thechindividual

[thechindividual]

Dungeon23 - outlining the dungeon

Dungeon23 seems to be the perfect excuse to finally start on writing my own megadungeon, and I’m curious to see if I can stick to making it grow over the coming year.

To help me keep things structured, I threw up a rough outline for the dungeon, including a general theme, an idea of the various levels, and (my favorite) factions that are involved in the megadungeon. Feel free to read along and maybe find some inspiration for your own dungeon!

The general idea This yet unnamed dungeon is the remains of a massive spaceship that crashed into Ye Olde Fantasy World. The exact nature of this vessel is probably unknown to the people inhabiting the world, which is all the more reason for a bunch of adventurers to go and explore it. 

The impact did severely damage the ship and the land around it. Additionally, whatever hyper-advanced tech was damaged or whatever experiments contained in the ship broke free, changed the landscape and creatures around the crash site. On top of that, local communities have scavenged part of the ship, using technology they might not fully understand. 

This dungeon will go very science-fantasy, blending advanced technology with more classic fantasy. Since reading the TTRPG ‘Numenera’, I have always wanted to work with this mix of genres.

Levels If I follow the rules of Dungeon23 and stick with it for the full run, I should end up with 12 levels of dungeon-y goodness. While I have no exact plan yet on what each level will contain, here’s my rough outline of what each ‘level bracket’ will focus on:

A Changed Land (levels 1-3): the above-ground parts of the landscape and ship, which highlight how the crash and the ship have changed the world around them. These levels blend natural hazards and monsters, and how the “leaks” of alien tech have impacted the world. 

Halls of Steel (level 4-6): these levels go into the ship proper and cover what would be the command center and living areas. These levels should give PCs clues on the nature of the ship, and what might have caused it to crash.

The Laboratories (levels 7-9): the lower decks of the ship hold R&D and various containment chambers. This might have been an exploration vessel that gathered samples from various planets, and so the crash might have released things that could be dangerous or potential allies. 

Breach into the Abyss (levels 10-12): the ship’s lowest decks (engineering and cargo) have crashed into a network of caverns which reach into the deep dark of the world. What did the denizens of these lands do when this massive vessel crashed through their ceiling?

Factions What makes a megadungeon interesting to me are factions: organisations and groups the PCs can interact with, each with their own agenda and goals within the dungeon. Factions allow for “dungeon politics”, which add a dynamic layer to things.

For now, I’m thinking of at least the following factions:

A number of villages and communities surrounding the crater (both above and below the surface), each having been affected by the ship’s crash.

A group of scholars studying and cataloguing artifacts from the ship. They might pay the PCs for any new and interesting object.

The ship’s damaged and disoriented artificial intelligence, trying desperately to finish the mission (whatever that may be).

A group of aliens who have been awoken from cryo-stasis after the ship crashed, and who are trying to take control of it now. 

Well, that’s all the framework for now. Let’s see how all of this develops over the coming weeks. I will keep you posted. See ya! o/

[thechindividual]

Finished my 5e campaign of 79 sessions today!

After 3 years of playing about twice a month, we wrapped up our 5e campaign today. 

“Ulmark Chronicles” started the PCs on 1st level, following a hook from “Storm King’s Thunder”. I intended to run the full adventure, but due to a combination of less-than-great module design, my player’s amazing plans, and my relentless urge to just build and write my own stuff, we left that plan behind pretty fast. 

What followed was a series of adventures investigating the dangerous plans of fire giants, the return of ghastly undead from beyond an ashen threshold, meeting a forgotten nation shielded by a magical storm, and making deals with devils. 

The campaign and players/characters After 79 sessions, the PCs ended the campaign at 15th level, having succeeded at stopping Iymrith the greatwyrm (gotta keep some stuff from the SKT roots!) from releasing an ancient and destructive evil. This success was made possible through the earlier mentioned infernal bargain. One PC had one final day to spend with the party, before she was called to the Nine Hells. The rest of the party can still be called to service by a mistress of Baator.  All in all, the ending was bittersweet, but from a narrative point of view very satisfying. 

We started the campaign with (excluding me as the DM) 5 players, went up to 6 for a bit, then back to 5, and wrapped up with 4 players and characters. The party composition for the finale was:

a changeling wizard, who had grown fond of the world outside of the Feywild

a human barbarian/fighter, host to an abyssal spirit with links to Yeenoghu

a human druid, tasked to investigate the strange behavior of the giants in her quest to become an archdruid

a tiefling cleric, with blood ties to an archdevil of the Nine Hells

What worked well I liked how I could mine every PC’s background for stuff to use in the campaign. By the end of the campaign, I got to use at least something from everyone’s past and weave it into the main plot. Granted, some PC backgrounds played a larger part than others, but I guess that’s how it is sometimes.

I’m also glad with the cast of NPCs I got to introduce, and how the PCs interacted with them. By the end of the campaign, the PCs had made many friends and foes, and it was fun to see their reactions every time a familiar face returned. 

Last but not least, I’m pleased with how the BBEG of the campaign was presented throughout the story. Iymrith in this campaign became way more than she was in SKT-as-written, and I’m glad the party got to interact with her in various settings. She kicked their ass a few times, but in the end the party was victorious and ended her sinister plans.

What I would do different next time For a next long-term campaign, I would definitely want to structure it in a way that allows for more downtime in between “chapters”. This campaign lasted in-game for 8 months, which is a very short time for PCs to go from overcompetent villagers to dragon-slaying demigods. That is on me for presenting challenges that seem so urgent the players and their PCs don’t feel like they can take a lot of time off. Every day they rest could be a day the BBEG brings the apocalypse closer. Add to that 5e doesn’t really have any good downtime activity systems in my opinion, but that’s a rant on it’s own.  So, my next long-term project would definitely scale things down a bit, and allow for more room to “breathe” in between adventures. 

Also, the first part of this campaign had the PCs level pretty fast. I use milestone leveling, and I feel like I started out way too generous. This didn’t give players enough time to get used to their cool new toys, and added to the “zero to hero in less than a year” problem caused by the fast pace of the story. I’m still a big fan of milestones, but I will definitely tone the leveling speed down in future campaigns.

So, what is next? For now, it’s time to enjoy the fact we succesfully finished a campaign and bask in the proverbial afterglow. Sooner or later, I will definitely want to run something again, but I’m not sure what. I am pretty sure it will be a non-5e game though. That’s mostly because I’ve been playing and running 5e for the past 6 years (wrapped up 3 full campaigns in that time, still running a livestreamed Eberron game and playing in one other campaign), and it’s time to leave the pizza of the TTRPG buffet for what it is and taste something else this restaurant has to offer.  

If you made it this far, thanks for reading! If you have any questions about this campaign, about running (and finishing) a 5e/TTRPG campaign in general, or something else, just let me know!

[thechindividual]

Look what came in the mail :D

@dailydungeondelves‘s cool and adorable calendar will surely help me get through 2023!

[thechindividual]

[removes dust and cobwebs]

H-Hello? Is this thing on?