What if Undermountain was a Living Dungeon, with a mind of its own?  Halaster has fallen under its spell, and is simply being used as a convenient distraction for adventurers.  In the end; adventurers discover that they have defeated a powerful strawman, but not the true dark power itself.  Then the adventure continues.....

Any thoughts?

Then the Lady of Pain gonna gather heroes of Multiverse - Tenser of Oerth, Erandis Vol of Eberron, Kevoth-Kul of Golarion, Raistlin Majere of Krynn, Kalak of Athas, , Scanlan Shorthalt of Exandria, Cato Sicarius from Ultramarines 2nd company and Maedhros of Arda to defeat ever-mutating-magical-labyrinth before it become new nexus of realities and keep consuming all realities.

Gentelmen, welcome in Wizard's Mad Dungeon!

Quote from: Wrath of God on April 08, 2022, 05:15:03 AM
Then the Lady of Pain gonna gather heroes of Multiverse - Tenser of Oerth, Erandis Vol of Eberron, Kevoth-Kul of Golarion, Raistlin Majere of Krynn, Kalak of Athas, , Scanlan Shorthalt of Exandria, Cato Sicarius from Ultramarines 2nd company and Maedhros of Arda to defeat ever-mutating-magical-labyrinth before it become new nexus of realities and keep consuming all realities.

Gentelmen, welcome in Wizard's Mad Dungeon!

I gotta be honest, that actually does sound like a hell of a story.

Dunno about story, but certainly a hell.

Maybe the dungeon feeds on the bodies of dead adventurers and evolves as it absorbs a bit of their essence and experiences, and uses the Mad Mage to lure more people in. Eventually it begins to grow new corridors and ever expanding rooms with an oddly organic feel to them, breeding new creatures that serve as its immune system, or drawing them from another plane of existence. The deeper you go the more you descend into madness as the dungeon's mind begins to delve into your own and infect you with its thoughts. Soon, you begin to have strange dreams as the dungeon invades your mind while you sleep, twisting it to its own devices. The dungeon is a powerful psionic creature with a giant brain growing even larger somewhere within.

I did some spritework for the graphical plug-in for Gearhead, a Mecha rogue-like. Ine of the dungeons is inside a mountain. Except the dungeon is really the insides of a giant bio-weapon. The mountain is the bio-weapon. Shes not exactly happy to have you punching it in the reproductive organs.

"Is it Wrong to Try and Pick up Girls in a Dungeon" is another where the dungeon is a living thing of some sort.

It pops up on occasion as a theme. Or on a smaller scale. Exploring the insides of some creature.

Pools of Darkness has you battling through the dungeon that is the petrified remains of Moander's body.

Phantasy Star Online turns out that alot of the mines and progressively more of the monsters are actually tunnels through, and the creations of, an evil god.

Probably lots more have missed or forgotten.

Nice thread participation, going on here.

Just how limitless are the possibilities, when working with a Living Dungeon?

I mean "Living Dungeon" is an undefined term.  It has no real mythic or historic resonance to me.  And in D&D, because there is already so much weird shit going on, I feel that it needs some extreme clarification.  Like, what happens when you just spam Disjunction in a living dungeon? Can a living dungeon repair itself? Restock itself?

Does that mean that there are lesser living dungeons that have been riven open, and forced to endlessly regenerate loot and raw materials to be mechanistically mined away by greater powers?  What does the ability then generate loot, raw materials, and magical treasure on demand do for the power curve of the first person to prey on a living dungeon?

I mean, dungeons are not scary.  If they have a bounded ability to shift and warp themselves, then their predators (or pathogens, perhaps, based on scale and relative speed of action) can just park themselves outside that range, excavate the roof of the dungeon, and expose its ability to shift and warp to the world, and study its movement and limitations.  They can dart in, break or steal something, leave it in a pile outside of dungeon manipulation range, and repeat, and with the roof taken off the dungeon, they can see as the dungeon tries to shuffle in resources to adapt.

You don't need to do a full ecological impact of, say, owlbears, because owlbears will have a relatively low impact on a region in both best and worst case scenarios, and we have natural intuitions for understanding how large predators fit into an area.  We don't have those for living dungeons (or at least, I don't), so I'd need both more specification, more exploration, and a good look at how this very fantastic thing would naturally shape the world in unfamiliar ways.

Now I want to use the Oldest House from the Control video game as a dungeon.

Quote from: Jam The MF on April 08, 2022, 11:30:43 PM
Nice thread participation, going on here.

Just how limitless are the possibilities, when working with a Living Dungeon?

Anything really.

Adventures have ranged from a house or simple cave that is not what it seems. To a whole dungeon level. To the entire dungeon. The biggest is essentially a whole campaign that takes place inside some creature. All of which have been done in one form or another. RPGs, Video Games, Comics, Books, and so on.

I was playtester for a PNP board game that involved micronized teams battling a nanite infestation inside a patient. Thats also one segment of an adventure in Champions Online. The "dungeon" was the brain of a patient infested by miniature Mechanon drones.

And a funny one is I believe Mordenkainen built his home inside a huge dragon he turned to stone. I'd have to look up the module thats in.

Quote from: robertliguori on April 09, 2022, 08:50:54 AM
I mean "Living Dungeon" is an undefined term.  It has no real mythic or historic resonance to me.  And in D&D, because there is already so much weird shit going on, I feel that it needs some extreme clarification.  Like, what happens when you just spam Disjunction in a living dungeon? Can a living dungeon repair itself? Restock itself?

Does that mean that there are lesser living dungeons that have been riven open, and forced to endlessly regenerate loot and raw materials to be mechanistically mined away by greater powers?  What does the ability then generate loot, raw materials, and magical treasure on demand do for the power curve of the first person to prey on a living dungeon?

I mean, dungeons are not scary.  If they have a bounded ability to shift and warp themselves, then their predators (or pathogens, perhaps, based on scale and relative speed of action) can just park themselves outside that range, excavate the roof of the dungeon, and expose its ability to shift and warp to the world, and study its movement and limitations.  They can dart in, break or steal something, leave it in a pile outside of dungeon manipulation range, and repeat, and with the roof taken off the dungeon, they can see as the dungeon tries to shuffle in resources to adapt.

You don't need to do a full ecological impact of, say, owlbears, because owlbears will have a relatively low impact on a region in both best and worst case scenarios, and we have natural intuitions for understanding how large predators fit into an area.  We don't have those for living dungeons (or at least, I don't), so I'd need both more specification, more exploration, and a good look at how this very fantastic thing would naturally shape the world in unfamiliar ways.

A Living Dungeon could be many things, including being inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos.  The dungeon itself is a living thing, but also alien and twisted; from our perspective.  The sparkle, gleam, and glitter of the treasure becomes ever greater; the deeper you delve within....

When I first read "Living Dungeon" my immediate thought was the RPGA's "Living" series for convention and store play.
Living Jungle, Living Galaxy, Living Greyhawk, Living Seattle, etc. Whats now called "Organized Play"

What if Undermountain has always been a Living Dungeon?

Its based under one of the biggest cities in the Realms.

It has several entrances and several Factions operating inside.

It has a High Level Mad Wizard keeping everything stocked up.

That sounds like a Living Dungeon to me.