Just some numbers for my GURPS Dungeon Fantasy megadungeon game, exploring the ruins of Felltower.
My megadungeon, in 11 numbers:
3 - deepest level plumbed so far
4 - total number of PCs killed
5 - deepest level heard of by the PCs.
6 - different levels or sub-levels visited (even if only briefly), including the surface ruins.
16 - total number of allied NPCs (hirelings, henchmen, recruited monsters) killed exploring Felltower
17 - sessions in the books (25 total, but only 17 in the megadungeon)
45 - approximate number of different kinds of monsters encountered (by race or species)
75 - approximate number of encounter areas explored on level 1
75 - approximate number of encounter areas explored on level 2
79 - number of different rumors heard
180 - approximate number of encounter areas explored overall across all levels visited.
Number of monsters slain and amount of loot retrieved? It was too hard to count, but plenty of monsters have been put down and enough loot has been garnered to keep them coming back.
The death list is the one I pay the most attention to. All those hours spent playing Nethack just drilled it into me...!
ReplyDeleteThat's ~16 fully loaded dead henchmen, right? Do the guys think about recovering the bodies of their slain comrades, just treat the lake as a grave site, or think about ways to hire an amphibious necromancer to kill the fish and get the loot back? Let me guess, they've mentally moved on to looting the dragr grave site.
ReplyDeleteWhat constitutes an encounter area? A room separated from the next area by a door, a cluster of rooms separated by enough corridor that sound might not carry, or something in between?
How many of the rumors have been verified or generated action?
- 16 henchmen loaded with a variety of gear and carrying treasure. Most of them - along with three of the PCs - died in a watery grave. No one is in a hurry to try and find their way back there and then try to deal with recovery. There are couple magic items they really could use - like a magical weapon and some magical armor - and real money, but it would be very risky to attempt.
Delete- an encounter area is usually a room. A cluster of rooms (like the suites from last session) I counted by individual rooms. Big hallways or chambers count, too, if there is something special in them.
- an unknown number of rumors have been believed or "verified." No one (including me) has really done a thorough check to see what they've heard and how true it turned out to be.
How risky would it actually be? I suppose none of the survivors have any idea how deep the lake is, which does make a big difference, but it's fish in a barrel -- you can always back off and think if the first idea isn't working. Bring chum to bait hooks or attract the fish into shooting range, or poison the water (I wonder if Stench would work) to chase them away, throw in a stone with daylight Light so the bottom is visible and use Apportation to lift stuff up.
DeleteOf course, while the party is busy fishing something could be teleported in so I guess it highly risky is right.
BTW, thank you for blogging. It's interesting stuff.
It's like 20 or 30 feet deep - I'd have to check my notes. But it's also full of razor fish, an armored freshwater shark, and they fought fishmen in a connected flooded area. They also had to fight their way past some weird savages and then a bunch of lizardmen and newtmen to get out of the dungeon. So it would be a hard trip there, and then a fishing expedition, then a trip back.
DeleteI think they feel it's very risky because of all of that - plus whatever inevitable things they suspect to be there.
And you're welcome. Blogging is a lot of fun. Some work, but mostly fun.