So I just opened Youtube and had three brand new videos from three different channels talking about this Dungeon23 challenge. For those unfamiliar, apparently the idea is that you write one room of a megadungeon every day, for the entire upcoming year, with the end result of a 12-level, 365-room dungeon at the end of the year.

Here's Questing Beast's video on it, for reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OR37nOMv1g

Has this blown up on anyone else's radar, and what ya'll think?

Personally, there's a megadungeon idea that's been stewing in my head for the last 3 or 4 years, since I played Dark Souls III and first got to Irythyll. I've been wanting to map out an entire abandoned city, something like Kadath in the Lovecraft mythos, as a mega-dungeon. My idea is that the city only appears once every 20 years or whatever, and when it does, adventurers, monsters and eldritch entities all rush to it in a mad dash to pillage whatever secrets lay inside. It's always been a pipe dream up till now, but I'm sorely tempted to use this challenge as an excuse to try and make good on the idea.

I saw a YouTube about it, but as soon as I heard the parameters I just said "why the heck would I put all that effort into designing a dungeon that would take at least a year to play through (30+ sessions even at twelves rooms per session) without an actual reason... particularly given that my players pretty much hate mega dungeons? (mainly because they tend to lack any sort of coherent narrative elements to unite the obscene number of rooms... themed 5-8 site* dungeons they can get through in 2-3 sessions is more their speed)."

My hunch is it's something WotC shat out onto the internet so they can then offer a token payment for something they think they'll be able to have an AI do the DMing for.

* in our parlance a "site" is a location where something interesting happens. It could be a single room, or a collection of rooms, or a clearing or crossroads. Empty rooms/stretches of trail just get glossed over. So a crossroads where hostiles from the castle pass, the secret dungeon entrance, a main dungeon chamber, the castle ward (including garrison) and the throne room might be the main sites of an adventure with notes for what would be found if they wanted to search the bedrooms/storerooms after the opponents have been cleared (or evaded) is a typical dungeon setup for an evening.

Personally, I prefer quality over quantity.

I think many GMs use a megadungeon primarly as a creative outlet, and not necessarily as something that will be used at the table.

Given the couple of responses, maybe the better question is "Does anyone actually use megadungeons, and how?"

I know the most traditional version of the megadungeon is a big structure full of monsters, with a village or town outside that players go back and forth from. I've personally never played in a game like that, and I could see why people generally don't structure campaigns that way, but has anyone tried running a campaign all within a single superstructure? Possibly something like an enclosed city or cave complex, where not only the traditional adventure locations, but the towns, friendly NPCs etc are all contained within?

Quote from: ForgottenF on December 28, 2022, 02:56:33 PM
Given the couple of responses, maybe the better question is "Does anyone actually use megadungeons, and how?"

I know the most traditional version of the megadungeon is a big structure full of monsters, with a village or town outside that players go back and forth from. I've personally never played in a game like that, and I could see why people generally don't structure campaigns that way, but has anyone tried running a campaign all within a single superstructure? Possibly something like an enclosed city or cave complex, where not only the traditional adventure locations, but the towns, friendly NPCs etc are all contained within?

I built a very complex megadungeon, full of traps, torture rooms, and hidden doorways/viewing ports. I've had a TON of use out of it, luring in local co-ed's and...

Oh, in an Elfgame? Nah, never use them.

Greetings!

I've always enjoyed huge mega dungeons. I have used them often, throughout the years with different groups of players.

I can't say I'm that interested in the contest or whatever. I don't tend to work that way. I obsess and work on projects for days or weeks, or months, focused until the project is completed. Trying to fix it where you do a little bit every day is just *shrugs*. Just not the way I go about doing things. I suppose I am more ambitious and progress-driven. I like maximizing and getting big results.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Quote from: Ratman_tf on December 27, 2022, 11:45:12 PM
Personally, I prefer quality over quantity.

I agree. Grognardia had a post on the Dungeon23 and the accompanying screenshot from Sean McCoy appeared to be the most bare-bones room filling possible. Yes it makes it easier to make 365 rooms but if the rooms are garbage you can come up with in a minute is there any value? In the discussion one person linked to a twitter feed of a guy who tried the same thing a few years earlier (made it 5 months) and he put in a decent amount of effort on each room. That one had ideas you could loot from.

https://twitter.com/StooshieS/status/1477282106430705670?s=20&t=13krJDu0GV7PjLJ5lkPL6g

If everyone did it more or less like that. Say a decent room a week, then at the end we'd all have a library of amazing content to build up a mega dungeon with.

Quote from: Grognard GM on December 28, 2022, 03:03:53 PM

I built a very complex megadungeon, full of traps, torture rooms, and hidden doorways/viewing ports. I've had a TON of use out of it, luring in local co-ed's and...

Oh, in an Elfgame? Nah, never use them.

I was banned from Board Game Geek for a tamer comment than that.

Quote from: ForgottenF on December 27, 2022, 09:54:10 PM
So I just opened Youtube and had three brand new videos from three different channels talking about this Dungeon23 challenge. For those unfamiliar, apparently the idea is that you write one room of a megadungeon every day, for the entire upcoming year, with the end result of a 12-level, 365-room dungeon at the end of the year.

Here's Questing Beast's video on it, for reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OR37nOMv1g

Has this blown up on anyone else's radar, and what ya'll think?

Personally, there's a megadungeon idea that's been stewing in my head for the last 3 or 4 years, since I played Dark Souls III and first got to Irythyll. I've been wanting to map out an entire abandoned city, something like Kadath in the Lovecraft mythos, as a mega-dungeon. My idea is that the city only appears once every 20 years or whatever, and when it does, adventurers, monsters and eldritch entities all rush to it in a mad dash to pillage whatever secrets lay inside. It's always been a pipe dream up till now, but I'm sorely tempted to use this challenge as an excuse to try and make good on the idea.

For those who think this is brilliant or worth taking up all the oxygen, forgive me.  But I think this fad is the kind of half-baked lowest common denominator nonsense that keeps us lower beings, unfit for higher pursuits.

As long as I'm here... I also love megadungeons, both in theory and practice.  For anyone wanting to see two examples of wildly different megadungeons, I recommend my own - The Black Pyramid and Cremza'amirikza'am, both located in Cha'alt... my eldritch, gonzo, science-fantasy, post-apocalyptic campaign setting.

Quote from: SHARK on December 28, 2022, 03:17:05 PM
Greetings!

I've always enjoyed huge mega dungeons. I have used them often, throughout the years with different groups of players.

I can't say I'm that interested in the contest or whatever. I don't tend to work that way. I obsess and work on projects for days or weeks, or months, focused until the project is completed. Trying to fix it where you do a little bit every day is just *shrugs*. Just not the way I go about doing things. I suppose I am more ambitious and progress-driven. I like maximizing and getting big results.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

Im the same way, i like the idea though, but i dont thint this will produce a great mega dungeon.

Quote from: Cathode Ray on December 29, 2022, 09:48:49 AM

Quote from: Grognard GM on December 28, 2022, 03:03:53 PM

I built a very complex megadungeon, full of traps, torture rooms, and hidden doorways/viewing ports. I've had a TON of use out of it, luring in local co-ed's and...

Oh, in an Elfgame? Nah, never use them.

I was banned from Board Game Geek for a tamer comment than that.

Good thing this isn't a family friendly boardgame site then.

Board Game Geek also seems to have started attracting wokesters.

PS - Can you remember your comment?

Quote from: Grognard GM on December 28, 2022, 03:03:53 PM
I built a very complex megadungeon, full of traps, torture rooms, and hidden doorways/viewing ports. I've had a TON of use out of it, luring in local co-ed's and...

Oh, in an Elfgame? Nah, never use them.

On a serious note, a buddy of mine and I both plan on doing it, but putting enough effort into it that we both have something usable in the end. And we plan on holding each other accountable each day for the work. I think it'll be a great exercise to force myself to write a little each day; I think it'll help keep my creative juices flowing enough that it will spill over into the actual projects I'm working on. Neither of use are using those weird little Japanese date books, though. He's just using graph paper and notebook paper, while I'll be using a worksheet from the D30 Companion book. I've already printed up a bunch of pages and set aside a section in my campaign notebook for it, and have jumped the gun and done day one just to prime myself ("I've already started, I have to keep it up now").

Quote from: Mithgarthr on December 29, 2022, 12:14:34 PM

On a serious note, a buddy of mine and I both plan on doing it, but putting enough effort into it that we both have something usable in the end. And we plan on holding each other accountable each day for the work. I think it'll be a great exercise to force myself to write a little each day; I think it'll help keep my creative juices flowing enough that it will spill over into the actual projects I'm working on. Neither of use are using those weird little Japanese date books, though. He's just using graph paper and notebook paper, while I'll be using a worksheet from the D30 Companion book. I've already printed up a bunch of pages and set aside a section in my campaign notebook for it, and have jumped the gun and done day one just to prime myself ("I've already started, I have to keep it up now").

That bit about having a useful product out the back end is probably the key point here. I agree with a lot of people that if you just create a random dungeon room every day for a year, and then stitch them all together, you're probably just producing an unusable mess.

I haven't really committed myself on doing this, but the reason that it jumped out to me is that the project idea fits into a number of factors specific to my own circumstances.

1. I have a very specific campaign idea I've wanted to try, which not only would work as a megadungeon, but might only work as a one.
2. I have an ongoing campaign, and another one lined up that I'll probably run next, so this project would otherwise probably sit in the "might do later" pile indefinitely.
3. my work/life schedule is structured in such a way that I frequently have 10-30 minute blocks where I'm sitting around (often in my car) with nothing to do. Jotting down a dungeon room or two in a notebook would be a perfect way to constructively fill that time.
4. Due to life circumstances, I will probably be forced to end my ongoing campaigns for several months in mid-2024, so if I spend a year on this, and then a few months polishing it up and making it playable, I could be in the position of having it good to go right when I'm ready to start DM-ing again.

Not trying to say I'm special, or these are the only reasons someone might do this. Just illustrating a possible circumstance where it might make sense.

Also, those Dungeon worksheets are kind of cool. Might have to get that.

I personally don't like megadungeons, I prefer games that are more focused on politics and interpersonal relationships than purely exploring spaces and combat within spaces.

I would think it would be interesting to have a collaboratively created space / adventure where someone could create a room/location, NPC, item, or whatever, and then the next person in the thread could come up with their own thing and theoretically all of the stuff links together at the end. Someone would need to volunteer as editor and final-say-giver though.

Quote from: Zelen on December 29, 2022, 06:24:34 PM
I personally don't like megadungeons, I prefer games that are more focused on politics and interpersonal relationships than purely exploring spaces and combat within spaces.

I would think it would be interesting to have a collaboratively created space / adventure where someone could create a room/location, NPC, item, or whatever, and then the next person in the thread could come up with their own thing and theoretically all of the stuff links together at the end. Someone would need to volunteer as editor and final-say-giver though.

Such things exist.  In fact, I've participated in a couple of those... something like Halls of the Blue Barron or something like that.  Everyone got to pick a room and then the editor tried his best to pull everything together.

Also, if you (not just you, obviously, but everyone) aren't putting politics and interpersonal relationships in your dungeons (mega or otherwise), you're doing it wrong.