The Megadungeon Beckons

There comes a time in every OSR enthusiast's life when the urge to run a megadungeon lodges itself deep within their brain. Despite my best efforts, that time has come for me. And because I'm a glutton for punishment, I want to run one of my own creation. So what kind of megadungeon do I want to build?

I'd prefer it to be something easy to run with an open table, naturally feature lots of variation, provide clear objectives for the players, and have an achievable end point. And of course I want to set it in my favorite fantasy conceit, a wizard's tower.

So the dungeon will be the extra-dimensional space within a wizard's tower, home to an Archwizard's students, THE APPRENTICES THIRTEEN. Each apprentice has their own section of the tower to serve as their sanctum and workshop (our dungeon levels), constructed in their own style and populated with their strange servants (variation). The tower has recently been reopened to the outside world at the Archwizard's whims, and as a method to test his students, he invites would-be-adventurers to enter and attempt to slay the apprentices (clear objectives). Successful adventurers will be rewarded with the Archwizard's boons, and the final surviving apprentice will be whisked away and made the Archwizard's sole protege (an end point).

And as for our open table concept, the Archmage wants to test his apprentices' ability to adapt to new threats, so he only leaves the tower open to adventurers each night, teleporting interlopers out at sunrise, and giving the apprentices all day to prepare new defenses for the following night. Is it a bit of a hand-wavy magical bullshit way to handle it? Sure. Does it seem like the weird, esoteric methods of a mad sorcerer? Absolutely. 

This also gives us a fun new constraint for the players; each delve into the dungeon is limited to a single session, and they'll need to figure out how to get further with tight time constraints. So a big part of dungeon delving is going to be finding short-cuts, teleportation methods, and other ways to quickly access deeper levels of the dungeon.

To also make sure groups at an open table don't keep treading the same ground other groups have already cleared I want a novel way to approach multiple dungeon entrances. There will be a single door to the tower, which magically teleports the party to a semi-random section of dungeon (weighted by party level so they don't get too far in over their head, or have a high-level party bored in a shallower level of the dungeon). Keys found throughout the dungeon will allow parties to access known points in the dungeon on subsequent delves, giving them the choice to explore a new, random area or revisit a level. And of course this key system also encourages players to mix up their parties, seeking out players whose characters have keys to areas they want to explore.

My goal is to post a room, handout, random table, or other element of the dungeon every day. We'll see how long it takes to build all thirteen levels (one for each apprentice) and the obligatory sub-levels (extra-planar regions with magical connections to multiple apprentices' levels of the dungeon). As I finish levels I'll post them as pwyw zines on itch.

I have a local OSR con coming up in February here in the PDX, so I'm hoping to have a mini version of level 1 ready as a stand-alone zine to give away there. That's probably a bit optimistic, but a fun goal to work toward nonetheless!

That's enough rambling from me, let's get to the good stuff, THE DUNGEON! First up, Level 1: The Astromancer's Sanctum!