I’ve played around with this idea before – most recently in an AD&D campaign on G+ which fizzled due to the awkwardness of the G+ interface for play-by-post purposes, and (mostly) my being a flake – but I’m messing with my eternally embryonic, generic “Huge Ruined Pile” dungeon, and I’m wondering how many people have started a campaign with nothing but the dungeon. I.e., maybe a three sentence background, the dungeon, and everything else developed ad hoc as you go.
I kind of want to get my feet wet with real-time G+ gaming some time. I want to play in someone else’s game a few times to get the idea, but once I’m comfortable with the interface, this seems like a good way to run pickup games without needing much in the way of continuity or coherence between groups, or a regular time each week. If it grows into an actual setting, that’s cool, but the assumption for each session would be that you pop into and out of a more-or-less traditional OD&D dungeon. No torturous conceits like “errbody is a Dwarf, roll to see if you got duck feet” (which is probably better left for a regular group and time).
My question is not necessarily have you ever done something like this, as I think it was the default mode originally. But have you done something like this recently, and if so, how’d it turn out?
(Still working on Dwarf-Land when I have time, just taking breaks to avoid burning out for a year or whatever.)
I have been in a campaign like this (DM started us at level 1, naked, in the dungeon, and we had to keep going). It was fun, especially at low levels, when all you have is an ersatz club made from a chair leg.
I also have a campaign of my own that I’ve written to work more-or-less this way. The short-story conceit is kind of similar to Farmer’s Riverboat series. All the adventurers wake up on a slab, apparently resurrected from their death. Memories of past life are hazy. They have a rune stone that can be used to get food and water from certain statues. Each level has a pre-existing “boss” that has a special rune stone that gives a few special abilities and also can be used to unlock the portal to the next level.
The portals are one-way though, so nobody comes back. So, each level is stocked with people powerful enough to assert dominance over the rest of the locals, but not adventurous enough to risk going through the unknown portal to the next level. Naturally, there’s an interesting relationship between the food sources and the fed; some people are kept as prisoners, taken each day to collect their food, which is then mostly stolen (dead people’s runestones won’t work).
None of that is necessary to start the campaign, it’s just “you wake up in a dark room” to the PCs. To me, there’s an interesting kind of story that can unfold there eventually- lots of room for whatever kind of dungeon you want, lots of room for new/old players arriving and leaving, and you’re totally off the hook for any “how did that manticore get into that room, and what does it eat?” silliness- the Others are all running tests on us, that includes resetting all the traps and hiding rusty daggers in useful locations.
My particular campaign had a few sessions before falling victim to Real Life Problems. It was the second or third (parallel) campaign for most of my gaming group, shooting for regular weeknight runs, but interest pooped out as everybody’s work schedules intensified.
Someday, I’ll run it. Probably with DCC or a homebrew B/X system.
I’m not so much going for “you wake up in the dungeon” as “gameplay starts at the entrance of the dungeon, you’re assumed to take care of city stuff between sessions, and we’ll fill in city and setting stuff as needed” … e.g., the default Tunnels & Trolls mode.
If you do decide to play in G+ games, the best I’ve found are:
1. Hill Cantons (Chris Kutalik)
2. Nightwick Abbey (Evan Elkins)
3. Operation: Unfathomable (Jason Sholtis)
It was at least 10 years ago that I ran a campaign using OD&D rules and just a few hours of dungeoneering each session. Replacement characters just appeared with no reason for their having been absent before and players who missed a session were assumed to be off somewhere resting. Characters only got XP and treasure if they were played (either by their player or by another player).
I enjoyed the games a lot, others less so. Maybe I’m just simple minded but I actually found it liberating to be without a story layered over the top. It was just like a video game without the computer.
Such games probably have their own lifespan that depends upon the player’s patience for and interest in that kind of play.
Scott, you are always welcome to play in the Hill Canttons even if just to get the feel of the land.
As far as the OP goes, yes that was pretty much the only way we started a campaign in my first couple years.
Recently the only thing that I can say that I have come close to running like that is my Jakalla undercity campaign. Obviously it had a way over-developed setting behind it, but there really was no action topside at all for the half-dozen or so sessions. It it was liberating (especially given the notorious difficulty in running Barker’s creation) to focus only on the “dungeon” and I recommend it as a way “to stay in the mood” (though inevitably I found at least one player gets the itch to run around top side.)
The only time I’ve really ran all-dungeon was for my Library game, but in that case the PCs actually lived inside the Library, arguably disqualifying it.
That’s my current GURPS Dungeon Fantasy game in a nutshell. The dungeon gets a lot of detail, the town just enough to feel real, and the world isn’t important unless a treasure map leading out in it comes up.
It’s working out fine and makes a great pick-up game. We start and end sessions in town, so we can play with just the guys who show up. Place it makes for a tense rush back to town at the end of the session, and worries about going so deep they can’t get back.
It’s been very fun. We never did this back in the day, so it’s new to everyone at the table.
I love Bakshi’s LotR so much. What brilliance. If I was running a secondary campaign in Middle-earth I can imagine leaning on Bakshi if I needed to whip up something quickly.
Bakshi >> Jackson
“Bakshi >> Jackson”
Absolutely agreed. I don’t think much of the Jackson LotR movies and I refuse to see the feculence being passed off as The Hobbit. If he touches The Silmarillion, people will die. I’m a man of my word.
You can also always play in one of mine sessions if you want – though the one’s Robert Mentioned are honestly better.
Anyway, I ran a Rules Cyclopedia game a couple years ago that started with the players at the bottom of a fairly large dungeon; the idea was that they had all died in some past era and were being given a second chance (This was so I could be really permissive as to what characters they were allowed to play)
It went pretty well – searching every nook and cranny as well as clearing rooms out were really important to them, since they couldn’t just retreat to the entrance/exit like they normally could; but they were also pretty happy to get out of the dungeon when they finally managed too.
I start every campaign like that. I started the current one like that–(wake up in a dungeon).
It’s pretty much perfect–everything in there you can just make up backstory at your leisure. And there’s an easy goal: get out of the dungeon.
I had those Fiend Folio Memory Mosses lying around, so when I want to drop hints about the world above, the players would get to eat one.
As for G+: you are of course welcome any time. Looks like we’re carving monday out as game day.
“wake up in a dungeon”
See reply to first comment above
I ran my in-person S&W game around a single dungeon in basically this same style for the past 11 months or so. Turns out a couple people got tired of it, and so we’re starting a new DCC game that will feature travelling around and much smaller dungeons when encountered. However…
I think that in the case of “pick-up” games, where a pool of different players are dropping in and out, with each group is different than the last and just mounts a short (couple hours or so) expedition in to grab xp/lewt and get out it would work swimmingly. Easy for people to drop in but also able to build a backstory/detail for those regulars who show often and pay attention to it.
Speaking of your AD&D pbp game, now G+ has a “Communities” feature that works like message boards (and can be invitation only) that I think was almost exactly what you were looking for instead of the circles/threads version we tried.
If/when you do decide to return to G+ be sure to look me up again, I’d love to drop in on a game like you’re describing.
I had no idea about the G+ Communities thing … that may be exactly what I was looking for originally. I still have this weird thing about the live-action face-to-face gaming that I’m trying to overcome … I have no significant social anxiety in real life, and I play Magic on camera occasionally, so I don’t really know what the deal is.
A couple of years ago, I had a short-lived campaign set in the Tomb of Khalister. There was absolutely no information about the outside world, we just assumed there is some settlement where PCs can buy stuff and hire henchmen. Interestingly, the campaign ended because of totally unrelated reasons.
I DMed Barrowmaze for about half a year, and we did the same thing. We ended up with only a handful of facts known about the outside world (there’s a village, Smallville; the main god is Err; there’s a town, Metropolis – and a few things about that town). When we finished (actually froze only), the characters earned a small estate near the dungeon and started to develop their little domain. With a couple of 1st-level characters, in the meantime, they continued to explore the dungeon complex.
That is exactly what I’m talking about, although knowing myself, I’m sure the setting would quickly start spitwadding once players started asking questions.
[...] entirety of the initial background for a possible Underworld, to be run in an as-yet unknown venue using either 3LB or [...]
Not what you’re talking about, but this reminded me of one of the campaigns my brother ran maybe 25 years ago, I think in Rolemaster, not D&D, but the entire thing was set in a dungeon. Some of the monsters established shops that you could use to buy (overpriced, shoddy) gear. One ogre husband & wife sold food and rope; some orcs sold arrows and spears, and so on. The ogres were too tough for us to risk fighting and the orcs weren’t really worth fighting because although we might beat them, in RM one lucky shot and you’re done.
I think we did not know a way out of the dungeon either.
For various reasons that is perhaps the single most memorable dungeon-crawling campaign for me. Like most campaigns it ended way too soon. :(
Anyway my first ‘serious’ campaign as DM was pretty close to what you’re talking about, although I spent some time making up elements I knew I’d not be good at at improvising (local religion, list of businesses/shops/pubs in town, stuff like that). The first twenty or so sessions were entirely confined to various dungeons and levels of a nearby mountain. Travel was just to town and back, except that a few dungeons were under the town too.
To actually get to the point, I had a few very regular players and a bunch of short-term players. Having an “adventurer’s guild” in town made it simple to explain why new PCs kept coming and going. so-and-so just go into town and was told to hook up with these seasoned adventurers, etc. Worked fine. Had to begin letting new players tart with some XP to keep up with the more hardcore guys who made every game. however I had a regular night so there was very little ‘pickup’ except at one convention.