[3.5] Make a Giant Dungeon in a Week Challenge

[potatocubed]

So, here's a thing I saw on another forum and I thought might fly over here:

The challenge is to design and write up, as a forum, a 20-level dungeon in a week. When it's finished it gets turned into a pdf (probably by me and a team of dedicated muppets assistants) and put up for free download somewhere.* In this way, everyone can revel in your brilliance!

The structure is this:

Every level should contain enough XP and treasure for a party of four characters to reach the next level. (Going a bit out on this one isn't too much of a problem.)
Every level should connect to the level above in at least one place and the level below in at least one place.
Every level should connect to at least one level higher up the dungeon and at least one level lower down the dungeon. The exceptions being, of course, levels 1, 2, 19 and 20.
It should all be OGL-friendly, which means SRD or homebrew only.
Other than that, go crazy! Show off your creativity!


How you organise this project is up to the group. The way it was done at the other forum was that each level was 'bagsied' by a team of people (in several cases a team of one), who appointed a team leader. How each team dealt with the level they claimed was up to them, but the team leader's decision was final. Unless anyone else has a better idea, I suggest following this model.

(Note: You can work on more than one level if you want.)

I was thinking of staging the challenge from the 8th to the 14th of June inclusive - that gives you 10 or so days to get organised, invent a name and a potted history for the dungeon, then get stuck in.

So, what do you say? Sound like a good use of 7 days?

*Possibly on Lulu, so you can print copies and give them to your friends and family as thoughtful gifts. =P

[Xefas]

How about a dungeon that, while it starts on the surface of the earth, eventually descends far enough down that it reaches into the Lower Planes (via awesome magic geometry that doesn't need to be explained in the rules, it just works like that).

You'd get various evil cultists and their fiendish animal minions fighting over the uppermost levels, declaring it the property of their respective homeboys, the Demon Princes, or the Archdukes of Hell. Some minor demons, devils, and yugoloth (being mercenaries in either side of the conflict) may appear as well; Imps and Quasits relaying orders from Below, etc.

In the middle levels, you'd get Undead Hordes raised by Orcus, the Demon Prince of Undeath, Gnoll armies serving Yeenogh, the Demon Prince of Gnolls, Golems wrought from the hellish metals of Dis, fallen Archons who served under Baalzebul before his fall, etc.

And the final levels would be filled with powerful fiends of all kinds, possibly ending with a boss fight against an actual Demon Prince or Archduke/Duke of Hell.

[playswithfire]

I had a similar idea, though with possibly fewer non-humanoid opponents and more traps and maybe even a bit of roleplay.

Tentative title is 'No Honor Among Thieves' in which you are members of one or more of the various illegal guilds in the city you begin in and have joined together in an effort to rob the vaults of one or more of your employers and escape alive.

You start at street level and fight or talk your way into a guild house or through a secret doorway in a bar etc into the hidden corridors used by the cities criminals and descend down below the city where their treasuries are located and, of course, well-protected. After reading yours, I amend mine to include the additional challenge that you probably run into the outsiders the highest ranking guild leaders pay homage to in exchange for earthly power.