How to Make a Megadungeon

Comments · 74

• JO

  @jowizardhealey9285 · 1 month ago

  Your breakdown of the megadungeon makes it so much more comprehensible! Such a feat always seemed like a month-long endeavour of hard that work I could never bring myself to start. Now, after listening to your analysis, it feels so much less of a monumental task! I'm inspired to create a megadungeon of my own in the near future!!

  5

• AA

  @aaronsomerville2124 · 1 month ago

  Great video! I see the Megadungeon as the answer of Chaos to the Lawful concept of the polis. Whatever Law tries to accomplish in the City, Chaos inverts and parodies in the Underworld. Whereas the Lawful world is governed by logic (and the liminal Wilderness by impulse), the realm of Chaos is the ‘logic’ of dreams, nightmares and delusions.

  15

• RE

  @resilientfarmsanddesignstu1702 · 2 weeks ago

  One suggestion: I would include a 6th section, a rest and recovery section. This is a temporary refuge where players can restore health, sleep, organize, plan, etc. this need not be boring as it could be combined with a puzzle or exploration and it might have to be discovered or the space might have to be created perhaps by solving a puzzle or by exploring. This would be especially useful for mega dungeons in which the players must repeatedly set up a camp, live and sleep, discuss, debate, and chart a new course of action within the dungeon for some time or must enter, navigate, exit, resupply and refresh, recenter and advance etc. as they might if digging a tunnel. Without such recovery spots, either the players will be exhausted and killed rather quickly or the monsters and traps that they encounter will have to be watered down to prevent this. I would prefer the case were the monsters and traps are dangerous and possibly lethal but if I could successfully negotiate them I would reach a sanctuary where I could recover and plan my next move only to face more potentially lethal monsters when I leave my makeshift temporary sanctuary. That is not to say that such sanctuaries are permanent or certain. They may be discovered and trapped but new safe places that were previously unsafe may now present themselves. You thoughts?

  2

• AN

  @andrewwebb2141 · 1 month ago

  For those who don’t like dungeons and the way players go through them, haters gonna hate<br>The artistic abilities in these videos are off the chart<br>The advice is great to keep in the back of my mind<br>The stories and monsters are definitely finding a way into my campaign <br>Keep going with all of this<br>Thank you 😀

  10

• LE

  @LeoFrosted · 1 month ago

  As a professional Story Teller / DM, this advice is instrumental at not only making mega dungeons but also designing campaigns that are gripping and worth running. Each session should effectively be a few chambers of the narrative. Great video, with clear layout and editing. You have a new subscriber from this video alone. Beautiful map as well. &lt;3

  8

• RU

  @Run_GMD · 1 month ago

  Great video. Thank you. One other important item to consider at the outset of designing a megadungeon is the reasons why the party will want to or need to explore all of such a vast area. If I put all the effort into designing the space I want to be sure the players will experience it all instead of heading off on their own path after just a few rooms.

  10

• SE

  @SebastianSkadisson · 1 month ago

  I hope the games industry watches this.

  1

• JO

  @jonhaynie1987 · 1 month ago

  Sounds a lot like the Dwarven ruins in the elder scrolls games. I love it! Ancient and advanced, mysteriously abandoned (mostly?), largely in ruins and/or submerged, new less-advanced inhabitants, multiple factions delving for various reasons... insert players and let the drama unfold!

  2

• SA

  @SamuelWaggoner · 2 weeks ago

  Underrated

  1

• IF

  @Ifrit8054 · 1 month ago

  Gurps would like to have a word with you about this idea that “no one sits down to inflict math on people”

  1

• MA

  @malkomalkavian · 1 month ago

  The fractal method reminds me of a runic magic system I worked out for a game.<br>There were 5 level 1 runes.<br>Each level 2 runes was a combo of 2 level 1s.<br>Each level 3 was a combo of two level 2s.<br>My mind started to break down at level 4, and I never made it to 1982 completed runes.<br>Fractals get big fast.

  1

• MY

  @mytrados · 1 month ago

  Yessss! My type of video!

  3