Introduction

What megadungeon would be complete without an introduction? Consider this the text on the front cover of the module and hopefully let it set the scene for an epic crawl:

The small village of Ashencor lies nestled in a valley between two hills, atop one sits an old crumbling monastery. Once a sacred sight to an ancient order of monks, the sight was abandoned after the monks mysteriously disappeared generations ago. Considered of low strategic value to the Valadian Empire, the place was left to fall into ruin and the village, comprised of descendants from the monk’s families, were left to live off the land. The monastery was considered cursed and none dared ventured within its halls, letting it sit upon the hill, silent, like a hawk perched high looking down on its prey.
Then, a week ago, lights were seen in the monastery at night and fear ran through Ashencor. None were brave enough to investigate though the town watch upped its patrols and the villagers barred their doors at night. Three days ago, the two awoke to screams and found two of the town watch slain as well as the graveyard by the temple desecrated, bodies stolen. Fearing for their lives, the baron of Ashencor dispatched a runner to the city of Telstara, three days to the south. There the young lad travels tavern to tavern, looking for brave adventurers willing to save the helpless village.

Shared World Building

So what is this Shared World Building I speak of?

Well I'm using my own created world for the Megadungeon, as well I should, in order to avoid mucking up anyone else's canon and just going with what I want to put where.

However, this isn't a campaign setting in the sense that I'm going to have a 300+ page tome with a detailed history of every town down to the dietary habits of each citizen. No, instead, I'm going to build each part of the world as I need it, and then fill in the blanks as they come up. If a player wants to know the tenets of a certain god's faith, I'll tell them on the spot, then take notes about it to use it later. What's the name of the river beyond the hills, well, I'll come up with one when someone asks. It makes for a more liberating experience and is the DM's equivalent of growing a character organically; i.e. coming up with one or two concepts and letting it blossom as the game moves on.

But I did say "Shared" didn't I? What that means is that the players are fully encouraged to build the world right along with me. If someone playing an elf decides that all elves sing battle hymns while in combat, then that's how elves work. As long as there's a fun reason for it and it still "respects the setting" (not trying to be wacky just for the sake of being wacky), then bring it on.

There's a real possibility of creating something far better then any pre-thought out world ever could be.

Welcome!

My current online gaming group is pretty awesome and as we approach a 1 year anniversary of us playing, I can say we've tried several different things.
We've started long running campaigns that imploded due to TPKs and shifting players. We've attempted to mix and match systems and rule sets. We've played games other then D&D (or LL as the case may be). We've played one shots, on-goings, limited series, and revolving cast games. But everytime, atleast on the LL front, we've always done it with a prewritten adventure.

Well, inspired by some reading of the various OSR blogs out there, I've decided to change that. I've decided to build and run my own Megadungeon. I've also decided I need to catalog the process somewhere, hence, this blog.

Now, since this will be seen by my players, this will be spoiler free, no secrets to what's going on. However, you can watch the creative process of Shared World Building and check out Play Sessions in the (hopefully) upcoming weeks. And of course, what campaign of mine would be complete without an Obsidian Portal page?

So welcome and enjoy your stay!