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I'm running a game for a local game store next month on Free RPG day. Thinking I want to run a Castlevania inspired megadungeon, but since Carrion Crown is out, I'm wondering if I should just do that?
The game is for a four hour block of time, and for a group of 3-4 4th level players. Who will move up to level 5 and 6 during the course of the adventure. I've pregened an Inquisitor(Melee), Alchemist(Bomber), Paladin(Sword and Shield), Rogue (Two Weapon Thrower) and Sorceror(Celestial-Summoner)
Though If I don't get CC, I'd like some feedback and potential help with the design of this dungeon.
As is is planned so far, I'd like have a hub dungeon connected to 4 or five micro dungeons. The micro dungeons would have 3 rooms on average and a "boss" classic monster. Each dungeon would have "minion" monsters to the theme of the dungeon, a trap or puzzle room, and likely a skill based challenge, the boss would have to be an iconic gothic type monster. So far I want to use a Vampire Eldricht Knight,a Mummy Sorceress, Medusa Ranger, Werewolf Barbarian, and then of course skeletons, ghouls, ghosts, zombies, shades, and some evil outsiders.
Any suggestions? I've taken a few ideas from another thread, in terms of party management and challegen, however I didn't see any actually focusing on building the dungeons itself. All thoughts, advice, pointers, and submissions are welcome.
Trying to run an intro to an Adventure Path could be a bit ambitious for a 4 hour slot. Also leveling twice in 4 hours will likely take most of the 4 hours. I remember Ryan Costello, Jr. tried running a longer session of leveling up from 1st to 5th and it didn't work very well.
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The leveling thing I'm thinking can go, I was just trying to avoid starting them at level five, Though I could do that considering the size of this dungeon. That'd still allow for plenty of survivability. Most clases just tend to have a huge jump in power at level five.
Though it is Castlevania inspired, I don't want my party having a cakewalk. I want the encounters to be difficult, but not out of their reach.
I like the concept a lot. Here's my suggestions-
Skills! Make sure there's at least one thing in each room that requires a skill check to deal with or figure out. This lets skill monkey characters get some screen time. Even better is to have the check require a couple rounds to finish, so the other characters have to keep them safe and uninterupted. Not too long, or the player playing that character ends up not havin a lot of fun (Everyone gets thier awesome round attacking, rogue comes up, he says "I keep picking the lock... for the 4th round in a row..." you can see how that's not wanted)
Terrain! Make the locations interesting. If you have time to build little scale moles of the rooms (since there's what, 12 of them and they're pretty small), or even just the important bits of scenery, this can give the players a better sense of immersion and tactical options. (I build my important bits out of legos, but cardboard and glue works pretty well too)
Trap! I'd say one thematically appropriate trap per sub-area. What's a dungeon without them?
Treasure! Have the boss-monsters drop limited or single use items. Make them interesting and thematically appropriate.
there you go, my thoughts. Discuss away.
The leveling thing I'm thinking can go, I was just trying to avoid starting them at level five, Though I could do that considering the size of this dungeon. That'd still allow for plenty of survivability. Most clases just tend to have a huge jump in power at level five.
Though it is Castlevania inspired, I don't want my party having a cakewalk. I want the encounters to be difficult, but not out of their reach.
You're right about 5th level. Either start there and balance appropriately, or go with third or 4th.
Don't bother leveling. That will seriously screw with your internal dungeon balance. You'll have to modify encounters on the fly depending on which route they take first.
Instead, compensate with items (non-renewable resources). Reward them, but make them have to decide when to use those rewards.
If you want to add a leveling element, have it happen before the "super-boss" shows up after all 4 wings have been cleared (maybe have it arrive in the "starting room when they're trying to leave. Classic trick). In that case, pre-generate two versions of the characters at 4th, and 5th and just hand them the new character sheets with all their new cookies highlighted before the big showdown. That should speed things up considerably.
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The leveling thing I'm thinking can go, I was just trying to avoid starting them at level five, Though I could do that considering the size of this dungeon. That'd still allow for plenty of survivability. Most clases just tend to have a huge jump in power at level five.
Though it is Castlevania inspired, I don't want my party having a cakewalk. I want the encounters to be difficult, but not out of their reach.
You're right about 5th level. Either start there and balance appropriately, or go with third or 4th.
Don't bother leveling. That will seriously screw with your internal dungeon balance. You'll have to modify encounters on the fly depending on which route they take first.
Instead, compensate with items (non-renewable resources). Reward them, but make them have to decide when to use those rewards.
If you want to add a leveling element, have it happen before the "super-boss" shows up after all 4 wings have been cleared (maybe have it arrive in the "starting room when they're trying to leave. Classic trick). In that case, pre-generate two versions of the characters at 4th, and 5th and just hand them the new character sheets with all their new cookies highlighted before the big showdown. That should speed things up considerably.
I thought about that. since I'm not sure if players will have characters or not, I could just make a second set of my current pregens for the "final showdown".
Doomed Hero I am actually taking your suggestion on the lego set pieces. That toatlly slipped my mind. I'm working on some maps, but I don't want to haul too many tubs around, unless I'm allowed to set up my station the night before.
I would like some thoughts on building the BBEGS for each section, traps are great too. Currently I'm building a trap/skill section that involves a little platforming.
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I like the concept a lot. Here's my suggestions-
Skills! Make sure there's at least one thing in each room that requires a skill check to deal with or figure out. This lets skill monkey characters get some screen time. Even better is to have the check require a couple rounds to finish, so the other characters have to keep them safe and uninterupted. Not too long, or the player playing that character ends up not havin a lot of fun (Everyone gets thier awesome round attacking, rogue comes up, he says "I keep picking the lock... for the 4th round in a row..." you can see how that's not wanted)
Terrain! Make the locations interesting. If you have time to build little scale moles of the rooms (since there's what, 12 of them and they're pretty small), or even just the important bits of scenery, this can give the players a better sense of immersion and tactical options. (I build my important bits out of legos, but cardboard and glue works pretty well too)
Trap! I'd say one thematically appropriate trap per sub-area. What's a dungeon without them?
Treasure! Have the boss-monsters drop limited or single use items. Make them interesting and thematically appropriate.
there you go, my thoughts. Discuss away.
The main Dungeon will be some sort of gothic manor or decayed castle. Though it will be comprised of entrances to the sub duneons and of course a zombie filled entry way, as well as the barrier blocked of gate to the Keep.
So far my Sub Dungeons are:
Catacombs
-Waterway
-Caves
-Drawbridge
Crypt
-Main room
-Grave Robbers Trap
-Tomb
Gardens
-Hedge Maze
-Fountain
-Statue Garden
Servants Quarters
-Kitchen
-Commons
-Attic
Clocktower
-Entrance
-Stairs
-Gear Room
Feel free to discuss and input.
Sounds like a long game. Assume about 10-20 minutes per room. You might be biting off more than you can chew.
I'd run it with one or two regular groups at home before you run it for people you don't know. Find out where the snags are and practice them.
As for the big challenges, make a separate thread for them and toss them to the boards. Title it something like "Advice on CR5 BBEGs for Castlevania game.", toss out a simple premise and the basic ideas you have, with some mechanics and feats for people to argue over, and see what they say. Just don't give them a vacuum or you'll get no responses.
In a four-hour slot, don't plan on the players dealing with more than six challenging encounters. These may be social, combat, or puzzles/traps. Some groups are much faster than others, but if you want to have a good time roleplaying and avoid forcing everyone to hurry from fight to fight, plan on no more than four fights.
If you use any kind of puzzles, make sure that they can be solved in more than one way... say a coded locking mechanism can be figured out from the description, 'solved' with an appropriate die roll or broken by brute force.
+1 on this.
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+1 on this.If you use any kind of puzzles, make sure that they can be solved in more than one way... say a coded locking mechanism can be figured out from the description, 'solved' with an appropriate die roll or broken by brute force.
Already got that covered.
Though I'm used to playing with a couple geniuses, I still know how to leave clues and option open.
I am condensing the dungeon as per some of the suggestions. Still need to make my CR5 thread.