SCENES FROM A SHIPWRECK - HMS Apollyon - Painted Ship on a Painted Sea - Adversary Design

One of the three main potential adversaries/NPCs within the Duke Brimstone Yacht Club area is Murial Coranado a 'Revenant of Debauchery'  who is not especially hostile, but capable of life draining attacks and immune to non-magical weapons.  If treated with respect and caution she is likely to be a curiosity and if plied with liquor may even become something of an ally and source of information about the ship, its history and the region.

I'm not a fan of 'Boss' monsters, and try to design my regions more so they present a puzzle, mystery and story rather then a series of challenges leading to a climactic fight.  The other two potential adversaries (as opposed to simple monsters or random encounters like the Limpet Bears in the last post) are the angry spirit of a petty bureaucrat and a near unstoppable (but very stupid) giant sea slug.  The Bureaucrat will grow increasingly angry if his domain is disturbed, while the slug will hunt the party pushing them deeper into the hull.  All three are designed to present a variety of potential encounters and uses to the players, not only combat - though other then using the slug to dispose of other enemies, it's not really up for conversation.

AREA 16 - Main Bar (Illuminated) [Monster/Treasure] Light streams into this long room from observation windows of thick glass, blindingly to anyone emerging from the darker recesses of the hull.  ‘L’ shaped the longer arm an ornately decorated Bar (Area A16b) and the shorter a Lounge (Area A16a) filled with lushly stuffed leather furniture.

AREA 16a - Club Lounge - (illuminated) [Monster] Chairs and couches upholstered in cracked leather, weathered by the sun, are array around several tables of polished black wood.  Glassware and empty bottles are scattered about, but are especially thickly stacked on a table by the windows overlooking the Pool (Area A2), where a withered corpse [sidebar] in the tattered remains of an evening gown still leans in one of the chairs.

• chairs and couches - Examination of the chairs will reveal that they appear to be made from a variety of shades of human skin, seemingly confirmed by the presence of a face here and there on the upholstery.
• Withered corpse - (Murial Coranado, Revenant of Debauchery) [See Sidebar] HD 4 (HP 16), AC 13*, ATK** +5x2 (Claw/Claw)***, INT 0, MV sluggish (3)
  *Immune to normal weapons/explosions, damaged by fire, magic, silver, hexed and blessed weapons.
  ** Murial’s bony talons drain life from the victim on each strike, Save v. Paralysis or lose one level of experience/HD.  Reduction to -1 LVL or 0HD causes instant death without Save.
  *** As a Revenant of Debauchery Murial Coranado exudes reeking alcoholic fumes that will cause any creature in melee combat with her and capable of intoxication to become uselessly, reelingly drunk.  Each round close to Murial combatants must Save vs. Paralysis to act at all.
  

SCENES FROM A SHIPWRECK PART II - Grave of Giants Sample Rooms

GRAVE OF GIANTS

THE WHALE TOMB

"The abyssal seas hold their secrets deep, and few living known more than a few of the terrible beasts that swim them, but the trawlers of the darkness know, they have seen and hunted the depths for flesh, bone and souls, dangling from their long thorny lines past light and into the crushing depths. They threaten to pull even the Leviathan to the surface with bony claws.  These are not the skulking feral dead of the lost spaces, these are the ghoul nobility of the sea, loyal to their fisher queen Moab whose dead pearl eyes have gazed on the ruins of stone cities beneath the waves and whose oracular mind holds unwanted secrets of the past and future."

• From the confession of the Necromancer ‘Tenebrous’ on his treasonous dealings with the Ash Plague

Once a small cargo port for the transfer of incidental goods, the Whale Tomb is conveniently located near Spinal Rail and also provides access to the sea.  For undead of Queen Moab’s “Trawlers” it offered a perfect space to gather the materials for and conduct the rituals to raise a “kraken”, the reanimated corpse of a whale or other large sea creature which the Plague uses as a siege weapon. Upon discovery of a clean rail connection to the Whale Tomb from her domains deep in steerage, Queen Moab dispatched a research expedition of intelligent ‘Hollow Men’ defended by a few Gun Wights and led by the rather scholarly Fyke Trawler, a Greater Revenant of Duty.  Midway through the process of raising a Kraken the undead were stopped by the intrusion of a well armed gang of cultists from the Cult of the Ravenous, a cannibalistic swarm of demon worshipers loyal to the Hyena Headed Demon King of Slaughter (See Area C - The Roundhouse Tunnels for details).  The undead have abandoned many of their ritual spaces and fight a stolid defense against the raiding tactics and sniping of the cultists. Fyke Trawler is crafty and experienced, but he isn’t a fighter and his dead aren’t really warriors.  The Trawlers are in a desperate situation and uncharacteristically willing to ally with any third force they come across - even the living.

SCENES FROM A SHIPWRECK - HMS Apollyon Painted Ship on A Painted Sea - Room Design

Below are some sample rooms from areas of the HMS Apollyon that I have been writing up over the last year or so. These are partial and scattered selections from a much larger work, but I am happy to share them, giving some preview of the project (which may or may not ever be completed).  I recently asked some people what ongoing project they'd like to see finished, so I will be working on this and perhaps posting additional updates and samples.

They also show my current approach to dungeon keying, which tries to both preserve the level of detail I find interesting and remain immediately useful to a Game Master during play.

DECADENCE AND DECAY Duke Brimstone Yacht Club - Area A

“The HMS Apollyon is graced with a special chapter of the The Duke Brimstone Yacht Club, many of that storied order of light-hearted nautical diabolists having joined our great experiment! While the camaraderie shared aboard ship, even one as great as ours, has allowed the ‘Duke’s Men’ to accept non-members holding 1st Class, 2nd Class and Elite Cabin Class tickets (and up to two of their guests) for visits and enjoyment of its sinfully excellent bar, join club approved day charters, or view any member’s yachts currently in its whimsically decorated pool, the club offices, lounge and other areas are limited to members.

Members, and non-members alike may avail themselves of the Club’s generous yacht storage area and use its launching facilities, chandlery and naval architecture firm for a small fee.”

                    -HMS APOLLYON, Cabin Class Entertainment Guide.
 

Dungeon of Signs Reviews Dwimmermount

THE DWIMMERMOUNT CONTROVERSY

Russ Nicholson Ghasts - Best Art in Dwimmermount

Dwimmermount, long rumored, shrouded in mystery and rage, a controversy and the breaker of titans. I’m not talking about the mega-dungeon, I’m talking about the drama and frustration surrounding the late delivery of this Kickstarted project.  I don’t really care about any of the drama and rigmarole associated with the Dwimmermount, but I am interested in the product itself, a consciously ‘old school’ mega dungeon packaged by, expanded on and rewritten by Autarch press (Of Adventurer Conqueror King – which I don’t have much experience with) and originally conceived and written by Grognardia.

It suffices to say that the Kickstarter was frightfully delayed, the task overwhelming (more on that below) and what started out as a hobbyist’s personal expression of his affection for old system dungeon crawls collapsed into something very different and a bit ugly.  The somewhat tragic, convoluted and painful process of publishing Dwimmermount is alluded to in the introduction along with the project’s basic goals and intentions, but it should be fundamentally unimportant to anyone who is asking themselves “Can I use this mega-dungeon, and what for?”

Space, Boredom and the Modern Megadungeon - With ASE Level 1 Examples.

I’ve been running Anomalous Subsurface Environment straight from the book, for what is really the first time. In the first campaign of Land of 1,000 Towers that I ran the party steered clear of the ASE itself and I ended up using scenarios of my own devising. That is happening in this campaign as well, but it seems like for now the adventurers are back in the megadungeon at least for now (the key is offering them revenge for several deaths).

More Morlock means more flavor!

A problem I’m noticing is that ASE has a lot of empty rooms, at least on the first level, and for online play, especially with a large number of players, this can be really slow and a bit boring. I don't think this is limited to ASE, I think this is a central issue with published megadungeon design. It's an issue of not enough flavor, and too little variety in the empty rooms, and ASE has more flavor then a lot of mega-dungeons, Stonehell for example (not to say Stonehell is bad - it's great), but even with ASE the small room descriptions leave a lot up to the GM and there are plenty of rooms that are simple filled with dust leaving a large amount of blank exploration space.

Walls and Doors - Mega Dungeon Detail on the Cheap.

Back when I was running ASE I discovered that while the room descriptions and details are very functional and describe the rooms sufficiently for the mechanical aspects of play they often lacked the sorts of details my players wanted to know.  Specifically, one of my players kept wanting to know about the walls and doors: material, age, markings, dust.  While a decent GM can usually provide this sort of thing quickly - and if it's unavailable, one must wonder how well the GM is visualizing the fantasy spaces he is creating, it becomes tricky at times, especially in a megadungeon setting where there are plenty of corridors and empty rooms.  

This could be a dungeon hallway

Different Kinds of Dungeons - Thoughts on MegaDungeons Part IV.

Another rambling installment in my thoughts about GMing Megadungeons.  The previous installments can be found here for reference - Part I, Part II, Part III. In this post I've tried to lay out my thoughts on alternatives to the classic exploration dungeon.

Lately I've been running HMS Apollyon again, starting with a new batch of characters and taking the lessons I learned from the last game, from running ASE and playing a fair amount in the last year and trying to apply them.

It says it's a dungeon at the bottom - so it's a dungeon!

THE SETTING OF THE MEGADUNGEON IS LIMITING

This may be obvious to a lot of people, but an inclusive 'whole world' dungeon like the Apollyon is limiting in that it eliminates the 'overland travel' aspect of the game.  One can't hex or point crawl very well inside a dungeon (though with a giant level, such as Pat Wetmore has suggested for ASE level 5, or the classic D&D underdark are quite possible) and the HMS APOLLYON with it's fixed dimensions (even if it is a fundamentally un-mappable 11,039,846,400 - 735,989,760,000 cubic feet) is too small and cluttered for a hex crawl even using an underdark style system.  This has lead me to thinking up different kinds of dungeon experiences rather than the adventure of disvoering new lands and interacting with randomly generated wilderness that is standard for mid level play.

TYPES OF DUNGEONS

Without wilderness, I've had to use different types of dungeon adventures beyond the classic free form exploration dungeon.  Below are my thoughts on the types of adventures and dungeons that support them.  The idea is to create different sorts of fun for different sessions.  Here's the one's I've run and the thoughts I have:

Megadungeon IV - Nodal Dungeon Tourist Map

Every Megadungeon needs a novelty tourist map.  Here's an attempt at one for Keith's "Nodal Megadungeon" which I've spoken about recently.  I'm not sure the map is helpful, but it took a while to doodle and while it lacks useful information it gives some feel and a sense of location at least - not that Keith's flowcharts didn't do an equally good or better job, but this has a doodles involved.  It's the least I can do to support Keith's great project.

Ultimately it ended up a tourist map like the ones you get for major cities which at best give a vague idea of where neighborhoods are located. I'm tempted to do one for the Apollyon and ASE...

Treasure Table - Sample - Hobo Treasures

HOBOS' TREASURES

Partially in response to my previous post, below is a random treasure list useful for generating "Hobo Treasures" for a gonzo hobo themed dungeon node.  It's not as detailed as I would like for a large node as it's not split between large and small packets or magical and mundane treasure.  I'd use this one as an adjunct to personal treasure of the hobogoblins, or whatever denizens of the node carried around in their bindles.  The table might also be useful determining rewards or boons granted to PC's for service to the Hobo King of the Great Northern Jungle.  So feel free to use it in your gonzo D&D, Wampus County or Weird Adventures games.  It's stated up for B/X D&D but pretty system agnostic.

"Hobo and Dog" - 1924

Also includes so wondrous "Deck of Several Things" to torment your players.

Streamling the Node based Megadungeon

I was having a conversation the other night with Keith of "In my Campaign" about mega-dungeons and publication. Keith is the author and sometime GM of his "Node based Megadungeon" which is a great little project he did streamlining a megadungeon and constructing it via general areas and interrelation rather than classic module style room by room description.  This is a novel approach to a megadungeon, and one that while it may ask a bit more from someone running a megadungeon it has the advantage of allowing a much larger dungeon, a complete mega-dungeon to be produced in far fewer pages, and likely with a greater sense of continuity because the nodes focus on interrelationship between the areas and factions of the dungeon rather than cataloging every empty room. 

There is problem with this approach as it relies on the GM for everything: maps, encounters, traps, tricks and atmosphere without giving anything more than vague clues.  It seems that a useful megadungeon overview would contain that following for each area of "level".  Below are more specific thoughts on how to handle each major component of a dungeon Node.

More Mega-Dungeon Thoughts

Occassioned by a very strange HMS Apollyon Adventure played on G+ last weekend, and a controversial view of a well known Megadungeon by one of my players aboard the HMS Apollyon.

Not a solution to Boredom

I've been running the HMS Apollyon as a "living" mega dungeon for various groups of G+ players (mostly the same 10 or so folks) and my players seem to generally enjoy it.  I've been wondering why, based on my desire to become a better GM generally, and to keep the setting interesting.  Lately a couple of interesting sessions have occurred that have provided me some potentially useful thoughts about mega dungeon design, elaborating on the post here regarding my general thoughts on the whole megadungeon phenomenon. These thoughts perhaps came to a head yesterday when one of my players said some unflattering things about a major and well respected megadungeon project.  An argument that I have no interest in rehashing or involving myself in having not read the dungeon in question, respecting its author and having heard completely contrary opinions of the place from others who've played it. I also think I should respect my player's opinion on what he thinks is fun, these are all games after all.

Megadungeon Thoughts

My Thoughts on Running and Designing Megadungeons

I am sure most of this has been said better before, but here's what I've learned in the 6 months I've played D&D as an adult.  Most of that time I've been designing and running megadungeons (or trying to).  ASE is an excellent model and has great ideas for megadungeon play, but I've got a few of my own ideas below as well from running the HMS Apollyon on Google Hangouts for six sessions.

A map from the internet - betting it's Dyson Logos'

What is and Why is a Megadungeon?

My definition of a megadungeon is single adventure locale that players will return to repeatedly over the course of the campaign.  This location must then be interesting and varied enough to want to return to, contain a variety of challenges and reflect changes in the larger game world.

Another key element of the nature of the Megadungeon is that it doesn't require a reoccurring set of delvers. Players may return, but parties can change, get wiped out or wander off and the Megadungeon should be large enough to remain partially (if not largely unexplored).

Apollyon Session IV - Law and Order

This was a strange adventure, the number of players was high, with 6 being a bit more than I can properly wrangle - though I think I am improving, and an amazing four random encounters (I roll when the party makes a lot of noise, enters new areas or loiters too long).

The Desperate and Foolhardy Adventurers

Sir the Fist of Uther, Elven traveler from a distant world, priest of the god of magic and heavily armored.

Quartle, Frogling water elementalist and former junkyard owner, with his familiar the Steam Beaver.

Vorning Vess, Former member of the passenger class, exiled for suspected necromancy.

Sem, The Cleric From Beyond - A heavily muscled priest of an unknown god.

Quigg-spleak, Frogling harpooner

Kerup Potali - Incautious froggling appraiser of valuables, Augur and spearphbian

HENCHMEN: Pincip the loyal wrecker (Lvl 1 Fighter), Krang the Unkownable, Dinosaur Hunter (Lvl 0)

Their Monstrous Victims

6 Cray Dogs - 244
Revenant of Abandonment - 200

Subtotal: 444 XP

The Glorious Cargo Salvaged

10 Lbs of copper cable - 10GP/10XP

8 Fresh Cray Dog Claws (5 given to guards) - 6GP/16XP

8 chamber Light Revolver - 150 GP/XP

40 Lbs of Fancy tinned and canned goods - including sardines in wine sauce and pork and beans (400GP/400Xp)

Subtotal: 566GP/576XP

Images of the Apollyon

SALVAGING THE HMS APOLLYON

The Vessel is over a mile long and approximately a ½ mile from the tip of the five stacks to the keel. The internal volume of the vessel is approximately 900,000,000 cubic yards split into upwards of 54 decks 30 odd of which are now below the waterline, and 12 of which are above. Stern town is a sealed off portion of just 8 decks, including the rear port greenhouse and one of the rear port towers. Yet despite its limited size the town it has operating machine shops, a bazaar, farm, algae tanks, fish processing plant and living quarters.

The rest of the vessel is sadly abandoned, no stern dweller is known to have made it past amidships in two generations, and now more salvage expeditions are lost than return laden with treasures and supplies.

 THE RADIO TOWER: 

The port stern radio tower, topped with a massive dish and abandoned after it ceased to receive signals from the dead and dying world.  It can only be accessed by elevator from deck the deck 24 navigation control center, now choked with (edible) fungal growth.

The Ship as MegaDungeon

Note: This is a very old post and the HMS APOLLYON has grown considerably as a setting in the past three years.  Three or maybe four campaigns have actually been played and the ruleset ahs changed considerably.  The description below is still basically correct, but a new reader may wish to start with this most recent Player Starting Page or perhaps this Earlier Starting Page. Perhaps these 20 question will help.  Everything else related to the setting, including play reports and assorted rules (from a few different rule iterations) can be found here from new to older.

MEGADUNGEON IDEA 1

So, the party is still balking at ASE, despite their new Fist patron having squeezed its possible existence out of them. I figure I can get them in there anyway, but it got me thinking about alternate ideas for mega-dungeons. The best I can come up with develops from both my recent post about the Shoal of Grey Bones and having just read Leviathan, a British comic book by Ian Edginton and D'Israeli. The basic premise of Leviathan is describing life aboard a demon possessed city sized ocean liner of the 1920's cast adrift in an endless hell-sea. Instant MegaDungeon.  I have since decided I won't be running this as an ASE environment - but as its own thing (at some point).  This makes things easier actually as I can reduce the time the Vessel has been adrift.

The Liner as MegaDungeon - D'Israeli, Leviathan, 2003-2012

The HMS Apollyon

A city sized luxury liner over a mile long, built at the height of human endeavor, ages ago. At sea when the great collapse occurred, its residents decided to wait out the aftermath aboard their vessel.  The recovery of society was a long time coming, and survival at sea harder than expected, especially when the majority of the electronics failed, then the main engines, and finally the rudder itself.  

The ship has drifted ever since, perhaps cursed by the dark magics practiced by some aboard, perhaps having drawn the attention of otherworldly entities, most likely simply because the insane central computer (shielded deep in the flooded regions of the hull in a sealed control center) has decided it wishes to remain at sea.  Regardless of the cause, the Apollyon does not come within sight of land and is forever shrouded in a thick miasma. Many aboard claim that the vessel now sails between worlds, or exists within all worlds simultaneously, a myth that would go a long way to explain both the preservation of much aboard the ship and the oddity of what is encountered aboard or pulled from the sea.

Over the eons the vessel has decayed, the high tech hull plates remain intact but a lack of spare parts and the eventual lack of maintenance has resulted in a cascade of mechanical failures.  Water now fills several of the lower decks, creating an entire oceanic ecosystem, while many other areas of the ship are sealed off for decades at a time based on the mad whims of the central computer. From the original population of tens of thousands of passengers and crew a tiny diminished remnant still clings to some vestiges of civilization.  This 'village' cowers in a small section of the stern dependent on failing greenhouses and a ramshackle fishing industry for survival. Other friendly pockets of life are rumored to exist, including a mud hut frogling village clinging to the side of the starboard hull and the 3rd engine room now converted into a fortress deep within the pitch darkness of the lower hull by the militarized descendants of the black gang.

The rest of the mammoth hull and the veritable city on the deck have been overrun by feral descendants of the ship's population, the undead, and assorted aquatic and semi-aquatic monsters such as the Nyarlathotep worshiping fish men who control much of the port bow and the kraken who lairs amidships, entering and exiting through a now submerged cargo port.

The player characters (any player type of characters really - The Muir-gheilt and kelp mummies can eat a SEAL team as easily as they can eat a pack of hardened dungeon bastards, and M4A1 ammo will be easy to waste and hard to find aboard) will have be castaways or drifting wreck survivors pulled aboard by the stern village.  One could simply have the Apollyon loom out of the fog and overrun the PC's galleon, elven war galley, pirate sloop, or destroyer escort.  A quick glimpse of the rusted enormity before awaking dripping with black water in the dim recesses of the decrepit sick bay sets a nice scene.  

Stern village has little use for more mouths, but they cling rigidly to their 'civilized' morality and can't justify using anything intelligent and non-hostile as chum.  Castaways with valuable skills (hydroponic farming and fishing principally) are inducted into the crew, but the rest are sent off into the hull to return with valuables (tinned food, good steel and functional ancient technology), battle encroaching threats, or most rarely to find the locations of important resources - operating freezer rooms, functional machine shops, barnacle beds or greenhouses with good soil and to defend the outposts set up to exploit them.

Yipes! Now I want to run this as a Consta-con game. My party is going back into ASE, this combination flying Dutchman 1960's 'slowship colonization novel' needs additional thought and is too different to be an ASE add-on.