The Culture: A Friendly Panel About Mega-Dungeons

Dunder Moose collaborated with the Women's Division Champion and a few others on to talk Mega-Dungeons last night.

This one is worth watching just to see the discourse.

There's plenty of divergence of opinion between the panelists, but nowhere near too much to have a useful panel discussion. Once you're tired of the sportsball and the last-minute election blather, tune in and hear the quartest give their takes. (If you're pressed for time, turn Speed to 2x.)

The big point of contention comes down to how big of a focus for player attention the mega-dungeon should have.

I'll make this plain: it depends a lot on the game you're playing. AD&D1e? Not so much. ACKS? Not so much. D&D3e? Works great. Palladium Fantasy and most not-D&Ds? Works just fine, even preferable. (Exceptions for Pendragon and those like it, such as L5R, where the focus of play is not on action but on the tension of conflicting virtues- yes, that's how L5R is meant to work because that's how the source material works.)

There is one other thing that I noticed during the panel discussion: the thing that makes this appealing on the tabletop is the strict timekeeping mechanic. If you don't use it, there is nothing that makes tabletop mega-dungeon play better than videogame dungeon-crawling. Be it as old as the original Diablo to the about-to-launch Path of Exile 2, and with games that have you playing a group vs. a solo character, it is not at all surprising to see why most people would find Conventional Play in a mega-dungeon to be boring as fuck when you can get the same itch scratched exactly as you like when you like for (often) cheap or even (for some) free.

And if there isn't something good enough for you, RPG Maker is right there: roll your own.

In short, for the tabletop experience to be worthwhile there needs to be Opportunity Costs that only time itself can impose. Mega-Dungeon or not, this remains the case; without it all other discussions fall apart because you get stuck on "Why do this when (videogame alternative) does it better?"