Megadungeon

Here we begin construction out Megadungeon. Level one will be filled with Tricks and Traps that will guard the riches below from tomb robbers.
Play in my games at GaryCon:
tabletop.event...
Follow me on Twitter: / banditskeep
Welcome to Bandit's Keep where we play a variety of tabletop role playing games!
Come chat with me on Twitter: / banditskeep
Check out my Podcast: anchor.fm/s/cf...

[@helixxharpell]

Daniel has/is/does a wonderful job at bringing that O.S. style (& not making it "sound basic" yet he breaks it down in simple terms. 🤔 Isn't that the definition of an expert? Best words I can use to describe his style. Very impressed & grateful for his talent & effort. 😃👍

[@BanditsKeep]

Thank You!

[@jaredsmith6565]

I'm really excited that I found this video! I'm building my first Megadungeon of my own right now and finally convinced three of my players to give Old School Essentials a shot!

[@BanditsKeep]

That’s awesome!

[@JazzyJacksJokeShack]

Imagine if the players became friends with a rival party and then one day finds them as zombies as has to fight them 0_0

[@BanditsKeep]

Ugh!

[@sgtbigballs666]

@@BanditsKeep on a similar note, I've had a player come back as a revenant after being betrayed by his group and is hunting them down, never got to finish that one haha

[@DanielNortonPhotographer]

@@sgtbigballs666 awesome

[@PvtSchlock]

When I turned 49 I started in on my "last megadungeon". I chose to have the main entrance already discovered and a camp town of competition established nearby. The other entrances are via "treasure maps" found in play, or inherited at the start. I can't express how much I like the MD as the central point of a campaign.

[@BanditsKeep]

Sounds great

[@BlackJar72]

Very helpful, and I'll definitely want to get that book.

[@BanditsKeep]

Thanks 🙏🏻 yes, it’s a great resource

[@deepqantas]

Megadungeon seems like the most fitting place to think about game design and balance stuff. You have a simple core loop of adventurers planning an expedition, going into the dungeon, faffing about for a bit and finally narrowly escaping with their lives. My fear is that with cleric spells players will eventually be in such a position that they never have to leave the dungeon. Instead, I figure Darkest Dungeon gives a good blueprint for how the balance should feel like. That game is always asking if you want to push your luck and keep going even though you're half dead and out of resources. Random thoughts and stolen ideas, mostly for my own benefit: - Each player has 10 item slots (not counting misc. tiny items like keys). - Food takes 1 slot. 1 food = 1 rest. -- Do you bring a rope or an extra food? How many days is this run going to be again? - 1 slot can hold... let's say 200 gold. Better treasure = better value per slot. And of course 1gp = 1 xp. - Resting heals a % of hit points (or all of them) so Cure Light Wounds isn't a necessity. - No Create Food spell. (Purify is ok) - The "critical path" to the next dungeon level is relatively short, allowing you to descend to your desired level of difficulty. High level monsters will keep away low lever adventurers as is tradition. - Backward shortcuts (Thank you) - The best risk-to-reward ratio is always farthest from level entrance. The trick is getting there without losing too much resources. - Each "corner" of a dungeon level holds enough treasure to level up an average party. (Or maybe half of that?) - Regular restock monsters are money poor, so players should avoid re-exploring and instead follow hints. - "Earthquake", "Scouts discover new entrance" and "Orc tribe moves in" are restock events with "loud" hints for the players. These mostly restock early areas with proper treasure so that latecomers get a chance to level up... and should therefore happen at the beginning of a session for a newbie party. - Secret treasure troves peppered throughout the level, but the risk-to-puzzle-difficulty ratio is inverted. The closer you are to the level entrance, the more fiendishly obscure the secret is. - Bonus XP for making your maps public for other parties (Westmarches, bitches!)

[@BanditsKeep]

A lot of great ideas here! To be honest, when running mega dungeons I simply tell the players it’s not a good idea to sleep in the dungeon - that seems to work for me.

[@deepqantas]

@@BanditsKeep ​Hm. With no sleeping in the dungeon, maybe 1 slot = 1 torch = 1 hour of light should be the basis for the resource management. 4 players... Let's say each carries 6 gear, leaving 4*4 = 16 slots for consumables. One day adventure: 10 torches (8 hours adventure + 2 short rest) 2 food (let's say short rest only takes 1 food, long rest takes 1/player) 4 bandages (+1d8 HP each, can only be used during rest) Overnight adventure: 10 torches (9 hours + 1 short rest, no light for long rest) 5 food (1 short rest + 1 long rest) 1 bandage (uh oh!) Definitely more taxing from a resources standpoint, and that's before the wandering monsters come into play. A lantern + oil flasks would be a more efficient (but fragile) alternative to torches. I think realistically it'd be 4 hours per flask, but my gut says 2 hours per item slot would make it a more balanced choice. Also... dare you use your precious light source as a weapon? A stack of 10 candles fits into one item slot, giving you weak but cheap lighting for rest.

[@BanditsKeep]

@@deepqantas That seems like a cool system, That being said, If I run this it will be in BX and I'll just use that encumbrance system, it's worked fine for me up till now, I don't feel like adding extra rules always enhances the game..

[@krystal2423]

A lot of good stuff in this video, very informative and inspiring. Can't wait to see you build the halls.

[@BanditsKeep]

Thanks Krystal 😊

[@rriosl]

Great video, let’s put back the Dungeon in Dungeons and Dragons

[@BanditsKeep]

Yes!

[@SeargentAwesome99]

I’m currently making a Megadungeon of my own, so I’m very excited to hear your insights!

[@BanditsKeep]

Great! I’d love to hear about it

[@SeargentAwesome99]

@@BanditsKeep It’s a ruined stronghold of a former adventuring party that went missing. They’ve been missing for over 2 years, but the townsfolk have lied to the party and only said a few months (they don’t want adventurers to stop coming and potentially drive business) The party goes further and further down and eventually learns what happened to the former group, and helps to avenge them. If a member of the former group is avenged, they show up for the bbeg fight at the end!

[@BanditsKeep]

@@SeargentAwesome99 Nice

[@justturbo7015]

Stoked for this vid!

[@BanditsKeep]

Awesome!

[@Lowe505]

YAY! B/X D&D my fav

[@BanditsKeep]

For sure, my favorite too

[@Elderos5]

You could have the killer vines bud the flowers to place in the hand of the secret door statue you mentioned. It would give the exploration of the dungeon a bit more meaning, perhaps.

[@BanditsKeep]

Nice!

[@twilightgardenspresentatio6384]

Walking through an area you’ve cleared gives me the opportunity to show you that it’s changed and stage the question “who else has been here” and “are they still inside”

[@BanditsKeep]

For sure

[@DarkHorseCom]

Just ran across this 'branching' of your video's, genuinely happy to find this. I'm very much interested to be back in D&D and I subscribed as soon as I saw you were involved. Thanks for putting this particular video up. For over a year I've been progressively moving back into my old days of D&D. I will be following you here as well.... all you need now is a coffee channel :P Love your work. Big fan.

[@BanditsKeep]

Welcome aboard Mike! Ha ha, while my desire to consume coffee is high, my knowledge of it is not nearly so :)

[@sneakyfred]

Excellent and creative ideas. :) Your vine-trap made me remember the bloodoak/tarry-vine monster in the Edge Chronicles (fantastic book series!); they're a truly horrific symbiotic pair, with the vine catching the prey for the bloodoak to digest. Could be worth checking out that passage for ideas, and even descriptions to give the players.

[@BanditsKeep]

Nice! I’ll check it out.

[@deathbare5306]

or the spiders will run off - nothing natural likes fire ;-)The other trick is wandering monsters, a garrison of intelligent creatures will only have so many, and the environment will only be able to support so many big predators such as natural beasts like spiders or monstrosities - everything has to eat unless its undead. How do you account for the garrison only having 200 with wandering monsters? Eventually their has to be fewer patrols or you even get to the point like in Robert Howard's Red Nails where the Keep is empty. Wandering monsters kind of meta-games unlimited creatures and that ruins the verisimilitude of the location, at least for me.

[@BanditsKeep]

That’s assuming the wandering monsters are killing the garrison and not the other way around. If what you are saying is true every village would be gone eventually from wild animals.

[@deathbare5306]

@@BanditsKeep Oh sorry no, I mean your party going in multiple times through the mega-dungeon and killing the bad guy garrison patrols, assuming the faction based dungeon - should have been more clear (bandits, orcs, duergar, drow, etc) and the wild animals. It wouldn't makes sense that after a week the garrison has recouped its numbers somehow, or more creatures have just moved right in. And you are absolutely right, unless we are talking guard animals the bad guy garrison will have cleared the area around it of wild dangerous things so wandering monsters wouldn't make much sense. I say all that really just to say - custom wandering monster tables need to be employed, generic ones don't make sense in "living" worlds. Thanks!

[@granttrain3553]

Some great ideas in this will come back to rewatch.

[@BanditsKeep]

Thanks

[@jonwooldridge3766]

I am very excited about this exercise. So far it has been out to be a lot of fun. I love dungeon design. Thank you for starting this series. Will you make the final product available to us, and will we have more input via comments or polls?

[@BanditsKeep]

Thanks! Yes, I will make the dungeon available and take suggestions as we move forward.

[@jonwooldridge3766]

Awesome! This is going to be a lot of fun.

[@cameronorwin]

This series is really well timed for me as I am thinking of running a mega dungeon and have been looking for one. Is the plan for you to package this up and distribute when you finish it? I would be very interested in that. Thanks

[@BanditsKeep]

That is the plan yes! But also I hope to inspire people to make their own levels as well!

[@roguishowl3915]

Ty Daniel for this video… great work as always and since all the bad hype around 5e I’ve decided to move away and go back to my roots of TTRPGs im 40 but the classics are still the best. as I was watching it my creative juice began to flow, and I came up with a great concept for my own mega dungeon.

[@BanditsKeep]

Excellent!

[@Jeffs40K]

I do not normally add Traps till the players are about lv3, this way its a bit easier to find the but still not to easy, because my Traps deal Damage or it would not be a Trap, now tricks I may add earlier, to split part or etc,

[@BanditsKeep]

How do they get better? I should say, what system are you using?

[@Jeffs40K]

@@BanditsKeep the Sunday Game I run is 1e Lankhmar Campaign 7 players, it's pretty deadly Killed 3 players in the 2-3 Months we have been playing.

[@BanditsKeep]

@@Jeffs40K cool. I have at least 1 book from that series I’ve used for inspiration.

[@Jeffs40K]

@@BanditsKeep I have all the TSR, DCC, and Strange World Lankhmar Stuff oi draw from... Fun how such a Large city and how many modules are Not in the city.

[@thomasdavidson2919]

Okay since my only D&D friends are my players I'm going to tell y'all my mega dungeon idea. So my idea is the whole dungeon is a tv set for the god and it's ran by some eldric horror tv host so it's his power that keeps restocking the dungeon so more adventures keep coming. And I plan to have a plot about how some of the inhabit are actual NPCs made by the host and some are "real" people that the just set up shop and the viewer liked them so the host just lets them stay

[@thomasdavidson2919]

Sorry about the book but feel free please give any thoughts ideas critiques

[@thomasdavidson2919]

Thanks for all the awesome videos btw I've pretty much binge watched everything that wasn't a let's play and the only reason I haven't watched those is because I'm just not a fan of watching other people play DnD lol

[@BanditsKeep]

That sounds really Intriguing, but the host to be like the skeleton guy from tales from the crypt?

[@BanditsKeep]

Thanks 🙏🏻 yeah, not everyone likes the actual plays, I appreciate you watching the rest though 😊

[@thomasdavidson2919]

I'm going to be honest I've never heard of tales from the crypt I'm thinking more I'm going to base there personality off the Host from The Hollow and I'm still debating on what classic game show host I'm going to make them look like the host from price is right and family feud are high on the list

[@evilscientistrecords]

4:24 sounds like Anomalous Subsurface Environment!

[@BanditsKeep]

Yes!

[@TheOGGMsAdventures]

MEGA DUNGEON MARCH !

[@BanditsKeep]

YES!

[@weiss9567]

Another cool idea to skip levels is to just make it narrative. Specially if PCs are way overpowered compared with the monsters they would encounter

[@BanditsKeep]

Indeed!

[@VengerSatanis]

Cha'alt!

[@BanditsKeep]

Indeed!