More work on Megadungoning

I been working on a concept, and I think I have the concept I am going forward with.

The City of Harrowood once was a great city, good trade location, good farmland, and the rich mines under the city made it a center of wealth and culture, fine houses and great temples were built, as the mines went ever deeper to collect silver, gold, Mitral, and other items from the deep.

Soon the city was known as the Jeweled city, as goods flowed in and the guilds grew wealthy. However not all was well.

When miners found existing tunnels, they did not explore them, they blocked them off haphazardly and they continued to dig, and in greed, they dug a little too deep and little too much.

The metal was placed in the mythic age, before written history, to keep the many gates deep in the earth closed, as the site was a center for gates from all sorts of realms, many foul. Forty years ago enough was removed that the great device could no longer work, and suddenly the gates opened, and the depths was filled with horrors, who rose up the mines and the mostly unmapped passages, and in a week, Harrowood, the jeweled city, was in ruins.

A generation later, the survivors of Harrowood and new arrivals still hold on, while the city was mostly sacked, the old quarter, with its old keep and gates with the runes that predate history, and its solid walls held off the terrors, and now the people live in the shadow of the former city. The docks till holds traders, fishermen still bring in their catch, and brave and foolhardy free folks still venture out to collect wealth in the ruins.

In the day the surface is mostly safe, you might see goblin or orcs moving about, but at night it best to be in the old quarter or in another protected place, as dark things rise up on occasion, and sometimes a mist flows out from the ruined temple of the law that is in the city center. Which is a sign of true danger for anyone caught in the open.

Yet the Old city still lives, gardens in old building lots, chicken and sheep eating the weeds, traders still trade, and adventurers seek out the coin and treasures lost, bring much needed coin for the community.

World Map

The Megadungeon is going to placed in my world of Harrowood, south of Yew in the Northwoods.

On Mega-dungeons

Mega-dungeons are odd things.

The most simple, direct definition of a megadungeon is "A dungeon that a entire campaign can be run in and around it."

Back in the early days of D&D, random, gonzo megadungeons were not uncommon, but over time more narrative play took hold, but there is still a place for Megadungeons.

Quite a few have been published - Undermountian is a big map with little filled out.  Temple of Elemental Evil is a classic example of a fully developed Megadungeon.   Over the last ten years or so many more have been published, castle of the mad archmage, stonehell, Rappen Athuk, Barrowmaze all come to mind. 

However to run a campaign of a mega-dungeon, you have to answer a few questions.

1) Why is it there?

Is this a old mine that been expanded?   Is it a old fortress?  Was it carved down, or was it carved upwards from the underdark? 

2)  Why are the upper levels not cleared out yet?

Quite simply if any adventure group could, the upper levels would be striped bare.   Is it newly discovered?  Perhaps there was some army defeated that opened the path to it.  Perhaps it was forgotten but now bands of evil have been raiding.

3)  Funhouse, Ecological,or somewhere in between?

Funhouse duneons are just whimsical dungeons that have random things thrown into most rooms.  No real rhyme or reason, Ecological design is were each location is carefully designed, with air, food, and logic dictating the design.

Or find a sweet spot in between.

4) Where will you get the maps?

Are you going to draw them yourself?  Will you use one of the many random dungeon generators?  or use someone elses maps that allow you to use them?

5) how BIG are your levels?

Are you going with a lot of small levels?   Or are you going with fewer sprawling levels?

Blackgate Megadungeon

This is the preliminary dungeon design for the Blackgate megadungeon.   I plan to make a few more splits off the main level, but want to fucs on making the upper levels first.  

The Grand Dutchy of the Western Isles quick rundowns.

The Grand Dutchy of the Western Isles

Language: Coranan (Isles dialect)
Culture:  Valen
Capital:  Isakrag (population 5,000)
Brief Overview:  Isolated from the rest of the the world, the Grand Dutchy of the Western Isles fended off Vikish raids and helped unify themselves under the leadership of Heron the III.    While the other kings have not accepted the Heron dynasty as a true kings (due to Heron the III being the son of a butcher), their power cannot be questioned.  The Dukes focus on Naval power, while each town has its own militia to fend off raiders.   Currently the ruler is Kragan (the first of his name), the 5th of the Heron dynasty to rule the Western isles.  

Coat of arms/Flag: A blue Heron on a red background.   

Economy:  The economy of the western isles is dominated by the cold, but rich currents that hit the Isles, fishing the rich waters of the Isles has always been a major source of food and trade goods.  In addition, farming the rocky soil and hunting the Western Tusk Seals have been secondary sources of food and income.  Serfdom does not exist in the Western Isles, and the legal system is based on the concept of exile, with violators of exile orders facing beheading.
Governing: The Dukes appoint traveling judges and appoint village mayors, who both serve for life (unless they decide to retire in there dotage).   On death of a Duke, there is a Moot where the Mayors elect the new duke from any of the decedents of Heron the III.  Currently there are 32 such men and woman who could be elected.  

The Eleven Kingdoms - A primer

The Eleven Kingdoms take place on the Aumish Islands, which have a total landmass of around 315,000 square km (Around the size of the British Isles).   Generally most people refer to the islands in general as West Aum, East Aum (consisting of the southern portion of the eastern island) and Northern Aum (the Northern, uncivilized portion of the eastern island).

The Eleven Kingdoms consist of many languages, cultures, and people, even if it may be isolated from large population shifts.   The area gets it name from the Eleven Human Kingdoms that dominate the islands, each one struggling with each other to unify the lands, and survive from the many issues that surround islands.   The largest city by far is Ten-Penny Bay, at nearly 90,000 souls, the next largest city, Blackgate, has only around 20,000 citizens.   Even the kingdom moniker is misleading, as not all the kingdoms are lead by kings/queens.  

There is various languages throughout the kingdoms,  there is a common trade language, who sages call Vulgar Imperial, and the common man calls Common, but for most it is limited to trade, obtaining a room at a Inn, or basic directions.   Otherwise the local language will be needed to be used, or a translator obtained.  

The Eleven human Kingdoms are as follows:

The Grand Dutchy of the Western Isles
The Kingdom of Coranath
The Kingdom of Deca and Dunvale

The City State of Blackgate

The Kingdom of Sudaum

The Viklaw

The Kingdom of Highrock

The Kingdom of Greygarden

The Republic of Whitetower

The Axolotl lands

The Kingdom of the East

Each of these kingdoms will be detailed in later posts. 

In addition, there is a number of smaller human settlements, ranging from the College of Adytum to the Wildmen of the North, and the Elvish kingdoms of Nora and Navagal, and the dwarven high king at Kurzum.  

I have decided to use the falklands as the base map for this project.  

The name of this setting is now known as "The Eleven Kingdoms" Campaign.  

Happy New years everyone!


   Here is a quick layout of the 10 kingdoms for my 10 Kingdom's campaign. 

Rappan Athuk Review

This is my review for the Rappan Athuk Book and PDF by Frog God Games.

What is Rappan Athuk?

Apparently, in the 3rd edition era (this is when I was out of the RPG gaming, as i played 2nd edition and then came back with old school gaming) one of the best 3rd party products was a mega-dungeon known simply as Rappan Athuk. Then they decided to redo it, using the S&W and Pathfinder systems. I decided to bite the bullet and bought into the kickstarter. And only now can I really review it.

First things first.

This thing is huge. I am not talking Temple of Elemental Evil huge, it even bigger. as a example, it takes 38 pages just to do the introduction and overland encounters. Much of the writing is not fluff, but just endless material. The book itself is close to 500 pages, with 50 subsections explored. However this is not just random maps sliced together, each section has its own theme, there is more then one exit or entrance, With many sub levels. Most of these subsections are large, so that over the table even a single session might not be able to clear out a sub-section.

Also, the encounters are varied and vivid. And some of them are very old school. Including a low brow humor (A mimic who turned into a unbeatable crap-monster), to much more vivid encounters, including that of a undead fallen knight, a oracle out of time and place, A great encounter with a Rakshasa, a goblin city, Mazes, and much more. The creatures range from old standards to obscure (including a few near joke races from the Folio), to brand new creatures.

The kickstarter came with a lot of extras, the nicest being some speicial dice (dice is always good) and a nice large poster map that shows the interconnections between all the subsections. It can be quite complicated.

As for feel, it has a old school vibe. PC deaths are to be expected, and its it quite easy to do a TPK in some of the encounters. This place is deadly. To a old school player it might be best to say "Imagine if you took the Temple of Elemental Evil, then made it almost as deadly in spots and the Tomb of Horrors....And S&W gives it that old school rules to match the old school feel.


Artwork - the artwork is of top quality, and has a old school feel, except that perhaps it is of too high quality for most early stuff.
A+
Book quality: This tome is well bound and is of the highest quality.
A+

Overall first impressions:

This thing is massive, in fact, even the most dedicated dungeon crawler might tire of the huge size of this place. One could most likely have a weekly game and play for a year and still be exploring new areas.

A+ rating, but it IS expensive at $100 for the book, or $40 for the PDF.