My New Megadungeon: Monster Hill

I have been working on a new megadungeon, Monster Hill. It is the name given by locals to a hill of ill reputation that spews out terrible monsters and is a haven for goblins and bandits and other neer-do-wells. It has in the past been know as a home to demon worshipers, who are supposed to have constructed the complex long ago. Rumors state that there are portals to the infernal realms in the depths.

I'm running this so that many groups can enter and leave they're mark on the complex. Theoretically I could play it for years for many different groups, and any changes the PCs make would remain. Also I'm going to be going with an approach similar to what James Maliszewski, at Grognardia is using for his Dwimmermount campaign, not creating too much of the setting at any one time, instead creating it through play.


If you're interested I will be starting a play-by-post game on this site.

Valarn's Vault: the Reboot

Well you may remember from earlier posts my players in my previous campaign having explored a dungeon called "Valarn's Vault". Well I've decided to revisit this dungeon, applying the lessons I've learned about dungeon creation since then. So I'll rewrite the dungeon, pretty much from scratch. I will be using Pathfinder and am thinking of setting it in some undetailed part of Oerth outside the Flanaess, or a world of my own creation.

The Vault is a fortress that belongs to a powerful necromancer on an island not far of shore from a small fishing village in the tropics. The upper works contain a large garrison of various kinds of undead, however there is a back entrance to the far less dangerous storage area. The upper works are basically a "lair"-type environment, so aren't really suitable for low-level adventurers, but the storage area and lower levels are a more normal dungeon environment, so adventures here are not going to bring the wrath of every creature in the area on they're heads. Below the storage area is a series of catacombs that contain many undead of various kinds. I'll have fun utilizing all the various obscure kinds of undead in my monster manuals populating this area. The third level I'm thinking will probably be a series of laboratories, filled with all kinds of weird monsters, including templated monsters of various kinds. However, I'm thinking I might want to save that theme for a lower level, since I'd want to include more dangerous creatures like golems. The lair of Valarn himself will either be on the twelfth or lower level or a sub-level attached to it. Perhaps his lair will be a demiplane connected to the dungeon by portal. As for other levels, at the moment I'm focusing on the first three as Gary Gygax suggests in Volume 3 of OD&D, "The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures".

As for difficulty I am not going to be adhering strictly to the rules in Pathfinder. Like in old school games it will be somewhat challenging. It would in fact be likely to encounter ten goblins in a single encounter on the first level of the dungeon. However the PCs would be well equipped to handle such encounters, as Pathfinder characters are fairly powerful and it will be assumed that they will bring along non-player character hirelings to help them, including warriors.

My Crazy Idea: Super Robot Wars, the Tabletop Wargame

Recently I've been playing the Super Robot Wars series of turn-based strategy games. These games are a crossover between many different Giant Robot Shows, Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, Gundam and many others. I now officially consider myself a Super Robot fan. Many of the games have not been translated into English, which is a problem because I'd like to play more.


So I got an idea, to create a tabletop game that allowed me to recreate the battles from the series and create my own. But I don't know how to go about doing that. Also, I'd need to have some kind of figures. I'd also need some one to play with.

Still Alive

Yep, still alive. Me and my family have gone through some rough times lately, and I haven't had much time for gaming. At least we know that my father is not going to die immediately (he's been diagnosed with cancer and until recently his numbers were pretty high). That's always good to know.

On Combat and Exploration

Many see the primary activity in D&D as combat. It is said that D&D is about "killing things and taking they're stuff." I see it differently, as my favorite activity is exploration and I see that as the primary activity. Combat is something that often happens while exploring dungeons, but is not the only activity that adventurers engage in, in fact it can often be not the best solution or even counter productive, especially when facing a superior foe.

What made me think about this is the rather awesome, but also very long, combat that occurred in the latest session of my D&D campaign. In many ways it reminded me of my experiences in playing 4th Edition wherein combat is a very significant part of the game, certainly the central aspect, and also debatably more important than in other editions of D&D. This is part of why so many dislike that version of D&D and certainly why I prefer other versions myself. Despite what some have said though, it is not because 4th edition lacks "non-combat rules". In fact with the advent of the skill challenge it can be said to have more rules for non-combat than any other version of D&D. I personally do not believe that having many rules for non-combat is necessarily even desirable. In many cases having a few simple rules will serve better, as more complex rules may in fact bog down the game.

There are many aspects of the topic of D&D as a game of exploration that I could discuss. These include the role of mapping in making exploration more interesting, how many empty rooms should be included in a good dungeon, the use of tricks and traps, and many other things. Perhaps I will discuss those in further blog entries.

the Shattered Empire: Session 3

This session was dominated by an epic battle against the enemy goblin tribe. Before that they fought them they did explore one not particularly notable room. It had a puddle of water and moss, but they thought for sure that something was going to pop out and get them. But there wasn't anything there.

So then they decided to attack the goblins. Shortly before they arrived they met up with a trio of orcs from the goblin tribe they had allied with. They asked that they be allowed to participate in the attack on the enemy tribe. The players agreed and asked that they go up front. "More glory for us!" the orcs responded.

When the party rounded the corner they saw two goblin sentries. With a cry of "Bree-yark" they called for they're tribemates and attacked. However they were quickly overwhelmed. Unfortunately the fighter from the north got too ahead of the rest of the group. When the rest of the goblins arrived he was facing them all without his allies. The rest of the group followed behind and were quickly confronted by the leader of the goblins and soon after that more of his people. The goblin got in a good sneak attack against the cleric, but got a few good hits against himself as well. He then retreated behind his minions. Meanwhile the goblins in the northern passage had surrounded the northerner and had dealt several telling blows, though he had killed a few of them before he went down. He was bleeding to death, but one of they're orcish allies pulled him away from the melee so he could be healed, while the other finished off the goblins. The other group was also slowly worn down. The leader attempted to deliever a sneak attack, but failed and was slain, dispite the effort of one of his minions to revive him with a healing potion. Then the remaining goblins were finished off.

End result was that seventeen enemies were down without any fatalities though there were a couple of close calls. The loot amounted to just under five hundred silver pieces plus the gear of the goblins which they gave to they're goblin allies. The session finished with the players attending a celebration thrown by the goblins because of they're defeat of they're enemies.

the Shattered Empire: Session 2

Last Sunday night I had quite a surprise as some of my players showed up expecting to play. So I quickly set up and after a few minutes we started playing. The session started off when the party was attacked by a giant spider while camping out in the dungeon. They're sentry, Theron, was the first to encounter the beast and shouted for the others. After a few rounds of throwing javelins, and dodging spider webs he was joined by the rest of the party, including a new member. This cleric had come from the far north, more or less, "Russia". Well they quickly finished off the spider and in the morning started they exploration of the dungeon level.

From the stairs they entered into a room with three corridors leading off in all directions, except the one that the stair came from. The rest of the relatively short session was devoted to exploring a series of rooms that used to be storerooms for the old palace, before the cellar was expanded into a dungeon. They encountered dire rats, found some treasure, including a chest in a secret room. A particularly notable encounter was with some hobgoblins (recall that in my campaign, hobgoblins are the smaller version). They did not attack the PCs immediately and the PCs decided to parlay. For 1 gp each they got permission to travel through the goblins' territory and were offered a place to stay the night. The group opted to hide in the secret room however. They also learned of a second, chaotic group of goblins that worked for a minotaur that laired in the dungeon. They then began to explore other parts of the dungeon, and found a "T" intersection just before we decided to call it quits.