Law, Chaos, & Megadungeons Within Original Dungeons & Dragons - More OSR Commentary

Megadungeons have been on my mind for a while now. No, not some brand new Kickstarter with another mega dungeon campaign adventure that tops out at four hundred plus pages. But the idea of creating my own kilo dungeon or mega dungeon of my own design. And so last night I cracked out my Gygax & Arneson copy of Original Dungeons & Dragons Volume #3 The Underworld & Wilderness adventures. 

One of the things that's set in recently is the Kickstater & Drivethrurpg review fatigue syndrome and hence the Original Dungeons posts as of late. And lately mega dungeons have been on my mind once again. 

And I think after reading through this slim volume for about the seventh or eighth time now. That the mega dungeon is going to be a focused & happening place of evil. This means that the mega dungeon should be key when it comes to the focus of the campaign. A central point of a spider's web of decadence & corruption when it comes to a campaign's setting. The idea of the the evil villain of a campaign basically being the cherry on the sundae of evil as it were. 

There should be a fortress or castle built above the mega dungeon. Forces of evil should radiate out from it. And there's got to be far more going on within a mega dungeon then simply as a repository for treasure, magic items, gems, etc. 
The megadungeon is literally a hub for corruption & evil within a world. And the wilderness could be viewed as the wasteland created from its hub. 
This means that evil humanoids especially within a fantasy setting are going to see a mega dungeon almost as a 'one stop shop' of evil & resources. And in point of fact could be a campaign's "Scholomance "  or according to the Wik entry; "The Scholomance^[a] (Romanian: Șolomanță [ʃoloˈmantsə], Solomonărie [solomonəˈrie]) was a fabled school of black magic in Romania, especially in the region of Transylvania; which was run by the Devil, according to folkloric accounts. The school enrolled about ten students to become the Solomonari. Courses taught included the speech of animals and magic spells. One of the graduates was chosen by the Devil to be the Weathermaker and tasked with riding a dragon to control the weather.

The school lay underground, and the students remained unexposed to sunlight for the seven-year duration of their study. The dragon (zmeu or balaur) was kept submerged in a mountaintop lake, south of Sibiu, according to some accounts." 
And this very fact could account for the continuing chain of black wizards or even dark druids within a campaign. The network of corruption spreads out from the mega dungeon at its black heart. 

And this brings up the fact that other OSR bloggers have held the mega dungeon in high esteem as well. The Beyond The Black Gate blog has some excellent OSR mega dungeon resources here. 

The megadungeon as the root of Chaos is also appropriate as the forces of evil & magick grow from it as pool of evil incarnate. The megadungeon is a resource beyond compare for an army of chaos. Mordor via J R.R. Tolkien is a fine example of a wasteland of evil with several mega dungeons of evil emanating from the central source. 

The land of Pan Tang from Michael Moorcock's Elric saga is another such land with several sources of evil bleeding into mega dungeon locations with the the Theocrat Jagreen Lern at the very top. And this of course leads back into Kuntz & Ward's Gods, Demigods, Heroes Elric mythos coming back into focus. Now in the past we've covered the Lovecraft connection on this blog here.  But could the proliferation  of mega dungeons actually be a part of a plot by the forces of chaos to help destabilize the strongholds of Law?! 
There is some evidence to support this but Law itself has a complex relationship with the Balance according to Moorcock's Multiverse wiki; "Law is a necessary force in the Multiverse. Without Law, there would be no stability or structure in nature, no justice or morality in the worlds. Law, according to its nature, often upholds the Balance. Chaos is seen by the denizens of Law as an aberration that would reduce all form and meaning in the Multiverse to chaotic flux, a force of Entropy that seeks to mutate all of reality into an ever-shifting void of random energy. The Balance dictates that Law and Chaos must be equal in the multiverse, and since that, in itself, is a law, Law often contests the forces of Chaos in order to uphold it. In other universes, such as the Second Ether, the champions of Law are essentially fascists, battling against the freedom fighters of Chaos."

I think that both circumstances & opportunities allow the forces of Evil to take full advantage of areas of corruption and plant the seeds that will become fully realized mega dungeons. 

And this is one of things that we see within Gary Gygax's Greyhawk. That evil takes full advantage of the circumstances that create the attractors of a mega dungeon for a campaign. Can the appearance of a megadungeon tip the balance of a world or campaign setting to Law or Chaos?! Yes but these types of mega dungeons don't last more then several hundred or thousand years. 

1d20 Random Minor Finds Table From The Mega Dungeon Table For Your Old School Campaigns

There are always small items, relics, & unusual finds that turn up in the oddest places that lead adventurers onto the trails of the world spanning places of adventure. Things of odd reputations & fragments from with these places of adventure & dangerous virtue. Here then is a list of 1d20 minor finds that will lead adventurers down the rabbit hole further into the jaws of adventure & danger.

1.  A pair of brass and red gold skeleton keys with deep etches on them and mysterious writing in high Elven. The pair is bound with animal gut & faintly hum with an aura of magick hovering about them.
2. A dried monkey paw with something held in the sealed tight fist. Whatever it is makes the paw heavy. 
3. Twisting and turning piece of jailer's wire made into the shape of a pretezel that twists even as you pick it up. It seems to tug in the direction of the largest structure of ruins locally. 
4. A single slab of worked and wrought quartz in the shape of a key that glows from within with magicak power. 
5. Two twin pieces of metal covered over in runes of the clan of local murderous goblins. The pieces a have recently been underground because of the smell of mildew & fungus clinging to them. 
6.  A single strange twisted piece of gold on a string that floats in mid air toward the mega dungeon and its ruins. 
7. Weirdly a caged bird always sings when its brought towards road that leads to the dungeon. 
8. Nine pieces of radiated silver and gold coins all fused together by some intense weapon of war and destruction. The coins seem to make promises of riches and parties. 
9. Seven rare pieces of miniature artwork that show different & dangerous monsters in scenes in the mega dungeon. They tell a story of the dungeon in its miniature pictures. One of them contains a map and a single tear or drop of gold 
10. Hobbit leather pouch that is actually a detailed map/account of one section of the mega dungeon. The map is writ in human boil. 
11. A silver flute made with bone and silver inlaid in with deeply etched Dwarven runes that allow one to pass magically through certain portals. 
12. A jewel made from the infamous idol's eyes of the god of murder. The jewel wishes to go home to the mega dungeon dungeon. 
13. A small boy's lunch box that actually contains a mini collection of items including a Spanish coin that seems to float in the air and points towards the local dungeons 
14. Twelve copper and gold rods that all seem to be part of some ancient magic machine. They lead to a clue that cuts through the entrances of the dungeons. 
15. A map that show's your location in relation to the dungeon. There are other unusual blips that are closing in on your position. The location seems to call your PC's. 
16. A compass that responses to the astral winds of the mega dungeon and the deep end dire dangers of the dungeons.'
17. A cut crystal ball that actually shows scenes from within the mega dungeon and they want you and your PC's there. 
18. Twenty pieces of gold that are actually radiated with deep magical powers and will teleport you and your party to the center of a maze inside the mega dungeon 
19. An animated wind up clock work like toy that actually is an automaton with the powers of a 5th level animated wizard that is actually an ex adventurer who pissed off a wizard that lives in the center of the dungeon and wants to murder the PC's 
20. The crystal skull of a former adventurer that now houses the alien intelligence that responds only the veiled threats of female adventurer. It wishes to return to its mega dungeon home and will try to possess anyone who handles it.

1d20 Random Minor Finds Table From The Mega Dungeon Table For Your Old School Campaigns

There are always small items, relics, & unusual finds that turn up in the oddest places that lead adventurers onto the trails of the world spanning places of adventure. Things of odd reputations & fragments from with these places of adventure & dangerous virtue. Here then is a list of 1d20 minor finds that will lead adventurers down the rabbit hole further into the jaws of adventure & danger.


1d20 Random Minor Finds
Table From The Mega Dungeon Table

1.  A pair of brass and red gold skeleton keys with deep etches on them and mysterious writing in high Elven. The pair is bound with animal gut & faintly hum with an aura of magick hovering about them.
2. A dried monkey paw with something held in the sealed tight fist. Whatever it is makes the paw heavy. 
3. Twisting and turning piece of jailer's wire made into the shape of a pretezel that twists even as you pick it up. It seems to tug in the direction of the largest structure of ruins locally. 
4. A single slab of worked and wrought quartz in the shape of a key that glows from within with magicak power. 
5. Two twin pieces of metal covered over in runes of the clan of local murderous goblins. The pieces a have recently been underground because of the smell of mildew & fungus clinging to them. 
6.  A single strange twisted piece of gold on a string that floats in mid air toward the mega dungeon and its ruins. 
7. Weirdly a caged bird always sings when its brought towards road that leads to the dungeon. 
8. Nine pieces of radiated silver and gold coins all fused together by some intense weapon of war and destruction. The coins seem to make promises of riches and parties. 
9. Seven rare pieces of miniature artwork that show different & dangerous monsters in scenes in the mega dungeon. They tell a story of the dungeon in its miniature pictures. One of them contains a map and a single tear or drop of gold 
10. Hobbit leather pouch that is actually a detailed map/account of one section of the mega dungeon. The map is writ in human boil. 
11. A silver flute made with bone and silver inlaid in with deeply etched Dwarven runes that allow one to pass magically through certain portals. 
12. A jewel made from the infamous idol's eyes of the god of murder. The jewel wishes to go home to the mega dungeon dungeon. 
13. A small boy's lunch box that actually contains a mini collection of items including a Spanish coin that seems to float in the air and points towards the local dungeons 
14. Twelve copper and gold rods that all seem to be part of some ancient magic machine. They lead to a clue that cuts through the entrances of the dungeons. 
15. A map that show's your location in relation to the dungeon. There are other unusual blips that are closing in on your position. The location seems to call your PC's. 
16. A compass that responses to the astral winds of the mega dungeon and the deep end dire dangers of the dungeons.'
17. A cut crystal ball that actually shows scenes from within the mega dungeon and they want you and your PC's there. 
18. Twenty pieces of gold that are actually radiated with deep magical powers and will teleport you and your party to the center of a maze inside the mega dungeon 
19. An animated wind up clock work like toy that actually is an automaton with the powers of a 5th level animated wizard that is actually an ex adventurer who pissed off a wizard that lives in the center of the dungeon and wants to murder the PC's 
20. The crystal skull of a former adventurer that now houses the alien intelligence that responds only the veiled threats of female adventurer. It wishes to return to its mega dungeon home and will try to possess anyone who handles it.

Shadows of Undeath & Horror - Campaign Commentary on Frog God Games Rappan Athuk Mega Dungeon For Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerors of Hyperborea Set Up Part I

"The Granddaddy of All Dungeons Returns!

Rappan Athuk, the legendary mega-dungeon by Frog God Games and Necromancer Games is nothing more and nothing less than a good, old–fashioned, First Edition dungeon crawl updated for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Swords & Wizardry rules. Very difficult, Rappan Athuk will truly strike fear into the hearts of the most stalwart adventurers. It offers legions of inventive traps, tricks, strange features, and monsters -- many of them never before seen. It affords numerous opportunities for roleplaying, but anyone willing to brave these subterranean halls better arrive ready to rumble, or their lives will be short indeed."

  Rappan Athuk's History & Background on Hyperborea

A close friend of mine asked me for a blog entry on  one of the mega dungeons that I've run with Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea in the distant past. A mega dungeon that nearly broke me & actually made me take down the blog posts & its one that I have avoided like the plague ever since. Now AS&SH is in a new second edition & they provided me with the PDF which is forty dollars. So lets dive right into the dire depths of Rappan Athuk The Swords & Wizardry edition by Bill Webb, Matt Finch, Greg Vaughn, & Skeeter Green.

Lets start right off with the fact that the cult of Orcus wormed its way onto the shores of Hyperborea more specifically on the shores of a small island nation off the shores of Ix a thousand years before the coming of the Green Death. The events of Ragnarok had long come to pass but a strange up start movement & death  cult wormed its way onto the shores of a former strong hold of Tsathoggua. The name of this hellscape island nation has been lost to history. Ix had another name back then & not even the wisest of demons will say it in the hoary halls of Hyberborea.



The toad god had long turned his face from these worshipers & they looked to this a new lord. Orcus is a demon god of the underworld,lord of the undead & punisher of broken oaths. He was in ancient times depicted as a hairy giant but was always a demon of the Abyss really. His ancient pacts were renewed every fifty years & the undead feasted as the hill ran red with his sacrifices. The people hewed temples to the name of Orcus & the work started on another aspect of the dreaded Rappan Athuk. Five hundred years these nameless people toiled in the ruddy sun light & undead lich princes oversaw the construction. The nameless nation prospered her ships taking slaves of every stripe & nationality condemed with the construction. Amazons & Kelts ancestors reared its stones. Not even death was a release from their torment. They are still there cleaning, toiling, & helping to maintain
Rappan Athuk.

The treasures of a thousand lands & a million peoples from Old Earth to the Ancients themselves line the abandoned halls of Rappan Athuk. The last followers of light from Old Earth gave their lives to end the reign of the demon god. The last of the cults was made extinct. For when the Green Death came born on comet's wings his nation of followers & their dreaded cult were made extinct. The world of Hyperborea was at peace with the stillness of the grave. But the unhallow have cunning ways of returning into the world.


The Babi - Ngepet(swine demons) are the avitars of the damned lord of the undead & have always watched & waited till his star was in the Winter's sky. The Babi - Ngepet seduced & mated with a tribe of thrice damned Picts & the orcs cursed the lands of Hyperborea. Orcus's stain awakened on Hyperborea once again! Near the lands of Ix in the secret ancient necropolis cities scrolls of knowledge of hidden secrets of undeath have been shared. Rumors of treasures filtering through the hands of forbidden secret wizard's markets have been talked about around the tables of taverns. And the priests of Xathoqqua have awoken with their orifices bleeding black blood. The ancient enemy of Xathoqqua has come back! The knights & paladins  of Xathoqqua ride to the furthest temples &  shrine observatories to confirm the skull shaped planetoid of the damned is rising in the East again. The priests & monks of  Xathoqqua chant the song of the undead as Orcus's the skull shaped planetoid of the damned rises. Ancient elders of Xathoqqua have risen from their graves to lead their children against this greatest of evils.

Certain Ixian merchant families & renegade royals are seeking adventurers even now to put upon the shores of 'the cold islands' those ancient lands that hold the deadly secrets & dungeons of Orcus! It is said that the Amazon's greatest princess & seer is consulting with the oracles of the Abls.  Are your adventurers ready to take on the challenges of the halls of Rappan Athuk ?


Since the end of the Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea's Kickstarter for AS&SH: Players' Manual, Referee's Screen, Player Character Folder, and Rats in the Walls and Other Perils (module) I've been looking for a challenge & this is it. I'm going to tackle Rappan Athuk for AS&SH as a campaign point & mega dungeon location. So in the coming weeks you can look for more updates on this. Clocking in at 496 pages Rappan Athuk has no shortage of material to throw into Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea.



So look for more campaign blog entries in the coming weeks!

1d20 Random Minor Finds Table From The Mega Dungeon Table For Your Old School Campaigns

There are always small items, relics, & unusual finds that turn up in the oddest places that lead adventurers onto the trails of the world spanning places of adventure. Things of odd reputations & fragments from with these places of adventure & dangerous virtue. Here then is a list of 1d20 minor finds that will lead adventurers down the rabbit hole further into the jaws of adventure & danger.


1d20 Random Minor Finds
Table From The Mega Dungeon Table

1.  A pair of brass and red gold skeleton keys with deep etches on them and mysterious writing in high Elven. The pair is bound with animal gut & faintly hum with an aura of magick hovering about them.
2. A dried monkey paw with something held in the sealed tight fist. Whatever it is makes the paw heavy. 
3. Twisting and turning piece of jailer's wire made into the shape of a pretezel that twists even as you pick it up. It seems to tug in the direction of the largest structure of ruins locally. 
4. A single slab of worked and wrought quartz in the shape of a key that glows from within with magicak power. 
5. Two twin pieces of metal covered over in runes of the clan of local murderous goblins. The pieces a have recently been underground because of the smell of mildew & fungus clinging to them. 
6.  A single strange twisted piece of gold on a string that floats in mid air toward the mega dungeon and its ruins. 
7. Weirdly a caged bird always sings when its brought towards road that leads to the dungeon. 
8. Nine pieces of radiated silver and gold coins all fused together by some intense weapon of war and destruction. The coins seem to make promises of riches and parties. 
9. Seven rare pieces of miniature artwork that show different & dangerous monsters in scenes in the mega dungeon. They tell a story of the dungeon in its miniature pictures. One of them contains a map and a single tear or drop of gold 
10. Hobbit leather pouch that is actually a detailed map/account of one section of the mega dungeon. The map is writ in human boil. 
11. A silver flute made with bone and silver inlaid in with deeply etched Dwarven runes that allow one to pass magically through certain portals. 
12. A jewel made from the infamous idol's eyes of the god of murder. The jewel wishes to go home to the mega dungeon dungeon. 
13. A small boy's lunch box that actually contains a mini collection of items including a Spanish coin that seems to float in the air and points towards the local dungeons 
14. Twelve copper and gold rods that all seem to be part of some ancient magic machine. They lead to a clue that cuts through the entrances of the dungeons. 
15. A map that show's your location in relation to the dungeon. There are other unusual blips that are closing in on your position. The location seems to call your PC's. 
16. A compass that responses to the astral winds of the mega dungeon and the deep end dire dangers of the dungeons.'
17. A cut crystal ball that actually shows scenes from within the mega dungeon and they want you and your PC's there. 
18. Twenty pieces of gold that are actually radiated with deep magical powers and will teleport you and your party to the center of a maze inside the mega dungeon 
19. An animated wind up clock work like toy that actually is an automaton with the powers of a 5th level animated wizard that is actually an ex adventurer who pissed off a wizard that lives in the center of the dungeon and wants to murder the PC's 
20. The crystal skull of a former adventurer that now houses the alien intelligence that responds only the veiled threats of female adventurer. It wishes to return to its mega dungeon home and will try to possess anyone who handles it.

Re Examing Dwimmermount (ACK's version) Initial Impressions Of The Megadungeon

"It is the place where adventure begins, the ender of lives, and the legend itself. Dwimmermount (ACKS version) From Autarch is all that and more. " I wrote that in January of 2015, and its been a long while since I've returned to Dwimmermount. Well that ended today when I put up a poll on G+ letting others decide if the doors of the mega dungeon swing open within my own world of Ancient & Accursed Terra.



Its been a very long time since I've cranked up my hard drive to look into the PDF of the mega dungeon of  Dwimmermount (ACK's version). Well earlier tonight I got a chance to really look into this mega beast of a book again. Several things just jump right out at me. The first is the sheer scale of the book four hundred & eighty pages of pdf & some of the sprawling mythology of the setting that is mega dungeon. Here are a few things that jumped out at me right from the beginning:

1. First of all there is completely different take on the Elves, Dwarves,Humans, etc. and the surroundings of Dwimmermount then what's in the ACK's main rulebook this isn't a bad thing but its got far reaching applications within a campaign world's setting. 
2. The mega dungeon has some far reaching economic & even political reach within any campaign world its placed in. This makes the mega dungeon a major player within the world's its placed within. 
3. Playing through this beast is going to be interesting & very dangerous. 
4. The very nature of  Dwimmermount means that this megadungeon is going have planar gates through out's its thirteen levels and more. I also think its not out of line for time lost adventurers to make appearances as well.
5. Thank the gods for the safe town home base for the PC's given some of the challenges that the players and their PC's are going to face. There's tons of potential here for threading plots in, out of, and around Dwimmermount
6. The self contained nature of the setting is both a boon and a bane to a DM willing to take the adventure location into their world. There's going to be a ton of adventure and campaign material tied up within the mega dungeon. 
7. ACK's  skill and proficiency bits are nice and are going to be very necessary if your PC's are going to solve the greater mysteries of this mega dungeon. 
8. Several weird bits are in this that I didn't catch the first time around of reading it. There are several holes were I can add in my own little twists to the fun. 
9. I'm going to need to open up my own home campaign to shoe horn in some of the full spectrum effects of Dwimmermount  into my own home world. 
10. Is there enough time to take the PC's through all they need to get most of the major mysteries and details of Dwimmermount in 2017?

This book is really a tool kit for the design,feeding,  and care of the Dwimmermount setting itself. I'm going to need to spend a bit more time reading, deciding, and getting into Dwimmermount before unleashing it on my players.

The Dwimmermount (ACK's version) of the megadungeon is available right over here

Review and Commentary on The Castle Gargantua Adventure From Kabuki Kaiser For Your Old School Campaigns

There are mega dungeons, mega adventure locations, then there's Castle Gargantua a gigantic sprawling location with incredible campaign exploration potential straight out of the twisted fairy tales of the early days! This is one of those magical locations that sets up everything straight out of the the gate, I mean everything there are remours tables for each of the playable races about the castle, rooms, weird events, etc.. But what is the set up for the adventure location: "Whoever built Castle Gargantua is long gone. It could have been a
mad wizard. He would have been called Gargantua and lived in a tower looming over the castle. Or it could have been a giant so tall that when his shadow was cast, people thought it was the night falling; a giant so primeval that he could barely be distinguished from nature itself, his feet like the trunks of sequoia trees—a primeval ur-giant from a time bygone. Since your players will roll for rumors known by their  characters, they will come with their own version. Let them, just  remember that whatever created this place, it's gone.Time has passed since its creator vanished and the castle has been plundered several times. There's nothing much left of its original riches and most of its legendary monsters have been dispatched by  past heroes. An awful lot of adventurers and bandits still roam the castle halls, often butchering each other and shaping opposed factions where they’ve taken over. In many areas, these ruffians are the real threat. In other places, lingering Chaos magic has turned harmless critters, animals, and normally trivial monsters into gruesome gigantic creatures in proportion with the castle."
This place is sprawling, massive, and incredibly complex as large as the Empire State building and the design here is tight. Basically this is a mega dungeon is the love child if David Lynch and The Brothers Grim had sex and Tim Burton was the nurse maid. Then raised the same adventure location and its made to be cross compatible with almost all OSR system, well not quite. It's made to be cross compatible with Labyrinth Lord, Labyrinth Lord Advanced, and Lamentations of the Flame Princess. And its made to be different each and every time because the burden to roll up the contents of the place are on sort of on the DM but this is in keeping with the DYI D&D aesthetic of the OSR authors. Lay out here is top notch, maps and cartography are by Dyson Logos, lots and lots of art throughout the adventure.
Grab It Right Over HERE


Here's the thing this adventure goes with the early D&D and AD&D trope that no adventure location is going to be abandoned for long. I'm all for this bit of dungeon adventure ecology and this adventure takes that to its extremes. There are dozens of halls, rooms, treasures,etc. that have been passed around and over here. There are themes to room and complex weirdness waiting to twist PC's into knots and whatnot. There's lots that can happen to them. And the maps are concise enough to make it happen. Did I mention the gorgeous and slightly disturbing artwork?


This is a campaign waiting to happen, seriously this place could take months and months of exploration and discovery. There's a ton going on within this place and once again this is a book with its adventure location in play. Things are happening here and your adventurers are going to blunder head first right straight into the whole of it all.

The entire adventure location gives a sense  of helplessness and being caught in a trap that has been sprung. Castle Gargantua is the type of place that exists in some ancient fairy tale as a rumor or legend but the reality is that much more dangerous and nasty. This is one of those adventure locations that's going to change a party seriously they will not be the same after a trip to Castle Gargantua.
Page after page of incredible description and weird rooms, this isn't a fun house dungeon its a weirdness sink with your PC's names on it. Its all here and waiting for the PC's. There is a story to this place and throughout the 114 pages of the place you can see bits and pieces of the castle's tale here and there just as all of the best tales of dungeons and mayhem. This isn't a place for the faint of heart.


 

This is a dungeon or adventure location as wilderness setting, something out of the sprawling tales of giants and they're left behind one incredible location! And this is one place that can take on all comers, your levels and skills don't count for anything when a giant sized curtain is falling on your PC's head! You get dust storms rolling across floors and terrifying wilderness encounters with all kinds of horrid monsters from myth and legend against a wilderness background of a giant's former playground. One really nice part to this one hundred and fourteen page book is the price point the pdf is five dollars!

Is there anything that I don't actually like in this adventure? Not really it clicks all of the right buttons for a grand style dungeon romp through one of the most complex dungeons I've seen. The tone, horrid fairy tale feel gone wrong and more is perfect for a dark game of Lamentations of the Flame Princess or a huge sprawling game of Labyrinth Lord. Its all there waiting for your PC's and they're not going to know what hit them. Grab this one! Five out of five stars! Highly recommended!



Because of the nature of the various tables and random encounters etc, this adventure is different each and every time your adventurers enter the location folks!

Review And Commentary On 'The Pay What You Want' OSR Adventure - Murcanto's Lair From Samwise7RPG For Your Old School Campaigns

Tim Harper of Samwise rpg review fame  has released a disturbing mature adventure called Murcanto's Lair. The blurb on Drivethrurpg describes it as,"Murcanto's Lair is one modular level of a "mega-dungeon" (a very large underground structure with many levels).  It has content that some may find disturbing.  It is a systemless dark fantasy adventure but the module will most likely be the easiest to run with an OSR (Old School Renaissance) retro-clone of your choice or one of the various editions of the most popular RPG in the land."
I got to take a look at this adventure about three or four days ago and its basically a pulp dungeon with disturbing content come to life in a good way. By good I mean those levels of a wizard that you never get to see. This is one of those levels. This isn't a fun house dungeon but a wizard crawl of weird encounters that can be dropped straight into a Lamentations of the Flame Princess game or any old school OD&D style game including the Dungeon Crawl Classics rpg
GRAB IT RIGHT HERE

Not to give anything away but this is a tour de force of weirdness and depravity. Tim has been quietly going mad and taking all of this material into some very disturbing old school horror turf. The encounters here have an almost midnight movie meets Splatter punk over tea with Clive Barker and HP Lovecraft sort of a feel in a dark and good way. The artwork, the maps,everything here is geared to throw you as an adventurer into the world of Murcanto where your PC's are mostly likely to be mutated, twisted, and terrorized if not outright killed. This is an adventure with some teeth and its not afraid to show it. The author comes up with not only original monsters and disturbing imagery but the artwork is very, very, well done. I've been used to Lamentations of the Flame Princess adventures and the professionalism of the fanzines such as Red Moon Medicine Show's efforts and their adventures. Lately the line between fan and pro has been blurring a lot and this adventure is another sign of the times.
Murcanto is one twisted son of a gun and there's everything from flesh weaving monsters to horrors in pots & much, much to much to describe. This is the sort of an adventure that I would throw at an experienced party of adventurers and still have the players asking to come back for more. And they will this is a deadly little piece of design and writing on Tim's part and he did it really well. I'm insanely jealous of the creativity and sheer weirdness that went into Murcanto's Lair. While there are some of the usual AD&D and OD&D monsters in this adventure their used in such a way as to be completely different and just wow. I really don't want to give too much of this adventure away. Seriously just go and grab this adventure if your A. into Lamentations of the Flame Princess b. Want something completely off the wall and different with a sense of the weird, mature, and dramatic.  The pacing of the module's encounters is very well done.



I can honestly say that this is one of the better pay what you'd like titles to come along in a very long time. The author has put a lot of energy, time, and weirdness into the business end of this adventure. You could drop this one into any mature old school campaigns on the back end where you want your players to experience a bizarre and off the wall level of a megadungeon. This reminds me that I think given the amount of time, energy, and bizarre flesh melding fun that the author had with this that we'll be seeing more of this megadungeon to come. If you haven't already grabbed this one then for Cthlhu's sake! This gets a four out of five stars and yes it deserves it in spades.
If there was a complaint it's this I wanted even more of this level of the megadungeon and that I believe might be the point here. Tim has thrown his hat into the ring of OSR publishing and this adventure is a pretty big noise. To say that this is a Lovecraftian adventure is an understatement its more like a mini tour de force.

Using Murcanto's Lair  For Your Old School Campaigns This adventure lends itself to an isolated location in the wastes for any number of old school style campaigns. As a place on an isolated planet, a place on some lonely modern road or mountain valley location. This adventure could be dropped into a sword and sorcery piece with little to no problem at all.

This is a perfect adventure to add right into Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea as an isolated twisted wizard's lair in a mega dungeon complex! This is a perfect megadungeon level to add straight into as a wizard's megadungeon location out around the lands where the Green Death has taken forgotten cities and Murcanto has moved in to take over. There are any number of ways of using Murcanto's Lair; you can drop this adventure straight into Crimson Dragon Slayers as another location of evil allowing your 80's adventurers to have a horrid encounter with the weirdness and depravity of this adventure. The most obvious use of this adventure is as a whole campaign's worth of Lamentations of the Flame Princess worth of adventure fun and while this is one of the best uses of the adventure there is quite a bit more that can be done with it. For example this adventure could be easily inserted into a campaign of White Star as the lair of the powers of the Void and it would fit in quite nicely for a  mature game of this science fantasy game as well. This adventure could easily be stuck onto Carcosa for even more dramatic flare as an isolated adventure location. The adventure events and encounters of Murcanto's Lair move all on their own and its nice to see how the author has designed this into this piece of adventure design.  This adventure could even be added with some slight of hand into a post apocalyptic campaign as a mature one shot adventure location as Murcanto's Lair transcends time and space to bring its brand of horror to the wastelands so with a little work you might even use this one with Mutant Future. 
Twist this one around a bit and you could drop into Fantastic Heroes and Witchery with little problem.  In fact this adventure perfectly suits the pulp aesthetic and weird tales nature of FH&W.  This game adventure could be plugged into a OD&D campaign where the DM wants to shift the focus onto a mature horror theme and it fits the bill quite nicely. There's even more that can be done with it as an isolated adventure location. The PC's could be washed up onto an island or shipwrecked for a horrid and weird fun filled vacation with Murcanto providing all of the highlights and event weirdness for a whole bunch of splatter punk hi jinks.
Really there are ton of stuff that can be done with this one!

Commentary & Review On Dwimmermount (ACKS version) From Autarch Part II For Your Old School Campaign

Adventurers are in for the quest of a lifetime  when they enter the halls of Dwimmermount, deep, dark, and long are its twisting halls and mazes of monster filled labyrinths of madness. Tonight we look a bit deeper into the ACK's version of this monster of a megadungeon.

You can read part I right over HERE



Grab It Right
HERE 

Right so I wrote about the ACK's version of Dwimmermount a couple of days back and there was far too much information to pack into one post. So off we go into the gloom filled halls of this four hundred and twenty page OSR horror fest. The depths here are going to change adventurers not simply because of the treasures, devices, and artifacts but the very nature of the place. And its a nightmare to try and keep track of all of it.
The rooms,passages, and dungeon setting pieces as well as room descriptions are well thought out and concise. The problem  here is the amount of time and energy a group of players and DM here are going to have to invest in the backdrop and details. This is where the dungeon map book comes in very handy. The book is filled to the brim with every location, place point, and adventure detail all concisely drawn out in glorious OSR detail for the DM and players to use. The idea of the 'hows and whys' of the place are done in a very neat slight of hand bit of editing in the ACK's book and the map book that works very very well together.
But why purchase another book of simply the maps? Well because the Pdf is like a small heads up display for the DM to keep track of everything while giving the players bits and pieces of the action either through print out or by screen bits. Very easy to make this sort of thing happen.
Its right in the product description from Drivethrurpg: 

Few adventurers who ever enter the legendary halls of Dwimmermount ever return. Its dangers are too great – its mysteries unplumbed. If only a map were at hand – or better, a dozen maps, one for every level of the dungeon….

The Dwimmermount Map Book presents each of Dwimmermount's wilderness, dungeon, and fortress maps as a two-page spread for reference and annotation in play. It’s an indispensable reference when running a dungeon that’s large enough to encompass an entire campaign! The Dwimmermount Map Book also includes a special two-page visual timeline of the construction of Dwimmermount, showing its origins in the early First Era to its final completion millennia later. 

This is not a standalone product. A copy of Dwimmermount™ is required to run the dungeon. Dwimmermount is a 13-level megadungeon for Adventurer Conqueror King System™, Labyrinth Lord™ and other d20-based fantasy role-playing games, available for purchase separately from Autarch™ LLC. 

That's why the map book is really out to provide the DM his road map and back up for everything. You have more to worry about with the death and destruction of the PC's in this dungeon. Then there are some of the science fantasy elements that are in the background to contend with. This book helps out alot. Its available right over HERE
And on top of this the maps are concise, well done, and perfect for use with Dwimmermount. Everything is percisely right where you need to know what's happening in real time as your player's PC's stumble right into the yawning death trap or pit trap right over there. This is where the Dwimmermount Map Book is not only useful but completely and utterly necessary to run through this thirteen level dungeon of destruction. 
But what about the monsters and mayhem happening in the dungeon? What the hell are you going to do when you've got those twenty orcs baring down on you and the PC's are with their back to the pit trap or the flame spells? There's a the dungeon tracker for this situation and another thing that makes this series unique in a way. I can hear the grognards howling in anger and frustration at the inclusion of such a thing being included in an OSR campaign. Believe me I'm howling along with you but hear me out. 

The Dwi mmermount Megadungeon Tracker is pretty neat, it allows you to keep the party seemingly off kilter while actually neatly organizing the whole affair nice and concisely all in one go. 

Here's the product description: 

The Dwi mmermount Megadungeon Tracker is a unique play-aid designed to help you get the most out of a 13 levels of Dwi ermount. For each level of the dungeon, the Megadungeon Tracker provides a double-sided reference sheet, with a specialty keyed map on one side and a level summ ary on the other. The map provides brief descriptions and contents for each room on the level; the level summary covers each level’s history, factions, wandering monsters, access points, and special areas, and a llows the dungeon master to easily track turns and marching order.

This brings up the motives, reasons, hatreds, rivalries and high OSR monster weirdness of Dwimmermount. There are reasons for everything here and not unlike an Edgar Rice Burroughs novel those reasons bare out over the time as the PC's go deeper and deeper into  Dwimmermount. If and only if they get that far. They're going to need a ton of luck, plenty of magic, and a butt load of healing potions. 

The dungeon tracker is one handy little device to have and its a nice addition to a DM's arsenal. The lessons of the tool box are there to be used and I for one I'm planning on making my own version of the Dungeon tracker. A very handy device to have at the table. 

Make no mistake that this is a thirteen level monster of a dungeon and its going to chew up, grind, spit up, vomit forth, and work over your parties. Its designed to do it over and over again. Many old school modules were designed with this fact in mind. Deal with it folks. Dwimmermount was designed, run, and written with that in mind. And now the folks at Autarch have expanded this very fact and moved it forward with the mega dungeon. 

But what the hell is in it, what monsters crawl in its rooms, deal death in its halls, and kill over and over again? Well the artbook has some fantastic dark and deadly fantasy artwork done by some of the best of the old school artists. 

You want to show your players what killed them on level seven. Its here in dangerous and diabolical colour. 

A picture may be worth a thousand words – but a dungeon with more than a thousand rooms still requires a lot of pictures.

The Dwimmermount Illustration Book includes a complete set of illustrations of the Dwimmermount megadungeon’s most essential features and locations, designed to be shown to the players in the style of the classic adventures of old.

Featuring artwork hand-selected by dungeon creator James Maliszewski, the Illustration Book has over 40 different works by top artists including Jeff Dee, Mark Allen, Eric Quigely, Conor Nolan, John Larrey, Steve Zieser, Russ Nicholson, Kelvin Green, and the grand master of old-school fantasy, Erol Otus. Bring Dwimmermount to life with illustrations ready to be used right at your gaming table!

Is the art book worth the fiver that its going to cost you? Yes it is because art costs money to put into rpg products and this is a solid set of artwork that actually relates right into the backbone and backdrop of the dungeon you happen to be playing in. This isn't a cute art book that simply exists for the sake of existence, its a tool to show your players exactly what, who, and where they're exploring. This is a book to get across the old school action that they happen to be involved with. This is a professionally done book of OSR nastiness by some top flight artists and it presents the material for Dwimmermount right in your hands!

Bottom line to the second part of this bit of review and commentary, do I think that Dwimmermount is worth your time and energy as a DM? Yes I personally do. I think that this is a dungeon that not only involves money but a certain amount of nerve to run. There is an investiment of time to read through and deal with four hundred and twenty eight pages. But also the fact that you've got to be within the head space to run this sort of mega dungeon. I've said it before and I stand by this, as a DM you are your own OSR. If your not excited about the product or your own creation at the table then by damn sure your players are not going to be either. Its really always been and always will be a game and its all about a sense of fun at the table top. And this is one more toy to play with.




So do I think that Dwimmermount is simply another old school dungeon? No not at all, I think that its a mega dungeon that needs more then a fair shake because of its utility and what it represents. This is a pretty damn impressive set of tools that allows a dungeon master to create, demo, and craft Dwimmermount  into their campaign back drop. And as a of a damn fine science fantasy campaign that they'll want to run and we'll get into that in part III coming up next Saturday. 

We'll be crawling right into the LL version of Dwimmermount and its legacy coming up soon and its not what you think. 

Commentary & Review On Dwimmermount (ACKS version) From Autarch Part I For Your Old School Campaign

It is the place where adventure begins, the ender of lives, and the legend itself. Dwimmermount (ACKS version) From Autarch is all that and more. And it almost broke me. Well not really but this is the first of a multi part review in which I take a look at one of the most massive products in PDF to come across my hard drive. 
So lets dive right into  Dwimmermount (ACKS version)




Grab It Right
HERE

So  for the last week and a half I've been going over the insanely huge Dwimmermount megadungeon from Autarch and at four hundred and twenty eight pages it lives up to its name believe me.  This is a dungeon with a very troubled history and Kickstarter back story. I'm not getting into that whole mess nor do I care about the ancient history surrounding that whole sorry episode in the history of the OSR.
 I couldn't care less about the sorted history of the Kickstarter for the originator of this project. Instead I want to take a look at the descendant of Dwimmermount. The Adventurer, Conqueror King system has some twists to it and I spend sometime looking and reading up on it before even attempting to tackle this megadungeon. I actually like the system from what I've seen. Its well done and has some very smart twists and turns to it. The skill and proficiency bits are nice. But as a DM you really don't have to know the system to get the most out of this product.

 

Available right over HERE


So why is it on the Swords and Stitchery blog? Because of its pulp science fantasy roots and some of its material being very much in the OSR science fictional setting.
So I'm I rather excited about Dwimmermount (ACKS version)? In a word? Yes it takes the original product and expands upon it to almost four hundred and twenty - eight pages of old school awesomeness.
The top of the dungeon is sort of standard with its own twists and turns, then it goes into high weirdness mode as things get more lethal and dangerous as your party delves in deeper and deeper. The text is easy on the eyes. The art work certainly fits the product but this is a mega campaign as well. But what's in the product? 

The 400-page Dwimmermount hardcover includes:

• 13 mapped, keyed, and stocked dungeon levels containing a total of 715 fully-described and detailed encounter areas for players and their characters to discover – with random tables to generate even more!
• 86 monsters and 70 magic items to confound, challenge, and reward your players.
• 6 pre-generated adventuring parties to serve as rivals for your player characters.
• A gazetteer of the lands surrounding Dwimmermount, with realms, domains, and settlements described using ACKS mechanics to support a campaign endgame.
• An overview of Muntburg, a fortified town nestled in the shadows of Dwimmermount, intended to serve as a “home base” for the player characters between expeditions into the dungeon's depths.
• A history of the dungeon from its earliest days to the present, with innovative mechanics that reward the characters for learning the secrets of the past.
• Descriptions of numerous factions operating within and without the dungeon, whose activities add a further layer of complexity to Dwimmermount.
• Discussions of ways to approach Dwimmermount, both as a player and as a referee, including insight into the dungeon's origins and design.
• Over 40 different works by top artists including Jeff Dee, Mark Allen, Eric Quigely, Conor Nolan, John Larrey, Steve Zieser, Russ Nicholson, Kelvin Green, and the grand master of old-school fantasy, Erol Otus.

In the Golden Age of fantasy roleplaying, the dungeon was the linchpin of adventure design and the sandbox was the assumed role of a campaign setting. With Dwimmermount, the Golden Age has returned.

The history, setting, timeline, interaction, and back base material for Dwimmermount are essential these are the backbone of the campaign itself and tie into everything about the dungeon. How it all fits together and how this over arching monster of a campaign can fit into your world. That's one of the beauties of Dwimmermount dungeon that it can easily and compactly be fitted right into the back drop of your own campaigns. This book is really a tool kit for the design and care of the Dwimmermount setting itself.
The fact is that  the Autarch crew have done an excellent job of setting up this book into a whole cloth campaign into itself that can link into the backdrop of your own dungeons and that for me at least is part of its charm and OSR style. There's a lot to this beast and using it is going to take time, patience, and a whole lot of build in with it. That's not a bad thing at all. There's plenty of room here for DYI improvement to shoe horn it into your own campaigns.
Does this campaign live up to its hype? Yes, I think so because of the care and feeding that has been done into the quality of Dwimmermount (ACKS version) but this is a very different and highly expanded beast then the original incarnation in my humble opinion.
There are a metric ton of monsters here with their own motives, motivations, and agendas for your PC's along with a world into itself which is Dwimmermount. PC's are going to be changed forever going into this megadungeon. There are everything here from PC options to leveling up to simply having your PC killed outright. There are sections of sheer nasty and lethality that are going to take PC's by surprise.
This is only the tip of the OSR iceberg here even if its a well written campaign your going to need a few things as well even though their optional.
The maps are very well done but you as the DM are going to want the optional map book.
Seriously this is a wise investiment on the DM's part and they show just about every over arching map that a DM is going to need to really truly run this mega dungeon right over HERE

The Dwimmermount Map Book presents each of Dwimmermount's wilderness, dungeon, and fortress maps as a two-page spread for reference and annotation in play. It’s an indispensable reference when running a dungeon that’s large enough to encompass an entire campaign! The Dwimmermount Map Book also includes a special two-page visual timeline of the construction of Dwimmermount, showing its origins in the early First Era to its final completion millennia later. 

The second piece of equipment whist running this monster is the art book. If you want to show your players exactly what the hell their getting into grab this book. 

This is an entire world of a dungeon that your PC's are getting into and their going to be there for quite a long time. A picture is worth a million words and the artwork is perfect setting fodder to really bring home the feel and old school vibe echoing throughout this product. Available right over HERE 

Which really brings me to the whole point of  Dwimmermount which is the investment factor itself. And I'm not talking about money here but time as well as energy. All of those are going to come into play with running this monster. This campaign is compatible in some respects to fully thought out old school dungeon ecologies. There are plenty of set dressings, ideas, monsters etc that are pulled from this product and will engage your PC's for a very long,long time to come if used properly. This product if used correctly could connect a plethora of old school campaigns for years and years to come.
And that brings me to the end of part I. Part II will be coming up on Saturday evening.
Bottom line do I think its worth getting into?
Yes for a plethora of reasons that we'll be exploring soon.