Building a megadungeon: level design

Level 3 of the dungeon, featuring 3 panopticon prisons, and dwarven halls to the south.

Once the history is established, you can set about designing the levels. 

First, create the levels according to the original purpose of the dungeon. Is it a mine? A prison for malcontents? A refuge? A storage site for powerful magics? A vault? 

Purpose drives design. 

Once you have that, you can start laying out the rooms. A prison will need areas for guards, prisoners, latrines, kitchens, waste disposal, barracks, bureaucrats, and so on. 

You'll need to plot out things like ingress/egress points. For a megadungeon, you'll want a number of them. If the original purpose wouldn't have many entry points, add new ones created by subsequent inhabitants, like goblins, kobolds, or purple worms. All of them dig tunnels. Xorn might follow ore streaks. Umber hulks might make tunnels following the same, and in so doing connect different areas and create new exits. 

Airflow is also important. Druidun has multiple airshafts going to the surface. Hot air rises, so at the bottom of these shafts are Dwarven Firestones, red hot slabs that cause the air to rise. Shafts may be split into two sides, one heated and one cooled, to generate airflow. 

The dwarves also have many Skystones (which draw in air from the plane of air), and Skygates (gateways into the upper atmosphere, which suck air into the dungeon).

Dwarven Runecarvers will bring in air and water elementals to manage air and water flows within their complexes. Earth elementals may be automated to conduct repairs on damaged sections, and these magical beings may persist long after the original dwarves have long since departed.

Water is absolutely essential, and multiple sources are needed on every level. Several should have open access. Watering holes are dangerous areas and key hunting grounds, as such most creatures won't want to build their lair over one due to the high traffic... unless it's fortified and within established turf. 

There are a competing priorities when planning a level: 

1) Verisimilitude. You want the space to feel believable, at least on a superficial level. That means food sources like fungus, airflow, water and light sources, etcetera, as described above. Hazards like anoxic areas, methane pockets, moulds, fungus, slimes, and so on help build the environment. Suggest some kind of an ecosystem. 

2) Functionality. This is akin to 1, but more purpose driven rather than environmental. Dwarven mines and forges should be laid out (vaguely) logically; mines would connect via rail lines to ore refineries. Kitchens would be by great halls, along with beer and wine cellars. Latrines would be separated, so the smell doesn't penetrate the living areas. Doesn't need to be perfect, just enough so that players get the idea that there was purpose driving the construction. Details like this help create that bubble of disbelief and transport player's imaginations to another reality.

3) Puzzle & mystery. Functionality is at odds with this. You want your megadungeon to be full of surprises, twists, and breathtaking vistas. Stairs that go down every level, top to bottom, make it easy for characters to move around. This makes sense from a functional point of view, but then there's no quest to find stairs. You can justify deliberately confusing layouts as part of a dungeon's defenses: levels are mixed up to put potential invaders at a disadvantage. This also inspires traps, ambush points, and other defenses. Throw in magical forces to create intrigue and mystery. Treasure vaults will be surrounded with misdirection, puzzles, and traps.

4) Awe. Strictly functional spaces don't require narrow 10 story high temples, labyrinths, or grandiose pillars of spirit infested flames. But you want cool stuff in the dungeon to capture the imagination of the players! A megadungeon has to walk that fine line between being believable and mind blowing. That's the goal, or at least my goal. 

Remember that the purpose driven design that determines the layout provides only the foundation. You can overwrite that with all kinds of awesome phenomena that occurred long after.

Next up: Populating the dungeon.

Building the megadungeon: Establishing history and purpose

What the hell is that???

I put in some more work on the megadungeon, and I've changed my approach. 

I'm getting sketchier and looser as the dungeon progresses and that initial burst of enthusiasm wanes. Arguably I should have started out this way.

Rather than working in Adobe Illustrator and creating detailed, finalized levels from the get go, I've switched to sketching them out loosely in ProCreate. Actual planning! This allows me to revise them easily as ideas occur. I can also connect multiple layers together, whereas the more laborious method using Illustrator inclined me to work only one level at a time. It's low lift and I can revise levels as time goes by, and the campaign requires me to rethink the initial designs. 

Building a megadungeon is just too daunting to do all at once.

What else have I learned?

First, you need a loose outline of the dungeon's purpose and history. This greatly helps guide layer design. Without it, it becomes random and senseless. The history of Druidun is long and convoluted, primarily in order to justify a varied environment, but yours doesn't need to be. 

All you need is a logic guiding the initial layout. After that, adjust with subsequent inhabitants and what they might have done to the original structure. Goblins, for example, might dig tunnels to connect rooms, or to follow a streak of ore, or create narrower tunnels that keep out large predators from their dens.

"Listen, Princess, I'm in it for the loot."

So what's the history for Druidun? 

The upper levels were originally dug by druids, to commune with the roots of the earth, and for their tombs. The druids expanded it to be used as a refuge during the Undeath Plagues, like Derinkuyu in Turkey, with rolling stone slab doors, extensive living quarters and even areas for animals. 

I also decided that the druids were drawn to the area by the conjunction of Ley Lines, and the powerful magical energies that existed deep beneath the surface. These energies were created by the Titans, who conducted the first experiments in necromancy in their underground laboratories and zoos, safely sealed beneath the earth. 

Later, a castle was built atop the druid ruins, and it became a stronghold for the Mercian Kings. They wanted to establish control over the magical energies below, which were studied by their wizards. They would be crowned here, to imbue their reign with mystical energy.

The wizards discovered that the intense magical energies had drawn Xorn to the area, long ago, and the hulks of dead Xorn made the earth rich in all manner of minerals; it also created magical ores thanks to the conjunction of multiple realities. This was of intense interest to the dwarves, who were brought in by the human kings to mine the earth and build a panopticon prison to house rebels and malcontents of the Mercian regime. These poor souls were also subjected to magical experimentation.

The dwarves called the site Karak-Thun, and it became fabulously wealthy. Eventually, they dug too deep, breaking into the Underdark. Powerful magical energies, chaos leeching in from beyond, had imbued the creatures in the area with great size and power, and mutated others. The dwarves were driven back by a flood of giant spiders and other horrors. A war went on for centuries, until finally the dwarven colony collapsed, the survivors fled, and the wealth was abandoned to chaos. 

More recently, a rogue order of wizards moved in to conduct magical experiments, and they opened up an energy nexus to other planes; eventually they were shut down by the Thaumaturgical Order. But the nexus remains open, and it's pumping into this reality powerful magic, resulting in an outbreak of the undead.

That's a brief overview. There's more, although arguably there shouldn't be. It's just meant to provide me with a number of threads to pursue when designing levels. 

You only need a high level background. Mine is probably too complex and convoluted, but it allows lots of variety. 

"Yes, it may be the Pool of Infinite Evil, but that doesn't mean it isn't drinkable."

Next up: level design

Whither that Quixotic Megadungeon Creation Quest?

Is that a big dungeon, or is that a megadungeon?

Alas, it withered. 

Well. It's on a temporary hiatus. Pining, I swear!

Turns out, funny thing, that megadungeons are an awful of work. Kind of inherent in the 'mega' part of the name, which I should have paid more attention to. Far more work than I'd initially thought it'd be. Now I'm well in and the only way out is through. 

Or, of course, I could just walk away. 

But no! The sane, rational thing to do is not an option!

I shall push on, and one day finish (a truncated) megadungeon! Maybe it will be the first half... or first third, or perhaps a quarter... of the megadungeon. Other people do that. Reputable people like the makers of Stonehell, for example. It's well regarded as a professional creation, and was done in two parts. Precedent!

But what, you may ask, have I learned in my egomaniacal nerd quest to create a sprawling megadungeon? Well dear reader, the first hundred rooms are a relative breeze. After that, you start tearing your brain out. 

I tackled the first level of the castle, quite logically, first, then the first level of the dungeon. So far so good, right? Easy breezy! However, the first dungeon level had almost a hundred rooms, and the castle about 50-60 (including towers). It honestly started getting difficult around fifty.

A little (months) later, I tackled the second level(s). 

It got slower and more discombobulating. In desperation I began casting around for inspiration, any inspiration. Another long gap, then keyed some rooms in the castle. Finally, the layout of the third dungeon level, including 3 panopticons. I even keyed a couple rooms on the third level. That was like pulling straws out of my brain.

I should probably note here I planned on 10 levels.

Then... crickets. 

Followed by more crickets. Crickets breeding, founding civilizations, discovering writing, going to the opera, inventing space travel, you get the picture (I admit I am somewhat curious what cricket opera was like, I may never know as they evolved into beings of pure light and left for Andromeda). 

I decided to take a break before brain burnt out. I took a look at old Dungeon magazine issues (well, skimmed. Okay, I looked at the index), Polygon, Dragon Magazine, old modules, online DM pundits and gurus, the works. 

My new approach is to try and key like Stonehell. Why? Because it's hella more succinct than what nonsense I was doing. That didn't quite turn out; being that succinct is even more work. 

So now I've been building up room descriptions and ideas that I can use to guide creation of level four.

For level three... there's this awesome idea I had (found on someone else's blog): in a megadungeon, not everything has to have something in it. You CAN have blank rooms. No 'rule of three', no pulling desperate details out of a bodily orifice, nothing. Just big, glorious, empty rooms. Frankly, the megadungeon needs them. There have to be 'highways' that are frequently traversed and as a result are not inhabited. Maybe scat,  fungus mounds, murals, looted corpses, that sort of thing. But nothing brain wracking. 

In fact, I think I probably should have overridden the whole 'rule of three' idea earlier. I'm not making a rocket for NASA. Or Eloi Elon. I can use some random generation tables for meaningless detail. Or rather, detail the players can do the work of projecting meaning onto. I'm gonna outsource, it's what all the hip corporate powers do.

Looks like there was a burst of interest in megadungeons... like 6 years ago. That's when a scad of links about megadungeons went dark. I'm always behind the curve. Fortunately, completing the megadungeon will take so long, it'll be back in fashion by the time I do! 

Next post: All the megadungeon advice I found on the internets that i remembered to bookmark!

Map of Avalon

If you look at the Continent Bronn map, you can see The Kingdom of Avalon just south of the centre of the map, slightly to the west, south of the Wornspine Mountains.

I did these maps in black and white so I could print them out. And because the longer this goes on, the lazier I am getting.

This map concludes the main set I needed: Druidun dungeon (the mega dungeon, and primary adventuring site), the City of Forksbury (the player base), Pelshire (the local counties surrounding Druidun and Forksbury), Avalon (the nation it's all situated in), and finally the world map. 

Whew.

Forksbury is at the top of the middle west bay, east of Mercia. This is the centre of most of the action in the campaign, although players may travel elsewhere in Avalon at some point. The crusade against the undead in the Lakbans is one likely destination. The sorcerer kingdom of Setesh is another possibility. 

That... I'll probably just wing it. There's no way I'm building that out until I have to. 

Where are my map notes, you ask? Where indeed!

Map of Avalon

You've not seen anything yet!

Oh, the foreshadowing! From the graphic novel, Dragon Garage.

What? What are we gonna see?!? Are you trying to get me to buy the book or what???

The Continent of Bronn, from the World of Arthea

It's not trimmed like that earlier version.

This is a close up view of the continent of Bronn, on the fantasy world of Arthea, where my fabulous Dungeons & Dragons Campaign is set. It was originally meant to be a way to game out the next book in the Dragon Garage series, but alas and alack, sales were not what I'd hoped for and there is unlikely to be a sequel any time soon. 

Them's the breaks. 

But, I still have a very fun D&D campaign with lots of world building background material for the characters to explore. 

Of course, it's really more about building material around the players, if possible. 

For the campaign, I wanted to do a megadungeon, for reasons now lost in the mists of my failing memory. It was a silly foolish idea that I feel obligated to complete. 

Why do I do these things? 

It's such a stupid amount of work...but for some reason beyond my rational understanding, I do like making maps. 

Just my nature.

The Setting Sun: Twilight of Elthar

The Fall of Elthar... okay, it's the Fall of Rome by Thomas Cole, but imagine!

Thousands of years ago, the Eltharian Empire was a beacon of enlightenment, justice and hope in the world. Descendants of the Archons, the true men, they were of noble stature and long lived. After the passing of the Titans, they founded the city of Elthar. A modest city of craftsmen, merchants and fishermen, it would eventually rise to greatness. They tamed the Midsea, defeating the pirate nations, and making it safe for fishing and trading fleets. Demand for resources led to an appetite for military conquest and annexation, until eventually Eltharia ruled over the entire Midsea basin. 

The rival kingdom of Setesh, an ancient kingdom ruled by sorcerers, contested the Eltharian bid for domination, and the two powers fought a multigenerational war, until the mighty Sorcerer-Pharoahs were eventually defeated and driven south into Upper Setesh. 

In its darkest hour, the Eltharian Senate appointed a dictator, Galorean, to command the Republic’s armies. He dutifully turned the tide of battle and ensured Eltharian victory, but then became drunk on power. He refused to relinquish his powers and declared himself the first Emperor of Elthar, buoyed by popular acclaim for ending the war. The Senate was unable to resist, and thereafter became a largely irrelevant body.

Emperor Jartus lead the first crusade against the rising necromancers in the Forest Crescent of the Lakbans, a struggle took six crusades and a hundred years before the threat was extinguished. 

Later emperors lead campaigns against the mighty storm giants of the Southern Wornspine and their dwarven allies, the Bullywug bogs and serpents of the Wrymfenns, the goblin empire of Mok’dan, and finally against the great magical Elven kingdom of Eyrndor which frequently raided the northern coast, attacking Eltharian encroachments into sacred fey forests. This led to centuries of animosity, and Elven curses that crippled the Archon bloodlines.

Aside from martial pursuits, the Eltharian Emperors implemented just legal codes (such as the Laws of Emperor Lyrean), built public buildings and monuments, settled dozens of new cities and connected them all with an extensive road system. They founded the Order of Celestial Wizards, the City of Starfall and the Fraternity of Thaumaturgy to research high magics, and sent out expeditions to the far corners of the earth. Knowledge, trade and the arts flourished.

With the seeming defeat of all earthly foes, great riches and security, the ruling class eventually fell into indolence. Hedonism, cruelty and corruption spread through the empire like a plague, enhanced by dark magics. Sadistic gladiatorial games became the most popular form of entertainment. Aristocrats created vast slave combines which drove free farmers into insolvency and serfdom.

The Eltharians became corrupted by the demonic and undead foes they had so stalwartly fought for generations: the thousands of powerful relics and tomes they had seized, suffused in evil magics and placed in deep vaults beneath the Imperial Palace in Eltharia, leaked their malign influence into the earth and finally the world above. 

Before his death, Emperor Trahl the Great divided the empire into three separate administrative regions: Elthar, Catharn and Setesh, which he bequeathed to his three sons: Malerean, Agmanus and Gallar. For a time, the Empire prospered, even expanded: Malerean seized several islands from the Sea Kings, Agmanus absorbed Scythia and forced a peace with the Dragon Riders of Xan, and Gallar conquered Kanush. A decade later, however, the brothers had become bitter rivals. The triad finally fell out over a territorial dispute (over Naxos) which escalated into civil war.

The three sides were evenly matched: Elthar had greater wealth, but Catharn had more manpower, while Setesh could call upon powerful ancient magics. None was able to secure a quick victory, and all were too stubborn to contemplate a truce. As the war ground on, the rival Emperors turned to desperate measures. Alliances with dragons and other monstrous beasts were struck, and plagues too small to see were unleashed. 

When Elthar’s navy was defeated at the Battle of Orinthal, Emperor Malerean broke the ultimate taboo: in order to stave off the invasion of Elthar itself, he turned to the Black Vaults. Writer and senator Casan claims in his Histories that Malerean was already obsessed with death and had begun necromantic rituals in secret to gain immortality. With the help of dark magic, Catharn’s forces were driven back, and Elthar was saved. Malerean compounded his sins by raising undead legions and recruiting hobgoblins to bolster his armies. Pacts with demonic forces led to crossbreeding and the rise of tieflings in the upper classes of Elthar. 

Elthar’s high priests, however, were appalled by the shadowy advisors the Emperor now surrounded himself with. The Heirophont Innocan issued a Holy Decree denouncing Malerean as The Abomination and incited the population into open revolt. Two opportunistic governors, Aetus and Ostono declared themselves emperor, and turned their armies against both each other and Malerean. Aetus held the provinces of Eryndor, Anvou, Aragon, Livonia, Thiryndor, Yore, Rossaon and Avendil, while Ostono had the allegiance of the imperial legions in Salesia, Uzice, Halych, Vylach, Morea and Sylvania.   

Malerean declared himself Hierophant-Emperor, purged the Church of the All-Being, and declared The Order of the Dawn corrupt heretics. His Crusade of the Pure saw Dawn temples and assets seized, and members of the order executed en masse. A portion of their wealth was distributed to the hobgoblins and mobs who participated in the lynchings.

Unfortunately, it also removed a powerful bulwark of the state: The Fleet of Dawn fled Elthar to the island of Tol Eressia and the fortress city of Gwalior with the Hierophant’s entourage, and even more importantly, much of the church’s treasury. They quickly made peace with both Catharn and Setesh. 

Catharn and Setesh had problems of their own: foreign powers, aware that the garrisons of the empire’s perimeter had been stripped to feed the civil war, stepped into the gap. Under pressure in the east from the centaur clans, hordes of barbarians, trolls, goblins and orcs flooded into now defenceless imperial provinces, raping and pillaging as they went. At the same time, Setesh saw the long exiled sorcerer-priests return ahead of undead legions, while Kanush rebelled and asserted independence once again. The reptilian Mekara seized the coastal fortress of Tjaru, threatening the Seneb Delta.

The Sea Kings, independent pirate realms outside the Great Pillars, returned to the Midsea and raided the northern coast, making off with slaves and booty.

Worse was to come. 

Barbarians rampage across Elthar... okay, it's a painting by Ulpiano Checa about the Fall of Rome. Again. Look, Rome's been on my mind. 

In the east, Kiron united the centaur clans, and forged an alliance with the dragons of the Draconduns. He then invaded Shantung, conquering the Eternal Empire in under ten years. He placed his ally, the great dragon Vagandur, on the throne as governor and turned his armies west. 

Kyr Aklyros invaded Albyron and toppled the fledging realm of Aetus, while the Kha-Kyr, Kiron himself, led his forces into the Anhar Peninsula against Catharn. He seized the wealthy trading city of Zulathar through subterfuge, and after defeating a field army led by General Elaganus, laid siege to the mighty city Cathar itself. It was widely believed to be impregnable, being ringed by three concentric  60 foot high walls and powerful enchantments. 

In Kiron’s wake, whole cities were razed and provinces laid waste. Hundreds of thousands of slaves were marched east to work on the centaur’s massive lightning mounds, dedicated to the Centaur War God Khrun. Kiron’s horde became known as The Scourge of All.

After nine long months, just when the fall of Cathar seemed certain, Vagandur broke his alliance with Kiron and declared himself Dragon-Emperor of Shantun. Incensed by this betrayal, Kiron turned his armies east to deal with Vagandur, saving Cathar from catastrophe. Kiron would die by an assassins blade before he reached Shantun.

The damage, however, had been done. The Triad of Eltharian Empires had depleted their treasuries and manpower, and could not reassert control over rebellious provinces, nor block the influx of barbarians. 

Malerean’s oppression of the All-Faith resulted in great discontent; he was torn from his litter and assassinated in the forum, on his way to the Coliseum of Glory, by a group of religious fanatics wielding poisoned blades. Malerean had no children; over the next year there would be four claimants to the throne, each of whom would be assassinated, or commit suicide, after a few months on the throne. Stability returned with the ascension of Balbinar, an experienced and ruthless general. 

Unfortunately, Balbinar’s forces were exhausted by the civil war, and could not prevent the Eternal City of Eltharia from being sacked by the Sea Kings. After that, trade and grain supplies collapsed, and the great city dwindled away, becoming known as Glory’s Shadow. To compensate for the decline in their military power, Emperor Cortinax founded the Eyes of Elthar, an organization of spies and assassins that worked to manipulate the politics of the continent in Elthar’s favour. The Imperial Throne was fought over even more fiercely during this period of decline; the Imperial Guard sold the throne to a dozen senators over the next few decades, only to later turn upon and murder them.

In Setesh, Agmanus was overthrown by the sorcerer-priests, who established a dark theocracy worshipping Sutekh. He fled to Mystilla Island and then to Naxos, where he established a court in exile. Some say Agmanus was embalmed alive and became a lich, like a Setesh Pharaoh of old; whatever the truth may be, he lives to this day, a calculating and machiavellian creature like his dead brother Malerean. 

Gallar fared best through this series of catastrophes, managing to hold on to the provinces of Beldor, Catharn, Tymeria, Dalmach, Talondor and the Malar Islands. Krim, Scythia, Kumad, Sarai, Anwar, Cthonia, and Sahar however were all lost to Imperial control. 

Gallar lived for another century, thanks to the constitution of his Archon blood. Upon his death, his thirty-seven children slaughtered each other over the throne, until his ruthless daughter Aerpina emerged triumphant. Some say Aerpina imbibed the vampire sickness, to achieve immortality, and that to this day she rules Catharn from the shadows, while her descendants sit upon the throne. The Church of the All-Being is still the official religion of Cathar, headed by the Supreme Patriarch. The Patriarchs claim to lead the True Faith, just as the God-Emperor of Elthar and the Hierophant do; each calls the others The Abominations, Mouth of Lies. 

The Long Night

New kingdoms arose, in time, out of the ruins of empire, merged with the fresh blood of the barbarian peoples: the Yoreans, Asturoths, Aostans, Calendes, Avalares, Thiryn, Rugens, and Salese.

Mercenary armies of nomadic peoples who had served Elthar in its twilight era settled around Livonia, establishing the nations of Avar, Avalon and Aragon. 

The Hierophant Hadras decamped from Gwalior to Iseria and the knights of Dawn carved out the Realm of the Holy See, whereupon the Hierophant sent out demands of fealty to the All-Being to all the emergent kingdoms.

Eadric, the King of Yore, attempted to unite the fractured lands into a new empire. He drove the goblins, orcs and trolls back into the Trollshaws and the Wornspine mountains, and slew the goblin king Uglocus. Hierophant Hadras demanded he submit to the All-Being and the Hierophant’s authority, but he refused. Hadras declared a holy war against King Eadric, labelling him a heretic. Beset from all sides, Eadric was forced to beg for forgiveness from Hadras, and stood barefoot in the snow outside the Basilica of All for three days before Hadras relented. Later, when angry giants descended from The Grip and waged war against the Holy See, Eadric refused to send military support. With the Order of Dawn away and engaged in the Lakbans, Hadras’ palace was only lightly defended, and he was ripped in two by the giant chief Grundoch Gutstuff and devoured. 

The Sea Kings settled in western Albyron along the north coast of the Midsea, and founded the powerful Merovian dynasty, conquering the Avalares, Calendes, Asturoth, Quent, and Dagonia. Missionaries of the All-Faith converted the Seven Sea Kings to the All-Faith and averted an invasion of the Holy See. The Sea Kings also wisely steered clear of the still powerful Black Fleet of Elthar, which became known as The Hermit Kingdom and cut off all trade and contact with the mainland.

King Eomel, one of the greatest Merovian kings after Thorvald the Unyielding, continued Eadric’s war against the goblins and trolls south of the Wornspine, and led a crusade through the mountain passes against a rising necromancer in the Hexewist. The troll-giant Ruhxahk, champion of the Necrolord, charged through Eomel’s bodyguard, slaying knights left and right, until Eomel struck the huge troll down with the Blade of Cantos. In his later years, Eomel went mad with paranoia, and massacred many Merovian nobles at his summer retreat of Druidun during an infamous Harvest Feast. This weakened the hold of the Merovians over Albyron; his children suffered similar fits of paranoia, with Asmund the Ruthless being best known for slaughtering the entire mining city of Spines for perceived disloyalty. 

Arcturus, who had been in his youth the youngest general of the Eltharian legions, left his long seclusion and led Avalon against their Merovian overlords, establishing an independent kingdom. Aided by Celestial Wizards, he marched his forces west and laid siege to the Merovian capital of Bloodstone, but was forced to retreat when King Olaf landed at Ironhelm and threatened Kingsgate. Arcturus defeated Olaf at the Battle of Deepford, and slew him in the river. For this, he is remembered as King Arcturus the Great. 

Olaf’s son, Rolf the Bold, seceded from the Sea King Alliance and asserted independence. Aosta, Calendon and Asturia soon followed, reducing The Twelve Sea Kings to Seven. 

In the forest crescent of the Lakbans, the new states were beset by necromancers fuelled by the dark energies that emanated from ancient lost tombs. Some say evil poured forth out of gates to the underworld, or that the spirit of fallen demons lived on in the earth. The Order of the Dawn launched crusade after crusade against the undead, but each time the threat seemed vanquished, it would fester in the shadows and return in force to plague a new generation.