The Multi-Dungeon Campaign

[korgoth]

I have taken in a lot of info about Megadungeons from the many excellent threads on them at DF and other places. I like the idea and I think Megadungeons are neat.

But if you have a bit of gamer ADD (not a game system)... what about a campaign involving a number of smaller dungeons? By smaller, I mean perhaps of 4 or 6 levels each. These dungeons could all have themes or gimmicks which would be tiresome over the course of an entire Megadungeon (they'd make for a sub-level or two), but for a self-contained dungeon of say 120-180 rooms (I'm assuming small levels of 30 rooms each on average) I imagine you could keep up the schtick without running out of "schtick oomph".

Now, given the history of D&D I know this isn't a radical suggestion by any means... the rediscovery of the Megadungeon by the Old School community has really shed light on a lot of things for me. But those Megadungeon threads are so darn good, with the collected community of Old Schoolers putting forth such fine suggestions. So what I'm looking for here are suggestions of similar quality to make a multi-dungeon campaign fresh, exciting and Gygaxian.

Thoughts?

[Zulgyan]

I usually go multi-dungeon. 90% of what is discussed in the mega dungeon threads applies to multiple dungeons of 4 to 6 levels each.

I use a wilderness map and place different dungeon locales here and there. The easiest ones near or within civilization usually, and the hardest are in more desolate and remote places.

[sham]

This is how I did all of my campaigns over the past three decades. It allowed me to have a couple dungeons ready to go, and to work on more higher level ones as the players gained experience.

What a megadungeon offers is the chance for major vertical movement, and dismissal of overland travel. Other than that if the party doesn't mind some overland travel, the multi-dungeon approach is almost the same thing, just with the levels in groups of 4-6, spread out across your campaign in seperate locations.

A megadungeon is almost a subterranean sandbox. There should be plenty of ways to move around, into and out of the dungeon.

I honestly consider my megadungeon a collection of dungeons. It has region names and themes. It doesn't come across as 'a bunch or stuck together' dungeons, though. There are themes shared through the regions as well.

I like the megadungeon approach simply because I've never personally done it this way before (except for a very short-lived proto-megadungeon campaign using AD&D).

I've been considering a megawilderness setting. Basically a sandbox thing with some minor differences. Megawilderness sounds funny enough to work. ;D

[driver]

For me, personally, there has to be some kind of context in which to place the dungeons or the megadungeon -- some interesting above-ground things to throw the Underworld into stark relief. In my experience, most people develop this sort of backdrop even if they set out to "just go through dungeons," so I know I'm not a unique and beautiful snowflake for thinking this.

It's important for me in OD&D especially, where there's not necessarily much mechanical differentiation between characters, to give PCs a chance to interact meaningfully with the non-dungeon environment. Things seem to grow organically from there without even trying very hard.

Even if I just make up a knightly order for the Fighting Men, or jot down a sentence for an otherwise "stock" NPC so he can become part of the landscape, it seems to make the dungeon experience that much more interesting.

[Zulgyan]

I prefer multi dungeons to mega dungeons so that PCs are can have more wilderness adventures that I like a lot and also to change from "city" from time to time and not have the whole campaign in the same place.

[calithena]

Arduin perhaps led the way here, though the early module-focus of publication probably made this something of a 'generic standard' in the early days. Look at pages 93-4 of The Runes of Doom to see how you can develop parts of a setting and its backstory by listing its dungeons.

[BeZurKur]

My take on this from my very limited experience is that the multi-dungeon campaign, I think, doesn't really need guidance because they're episodic. Individually, I'm sure we can explore how to make a good adventure focused dungeon, but outside of that, the multi-dungeon is a string of single dungeons. If you can make one, you can make the others.

The dungeon focused campaign linked through overland travel is, IMO, still a mega-dungeon. It is not so much the scope that identifies the mega-dungeon but the purpose. Why go into the musty darkness? Because it's there. Yeah, there is that initial reason -- gold, growing evil, artifact, etc. -- but that's just there to get the ball rolling. What identifies the mega-dungeon is the reason grows from itself and becomes the campaign's focus. It has to be large because it must support multiple parties -- often times from the same players -- advancing levels.

The multi-dungeon -- or as I take it you mean -- the adventure dungeon has a more designed purpose. If the players get halfway and die, it's seen like a failure. If they achieve the goal: it's a win. Move on to the next adventure/goal/dungeon.

However, if by multi-dungeon, you mean the purpose still has a sandbox approach with the exception that the four or five different first levels scattered across is separated with wilderness to explore, then that isn't that much different with players exploring to find the next pinch point to move horizontally to unexplored areas in the mega-dungeon. Perhaps the only difference is the mega-dungeon requires a little more prep because the players can accidentally move across those pinch points.

Zulgyan: You say you have your dungeons spread out from the cities in increasing difficulty. That's pretty cool. What do you do if because of deaths, the PC's aren't high enough level to explore the next dungeon?

[Deleted]

I always used multi-dungeons when I played in college, since I never had the time create a mega-dungeon, I barely had time to stay ahead of the players as it was and frequently had to create it out of thing air we played. But now that I am thinking about doing some writing, I have also started a mega-dungeon. Now that there are so many threads of info on how to do it, I kind of feel obligated to do it (obligated in a good way). But all of my experiences (good ones) have been with small dungeons that usually were what we could cover in one or two gaming sessions.