Last time on Making a Megadungeon I went over the lore and setting which will inform my design choices thematically.
This time: I'll be using the tarot generation system built into Worm to figure out how the different larger dungeons will fit together, where connections lead, and maybe even be inspired for dungeon themes by the major arcana. If you'd like to follow along, you can download the Underworld chapter for free here!
Tarot generation goes like this:
1. Draw major arcana cards equal to the number of dungeons you want in your megadungeon. The book suggests five and that feels like a good number to me but I'd also maybe like secret dungeons that can only be accessed by finding a secret on a floor above or something I can hard lock off to create a sense intrigue in the players (ie. a big fuck off door that will not budge and sit in the players' minds until they can find a way to open it). With all this in mind, I'll pull 7 cards.
2. Place the card with the lowest number onto the table, this will contain the main entrance from the surface. My lowest card drawn was III. The Empress so that is my first floor.
3. If there are any cards drawn numbered I-V then those are also placed perpendicular and also contain entrances to the surface. Most megadungeon advice I've seen says that there should be multiple entrances into the dungeon or to different floors of the dungeon, though in my opinion most of them should be secret or require the party to access the floor it shortcuts to first and act as a checkpoint of sorts. In my case, I did not draw any other cards in the I-V range besides The Empress to for now my Underworld just has the one entrance.
4. Decide if each of these other entrances are traversable and known or sealed and secret. We only have the one entrance technically but I like the idea that there are at least two known entrances into the first floor of the dungeon, one is in the basement of a tavern in a rough part of town that is now THE hangout for adventurers. It sounds more grand than it actually is cause adventurers are basically just dirty vagabonds with no sense of self-preservation. This place would probably be loud, full of fights, and basically just a frat house on steroids, a great place for roleplaying and introducing wacky one of characters or even getting the party familiar with the other rival adventuring parties.
The second entrance is MUCH more locked down. In the basement of the Ecclesia Vetus, the main seat of power in my City, is a constructed stairwell that leads down into Dungeon 1, though I'm very keen on making it lead even further since if the players are going to use this entrance they will basically have to break into a very well guarded place. The only other people that use this are sanctioned adventuring parties owned by the church, probably either very devout scholars or priests or real mean son of a bitch inquisitors, possibly violent criminals or hardened soldiers who have been hired as essentially good muscle. A fun idea to backpocket to make a stronger and more antagonistic adventuring party to challenge the players with later.
5. Place the card with the highest number below the entrance card(s), leaving space between for other cards. This is the deepest level. My draw for this card was XXI. The World. Feels pretty thematic that the final level would be this, especially considering what we know is locked down here from the last post on lore creation.
6. Place the rest of the cards between them.
7. Determine connections between the levels.
Alright so I've now got a spread in front of me of seven cards and it looks pretty nice. The chapter also comes with a method to generate connections, this largely works by looking for cards that are physically next to each other, sequential in value, or evenly divisible. I went through all that with my spread and it left me with this:
 |
| Quite the outcome |
The result above is with all possible connections. I have an interest in scaling this back a bit, probably through making some connections secret, locked, or really hard to find. I'm definitely going to be making the III to XXI connection an elevator or teleporter that's both really well hidden and guarded by some big fuck off monster.
And that's it! We now have the bones of a megadungeon that contains an alien entity and sits below a very religious city sprawl.
But I'm not done just yet, the next step is creating maps of the different dungeons and for that we need to actually brainstorm what the dungeons will be.
I've been working at it and here are my ideas thus far.
III. The Empress - The Hanging Gardens/Tower Garden/The Royal Arboretum (can't decide on a name)
An inverted tower tapering downward to the cavern floor built as the foundation of the Ecclesia Vetus. This was a place where the royals of old would come to bask in manicured nature and where royal botanists would study rare plants and cultivate new farming techniques, new soil, and store rare or expensive samples. It was built to be able to grow all kinds of plants from all kinds of different climates and functions through the use of a False Sun built into the cavern roof. Now, several hundred to thousand years removed it is wildly overgrown and being fought over by the fungal infected botanists of old trying to maintain their perfect garden at all costs and the flower nymphs who have a vested interest in watching it grow even further out of control. Just outside of the tower is an area referred to as the Canopy which are hundreds of thick trees twisting around it acting as walkways (think Floor 1 in Dungeon Meshi or Level 2 in Made in Abyss).
X. Wheel of Fortune - The Sunken Capital
The royal palace of the very same royals who would seek out the hanging garden for pleasure. It has fallen into extreme disrepair but an enchantment over it has enabled it to exist in two time periods. In the present, it is rundown and the living place of haughty bourgeois goblins and maybe a Vampire ruling over them. If the players jump through any of the intact paintings Mario 64 style though, they emerge into the palace in it's golden age and it is currently the location of the Eternal Gala. A party that lasts for an eternity attended by only the most important people of the time (1000 years ago). It is very clear to the players and the guards that the PCs do not belong here.
XI. Justice - Belltown
The castle town of the palace, once a hub of lively trade and commerce... it is still a hub of lively trade and commerce, just among the monsters that dwell in the Underworld. Everything is for sale, and everything has a price. Come here to find that house key you lost decades ago, pay for a magic sword with the last memories of your dead mother, and have your fortune divined by a cave witch who totally just altered your life trajectory to make her divination come true. A proper red light district of the underground and every good red light district is the battle ground for a gang war, the gangs down here though are much more violent than the ones above and have control of all of the important areas to go deeper.
XIII. Death - The Caverns (Name pending)
I watched a lot of caving videos and caves scare the shit out of me so you know I had to make a proper cavern crawl. This one has actually been developed quite well and I used Veins of the Earth to make a proper cave crawl. The caves are inhabited by a blind but very proficient race of humanoids called the Olm that are extremely pragmatic. It is also the farming ground for a terrifying creature, the Anglerlich. A false Lich that is cartoonishly evil to attract only the most heroic souls to it's depths so the real monster, a cosmic anglerfish, and consume their spirit.
And that's truly it! I've only really planned out the first four floors in depth so far but now the really hard work begins, actually populating them with interesting rooms, traps, treasures, and creating the MEATGRINDER. More on that later.
Next time: An in depth trip to the hanging gardens.
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