The Grim Megadungeon

 

The Grim Megadungeon doesn’t exist. This map, for instance, is Mapper’s Challenge II by Dyson Logos. He missed a trick, to my mind, by not calling it Mapper’s Delight but maybe he’s not that into the Sugarhill Gang. I’m not sure how I feel about Megadungeon as nomenclature or even a play style. I’ve run a megadungeon. The Anomalous Subsurface Environment, which is good (although unfinished) and read some others. Not all of them are good. 

When it’s done well, the megadungeon encapsulates the fantasy adventure game milleu. Everything that can happen in a game can happen in a dungeon. That term is not a great one though. 

I like underworld. That’s how Dragon Warriors does it, and before that (probably influenced by too) the Empire of the Petal Throne. 

Mega-Underworld isn’t a thing though. 

The Grim Underworld probably does exist. It’s down there. From the very first post of this blog, and before, I have maintained that the city is built on the ruins of a thousand civilisations. That sounds like a megadungeon to me. So the Grim Underworld is down there. Existing. It’s just not been transcribed to graph paper, the rooms stocked and keyed, prepped for play. However, I can feel it. Can you have an Old School setting that doesn’t contain a really fucking massive dungeon? 

So I was wrong. Every time I’ve tried to write the Grim Underworld, I’ve failed. It seems, well, a bit shit. However that’s more or less what I think about every published RPG product I read too. So it’s a bit rubbish. Most other things are too. I wouldn’t wipe my arse with The Curse of Strahd and people fucking love playing that. 

Ok, ok. The Grim Megadungeon does exist. Theoretically. I can feel it existing. I wish it would stop.