because I want to protect all my secrets and treasure from greedy types after I die? So now I’m retired into my Multi level fun house of doom, it's 3 AM and I get up to go to the bathroom and I forgot that the hall way between my bed room and the potty has 87 Traps.

Why would I build this? Why not just move to the beach, open a hot dog stand and change my name?

In building and populating the Mega Dungeon one has to consider the implications of what and who is in the Dungeon, while clever tricks,traps and riddles are cool. People and things live in this place as well. Where do they sleep, what do they eat and most importantly where do they poop? Do the many inhabitants know about the various traps and riddles that populate the dungeon? Have they ever met the guy who built the place? Why are they choosing to live in the dungeon as opposed to some place safe like a Volcano?

Yes as usual I am being a tad silly. But why it is fun to shake the cage the fact is Mega-dungeon’s of the past, present and future should in some way make sens and have a history and evolving story.

Gone are the days of static encounters and goblins sitting on 6000 GP, even as we embrace the nostalgia of the OSRIC movement we still want our Dungeons to look organized and make sens and we want to know who built this and why?

Now there are a few classic starting points a potential GM can explore when designing his Mega -Dungeon as he asks him self who and why?
1: Built by one dude. This is perhaps the oldest origin story for a mega -dungeon as we go all the way back to Castle Greyhawk and the mad arch mage Zaggy who much like the Winchester mystery house people never stopped working on the place.

From its humble beginnings as his closet all the way to the grandfather of all mega dungeons we know today as Castle Greyhawk. The castle of the mad arch mage is a perfect example of one guy building the place and if some of it makes no sens? Well he was the mad arch mage.

2: Built by several dudes. “They dug to deep”. Pick your favorite underground dwelling race, say they built a city down there and then say for what ever reason they abandoned it or they got killed. Over the years the place gets inhabited by various monsters and ghosts and then some adventures come along and-Mega Dungeon. The Mines of Moira from Lord of the Rings would be a example of this kind of place.

3: Prison of the Ancients. At some point in the past a group of powerful dudes ran afoul of another group of powerful dudes and they fought each other, for a while. A long while!

At some point one group realized the war was futile, they were evenly matched so they came up with a plan to imprison the other group in the hopes that some time in the future someone would find a way to defeat them(thanks for that guys). So an epic trap and riddle filled prison was built, the group was led in to the trap . Immortal guardians were left behind to watch over the victims of the trap and the winners faded out of existence.

A few hundred years latter the traps start fading, the Adventures set off to deal with the imprisoned once and for all and BAM Mega-Dungeon.

90% of the time its a bad dude that’s trapped in the Dungeon (Diablo) but its always more intersecting if it is a good dude I think because you have the moral problem of “Do we free the now insane angel or what?”.

Slumbering Tsar and Godholm are examples of the prison idea.

4: Just sort of developed over time. Using this method allows you to explain why some of the levels have no connection story wise to the other levels. Year after year things happen in the area to help with the evolution of the location.

Maybe it starts with a wizard building a tower, then he discovers a rich gold vain and hires some dwarfs to mine it. While mining it they discover some ancient burial ground and stop digging. A few years latter a graveyard is built on the land above the hunted miens. Then the grave yard burns down and a mental asylum is built on the ruins and then.

Well you get the idea, the mega-dungeon evolves over time as the history of the location evolves to the point in time where the heroes get involved.

Most of the mega-dungeons use this idea.

No matter how you decide to start your construction you have to remember that the dungeon has to tell a story. If that goblin has been sitting on that chest of 6000GP for 320 years, why?

If the ork tribe lives down the hall from a vampire and a deadly riddle involving lava, why?

And so on. As the dungeon evolves and the party explorers it you have to have a reason to keep them coming back, each level should have a story that will lead the party to another level. There does not need to be a liner end goal (Stop the cultist from freeing Orcus). There can be a lot of smaller goals(under -mountain, castle greyhawk)

No matter what story you deiced to tell remember the mega dungeon starts with two questions. Who built it and why is there a 20 ft shark in a 10X 10 room

Till next time.

Be excellent