I'm going to be running a mini-campaign for 4E D&D, starting at 21st level with 5 of my friends playing. The "contract" going into the campaign is that it is going to be a combat heavy campaign where I will be playing to kill the PCs; I will play fair (using Encounter Levels that they can actually handle in theory, and giving them opportunities to run away), but I won't be playing with kid gloves.
The idea for the campaign comes straight out of the first Diablo, though modified for the D&D world. A rift to the heart of the Abyss has opened up near a large city. The city was quickly overwhelmed by demons and elementals, and became a communal battleground between the forces of the Astral Sea and the Elemental Chaos. Angels and even mercenary Devils are battling Elementals and Demons.
The player characters, being amongst the most powerful mortals on the world, have caught wind of this and have joined together to ensure the Primordials don't gain a permanent foothold.
I intend for each dungeon level to progress the players one level, though I might double up on xp and treasure rewards so that the players can experience the full bredth of epic levels (and so I don't have to write as much). It might be possible to do 5 encounters a session and get the whole campaign wrapped up in 10 sessions, ending in a battle with Orcus.
I wanted to see if anyone here had links for good cave complex maps, and possibly a city map I can use for the first session (making their way through the infested city to the rift).
I intend for the players to primarily fight demons, elementals, angels and devils. I want to come up with some fun story ideas, but mostly to motivate the players and get them to hate some of the NPCs that could exist (I'm getting the idea of a very cold Angel NPC who doesn't care about the fate of the people caught in this, only that the demons are beaten back).
If you want a massive dungeon, there's hardly anything that can beat the WLD (http://www.worldslargestdungeon.com/aeg_worldslargestdungeon.pdf). ;)
Heh, I'm not sure I want it to be that large. After all, there's only going to be 10 levels with 5 fights per level. But that is an incredibly detailed map.
You can make your own and print them with screenshots using the WotC Dungeon Tile Mapper (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20061121t). Not the best of programs, but it is free and easy to use.
Quote from: Kapn XeviatHeh, I'm not sure I want it to be that large. After all, there's only going to be 10 levels with 5 fights per level. But that is an incredibly detailed map.
Hehe, it doesn't have its name for nothing, after all. :P
Anyway, perhaps you could use some random generators. These are quite good:
* http://www.gozzys.com/article.php?cm_id=11 (Caves)
* http://www.gozzys.com/article.php?cm_id=8 (Dungeons)
* http://www.bin.sh/gaming/tools/dungeon.cgi (Dungeons)