Monte Carlo

The Old-Skool Mega-Dungeon Rules 1. Theme The dungeon needs a reason for being. Because, on the face of it, a bloody great underground maze full of monsters and stuff is a bit mad. So you need a reason: is it a crypt, a mad wizard's lair, a buried city, a cave network, a temple complex, the body of a long-ossified god, the testing grounds of a brutal subterranean cult...? Or maybe a combination of all these things. Obsidian score highly already because they have a Crypt and a Mad Wizard. It's so old-skool I giggled. In a good way. 2. A Reason to Visit This doesn't need to be too complex, but a quest is a helpful reason to justify the dungeon crawl. Be it a rescue, exploration, assassination of an evil protagonist, theft of large rubies from a demonic statue, the garnering of the ichor of a Rust monster's gall bladder for spell components... you get the reason. Of course, a true mega-dungeon has lots of micro-plots going on. Do you side with the trolls on level 2 to get rid of the Umber Hulk on level 3? They're offering a trollblood mace. Do you rescue the obligatory dwarf prisoner on level 6 to find out that he's an assassin tasked with slaying an insane priest of the snake goddess on level 8? 3. Dungeon Ecology The dungeon ecology should make sense. Monsters / tribes / species / organisations etc should make sense. And the ecology should be dynamic. Kill the orcs on level 2 and it might be that the bugbears from level 3 move in. Kill the troll-hunting Umber Hulks and maybe the trolls start taking over without any predators. The adventurers therefore get the chance to influence the dungeon ecology by conquest, extermination or guile. Lot's of opportunities to use skills like sneaking and diplomacy. Why can't a skill monkey character set all the dungeon factions against each other without actually drawing his sword? 4. Traps / Puzzles and of course a Talking Statue Traps, puzzles and talking statues are as old-skool as Gary Gygax's +1 Mace. A dungeon needs lots of them in order to win treasure, guess the answers to riddles, avoid being turned to stone and give the thief in the party the chance to shine. These trials must fit in with theme and ecology. 5. Epic OMG Battles with Cool Monsters Each level should have a memorable battle that kind of illustrates all of the other elements of the mega-dungeon rules. For example, fighting the Bugbear chieftan in a room full of flaming arrow traps whilst ordering your newly recruited lizardman mooks into the fray is cool. Fighting a claustrophobic dragon in a cave isn't. Do you remember the Drow battle on the bridge in IWD? That's was an Epic OMG Battle with Cool Monsters. 6. Phat L3wt Treasure should be there for the taking if the player is wise. To win the Orb of Sacred Ass-Kicking the party should have used guile, combat and outwitted at least one talking statue. Party members should be bloodied and mangled, with several dead NPCs ready to be carted off to a temple for resurrection. 7. Humour I'm not suggesting that the dungeon is like watching a Will Ferrell movie, but slightly tongue-in-cheek humour, used sparingly, is pretty much essential. Time spent around an old-skool gaming table should involve a fair deal of laughter involving critical hits, narrow escapes, grisly deaths, mad wizards, suicidal NPCs, unpredictable behaviour and of course talking statues. 8. Size Matters The word mega isn't there for hyperbolic reasons. The mega-dungeon should have scale. You should be awed and perhaps nervous of the terrain, size and scope of the dungeon. You should need to seriously consider trekking back to town at the end of a level because of the challenges faced therein. --- There are my rules. Please feel free to add / subtract / whatever. But I hope the non-megadungeon fans can dig that this can be as fun a CRPG experience as anything else in the game.

Can the battle music have the skirl of bagpipes and the urgent beat of war drums? Along with epic chanting and wailing? Because that would be neat.

Vancian schamsian.

Kthxbye

^ What stun said. I don't want to be rude to the OP but this one has been, literally, flogged to death.

Does this mean we get to create our own party if we wish...

I want the Codpiece of Vecna.

The third pic is my favourite, always use it for a mage in IWD. Although she probably gets a bit chilly.

My payday rolls in towards the end of the KS... thanks for the megadungeon will be increasing my pledge to up the last-minute total!

I am most... pleased. They really are listening to us, aren't they? I take my hat off to them. The megadungeon sounds more old-skool than a bearded man eating pizza in a basement whilst rolling a set of polyhedral dice. Plus, they used the word oubliette for ten thousand bonus points. I hope we reach at least ten levels.

A poll about how you like to interact with NPCs as they level up. I like complete control, but I suspect others might like influence systems and whatnot.

^ Yeah, what he said. In the BG games i loved having high level stuff to give to my NPCs.

I like this idea.

Sawyer's political views are for him and I think it's out of order bringing them up here. I judge the man on his work, which I have usually enjoyed. Please go away, OP.

what problems? Anita is entitled to her opinions and we're entitled to disagree, as much as Obz people are entitled to pledge to any project she might be making.

Anita is actually quite cute. Am I allowed to say that?

* sigh *

I am replying so this thread has a permanent link to KS, click on my sig for updates on pledge numbers etc.

If you mess it up though and place a bad call, do you load game or do you play with the consequences? Take it on the chin. I don't want to spoil the replay where I might make a different decision.

America is so vast there must be lots of gamers who would love this project. Admittedly they might be living in heavily-armed mountaintop compounds without internet access, but still...

I've had enough of saving the day. Sometimes I want to blow the day up, like in Fallout 3 with the bomb in the village. And maybe my decision to do something like that isn't just a mwuahahhahaha I'm evil sort of decision, but a really tough call. So interesting moral choices that lead to some bad **** occurring please. I know Obz can do that.

A fair point, but some of them might be tempted to take a faltering first step on the path of righteousness.

As I am already able to do all of these things in real life, I'll settle for the innate ability to cast magic missile twice a day instead.

Sorry for the poor phrase since English is not my main language. No problem. The options seemed loaded to me.

I think MMOs like WoW are popular in Japan and China. Which is to say that Western fantasy tropes are OK with those countries.