{"id":3955,"date":"2017-12-13T07:15:17","date_gmt":"2017-12-13T12:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=3955"},"modified":"2017-12-05T10:26:57","modified_gmt":"2017-12-05T15:26:57","slug":"megadungeon-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/?p=3955","title":{"rendered":"Megadungeon #1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nBy Courtney Campbell
\nHack & Slash Publishing
\n5E & OSR<\/p>\n

Come explore Numenhalla, the god halls. Learn about the altars and the logos, see the ettercop lair.<\/p>\n

This is a 43 page periodical focused on megadungeons, with two two-page dungeon areas presented. Imagine is a megadungeon was broken up in to parts and serialized through a number of magazine issues. That\u2019s what this is. You get a few sections\/articles about how to run a megadungeon, a few more with some background\/weird in THIS megadungeon, and then a couple of parts of the megadungeon proper. It\u2019s less academic and more oriented towards play.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m being generous here, because I only review adventures. If I think of this as, say, Dwimmermount, broken up in to different issues, ala The Darkness Beneath, then I\u2019m still reviewing an adventure. Plus, I like megadungeons and I\u2019m a hypocrite.<\/p>\n

Courtney has a conceit that the idea is based around: megadungeon are infinite. With this in mind the periodical thing makes more sense. He\u2019s not publishing a dungeon but rather parts of the dungeon \u2026 and that could go on forever. This has the effect of the dungeon parts looking a little like they do in the 13th Age Eyes of the Stone Thief; little self-contained modules that stand in for the levels in a traditional megadungeon. It\u2019s up to the DM to tie them together. <\/p>\n

And that\u2019s a theme. The advice sections are just advice, needing a DM to tie them together. We\u2019re told, for example, that a plunge in to the megadungeon is to accomplish a task, get something or so on. But for the SPECIFIC megadungeon presented there\u2019s none of that present. A table and\/or article for a future issue, perhaps? These advice sections range from explaining how megadungeon play different, and what’s important about it, to how to run a megadungeon campaign in 5e. The advice here is pretty standard megadungeon advice, or, maybe I mean \u201cnew megadungeon advice.\u201d It covers concepts like exploration and treasure extraction, resource constraints as a part of play, the weirdness and ambiguity in megadungeons and so on. Folks who have kept up with the OSR should recognize the ideas. Being oriented toward play, their are less academic article presentations and more brief summaries of the issues. There\u2019s a place for both and I\u2019d hope to an inclusion of the more academic type in the future.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a small amount of specific information presented for this dungeon. A mythology article, one on the gods, one on their \u201caltars\u201d (which are a lot like ASE1.) This is good stuff, but it\u2019s all essentially fluff. Actually, it’s a little better than fluff. The god descriptions are just the generic god stuff, but then hey have a little poem\/myth snippet that is pretty good for reference during play, enhancing the mystery and ambiguity of a megadungeon. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s a bit of extra campaign content, like a new class (machine men, you have to go to town to get spare parts to heal!) and so on.<\/p>\n

There are two megadungeon sections\/levels provided. The first is an entrance hall area and the second an ettercop tree level. They share the same basic layout even with the entrance being a kind of traditional \u201ctop down\u201d view and the ettercop level being arranged vertically around a tree. Both have around eight encounter areas. Both have the same basic layout of a map page, resembling an artistic rendering rather than a 10\u2019 hex layout, and then a page of text using an uncommon description style. FInally, there\u2019s a page of free text that may contain tables, etc. Let\u2019s call it \u201cthe appendix data for the level on the previous page.\u201d Column one has a room name and a short evocative description under it in italics. Column two has facts related to the rooms in column one, short punchy statements of mechanics, etc. It\u2019s not exactly space efficient, but it does make it easy to find information.<\/p>\n

The art\/map is integral to the description. In the second dungeon room two says \u201cthe tree is 15\u2019 away\u201d \u2026 which is the only mention of a tree in the room description, either part. But the map\/art clearly shows you are on a ledge with a big tree a short distance away. This sort of interplay between the map and description is a good thing, overloading the data on the map to provide more context. <\/p>\n

But \u2026 there\u2019s some hand waving. In the context of the periodical, and advice, it makes sense. \u201cUse wandering monsters that make sense.\u201d In the context of helping a DM at the table \u2026 well, not so well. The wandering monster table would be better fixed to the DM screen or appearing on the maps. (Hmmm, a new magazine feature? \u201cPrint this and attach it to your screen.\u201d) Plus, a little table of actual wanderers for the level would be trivial to include, enhancing usability.<\/p>\n

The content is spot on. A black doorway that kills all who touch it \u2026 you have to be dead to pass through. A spider queen you can talk to. People being sacrificed to said spiders who are happy to talk about their willing religion\/sacrifice. And some silly stuff, like anthropomorphic ants that pretend to be spiders with community theater costumes. <\/p>\n

This is a serviceable product. I think I would have prefered a more academic approach to the advice and still more actual dungeon content. The ettercop dungeon, in particular, is a memorable level while the entry hall is full of mystery and implied danger \u2026 exactly what an entry should be.<\/p>\n

This is $6 at DriveThru. The preview shows you the table of contents (disguised as a dungeon map) and one page of intro text. A sample dungeon map\/text would have been a better representation, as well as perhaps one page of an advice column. That would give you a better understanding of what you are purchasing.https:\/\/www.drivethrurpg.com\/product\/227977\/Megadungeon-1?affiliate_id=1892600<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Courtney Campbell Hack & Slash Publishing 5E & OSR Come explore Numenhalla, the god halls. Learn about the altars and the logos, see the ettercop lair. This is a 43 page periodical focused on megadungeons, with two two-page dungeon … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/megad.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3955"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3957,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3955\/revisions\/3957"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tenfootpole.org\/ironspike\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}