all 69 comments

[–]WildfireFox 97 points98 points ago

Complexity does not equal good. Playability, and enjoyment equal it.

[–]doombot813 26 points27 points ago

Exactly. I imagine trying to either play through or gm through that. Seems like pure torture!

"Ok, we want to go down this corridor."

"10 feet down, you see the corridor branches to the left and right, and continues forward. And by the way, roll for initiative."

Repeat x 100,000.

[–]felven 9 points10 points ago

This is the reason why I prefer to GM combat and sessions outside and when it comes to dungeons not more than 4-7 rooms or it gets too repeatable.

But still, labirynth from pic looks really amazing.

[–]meech7607 1 point2 points ago

This was how we did it after our first campaign. Our first GM wanted to end his story with a bang, so we had to work our way through a castle. It was four pages, each being a different floor, each floor having at least a dozen rooms. This took our whole six-ish hour play session, and he even ended up flubbing shit towards the ending to hurry it up. We were all getting very bored.

It did however look awesome on paper, much like this does

[–]rasputine 19 points20 points ago

Conversely, complexity does not equal not good. Hell, even playability doesn't equal good. All that equals good is "players continue to look forward to playing it, and the GM hasn't yet gotten blackout drunk".

[–]Owncksd 15 points16 points ago

and the GM hasn't yet gotten blackout drunk

I dunno man. Sometimes that's where the good really starts.

[–]rasputine 11 points12 points ago

I find that happens just prior to blackout drunk. There's this sort of superhuman peak at around .13 BAC. I don't blackout till .15

[–]Peoples_Bropublic 2 points3 points ago

Ah yes, the Ballmer Peak.

[–]Ad__Hominem 1 point2 points ago

Kind of a depressingly short segment if your DM is blackout drunk after two good beers.

[–]mtn_mojo 2 points3 points ago

So wait, I'm not the only GM out there who likes to drink steadily throughout the session? I recently had to take a break from letting myself booze while GMing, since I've definitely had a few sessions where, well, let just say I couldn't keep track of initiative order or ongoing conditions anymore...

[–]mr_wowtrousers 1 point2 points ago

We call this "The Whiskey Warp" . . .

[–]nickcan 6 points7 points ago

Agreed. That thing looks unplayable to me.

[–]transmogrify 4 points5 points ago

I wouldn't want to actually have to explore that, but giving it out as a prop as the party explores some mind-bogglingly vast dwarven kingdom sounds cool.

[–]mirshe 2 points3 points ago

That's what I would do. Have an actual map for the dungeon (maybe a smaller sepulcher or something), but have this as an artifact or prop. Maybe somebody will pay for an ancient map of said kingdom.

[–]2JokersWild 3 points4 points ago

Agreed. That doesnt look at all enjoyable as a PC, and even less enjoyable as the dm. Its mostly just a long series of hallways. Very complex hallways. I'd have no part of it as DM or as player.

[–]BlaineCraner 2 points3 points ago

Fuck that, I still want to see it.

[–]kygan 17 points18 points ago

"So we need to move from here to about half an inch left on this map. How long will that take?" "About a week, if we're lucky sir."

[–]IamSparticles 18 points19 points ago

Man, I hate it when H.R. Giger is DM.

[–]johnnywhite92Pryor, OK 39 points40 points ago

Seven months later and two party members down, they emerge triumphant on the other side. Their bodies are exhausted, their senses dulled, and all they can think of is a tankard of ale and a warm bed. Not to mention the coin that their rare artifacts will fetch. That's when they wake up in one of the shadiest circles of hell: turns out, it was all an escapist "dream", and their real journey is about to begin.

Roll for initiative.

[–]abcd_zWashington State 35 points36 points ago

"...and that, your honor, is when I picked up the shotgun."

[–]doctechnical 7 points8 points ago

...turns out, it was all an escapist "dream", and their real journey is about to begin.

Verily, it is back to the IT tech support lines they are doomed to go.

[–]lordriffington 3 points4 points ago

That's a little too depressing. Can we just make it hell instead?

[–]EV3N 0 points1 point ago

If you work for the right company, the pay can be very good. Apple's campus in Austin comes to mind.

[–]D_Cross_13 13 points14 points ago

Me as a PC:
"Fuuuuuuuuckkkkk."

[–]johnnywhite92Pryor, OK 13 points14 points ago

Me as the DM:

Poker faced save for a tiny twitch of the lower lip... which you believe may have been a subtle smirk.

[–]wienercat 1 point2 points ago

I would quietly stand up. Go to another room, knock something over, and come back. No fucks given.

[–]groinkick 9 points10 points ago

[–]Plarzay 0 points1 point ago

The close ups show they it's actually a lot of single corridors. Seems kinda boring to actually be in.

[–]VGChampion 5 points6 points ago

That's because it's a maze... has nothing to do with pen and paper rpgs.

[–]Plarzay -1 points0 points ago

Exactly. The incompatibility has been noted by now I believe.

[–]szthesquid 4 points5 points ago

That reminds me of the schematics of the Hadley's Hope colony on LV-426. From Aliens.

[–]MonkeyNin 0 points1 point ago

Yes. I was thinking aliens too! Or Borg Cube.

[–]shuzumi 0 points1 point ago

not ordered enough for a cube

[–]InAComaDial999 0 points1 point ago

Exactly. Was going to post "Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen!" but then I figured nobody would get it.

[–]Dongulor 5 points6 points ago

This is too complex to be playable but I was thinking about how a dungeon this insane would come to exist in a fantasy setting..

The PCs come to a specific tomb in the Hills of the Dead, one of many. Maybe a rival flees to hide in the tomb, maybe a local noble hires the party to retrieve a relic from some remote branch of her family tree. There are rumors that the nobles practiced necromancy thousands of years ago, but nobody pays them any mind.

The PCs recover a map. An old vellum scroll from the dessicated body of an adventurer, a Raiders of the Lost Ark-style model on the floor, a lattice of dark angular rooms connected by minute lines barely visible in the middle of a crystal obelisk, a dark orb that imprints passages into the mind of whoever touches, possibly replacing other knowledge. The map; describing a small, simple tomb, turns out to be wholly inadequate.

The wizard/bard/lore master deciphers some of the glyphs on the wall. A Priest-King is laid to rest in the sacred hills, his entire household sacrificed with him. As they venture deeper, the writing becomes more degenerate and eventually disappears. Dwarfs, those raised underground, and skilled masons note that the tunnels that were once perfectly straight passages that ran in mystic alignment with constellations and ley lines have become well crafted, then of average workmanship, then just plain shoddy and dug by brute force rather than skill and dammit I could have done better my first day as an apprentice.

At the deepest point, the old Priest-King, now Lich, still directs his minions to dig. Very few of his original servitors are still "alive"- some were killed in accidents, but most were killed by adventurers or by other forces the Priest-King encountered in his delvings. Maybe he dug into a Dwarven mining shaft or a pocket of Myconids. Maybe the lich attracted the attention of a band of magma elementals trying to force their way to the surface. Maybe there are thousands of years of defeated, undead adventurers. Maybe everything and more over god knows how many centuries of digging. Regardless, the lich has Stone Golems and a pretty diverse array of undead. The PCs fight them and barely win; it took a few sessions and the players feel a good sense of accomplishment.

As they leave the tomb, the bard/wizard/lore master looks at the massive, weathered inscription. It's much easier to decipher with the experience they've gained in the tomb. The inscription says the Priest-King was interred 823 years ago, but as they walk back to collect their reward, he can't help but notice this this is one of the younger tombs. One Priest-King died 1,759 years ago, one 4,831, one 2,197. The size of the huge piles of dirt and broken rock sprawling out of the entrances seem to correspond with the ages, and a particularly observant party member swears the piles are larger then when they entered the tomb.

[–]Fenwick23Los Angeles - 3.5e/Deadlands/GURPS 3 points4 points ago

Argh. That's one way to keep your tomb from being plundered. Make it so that you'd have to be immortal to live long enough to travel to the burial chamber, even if you run the whole way. Anyone capable of getting there probably already has more treasure than they'd get.

[–]cecilkorik 1 point2 points ago

Makes me think of that scene from Spaceballs. "President Skroob: The ship's too big. If I walked, the movie would be over."

[–]Dutch_Calhoun 3 points4 points ago

Nothing to say it all has to played at once. Provided there are convenient exits every now and then, this could be an Underdark-type mega-dungeon stretching out beneath an entire sandbox world. If I was presented with a glimpse of that at the beginning of a campaign I'd feel pretty inspired.

[–]Federalbigfoot 2 points3 points ago

where can I get one?

[–]jackk225 0 points1 point ago

Plot twist: it's the water dungeon D:<

[–]doctechnical 3 points4 points ago

That's nice, but what are we going to have for next week?

:)

[–]MushrooomSamba 1 point2 points ago

Seven years to draw, seven sessions for a properly equipped party to destroy.

Seriously though, it would take my group a lifetime to get through that map, and we'd probably get bored of it 1/100th of the way through and go play something else. Still a damn impressive drawing though.

[–]TryUsingScience 1 point2 points ago

Really cool maze, but I don't see too many rooms there so even if it were smaller it wouldn't be a great dungeon. Unless anyone else has ever found loot in corridors? Although it could be fun to fight something like Tucker's Kobolds in a mostly-corridor dungeon.

[–]FetusFeast 0 points1 point ago

Only if your DM is a servant of Lucifer and you've magically found yourself in a group of history's most violent and repulsive human beings to roam the earth.

And it will not be enjoyment you feel, but the grim satisfaction in witnessing (even first hand) the cruel justice of this hell.

[–]wienercat 1 point2 points ago

If a DM pulled this line "There are 11 passages to choose from. North and slightly less north seem to glow."

[–]Silix 0 points1 point ago

endless dungeon crawl... yewww

[–]xantosa 0 points1 point ago

i can see it now... i would lose interest, the players would as well. ritual suicide begins to seem a good idea after all.

[–]BurnedOperative 0 points1 point ago

Looks like it could be for Deadly Towers.

[–]LnDHaze 0 points1 point ago

Isn't that just a map of the Parisian Catacombs?

[–]DrMandible 0 points1 point ago

If my DM rolled that out, I would back hand slap him with my rings on.

[–]Adrayll 0 points1 point ago

Fuck it, we're going to gas that fucker, and THEN go in later

[–]stormbringer89 1 point2 points ago

"Yo! Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen! Found 'em!".
Hicks asks, "Alive?"
Hudson replys, "Unknown...under the main cooling towers."

[–]another_old_fart 1 point2 points ago

Surely the OP jests. But you have to admire the amount of effort that went into drawing a maze like that.

I used to know a guy who had a homebrew dungeon with 1000+ rooms. Unfortunately he had just recently started playing D&D and immediately jumped into DMing, and being the type of guy he was he also jumped right into creating the Ultimate Dungeon of All Time, before he really had a handle on things like theme and continuity. So it was essentially a huge collection of random monster encounters with hallways. But it sure was huge.

[–]SmilerClarkThe Bellicose Bard 0 points1 point ago

Are you kidding? That's a nightmare. I'd hang it on my wall, frame it even, and call it art (it is, IMHO), but no player would ever forgive me if I tried to run them through that.

[–]MaliciousSkyrimming 0 points1 point ago

Being an excessive crevace explorer this would be my undoing.

[–]dragonslayah 0 points1 point ago

[–]Funerali 0 points1 point ago

Holy. Fuck.