June Megadungeon Musings

Just my latest . . .

Megadungeon Musings!

Here's the status of my dungeon.

Mapping - I've mapped 11 levels or major sub-levels fully. I've stocked most of them.

Depth - I realized I don't need that deep of a dungeon. 17 levels? Nah. Not in a go-and-return-the-same-session game like I run. If it takes more than half the session to get there, they aren't likely to go. So a game like I run argues for a flatter, shallower dungeon (like the Black City) instead of a deep, deep dungeon. Easy access to multiple levels is a way around this, though.

Stocking - I've settled on using the Moldvay/Cook room stocking rolls. I think they work well enough. Especially for a first-pass "what's in the dungeon" kind of thing. It's also easy to remember so I don't need to consult some chart to see what my die rolls mean.

Monsters - I still pick monsters by hand, but sometimes generate prefixes randomly.

Treasure - I'm still futzing around with my treasure generator. As I've mentioned before, it's based on depth below the surface and modified by monster strength. The disconnect between monster and treasure is both good (you can find poor strong monsters and wealthy weak ones) and bad (same thing - a dragon with $5K in treasure and some fodder types with $100K). I think I need to tweak it some more but I haven't quite decided how.

I like this one at Dungeon of the Three Fools but it's got issues, like how to set the level (Is it monsters? Depth?) and the clear tie to D&D/AD&D valuing, which isn't how I play. Still it's something I would like. My still-in-alpha system generates a hoard value, but not hoard components. I'd love one of these for GURPS so I could just stock a dungeon level in minutes instead of hours.
(BTW, Dungeon of the Three Fools is a great name for an old-school megadungeon. You get what you deserve, going into a place like that.)

I'm thinking of giving bigger bonuses to Boss monsters on the result (since I determine the monster toughness and then its treasure) and bigger penalties to Fodder types, still normalizing at "Worthy."

I'm also thinking of some tweaks based on level depth. Right now it directly scales to level, which means rolling up treasure on level 6+ means there is usually quite a lot. This isn't necessarily bad, but it does mean "depth below" is critical and maybe it should be "challenge level of the area."

I know this is all pretty vague since I haven't shown the system, but once it's up for beta I may show a bit more. I'm hoping to make something publishable and SJG doesn't like to re-publish stuff that's up for free on some blog somewhere.

Traps - I'm still a big fan of traps. Here is a nice look back at Grimtooth's Traps (I have most of these, and I started with Too - and e23 has them.) But I'm plumbing some more reasonable sources for traps, like Traps & Treachery and the trap charts from Undermountain II.

I think my player's discovery of the use of Create Servant to create trap-trippers gives me a chance to really let go with some nastiness, because they're getting better at dealing with traps. I can level up the challenge, basically, to keep up with their cleverness.

All in all, I find drawing and stocking my dungeon a combo of fun, work, and relaxation. Coming up with the systems to make it more fun than work is more work than fun, though. Still, all in all, it's amusing stuff.