#051 - december 2025 TTRPG newsletter
Megadungeon, Shadowdark, Open Table
You may wonder why I didn’t write these monthly posts in october and november, or you may as well not have noticed I didn’t publish anything! Well, I wrote some time ago that I wasn’t happy with the format of this newsletter, as I don’t always have sessions reports or ‘enough’ ttrpg-related stuff to talk about. Some months are very calms on that front, especially with real-life or work issues. Another point was the lack of interaction, with me asking questions and almost nobody replying. That left me a bit confused about the way people were reading (or not!) this newsletter.
Anyway, enough ramblings, I see that some readers subscribe even when I don’t send articles (which I find both strange and funny, in a way) so I’ll change a bit the focus of this letter. From now on, I’ll translate as best as I can some articles that I find of interest and that I first published on my french-speaking ttrpg weblog. Let’s go!
More than a megadungeon!
The other day, I had fun thinking about two concepts: the megadungeon (I’m still revising my GrimPeak Fortress when I got some free time) and the open table (which I master with the Shadowdark system), and how to combine the two.
We know that a megadungeon can keep a group busy for dozens of gaming sessions, if not more, and that it logically includes several entrances and exits. These allow monsters to come in and take over areas, and players to travel while avoiding long, already visited and/or dangerous areas.
In the case of an open table, it can be fun to have several groups of varying levels exploring the same dungeon but with separate entrances. And even characters knowing different access points to the dungeon. Without an open table, we can also imagine several groups of adventurers with fixed compositions in the same situation, possibly even crossing paths during their exploration (or finding clues of another group’s passage).
Taking the concept a step further, I thought that a single creator behind the megadungeon or a single dungeon might not be enough. What if we interconnected several (mega)dungeons? On different floors? With different levels of difficulty?
Let’s imagine four (as an example) powerful adversaries, emblematic of fantasy: a dragon, a lich, a giant, and a beholder. Each has created their own dungeon or lair, composed of multiple rooms on several levels, in order to hide their treasure, knowledge, magical stuff, house their followers, test their adversaries, etc. Classic stuff!
But what if these dungeons were interconnected? Imagine the faces of your players whose characters are exploring the levels of a lich’s tomb and find themselves in the caves of a giant king! And then they discover labyrinthine corridors that lead them to a dragon’s lair, following the tracks (footprints or battle scars) or map of another group. Would that make it a ‘mega-megadungeon’?
Let’s add another layer of complexity by having several GMs share the “megadungeon complex”! And let’s say that characters, according to the open table organization system, can participate in several groups.
Sounds very complex but wouldn’t it be fun?
Creations, tips, shop…
At last, I published the french version of a small adventure call the Monastery of the Howling Moon. Not sure there is enough interest for me to translate it in english but we’ll see. My previous creation was a battlemap called Lava River and was unnoticed on DrivethruRPG 😅
My creations are on DriveThruRPG and/or my Ko-fi shop.
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Do not hesitate to leave a message or comment below or answer to the email to let me know what you think of this letter.
This sounds like a super awesome idea. Especially if you had several groups starting in different mega-dungeons. It might help to force each group to exit the dungeon by the end of the session. Maybe a forced roll or lose HP/ possible death if they don't leave by the time the session ended. This would minimize bookkeeping for the GM. Now all I need to do is find three-four groups worth of players that are willing to commit to a mega-dungeon...
I like the idea of interconnected mega-dungeons. There is a lot of potential between factions with a setup like that. Then even more potential with multiple GMs running groups through it.