Monday, July 15, 2019

Making a Kilodungeon

What is a Kilodungeon?

It's a megadungeon, but about a thousandth of the size!

Okay, okay... It's just a small megadungeon. I don't think I have the stamina or the patient group to run a true megadungeon, so I'm electing to create a mini one. I'm challenging myself to try and write at least 1-3 rooms per day to crank this thing out in like... 3 months, maybe?

Under Gallax Hall. It's got five levels. We're probably looking at 20-50 rooms on each level, tapers a bit as it goes down. Top Level designed for characters level 0-1, each level down ups the challenge by approximately 1 level.

I walk past this building every day, and it gives me ideas.
(Angel Hall, University of Michigan)

Ideas I Want To Implement:
  • Gallax Hall is a university building in Wizard City. Just above the megadungeon is the university and city itself. The first level of the dungeon begins in Gallax Hall's basement.
  • This first level of this megadungeon is a place where 'normal' people still must occasionally travel. It's horrendously dangerous, but that doesn't stop the university from having classes there. Classroom space is at a premium, after all.
  • Hence, the first level of the dungeon has a lot of 'normal' stuff - black markets, professor lairs (offices), roaming hirelings and escort services, merchants. The sorts you'll find just outside the dungeon.
  • If the first level is the semi-mythic underworld, then the second and subsequent levels are, like, SUPER-mythic underworld.
  • Timekeeping. Keep a mini paper clock or the like and move it about as you enter/traverse the dungeon. Enough clocks are present in the dungeon that referencing time shouldn't often be an issue. The school runs on Metric time (10 hours/day, 100 minutes/hour). Certain professors/janitors/ghosts/monsters are present at particular times. Every Turn is 10 metric minutes (about 7 minutes our time).
  • Build a bunch of shenanigans around said timekeeping: wandering encounters, secret entrances, puzzles, mini-heists.
  • Graduate students will murder you.
  • Other students will murder you.
  • The Custodial Staff will murder you, then skillfully dispose of the body.
  • The Professors will torture and possibly murder you, for SCIENCE. Not coincidentally, the Department of Torture is located in the basement of Gallax Hall.
  • And of course your typical university locals will try to murder you: roaming statues, serial killers, tomb-of-horrors-style juggernaut cleaning machines, tricentennial ghosts, haunted food trucks, rioting students, well-educated hobos, animated manifestos, the lack of affordable housing, and an imbalanced and malnourished diet.
I'm thinking of releasing this thing piece by piece on a weekly or semi-weekly basis, but to do that, I'd need to find some dungeon graphing software that works well with Blogger. If you have recommendations, please comment 'em below.

((Update: the first two levels of the dungeon are finished!)) 


7 comments:

  1. Do you just need to make jpg images of the maps and stick them into your blog posts? I really, really like Alex Schroeder's Gridmapper. https://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Gridmapper
    I usually right click and save, go through opening the images in MS Photos and right clicking to the menu item "open with MS Paint" wherein I save as a jpg and mess with the maps more. Good luck! I'm looking forward to more. Your university posts are very fun and funny!

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    Replies
    1. Heck yeah! This is exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for. Thank you!

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  2. This makes me very happy! :)
    Let me know if you miss features or if you have ideas regarding usability.

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  3. Also, can I add your blog to the Old School RPG Planet?
    https://campaignwiki.org/osr/
    https://campaignwiki.org/wiki/Planet/What_is_this%3f

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  4. D'oh! You're only there. How did I miss these posts? :)

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  5. It would be nice to finally get an answer about what's really in the cafeteria's mystery meat.

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