Megadungeon Hall of Fame: Megadungeon Play Reflections - The Immediate and the Cumulative

I have been MIA from the blogosphere for a big chunk of 2014. While I am finally catching up on my blog posting, my Megadungeon links pages are still in neglected condition. I am trying to rectify that but finding new content for links (and also checking for broken links). Part of that process led me to reread Peter D's (Dungeon Fantastic) post, Megadungeon Play Reflections - The Immediate and the Cumulative.

Peter's blog consistently offers up great content, most of which revolves around megadungeon design and play. His Megadungeon Play Relections - The Immediate and the Cumulative is my personal favorite. It is elegant in its simplicity--the post primarily consists of two lists ("Immediate" and "Cumulative"). What I like is that it is a descriptive post about megadungeon play, as opposed to an armchair prescriptive post. Rather than speculate about megadungeon play, he describes it. And in the act of description, he lays the ground work for how to have a well-designed and well-run megadungeon campaign.

Megadungeon Hall of Fame: "Megadungeon Design and Philosophy"

Megadungeons were all the rage in the tabletop RPG blogsphere back in 2008-2009. There are plenty of posts on megadungeon dating back to the period. I have captured a fair number of them here and here...and I am sure that I missed many more posts.

A few posts have value that goes beyond the immediate context in which they were posted. Al's (Beyond the Black Gate) Megadungeon Design and Philosophy is required reading for anyone designing or playing in a megadungeon. It is presented in three parts: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Rather than present rules, Al gives an overall philosophical framework for megadungeon design. While I have developed my own approach to designing a megadungeon (basically "Holy Crap, it's Monday night again!"), I go back to his three posts again and again.

Al also has conveniently posted a Megadungeons Resources, with links to his own posts and other online resources. Excellent stuff!

Megadungeon Hall of Fame: The One-Page Dungeon

The One-Page Dungeon idea captured my heart back in 2008-2009 and its influence can be seen in Michael Curtis' (The Society of Torch, Pole, and Rope) Stonehell dungeon (which is actually a composite of two-page dungeons). The One-Page Dungeon approach is a great way to design a dungeon and I have used it quite a bit myself. The One-Page Dungeon template (by Michael at ChicagoWiz's RPG Blog) is a great way to get a playable dungeon area created, as it enforces the discipline of not creating too much extraneous material that either becomes a time suck (if you are a perfectionist) or simply won't be used in play.

You can see the key posts by Dave (Sham's Grog & Blog) here and here. Michael (ChicagoWiz's RPG Blog) had an important post in between Dave's two posts, which you can find here. Michael Curtis (The Society of Torch, Pole, and Rope) wraps up this class of Hall of Fame inductees with his post on the same topic here.

Megadungeon Hall of Fame: Jaquaying the Dungeon

A "Jaquayed" Keep

I was late to the game in discovering Justin Alexander's excellent blog, The Alexanderian, which means that I initially missed out on his series, Jaquaying the Dungeon, which was posted in 2010. Justin invents the word "Jaquaying" based on the game, dungeon, and adventure design principles of Jennell Jaquays (formerly Paul Jaquays).

Justin does a fantastic job of systematizing Jaquays' approach to designing highly interactive, dynamic, and complex gaming environments. These dynamic gaming environments, in turn, provide for interesting strategic and tactical options for players that stand up to repeated play. The essential design element is to provide multiple options and paths so that game play is non-linear (Melan offers similar conclusions in his analysis of some classic D&D modules in Dungeon Mapping, another Megadungeon Hall of Fame article).

Homebrew dungeon and adventure design often focus on (1) genre; (2) cool, unique atmospheric elements; or (3) rationalizations as to why the dungeon or other physical environment exists. All are important, but what often is missed is how the dungeon will be experienced by the players in terms of an adventure path and geographic decision-tree. Justin's series provides an instructional corrective to this omission.

You can read Justin's seven part opus for yourself:

• Jaquaying the Dungeon [Part 1]  
• Jaquaying the Dungeon–Part 2: The Jaquays Techniques 
• Jaquaying the Dungeon–Part 3: The Philosophy of Jaquaying 
• Jaquaying the Dungeon–Part 4: Jaquaying the Keep on the Shadowfell  
• Jaquaying the Dungeon–Part 5: Jaquaying for Fun and Profit 
• Jaquaying the Dungeon–Addendum: Dungeon Level Connections 
• Jaquaying the Dungeon–Addendum, Part 2: Tips & Tricks

Megadungeon Hall of Fame Post: "Minimal Dungeon"

I like the posts that give me a lot to think about without trying to tell me what to think. Rob Conley (Bat in the Attic) has an excellent dungeon think-piece in his post, Minimal Dungeons. In this post, he describes an approach to dungeon preparation that focuses on play rather than on the time consuming process of create detailed notes and descriptions.

Nice job, Rob, and welcome to the Megadungeon Hall of Fame. Why do more preparation when you can do less? 

Megadungeon Hall of Fame Post: "The Megadungeon and the Horror"

There are a few books that are so good and so important to me that I find myself reading them more than once. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, Plimpton's The Bogey Man, and Keegan's The Second World War are all on that very short list.

The same is true with blog posts. There are a few blog posts that I find myself going back to in order to read again and think about contents. Beedo's (Dreams in the Lich House) post, The Megadungeon and the Horror, is one such post. Beedo compares and contrasts the typical characteristics of a megadungeon (large areas, multilevel, factions, sparse details) with the typical characteristics of a horror scenario (atmosphere, detail, a careful buildup of tension).

Given the challenges of creating a horror-based megadungeon, Beedo suggests incorporating small, detailed, set-piece areas with weird, powerful, horrifying monsters to create a sense of horror. While that doesn't create a horror-based dungeon, it can create some horror-based sessions within the larger megadungeon campaign. From my perspective, it also creates some additional variety and contrast for the GM and players.

Megadungeon Hall of Fame: "The Dungeon as a Mythic Underworld"

The Dungeon as a Mythic Underworld is a classic megadungeon blog post. You can find plenty of comments and references to it, which speaks to its influential place among many gamers. Alas, the post itself is no longer available, with the demise of the blog Philotomy's Musings. However, the content is still available online with only the slightest bit of work. Pages 22-24 of Philotomy's Dungeons & Dragons Musings (free PDF) preserves the content of the original blog post, The Dungeon as a Mythic Underworld. Be sure to follow the link and check it out.

Megadungeon Hall of Fame: "Dungeon Mapping" by Melan

The online world is much like my desk: The newest stuff is on top, right in plain view, while the older stuff gets buried. Sometimes good stuff gets lost.

Melan's little article, Dungeon Mapping, is good stuff. Melan presents a careful analysis of a number of classic early Dungeons & Dragons adventure modules by means of diagramming the physical path available to the adventurers. This is a primer for anyone creating a megadungeon or adventurer module on how to take advantage of the physical boundaries imposed on players within a dungeon or similar structure.

Dungeon Mapping was critically important a few years ago as bloggers wrote about dungeon design and play. Melan's analysis continues to challenge me as a GM in my approach to dungeon design as well as my overall approach to gaming.

Megadungeon Hall of Fame Post: "With New Old Eyes"

One of the down sides to living in the digital age is being inundated with information--information that is sort by what is newest, not by what is best. Social media (including blogging) presents us with lots of trivial ephemeral stuff (including nonsense random tables featuring elf farts), while good stuff gets buried.

Michael (The Society of Torch, Pole, and Rope) posted With New Old Eyes back on December 5, 2008. It remains to this day the single best post or article that I have seen on creating and running a megadungeon. Instead of giving yet more guidelines and principles, Michael encourages to jettison anything that isn't helpful to actual play and having fun in the megadungeon. He does this by offering up these five points:

• "Stop worrying and love the dungeon"
• “Balance Realism and Fun, but when in doubt, Fun always trumps Realism”
• “The Fantastic, when cranked up to eleven, somehow equals the Realistic”
• “Never be afraid to say ‘no’ to the dice, but also never be afraid to say ‘yes’”
• “Plant many seeds, but only tend the ones that grow”

I really like #1 and #5--running a dungeon should be fun. Those two points really help the GM/DM/LL/TK/CK/Ref remain focused on the fun and what is working. Point #3 is the point that I need to remind myself of...I forget how cool fantastic and weird are. If a dungeon must pass a realism test to be played, then playing in a dungeon is not the correct option for the GM or players.

What online posts or articles have you read that made a difference in the way you play? Are there dungeon/megadungeon posts or articles that I should add to my Megadungeon Links Page?