Great story! Megadungeon campaigns are their own fascinating creatures. This makes me think more about the importance of tone in helping to hold a megadungeon campaign together.
They are definitely their own strange creatures. There are not not many other things like them in culture whether that be frames for games or narrative structures.
I have a failed megadungeon campaign story as well -
We started playing in June of 2019, I was hoping to show some 5e players what an AD&D megadungeon campaign was like. We stuck to Castle Hochheim and the sprawling dungeon beneath it for about 4 month before the campaign turned toward exploring the world (and politics) outside the dungeon. The PCs still head back on occasion, but they're far busier dealing with the machinations of factions that have sunk the kingdom wherein the game is set into a civil war. Maybe someday, I should write the tale.
I'd still like to run/play a pure megadungeon game, but for now, I have Hochheim and it's players to keep my occupied.
Neither What Fools or Twilight Age are 100% in the megadungeon. Twilight Age has had sessions as afield as to neighboring city-states, the fey realm, and the moon. Regardless, so much of what happens in these places ties back to the megadungeon so players attentions always come wandering back. I also do a bit of pocket dimensions as sub-levels.
Running a game as a civil war plays out feels like quite the feat! I bet it takes a bag of tricks to keep that all organized. What was a part of Castle Hochheim’s dungeon that really worked for you?
Sorry for a parallel reply. I chattied with my players about this post and how I felt our campaign had moved away from its roots as a megadungeon campaign. One of them responded that they wanted to return to Hochheim.
They're now 7th and 8th level characters, who are influencing events in the world around them, but their bond with the megadungeon still seems to draw them in.
Perhaps we will get some more delving in when they return from the Green Hell where they're dealing with courtiers of the King in Yellow.
What level were they the last time they were in the megadungeon? I am curious about players that experience gaps that make the start of a megadungeon not be its Level 1 or when sections of the dungeon should be skipped because of growth in PC Levels between visits.
They were there regularly at levels 1-3, and again at 5-6. They are currently 7-8 (the druid just hit 9th level).
I'm not sure how they'll make their entrance, we'll have to see if they enter through one of the upper levels, or try out the deeper entrance that they know of.
A good answer to this deserves a post, not a comment. I'll drop three quick thoughts here, and try to build an outline to post from with a deeper answer.
1) the almost mythic presence of Castle Hochheim in the world/game. Even when they're not delving there, my players still hear about it and talk about it. They might find something in a book, or hear about it in a song, or find a treasure map that leads to something in the dungeon and decide they need to go back.
2) when they were focused on delving there, they found multiple entrances and difference paths through the dungeons. This provided a great deal of fodder for them to build plans about what they wanted to do next - and provided seeds for conflict about which of those was most important.
3) interacting with different factions in the dungeons, some of which were represented in the nearby city of Gruntal, made for very different play experiences as the PCs choices played an increasing role in the way the dungeon and world developed.
So, Castle Hochheim kind of follows the model that the exploration of the dungeon is an exploration of the core ideas of the setting? Is that fair?
I am curious about that connection between those factions inside and outside the dungeon. I only have a few examples of this in my current game: 1.) Twisted "Reflections" from the World of Reflection, 2.) The Lunar Elves who also live on the Moon, and 3.) gnomes who are a break away faction from the hill dwarves that live on the surface. Well, that is all that the players know about. Are yours heavily integrated into the politics of the surface?
I think the dungeon embodies some of the core ideas of the setting. There are things that have been folded into the larger setting as a result of player interest and PC action that don't exist in Castle Hochheim.
I'm working on a post to answer your question about factions.
Great story! Megadungeon campaigns are their own fascinating creatures. This makes me think more about the importance of tone in helping to hold a megadungeon campaign together.
They are definitely their own strange creatures. There are not not many other things like them in culture whether that be frames for games or narrative structures.
I have a failed megadungeon campaign story as well -
We started playing in June of 2019, I was hoping to show some 5e players what an AD&D megadungeon campaign was like. We stuck to Castle Hochheim and the sprawling dungeon beneath it for about 4 month before the campaign turned toward exploring the world (and politics) outside the dungeon. The PCs still head back on occasion, but they're far busier dealing with the machinations of factions that have sunk the kingdom wherein the game is set into a civil war. Maybe someday, I should write the tale.
I'd still like to run/play a pure megadungeon game, but for now, I have Hochheim and it's players to keep my occupied.
Neither What Fools or Twilight Age are 100% in the megadungeon. Twilight Age has had sessions as afield as to neighboring city-states, the fey realm, and the moon. Regardless, so much of what happens in these places ties back to the megadungeon so players attentions always come wandering back. I also do a bit of pocket dimensions as sub-levels.
Running a game as a civil war plays out feels like quite the feat! I bet it takes a bag of tricks to keep that all organized. What was a part of Castle Hochheim’s dungeon that really worked for you?
Sorry for a parallel reply. I chattied with my players about this post and how I felt our campaign had moved away from its roots as a megadungeon campaign. One of them responded that they wanted to return to Hochheim.
They're now 7th and 8th level characters, who are influencing events in the world around them, but their bond with the megadungeon still seems to draw them in.
Perhaps we will get some more delving in when they return from the Green Hell where they're dealing with courtiers of the King in Yellow.
What level were they the last time they were in the megadungeon? I am curious about players that experience gaps that make the start of a megadungeon not be its Level 1 or when sections of the dungeon should be skipped because of growth in PC Levels between visits.
They were there regularly at levels 1-3, and again at 5-6. They are currently 7-8 (the druid just hit 9th level).
I'm not sure how they'll make their entrance, we'll have to see if they enter through one of the upper levels, or try out the deeper entrance that they know of.
A good answer to this deserves a post, not a comment. I'll drop three quick thoughts here, and try to build an outline to post from with a deeper answer.
1) the almost mythic presence of Castle Hochheim in the world/game. Even when they're not delving there, my players still hear about it and talk about it. They might find something in a book, or hear about it in a song, or find a treasure map that leads to something in the dungeon and decide they need to go back.
2) when they were focused on delving there, they found multiple entrances and difference paths through the dungeons. This provided a great deal of fodder for them to build plans about what they wanted to do next - and provided seeds for conflict about which of those was most important.
3) interacting with different factions in the dungeons, some of which were represented in the nearby city of Gruntal, made for very different play experiences as the PCs choices played an increasing role in the way the dungeon and world developed.
So, Castle Hochheim kind of follows the model that the exploration of the dungeon is an exploration of the core ideas of the setting? Is that fair?
I am curious about that connection between those factions inside and outside the dungeon. I only have a few examples of this in my current game: 1.) Twisted "Reflections" from the World of Reflection, 2.) The Lunar Elves who also live on the Moon, and 3.) gnomes who are a break away faction from the hill dwarves that live on the surface. Well, that is all that the players know about. Are yours heavily integrated into the politics of the surface?
I think the dungeon embodies some of the core ideas of the setting. There are things that have been folded into the larger setting as a result of player interest and PC action that don't exist in Castle Hochheim.
I'm working on a post to answer your question about factions.