So I thought I would post more and talk about my group and what we are playing/doing.

So my group gets together every other Friday and I currently have 7 players:   5 guys, 2 girls.

So currently we are playtesting my dungeon (or maybe mega dungeon) which is 12 levels.  It's filled with monsters, tons of traps as well as treasures.  They are in dungeon on the hook that they are in search for a mans son who went into the dungeon and has not returned.

The dungeon was created by a powerful wizard to practice his dark arts and he filled it with traps to protect the dungeon.

One level is just a gigantic maze, another level has a giant web filling the room with a giant spider (not out of the book, one I created).   There is another is a large room with poisonous mushrooms 6 feet tall grown in a pattern that makes the room a maze.  If they touch the mushrooms with bare skin they risk being poisoned.   The oil on the mushrooms is very poisonous.

Right now they found the body of the son, he was killed.  After checking the body he was stabbed.   They moved forward to a large ballroom that contains a Dias.  After looking around they found a secret door and found a very nice bedroom.

While checking out the bedroom behind the secret door they heard a roar.  That was where the game stopped for the week.

I am going to use the playtesting to fix the maps, fix what the rooms have and get it all put together.  With all the work I put into it I may get in published.

I have to ask:

1) Would this be considered a dungeon or mega dungeon?

2) Any suggestions for the dungeon that I should add?

A mega-dungeon is one that can support campaign play and multiple groups, so eg the 11 level Dyson's Delve https://dysonlogos.blog/maps/dysons-delve/ isn't a mega-dungeon as each level is small. Whereas Barrowmaze is big enough to count despite only having one level.

Quote from: S'mon on April 10, 2023, 01:55:49 AM
A mega-dungeon is one that can support campaign play and multiple groups, so eg the 11 level Dyson's Delve https://dysonlogos.blog/maps/dysons-delve/ isn't a mega-dungeon as each level is small. Whereas Barrowmaze is big enough to count despite only having one level.

Well then it's just a big, deadly dungeon and has given them a bit of trouble.

Just a bump up: 

Any suggestions for my dungeon?  Anything you can think of that would make it better?

You can take the Keep On The Borderlands/Village of Hommlet approach and create a base of operations for your players.  At this base...a town, or fort, they can rest, and resupply.  There should be potential latrons with quest hooks, and reward-givers.  Maybe a sage is looking for some information on the history of the tomb, so he asks the llayers to take rubbings of the eirovoylhs on the walls...maybe that leads the party to trigger some heiroglyph-related curse, or release some dangerous entity from improsonment...

Control what they can buy.  There's only one suit of plate armor and it's dwarf-sized, also it costs four times the stabdard price, unless of course you can do the merchant a favor...

Traps, puzzles amd riddles.  The Mummy Lord is bored with the millenia of undeath and has created ways to amuse himself at the adventurer's expense.

Create more than one entrance to the dungeon.  Have a secret entrance that goes all the way down to one of the lower, more dangerous, levels.  Caution: Character deaths may ensue if they don't make a Ghostbusters-like exit...

Are their living things in the dungeon?  What is their primary food source?  How about water?  This may sound crass but where do they take a dump?  Waste disposal areas can be filled with disease carrying monsters but also contain riches that no one has the guts to retrieve.

Double post

Quote from: Svenhelgrim on April 11, 2023, 02:19:35 PM
You can take the Keep On The Borderlands/Village of Hommlet approach and create a base of operations for your players.  At this base...a town, or fort, they can rest, and resupply.  There should be potential latrons with quest hooks, and reward-givers.  Maybe a sage is looking for some information on the history of the tomb, so he asks the llayers to take rubbings of the eirovoylhs on the walls...maybe that leads the party to trigger some heiroglyph-related curse, or release some dangerous entity from improsonment...

Control what they can buy.  There's only one suit of plate armor and it's dwarf-sized, also it costs four times the stabdard price, unless of course you can do the merchant a favor...

Traps, puzzles amd riddles.  The Mummy Lord is bored with the millenia of undeath and has created ways to amuse himself at the adventurer's expense.

Create more than one entrance to the dungeon.  Have a secret entrance that goes all the way down to one of the lower, more dangerous, levels.  Caution: Character deaths may ensue if they don't make a Ghostbusters-like exit...

Are their living things in the dungeon?  What is their primary food source?  How about water?  This may sound crass but where do they take a dump?  Waste disposal areas can be filled with disease carrying monsters but also contain riches that no one has the guts to retrieve.

These are all good things to think about.   I need to add some puzzles that characters need to solve to solve to get through the dungeon. 

I will look over the other things as well.  I think when I am done playtesting I may get the adventure published.  Maybe do a version for 5e and another for OSR.

Quote from: GhostNinja on April 09, 2023, 06:47:50 PM
The dungeon was created by a powerful wizard to practice his dark arts and he filled it with traps to protect the dungeon.

One level is just a gigantic maze, another level has a giant web filling the room with a giant spider (not out of the book, one I created).   There is another is a large room with poisonous mushrooms 6 feet tall grown in a pattern that makes the room a maze.  If they touch the mushrooms with bare skin they risk being poisoned.   The oil on the mushrooms is very poisonous.

Right now they found the body of the son, he was killed.  After checking the body he was stabbed.   They moved forward to a large ballroom that contains a Dias.  After looking around they found a secret door and found a very nice bedroom.

While checking out the bedroom behind the secret door they heard a roar.  That was where the game stopped for the week.

I would think about having some character to the wizard beyond just generically evil, so that the dungeon is an expression of his character. If giant spiders and giant poison mushrooms are a thing for him, maybe you can build that out into stuff. Did he have a drow wife, perhaps? What happened to him? Sometimes "evil wizard" is an excuse to throw together random challenges, but I think it is more interesting to think about how to make the pieces fit together more.

In my last dungeon, I got a lot out of the PCs reading murals of the history of the site -- which was about an ancient king who defeated evil sea hags and the sea monsters they summoned, and built his castle fortress on the sacred site they once held.

Mega Dungeon means grand in scope and in occupants.  There are tribes of creatures that live there, make their home there, hunt (each other?), and breed all in the halls that you've created. Give the rooms life, give them meaning, add in a few factions by listening to the players and when they say "Gosh I hope X isn't there" you put X there somewhere and go crazy.

In an OSR game your players are the biggest source of inspiration for ideas you can have, pickup on what they want and say and you'll have a littany of stuff.

I managed to create an underground pit fighting arena under a casino that has lobsters who battle to the death. Why is that? A PC said "Before i set sail I want to see if there's some fighting rings around."  Several Random Generators later the champion Pablo Pinchasso downed Clawdius the Black in the championship match all in the Bubble Room under the Arcane Undercarriage Casino.

Quote from: jhkim on April 11, 2023, 03:26:22 PM
I would think about having some character to the wizard beyond just generically evil, so that the dungeon is an expression of his character. If giant spiders and giant poison mushrooms are a thing for him, maybe you can build that out into stuff. Did he have a drow wife, perhaps? What happened to him? Sometimes "evil wizard" is an excuse to throw together random challenges, but I think it is more interesting to think about how to make the pieces fit together more.

In my last dungeon, I got a lot out of the PCs reading murals of the history of the site -- which was about an ancient king who defeated evil sea hags and the sea monsters they summoned, and built his castle fortress on the sacred site they once held.

You are right about getting more into the evil wizards background.  I need to work on that and fixing a few things that while they worked but could be improved.

Maybe he was a good wizard and something made him go evil.  Perhaps a spell backfired and caused the change in personality.

Thank you for the information.

Quote from: THE_Leopold on April 11, 2023, 04:33:46 PM
Mega Dungeon means grand in scope and in occupants.  There are tribes of creatures that live there, make their home there, hunt (each other?), and breed all in the halls that you've created. Give the rooms life, give them meaning, add in a few factions by listening to the players and when they say "Gosh I hope X isn't there" you put X there somewhere and go crazy.

In an OSR game your players are the biggest source of inspiration for ideas you can have, pickup on what they want and say and you'll have a littany of stuff.

I managed to create an underground pit fighting arena under a casino that has lobsters who battle to the death. Why is that? A PC said "Before i set sail I want to see if there's some fighting rings around."  Several Random Generators later the champion Pablo Pinchasso downed Clawdius the Black in the championship match all in the Bubble Room under the Arcane Undercarriage Casino.

All Great ideas.  Thank You.