When it comes to dungeon-crawling campaign building, would you rather have a campaign centered around one vast dungeon (the proverbial megadungeon), or a campaign that successively explores different dungeons, big (though obviosuly not as big as a megadungeon) and small ("lairs" in Gygaxian parlance)?

And why?

Feel free to point out examples from published modules and/or from elsewhere on the internets.

I prefer the megadungeon surrounded by a regional hex map/sandbox, with one or several closeby settlements for trade, and lairs/smaller dungeons/adventure locations sprinkled throughout the wilderness.

Gives the best of all worlds for me and my game table: you want to stick around town and learn about its people, groups, factions and so on? No problem. You want to go back and forth on expeditions to the megadungeon? Be my guest. You want to solve the problem of the goblins attacking farmers or assault the fort of gnolls blocking the trading routes East instead? Go ahead! Explore further north and map the mountainous area few ever came back from? Sure!

And so on.

Ben pretty much nailed it for me. In the sandbox I've been working on in my free time, I have a "safe" base of operations, the beginnings of a megadungeon, half-a-dozen or so smaller dungeons and lairs, and rumors galore. I figure if I ever get to run it, the players can decide what they want to do. They can get involved with the politics of the region or just chase some xp and gp in the nearby Mad Archmage's House of Horrors.

I would expect variety is the best course. I know some days I just want to roll a d20, and other days I want to play D&D as if it were "Diplomacy".

I would prefer the smaller dungeons. I've used Megadungeons in the past, but smaller dungeons/lairs feels more like multiple adventures are taking place, rather than the PCs' careers defined by one long adventure (even though, yes, a well built Megadungeon can have a lot of unique, unconnected stuff going on).

I haven't run a megadungeon campaign that I found satisfactory so I stick with the many little lairs that can be explored in an evening or three. For me, I find players enjoy "going somewhere new" instead of the idea of drilling deeper and deeper.

I wrote "13 Dungeons Down" for Tunnels & Trolls and I have been trying to run it for years, but no group stuck together long enough to drill past the 6th level thanks to real life intrusions. Which is a bummer. I intentionally added Up/Down spells into the campain ala Ultima and elevators also they would not have to "grind" through the same levels.

For our preferred playstyle, a single large campaign can support about one mega(ish) dungeon and several smaller ones.

This feels like pretty much the epitome of a false dilemma.

I tend to prefer travelogue type games so the mega dungeon just doesn't work for me, so mark me down to liking smaller dungeons.

And yes I find the traveling segments of The Lord of the Rings the most enjoyable to read. Mmmmmmmm... Trees...

Quote from: Justin Alexander;608033This feels like pretty much the epitome of a false dilemma.

Please elaborate.

I prefer smaller dungeons and lairs nowadays, mostly for the same reasons as Tommy and Piestrio. Some dungeons in different regions link together through my meta-dungeon, the Black Ziggurat, they are like Warrens in Erikson's Malazan novels. Magic Items often have a dungeon within, like Disgaea 2's Item World. Beat the dungeon to ungrade the item.

The dichotomy is really one way, as every campaign I've ever known with a "mega" dungeon also had lots of smaller places.

The old-style large dungeon is great one-stop shopping for adventure. Doorways can potentially lead anywhere, so you can have town and wilderness scenarios accessible from there, too.

You know what's not done enough?

Something in the style of Fallout 3's subways. Light complexity, large scale, and dungeons as a manner of trekking from point A to B or C far away.

As a strung-together network they could act as a megadungeon, but in practice players might treat segments more like individual dungeons.

Quote from: beejazz;608885You know what's not done enough?

Something in the style of Fallout 3's subways. Light complexity, large scale, and dungeons as a manner of trekking from point A to B or C far away.

As a strung-together network they could act as a megadungeon, but in practice players might treat segments more like individual dungeons.

That's exactly what I am doing with my AS&SH game and the network of caverns surrounding Kusu's Cove (I'm super late in the writeups, we've just played session 11 yesterday, as a matter of fact). The networks are on my hex map of the Cove. Some of these areas are actually entirely mapped as dungeons. Others are hex maps in their own right at a different scale. Others are more like passages from one spot to another, etc. In effect you can get around the Cove through its network of caverns and experience very different types of adventuring throughout, i.e. 'underground' wilderness, dungeons, etc.

So you've got the Cove, right...



All over the Cove you have different locations with different things going on, and on the beaches etc you have entrances to the network of caves all around, in the deep grey areas around the Cove proper here (can't show the complete map, players might be looking).

Quote from: beejazz;608885You know what's not done enough?

Something in the style of Fallout 3's subways. Light complexity, large scale, and dungeons as a manner of trekking from point A to B or C far away.

As a strung-together network they could act as a megadungeon, but in practice players might treat segments more like individual dungeons.

Isn't this the Underdark?

Quote from: Benoist;608896So you've got the Cove, right...

You, doing maps on the computer? Now I believe the world is doomed.

What did you use to draw this?