Funhouse Dungeons | Running the Game

[@TheNerdySimulation]

I love Castle Greyhawk so much. I never realized that I really enjoy the Funhouse Dungeon "genre" until now. Thanks, Matt!

[@raymondlugo9960]

Which castle greyhawk?

[@timetravelingbanana7414]

In my game I want to say "There is a 5% chance you get turned into a gnome" In the same way he does

[@knyghtzero8304]

Has anyone suggested doing a video on converting content between editions? If no, I would like to put forth the idea for consideration. :)

[@chrislonghurst7249]

Every KZbinr I follow starts with 'this is a short video' and talks for an hour. It's cool! I listen to these things because I like to hear you talk about your subjects.

[@CatJuggling1]

Matt, this is a long time coming. Thank you. I have been playing D&D nearly as long as you, but as I confessed to my wife tonight, NEVER actually DM'ed a game for my group (the core of which hasn't really changed in all that time). After adopting a couple of kids who turned out to be as weird and geeky as my wife and I, it came time to take up the mantle. I scoured the Interwebs and found your videos. You were speaking my language and the message was clear JUST DO IT! So we started with your goblin infested Tomb of the Delian order. We then moved on to the Hoard of the Dragon Queen and are currently saving Greenest (who comes up with these town names?) from the Cult of the Dragon. My 13 year old daughter's 1/2 Human (and half Elven) Druid and my 17 year old's Dragonborn Sorcerer have been joined by Magda the Odd (a halfling "witch doctor" warlock) and one of my longest gaming buddy's Tiefling Bard. They've saved many villagers, decimated the raiders, and are STILL freaking out every time I have the dragon fly overhead. :) I've learned many lessons from your videos that have made this experience better for my entire family and in the last session I came to one very clear realization. This is a horribly boring adventure WotC has prepared. I mean, it's kept them on their toes when it comes to resource management since it's one very, busy night. I've picked and chosen encounters and modified where I've needed to with much credit to your tips. But with the last couple of videos, Sandboxing especially, I've decided that it'll just be best if I put in a little more of my own work and follow your lead yet again. I'm delving into all the old books and adventures I've got stored away, hitting the resources on the DM's Guild, and rewriting the end of this part of the campaign to allow them to escape to a very special path. I'm redirecting them back to that first tomb, which they will (hopefully, you know players) discover that there's a LOT more to it than what they originally found. (they actually didn't go into the last room, convincing the dragonborn that since he took the Oath, he probably shouldn't loot the Tomb of his new Order). Now, though, undead have been exiting the Tomb, more than just a couple, and the villagers would like their "heroes" to return and fix whatever thing they obviously broke. I have mapped out a complete underground complex, one of many the Delian Order kept as secret meeting halls in their day. They'll have to find their way in and deal with whatever has decided to unleash undeath on the countryside!!! Or maybe they'll just take the adventure hooks leading them to B1, B2, B3, or something else entirely. Personally, I can't wait. No really, I CAN'T wait, so I'm now working on a one-shot Funhouse adventure (I happen to have S2 sitting right here) they can take on over the next few evenings. I know you've heard it plenty of times in the last few months, but you really have made a difference in my house. From one player, DM, storyteller to another, thank you, sir.

[@willcampbell6118]

This is most definitely off topic, but I saw that Evolve shut down a while back. Loved the lore, and wish it could've been more developed. Good luck to you, and Turtle Rock in your future endeavors.

[@1337w0n]

"You can be a murder hobo if that's what you're into." -Matt Colville 2017

[@kofola9145]

Definitely. That is what guards are for.

[@NightWatchersPet]

"gyno-shep" almost made me spit out my coffee

[@txbassdrum]

I finished drawing my map for White Plume Mountain literally minutes before I got the notification for this video... #spoopy

[@Jmac1EightyEight]

I cannot freakin wait for Matt's Stronghold rules.

[@alderbrand]

Agreed! I can't wait for Matt to finish these so I can make them available as a future goal for my players. They're all brand new to D&D and I think they're going to flip out at the opportunity to have their own stronghold(s).

[@robertbeach71]

Jacob McEwen Yes, they sound cool.

[@alexp.4270]

I know they're going to be immensely helpful for me. Really glad to hear Matt is working on them.

[@nickgray8600]

Funny that you would be talking about this, my campaign is using a tweaked version of this adventure. In my campaign, the dungeon is a vault of sorts created by wizards to protect a dangerous but powerful item.

[@KroxxTV]

Same, it'll be fun to straight up rip him off while my players have no idea.

[@zackbrubaker6583]

White Plume Mountain birthed one of my favorite characters of all time. I was running the 3.5 adaptation as a New Year's Eve party when I was a beginner GM and my friends had all rolled very squishy rogues and spellcasters. I decided they needed some sort of front line party member but I didn't want a GMPC who could give away the answers to the riddles and puzzles, so enter Freelm Silverforge. Freelm was a Dwarven paladin with as many defensive options I could give him and low intelligence and wisdom. He was loyal to a fault but due to the low wisdom incredibly easily persuaded by the rest of the party. Because of his heavy armor and defensive bonuses he rarely took damage from the traps and puzzles but often the rest of the party would be rooms ahead while he fumbled his way past frictionless floors and spinning corridors. Through either slapstick or a well timed lay-on-hands everyone in the party grew to love Freelm, and he's become an NPC in many of my campaigns since.

[@snakejawz]

I love it when I pickup a new word, specifically because it happens rarely with my vocabulary. Thank you for that and doing what you do Matt. ex·tem·po·ra·ne·ous adjective spoken or done without preparation. "an extemporaneous speech"

[@GuitarBreakOut]

Yes! I would love to get my hands on that stronghold stuff! Only 3 more levels for my players to start getting that. Thankyou Matt, for all your content, helping me with being a first time DM. Keep it up!

[@charlesstebbins7207]

I have 3 sets of dice that I've always enjoyed pulling out. #1 Dungeon Dice: A 12 sided dice with 12 different room designs, which is rolled with a D6. #2: Encounter Dice: a D4 & a set of D%, which are used along side of various charts. #3 Treasure Dice: A special 4 sided dice which offers armor, equipment, weapon, or magic item, that is rolled along with D%. I love using these dice for as a "Funhouse Dungeon", for those days when my players just want to kill something.

[@rileygoddard7181]

Are these tables you mentioned available somewhere on the internet?

[@bjornseine2342]

I said on Twitter that I was excited to comment on this video. Now I don't have anything to comment, except for: "Great video! Keep it up!"

[@zedx50]

I think the biggest reason that being a murder hobo/dungeon crawler is less common now with DnD 5e is because there are so many other board games that get this fix nowadays. Essentially, running a purely kick the door down and kill people method of play is fine for DnD, but so much of DnD's mechanics are going to waste, you might as well just play a game designed from the ground up to let people be murder hobos. just my thoughts though.

[@CaptainBrawnson]

D&D IS the game designed about being a murderhobo. It always has been. As has been stated, most of the earliest modules just plopped you somewhere near a dungeon and expected you to go loot it because that's what the game was about. There are other systems much more suited to freeform and narrative RP than D&D, but because D&D is the most well known pen and paper game, people try to use it for that, and it's slowly moving to include some of those elements in recent editions.

[@zedx50]

CaptainBrawnson You're right, and I totally agree with that, but I was talking about Matt saying "nowadays people don't want to be murderhobos in DnD" and... he's right, but that's because of the surge in other tabeltop games that fulfill the need of being a murderhobo or being dungeon crawlers. I'm not talking about other fully fleshed out RPGs, i'm talking about games that are JUST about being monster slayers and whatnot. And thus, we move to RPGs in general to not be all about the mechanics, the combat, and the dungeons but instead to tell a story. But a few years ago, you're totally right, and I'm not denying that's where DnD came from. I am also using DnD as a blanket term for ALL tabletop RPGs, not just specifically DnD (which is a really bad thing to do, and i'm sorry about that).

[@All4Tanuki]

As a newcomer to the game, I agree. If I wanted to murder things and get loot I'd just play a video game. The great thing about D&D, to me, is the option for social encounters and other things that can't just be simulated by a computer program.

[@BoboTalkClown]

what do you think of... THE ADVENTURE ZONE?

[@WilliamALayton]

I second this question.

[@CrazyConnor2]

Bobo The Talking Clown do do dooooo, do do doo do do doo do do do do doo!

[@thelimit9710]

*cue theme song*

[@CrazyConnor2]

*Mort Garson's deja vu intensifies*

[@WiscoDrinks]

The Scary Door

[@timothyconnor7784]

Is the answer to the riddle the moon?

[@mnm1273]

I've checked the module, yes that's the right answer

[@Tysto]

I like to say that casting a high-level spell has a chance of causing the caster to lose a point of wisdom, making some high-level wizards more and more eccentric and explaining fun-house dungeons, cursed magic items, etc. That makes crazy puzzle rooms make sense and fun to me, because I used to hate them.

[@LeChaunce]

I've run a twice-weekly funhouse 5e dungeon for murder hobos in the grand '70s tradition for my FLGS for the past two years now and it keeps expanding -- we've added two additional DMs because it's proved to be extremely popular.

[@NirrumTheMad]

Oh man, Can you tell me about how you feel running a game with multiple DMs? What challenges popped up that you did not expect?

[@LeChaunce]

I've been having a blast, and so far we haven't had too many challenges between us as DMs! -- It's an everchanging labyrinth created by a mad wizard, and the game shop asked for quests to be single-session adventures, so we each prepare an adventure within the Labyrinth for that week, "advertise" each quest as if they were help wanted ads ("Undead Wranglers Needed -- I require existing undead beings for research purposes, and offer a bounty for any and all 'live' specimens provided. Go to the Dog and Pony Inn and ask for Hexen. Only serious applicants need apply."), generate a number of encounters ending usually in a boss-level fight (often with a twist) and use the random dungeon tables in the DMG for the layout. Then we meet for brunch before the run to discuss what we've planned, and when it's two o'clock we read off the quests, divide up the groups evenly, and focus on our own Since we never know which players will show up or how many, we make sure our encounters are challenging and scaled to groups of 3-6 players based on the proficiency bonus tiers ("This quest is for 1-4 level characters, this one is for 5-9 level, etc.") About the only challenge we've dealt with is that we often have players that no one wants in their groups show up, so we try to make sure players mix and match the parties and make sure no one stays with one DM for more than two weeks in a row.

[@LeChaunce]

(I've even created gravestones in Adobe Illustrator based on character level and class, so we have a graveyard graphic up for PCs that have died in the dungeon. Lots of first level gravestones...)

[@MrCharlieSB]

Haha, glorious. I printed off some gravestones on 80 weight paper. I write character names on them when PCs die. I then affix them to my DM screen for an unspecified period of time to remind people I WILL kill their characters.

[@Moviemaker7651]

I think a Birthright video would be cool

[@GeoffSayre]

Upvote on the Birthright video, only ever heard Matt talk about so I'm keen to learn more.

[@SFMonster]

I bought the PDFs a few months ago, pretty much entirely on Matt's recommendation. Haven't gotten to read through it yet; a video on it would be a good thing to play while virtually unboxing.

[@13aldur]

Upvote Birthright

[@NerdicusGoblinski]

I had totally forgotten about this style of adventure, and now that my memory has been jogged, I can't wait to run one for my players!

[@seanh6482]

I can't wait for the Campaign Setting video! So entertaining to watch you deliver this content.

[@skruluce]

You made me realize that something that I've never even thought about is adding puzzles to campaigns; the DM in my very first D&D group peppered his campaigns with puzzles but I've not actually had much experience with them since then. I'd love to see a video on constructing puzzles that will sufficiently bend players' minds without making them (completely) miserable.

[@JackVinson]

You forgot to add this one to the playlist for Running the Game. Great stuff, as always.

[@thereluctanthireling]

More please, love these old school adventure reviews and explanations. Actually setting up an end of the year event for my D&D group using a fun-house dungeon one-shot, survivors get prizes, should be a good time!

[@mousey76397]

I started running white plume mountain this week with my group and they are thoroughly enjoying it. We didn't manage to finish it as they spent a long time trying to save "9" the flesh golem from the mud pit below. Thanks for recommending it.

[@morganjones4281]

I usually just say "shepard" regardless of what gender I was playing. I would clarified once that "I was playing as female shepard" and thereon referred to her as shepard. If I was talking about a playthrough where I was male shepard I would clarify "this was when I was playing male shepard" and then otherwise refer to my character as shepard.

[@TheHazza1205]

Love your content Matt. Cannot wait for your Stronghold rules.

[@PilafIsACookingMethod]

Birthright is hands down my favorite D&D setting.

[@Geographus666]

Our DM once did a funhouse-dungeon and we spent the entire session figuring out these crazy contraptions the guy who build this dungeon into the basement of his castle had come up with to protect his treasure. The conclusion could not have been better. The big treasure was literally in the bedroom of the castle in a simple chest protected by almost nothing and the guy had build this entire dungeon to protect and hide a few kegs of beer from his wife, who was notoriouly against the consumption of alcohol in any way. He gave us what we wanted (some treasure but primarily information) if we didn't tell his wife about this.

[@gregray7688]

I'm running White Plum Mountain tomorrow as part of Tales of Yawning Portal Adventure League program. It has always been a favorite as just a wacky adventure. It'll be interesting to see how well the players adapt to the "fun house" format versus the standard adventure path. Thanks for the post.

[@charlesfarrelljrllc9936]

EX1: "Dungeonland" (1983) by Gygax and EX2: "The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror" are what I always remember from the old days when I think funhouse dungeon. They were crazy! I've run White Plume Mountain and also Return to White Plume Mountain and the characters always keep the items!

[@digadigado]

Two adventure tie ins could be a magic induced fever dream or some like spirit quest for a bard

[@antowright]

I would love to hear about Birthright

[@AlVainactual]

Hey! So glad you did this video in this particular day! I was looking for a dungeon just like that and this popped up in my feed and saved my weekend game! Keep up the great work!

[@devonsharkey414]

Looking forward to eventually seeing these stronghold rules!

[@JKSSubstandard]

Tales of the Yawning Portal includes WPM. Theres a story on the DM guild which (at least for me) is so far doing a great job of integrating WPM into the series of more regular modules to make one good long adventure. Basically they take the idea of Keraptis and rewrite him so that he needs true heroes and the 3 divine imbedded weapons (the ones you mention actually) to free him from a greater evil that imprisoned him and WPM is the prison. I really encourage any DMs here to check out both. Im running TYP for my first time DMing along with the DMGuild story (ESBraun I think is the writer) and so far its well received

[@efranke20001]

Nice fun, short video. I have read more fun house adventures than I have played (or run), but I think the idea of highlighting them is another great move by Matt. I guess I am more interested in hearing about Birthright next (it is from a period when I was not playing much D&D, so I totally missed it). I would be happy with the 4e video too, though. Philippe A. Ménard (@ChattyDM) the Chatty DM (from over at Critical Hits) who now works for Ubisoft, has tweeted about running a version of White Plume Mountain where the PCs get hired to do quality assurance testing a a "family dungeon ride" (a literal fun house) by "Dalt Wisney" a Faerie Dragon entrepreneur. His hack of this particular module definitely made it his own, in the way we should all make off the shelf products work for ourselves and our players. Keep up the good work Matt!

[@SFMonster]

Looking forward to the Stronghold rules. Was mentioning recentishly that it's one of the handful of aspects of 1e that I really miss.

[@danieldib4268]

this is so cool, i did this almost accidently last week for my level 4 players. they cleared this wacky dungeoun and then turned it into a secret lair!

[@Jason-96]

I had to stop this one. We just did this one during our last session, and I knew the answer to the first riddle!!! It was the DM first attempt at being DM. It was super fun. I look forward to continuing playing it, so I'll have to come back to this one when we're done to let you know how I did.

[@adventuringwolf8517]

Wouldn't gynoshep be the same as femshep with the only difference being that fem is a latin route and gyno is greek?

[@wickedAberration]

Adventuring Wolf Obviously Matt prefers the Eastern Roman Empire.

[@jfast8256]

He just wanted to virtue signal. It's all arbitrary rulings.

[@EVILJOE12]

Temple of the Lava bears by LRR on youtube is a good example of a more grounded funhouse dungeon.

[@stormd]

Birthright is my favorite campaign setting and 4th is my favorite edition, so I feel like I'll enjoy hearing you wax poetic about either of them.

[@pringles_mcgee]

"working on my stronghold rules" oh matt..

[@MrDGoldDragon]

As for funhouse dungeons, the entire AD&D 'S' Series (Tomb of Horrors, White Plume Mountain, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, Baba Yaga's Hut, and Labyrinth of Madness) are all funhouse style, and I would recommend all of them except S3 (Expedition to the Barrier Peaks). Expedition is perhaps the most 'random' of them all, but to such an extreme that there is no 'endgame'. The others have some goal: Acererak's crypt, the three artifacts, Iggwilv's treasure hoard, control of the hut, and reviving Sorril.

[@RandomPath]

Thank you for making this! Very encouraging! I’m still a very green DM trying to get the hang of it and picked up Tales of Yawning Portal to run. Looking forward to going with the weird

[@OaseDaniel]

I absolutely, positively, most definitely LOVE the videos Matt. I'm looking forward to the stronghold rules.

[@marcusengle3968]

I love the Robo Rally in the background. I was just playing that this weekend with my daughter.

[@southron_d1349]

I adapted a Side Trek from a Dungeon magazine to get the PCs into White Plume Mountain. A Topaz Dragon laid her eggs in a cave in the side of a volcano and it erupted shortly afterwards. Some mephits stole the eggs and the Dragon was unable to retrieve them. So she coerced the PCs to get them for her. I combined elements of the original module and the Return to White Plume Mountain. They got the eggs as well as Blackrazor, a hammer named Frostwhelm, and a Shortsword named Raptor. By the way, I would really like to see the third of "Politics 101", please. Thanks for your great videos. And yes, I have just subscribed.

[@spaceiguana5066]

We just started doing White Plume Mountain yesterday, first time running through it so we're going in blind, and just got through that funky tiered ziggurat that I'm pretty sure is Karaptus' zoo (you know the one). I'm adoring this dungeon so far, it feels very fair if the player is willing to stop and really ask about your environment. Also, 10ft ladder is worth its weight in gold in there so far.

[@TabletopThoughts]

This video isn't included in the Running the game playlist. Love the videos! I can't wait for the stronghold rules as well.

[@JohnCBreckinridge]

Thanks so much Matt. I've been looking for an idea to run for my friends at my bachelor party, and this is perfect. Looks like they are going to be visiting White Plume Mountain.

[@chuckmeriam9930]

I wrote up and ran a "funhouse dungeon" run by a mad Illithid where the characters were locked into a mind-link, and "spawned" into the maze of traps and puzzles as a random denizen of the Underdark (Deep Gnome, Drow, Duergar, etc.) If they died, their character would take 1 psychic damage and then they "respawned" as another random creature. Slowly they discovered they were spawning into slaves of the Illithid master, so while death wasn't a huge problem for their characters, there was a moral question to sacrificing someone else's life. In the end, they could break free of the mind-link, fight the Illithid master, and be able to free the slaves. It was well received and I think works well as both a one-shot or part of a campaign.

[@UnionJackstones]

A nice follow up on this would be how Colville would handle player characters and their intelligent weapons/relics/artifacts like Blackrazor in regard to when, and how they get into "conflict" with said intelligent item.

[@sebytheman]

I gotta say, I think the murder-hobo gameplay style is returning to prominence lately, all through the 80s to the early 2000s I would have agreed that most people were expecting an epic fantasy out of D&D but lately I've been introducing young adults who've never particularly immersed themselves into fantasy universes ( I guess the trend never reached their social groups? ) and they have no expectations of having any great effect on the universe or of going on any grande journeys of personnal growth, they mostly seem motivated by fighting things, getting gold and being badasses... It's pretty fun and refreshing to be honest, and it's letting me run a lot of classic scenarios without my players being too savvy to find them challenging, highly recommended.

[@Bluecho4]

One way to get the players to want to enter White Plume Mountain is by making one of the NPCs relevant to their story flee to it. The character ran off and ensconced themself in this fortress, using the traps and monsters put in by this insane wizard as a pre-generated gauntlet for protection. So if the PCs want this NPC for whatever reason, they have to enter this funhouse and get to the end without dying. You can even potentially seed this eventually in your game world, by having White Plume Mountain be an actual mountain somewhere nearby to the main setting of the game. Have the mountain be a regular feature of the landscape, that is alluded to or mentioned in passing. The PCs may even pass or travel around White Plume Mountain a couple times. And when they get a high enough level to handle the dungeon, have an NPC they need to find be staying in this fortress that, to the surprise of the PCs, was always on this mountain.

[@MARSHOMEWORLD]

Ran WPM, Barrier Peaks and Tower Of Inverness (itself for the umpteenth time) this year. My current group are relatively new players; not so jaded to the old tropes of D&D . They really seemed to enjoy these funhouse one-offs, as a bit of a respite from the ongoing sandbox adventure we've been playing since 2014. I am thinking of utilizing the "Return To White Plume Mountain" as interesting follow up.

[@DarthKazimov]

Matt I got both your books on Kindle, great stuff man. The way you depict orcs is how I've drawn them for years. I really like the "retired" adventurers concept. Glad to have read your work!

[@anathema1828]

Loving this playlist so much! “Running the Game” is 🔥

[@paulmulvaney370]

Want (in order): Stronghold rules!!!, Fourth Edition, Birthrite, Politics, thoughts on other campaign settings

[@aqacefan]

I've heard Matt talk about his Stronghold rules, and when he introduces them in his campaign... but it only just now occurred to me that my players aren't getting a new stronghold, they're fortifying the walls of the starting town, and teaching some of the adolescent townspeople how to defend it.

[@ericwarren9138]

Amazing video, Matt! I'm so so happy to get your recommendation for White Plume Mountain. Just got it there mid-video because it sounds so good. Our party are only level four right now and oh boy I'm so hyped to level up now to give this a go!

[@shaddonon]

Misheard 7:00 as androSHEMP and gynoSHEMP, was listening while cooking. As I beelined for my phone I almost convinced myself I could’ve heard correctly. “Wow, this IS a funhouse dungeon!”

[@Konjirmos]

I would love a series about the various campaign settings. If not, at least give us a video on Birthright. Your enthusiasm for it intrigued me enough to buy the PDF and I have since used a lot of it's materials to inspire my own campaign setting.

[@fightersbane]

Birthright sounds awesome! It's my favorite setting out there!

[@michaelr3472]

I definitely want to see Birthright and your take on it.

[@nickgray8600]

Funny that you would be talking about this, my campaign is using a tweaked version of this adventure. In my campaign, the dungeon is a vault of sorts created by wizards to protect a dangerous but powerful item.

[@AngelEyes986]

Would love to see you run a game or see your prep process. Like ingame note taking, building encounters, prep notes, reference materials, etc. A video of what Matt brings with him to run a game.

[@igotsmeakabob]

excited for the stronghold rules! and thanks for doing a video this week!

[@JeremiahCrow]

Great video as always. I'm always looking forward to your uploads and now you've got me back on Twitter for even more Matthew Colville madness!

[@ThatCapToon]

There is a very awesome funhouse Dungeon by Adventures Await Studios, it's called The Dueling Knight's Fungeon Dungeon. It has lots of over-the-top traps but more modern than the modules in the video. Big recommendation from me!

[@drewneedsmoresleep6680]

In the 5e version you do meet one of the Lords, the vampire is Centmiir, not sure I spelled that right. He was Welm's master and a great hero when he was turned into a vampire and murdered his own kin.

[@DyrgeAfterDark]

Stormbringer The black blade Forged a million billion years ago My cosmic sword goes on for eternity Carving out destiny Bringing in the lords of chaos Bringing up the beasts of Hades Sucking out the souls of heroes Laying waste to knights and ladies My master is my slave Ha ha ha

[@r.h.3084]

Me and my players always have a lot of difficulty with puzzles and riddles. I mean, for some unknown reason, it increases my anxiety and isn't fun. I can't explain it, but it sucks. Sooo, what we decided to do was play a game-within-a-game. If you ever played a MS-DOS game called Hero's Quest, the wizard npc had a Wizard's Game that you could play against him. Your character was actually teleported into the game and could die there. Something like Mousetrap is interesting for this, or chutes and ladders. Anything that doesn't take a long time. One of our favorite additions was making the world's popular gambling game Dominoes - fives. It's easy, and quick.

[@nooob5468]

One of the best funhouse games I have ran were "Dungeonland" and "The Land beyond the Magic Mirror" written by Gary Gygax. They are fun Alice in Wonderland adventures and it took about 15 minutes in for the players to figure out what was going on.

[@evidicus]

Enjoyed this video. After this and the Jim video, I may have to build a fun(ish) house dungeon as the former abode and not-so-final resting place of Rantang the Mad, who is now a lich.

[@nathankelley1466]

There is a Stronghold Builder's Guide for 3e D&D. It is pretty good and can be used for any edition with little or no tweaking. Just spend the money and build stuff, and hire hirelings of course. But I'm sure Matt's tables will be cool too.

[@crimfan]

I'm using funhouse-ish dungeons in Desert of Desolation. It's become evident that the reason they were built was as vaults for the Star-Gems. I've downplayed the funhouse aspects somewhat, but they still are difficult puzzle dungeons put in place by the machinations of a long-dead wizard. A friend of mine made Keraptis the main villain of a long-running campaign set in Greyhawk. He became a really tragic figure.

[@blep301]

My group runs funhouse dungeons if we are missing a bunch of players. I just ran one video game style. When they dye, the respawn at the beginning of the room.

[@sethhowell2278]

funhouse dungeons sounds amazing. plus im totally stealing that chalk outline thing. as a DM, my players will eventually make it through an old decrepit empty castle or dungeon, where there is just chalk outlines all over the place. like this was a funhouse dungeon that was long ago abandoned and raided for all its treasures

[@CERap22]

O..my...God.... So THIS was the thinking behind "The Happy Fun ball"---

[@J.B.90]

I appreciate your fun over form approach Matt. I'm currently eunning a Cypher System game where one character ended up with the clumsy descriptor, and one character (my sisters, lol) is literally crazy (the mad descriptor). My PCs have had a blast with the occasional randomness. Fun over form, couldn't agree more.

[@johnstephens5125]

I think that many of the funhouse dungeons that TSR published as modules were originally for tournament play. Much of the crazy content was thrown into the mix so that the completing players would have obstacles for which they could receive points. I also think that's why there were always arbitrary things like percentage chances that something would happen at a particular point. That way it would be "fair" when it came time to score the competitors and "DM fiat" was minimized. Don't remember if WPM was one of these or not...

[@NickGreyden]

WOOHOO!!! BIRTHRIGHT!!!! So a couple of things. Brithright.net is still up with it's very large wiki page and the fourms someone has put together a hires map (that only has a few (9)errors... lots of names you know). Also, Dooblydoo comes from WheezyWaiter. He was the first one to use it when the Description box was a new thing and it caught on with help from people like the Vlogbrothers. Lastly, my favorite funhouse adventure came from the old free adventures released once a week on WotC website. It was called "Something's Cooking" and was a short adventure for 2nd level characters. Only 5 pages. I'm sure you can find it online. The golem at the end was THE BEST!

[@JRiffle_HeaveHoStudio]

Would love to see the Birthright video next. My group played a variant of Birthright for 3rd edition D&D way back in 2000. Semi-recent Kickstarters I have participated in and produced great content were Green Ronin's Freeport: City of Adventure setting for Pathfinder, and Frog God Games Razor Coast.

[@SSNewberry]

This was one of the first modules I ran because normally I ran serially rather than episodic. I like the module but it said to me that there were rules that I need to change, especially Vancian Magic (having just found where the game got its magic system.)

[@edstevens1503]

White Plume Mountain is one of my favorites. I have the same edition that you had there, but in worse shape. I've run it in every edition, it's very easy to adapt to any level of play and tons of fun.

[@Morgan-bo1mr]

Griffin managed to make one of these and 100% integrate one of these into the story... I'm so proud of my sweet ol' boy

[@icedrakesr]

Funny, I came here for a D&D video and got inspiration for a villain stronghold for my Mutants and Masterminds campaign. My players are officially about to have to track a villain through White Plume Mountain Amusement Park.

[@rafaelbeltrame]

Got here from Lawrence Schick Facebook :) Great video. I love old school D&D modules, and hope you can do more videos like that. Cheers!

[@tanketom]

I've got a wizard named Gallantro, who once went so far into his Divination spells he discovered a new world, where people are made fun off for others peoples entertainment while they run around in specially designed dungeons. He sort of went mad, and started designing his own deadly contraptions, luring adventurers into them, and then broadcasting their tribulations, through crystal balls in a business he calles ScryTV.

[@blackskullthunder]

Can't wait to run this adventure when my players get to Tales of the Yawning Portal, currently doing a campaign DMing my group through all the 5e modules, since some haven't even read them and wanted something to go with my homebrew and I've only run Tyranny of Dragons which was my intro to 5e, just finished Phandelver and starting my second time running Tyranny of Dragons on Thursday

[@MRdaBakkle]

We did one of these a while ago. We played lamenations of the flame princess as a three day long gameathon.

[@CrazyConnor2]

yaay. more Colville! :D

[@stkaris]

That Stronghold book is a supplement I would happily pay for.

[@RotaFury]

Hey Mat i hope you keep us updated with the strong hold rules, i would very much love to get them as it is something i am planning on doing my self for the first time in my game. It is something a number of players seem interested in. I also have to say i think i only ever played in one fun house dungeon i was not the biggest fan personally though i can understand why some enjoy it from my experience.

[@DragonaxFilms]

My entire campaign is basically a funhouse dungeon built on inside jokes and fourth wall breaks. Our local tavern is a Combination Pizza Hut/Taco Bell, and the players have to be interviewed at the D&DMV to get their "Adventure License" before starting. We only get to play a couple times a year, so I prefer to make games goofy in the style of Thrilling Intent xD

[@rolandcooke]

White Plume Mountain will be one of the adventures within Tales From The Yawning Portal, due out in a couple of months.