The World's Largest Dungeon, Part 2

So it turns out that the internet has plenty of conversations already about The World’s Largest Dungeon (TWLD) being converted into Pathfinder.

Most of it requires nothing more than just running it as written or using the Pathfinder version of a critter. Combat Maneuver Bonus and Combat Maneuver Defense can generally be estimated and is really the only important difference between the 3.0 and the PF versions most of the time anyways. Anything that has PC class levels though will need some conversion, but those aren’t all that much to worry about, other than some possible spell selections being altered.

Overall my biggest difficulty is going to be using Roll20.net to run this. It is a wonderful program for the price that it is (free), but I haven’t directly messed around with it to map out something this intensive. I don’t know if my initial concept of just loading the map files I have is going to work. I may have to individually build each room as its own encounter map.

That’s a totally legitimate solution and everything, but it’s a lot of work. There are 800+ pages in this book and most have 2-5 rooms a piece on them. It can get confusing and painful very quickly if I act like my normal lazy self. I’ll ask to potential Co-DMs if they wouldn’t mind helping out with it. That might make it tolerable.

The next thing to worry about is how to handle the building of characters and the drop-in drop-out nature of this game that’s taking place in a dungeon that’s meant to be a one-way trip to the exit with all your supplies gathered from inside. If the players are different from session to session, how are you supposed to be keeping track of things like Power Points or Spells per day between each section? How do you justify new PCs suddenly coming in with fresh supplies when the party may not have anything customizable available?

These are the some of the questions I really need to figure out answers to. It has the potential to throw off the balance of the game.

I think the best way to handle the swapping players will be to end each session with a full night’s rest for the party in a guaranteed “safe room” so that each session we start off with freshly rested characters. This way we can swap out characters and no one is at a major disadvantage. The supplies thing might be an issue though. I might have to just say that there’s an interdimensional immortal merchant that can offer most of the basic supplies as found in the Core Rulebook between sessions. I’ve got to read through some more to see where there are other merchants available throughout to see if this is potentially game breaking. (Maybe we can justify getting some items by “finding previous adventurer parties’ remains” after or during a session.)

Now, as for what PCs are available. That’s going to be a tougher question. I think sticking with a Point Buy system for stats is the fairest way to do that portion. Races would best be your standard races, maybe a few of the +0 monstrous humanoids/templates. Maybe a few ECL type characters. Everything must be approved though. Starting gold will be the class maximum or appropriate starting wealth when making a higher level character. HP will either be rolled or max, probably max. This dungeon was not designed with gunplay in mind so I think having Gunslinger classes in there might be inappropriate. There may be an allowance for it though in a very limited capacity with very simple firearms and a good build. Other than that potential Gunslinger issue, I’m thinking everything is fair game.

There is a thing about long distance/interplanar travel and summoning in TWLD though. Officially it is designed as a prison for celestial critters and prevents anything from escaping it except through the single exit. So because of this prison status the dungeon doesn’t function well with spells or abilities that call upon extra-planar creatures and abilities. This means that Summoners and Summoning spells might not work right, or that the creatures aren’t banished at the end of spell duration or the summoner loses control of them afterwards. I don’t think that works for casual atmosphere that I’m trying to encourage though. So maybe we’ll not deal with that concept unless someone really wants to be designing someone that would test the limits of TWLD.

I’m not sure how harsh I want to be with carrying capacity because I’m not a fan of it, but in a hardcore, save or die, style adventure it seems like a bad idea to just hand wave it away. So it means we probably will have to give a rat’s ass about it just to be practical and fair.

Now, magic items, rewards and such are going to require more research and an answer to the immortal merchant question.

I think that’s a good start. We’ll see if this one goes anywhere…