Into the Megadungeon
Benjamin Laurence
Recent Episodes
In this special Halloween episode, Ben takes us Into the Megadungeon to interview Miranda Elkins about her Nightwick Abbey campaign--a dungeon literally possessed by a demon. They talk about the secrets of successful restocking, the importance of theme, and how to use geomorphs to craft your dungeon map. They also talk about how to run a horror themed dungeon by externalizing psychology and making metaphor literal.
For access to the full geomorphs for levels 1-3 of Nightwick Abbey, and much more, visit the In Places Deep Patreon here.
Check out Miranda's longrunning blog In Places Deep here.
You can find more extensive reader's note, as always, on my substack, Missives from Beyond the Veil of Sleep here.
You can find a transcript of the interview here.
Music for the episode is "Sticks and Stones" by Samuel Peter Davies, and "The Horror Inside" by Eric Harper.
In this episode Ben takes us into the megadungeon to interview Luke Gearing about his weekly lunchtime megadungeon campaign, as well as his published megadungeon Gradient Descent. They talk about why the dungeon is more fun if every creature is an NPC and how random stocking produces interesting results. They also talk about how science horror gaming differs other genres at the table, and how Gradient Descent turns the dungeon itself into a malignant presence that haunts the players.
You can find luke's blog here.
You can find Sean McCoy's Warden's Operation Manual here.
And, of course, you can find Gradient Descent here.
You can access a transcript of this episode here.
For fuller readers notes, as always, you can travel over to Ben's substack, Missives Beyond the Veil of Sleep here.
The music for this episode is "Sticks and Stones" by Samuel Peter Davies.
In this episode, Ben takes us into the megadungeon to interview Nick L.S. Whelan about two megadungeon campaigns, "Dungeon Moon" and "Five Years Left". They discuss why GMing is so hard and what lessons we can learn from our failures. They talk about why some kinds of prep only increases your anxiety at the table, how the GM's experience can be dissatisfying even when the players are having a good time, and how play is subtly shaped by what we take seriously at the table and what we're happy to let slide.
You can find Nick's blog, Papers & Pencils here.
You can find more about Dungeon Moon here, and play reports for Five Years Left here.
Read about "flux space" here.
Read Nick's fantastic posts about structuring encounter tables here.
You can follow Nick's next dungeon adventure project, Sanctimonious Slime vs. Expired Epicures here.
As always, you can find further reader's notes on my substack here.
The music used in this episode is "Sticks and Stones" by Samuel Peter Davies.
In this episode Ben takes us into the megadungeon to interview Josh McCrowell about his home campaign and his forthcoming megadungeon ruleset, HIs Majesty the Worm. They talk about how we can capture the human element of dungeoncrawling, and Josh gives some vital tips about how to prep megadungeons without getting overwhelmed.
To find Josh's published work, including the draft of HIs Majesty the Worm, and especially Dungeon Seeds, his megadungeon creation toolkit and advice, go here.
To find Josh's blog, Rise Up Comus, go here.
Josh mentions the well-beloved manga Dungeon Meshi or Delicious in Dungeon by Ryōko Kui as an influence on His Majesty the Worm. An anime is coming soon to netflix, check out the trailer here.
As always, for more extensive notes and links, go to my newsletter, Missives Beyond the Veil of Sleep here.
The music used in this episode is "Sticks and Stones" by Samuel Peter Davies.
In this episode, Ben takes us into the megadungeon to interview Gus about his H.M.S. Apollyon campaign. They discuss how a satisfying megadungeon is an experiential space that evokes a sense of place. They explain how to harness history to move beyond bog standard fantasy tropes, and how you can actually make treasure cool.
To find out more about H.M.S. Apollyon, visit Dungeon of Sings here.
For Gus' theory of the procedural crawl, visit All Dead Generations here.
You can find Gus' amazing adventures here.
You can find Anomalous Subsurface Environment here.
You can find Arden Vul here.
And, of course, visit the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites here.
The music used in this episode is "Sticks and Stones" by Samuel Peter Davies
As always, for more extensive notes and links, go to my newsletter, Missives from Beyond the Veil of Sleep, here.