Tips on running a mega-dungeon?

[Necrozius]

I will be running Stonehell soon at a gaming store.

Any tips for managing the logistics of a mega-dungeon?

Some things I'm planning to do:

• Use a turn chart to keep track of dungeon "turns" (ie, 10 minutes) and duration of light sources
• Use a highlighter to mark off the rooms that the party has already explored (to keep track of their return journey, and remember which places might need restocking (or not)
• Getting the group to collaboratively make a map on large newsprint paper (no erasing allowed, just notes and "grafitti")

Any tips / advice?

Thanks

 

[JoeNuttall]

I love running dungeon crawls but not stuff that bogs down play and makes it slow, so we dropped player mapping a long time ago.

The main thing I'd add is that the mega dungeon should be a living breathing place, not just a monster zoo waiting patiently in their rooms to be killed.

 

[Silverlion]

I love running dungeon crawls but not stuff that bogs down play and makes it slow, so we dropped player mapping a long time ago.

The main thing I'd add is that the mega dungeon should be a living breathing place, not just a monster zoo waiting patiently in their rooms to be killed.

The last one is important. Make it so things move, they might live there, so they won't just stick to one place unless forced to by other monsters or other stuff (like traps), but always give them ways to get food/water/etc (unless all undead.)

Make sure that other than the occasional "wandering monsters' (that is patrols by those who live there) that the PCs can find a place to camp and rest.

I usually ditch ammunition for weapons, and just keep track in a more general way (usually having critical failures means running out of ammo) to cut down on bookkeeping but you want authentic teaching, so I'd cook up an ammo sheet where they just mark off boxes or the like. I'd probably use this for light sources as well.

 

[S'mon]

I'd definitely encourage player mapping if this is a long term campaign. It seems to be part of what makes the dungeon come alive.
I use 1:1 time; the PCs leave the dungeon at the end of the session, and game time passes = to the real time that passes between sessions.
I don't aggressively restock as I want the PCs to feel a sense of progress, but I'll roll wandering monsters checks for traversals of explored & cleared areas. There is usually a kind of exploration 'front' at the limit of mapped terrain; behind the front movement is abstracted, not room by room.
I do encounter checks typically 6 on d6 every 3 Turns, defaulting to 30 minutes IRL = 30 minutes in-game. Combat & loud noises usually generate a check too.
Running 5e I use 1 week long rests, which are not spent in the dungeon. I don't expect PCs to be sleeping in the dungeon, but over the years some PCs settle there, a few like Rama the Friendly Kobold of Stonehell are even dungeon natives.

 

[JoeNuttall]

I'd definitely encourage player mapping if this is a long term campaign. It seems to be part of what makes the dungeon come alive.

Do you mean that the physical act of drawing the map makes it come alive? Or just the fact that there is a players map that gradually gets filled in as they explore? I only do the latter.

 

[Silverlion]

Do you mean that the physical act of drawing the map makes it come alive? Or just the fact that there is a players map that gradually gets filled in as they explore? I only do the latter.

I vary on it. Most modern players don't care, as long as it makes sense. Older players love it. Me? I'm alright either way.

 

[S'mon]

Do you mean that the physical act of drawing the map makes it come alive? Or just the fact that there is a players map that gradually gets filled in as they explore? I only do the latter.

Thinking about my Barrowmaze game where I have a keen mapper, it seems connected to the physical act of drawing the map. The moment when he linked up two dungeon sections after a couple years of play was pretty awesome.

Having a record of explored areas and points to consider further exploration seems important too though. The players at the table can look at the map and decide what to do, just like the PCs at the tavern table pre-expedition.

 

[JoeNuttall]

Thinking about my Barrowmaze game where I have a keen mapper, it seems connected to the physical act of drawing the map. The moment when he linked up two dungeon sections after a couple years of play was pretty awesome.

I've had that moment too - they went up from a lower level and found a hidden section in the earlier part of the dungeon all in the space between the rooms they'd already visited.

Having a record of explored areas and points to consider further exploration seems important too though. The players at the table can look at the map and decide what to do, just like the PCs at the tavern table pre-expedition.

So mapping provides both a fun experience and a useful one. The only question is how it gets drawn, which probably depends upon group preferences.