My DCCRPG Megadungeon Funnel

[Gameogre]

So I want to make a Megadungeon for DCCRPG. It's going to be huge and epic with a unhealthy dose of weird and darkly supernatural.

Things I want to do with it.

1-I want to run it as a funnel at the start.

I'm thinking of having the dungeon be placed under a town and have part of the town actually collapse into the dungeon.Kinda the adventure comes and finds YOU instead of the normal way.In order for the pc's to survive they have to figure out a way out,all the while dodging bands of horrid creatures. After the first funnel I can have the city stop up the entrance.Perhaps even use the dungeon as a form of punishment for criminals/political opponents of it's Tyrant Ruler! Future funnels can be 0 level (troublemakers) forced to survive within its depths. I like the idea of being sentenced to Death or Escape. Live through the ordeal and report back to the magistrate all that happened within,including a map,and have all charges against you nullified!

2-I want to place stopping points in the dungeon so that advancement past a certain point is stymied until the PC's get higher level. To provide breaks from the dungeon itself so that it doesn't get old and stale and also so that I can use other DCCRPG modules and adventure ideas.

I could do this a number of ways. There could be exits from the dungeon in locations to allow those imprisoned within it to escape(and thereby be free).I could simply place doors that could not be opened until a higher level ability can be brought to bare on it.I could place guardians on the entrance to the deeper sections that are clearly too powerful for the current level group(that was will lead to deaths I know,my players are foolhardy). I could even place riddles and questions that have to be answered to pass ie it's not till during the 13th skull adventure that a clue to the riddle is found ect..


3-I want to create a more difficult atmosphere to this crawl as my players are all experience at this point.I really want to worry my players without killing them unnecessarily.

I'm thinking of levels with strange alterations to the game.a level with strange radiation so that even the walls glow that prevents healing or perhaps all magic,a level where the walls are greatly magnetized so any metal(weapons,armor ect) stick to the walls and are unusable until the effect can be turned off at the end of the level.Perhaps a entire level underwater or a huge deep pit with platforms that someone has to be lowered by rope and then swung out really far to reach the next platform.

4- I want a overwhelming reason of why the adventurers want to explore the dungeon. For my idea to work the players need to be invested into exploring the dungeon. I need to hit home reasons to do so that are not tied into helping others.

For the first funnel part I don't think it's a issue. After all for that part the adventure comes to them. After that other than "you made the Tyrant angry and are forced into the dungeons depths" I need to brainstorm and really come up with something special. For wizards it's not too hard. I plan to make the entire place the a alien wizards experiment/abode. But why would the player playing a dwarf really care? Need more here.


The basic idea is that thousands of years ago a long lived alien ship crashed at this location,and could not repair his ship. The alien used his degrading(hey man even advanced batteries run down after a while advanced technology to enslave the surrounding tribes and set himself up as a God. Over time he learned of magic and sought out every bit of knowledge to master this new(technology) in order to conquer his enemies and repair his ship.Eventually his quest was ruined by some long lost heroic band and after being defeated on the battlefield he fled deep down into ship(after activating the dungeon he had built on top of it) and placed himself in cryosleep,hoping to be awaken long after his enemies had all died.

The dungeon would be filled with traps and horrible creatures to slay anyone seeking to finish off the wizard,dark summoning traps,terrifying alien technology and even the undead servants/apprentices the alien wizard once enslaved.

[Gameogre]

One idea I had was to make the Tyrant one of the descendants of the heroes that stopped the ancient alien wizard. Perhaps even ruling with a iron fist with some artifact that was taken from the wizard during the last battle.

Perhaps some orb that could create a impenetrable force shield around the Tyrant. This Orb could actually be the ships power source and be feed by negative emotion like sadness and suffering(one reason the Tyrants of the city have always been such arsehats!).

Maybe the last level can only be entered by the placement of the Orb into the ship.....hmm food for thought!

[Gameogre]

So for the first step I'm sitting down with paper and a copy of Vornheim to create the city. I dislike detailed maps as they never seem to see much use at my table.Instead I'm going with a huge mess of city scribble with sections of important places and epic buildings. Instead of the normal and realistic low population density for a medieval city I'm shooting for hundreds of thousands or millions shoved into the city walls,much of it ruined,rebuilt and ruined again.

I like the idea of huge towers as well.The sort that could only be created with magic or highly advanced engineering that is now lost so they are all ancient and constantly being reused for other purposes.

Bridges that swing out at dazzlingly high levels and connect to other towers to create streets high overhead.

That many people are going to need a LOT of food and use up a ton of resources. Time to figure out where they are all coming from!

[Gameogre]

I placed Bhazanmyrr (it's what I'm calling it for now) on a small shattered continent about half the size of Australia. It lies on the southern coast,to the east is what I'm calling the green coast. A breadbasket type land full of slaves(elven slaves the most prized) that provides Bhazanmyrr with most of its food.The cities forces are very strong here around the farmlands to protect their food source. To the west are the Fallen Lands,full of blasted cities and the ancient dead(and undead). There used to be several subservient kingdoms here until about a hundred years ago when they rebelled against Bhazanmyrr and lost.
To the north are the Grey Wastes a desert with several tall peaks in the middle. Within those peaks are the Iron Mines and much like the green coast full of slaves(dwarf prized above all) and a strong contingent of Bhazanmyrrian forces.
To the far northwest lies a jungle full of Ooruk's(prized slaves for carrying heavy burdens throughout Bhazanmyyr).

I decided to place the city mid way between the lands from Tales from the Fallen Empire and my normal fantasy dccrpg lands. This way I get to use everything!

For the city I made up a dozen places unique to the setting and used everything not nailed down of Vornheim! So we have the Palace Massive,The Eminent Cathedral and all the rest as well as The Tyrants Ziggurat, The Pit of Despair and the Bizarre of Dark Delights. Oh! another thing! I added all those towers that are so cool but then added one more. I got the idea from The Leaning Tower of Pisa. See this epic giant tower,hundreds of feet wide and over four hundred feet tall with many sections floating way out over the city below is leaning down at a terrible angel. Magic alone must keep it up but slowly,inch by inch it is coming down. One day it must surely fail and smash tot he ground killing thousands. Now only the poorest of the poor(and those races seen as unfit by the rest of the city) live here in the shadow of the Twisted Tower. The area cast in shadow is known as the Shade and is much like The Maze from Thieves World! Even the Tyrants Dragoon's Don't go into The Shade! Anyway cool idea eh?

Yeah the map looks like crud but then my maps always do. Besides the player will never see the maps anyway.

Well,now that I have the basics of the city and its environs done. It's time to make a rough sketch of the Dungeon and decide on a name...hmmm guess I should decide on the ancient wizards name as well. Ugg I hate naming things.

[Gameogre]

I finished the 1st level! It ended up being one large area that used to be a tomb that is not collapsed and half filled with street rubble from the collapse. There are three ways out,each leading towards a different area. The one on the left leads into a set of burial chambers for the servants of the lord that was entombed in the now collapsed area. It's filled with skeletons and zombies,not too many at any one time but the lords old personal manservant is one tough ghostly zombie SOB. He is slow though but geez,don't tangle with him. He WILL follow the party if they have removed in of the lords grave goods from the original chamber. If the party drops them though(and he does scream/moan THIEF!) he will stop.

The 2nd area eventually dumps you out into a mining area where undead Skelly type things with zombie heads are STILL at work mining. They are intelligent and not mindless at all.(one of the Skellombies looks like Ralph Kramden) If the party attacks, the undead organize pretty fast and probably unless the party beats feet FAST,you are looking at a full party wipe. If the party instead talks to the undead(my guys will never do this) they will find out these fellows were fellow Bhazanmyrrians put to death and brought back as a cheap slave force(by the Tyrant) to try and develop the long lost copper mines under the city. In exchange for carrying messages for the workers back to their families the Skellombies will show the party the right path to take to get out.

The 3rd passage looks like the worst. It heads directly down,down away into the darkness. It is a small maze of tunnels with three magic constructs that wander the maze. these guys are bad arse! Did I forget the traps? Two of the passages are riddled with them! If you can avoid the monsters(they do make a lot of noise) somehow pass through the trap filled corridors you will find two passages. One leading strait out and the other leading tot he next level down.

There isn't a whole lot of treasure here. A few grave goods you might not want to pick up,a few weapons here and there and several rusty sets of armor. The prize is getting out alive! Also in order to get out you will spot the way to enter deeper into the dungeon. That alone will be worth something later!


I would perhaps have issues with the end set of encounters being so...out of place for the seriousness of the dungeon but truly I don't think it will come up.my guys are the see it kill it type and are not ones to try and talk to anyone,much less undead.

[DM Cojo]

You have some really cool ideas here, and I am enjoying reading them. Thanks for sharing!

[phg]

You have some really cool ideas here, and I am enjoying reading them. Thanks for sharing!

Agreed. Great stuff!

[Gameogre]

We played yesterday and had a blast! The first level went great and they managed to fight there way out,well,some of them did. I'm happy I spent so much time on the city as they spent a good amount of time exploring it.More of them died in the city than the dungeon though. I made it a particularly nasty place for the poor and low level people.

Still by the end of the night they each had one 1st level character and a bunch of paid henchmen (0 level) and planned on heading back down without the Tyrants consent(they found a secret passage not blocked off by the Dragoons.

[Raven_Crowking]

It sounds like good stuff.