Not really, but I am trying to keep up
my theme for the month, which seems to be kept more in the lapse and
mention than in the use, and I wanted to jump on the OSR's latest
bandwagon – the “death” of the Mega-Dungeon. Just to be clear,
I think a Mongol party in a Mega-Dungeon setting would be cool, but
it's not really my topic for today, as I have usually*, at best, seen
one Mongol-esque character in any given (A)D&D adventuring party.
That character was usually played by me or my buddy Darryl.
Anyway, I am glad this announcement
came just in time for me to start my own Mega-Dungeon campaign. My
players needed to be told we weren't having fun and we were playing
D&D wrong. Wait, we were having fun and it seems to me that means
we were playing it right, am I right? I spent decades away from the
dungeon and concentrated on world building, wilderness adventures,
politics and war as a means for providing adventures for my players
with only the occasional subterranean foray into a small “dungeon”,
more likely a sewer or cave, occasionally ruins with underground
bits.
My new Mega-Dungeon has literally miles
of tunnels and is very unfinished. I started mapping from the
entrance that the PC's were likely to use and went from there. I
figure I'll map about what I figure might be a little more than I
need in any given direction over the course of the week before we
play and key it minimally, I work better that way. I have an overall
theme for the dungeon and a sub-theme for each dungeon area that I
have started. I can improvise where I need to if the players do
something unexpected, and I don't have to do a ton of extra prep
work. I am cool with this, my players are cool with it too.
I have read that people are complaining
that they aren't getting enough encounter time in, that Mega-Dungeon
design is to blame, that 2nd edition style railroads might
be better for grown-ups who don't have a lot of time on their hands;
that way they'll get their hero time in every time they play and have
cool stories to tell. Unlike a lot of OSR types I was never 100%
against the 2nd edition style, except when it got
abusively railroad-ey, that's poor module design though, not
necessarily a condemnation of the style in and of itself. I have
designed and run a bunch of really fun 2nd edition style
adventures, mostly during the 2nd edition years. But if
you don't have a cool story to tell after the game, it's not the
dungeon's fault; it is probably your fault, it might be your DM's
fault, but it isn't the type of play that's at fault for you not
having fun. You get out of RPGs what you put into them, if this style
of play is too foreign for you to accept as fun then move along, but
there are plenty of people out there that can and do enjoy the
Mega-Dungeon as a D&D experience.
I apologize for the more rambling than
normal nature of this post, my kids brought home some sickness from
school for me and clear thinking is not really working all that well
at the moment. Anyway, courtesy of EBay, here is your actual Mongol content today-
This was the second time I bought this guy on EBay, the first time he never made it to me. He's an old Games Workshop model. I look forward to painting him up before the month is done!
*The exception to the rule- twice I
have been involved in Steppe Warrior D&D games and everyone
played a Mongol type character there. Once I DMed the “Tomb of
Horrors”, that didn't last long or end well; and once Darryl DMed a
homebrew adventure for a gathering of Steppe Warriors, that went
better and lasted longer, but we were all brand new to 3e then and it
broke up before we were done too.
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