Megadungeon Musings

I’m musing on a MegaDungeon. I have been having spots of inspiration and am trying to weld them into a cohesive whole. I figured I’d post them onto the blog on the off chance that someone will read them and either:

1. Tell me they’re great ideas (thus boosting my enthusiasm)
2. Make suggestions how to improve them (as above, also providing me more ideas)
3. Tell me they suck (thus saving me from using them :))

So, some initial thoughts:

I want the dungeon to harbour, at its heart, a dragon. Or at least the myth of a dragon, to give me wiggle room. I want the dragon to represent epic, untold power.

The core of the dungeon is a fortress and a prison. The dragon was imprisoned millennia ago by the most powerful heroes of the age and they commanded a fortress be raised above its lair – where it was imprisoned.
The dragons lair was in a cave deep in a chasm (or ravine, or box canyon, I haven’t yet committed) and the fortress was built large enough that it rose above the chasm walls, or expanded out of its entrance (kinda like Helms Deep perhaps).

I want the fortress to have been expanded and expanded, in all directions, over centuries but with deteriorating quality. So the oldest places are sturdy well worked stone (Dwarf-craft?) whilst other areas are inferior – shanty-town warrens for example.

In many places the crafted areas will give way to carved (natural?) tunnels leading into the sides of the chasm – an opportunity for different environs perhaps.

The fortress was wracked by earthquake or some other natural disaster long after it was completed (and perhaps after its purpose had been forgotten) and was probably abandoned by the descendents of the original inhabitants. Others have now taken up residence and continued to build on the works already there (Hence shanty warrens and other inferior construction).

A stable community of, at least Neutral, inhabitants now resides either there or somewhere close by – providing a base of operations, access to healing, henchmen and expertise.

Some trigger event causes Adventurers, Warbands, Noble Militias, Hordes and Crusades to begin flocking to the dungeon (For some, the knowledge that there’s a captive dragon will be enough to stir interest – releasing it for the bad guys, keeping it captive/slaying it for the good guys. For others there’s the old promise of loot. Is that enough?)

I like the idea that there’s an element of Deathtrap Dungeon to the place. Some of it, by no means all, has been constructed with the very deliberate intention of keeping a very big, very powerful (and presumably very unwilling) beast in captivity – so there will be mechanisms to prevent it from escaping under its own steam and for preventing unauthorised external parties from getting to it to release it. Therefore, opportunity for lots of traps – simple and elaborate.

Because it’s grown so large over thousands(?) of years, there’s the opportunity for many different denizens to be present. Many of the monstrous humanoids, demi-humans, vermin, beasts and creatures found in ‘trad’ D&D may be appropriate.

Am I biting off more than I can chew...

What if Drizzt were Batman?

Well, not really. What I mean is this (and please accept this as a poorly thought out rumination, rife with holes to be poked and prodded):

During my commute this morning a thought struck me about the 'culture' of two of my favourite genres of entertainment, the fantasy RPG and comic books. In my head I typify comic book 'good guys' into two types - the HERO and the Vigilante. The Hero stands up for what's right and good and proper and generally doesn't kill people: Spiderman, Batman, Superman etc.. The Vigilante is motivated by something else and happily kills the bad people to achieve their goals: Wolverine, The Punisher.

For the purposes of this discussion I'm going to single out Batman, as it was he that I thought of.

Batman doesn't kill people. From the cast of all his super-villains I don't know of any that die at his hand (though I'm not a big enough bat-geek to actually know.. and I'm mostly ignoring the movies as they are driven by different demands). He rarely kills goons either, leaving them trussed up or terrified for the GCPD to find and incarcerate. Instead, the Joker gets defeated and sent to Arkham to join the Riddler, the Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, etc.. etc..

So what of Fantasy RPGs? In my experience they operate on a fundamentally different set of rules. Killing is ok. It's expected even. Whether it's the L1 Bandits who are out to rob the party through to the epic villain who is trying to summon demon hordes or raise the city of the dead as the centre of her new empire, they generally end up one way. Dead. It's even worse for non-PC race (non-human is too specific..) creatures. Kobolds, Goblins, Dragons, Lamias.. Unless the bad guy *escapes* the bad guy ends up dead.

What's with that?

There must be hundreds of reasons why, not least the differences inherent the two media and what they represent - Comics require drama, which gets harder and harder to achieve if you always kill off your bad guys. But whatever the reasons, what if D&D was more like Gotham City? What if the party of D&D adventurers didn't kill the BBEG and instead subdued and then imprisoned them in their own Arkham?

I liked this thought, not least because D&D is so full of the tools that could make it happen!

Some possible examples:

Vrak, the Half-Orc Barbarian Warlord who united the savannah tribes into a horde that smashed aside a dozen city states before crashing unsuccessfully against the Citadel City of Heddig. Defeated by the Band of Xis he now labours in the heart of the Citadel, imprisoned in Chains of Enfeeblement. Sapped of his prodigous strength he is no longer an imposing physical presence, but beneath the furrowed brow his eyes burn red with hate.

Gandar the Red, Stygian Necromancer and Consort of the Deviless Keshia. His attempts to seize the twin thrones of the Abyss and unleash hell on the Prime Material were thwarted by the Band of Xis when they stormed the Abyssal Plane itself and defeated him in a battle that claimed the life of Keshia. Now he sits in the Citadel, grieving in a marble room inscribed with the sigils of Anti-Magic, unable to work even the tiniest feat of power.

The Bringer of Deaths Caress, mighty priest of the gods of Disease whose quest to reassemble the fabled Anchat Globe was foiled and who now languishes chained in the Temple of the Sun, forever surrounded by two score Acolytes chanting prayer to Sol and drowning out the Bringers attempts to commune with his own foul deities.

3 examples there of BBEGs who are captured rather than killed and imprisoned in some alt version of Arkhams Asylum. Specialist disablements - a cursed item (the chains), anti-magic room and counter-prayer acolyte guards. Assuming that the game of choice supports such things, and the many flaws in my thinking can be worked out, I rather like the idea of this.

Of course - what I actually like the idea of is when it all goes wrong, because that's where the drama lies. Maybe the group of PCs - who are all lower level, perhaps looking up to the Band of Xis as mentors or Heroes of the People, need some help with dealing with their own opponents and go to see Gandar the Red for information. Then it all goes wrong, a la Silence of the Lambs (Gandar the Red as Hannibal Lecter.. there's another idea). It would be fun to play the scene where Clarice first meets Dr Lecter.. "Closer..." but I digress. Or alternatively, a loyal servant of Bringer of Deaths Caress manages to infiltrate the Temple of Sol and unbeknownst to the rest, Bringer manages somehow to get a prayer out and get some spells...

It all goes to pot. The Citadel is broken, the baddies escape. The Band of Xis are scattered, maybe killed, and it's up to the PCs to bring them all back to justice!

So yeah, what it Drizzt were Batman, or Elminster were Supes.. What if my Fighter had the same four colour code of honour as Spiderman.. Surely there's game there!