THE MEGADUNGEON AS AN UN-EXPLODED BOMB

Some nights I'm so tired I just can't sleep, so I thought I'd blog instead. Just try not to be so hard on my syntax.

Note: I suspect that the following ramblings may be adapted to any kind of sandbox - be it a Megadungeon, a huge wilderness area, a space sector, etc.

If you've been following the so-called OSR for a while you surely remember this post over at Greyhawk Grognard (also author of the impressive Castle of the Mad Archmage Megadungeon). If not, well, do yourself a favor and go read it right now. Done? Good, let's move over. So we all agreed that a Megadungeon should be not considered merely as something that is there to explore, but also the very center of the campaign you're playing around it. This is very convenient from a lazy busy DM point of view: you're going to spend some time designing it, and you totally want to play the hell out of it (otherwise it's just a BIG waste of precious time). Now, people often complains about megadungeons being not very good if you're plot inclined, unless you go with some subtle railroading, create some very static encounters (i.e. Room 122: Evil High Priest about to sacrifice a naked virgin on the altar of the Squamose Amoeboid God) or put a boss monster on every single level. Well, I just don't agreed with this and what I hope to offer here is an alternative take on the thing - pretending for a moment that exploring a huge never-ending dungeon is not fun enough for any party of D&D players worthy of this name.

Try to look at the Megadungeon as an un-exploded bomb. It's there since forever, it probably has a long history, and many secrets to unearth. But what happens when you unearth those secrets? What happens when you poke the proverbial sleeping dog? We're not just talking about "if you slay the orcs of tribe A till the last motherfucking one of them orcs of tribe B are very likely to move in the western section of the level". We're thinking BIG out here. For example, in the Megadungeon I'm developing lately, one of the lower levels is home to a dragon everyone believes dead. Even more, the descendants of the supposed dragon slayer are using their ancestor's heritage to tyrannize the lands around the Megadungeon. What would happen if the party goes down in the cave looking for the dragon's hoard, and discovers that the beast is still alive? What if they awake the dragon? Also, a covenant of wizards has taken residence in the black tower that the Witch King built near the dragon cave and are trying to re-settle things in order for their master to return. Will they lose time and resources fighting the dragon, or gain a powerful ally? And so on.

As you can see, I'm not talking about timed events: I'm talking about triggers left here and there to allow the players to take meaningful choices (a term which can never, ever be over-emphasized in sandbox games), which creates conflicts, which actively shape the story.

NEWS IN THE BLACKWYRM BARONY

I'm delighted by Chris Kutalik's news system in his Hill Cantons campaign. Examples of what I'm talking about can be found here, here and in general all over his (amazing) blog. I have no clue on how he comes up with such brilliant stuff, but I want to do something similar for the Blackwyrm Barony, so here's a tentative table:

1. Village riot
2. City riot
3. Betrayal
4. Chaos raid
5. Bad omens
6. Political conflict
7. Witch hunt
8. Solitary monster hunts the wilderness
9. Plague
10. Guild war
11. New religion in town
12. Extra taxation
13. Festival
14. New law
15. Diplomatic situation
16. ...?

I'm aiming to 20/30 entries in a similar fashion. Feel free to submit your own!

THE BLACKWYRM BARONY

Click to enlarge

The Blackwyrm Barony is located in a narrow vale surrounded by bare woods and steep mountains: a grim, medieval borderland where civilization grasps to survive against those savage beings who dwell in the wilderness, and other nameless horrors which seldom crawls out of the forest to unleash dead and bane upon the helpless mortals. The region is especially famous for the Putrescent Vaults of Yoth (hex 0803), a vast and mostly unexplored mega-complex of underground halls and twisted corridors, supposedly the burial place of a mysterious, otherworldly race that left the planet eons ago. The House Blackwyrm rule over the Barony for thirteen generations, maintaining the status quo by means of brutal acts of repression. They rose to power when their ancestor, Eric Blackwyrm, slayed the dragon Smorg who had settled in the vale several years before, tyrannizing the inhabitants with incessant requests of sacrifices not to burn the whole place down to ashes. The words on their coat of arms say Debes Mihi Unum, "you owe me one", and none in the Barony ever questioned it.

Main Campaign Areas and Motives

• The Putrescent Vaults of Yoth are kind of a lovecraftian mega-dungeon, constructed by the Serpent-kin to hide from the upper world and populated by all kind of unspeakable horrors.
• Struggle against the tyranny of the House Blackwyrm by unearthing their terrible secret: the pact between Eric and the dragon Smorg, who faked his death in change of quiet and secret sacrifices and still lurks in his cave beneath the Devil's Pit (hex 0903). (Yes, the dragon's lair and the vaults may be loosely connected).
• The tomb of Eric Blackwyrm (hex 0905), possible location for The Tomb of Horrors.

Rules

• Most likely Labyrinth Lord
• Realms of Crawling Chaos
• Carcosa and Realm of Chaos mutation tables

TALES OF THE WANDERING PRINCESS

This Saturday I'm going to run a one-on-one game with my girlfriend, who is totally new to roleplaying games. I have some of notes on a village (Camponebbioso, which loosely translates as Misty Fields in English), a bunch of rumors, and a couple of NPCs she can interact with. While playing with newbies is nothing new to me (most of the people I played with since I returned to D&D were completely new to the game), solo games are something I rarely dealt with. But I really want her to enjoy this session, so that it can possibly turn into some kind of irregular game.

As for the rules, I decided to run Swrods & Wizardry Whitebox, 1st edition, with some minor modifications (streamlined advancement, Thieves, skills, the Target 20 mechanic, multiple saving throws, the Save or Die rule, experience for killing monsters) and no miniatures. One of the things I want to make sure is not to threat S&W as a clone of D&D, but as a game in itself. I hope this will lower down the frustration of not having a perfectly adjusted clone, you know. Yes, I do suffer of some kind of mild compulsive disorder. Go figure.