Megadungeons That Aren't Mostly Combat? (Patreon)

In 2014, in response to Ari "Mouseferatu" Marmell asking if it would be possible to run a megadungeon that was about 1/3 combat (his preferred style of play, and one I often enjoy), I developed the original version of this article as a response. It was a glimpse into my adventure-writing mind, and I have now edited and lightly expanded it.

(String in the Maze... a classic megadungeon trope. Art by Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1833-1898)

Can you run a megadungeon that is only 1/3 combat, and remains a megadungeon? As long as your concept of megadungeon is broad enough, it's absolutely doable.

Here's an example of what that might look like.

Have the first level be a community of outcasts and rejects who moved into the upper levels of the dungeon complex to take cover from local threats. But they are a real community, with leaders, trade, religion, celebrations, a town council, and so on.

The next few dungeon levels are where they farm. Mushroom farms. Slug ranches. A half-flooded level where an underground river with fish and intentionally crafted fishing ponds, and so on.

Threats in these levels are like threats in any community. Derro bandits. An ankheg scaring the herds. A bear takes over the room just inside one of the entrances. Dungeon stuff, but tied to the environment.

Then something happens. A lower-level floor caves in, revealing dungeon levels below it. Maybe another community. Maybe a ruin. The same sorts of things you might find in a wilderness, but underground.

That connects to natural caverns even deeper. Some of those were used as dungeons for fallen angels, who try to convince those who walk by to release them. Does the community set guards on those cells? Bury them? How is such a supernatural threat handled?

As the PCs spend more time exploring, a plague strikes the top level and some friends and allies of the PCs are infected. One of the angels knows why and how to gain a cure... but she'll only tell you if you recover something for her. Something from even deeper, using secret tunnels she knows about.

On and on, downward and downward, as clues slowly pile up on WHY so many things are in this region of rock. Is it on top of a fallen god who the fallen angels served? In that case, a cult to that god pops up. Is the region a thin spot in the planar fabric so you can walk to other realities? If so, maybe some levels pop in and out, like the City of Brass, and pan-dimensional traders set up shop 10 levels below the top-level community. Did a wizard build the place and leave a low-power attraction spell so folks come here with no idea why? If so, can the PCs find and remove its focus, and if it means an end to the community, should they?

Are two, three, or even ALL of those things true? Well, how mega do you want your megadungeon?

Discussion. Ally-building. Exploration. And about 1/3 combat. All in a dungeon.

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David Chart is one of the game designers I have followed the longest (since the 1990s), and he always has fascinating ideas and information that can inspire me to do new things with any feudal magical setting, even if I'm not playing any edition of Ars Magica at the time.patreon.com/DavidChart