The World's Larget Dungeon Discussion/Review

[deaddmwalking]

Shifting gears for a moment, I wanted to explore Rappan Athuk, originally published by Necromancer Games under their Sword and Sorcery imprint. I understand that it has been converted to multiple other editions, and is now published by Frog God Games. The version I'm looking at was published as three separate volumes, Modules R1: The Upper Levels (2000), R2: The Middle Levels (2000), and R3: The Lower Levels (2002).

For $100, The World's Largest Dungeon game me 16 regions, many of which were filled with rooms without description or contents, and a map that didn't match the descriptions provided, and 'every creature in the SRD', but not really. If you've read up to this point you'll understand why it wasn't great. I'm not promising that this dungeon is, but let's delve in!

Enter the World's Most Legendary Dungeon!
From the nefarious black skeletons to the lair of the arch-lich, Zelkor, Rappan Athuk is the most famous and feared dungeon in all the lands. Do you seek the mithril gates, adventurer? Or perhaps the ring of the sorcerer, Akheth? Does your quest take you to Hell itself? Then you have come to the right place. A pity you won't be staying long....

Death and Despair
The first in the "R" series of D20 System dungeon modules by Necromancer Games, Rappan Athuk - The Dungeon of Graves: The Upper Level is the grand-daddy of all dungeon crawls! This dungeon of caverns, passages, traps and hidden chambers defies even the most experienced adventurer to travel its halls. This module features six levels of this evil, multilevel dungeon, including monsters your players have never imagined in their worst nightmares. Rappan Athuk awaits!

Reading ahead there are 26 total levels. The cost for the three books together was $38. The first book is 46 numbered pages, the second is 61, and the third and final is 109, for a total of 216 pages (about 25% the length of The World's Largest Dungeon). Some of the length of TWLD was taken up with formulaic information about empty rooms, and a lot of it was taken up with pages of backstory that the player's had no way of learning about or interacting with.

WLD is a 4x4 grid with 16 interconnected regions. Rappan Athuk is a primarily vertical dungeon.

Because Rappan Athuk is a complex dungeon with numerous levels, rooms are numbered by level prefix then room number. For example, Zelkor's lair is room 3A-8 meaning room number 8 on level 3A. Rappan Athuk also uses an old-style level numbering convention with "main" levels and "side" levels. The "main" levels are numbered consecutively indicating relative depth below ground. The "side" levels (those marked A or B), often skip numbers. The numbers of the side levels indicate depth relative to the main levels. For example, Level 3A (beneath "the Well") is at approximately the same depth as Level 3.

So right off the bat, there's a huge difference between tWLD and Rappan Athuk. You might remember that one of the 'level bosses' spent two years torturing a sage before he found the secret location of tWLD. The PCs (and RingTail, the boss of Region A) just sort of stumble upon it with no understanding of what they're there for, or why they should want to explore it. This adventure has a multi-paragraph backstory that you're SUPPOSED to read to the players. Cultists of Orcus were defeated and fled their temple. They found the empty passages of the dungeon and took shelter as they were pursued by the forces of good. Everyone, good and bad, was thought to have perished, but the evil survived in hiding. Now everyone knows that there's a dungeon and some of the dangers, including 'don't go down the well'. There are also 28 'rumors' that most players will know at least 1. While some of the rumors are noted as false, they could be reasons to brave the dungeon. For example, 'It is said that the great paladin, Bannor, was overcome by a horde of enemies in the dungeon. His might holy sword, Gurthdurial, is rumored to have been lost in the Hall of the Cyclops King.'

The upper levels are intended for a party of six 3rd level characters, and should be 5th before delving beyond the 2nd level. 'The Well' takes you to level 3, and shouldn't be attempted by parties below 7th level. For the moment, I'm just noting these for reference to judge encounter difficultly later.

The first book also has a list of 15+ levels (15 numbered levels and several 'side' areas. This book has 6 of the 26 levels including such places as 'the Lair of the Dung Monster' (level 1) and ''The Basilisk Caverns'. R2 includes levels such as 'The Hall of Kazleth, the Phase Minotaur King' (7A) and 'Caves and Caverns: The Tomb of the Evil King', while R3 includes levels such as 'The Goblin Barracks (13A) and 'The Chapel of Orcus' (14).

Altogether there are 15 numbered levels and 11 'side' levels, totaling the 26 levels. As evinced by the option to 'go down the well', players don't have to go through the levels in a strictly linear order, but compared to tWLD, there's a lot more 'push' to hit things in order.

Maps
The maps are in the middle of the book (where the staples in the binding are). Each map is half a page. Gridlines are completely absent - it's not possible to determine the scale by looking at the map. Some maps have passages that are noted as being 5' or 10', but even on the same map they may be drawn equally wide. Most maps in the first book have approximately 10-15 numbered locations. Compared to the 100+ in a tWLD region, this feels imminently manageable. Effectively Rappan Athuk has more regions, but individually they're smaller and more focused.

Appendix
The last 3 pages details the monsters in alphabetical order, covering 29 monsters. Unique monsters exist where they are encountered and are not reprinted in the appendix. New monsters have their full stat block presented when they are first encountered and the appendix. Compared to tWLD it's fairly easy to find a stat block when you need one. Many of the creatures do exist in the SRD, so in 2025 it's very easy to pull them up online.

Entries
The book is divided into chapters, but without a table of contents. Each chapter indicates the level. Read-aloud text is clearly marked. Each area includes relevant information including relative difficulty (it's not really Encounter Level), entrances and exits, appropriate wandering monsters and features. tWLD had something similar, but because the regions were so large, it tended to have MULTIPLES, and nothing that actually listed entrances and exits. While tWLD had a grid, the squares are too small to count, so with the more manageable regions, this makes sense.

Ground Level
Rappan Athuk is called the 'Dungeon of Graves' because it's located under a graveyard. The graveyard is protected by green gargoyles (CR3, if both claws hit target must save versus hold person) and when you enter the main mausoleum you encounter Black Skeletons (CR 4, their attacks drain strength). There's a magical key required to enter the dungeon - entering without the key results in an instant-kill trap, sorta. The ground starts moving upward and there's a limited amount of time to find a secret door to escape. I remember in the first Age of Worms adventure by Paizo there was a dungeon with two entrances and if players chose the wrong one (despite the warning signs) they died with NOTHING to do. Even if the PCs fail to find the secret door, they can defeat the Black Skeleton and two of them can take refuge in it's sarcophagus.

I definitely feel like the danger is communicated, but it's not complete Gygaxian F*ckery, or even later Paizo F*ckery. Presumably if you're interested in a dungeon like this, you're at least somewhat into other major modules like Temple of Elemental Evil.

Level 1: The Lair of the "Dung Monster"

The Dung Monster is a mutated mimic (CR 6). It has DR 25/+5, SR 50, and regeneration 5. You're not supposed to win. If you manage to contain the creature, it's supposed to always be free within 1 day. With a SPD of 10 feet, you're supposed to run. As a player I remember fighting it. There's Green Slime in the entrance chamber (1-1). So we dissolved the thing. The GM determined that it'd come back anyway because the module said it would. I don't think that's fair, but we felt good about defeating it. Fun times.

The stairs to level 2 includes a Wererat ambush. Five wererats and 20 dire rats. Ouch.

Encounter Modification
If the party is of a low experience level, this ambush will destroy them. In that case, the wererats simply spy on the party and follow them, hoping to loot their corpses when they meet their untimely end elsewhere in the dungeon. Filaar and Jarvik are intelligent enough not to waste their dust and poison arrows on obviously weak parties. If the party is low level but has a large number of humans, Filaar orders the wererats to attack with normal arrows, saving their poison arrows and her dust for more deserving targets, allowing the 20 dire rats to attack. Her hatred for humans prevents her from allowing them to pass unharmed.

There's a heckuva lot of danger in level 1, but definitely not a lot of boredom. The challenges seem extremely dangerous for a party that doesn't play tactically, and even with optimal play there's a lot of reason to suspect that characters may die or get so hurt they have to withdraw from the dungeon to recover.

Compared to tWLD, there's a lot more treasure. In the third room you can find a +1 keen shortsword and a scroll with 3 arcane spells. My gut says that players will feel better about the haul - it definitely seems more fair. It may be just as deadly, but at least you get something for surviving!

Level 2: Marthek's Place and Ambro's Base
This level has a madman (Barbarian 6) and an ogre. The real threat is a Skeletal Warrior Ftr 8/Blackguard 2. If you defeat him, he has a +2 holy large shield of blinding.






The last room (2-22) of the level has an army of ghouls and ghasts (21 ghouls and 6 ghasts, less any defeated as wandering monsters). They've been responsible for the defeat of numerous low-level parties (not surprising) so have decent treasure - more than 2k GP, two MW Steel Shields (large and small), a MW heavy mace, a MW shortsword, a MW morningstar, a silvered dagger, a mighty composite shortbow (+1 STR), 18 +1 arrows, a keen punching dagger (somehow missing a magical bonus), a +1 keen throwing axe, and a +2 warhammer. Plus a few more potions and several suits of regular armor.

I honestly don't remember how much of the dungeon we did on our first go. I don't think R2 had been published yet, and I think we needed to withdraw to lick our wounds.

This is far from a perfect dungeon, I'm sure, but it's been more fun to read than anything in tWLD up to this point. Maybe it's just they don't have to justify trying to squeeze everything in, and they feel a little more freedom to develop interesting encounters. Maybe it's that each area is small enough so that players can get a taste but they're able to move on before they're sick and tired of the same thing over and over and over and over again.

Back when I was in Middle School, I built a dungeon that was a Dwarven Mine that had been taken over. For the sake of realism, there were 'living quarters' for the hundreds of Dwarves who called the place home. Exploring that area which really didn't have ANYTHING interesting was tedious and I learned that it's not really important to have those things. But they at least MADE SENSE in the context of the history of the dungeon - tWLD fails even in that. There are no guardrooms, no conference rooms, no Celestial apartments. The main GM said that he always puts those places behind a door that the PCs can never get through - not a solution that I'm really fond of - but even though this is a 'big dungeon', each level has felt 'self-contained' and 'manageable'. I'm actually tempted to run this...

[deaddmwalking]

Level 3: "Beware the Purple Worms

The danger level gets crazy high on level 3. There are CR 10 Purple Worms, pairs of CR 5 Umber Hulks, trios of CR 6 trolls, a CR 12 Rakshasa. The Rakshasa has an elaborate trap that involves the PCs interacting with an illusory battle, then covering the cleric with an illusion of a Vrock while he takes the illusionary form of the cleric, thus tricking the party into killing their own member. I'm pretty sure that's all bullshit not supported by the rules, so I'm feeling that we're definitely into some Gygaxian style dickery, but it's at least interesting.

Level 3A: The Well - Zelkor's Lair
Zelkor led the forces of good pursuing the evil cultists, but has since been corrupted and become a Spectre (not a lich as the rumors suggest). As a Wizard 9, CR 13, backed up by a pair of CR 10 Iron Golems, he's pretty scary. Nobody needs to go through here, but with cloudkill as a prepared spell, minimum 7th level seems right, and probably higher.

Thoughts So Far
There's a point where PCs are going to be powerful enough to make a dungeon like this a cake-walk. There's also a point where players, even optimized, are not going to be able to play here. With the smaller regions there's not really a way to level-up appropriately between levels. As a result, this isn't really a dungeon you could go straight through. Making the level-ranges of the levels much smaller would help a lot. On the other hand, all the creatures of a particular CR tend to start feeling very similar. Having WILDLY DIFFERENT CRs definitely keeps things from feeling repetitive.

[deaddmwalking]

Level 4 A: The Basilisk Caverns

Level 3 had a difficulty of 8, and 3A had a difficulty of 9. 4A is down to a Difficulty Level of 5. The level has basilisks and rust monsters, creatures that are not part of the evil conspiracy that runs most of the dungeon. Where there are basilisks, there are petrified adventurers. The module includes stats for a 5th level Fighter with appropriate gear who will throw in with the party if rescued. The level also has a goblin warband (from level 12A) with multiple leveled characters interested in negotiation - they want to avoid the basilisks but have gotten boxed in. Compared to tWLD, the tactics that they use seem effective and make good use of their equipment.

R2: Rappan Athuk 2 The Dungeon of Graves: The Middle Levels

This book includes the same intro text as the original module, plus some additional rumors. It does not have an Appendix with monster stats as R1 did.

Unlike R1, this module does not contain a Monster Appendix, since it is presumed all DMs have access to the official rulebooks

That does mean that creatures that are unique to this book are printed where they're first encountered and if they were to be encountered again you'd have to find it. That said, I'm not sure that a 'unique monster' is repeated - most of the wandering monsters are pulled from the SRD and there is a 'abbreviated stat block' - enough to run the creature in most cases.

Maps are a full page, except Level 9 which is printed on the inside cover. Unless you remove the module pages from the cover you can't look at the whole map at once. One of the maps isn't labeled at all (the first one in the middle of the book). Hopefully it'll be obvious when it is needed. The maps do include a grid overlay so you can judge squares. No scale is given, but beds appear to take up half the length of a square, so assuming they are supposed to be 10' is probably right.

Level 4: The Upper Temple of Orcus (Difficult Level 7; 10 or higher if the evil temple is assaulted)

There are three temples of Orcus included in the module. While this is the FIRST, players might assume it is the ONLY. The primary opposition are Priests of Orcus. DMs are encouraged to run them effectively.

DMs should play the priests and other temple guardians as if they were the DM's own characters. This major encounter area within these catacombs should not be an easy quest nor softened for the meek. As they encounter extraordinary danger, several PCs may die. The survivors' sense of accomplishment must be high, once the priests are defeated, or the point - that this is but one of three temples and that greater challenges await discovery - will be missed!

Each of the temples has a shrine that players should Consecrate. Each shrine eliminated weakens an Aspect of Orcus that makes up the dungeon's finale. The Temple itself has an EL of 15 and includes a CR 13 Vrock, a CR 9 Spectre-Wizard, 6 CR 5 Clerics, and 12 CR 2 Clerics. I really don't know what they mean by 'danger level' at the front of each chapter.

Level 5: Banth's Lair and the Wight Catacombs (Difficulty Level 9)

Research laboratory of an evil wizard who likes experimenting with flesh-craft. Besides wights and the wizard, there are flesh golems, and horrible animal experiments.





All of the wizard lab is behind a hidden door, and parties could blithely walk right through and find a stairs to a lower level. While this comprises one 'level', there is a major elevation difference between the left and right halves of the map. Somehow a pit trap on the left is supposed to dump you into a room on the right, implying that they're directly above each other. Nothing in the map (or that I saw in the room descriptions) indicates that should be possible.

Level 6: The Maze Difficulty Level 8

This infamous level, the subject of cautionary tales spoken of in hushed tones by adventurers, proved fatal to a group of powerful adventurers that got lost and starved to death. Few monsters (other than random wanderers) populate this level. The chief difficulty offered by this level is its numerous, insidious, shifting, sliding, teleporting maze sections. This maze foils even magical attempts to discern the proper route - as a passage, correct a moment ago, shifts, diverting the party into a random new direction. Level 6 contains only two difficult encounters: the will-o'-wisps and the undead storm giant, Kor, in the Hall of Ereg Tal. But even these trials are avoidable. The maze is not.
DM Notes This is a very critical level. Area 6-15 offers the only means to reach Level 7, which in turn accesses Levels 13 and 15. To completely eradicate the evil of this dungeon, stalwart adventurers must eventually visit these levels; therefore they must navigate this level. Also several Level 6 features were described in the rumors section of the Introduction - including the infamous "white corridor" the "mushroom of youth" and, of course, the entrance to "Hell".

Okay, the map for Level 6 has numbered rooms (as usual) and 'maze sections'. The unlabeled map included is a sample maze with turning rooms, teleport traps, and sliding rooms. Only one sample maze is provided, meaning the same maze can be used in all of the 'maze segments' OR GMs should create their own maze segment.

Something like this can be an exercise in frustration, but with the GM being empowered to handle the maps, it's easier to modify the frustration level. Literally handing your players a few downloaded mazes and letting them navigate through (with encounters for wrong turns/change maps) could work.

[deaddmwalking]

I've just noticed that the read-aloud text that was clearly noted in R1 is missing in R2.

Level 7: The Gates of Hell (Difficulty Level 12)

The book advises that players not advance to deeper levels if they can't handle the dangers of this level, which primarily consists of mind flayers. This also has teleporters throughout the dungeon. That was a feature of one region in tWLD, but all of them worked randomly. Each of these work to take you to a specific location. There are six teleport sites; however depending on which direction you approach from they may teleport you to a different location. Since it's repeatable, it's mappable, and therefore not a major impediment. And since the entire level is about 20 actual rooms, it's small enough that getting lost isn't really possible.



Reminds me of this

So the opening text for this chapter explained that this level has the only connection to Level 13, and Level 13 contains the only entrance to Level 15. The only way to get to level 13 is to obtain a key, and the only way to obtain a key is to visit the 'Pillars of Sacrifice'. There are three pillars and PCs are given the option to 'give of their... a)life, b)heart, c)mind costing a) one level of experience, b) one permanent point of Wisdom, or c) one permanent point of Intelligence (no saving throw). Once again I feel like we've crossed over a threshold into Gygaxian Dickery. Correction, that secret door leads to Level 12 which has two alternate entrances. But that doesn't make it better.

And there's more dickery, too.

In this dungeon is a 3-step Ziggurat, and at the top of the Ziggurat is a book in a protective golden dome. No magic can reach the book. The idea is that a divine character class (cleric, druid, paladin) can walk up the steps and read the book. Each step includes a 'test'. Characters are only allowed to take the test once, ever. Each step includes one part of the test, and if they fail, they get flung from the Ziggurat like they failed to cross the Chasm of Doom.





So what are the questions? The first two are multiple choice:
1) Where is the seat of faith, the mind, the soul, or the sword?
2) From whence is the faithful protected: resistance, forgiveness, or acceptance?

Now there's no indication of which god(s) designed this, and in a universal sense there are at least legitimate arguments to be made for each answer. If you take 'the sword' to mean 'actions', it might be a stretch to say that actions CREATE faith, but there are some who argue that. Fulfilling the RITUALS leads to understanding which leads to FAITH. Likewise, you could argue that 'the mind' means a conscious choice, and that choosing to surrender yourself to a calling and make a COMMITTMENT to faith is the critical act. But the 'real answer' is 'soul'. Hope your Druid player went to Necromancy Games Theology School! For the second question, you could argue that the faithful are protected by the actions of people like the characters, fighting against evil. Some people believe that when you look too long into the abyss, the abyss seeps into you. Forgiveness for the wrongs visited upon you is a balm for your soul - if you hunger too long for revenge it will twist you to...the Dark Side (TM). But apparently Acceptance is the right answer. If the PC imagines the question as 'a horde of zombies are coming to attack the town, what do I do', I'd say acceptance is the wrong answer. It's not clear that it's specifically acceptance of DIVINE will, and considering that there's always an EVIL GOD for every GOOD GOD, aren't they supposed to CHAMPION their God's goals?

The final step has an illusory skeletal knight. You're supposed to ACTIVELY DISBELIEVE it (make a will save) or PASSIVLEY LET IT STRIKE YOU. You have one round to make a decision, and trying to 'Turn Undead' doesn't count as the wrong decision but anything else (drawing a weapon, casting a spell, etc) does.

This just feels like an exercise in asking players to read the GMs mind (or the author's minds, which is arguably harder).

Speaking of reading the author's minds, I'm going to pick on Area 7-9.

Against the western wall of this otherwise empty chamber is a 10-foot-wide, 5-foot-deep pool of still, black water. The water gives off a faint, minty odor. PCs touching the water with bare skin will feel a slight burn, as if exposing an open cut to a mildly acidic juice. The water radiates moderate abjuration magic.

Any PC who tastes the water finds it refreshing and delicious and must make a Will save (DC20) to avoid gulping down a full quart of the stuff. Immediately casting either a successful dispel magic (15th caster level) or a remove curse can cure the afflicted PC of his desire to drink. After consuming the water, the PC must make a Fortitude save (DC 25) or be cursed with a -4 to all subsequent Will saves. This curse can only be broken with a remove curse, wish, or limited wish.

On the other hand, if a PC removes all armor and/or clothing and immerses himself fully in the stinging water, he receives full immunity to all mind blast attacks for the next week. Unaware of this benefit, the PC notices only a strong tingling sensation in his scalp for the next 20 minutes.

In my mind, the only possible purpose of something like this is to see if players have read the module after they asked you not to. Why would anyone want to go swimming naked in the water that they probably just found out was cursed? If the PCs wanted to 'investigate', not a SINGLE GOD-DAMNED option is given. The magic radiates Abjuration magic and a curse is probably Necromancy, so maybe there's a clue that there's another function, but there are bullshit magic rules all over this level where things don't work like they should, so who's to say if this isn't another one. What would identify do? How about Legend Lore?

For an adventure like this, you want the players to find stuff. You don't want to make it too easy, and you want them to feel smart, but if the GM can't figure it out, how can the players hope to? There's nothing in the above description to explain how the water picked up magical properties, so nothing to connect to a clue that there's something to discover. This is similar to my criticism of a lot of traps - many of them don't involve PCs making any choices or INTERACTING in any way. PCs can interact with the water, but it's all vague and requires the GM to make a call on the spot which defeats the point of having a module in the first place.

Moving on.

Level 8: Caves and Caverns - the Tomb of the Evil King (Difficulty Level 9)
Entrance from Level 6A

While it's not entirely bad that this is not a strictly linear adventure (you must go from level 1 to 2, from 2 to 3, etc) it's definitely true that you don't know which level you're heading to (or which ones you've missed). While the levels roughly correspond to depth below ground we know that there's enough space between levels for Purple Worms to be digging around, so who's to say if you calculate your depth you know whether there's a level you bypassed? Since 13 and 15 can only be accessed from 7, there's definitely quite a lot of possible orders you could explore the dungeon, and since the danger level can swing wildly, that's mostly a negative.

This level has a beholder, a pride of manticores, a tribe of goblins, and tombs for a king (now a mummy) and his concubine (now a banshee).

Level 6A: Caves and Caverns - The Lair of the Spider Queen (Difficulty Level 10)

We're taking these in the order they're printed, folks, so I'm as surprised as you are that this wasn't presented earlier. You can get to 6A from level 3, 4, and 4A. And it connects to Level 8, offering a passage to deeper into the Dungeon that isn't 13/15.

So the main opposition on this level is a Female Human-Spider Thing, which sounds a lot like a Drider and probably should be. She's an 11th level wizard (and CR 11) so her special spider abilities like +5 Natural Armor and DR 5/+2 aren't really figured in. Adding 5 levels to a Drider seems easier.

There's also 'naughty trolls' - they use magical items which makes them a little scarier than normal. They have names likes 'Gurang the Speedy Troll' and 'Zoobing the Scary Troll', and now I wish they had names like 'Baby Troll' and 'Ginger Troll'.

Next up is Level 7A, another out of order level, apparently. Two strikes for the layout editor.

[deaddmwalking]

So the title of this chapter involves a proper noun - Kazleth - which we've never really seen before and probably won't remember after this is over. Previously I mentioned that there are spells that a party might try to use that would give information about the dungeon, and it'd really be handy to have a 'major NPC list' that included something like: name, race, level, CR, expected location. It's okay if we have to look up the stat block - not only would this help us if we were looting these modules for encounters outside of the dungeon, it'd help us as we prepare for the adventure without having to memorize everything. I have enough trouble with my children's names; trying to remember an Alphabet-soup of random-name-generator syllables isn't worth my time.

Level 7A: The Hall of Kazleth, the Phase Minotaur King (Difficulty Level 10)

You can get here from 3A or 4A.

Like 4A, there is a band of goblins trapped on this level, unable to return home (level 12A). The main opposition is a Minotaur and they've gotten lost and won't go through his territory to return home. Their plan is to capture a weak looking PC, and hold them ransom for slaughtering the minotaur. I'll point out that giving their prisoner back to the person that just killed the minotaur proving that they're EVEN MORE OF A THREAT isn't a great idea.

This map, like 6, uses several 'maze sections' that aren't actually defined, but can have the one sample maze map slotted in. Since that's turning out to be a pretty commonly used feature, there probably should be SOMETHING to help with that. This would have been perfect for a web-extra. Randomly combining various twisting/turning random generator prompts might have been too tricky, but I think it would have been warranted.

There's a well-hidden tomb that includes a Crimson Death (CR 10). It looks like the creature is original to this module.

Level 9A: Caves and Caverns - the Hydra's Lair (Difficulty Level 12)

You can get here from 4A (river tunnel) or 7A.

This area is a 'nexus' leading to the Goblin City (12A). This is the map on the inside cover (front and back) and apparently is supposed to have a room that is several miles wide - thus the grid is VERY MUCH USELESS. In addition to creatures that are generally friendly to the goblins (including 48 Gargoyles) there's another very well hidden tomb, this one with a CR 18 Death Knight. If you kill him and start looting his treasure you may find a demi lich, which then attacks you, which is a second CR 18 encounter before you've rested. It's unlikely to actually happen, though, since the demi lich is in a Leomund's Secret Chest and you need to find the secret to opening it (playing a specific melody requiring a Perform 30 check).

There's a special mithril gate (only access to Level 11) that can be opened with a wish or miracle, or figuring out the religious significance.

Hecate, the lawful neutral goddess of magic, accepts only virgin priestesses as her clerics. Hecate's priestesses are always dual-classed female wizard/clerics. Infamous for her strict and very unforgiving nature, Hecate requires that her priestesses dedicated themselves to the quest for knowledge and nothing else. Once a priestess commits any violation of those devotional precepts, she loses one level in each class. Serious trangressions (like those of Akbeth) result in a loss of all powers and other perils (like being turned into a statue). Numerous male wizards worship her, and she sometimes blesses them with knowledge beyond that normally attainable by mortals. Her symbol is a many-headed hyrda poised before a flaming sphere.

I can see why Hecate has no followers. Dual-classing Wizard/Cleric isn't really a good idea and choosing a deity that is extra likely to dick you over for no reason is not wise. Does it even make sense that a god of knowledge would forbid carnal knowledge? And giving men special bonuses seems pretty skeevy in the extreme. I think I'm going to have more to say about that after I learn who Akbeth is. Incidentally, I had to go back and read Kazleth's name (the Minotaur) to make sure that it wasn't the same person. Kazleth, Akbeth, like, they're easily confused. Maybe K sounds like Cow, that's for Minotaur. A is for asshole.

Anyways, there are several prayers, one of them written in doggerel verse, and if you figure out that you need to pour a healing potion or holy water through the gate it will open for a bit. The gate contains the 12-headed Pyrohyrda that the level is named for, but wielding a holy symbol of Hecate is enough to get it to leave you alone.

Also on this level are a mated pair of Shadow Dragons (CR 15, CR 12). While described as guarding the entrance to the goblin city, they're really in another chamber. And that's R2.

[deaddmwalking]

Rappan Athuk 3 The Dungeon of Graves: The Lower Levels

This is a significantly thicker book than the first 2, with 109 numbered pages. It has similar opening material, but I've actually read their description of 'Difficulty Level' - apparently it's the AVERAGE level of difficulty for the level. So I guess if I have a CR 4 and a CR 14, the AVERAGE is 9. Which is beyond useless. Average can be used to hide a lot of things. Like did you know the average person has fewer than 2 legs? Clearly highest CR/EL should be disclosed because that's really what determines how difficult a fight is. I don't think CR made it to the SRD but if memory serves a EL of Average Party Level +5 is 'overwhelming'.

We get a half dozen more rumors, and about a dozen maps that basically appear hand-drawn and each on a full page. There's one page that has 3 maps - they're really too small to be helpful even though they're supposed to show parts of different levels bigger maps would be better. They are reprinted as half page inserts in the relevant parts, and those are actually possible to read. The last map includes a maze that looks like it was pulled from a kid's menu. There's also a another 'maze segment' as an insert in one map that includes random teleporters. There's a big blurb about how this module has been killing people for 20 years and nobody has defeated 'the master' yet. We'll look into why that might be!

There's an Appendix for this one, and it includes new creatures. There's Orcus, another major demon, a banshee (presumably different than the one included in R2 and different from the SRD) [edit apparently there isn't one in the SRD, and this appears to be the same as R2], and a couple of really low CR monsters (a fungus-man and a gas spore).

Level 9: The Lower Temple of Orcus (Difficulty Level 12)

You can get here by going down the river in Level 1, or stairs from level 7A. At the room you enter, there are two stairs going down (to 10, and 11A) so it's possible to keep going to a lower level without realizing that you should handle this level first???

This level contains the second of three power centers for the evil temple of Orcus in the dungeon of Rappan Athuk. Just as Zehn rules Level 4 with an iron hand, so does Gudmund rule this level. If the PCs are to have any hope of expunging the evil forces of this place, they must first succeed in the destruction of this temple. Gudmund keeps a stable of servant creatures near the temple. Minotaurs haunt the maze area, and a large pack of displacer beasts are kept fed and happy in the caves. A herd of gorgons lives in yet another area. Worse encounters are hidden in the temple as well

The level is mostly a straightforward search for the temple, followed by killing the high priest (cleric 12) and a Glabrezu (CR 15). If PCs don't head directly to the temple they can get lost in a maze and have to fight a bunch of minotaurs and gorgons before they fight in the temple (with everyone alert and ready for them).


Level 9B: The Well of Agamemnon, Upper Level (Difficulty Level 10) and Level 9C: The Well of Agamemnon, Lower Level (Difficulty Level 12)

So before Orcus's followers showed up, someone worshipping Hecate had something going on. Agamemnon is a servitor of Akbeth, who we know 'fell' and was imprisoned behind the mithril gates, but we haven't gotten to that level yet. If we go through this level, we can't go back unless we get all the way through. One of these 'and the door closes behind you' things.





To get out of the combined area (9B, 9C) you have to find the tomb in 9C and retrieve a sword for the tomb. There's a whirlpool between the two areas with anti-magic on it, so you have to non-magically cross the pool without getting sucked down and destroyed forever.

Oh, and apparently Akbeth is a priestess and Agamemnon became her lover. Akbeth fell but Agamemnon (an annoying name to write) didn't. He built the gates and sealed his former lover in as he remained true to the goddess, until he didn't. I guess he was trying to figure out the secret of immortality (maybe to save Akbeth) but settled on becoming a vampire instead.

So you fight him with his +4 Longsword that also provides a +4 luck bonus and a personal globe of invulnerability. The story is he was an 18th level wizard, but became a 16th-level wizard when he became a vampire. Once the PCs have the sword they can go back several rooms to a room with a door hanging in the air. Holding the sword they can open the door and step through into a cave miles from the above-ground entrance of the dungeon.

[Thaluikhain]

A ton of their minis are from Reaper (a company that I like and one that I have literally thousands of their miniatures. I'm pretty sure that the STL rewards are from someone else. Look at the ridiculous scale of the clutched scroll in this mini:

Ok, a bit late to this, but are you sure that's supposed to be a scroll and not a rolled up carpet that they are carrying for some reason?

[deaddmwalking]

With this book, I'm not really sure of anything. I think there's a real lack of editorial control.

From the post with this picture:

Longtail the Wererat Sorcerer
A cunning manipulator with infernal ambitions, Longtail opened a gateway to a prison of fiendish beasts and lost control of what came through. His miniature captures his hybrid form in mid-transformation, robes swirling, casting hand alight with arcane power. Longtail isn’t just a foe, he’s a warning of what is to come.

This is the original stat block:

Longtail, Wererat [hybrid form] Sor 7: CR l O; Medium humanoid
(human, shapechanger); HD ld8+2+7d4+14; hp 41; lnit +4: Spd 30 ft.,
AC 19 123 with shield spell), touch 14, Oat-footed 15; Base Atk +3; Grp
+4: Atk +9 melee (ld4+l/l9-20, masterwork dagger); Full Atk +9 melee
(ld4+ l /19-20, masterwork dagger) and +4 melee (ld6 plus disease,
bite); Space/Reach l 0 ft./5 ft.; SA Curse of lycanthropy, disease;
SQ Alternate form, damage reduction 10/silver, low-light vision,
rat empathy, scent, spells; NE; SV Fort +6, Ref +8, Will +8; Str 13,
Dex 18, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 13, Cha 17 121 with eagle's splendor).
Skills and Feats: Bluff+ 13, Climb + 13, Concentration+ 12, Diplomacy +4,
Hide +5, Knowledge (arcana) + 12, Listen +4, Move Silently +5, Spellcraft
+ 12, Spot +5, Swim + 13, Survival +3; Alertness (when Achsyyx within 5'),
Craft Wand, Dodge, Improved Familiar, Iron Will', Weapon Finesse
Alternate Form (Su): A wererat can assume a bipedal hybrid form
or the form of a dire rat.
Curse of Lycanthropy (Su): Any humanoid or giant hit by a wererat's
bite attack in animal or hybrid form must succeed on a DC 15 Fortitude
save or contract lycanthropy.
Disease (Ex): Filth fever-bite, Fortitude DC 15, incubation period l d3
days, damage l d3 Dex and l d3 Con. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Rat Empathy (Ex): Communicate with rats and dire rats, and +4 racial
bonus on Charisma-based checks against rats and dire rats.
Sorcerer Spells Known (7 / 7 / 7 /5; DC 13 + spell level): 0-----acid splash,
daze, detect magic, light, mage /,and, ray off rost, read magic; l st-detect
secret doors, expeditious retreat, magic missile, shield, sleep: 2nd-blur,
eagle's splendor', invisibility; 3rd-dispel magic, fly.
'' Long tail may cast an additional l st level spell and the DC of all
spells increases by +2 while eagle's splendor is cast.
Skills: A wererat in rat or hybrid form uses its Dexterity modiner for
Climb or Swim checks. It has a +8 racial bonus on Climb checks and can
always choose to take 10 on a Cl,mb check, even if rushed or threatened.
Equipment: Bracers of armor +3, masterwork dagger, goggles of night,
wand of color spray (DC 14, 9 charges).

There is no other treasure except the room furnishings, which are limited to: A small bedroll, backpack, and a continual flame candleholder are the only furnishings in this otherwise cheerless room.

Maybe it's supposed to be his bedroll? I don't think it was painted that way. But no reason a bedroll would have what appears to be a wooden cap with edge highlighting.

I think it's noble that your mind automatically rebels against something so obviously stupid and looks for an explanation - any explanation that would make more sense - but the sad reality is that everything about the World's Largest Dungeon is really more stupid than it seems at first glance and the more you think about it, the more your brain bleeds. Remember the Xill that's enslaved the Tarrasque to free a Pit Fiend to beg for a wish because that's the EASIEST and LEAST DANGEROUS plan he could come up with to get a wish in the first place? After having spent 2 years torturing someone just to find the place? That may not even be the worst plan that keeps getting more and more stupid the more you think about it. Longtail's plan was to break into a prison that nobody has ever escaped from leading a mixed band of distrustful humanoids to find phat loot in a place that doesn't have any treasure at all.

Looking at the first 27 rooms of Region A in detail (out of 115):

Treasure: N/A in Rooms 1-4, 6, 8-11, 13, 15-19, 22-24, 26,
Room 5: Search check DC 26 reveals a small gold ring (20 gp) (finding it also means encountering black mold)
Room 7: a shell necklace made of freshwater shells of various sizes on a leather thong (1 gp); a ceremonial dagger (no value); a ceramic idol of a creature that is a cross between a toad and a lizard (no value).
Room 12: a rusted, normal dagger; a tin drinking cup; a 5-ft. length of chain.
Room 14: a potion of cure moderate wounds
Room 20: seven small pieces of jade (each worth 4d4 x 10 gp)
Room 21: A leather pouch with a deck of playing cards featuring four new suits (sword, fireball, whip, and spider), and a gold ring with an opal inlay (280 gp in value)
Room 25: small block of hacksilver (a chunk of silver from which pieces are cut to pay for items; worth37 sp); a gold nose ring(6gp) threaded through an ore's nostril; a small leather bag with three pieces of lapis lazuli (12 gp each); a Set of well-worn ivory knucklebones (3 gp); a silver and gold bracelet with images of dolphins (75 gp); a small, bright golden feather woven into one orc's
hair (actually a whip feather token ).
Room 27: Aside from the armor and battleaxe, this ore has a pouch with seven bloodstones (30 gp each). Any PC that takes a moment to examine the dagger, or succeeds at a DC 20 Spot check, notices that it is of fine quality and is, in fact, a masterwork dagger.

And it continues like that with seemingly half the treasure being worthless or cursed.

[deaddmwalking]

And here's Rappan Athuk to contrast with. I know that this is a much higher level area, but I promise you, tWLD was stingy on treasure EVERYWHERE.

Level 10: The Lava Pit (Difficulty Level 12)

Entrances: Stairs from Levels 7A and 9

This level contains a huge lava pit, directly connected to a subterranean magma chamber linked to the Elemental Plane of Fire. Due to this link, numerous fire creatures live or visit this area. Great heat emanates from all corners of this complex, as well as to adjoining levels. The area is ruled by a pack of salamanders, evil elemental creatures that serve the demon god Orcus. There are an infinite number of salamanders for the PCs to encounter, as the magma chamber of this level is linked to the Elemental Plane of Fire. The DM should note that a large amount of treasure is present on this level, and should be very careful about letting PCs run off with any of it. Only very clever PCs should be able to escape with any of the gold found here, due to the inherent problems associated with the heat.

The treasure reference is to their treasure room with gold and gems worth approximately 140k gp, and on an island surrounded by lava in plain sight is a suit of +3 chainmail of fire resistance (15), a wand of meteor swarm (12 charges, cast at 20th level), and a +4 flaming greatsword.

The entire complex is 19 numbered rooms.

[deaddmwalking]

So, as is my wont I read a few other reviews after I felt I had a sense of the product. This allows me a check to see if I've missed anything critical or re-evaluate if I've been particularly unfair.

I learned from looking for other reviews that they Ran a kickstarter in 2012 to update to Pathfinder and Swords & Wizardry Rules. They ran another Kickstarter in 2018 for 5th edition rules. It sounds like they've added content each time. There was also a compilation edition under 3.5 rules published in 2006 that also has a significant expansion in material.

I have been able to find a PDF of the Reloaded edition and have taken a quick look at it. It does appear that the maps have been updated - while they keep the general aesthetic, the grid lines are much clearer and everything is laid out better (or at least I think so).

I also found out that they have an ongoing Kickstarter ending in 5 days for their own RPG.

This one seems likely to be similar to Reaper's Dungeon Dwellers in many respects (a 5th edition hack designed to bring back some 1st edition nostalgia) but probably with more people working on it. I'll be reading up on it this week but with it coming to an end soon, thought it was worth mentioning.

[deaddmwalking]

It's pretty big, but a picture being worth a thousand words, here's a side-view of Rappan Athuk from the 'Reloaded' version.







Level 10A: The Great Cavern (Difficulty Level 12)

This appears to be titled 'the Giant Cavern' on the map above. My map has 42 numbered locations, but MOSTLY it's a fairly open chamber with some side-chambers. In addition to another purple worm and some established encounters (including a Beholder), the fact that the chamber is open is supposed to attract wandering monsters which include umber hulks, trolls, gargoyles, ghouls and mostly other low-level threats. I think the Beholder is the biggest surprise, since WotC claims it as product identity. Under the Open Game License it does say it could be used with a separate license, but I don't see anything indicating it was 'used with permission'.

Designation of Open Game Content: The following material is hereby designated as Open Game Content and may be Used pursuant to the terms of the Open Game License: all creature, character, item, spell, town, deity and trap "stat blocks" including the stat blocks of any such creatures, characters, items, spells, towns, deities, and traps original to this adventure module, except for those specifically designated as Product Identity, above, as well as all attribute, skill, feat, spell, creature, item, map, and deity names, except for those specifically designated as Product Identity, above.

The Beholder character name, Villix, is designated as Product Identity, but specifically not the stat block.


I think it's possible to have something very similar to a beholder, but if you're using the Open Game License....

Hidden on this level is the entrance to an extradimensional demi-plane for an arch-lich who also has a major artifact - a sword named Demonbane that may be useful when fighting Orcus.

Level 11: The Waterfall and Akbeth's Grave (Difficult Level 9)

While this is primarily the final resting place of Akbeth (the fallen cleric/wizard priestess of the goddess of magic) there's another beholder here, too. The module provides no information on what the priestess did, but whatever it was, it caused her to be turned into a Ruby Statue. There's something about looting a magical ring from the statue, but nothing else. Nothing about breaking the curse, freeing her, etc. And sure, it's supposed to be a divine curse so that should be PRETTY HARD to do anything about, but probably not IMPOSSIBLE. As stupid as alignment is in all kinds of ways, how do you royally piss off a Lawful Neutral god of magic?

There's an altar to Hectate (goddess of magic), and if the players restore it, they get some divine benefits. Seems like they should be able to leverage those divine benefits (automatic save among other things) to protect themselves from being smote (smitten) by Hectate if they try to help the priestess. Sorta a Dogma situation.






I mentioned on the last level a lawful weapon for killing Orcus; this level has a similar Chaotic weapon. Demonclaw is an intelligent weapon, and as such will either select or reject a bearer based on alignment (it will only accept a chaotic bearer. That seems awfully RIGID for a Chaotic blade.

Level 11A: The Gates to the Goblin City and the Vampire Lair (Difficulty Level 15)

I remember there was a gate to the goblin city on level 9A. Apparently there's another one, here. But in level 12A, it doesn't refer back to it. But it's got a number and it shows up on the map. The descriptive elements make it easy enough to use, but that's definitely the type of confusion I'd appreciate the authors avoiding. The main opposition is a hidden vampire lair. They have a sword that transmits natural attacks (like vampire level drain).

That brings us to the section of the book with all the maps (starting on page 45) and we pick up next time on the other side with Area 12 (page 60).

[deaddmwalking]

Level 12: The Slave Pits (Difficulty Level 13)

This level has prisoners who will be sacrificed to Orcus. Potentially this might be a way to give players who were defeated another bite at the apple, as they engineer their escape. There are 25 numbered rooms and several NPCs of low-to-mid-level. They must have cut one prisoner because the most powerful is described as being in cell R (which does not exist) and is instead in cell Q. The most powerful are 10th (wizard) and 12th (paladin). Killing everyone on this level is pretty easy to justify and it ends with a fight with priests of Orcus who may summon a Balor. This temple of Orcus doesn't seem to be one of the three that can be used to reduce his power.

Level 12A: Grezneck (Difficult Level 12)

The goblin city this chapter details is unusual for The Dungeon of Graves in that it is not necessarily a dangerous place for the PCs to explore. In fact, depending upon how the PCs decide to deal with the locals, it could serve as a place to rest, prepare spells, and even trade in some hard-won treasures. Should the PCs grow hostile, however, Grezneck, like all of Rappan Athuk, quickly becomes inhospitable and deadly. This is a roleplaying level. If the PCs take the time to get to know the natives, they may learn of a curse that has befallen the city. A laernean pyrohydra, sent by the goddess Hecate, has taken up residence in the northernmost
cavern. Slaying this beast endears the PCs to the goblin priests and the citizenry of Grezneck.

On the other hand, they just made a big deal about how the goblins are just torturing people on the last level before they sacrifice them to Orcus. Still, there's a lot the PCs can do here besides kill everyone - including using it as a shopping mall. This city is connected with the Underdark. That said , there isn't really anything about good shopping locations, or even a city stat block with 3.x style spending limits. I appreciate that they made the effort and that there is a place for commerce (something sadly lacking from tWLD). A goblin city could potentially be an entire resource book rather than just 47 numbered locations.

Level 13: The Portal of Darkness (Difficulty Level 15)

This level connects to Level 15 (the lowest level and the Finale). There are only 3 rooms, and 6 numbered locations. There are demons that one must bypass, and some puzzles that don't make any sense. In order to pass through the portal to the final level you must cover yourself in your own blood and pass through naked. You can bring your equipment, but it sounds like you won't have it fully EQUIPPED. More on how bad that is shortly.

Level 13A: The Goblin Barracks (Difficulty Level 12)

This level seems primarily to exist to make the goblin city more credible. It's full of low-level goblin warriors and a few leaders. Those leaders are all martials, so this would be a level that players may really consider some goblin genocide.

Level 14: The Chapel of Orcus (Difficulty Level 15)

This is the last of the three temples that have to be destroyed to weaken Orcus. There's a unique CR 18 Demon, priests, shadows, wraiths, and mariliths. So a pretty big fight. Most of the temple is hidden behind a permanent illusion, but I feel like if someone in the party doesn't have true seeing active at all times, they probably shouldn't have even made it this far.

Level 15: The Den of the Master (Difficulty Level All but Impossible)

When you enter this level you have a maze to get through - a menu style maze with only one path through to the exit. When you get to the exit you fight Orcus. Four sets of stats for Orcus are given. There's a CR 30 version (undiminished), a CR 28 version (1 temple destroyed), a CR 25 version (2 temples destroyed) and a CR 22 version (3 temples destroyed).

There's nothing about 'so you defeated Orcus, what does that mean'. You just collect your treasure and move on.

[Thaluikhain]

The names for sections are usefully clear, I guess, but uninspired. "Tomb of the Evil King" leaves a little to be desired, for example.

[deaddmwalking]

So I wanted to take a look at a different (but by no means perfect) mega-dungeon to help get a better sense of what The World's Largest Dungeon could have done better. I don't know if anyone here has experiencing grading, but it's pretty easy to grade a paper when the student understands everything, expresses themselves well, and fully answers the question in an intelligent and knowledgeable manner. It's also easy to grade when a student completely misunderstands the question or doesn't even bother answering. The hard ones are where a student basically has the right answer but they don't show real understanding. From their perspective they have the right pieces, and explaining that they're assembled poorly and include pieces that are completely factually wrong is hard because they don't have a great understanding. The C- student may really believe that they have the same answer as the A student and they lack the context to understand what's missing.





Okay, so let's look at improving Rappan Athuk (in broad strokes) to later talk about improving The World's Largest Dungeon which will take a lot more and really probably never worth doing.

The Story of the Dungeon
This is actually important. So minions of Orcus fled from an army of light, and they both disappeared. The bad guys won. The problem with that is that there's a whole lot of 'stuff' that doesn't really fit with that, and it's not well explained. This isn't too hard to fix.

Step 1
Relatively recently (like 300 years ago), a rebel group against a tyrannical ruler found some natural limestone caverns. They used them to store equipment and avoid a direct confrontation. They created a small number of worked chambers, but basically left things as they were. They won, and their leader became the new king. He decided that his line would be entombed in the caves. Over the years worked tunnels were built to create crypts (including a worked entrance so they didn't have to drag stone sarcophagi through the natural tunnels). With 300 years we should have about 10 generations. The first king of this line were frugal and practical, so they were buried with little wealth. Later rulers were less so; thus some of the tombs have great wealth.

Step 2
The 'army of Orcus' didn't just escape here; they actually started building a temple and the presence of so much evil began to twist the area. People stopped getting buried here, but a contingent of guards were kept to protect the sanctity of the crypt, unaware of the evil growing below their feet. The army of Orcus didn't retreat here, they LURED the good army. It was an elaborate trap. They triggered some massive release of negative energy that killed most of the opponents outright and raised them as undead. The tombs are now tainted, and the Sepulchral Guard now roam the upper levels as black skeletons.

Why do we do that? Well, the first thing is that it gives us a plausible reason why a bunch of undead unrelated to the Orcus priests exist here. We can fill the natural caverns that were used for the rebellion into areas with mundane equipment (long abandoned, but still in good shape due to the caves relative constant temperature and humidity). We can put things like a forge, so PCs can eventually repair (or create) weapons. Once they clear these areas they'll have a relatively safe place to recover to.

Step 3
We accept the goblin city as another 'pre-existing' part of dungeon. They were there when the followers of Orcus arrived. Enslaved or intimidated, they provided the workforce for expanding the dungeon. The presence of Orcus makes things icky, but we expand the role of the city as a metropolitan area connected to the Underdark for trade. A connection to the Underdark gives us a plausible explanation for how a lot of things show up that aren't related to the Temples of Orcus or the burial chambers on the upper levels.

By and large, that lets us start attacking a visual style to each of the Dungeon levels. There's a lot of adjusting the relative difficulty so that for the most part, things get more challenging as you go deeper, and for the most part, you have a sense of what you're getting into due to visual clues.

If we accept that this is a frequently entered dungeon, we have good reason to have various adventurers in various places. We can get rid of a bunch of deity related F-Us and just tie those things into the regular dungeon ecology. Most importantly, we make sure that the players have a way of figuring out this history - either by learning it before they go or getting plenty of clues as they start heading deeper.

There's more to do with developing motivations and giving the party more options to use diplomacy, and setting up some encounters that really sell the whole 'this place twists you to evil if you're not careful'. In addition to each temple making Orcus easier to defeat, they should each be responsible for some 'environmental effect' that can be eliminated by consecrating the temple. Bullshit 'you can't get through the door except in one specific way' get a more explicit magical explanation - they're some type of extra-planar gate and you need the key to go to the right place - digging isn't the right answer. That does mean that some of the nexus of the dungeon isn't physically located directly under the mountain, but that's good. Level 15 wasn't anyways.

Then the Dungeon needs some reason to exist beyond just waiting for PCs to invade. Presumably, in service to Orcus, they're plotting some undead horde type thing. That will let us ratchet up the tension as the PCs discover more of the dungeon they discover more of the plot, and at some point we create a countdown timer so they have some motivation to 'finish up'. Most of the levels can be 'massaged' into the overall story with minimal changes.

So what are we doing, really?
1) Making sure that players have more agency by being able to make more informed decisions about where they're going (including leaving and returning to the dungeon).
2) Making sure that the players have more resources by making sure they have access to resupply and new tools.
3) Making sure the players have more options by making sure that there are alternatives to combat with a variety of the opponents.

So let's apply that to The World's Largest Dungeon

The Story of the Dungeon
The story doesn't really make sense. The Celestials imprisoned, rather than destroying, all of the undead. That's required if you're going to have a chance at putting every monster from the SRD in (since so many of them are undead). You could have plausible justifications why demons can't be killed - there are a lot of stories about them reforming - so imprisoning them rather than killing them could make sense. But basically NOTHING ELSE makes sense in that context. Whole forests dropping from the sky are INSULTING.

So rather than an ancient prison sealed for eternity, let's make it a WORKING PRISON. Let's say that the worst of the worst can be brought there, and that the prison is designed both to keep jailbreakers out (lots of reasons to have traps and guardians) and keep prisoners in (lots of reasons to have wardens and strange monsters). This might make it difficult to get every monster from the SRD in, but they didn't do it anyway, and really, what's the point of having an elf, warrior 1?

If we have an active jailbreak scenario, the various annexes could be in a state of disarray. Basically the prisoners are loose from their cells, but they haven't broken free from the annex. PCs going and restoring order in one annex while the guardians keep the rest from breaking loose justifies a situation where a CR 23 Solar doesn't solve all the problems by himself. Having things broken into annexes gives a chance for rest/recuperation/withdraw and you have an escalation clock as the potential for things to get out of hand increase. And there's a chance that anybody has 'friends on the outside' that could make things worse. You could literally have someone using some type of instantaneous polymorph to turn dire rats into purple worms and justify any creature easily. Then you could focus on making some really iconic combats. Various prison sections could have turned against each other, allowing for options besides just combat.

But if you went that route, you'd absolutely have to toss out ALL OF THE MAPS. They're really bad. Nothing about the structure or placement of connections or 'Regional Situations' is salvageable. Just the kernel of an idea - the dungeon is a prison and it's got a whole lot of monsters.

[pragma]

The best pitch I've heard for fixing the World's Largest Dungeon's plot is changing the purpose of the dungeon to be a zoo (made by an eccentric wizard or something). That explains the one-of-everything design, the insane imported biomes, and if you squint, the tiny localized scuffles look like encouraging each enclosure's inhabitants to play out natural predator prey relationships.

[deaddmwalking]

Yeah, if I were going for every monster I'd definitely approach it as the mad mage's menagerie. It makes a lot more sense and definitely justifies 'enclosures' that emulate natural conditions.

[deaddmwalking]

I keep seeing ads for the World's Largest Dungeon in my news feed, which seems strange since the campaign was supposed to have ended. But apparently you can just add more time to your campaign if you want to. And I guess they wanted to. The campaign now ends on June 27th. Apparently it originally would still have 2 days to go (unless they extended the time previously). It's not too late to make a bad financial decision.

[Dogbert]

Most DMs and PCs aren't going to like this, but it was inevitable. If the
PCs earn XP at the "normal" rate, they'll be 8th level before they leave the
first map. In order to keep this adventure challenging, we had to ignore
that.

The Litmus Test for whether a product is even worth looking at IMHO is "Can this OFFICIAL product work using THE STUPID OFFICIAL R.A.W?" If using THE DAMN GAME breaks your premise, then don't expect me to take either your product (or you, as a writer) even slightly seriously.

[deaddmwalking]

So I've just been reading blog posts by DM David after finding a series of posts where he talked about the origins of Hit Points in D&D. And then I kept reading - falling down the rabbit hole. There's a lot of good stuff, including a bit on the origin of mega-dungeons and Why Dungeons & Dragons players stopped exploring megadungeons, which includes a section on whether MegaDungeons can work today.

In the early days of D&D, a constantly rotating group of players would join for an evening, and the next day they might have a different group that could include some of the same members. The megadungeon minimized prep for the GM, allowing each session to be a loot run, with the impact of prior delves being something that could be tracked, with players moving to a new section of the dungeon. The World's Largest Dungeon doesn't support that type of episodic play.

Anyways, some of DM David's thoughts on how to make it work:

A story-centered game can take PCs into a megadungeon to accomplish more than looting. For instance, when Monte Cook created his superdungeon The Banewarrens, he paired it with overarching plot. Players don’t raid the Banewarrens just to loot. Instead, the story leads to objectives that require missions into the place.

Many megadungeons avoid monotony by introducing levels or zones centered on unique themes such as crypts, flooded sections, or fungus gardens. Even the levels under Castle Greyhawk followed themes that grew more exotic at deeper levels.

A megadungeon design can add intrigue by borrowing a page from The Keep on the Borderlands and adding factions of monsters. Players can join a side or play one against another. Factions under attack will bring reinforcements, creating more interesting battles, and giving players a reason for caution. The stories “Red Nails” by Robert E. Howard and “The Lords of Quarmall” by Fritz Leiber helped inspire the concept of dungeon exploring. Both yarns centered on feuds and intrigue.