What Would You Do for a Dungeon Lord?

[Rephath]

So, I've been thinking about making a Dungeon-Keeper-like RPG. But I have a couple questions I would like as many people to answer as possible.

1) You are a dungeon lord, owner of a dungeon. You have minions great and small under your command. What would interest you as a player to do? (Some examples: interacting with cities good, evil, and neutral; dealing with business around your dungeon like minion strikes and ; spending time building your dungeon with more rooms and traps)

2) You are a powerful individual in such a dungeon, working for a dungeon lord. You can command the minions said lord entrusts to you. What would interest you as a player to do?

[Rizban]

The questions you're asking are pretty open ended. Assume I know nothing about this "Dungeon Keeper" and please explain what you're trying to accomplish with this idea.

First thoughts that come to mind are:
How technical do you want this to be?
Should I expect to need a spreadsheet and a dozen character sheets to keep track of information?

[Rephath]

The goal is to be rules light. A dungeon lord might have minions, but their sheets contain a lot less information than your typical D&D sheet.

The thing is, the core concept I have in mind isn't quite working. So I'm backing up and saying "what about this situation would be fun to you?"

So, I assume you know what a dungeon is: a lair of evil malevolence filled with monsters, treasure, etc...

If you owned one in an RPG, and that was your main character focus, what fun things would you look forward to doing? What if you were a major lieutenant or some such in one?

[Acatalepsy]

Building elaborate, merciless, diabolical deathtraps, then cackling with glee as the so-called 'heroes' stumble through them to their untimely and gruesome demise. Note that if the system is strong I can do this almost entirely without GM intervention, at least the planning stages. Where this comes into effect is when, predictably after some nefarious scheme the heroes show up to stop me (or maybe the heroes are just greedy bastards and I'm actually completely innoncen-pffffhahaha, nope, couldn't keep a straight face - well, the part about heroes being greedy bastards is true enough).

Note that this still has to be interactive, on some level. I might command the minions in combat (but the minions are weak enough that they don't really stand a chance of victory on their own, but are there to use up resources and wear down the party - though this begs the question of "why not attack them with everything at once). Or I might activate or deactivate various measures and security systems, using my resources to surprise the heroes when they can handle it least.

On a more proactive scale, there's plenty of room for "undertake missions for selfish and/or Evil" (the same thing we do every night, Pinky...) . Robbery is a fun one. Spreading corruption, assassinating important people, etc - things to advance some larger agenda, either my own or my side's. Think "what would I be doing if I was playing a supervillian" and you've got it just about right. There's also the mundane but necessary things that can become battles in their own right as they attract opposition. Maybe you need more...human resources...and this attracts a bit more attention than you wanted.

There's plenty of room for slice-of-life and fun with other Evil overlords, neutral factions, etc, in establishing characterization of my dungeon (which really should be, in essence, a character all its own). The trophies of past conflicts, the practical and impractical and symbolic and mystic and gruesome and tragic all blended together into a personal statement, and brought to life by the imagination of the GM and fellow players.

And, last but not least, clearing out other people's dungeons and claiming them (or just their stuff) for my own. Look, I'm Evil, but that doesn't mean I'm on the same 'side' as all other Evil things. Sometimes, it's nice to feel like you're somehow 'justified' - certainly heroes get a kick out of it. Besides - why make what I can take?