Reverse Dungeon

[Seleveth]

I'm going to be running a pathfinder game soon and while rummaging through my brain for plot ideas one that occurred to me was to have the PCs set up a dungeon instead of looting one, in order to protect a dangerous magic item/knowledge/artifact from a known and impending evil party.

I wasn't entirely sure how to handle such an endeavor, but my first impression was that I might have the local government and certain organizations donate funds for this specific undertaking. (probably with eyes and ears on the PCs to ensure there is no pocketing and running with said funds.) And the PCs would decide on a best way to allocate these funds to outfit the dungeon with traps, guards, captured monsters, arcane spells, etc.

I wasn't sure if they would outright decide these things, or make up a recommendation/presentation, using skills to try to sway the more qualified to enact their ideas.

I was thinking the PCs could either be the last line of defense, or position themselves how they'd like in the dungeon as well, when it actually played out.

Is this something that is do-able to any degree, or should I probably try something more practical or standard instead?

Also, I wouldn't really know how much gold is appropriate for such an undertaking.

The level range is flexible, the PCs are starting off at level 1, but I would enact this later on, probably. Not sure what level range would be most appropriate/fun. The campaign is likely going to go on for as long as I can keep interest and as long as most of the PCs survive.

[Douglas Muir 406]

The adventure you're thinking of already exists. It's called "Call Forth Darkness", and it's the second module in the "Way of the Wicked" Adventure Path. The players take over an abandoned dungeon, stock it with monsters and traps, and then defend it against all comers -- especially those obnoxious adventurers who are trying to break in and take all their stuff. It's designed for a PC party of 6th level, and will take the PCs to 10th level by the time the adventure is over. You can find it here on Paizo:

http://paizo.com/products/btpy8r8c?Way-of-the-Wicked-Book-Two-Call-Forth-Da rkness

Highly recommended. Even if it's not exactly what you're looking for (like, it's assuming a party of evil PCs) for $10 you'll get a module chock-full of cool ideas that you can mine.

Doug M.

[Bart Vervaet]

I ran something similar once. I created a very easy dungeon for my players, something like a bunch of goblins for a lvl 4-5 party, only to have it attacked by a bunch of ogres/trolls once they cleared it.

All of a sudden they regretted things like smashing all the doors instead of picking the locks or just setting off the traps instead of trying to disable them.

If you run something like this you should give the players only a short time to prepare and execute a defence plan, and make sure the dungeon has some nice defendible points (slopes, maybe a river or ravine crossing it, anything to give them a bit of an edge. That way you can really make them feel like they are in over their heads against much stronger opponents, but still give them a good chance to defeat them if they play their cards right

If you do it right this could be one of the coolest adventures they ever play

[Captain Phoenix]

I suggest you check out the advanced dungeons and dragons adventure called "reverse dungeon". It lets the pc's play the monsters, but it should give you a few more ideas as in how to run the game. At the very least read about what others have said about it. I played the first part of the mission and really enjoyed it.

[Malach the Merciless]

How about this instead. Have players design the dungeons, then suddenly reveal they were tricked by a powerful and now have to dungeon crawl that dungeon to survive and add a surprise at the end.

[Galnörag]

The one thing that you have to be careful of is that once the dungeon is setup the players don't actually get to participate until the climax. Perhaps setting it up more like a rolling retreat through a structure they've configured, so that in each room they can defeat a foe, who is also hindered by the traps and terrain the players have made, then retreat to the next prepared room.

[Douglas Muir 406]

Captain Phoenix wrote:

I suggest you check out the advanced dungeons and dragons adventure called "reverse dungeon". It lets the pc's play the monsters, but it should give you a few more ideas as in how to run the game. At the very least read about what others have said about it. I played the first part of the mission and really enjoyed it.

I think "Reverse Dungeon" was one of the very last Second Edition products -- it came out in 2000, just before 3e. Yah, it's a good module. You start playing goblins trying to defend your dungeon against adventurers; if you win, you can upgrade to playing more powerful monsters. You can still find it on eBay, probably not too expensive.

Also, we should probably mention the classic video game Dungeon Keeper (c. 1996-7). The graphics and gameplay would seem ridiculously simple today, but the basic concept was beautifully executed: you played a force for evil, managing a series of dungeons against ever more frantic assaults by the forces of good.

But anyway. Seriously, check out "Call Forth Darkness". Although it's designed for a group of evil PCs, with a little work it could be turned into a dungeon-defense story for any group of PCs. Also, it's not just a simple dungeon -- it's a mini-campaign, designed to take the PCs from 6th to 10th level. So there's lots of crunch and good content.

Doug M.

[Radiostorm]

I'd recommend taking a look at The Quest for Perfection—Part III: Defenders of Nesting Swallow for ideas. In the scenario, the players are tasked with protecting a small town from a group of raiders. It's not a perfect parallel, but there's a lot of resource and time management concepts that could be applied.