Megadungeons

[Kindling]

Megadungeons. Have you ever made one for a setting? Have you ever run a campaign with one? How did it go? Should I give it a go? Will it drive me insane?

EDIT: also, this

[Steerpike]

I've never done it but I had an idea for one awhile back... a dungeon-plane created by the cruel gods of the multiverse who kidnap champions (or just random folks) from various worlds and then make cosmic bets on who can escape the dungeon, or at least survive the longest.  The gods design the dungeon and populate it with custom-made minions.

Unfortunately, the gods aren't experienced DMs.  Meddling in the dungeon isn't allowed (that would be cheating), so the gods can't intervene as the monsters they stocked the dungeon with form a twisted ecology, aggregate into messed-up societies, and begin raiding one another for resources.  When the PCs arrive several "rounds" (likely years) into the game some adventurers have already died or gone native...

[O Senhor Leetz]

I've never done it but I had an idea for one awhile back... a dungeon-plane created by the cruel gods of the multiverse who kidnap champions (or just random folks) from various worlds and then make cosmic bets on who can escape the dungeon, or at least survive the longest.  The gods design the dungeon and populate it with custom-made minions.

Unfortunately, the gods aren't experienced DMs.  Meddling in the dungeon isn't allowed (that would be cheating), so the gods can't intervene as the monsters they stocked the dungeon with form a twisted ecology, aggregate into messed-up societies, and begin raiding one another for resources.  When the PCs arrive several "rounds" (likely years) into the game some adventurers have already died or gone native...

For whatever reason, I was reminded of the Planar Sphere quest from Baldur's Gate II by this. That said, megadungeon has great potential to be very simple, and very fun.

[LordVreeg]

I have a few in Celtricia. 
The one the SIG plays in is pretty big...they've been in 4 times, and have scratched the surface.  There are a lot of sub levels, etc. 
I have a large one in Nebler's Shield Mountain, that is an abandoned, sauroid and orcash infested ex-klaxik settlement and mine...that one is large, 4 real levels as well as a few sub levels and a tower... and a few others.  The Igbarians are dealing with K2, the underworld of the Orbian Exiles, which is also large.

I think I tend towards, them, actually. 

[Steerpike]

I guess my Goblin campaign was kind of a megadungeon.  A 4 level dungeon in the underdark with a lot of surrounding regions.  But it wasn't a typical dungeon crawl by any stretch of the imagination.

[LordVreeg]

And should you try it?  Kindling, I don't know. 
It can add a lot to the legendary nature of some parts of the setting...

[sparkletwist]

Asura has a few of them, now that I think about it.

The most mega of the "megadungeons" would be asteroids and moons floating around with vestiges of the ancient, Chaotic universe, sort of like Steerpike's idea only existing in real space. There's something kind of cool about, instead of hiking to the dungeon, flying your spaceship to it and landing on it or docking with it.

[Hibou]

I've traditionally had at least a few in all of my settings (even Fractal Galaxy). In the revision of Haveneast I'm working on, there are two megadungeons just in one relatively small geographical area, not including the ancient, bizarre ruined city known as Kragsmor whose layout is limiting enough (and the place is massive enough) to be considered a kind of outdoors megadungeon.

As the blog post on megadungeons mentions, an issue with designing one is dealing with any potential attempts to just leave and come back to avoid running low on health and resources while in the dungeon. I find that a surprisingly good place to get inspiration for how to deal with this is the Diablo series, particularly the first installment - it was often in the dungeon that you would find shrines and fountains and whatnot that would grant you some kind of boon (maybe with unwanted side-effects). If you're interested in making a megadungeon, I suggest that you definitely consider these kinds of fixtures even if they initially seem out of place; in fact, you can use that to your advantage and potentially make the entire dungeon seem creepier and dangerous just by virtue of having some otherwise beneficial elements present that don't actually make any sense.

I wouldn't worry too much about it being too daunting a task - with bigger dungeons, I've found it becomes easier to use generators to get a base model to work on and modify to suit your needs. Possibly the biggest issue you're going to have to deal with is making such a dungeon feel truly worthwhile to delve into, even if the players only ever touch sections of it. It has to be daunting, it has to fixate itself in their memories, and it should be a significant experience that affects the rest of their careers as adventurers. After all, they are delving into a massive and hostile labyrinth that could be the end of them at any moment, and whatever is at the very bottom is probably going to be the stuff of nightmares.

[Elemental_Elf]

I never really considered the benefits of having at least one mega dungeon like Undermountain before. I like it. I think I will have to come up with one for my next setting.

[Nomadic]

I'd say a good 1/4th to 1/3rd of my entire setting is focused on the concept of the megadungeon (the world cores, under roads, deep cities, and so forth). Said dungeons lean towards the more organic cavern style with "manmade" areas where past (or current) inhabitants carved out living areas, camps, or even entire cities. Very Moria in feel I'd say. I think the reason for this other than the fact that Mare Eternus by nature tends towards such things is that I just very much like the idea of the sprawling underworld that light forgot. The natural atmosphere is a perfect mixture of awe and creepiness.

[LordVreeg]

I've traditionally had at least a few in all of my settings (even Fractal Galaxy). In the revision of Haveneast I'm working on, there are two megadungeons just in one relatively small geographical area, not including the ancient, bizarre ruined city known as Kragsmor whose layout is limiting enough (and the place is massive enough) to be considered a kind of outdoors megadungeon.

As the blog post on megadungeons mentions, an issue with designing one is dealing with any potential attempts to just leave and come back to avoid running low on health and resources while in the dungeon. I find that a surprisingly good place to get inspiration for how to deal with this is the Diablo series, particularly the first installment - it was often in the dungeon that you would find shrines and fountains and whatnot that would grant you some kind of boon (maybe with unwanted side-effects). If you're interested in making a megadungeon, I suggest that you definitely consider these kinds of fixtures even if they initially seem out of place; in fact, you can use that to your advantage and potentially make the entire dungeon seem creepier and dangerous just by virtue of having some otherwise beneficial elements present that don't actually make any sense.

I wouldn't worry too much about it being too daunting a task - with bigger dungeons, I've found it becomes easier to use generators to get a base model to work on and modify to suit your needs. Possibly the biggest issue you're going to have to deal with is making such a dungeon feel truly worthwhile to delve into, even if the players only ever touch sections of it. It has to be daunting, it has to fixate itself in their memories, and it should be a significant experience that affects the rest of their careers as adventurers. After all, they are delving into a massive and hostile labyrinth that could be the end of them at any moment, and whatever is at the very bottom is probably going to be the stuff of nightmares.

I will say that almost every megadungeon I created had places where the PCs could rest themselves if they want.  The SIG guys will tell you that the Ruins of Vexchian has layers of undiscovered venolvian (and other) areas that the current Tribals of Stronghoen have yet to find.

[Nomadic]

I've traditionally had at least a few in all of my settings (even Fractal Galaxy). In the revision of Haveneast I'm working on, there are two megadungeons just in one relatively small geographical area, not including the ancient, bizarre ruined city known as Kragsmor whose layout is limiting enough (and the place is massive enough) to be considered a kind of outdoors megadungeon.

As the blog post on megadungeons mentions, an issue with designing one is dealing with any potential attempts to just leave and come back to avoid running low on health and resources while in the dungeon. I find that a surprisingly good place to get inspiration for how to deal with this is the Diablo series, particularly the first installment - it was often in the dungeon that you would find shrines and fountains and whatnot that would grant you some kind of boon (maybe with unwanted side-effects). If you're interested in making a megadungeon, I suggest that you definitely consider these kinds of fixtures even if they initially seem out of place; in fact, you can use that to your advantage and potentially make the entire dungeon seem creepier and dangerous just by virtue of having some otherwise beneficial elements present that don't actually make any sense.

I wouldn't worry too much about it being too daunting a task - with bigger dungeons, I've found it becomes easier to use generators to get a base model to work on and modify to suit your needs. Possibly the biggest issue you're going to have to deal with is making such a dungeon feel truly worthwhile to delve into, even if the players only ever touch sections of it. It has to be daunting, it has to fixate itself in their memories, and it should be a significant experience that affects the rest of their careers as adventurers. After all, they are delving into a massive and hostile labyrinth that could be the end of them at any moment, and whatever is at the very bottom is probably going to be the stuff of nightmares.

I will say that almost every megadungeon I created had places where the PCs could rest themselves if they want.  The SIG guys will tell you that the Ruins of Vexchian has layers of undiscovered venolvian (and other) areas that the current Tribals of Stronghoen have yet to find.

I find that giving the PCs areas where they can catch their breath for a second is important. It lets them come down just enough from the excitement and suspense of the last encounter so that when you hit them with the next one it has an effect. That feeling of getting dragged back into adrenaline hell (the "oh shi-" factor) can greatly add to the experience of exploring a megadungeon (something that is supposed to be intense and scary). I recall the last time I got to play with you guys with Carmen when you had us in that one room and we were calmly searching about for valuables, we'd come down from the previous fighting and were enjoying a little quiet time. Then I triggered that trap and almost got killed by the chest trap and everyone got sucked back into the intense side of things. Stuff like that sticks with you in games and makes the game enjoyable (at least for dungeon slogger style games).

[LD]

I loved the megadungeon Castle Maure in Dungeon 112 and several other editions, although the one in 112 was much better with more detailed lore than the smaller add-on areas that appeared in the later ones.

In my settings that I posted on the CBG, I can't say that I have any official megadungeons, but that is mostly because the setting either doesn't suit them (GodSmack), or I just haven't gotten around to writing them up (most other settings). It's good to give GMs options if they want to add something like a megadungeon to one's world.