Tags
Dungeon, Fantasy, Kevin Campbell, Maps, Science Fiction, Weird
There is something epic about Kevin’s mapping style. This was one of the first of his maps I saw and it immediately grabbed my attention.
Kevin’ Campbell’s “Dungeon 1”
A few secret doors, some weird corridors, some spikey chambers, and it feels like a massive alien intestinal fortress. Like an adventure in the bowels of an extradimensional god, or in a spaceship designed by some strange organic creature.
Dyson's Dodecahedron 
Are those beds in every corridor? Couches? Desks?
Altars, bookshelves, little pits into other dimensions, hungry trash compactors, video games!
Coffins is what I saw. Being a barrow tomb. Want more security from graverobbers? Secret door tomb. Check.
Definitely a lair in the Old World dedicated to Nurgle, or may a space hulk serving as the floating base for a chapter of Chaos Marines dedicated to him.
It’s very cool and beautiful to look at, but it’s basically just a single line. I would have to make some of those secret rooms into passages through the walls to break the linearity and create some options for looping back and forward. Like the “hidden” shortcuts between the zones in IKEA:
My thoughts exactly. It looks much like the modern MMO map, very much guiding the players exactly where they need to be for the big set pieces (mini-bosses and big boss at the end) with only very short and minor side elements.
It would take the GM forever to explain the details of this map, most of which are irrelevant anyway (to a point where the GM is likely to just say “the walls are steep and irregular is shape, it roughly takes a 30 degree turn to the right”). In addition, any mappers who use a flow diagram method would basically never see the splendour of the map when finished.
Players will likely also tire of the descriptions of the corridor unless it was strewn with traps, because its much easier to just say “we keep walking down the corridor until you tell us there’s a turn or a monster” than having each and every twist and turn described to them so that they could ‘choose’ between going forward or going back.
So, improvements?
Yeah, I’d have defiantly put in more secret passages between the various ‘folds’ of the corridor. This would infinitely improve the map with little changed, monsters can now pop up ahead of you *and* behind you at once – and it lets you avoid trapped zones or ‘static’ monsters if caution if used.
I’d also put a secret exit/entrance in the octagonal room in the bottom right of the map to the outside (probably underneath that central circular thing). This allows you to leave and come back without retracing you steps entirely – it also allows for substantial repopulating of the dungeon behind the players.
The ‘offshoots’ from the main corridor can be made slightly longer (again, I’d use stairs/slopes to nestle these things under the existing corridor if need be – so you can go ahead and just project these ideas onto the existing map) – these offshoots would contain controls/keys for future/previous doors or just treasure. In fact if you make all those ‘beds’/’chests’ littered about the map cells for monsters (or portals etc), then you can tie these controls into opening essential doors, but also opening those cells, which would be interesting.
Which of cause means there should be more essential doors segmenting the main corridor too! Given the theme (intestinal) I’d likely have these doors timed, rather than manually controlled (although near by controls to force them to open for a brief period would be useful, more so if its at the cost of letting out a bunch of monsters). This would at least make the corridor chronologically interesting, even if it was just a straight line otherwise. (To get back we’d need to either wait for 10 minutes at the last door, or run there in 30 seconds, and we’re too encumbered for the latter currently…)
So yeah, it does looks pretty, but for an interesting dungeon map – it needs work. Go head and use any or all of the above to make this map a little more engaging when using it.
Good ideas all. I think some three-dimensionality would definitely be a bonus, with secret passages over and/or under the main passage. It would be a nightmare for mappers, which can be a good thing (occasionally), it would allow looping, and it could lead to some nice Aliens-style monsters-coming-out-of-the-ceiling moments.
If you really wanted some interesting additions that incorporated the third-dimension you should make an overlay map that joins up each of those rectangular ‘chests’/’bed’ things and instead make them vents/holes in the ceiling or floor. Putting the tunnels overhead and traps at ground level will divide attention and make it very difficult to give chase, whilst putting the tunnels underneath allows for flooding and easier blocking of the holes – which will give the players an easier time.
The overlay map (regardless of if its overhead or underfoot) should be quite interconnected, as to to allow small mobile monsters to basically ambush the players anywhere, in addition to drawing reinforcements from high distances.
Ensure the tunnels are tight and hard to move through for the players, so that it’s basically suicidal to chase the monsters through them for any real distance (more so as the honeycomb structure would allow them to be outflanked and cut off easily) and to prevent the players from *easily* using them as shortcuts (but still able to, the risk of entering them should balance against the speed boost they grant).
Combine with timed doors in the main corridor, monsters with ranged attacks, and periodic natural flooding of under-food tunnels with semi-aquatic monsters for real headaches. Should you be *really* evil, map in a few vertical vents running behind the corridor walls to connect both an over and under tunnel system, allowing monsters to strike from all sides at once where several holes are in close proximity.
Claw, what a great idea. I’m taking my local IKEA layout and making it into a dungeon!
Full of zombies, presumably?
Yes, undead shoppers looking for a sales clerk.
A reblogué ceci sur Le joyeux monde des Jeux de Rôles and commented:
Le Donjon du Mardi… Impressionnant ! Sortez vos boussoles….
It looks like intestines. 🙂