Dungeon Crawl-like adventure.

[AdamWarnock]

As the title suggests, I'm interested in creating an adventure based on a dungeon crawl. I haven't had much of an opportunity to play in a dungeon crawl, and most of what I know is either second or third hand, so I figured I needed a little help. I have some things that I have nailed down that I'll list below, but I'm willing to change something if someone comes up with a better one. What I'm mainly looking for are suggestions for encounters, tropes I can use, tropes to avoid like the plague, and just anything you'd like to see in something like this in general.

Things I have Nailed Down:
-The BBEG is a monstrous spell-caster that plays mental games with the PCs throughout the adventure, especially at key points. (I was thinking of a Boogeyman Wizard, but I'm open to suggestions)
-The PCs start at the top of an extremely tall tower (6 or 7 KM high) sith little to no gear.
-The tower is big enough to sustain several colonies inside (500 to 1000 m on a side, 1,500,000,000 m^3 to 7,000,000,000 m^3 in volume)
-There will be mundane and magical traps, some of which all the PCs have to go through.
-Not all encounters will be combat focused, there will be plenty of opportunity for RP encounters.

I'm not asking for the community to build this adventure, just some help.

[Wildonion]

One thing that sometimes gets overlooked for a dungeon crawl is the simple fact that there still needs to be some semblance of a story. There needs to be a reason that the bogeyman decided to take these adventurers and stick them at the top of his death tower. For my part, I like the Aperture Science approach. He stuck them there just to see how they would do, compared to previous participants who failed their test. You can even have your BBEG taunting the players or commenting on how well/poorly they are doing. That little bit of motivation can be all the players need to stick with the adventure.

Also, and it seems you already have some ideas for this, make sure that there is variety within the tower. Traps and puzzles, diplomacy, and combat are three sides to the RPG triangle and you will want to use all of them. Keeps things interesting.

Finally, your communities inside the tower are going to be a big source of roleplaying and gear for the players. They may even be one of the few places they will feel truly safe, once they have the trust of the locals. Which means you can give them a nice area to rest and relax between their objectives and then, when the Bogeyman decides to shake things up, you can have that taken away from them. One more reason for them to hate your villain and want to get out of the tower and deal with him.

[boring7]

Well Halaster I am fully behind Wildonion's suggestion of the GLaDOS school of motivational speaking. Deliver messages via Programmed image, Magic Mouth, even the occasional Simalcrum or crap-quality golem.

One potential problem is that there are a lot of ways to try and *escape* the dungeon crawl. Unless of course the dungeon is on a demiplane.

"Traveling Djinni's Planar Shop" is a valid tool, but not necessarily the kind of thing everyone is okay with, but some form of "dump old gear/get new gear" is going to be necessary (like with the locals, along with some explanation where they get their crap) even if it's just to deal with Baldrick having a "cunning plan" that leads to everyone needing more rope...and clothes.

Fun encounters...

Presumably EVERYTHING in there is either a misbegotten creation or a kidnap victim (or the descendants of kidnap victims) but at least the first few meet'n'greets should probably hammer home how much they are prisoners just like the PCs.

Different factions will feud, the only question is which ones and when the PCs meet them.

Broken/abandoned constructs made by BBEG can pop up, all wobegone from being abandoned, or praying/sacrificing to their creator-god to be taken in once more.

Most BBEG spellcasters have apprentices who "didn't make the cut" or offended BBEG or actually betrayed BBEG, in whatever case PCs will run across them.

BBEG probably has rules keeping, say, the Goblin Chief from trying to conquer the Fairies' Mushroom Kingdom or otherwise leave their zone. Certain parties will note the PC's ability to travel and want to capitalize on it, perhaps by hiring them, perhaps by doppelganger-replacing one or more of them, perhaps by drinking their blood and consuming their power (nobody said they'd be bright).

Undermountain Room Generator

[Mage Evolving]

You may want to watch movies like No Escape, Escape from L.A., Escape from N.Y., ring world for inspiration. Although the Mage is ultimately in control there will be a power structure with competing factions. All of whom will see some reason to either love or hate the adventurers. Perhaps the Mage is simply building an elaborate zoo. Filled with creatures from all over the planes. You just happen to be one of them.

As an Adventurer I am going to want to know the following:

Why am I here?
How did I get here?
How do I get out?
Can't I just use magic to leave?
Why me in particular?

You're going to need to address those things. Especially as your players get more powerful. Once they get the ability to move large distances magically the question becomes why not just leave?

[AdamWarnock]

Thank you for the suggestions, because they gave me some ideas and got me thinking about some things, but most importantly, they reminded me about two things I had forgotten.

-The BBEG's motives are similar to what Wildonian suggested, mainly along the lines of "What makes you tick?" or "Why do you meddlesome adventurers keep beating me?"

-The tower is in a demiplane. You can leap out of the tower, but if you miss the hunk of land a few miles below, you fall for eternity.

I hadn't thought about how to limit spells that allow plane shifting. Maybe handwave it as the creators of the tower only wanted one way in or out, and spells like that only allow you to shift to copies of the tower in other planes. Any other ideas would be great.

[archmagi1]

Plane shift requires a focus component of a metal tuning fork tuned to your destination plane. Powerful BBEG should have no problem removing any from new citizens (destroying them of course). If somehow the group calls, say a planetar, there could be a dimension lock ability preventing planar travel (though if that were the case, be mindful of spells like blink and anything in the conjuration (teleportation) subschool). A GM handwave is generally the best "Major Magical Plot Device Preventing Planar Travel" option without disrupting things like blink, abundant steps and rope trick.

[Mage Evolving]

So I was watching Batman: The animated series last night and Batman had to run through a maze.

This got me thinking about your post.
1. There was a time crunch someone was about to get killed and batman had 10 minutes before the minotaur cut them in half. Something like this might motivate the players to keep moving. Rather than leisurely stroll through the dungeon and embrace the 15 minute adventuring day.

2. Every time Batman beat an obstacle the Riddler would appear and mock him saying he had just gotten lucky or he would change the rules of the maze in order to make the future challenges harder.

3. There was a creature (maybe a griffon) that followed just behind Batman, if he took too long or tried to go back the way he came the creature would attack. You might replace the griffon with a stone Golem or something along those lines. Tell the players that the inactive golem will come to life in 2 days time and begin hunting them. This will push them forward, encourage them to think not only about the monster ahead of them but the monster that is stalking them. A slow creature like the golem is great because you can always out run it, but while you have to rest the golem never does.

4. Batman of course beats the maze but at the center the Riddler is no where to be found. He left long ago... This could allow for a number of things. a) Your players decide to continue on and hunt down the mage b) they decide that they should rule this demiplane c)you have a segway into an whole new campaign

[boring7]

-Motive is solid, but be sure and make that a part of the game, tests, analyses, a room where they must answer a battery of questions truthfully (Say a poor innocent being forced to ask the questions and a Zone of Truth that they must submit to or the innocent dies horribly?)

-It's your demiplane and your rules, but I respectfully suggest that the demiplane have enclosed geometry, walk off the edge of one side and pop in the other side. It can even be useful when two feuding colonies are in a stalemate and one group gets the bright idea to bore through the walls.

-Plane shifting...fortunately that isn't a problem until the later levels, but it does become a problem. A plane-wide dimensional anchor is a solid sledgehammer solution with massive repercussions (conjuration magic becomes basically irrelevant). Some brand of counterspelling enchantment that constantly blocks planeshift and gate spells shuts it down hard but then the PCs can hunt for the item/person/whatever that's doing the counterspelling. (maybe that could be a test?) Some brand of hostage or collateral, like the PCs' loved ones can make it so they can leave, but they have to come back. A Running Man Protocol, where the PCs are cursed or technomagically implanted or whathaveyou which means leaving the demiplane is unhealthy. Or a combination of the above, the PCs get their plane shift spell, they find the magical machine that counterspells their attempts to escape, they shift somewhere better, (let's say, "home") and suddenly begin to sicken and slowly die as a messenger mephit appears to tell them their souls were ripped from their bodies and stored by BBEG some time ago, so they'd best get back to the test chamber if they want to live. (various flavors of planar adaptation or the dramatic reveal "you were created and are sustained by BBEG's magic, lol!" also work)

-Since you are cracking open planar methodologies, you can play around with the environment pretty radically. Sections of the complex can be aligned magically, elementally, alignment..ally(?), or the like.