Enchanted Nimbus #3

The Megadungeon Issue!

Hello and welcome back to Enchanted Nimbus. I hope your summers are off to a great start! If you feel the need to cool off, you could consider delving into a dungeon. Perhaps one of mega proportions?

The megadungeon is a fascinating concept and one that has roots that go back to the origins of the hobby. Before there were established settings, game masters focused their efforts on building dungeons! And large ones at that. The idea that you can run a complete campaign inside the halls of a single (albeit huge) space is fascinating. Different factions and powerful denizens control different areas of the dungeon and they all have their own motives and desires. Can the players successfully navigate the space, find fabulous treasures and carve out their own legends?

The megadungeon has lost popularity with more modern editions of D&D and its variants. But there’s no reason you couldn’t run a megadungeon in one of those editions if that’s what you felt like doing.

Today’s issue features a lot of interesting information about the Megadungeon for running and designing them!

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Articles and Blogs

• If you haven’t checked out Philotomy’s Musings, it offers a good discussion on the megadungeon (pages 12-19) and the discussion of the Mythic Underworld (pages 22-24)

• The Alexandrian has a great blog series on dungeon layout and designing dungeon levels with multiple options and looping pathways. This is known as Jaquaysing the Dungeon after renowned game designer Jennell Jaquays.

  • Note: Justin Alexander of The Alexandrian rebranded the term as “Xandering” which is what you’ll see in the blog posts now. This was largely done in efforts to market his book and avoid legal issues in using someone else’s name. I chose to continue to refer to the technique as “Jaquaysing”.

• Gus L. of All Dead Generations wrote a nice framework for designing dungeons in his post: So You Want to Build a Dungeon?

• Goblin Punch’s Dungeon Checklist is a classic article talking about elements that make our dungeons interesting. The checklist applies to all dungeons (mega or othererwise).

• Nick LS Whelan describes his process for making a megadungeon in two weeks on his blog Papers & Pencils.

• Monsters and Manuals shares some principles for drawing your dungeons.

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Videos

I give an overview of how to make your dungeons feel more mythic:

Chris McDowall has a two part series on RPG Dungeon Design. They are lengthy but, Chris is a great game designer worth listening to:

Daniel of Bandit’s Keep talks about Creating a Megadungeon Campaign

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Megadungeon Products Worth Checking Out

• Stonehell Dungeon is a classic-style megadungeon, filled with enough monsters, traps, weirdness, and treasure to keep you gaming for a long, long time. It is on Bryce Lynch’s Favorites list! Digital Here. Print Here.

• The Halls of Arden Vul by Rick Barton is one of the most impressive megadungeons I’ve ever seen. The content is so deep and rich it covers a whopping 1100+ pages. In fact, I think the biggest knock against Arden Vul maybe the sheer amount of information and detail you have to parse through; but if your willing to commit its a rewarding experience. You can get all the content inside a single PDF.

  • I have been watching and enjoying the actual play series by the guys over at 3d6 Down The Line where they are 70+ sessions in their exploration of the megadungeon. Its a great watch and worth checking out if you are interested in Arden Vul before making such a big purchase.

• Rappan Athuk, the legendary mega-dungeon by Frog God Games and Necromancer Games is nothing more and nothing less than a good, old–fashioned dungeon crawl. It offers legions of inventive traps, tricks, strange features, and monsters. It affords numerous opportunities for roleplaying, but anyone willing to brave these subterranean halls better arrive ready to rumble, or their lives will be short indeed. OSR Version. 5e Version.

• Looking to design your own Megadungeon? The Tome of Adventure Design will help you out! Countless tables to help spark your imagination and provide content for your to occupy the many rooms your party will set out to explore. PDF Here. Print Here.

• Other products I’ve found useful in dungeon design (random tables and/or advice):

  • Dungeon Master’s Guide 1e - POD/PDF Version.

  • Worlds Without Number - Free Version. Deluxe Paid Version.

  • The Dungeon Alphabet - PDF Version. Print Version.

  • The Ultimate Toolbox - PDF Version.

  • Dungeon Dressing Complete - OSR PDF Version. 5e PDF Version.

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Online Mapping Tools

One of the most daunting parts of designing a megadungeon is the actually drawing/mapping of your dungeon. Thankfully, many people have developed tools and solutions for this issue.

• The classic Donjon has a random dungeon generator. You can use it to build different levels of a dungeon, without doing the mapping yourself. It does provide simplistic keys for the rooms, but you’re probably better off making it your own.

• Check out Dyson Logos for his plethora of hand drawn maps. Lots of them veer into the “Megadungeon” sizing. This will give you the logical connections to different levels of the dungeon that aren’t going to line up cleanly in a generator like Donjon.

  • Dyson also makes some of his maps available for free under commercial use. Be sure to check which are assigned such designation if you want to use them in your own published products.

• Feel like drawing your own maps digitally? Check out Dungeon Scrawl! A tool that lets you make good looking maps with that bespoke quality you won’t get from a generator or map maker sight.