Map doesn't make any sense. There is no structure or organization beyond "make a huge block of confusing, pointless rooms".
Maps are a part of telling a story. The story this DM is telling consists entirely of incoherent yelling and swearing.
this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2025
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It tells a story of a "Mad Mage" very well
The "Mad Mage", Halaster Blackcloak, is a specific character from the Forgotten Realms setting. "Undermountain" is a special place that he has surprising control over as it has been slowly created by him over the century/centuries, and its layout both isn't permanent and isn't there to serve any given group of people. Monsters and sentients sometimes move in, at their own risk.
The map as shown is meant to represent its existence at whatever point in time the adventuring party happens to arrive at. And Halaster keeps a remote eye on anyone of interest who turns up. GMs are encouraged to modify the presented material in whatever way suits their interests.
That Mad Mage just isn't making sense!
It's like a purposeful troll on a group with a persistent completionist mentality.
When (if) they catch on the DM can help expedite their routing.
Over half of that map looks absolutely miserable to do combat in, for both the GM and the players.
I once had an encounter happen inside a 3x3 grid room as a GM. It was awful. There was no room for anybody to be creative in. It was just a boring slogfest for over an hour
Plot twist: It's just a printout of the DM's last Dwarf Fortress save.
Below level 23 is where the FUN starts.
I know a guy who did this. Use the entire worldgen for the overland map, locations, and factions then would handcraft some dungeons in fortress mode. Sounded like a lot of work but worth it.
How many years does it take to play through a map?
Look up how many years it'll take for iron stars to form and multiply that by six.
The mandatory water-themed floor is only there because the DM messed up making a waterfall. Again.
Is this the Godherja under mountain map?
I'd watch a video of someone with architectural experience analyzing these old dungeons and ranting about how impossible to construct and functionally useless they are for anything other than dungeon delving.
IIRC this dungeon was created specifically for dungeon delving, and the mad mage who created it is, as the name implies, batshit crazy, so this one makes sense.
For starters, just ask your DM three questions (assuming enemies are sentient and civilized beings, not just "wildlife") and watch him sweat nervously:
- Where do the enemies sleep?
- Where do they cook, eat and store food?
- Where are the toilets?
In a lot of modern guides on dungeon design, they stress thinking this stuff out. Yeah you should definitely have some idea why the inhabitants are here and not elsewhere, where their supplies come from, and how they interact with whatever else calls this place home.
They should have a place to sleep, eat, maybe recreation even. While the PCs poke around, the dungeon denizens shouldn't just be waiting around in preset rooms, fully ready to fight like MMO mobs. They could be on patrol, raiding their neighbors, sleeping, arguing, partying, whatever.
There's even fun things you can do with this like inter-faction conflicts between floors or other regions. Do the Orcs fear the dragon at the bottom of the dungeon?
Do the bandits have an uneasy non-aggression pact with a lich? Or are they constantly embattled with seemingly limitless undead because they're struggling for a legendary artifact?
Somebody's gotta reset all those traps, too.
Players should definitely feel like trespassers in a living place. Few people enjoy that ancient style of dungeon delving anymore, where you slay a band of kobolds, answer a sphinx's riddle, then bust in on a vampire who's as confused about why they're there as you are!
Where are the toilets?
Maybe the hallway but the local gelatinous cube roombas it up. (Eeeeeww) ... Or a room has holes dug dropping into an underground river. Or just a really deep pit, or a convenient portal to the Abyss LOL.
You can have fun with this stuff.
Where are the toilets?
(...) Or a room has holes dug dropping into an underground river. Or just a really deep pit, or a convenient portal to the Abyss LOL.
Or to the Underdark. The Drow must hate the dungeon occupants...
Now i have an itch to go reread Dungeon Meshi
I watched the Anime and I feel like it expands on the above concept very well.
Lots of fun.
I ran a bitd game with a civil engineer playing a leech. 'Where does the poop go' got a lot of people killed.
My DM would burst out laughing at those questions and respond with:
YOU'RE the adventurers, aren't ya? So:
- explore and find out
- explore and find out
- explore and find out
Generally yes, the DM doesn't need to answer all things (heoght be revealing some secrets after all, where you can ambush, poison food, whatever). BUT he better is prepared after the questions
Make the enemies coprophages and all the problems sort themselves out.
DM sweats profusely, starts searching for books on underground ecosystems.
Someone should make a 100% science-based dungeons game.
It’s short, but it’s a start:
Lindybeige! Haven't seen that guy in ages! And he's still active!
And now I want to play Dwarf Fortress again.
: ) now i want to replicate that dungeon in dwarf fortress
Or NetHack?
There's a labyrinth in the labyrinth.
I've always wanted to play a MEGA-DUNGEON with a DM who wants to run one. I love to making a 2-3 level dungeon when I DM but I don't think I can do a MEGA ones.
Man, you should see my mom's megadungeon; this is fucking tiny.
this is why i do theatre of the mind
In the back of the 2014 DMG is a set of tables for generating random dungeons. I thought it would be fun to see how that goes. After spending maybe 6 hours on it across a few days, the abomination I created ended up making DungeonScrawl crash in my browser and be unable to work on it further, but if it hadn't it probably would've ended up like roughly 1/4 of this.
1/10 do not recommend
Ha! Level 1 of 23
Has anyone actually played this module? I ask because I want to know if it has better design then: Open door -> solve combat encounter or puzzle -> open next door.
Maximum effort!
I feel called out.