Thanks TimD for the clarification; I think I've got it and I agree. My megadungeon will have a mega-BBEG, but she's going to be sort of a non-combatant. The nature of the place is that it exists to please her, and so there'll be a ton of encounterable BBEGs, each w/their own agenda about how to 1. win the favor of the mistress, 2. perhaps get out of this zoo, or 3. perhaps depose her and become new king/queen of the hill. Then below or beside that tier of bosses ther'll be others who are opportunists, not in the know of what's really going on in the Lower Halls or simply don't care, and thus might have non-sequitor agendas.
To everyone: what about mapping? Should the party ever get access to a map of a particular level?
I'd really like to recommend some blog posts to you. I know, I know -- it's kind of annoying for you to ask for help and for me to reply "Here's an hour of research material", but you really might find it to be of some use.
In particular, it discusses elements that make megadungeons so special (mostly meaningful choices) and how you might modify your dungeons in that way.
http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/13085/roleplaying-games/jaquaying-the-d ungeon
@ shooter of trouble: thank you. I actually hit up the Alex. blog first in anticipation of this dungeon and will go back over them again. In particular I like the description of game play and re-filling guard posts and such.
If the party is meeting w/roleplaying with some of the denizens of the dungeon, should it be reasonable for them to expect some kind of guidance and if so what do I provide (maps, a guide, directions...anything?)
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If the party is meeting w/roleplaying with some of the denizens of the dungeon, should it be reasonable for them to expect some kind of guidance and if so what do I provide (maps, a guide, directions...anything?)
You could have the PCs discover the remains of a long dead explorer who has an unfinished map that he was working on before he died.
What frequency of random encounters do you all use? Do you even use random encounters? These seem to have been a staple of megadungeons from my youth but have apparently dropped off in popularity.
I like them and think they are part of megadungeons - in my mind a significant feature of a megadungeon over just a big dungeon is that there are relatively large areas of "unclaimed" territory within - areas with too many exits/entrances and too much traffic to easily control.
However, I think they work much better in older style games. "Back then" the experience from monsters was pretty negligible compared to the experience you got from treasure. In addition, wandering monsters tended not to have their treasure with them, so random encounters were generally an all-round bad thing (or at least high-risk for low reward). You did your best to minimise encounters with wandering monsters - evading, negotiating and otherwise avoiding fighting them as they were predominantly resource-draining and not terribly rewarding.
In contrast, newer games have moved away from "1gp=1xp" and put the focus for rewards on defeating monsters. As such, if you encounter lots of wandering monsters you're likely to advance in level more rapidly than otherwise (and probably pick up more loot too, depending on what you fight). Suddenly, a wandering monster isnt such a distraction - there's actually in-game incentive to defeat them, but with no real advancement of the story. I suspect this is part of the reason people often refer to megadungeons as a series of battles in an endless sequence of rooms.
Another contrast between "old fashioned" games and the newer versions is the time it takes to run a battle. A wandering monster is a distracting hassle in both - but in the newer games that hassle can easily take up an hour of gametime. At least in my experience, the older games rarely have battles lasting more than half an hour, even if they are quite tough, whereas the newer ones rarely have battles lasting less than that (at least not if they are challenging).