--Important notes--
Just some possible deal-breakers about the campaign that I want to put at the start as to not waste the time of people who would have no business in this campaign. Sessions are on Sundays from 12pm EST to 4pm EST. This campaign has a big focus on dungeon crawling. This game is using old-school D&D rules. Setting is a mix of sci-fi and fantasy. The campaign will be ran over discord with fillable character sheets and theatre of the mind combat. Character creation will use the funnel system from Dungeon Crawl Classics If you’re on the fence about some of these things, I urge you to read further and maybe I can convince you to try it out.
--Introduction--
Ruins of a world long dead linger in the Land of a Thousand Towers. Machines who’s functions are arcane secrets are broken down for scrap. The hollow skeletons of towers of steel, glass and stone linger in the world where new towers have risen, the towers of wizards. In this hostile wasteland, the wizards who’ve rediscovered once forbidden arcana rule their city states through strength. The best a civilian can hope for in this world is to be seen as unimportant vermin under a wizard’s city-state, at least compared to the alternative of being a valuable slave.
There is one respite, the free city of Denethix, a city who’s wizard, Fathmu seems to allow his subjects to live free and fulfilling lives in his city. While it isn’t perfect, one can live a good life here if they have the means. You are an adventurer who’s come to this region for gold and glory.
You will come to learn that Denethix and all else will be consumed by a great evil, far more wicked and powerful than even the wizards of the Thousand Towers. A powerful, eldritch horror which lies at the deepest caverns of Stonehell, a dungeon of mythical proportions, a prison who’s horrors still ache to this very day. The task falls to you and your companions to gain strength, seek out and defeat this great evil. A gift will be given to help you and your companions to aid in this task, but your quest is a long and perilous one.
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I hope that introduction has caught your attention. I figured I’d give a bit of a dramatic description to sell this campaign. However, flowery description doesn’t make everything clear. This post will be divided into sections to be more organized.
--About Me--
Folks call me Mouse, my pronouns are He/Him and I am 23 years old. I’ve been into tabletop RPGs all my life and have ran a few campaigns over the years, this being my attempt at a long lasting campaign. I’d like to consider myself at least above average in terms of skill as a GM. I’ve had a lot of campaigns that have failed due to my error, but with each failure, I’ve learned and gotten better.
Most of my experience is with old school D&D, which I am quite fond of, but I’ve also ran more indie narrative stuff like FATE, Blades in the Dark and others. My philosophy when it comes to RPGs is to run each ruleset by focusing on what that ruleset excels at.
The goal of this campaign is to be a challenging dungeon crawling campaign. For the challenge to mean anything, player character death must be a very real possibility. I’m not a sadist GM as I do genuinely want to see players succeed, but when they fail, I don’t pull punches. I don’t make up stuff to prevent a character from dying, if your character is in a bad situation and they’re dying, either come up with a solution or face consequence.
One area where I do well is in describing theatre of the mind. I think I’ve built up a good intuition on how to describe scenes while giving plenty of information which players can use to their advantage.
--About the game system--
This campaign uses Labyrinth Lord, a slightly modified version of D&D B/X. For those who aren’t aware, D&D B/X is a very old version of Dungeons & Dragons. The rules are much, much simpler than modern D&D, but the game has some quirks that might be a bit jarring to newer players.
-Races are classes (All players are human by default, unless they choose to play as a non-human class, such as elf, dwarf, etc.)
-Character building doesn’t have much depth. Players don’t have tons of abilities and feats to aid them.
-Creative problem solving is the core of the game. The solutions to problems are very rarely on the character sheet through feats or whatever, but rather by quick thinking and outside the box thinking.
-Combat is lethal. Direct combat is considered a bad situation. Always be trying to look for any way of getting an unfair advantage in combat.
-XP is based on how much treasure you bring back to town.
Character creation will use the funnel system from Dungeon Crawl Classics—more on that below.
--Character Creation--
Character Creation will be handled a bit differently from how it’s specified in the Labyrinth Lord rulebook. I will be pulling the Funnel system from Dungeon Crawl Classics. Players will take control of 3-4 characters, randomly generated level-0 characters whom you’ll play as during the first adventure. Some characters will die, some will find powerful treasure. Upon completing their quest, players will choose their character from the roster of surviving characters. You will choose a class for that character and they will advance to level 1.
This is to say, you will be provided randomly generated level-0 character sheets for the first session.
--About the campaign setting--
This game takes place in a post-post apocalyptic Earth with non-humans, monsters and magic. I think it’d be easier to explain the aesthetic using cultural touchstones. This post apocalypse is NOT like Fallout, Mad Max or other such things. Instead, think more like...
-Thundarr the Barbarian (the strongest influence here)
-Wizards (1977)
-Masters of the Universe (It’s not post-apocalyptic but the setting of fantasy mixed with sci-fi is the vibe)
-Adventure Time
-Chronicles of Shannara
-Empire of the East
-Dying Earth
The campaign primarily focuses on the region surrounding the free city of Denethix. There are more details on the campaign setting, but I don’t think this is the place to explain every single quirk of this world.
--About the campaign itself--
Here’s the real meat of it. This campaign is primarily focused on megadungeons. What I’ve done with this campaign is connect two megadungeon modules which I absolutely love into a setting and plot that drives players into the dungeons for a definitive goal and end to the campaign.
With a focus on megadungeons, this obviously means that dungeon crawling is the main thing in this campaign. If dungeon crawling doesn’t interest you, then this campaign is of no interest to you, but if you’re on the fence, perhaps I can sell you on megadungeons and hopefully break some notions.
A megadungeon isn’t just a big dungeon. It’s a gargantuan dungeon which is a setting in it’s own right. Think of a megadungeon as a setting that exists on a micro scale, where each square inch of the setting is detailed. The size of these dungeons means that factions reside in them, which players may engage with in plenty of ways. Monsters aren’t just mindless beasts that roar and charge at any adventurers they see. They may just be minding their business, be made into an ally, etc.
This is to say, a megadungeon campaign isn’t just about combat. I’ve heard people compare megadungeons to the video game Diablo, but I don’t think that’s entirely an apt comparison. Diablo is an action RPG where you just move from room to room, attacking enemies. It’s just combat. A proper megadungeon campaign, at least this campaign, is more than that.
If you’re still on the fence, then let me tell you about something I read about in a different dungeon module that won’t be appearing in this campaign, but I feel represents the character that megadungeons have in this campaign. There is a room with a suit of plate armor on an armor stand. The left leg of the armor is completely shattered and ruined. If any character comments on the broken leg, the armor animated and comes to life, where it attacks the character who made the comment and will try to break their left leg. If successful, they will make a comment like “Let’s see how you like it!” Then will de-animate, return to just being a suit of armor.
I also want to make a note on the size of megadungeons. They are gargantuan, but I don’t want that size to be overwhelming. If you’re the kind of person who feels the need to explore every single room of a dungeon, then I urge you to try to shed that instinct for this campaign. The size of these dungeons are to give players more options and choice in regards to exploration.
--Campaign structure--
This is a weird section that I was on the fence about adding, as it veers into slight spoiler territory, more than I’m comfortable with but I feel it’s important to temper expectations about the campaign. The quest which will be given to the party at the end of the introductory adventure is to defeat the great evil at the bottom of Stonehell. The party will be given a gift to aid in this quest, a key to a different megadungeon where they may seek out gold, magic items and other increases to power to prepare for Stonehell. Of course, this other megadungeon is optional, there if you’d rather go into Stonehell more prepared.
If all goes well, this campaign could last years as these dungeons are massive with a lot to explore, as well as there being the freedom to explore the world beyond the dungeons, but the decision to do so should be done with consideration of the rest of the party.
--What I expect from players--
If this campaign has your interest, then that pleases me greatly. There are some expectations I have of players.
-Respect the time of the group. Show up to sessions on time. I enforce this rule heavily early on.
-Have an open mind in regards to character creation. As mentioned before, players will be given randomized level 0 characters, as such, coming in with a grand character concept is discouraged. The characters you’ll be given are very simple without any real backstory beyond their background job. Feel free to make these characters your own as they develop through the campaign.
-Be a team player.
-Map the dungeon yourself if you don’t want to get lost. I will not be providing maps for players. Exploring the dungeon is up to the party and thus, mapping out the dungeon is the responsibility of the party. This is simply a suggestion but a very strong one if you don’t want to get lost. How you’ll map it out, that’s entirely up to the party. It can be a detailed map or just notes about landmarks in the dungeon and how to get there.
--Scheduling--
Sessions will be on Sundays from 12pm EST to 4pm EST. The first session will be this upcoming Sunday. Games will be held on a voice channel in a discord server. There is no VTT software used here. The server will have a dice bot if needed. Fillable character sheets will also be provided. This game uses theatre of the mind combat.
--How to join--
You’ve made it this far. If after all of this, you’re still interested, then this pleases me greatly. Simply message me here on reddit and I’ll try to get back to you as soon as possible in order to exchange discord information. I would like to get to know you better before inviting you to the server beforehand.
I am looking for about four players to join, but I can handle a bit more or less.
--A note about the future--
Currently, I am unemployed and thus, I have a lot of time to dedicate to this campaign. Of course, I am trying to find a job at the moment. When I find one, I will still be running this campaign, but there may have to be some changes to scheduling, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.
