(I started this post some time ago, around our 20th session maybe, about time I finish it.)

I’m putting on writing some ideas I have and how I see the dungeon & the campaign so far, from my point of view as the dungeon master.

The game started with 4 players but I’ve decided after a few sessions to keep it for my sons and I only. Makes it easier to play as often as we please and also gives them the opportunity to be in charge.

Using Dragonbane for an OSR Megadungeon

I’m really glad that my Dragonbane walkthrough posts have generated THOUSANDS HUNDREDS of clicks on my blog. Err, yes… Anyway. Dragonbane is totally a viable option to run one of the gazillion of d&d adventures out there. Conversion is not much harder than using a closer-to-original-d&d retro-clone Not only that, but you can also run d&d in what I shall call its purest form: the megadungeon.

That said, Magic is imo the weakest part of the DB system and that’s not insignificant. I’ll get my hand on the brand-new Book of Magic soon enough and see if it resolves the matter.

Also worth saying is that I’ve houseruled many things, from a faster initiative method (still using cards), to the experience points management and how to gain heroic abilities. I’m fairly satisfied with how it works now but it took me a while to figure it out.

So is it worth it? I think so but your mileage may vary.

Some quick thoughts on Gunderholfen

As far as published megadungeons go, Gunderholfen is the most generic, vanilla megadungeon I own – for its upper levels at least and it takes a while to get weirder. But y’know, sometimes solid generic fantasy is all you need.

I would have liked for the very beginning of the dungeon to have a little more polish. The dungeon’s main entrances are mostly handwaved (how do the entrances look from the exterior, how about the surrounding area? Give me a nice handout please!) and I’m not a big fan of the first Level either, whereas the players have to contend with kobolds, goblins and hobgoblins, most likely in this order. It feels, I dunno, too clustered? Not organic enough? Let the players ponder the mystery of the place a little before they get into hack & slash territory I’d say.

I could find some other minor quibbles here and there, I’m good at finding minor quibbles (ask my wife about it), but really that’s about the end of my complaining on Gunderholfen. One big advantage of being not too thematically-wild (idiosyncratic) is that it makes it easier to make it my own and adapt to some themes I had in mind. The maps are excellent. Interactivity is good. The homebase town (Longfelt) is well-done, with provided random tables for detailed encounters, great stuff. Everything is useful for play.

And the Middle and Lower Levels… We’re getting there now, with a first foray in Level 5 a few sessions ago. It’ll be fun.

The Ever-Expanding Swamp, the Dungeon as a Festering Wound

An idea I had, not right at the start but early on, was to add a physical, tangible threat of having an active (mega) dungeon on the region. The swamp that surrounds the dungeon is EXPANDING, it’s like some kind of magic-osmosis phenomenon. Fast enough so that farmers can see their lands being swallowed by the day. Poor farmer Herménégilde that the PCs have got to know, buying food from him on their way to the dungeon at a ridiculously low price, is worried for his future and has a personal interest to wish good luck to the adventurers.

Leave it be and the entire barony will be one big swamp. And a dangerous, monsters-infested one at that.

I’ve linked this to a provided mission in the book of retrieving the Scepter of Harvest, a powerful relic stolen from the town’s main temple, from the dungeon as (in my version) it has the power to stop or even reverse the process.

This is now a central theme to the campaign; adventurers, as chaotic in nature as they often are, are fighting the good fight on behalf of civilization. The dungeon then, is the manifestation of a hole in the fabric of reality, threatening to expand, spreading chaos (but also magic) in its wake.

(Side note: active dungeons awakening other « sleeping » dungeons could be a great concept to include in one’s game).

NPCs adventuring parties as another pressure device

Another of my BIG IDEAS that I’d wanted to explore with this campaign was trying to integrate adventuring NPCs parties in a way that that felt believable (not just dungeon dressing). Rumors in town often gravitate on what this or the other adventuring party is doing/faring. I’ve also established where each party likes to spend time in town (between adventures) so they can be found (or spied upon) more easily.

Of course, the whole thing gives me more prep to do, I roll a bunch of dice for each delves the NPCs do in order to determine how well they’re doing. And if they do well that tends to put pressure on the players – who understandably wish to be the main explorers of the dungeon and the ones to find the aforementionned Scepter of Harvest.

To date, my sons scoff at the Green Imps’ misfortunes and general lack of progess, are glad to have the Protectors as friends and allies and are really angry at the newcomers, the Ravens, ruthless veterans that progress very fast. All very entertaining for me.

In this manner, retrieving the Scepter and the rivalry with the NPC adventurers offer two big incentives to be efficient in exploring the dungeon. Treasure is good, it can be spent on useful things, on less useful things (carousing) to remove conditions from the characters, it can even offer a safeguard to resurrect a character if you have enough of it, but it’s not the main incentive for exploration in this campaign.