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The next Fantasy Megadungeon- ideas please! (Patreon)

Published:
2025-09-28 23:17:12
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Hey,This month will see the sixth and final section if the East Vargrhill Dwarven mine megadungeon.That means next month will be a new theme. So, please suggest some cool ideas for a megadungeon. It should be something that can split across at least 6 parts, and can either be spread across a single level, or a multi level.Put your ideas in the comments, and we'll put our favourites into a poll!

Comments

William Gross

What about an Egyptian style pyramid with a kind of multi-level maze type structure with stairs that skip floors and things like that, you fight your way from the bottom to the top and each floor is smaller than the ones below it because pyramid. And if that's not enough for a full six level dungeon, you could have the temple the pyramid is built inside be like the first and second levels maybe

Brandon Hale

I don't know if you're familiar with His Majesty the Worm, but it's a game based on descending into a megadungeon with each layer corresponding to a different Major Arcana card in the tarot. Of course, there are 21 Major Arcana (excluding The Fool), so that wouldn't be easy to to do with your stipulations. Another suggestion: a Chinese themed hub dungeon with different layers connecting to the hub which correspond to the Five Elements of Water, Fire, Wood, Metal, and Earth.

Curious

Because it's what I'm running to end my campaign, I would love a corrupted Temple of good. So sections or levels alternating bright and dark, corrupted and corrupted good and evil. Maybe almost actively fighting each other.

KaptnKrunch

I could really use a multi level fantasy city mega map. Levels would start with sewers up to streets then up several levels of buildings with walkways above the streets between buildings, something like Sharn from Eberron. I’d settle for a Venice like canal city too lol.

Jimmy the Barkeep

I am a sucker for desert themed maps. What if we had a re-imagined Lost City of Petra? Complete with your interpretations of the Treasury, Monastery, Theater, etc. As a twist, what if it was very much inhabited instead of deserted? We could have a thriving desert culture that survived within a canyon but is wholly forgotten by other civilizations. This might be too lengthy of a task, but i figured I would toss you an idea lol. Even if we could get one major building from Petra, I would be quite happy.

Chuck Charbeneau

Do you have a Mega culminating into a Dragon's Lair? Something like a volcanic caldera with connected dungeons that ring it going lower, culminating in the BIG room, perhaps even open to the sky.

JamesCVK

Traveling through the organs of a undead Titanic World Undeath Giant, so large that some organs hold entire mortuary and temple and autopsy and necromancy chambers....

Keven Simmons

Here's a suggestion that is outside of the typical "dungeon" approach. I would love to see a series of maps based on a fantasy "train". Each map would be a particular location along the tracks. Perhaps a couple different stations (one urban, one rural), a section that passes through a city, a wilderness section, a trestle spanning a chasm, a section passing through a tunnel, etc. Separate from the map would be a series of different train cars: passenger, freight, livestock, sleeping car, royal/noble car, etc. And perhaps a few different designs of the engines. One powered by magic, one pulled by megafauna (think mastodons), one steampunk-esque, so that the entire map series could be used in a variety of campaign settings.

Robert Cater

One idea, two themes- A spire. A crystalline spire jutting from the earth. Possible outdoor landings at higher levels. Maybe outside stairs sometimes, others a ladder. Maybe high levels require magic flying or a good climb and rope. Some floors could have mini-towers hanging off. For the maps, you could have thin sections with multiple floors on one map near the top, while the base is wider. The second theme would be giant tree, like the king of redwoods, rising to the clouds. A roman type of multi floor tower built around it- think leaning tower of pisa without the lean, built up around the trunk. Could stop at the top of the tower or move into the tree, either branches or inside the tree itself.

Cat Girl Gamer

Feywild maps. Perhaps a light versus dark fey court.

Christopher R. Rice

Speaking personally - a map that is somewhere between clockpunk and manapunk would be awesome. Okay, imagine this. From a designer standpoint this could open up uses for art assets that might not have one. Some sci-fi assets recolored/rextured could stand in for the vogue manapunk. Using things together you might not normally do could create a radically different feel. Something entirely unique. Now throw in the clockwork and such and now you have gears and mechanisms galore. And you could go any way with it - tower works! Floating castle! Underground warren! Then you could do a short PDF to give some inspiration to GMs. (And hey, if you wanna throw some airships in there I won't be mad...) Just my two cents. ^_^

Steel_Wind (Robert)

A multi-level archaeological dig-site. There are signs of recent excavation everywhere. There are three ruins stacked on top of one another, from very different eras. What unites the three regions in tone is the same ongoing dig-site and the equipment used. Thematically, it can be anything you want. I'm leaning to Egyptian - but it doesn't really matter.

Eric Miller

Chain of islands / water - Perfect for sea / land battles and encounters like a giant sea serpent dragon etc.

Maxime Durocher

Why not recreate the old D&D module B4: The Lost City by Tom Moldvay that was published in 1982 for the D&D Basic Set? Players get lost in a desert, discover a half-buried step pyramid, and find their way into the ruins of a forgotten city called Cynidicea, a complex dungeon with multiple tiers, a volcanic vent, and a hidden subterranean city. I've always LOVED this idea. : )

Kyle Wilson

Revisit Bodeham Castle: Under Construction and turn it into a "Stories" (dungeons/sewers, outbuildings, multiple levels, etc.

Lloyd Ritchey

Elven tree palace, consulate, etc. to go with the wood elf village & similar maps. Expand the treetop Elven environs!

albedoequals1

A huge castle town with an inner and outer wall dividing areas of the town and a keep in the middle. Like a smaller and more grounded version of Minas Tirith or Ba Sing Se. I often have combat encounters in city streets, but maps that show a whole town are usually overworld maps and not battle maps. If you do find a market or blacksmith battle map, it's usually just the single square, or the single building and adjacent streets. I'd like something where the players could start trouble anywhere in town, or someone could besiege the whole thing, or they're making a dragnet for the thieves guild, or any number of other scenarios where the whole town might be the location of a fight.

Alex Smith

Organic monster cathedral

Jason Bryan

City invaded by a dark carnival. Think IT type scenes. Blood trails, gore & balloons. Games, and possibly curiously pristeen stuffed animals around. Might be too much but a Normal / NightCarnivalized version of each section like day/night

aikar

I would love to see a big underdark fungal forest.

Nicholas Lowson

A deep lich-tomb complex. The upper level a large palace, now dark, then the typical cellars and crypts - you’ve done a ruined version like this but this would be non-ruinous. Then the passages down to a magic workshop with chambers for experimented on creatures and a double level creation “machine”. Below that the lich’s inner sanctum before reaching the old caves leading to the demon gate where the lich’ corrupting demon was summoned

Nicholas Lowson

…. Or possibly a seeming small complex nestled into a cliffside that sits above a vast underground prison with a double level open court, areas for solitary confinement, a torture chamber … or two, areas for guards and deeper levels for the worst offenders

Nicholas Lowson

How about a multi-level shard of rock that floats in the sky and houses an old monastery. The top being the church and working down the narrowing shard the monks cells, the debating chamber, the library and scriptorum, store rooms, and the dark deep secret area at the heart of the complex

Nicholas Lowson

While you’ve just done a Dwarven mine, how about a gnomes banking complex (echoing a bit the bank in Harry Potter). Dug into a cliffside, an inn-like complex behind which is the main banking hall, the gnome’s living quarters and a massive vault door. The vault then has the various maze-like sub basements filled with individual security vaults. There could be the remains of a tunnelling operation to break into the vault, an area for the bank’s “senior managers” and possible caves for the more heavyweight bank guards … maybe even a dragon den!

P A

Something inspired by the Old Dwarf Empire of WFRP ? A dwarven fortress, abandonned with traces of invasion and neglect and walld chambers, collapsed tunnels and so forth. With the top levels reclaimed by a dwarven expeditionnary force with barricades and new defenses that open on the surface (a valley or a dwarven airport for balloons ?). And the lower levels divided with goblins and ratmen invaders with their defilings, chapels for their gods, vaults plundereds, an old majestic throne room occupied by a tent village for gobs...

P A

Or something from REH ? I'd like to have maps of the old City of Xuchotl from Red Nails. Wich looks like a guiant covered stadium of sorts. With a the center, instead of a field a great road that cross the city on wich open balconies of the different levels of the town itself. Lots of chambers and corridors, a Kowloon claustrophobic feel, few windows toward the exterior and only balconies above the central area, no sky at all, really. And a few secret passages.

Clifford Ripper

A besieged and war-torn city, with guerilla scenes battlemaps in the streets, or civilians and refugees camps hidden in the basements

Brian Guerrero

Mega-tree arboreal "dungeon" with open-air paths along branches and trunks as well as chambers withing massive trees and down into the roots.

Emily

I would love for you to create the lost city of the Tabaxi, located by an oasis in the desert. A handful of Tabaxi still live on the surface, keeping old traditions alive, but no longer daring to descend into the lost city that was long ago reclaimed by the sands and populated by monsters. The surface level could display a variety of partially covered ruins, showing what were once the spires and highest points of the city. As the party descends, connecting passages that were once shaded colonnades could link these together. A Middle-Eastern vibe with feline motifs would give the architecture character.

Sorizzen

Out in the unforgiving lands where evil thrives, there is a tower that rises high above the tallest fortress battlements and whose roots plunge deep within the tainted soil. The tower is made of vertebras - the spine of a dead god - and is topped by an unholy throne. Along its over-the-ground rooms, smaller towers jut out here and there, like cancerous bone spurs. Underground, gloomy labs, dark ritual rooms and more await the doomed traveler. It is Khin-Oin, the Wasted Tower of the Yugoloths, the mercenaries of the Blood War.

Will Martin

Going to make another pitch for a megadungeon built into an enormous tree, starting at ground level and going up. You could make it a hag or witch lair full of disturbing alchemical experiments, cells for holding unfortunate victims, ritual chambers, arcane libraries or laboratories, and the requisite living quarters. Alternatively, if you wanted something friendlier it could be a sylvan palace housing the Queen of Elves or a Fey lord, in which case you might still have arcane libraries and such, but also fancy dining rooms, guest rooms, and all the accoutrements of a royal palace.

ISPC

As someone has previously said, the old D&D module B4: The Lost City by Tom Moldvay that was published in 1982 for the D&D Basic Set

Dan Gragert

Check out the history/legends of IRL location Houska Castle. Super intriguing (at least to me it was; watched a thing this week!) It could serve as a "topper" to just about anything one might find at the bottom of a pit. lots of options for people of whatever is below if its broken up into segments of cave/ruin. Short version, fancy castle and big church and the church is covering a basement which is covering some suuuuper deep pit. Anyway, have fun if that train of thought takes you anywhere, if not, look forward to whatever comes up! :D

Greg Morrow

A stone giant fortress (giant size passages and rooms), now abandoned and partially colonized by kobolds, who've modified it in their special way. On the dungeon and cavern levels, an earth elemental node, an ooze laboratory, and a portal to the far realm all spawn wandering monsters, where you might find a roper pulling itself free from a gelatinous cube and pech construct fortifications against grick assaults.

Jesse Seipel

Here is a thought from a campaign I am working on: A lush vibrant forest with typical vegetation (as could be found in tropical and temperate rain forests) but intermingled is megaflora (700 ft trees, massive vines, etc). In this world a giant tree (800 ft tall with a 50ft dia) is a self contained fortress; rooms hollowed out of the inside of the tree, numerous windows/doors leading to exterior balconies/walkways etc.

René Bargisen

I would love a port city on stilts as a poor neighbourhood connected to an ordinary city port. The place could be partly used as a smuggler base, thieves guild, with sailor bars and taverns, marine shops, boat workshops, fishing activities etc. Perhaps the district rose around a smashed frigate in the center of the harbour as a result of a naval battle siege of the city? Perhaps the almost defeated crew of the ship turned rogue after the war and built parts of the now lawless harbour district?