Need an advice with megadungeon

[Lornis]

Hey everybody!

I'm actually DMing a kind of campaign where my players are Pathfinders. One game session, one scenario, one place. It's a very good way to explore and discover the all world (& beyond!)

And I would like to make a one shot in the Kamaria's Pyramid, or in Gallowspire, but I've go no idea how to "skip" the first levels of the dungeon whithout loose a lots of roleplay credibility. Do I have to just make a new background for the enire dungeon? Make it shorter?

Well, I need some advices. (Group level 12)

Exscuse my english, it's not my mother tongue.

[Jaunt]

Why skip any floors? If you want them to have level appropriate foes, just make the early floors harder. If you want to have a shorter megadungeon (isn't that just a regular dungeon?), herd them towards a secret shortcut or tunnel that takes them wherever you want them to go.

[Dasrak]

Perhaps another group of adventurers came through earlier and cleared out the first floor, but were defeated as they moved deeper?

[Insufferable Smartypants]

If I want to get right to the juicy bits I'll just narrate until we're where I want them to be.

Example: "You breeze through some minor traps that were so obvious that you wonder why they bothered. Then you foiled an attempted ambush by some minor adventurers that reminded a few of you of yourselves a few short levels ago - (fighter's name) rounded up their paltry pocket change and shouted "Next ales are on me!" Honestly the dungeon was beginning to look like a bust but then, thankfully, you find *insert destination or target here*"

[Abadar]

Dasrak wrote:

Perhaps another group of adventurers came through earlier and cleared out the first floor, but were defeated as they moved deeper?

False. We all know that monsters automatically respawn within hours.

[Gavmania]

Abadar wrote:

Dasrak wrote:

Perhaps another group of adventurers came through earlier and cleared out the first floor, but were defeated as they moved deeper?

False. We all know that monsters automatically respawn within hours.

Absolutely. It happens all the time online.

[Thanael]

Let them have fun on the first few levels no holds barred. They'll search the shortcuts to deeper down.

Always level appropriate encounters is what destroys role play credibility aka verisimilitude IMO.

[Joshua Goudreau]

The above ideas are solid ones. You can let them move through an area that has been cleared (perhaps on a rescue mission to recover a lower-level group) or mix it up with some lower CR foes and enjoy the power of 12+ level.

If you want to skip the levels entirely that's easy enough to do. You can add a teleportation device of some kind like a wizard ports them in and they need to port out when they are done, which if they have a wizard should not be an issue. Maybe the dungeon has Diablo style waypoints that allow for fast travel from different areas once activated.

Removing the lower levels entirely is also an option. Just have the exterior entrance go directly to the appropriate dungeon level entrance. This shouldn't ruin the logic of the dungeon and your players will never know there were levels above.

From what I gather Gallowspire is a high-level megadungeon so if you use that you may not need to change anything as far as levels are concerned.

[Lornis]

Thanks for the advice, I really like the idea of the secret shortcut, and the description of the first floors like a piece of cake!