Ancient Machine Dungeon!

dungeon

#1

Hey there Shield Wall! I’m prepping the first section of a dungeon for my upcoming game night and thought I’d share a pic of the notebook.

We’re delving into an underground ancient machine site that ties into one of my PC’s backstory (warforged-inspired ancient automata that has recently become “awake” and has a degraded memory). It’s a forge for automata and a fortress protecting the long-forgotten Stela, which contains obscure history for the planet. The stewards of the fortress have undergone similar memory degradation, and have thus corrupted their prime directive. When players go inside they’ll find degraded and hostile automata of various kinds, lore that will help jog the PC character’s memory, and more than what’s included in this first section. There is an overarching corrupted A.I. that’s making the place more dangerous through its degraded sense of purpose. The whole dungeon is going to be a big, fun, “Aha!” moment for my PC, and I’m pretty excited for it. :slight_smile:

In this dungeon players will move battery cells to power different parts of the dungeon: doors, elevators, switches, all that gamey kind of stuff. This first section is built to show players the hook of the dungeon and give them plenty to explore and acquire while they learn it. The goal is to gather 4 batteries from across this section to power a light bridge that will grant them access to the next area.

If you’re into level design you’ll recognize a lot of the principles here. The critical path goes like this (minding you’re collecting batteries to progress):
1, 2, 3, 2, 1, 4, 5, 6, 5, 7, 5, 4, 8, 11, 8, 10, 8, 4, -> Continue to next level.

Hope you dig it. :slight_smile:


#2

…are those anulax batteries or harbulary batteries…?