Dispatches from the Raven Crowking Vol. 4

Dispatches from the Raven Crowking Vol. IV: Megadungeons and Campaigns was written by Daniel J. Bishop. Artwork is by Tamas Baranya, Gary Dupuis, Jacob Blackmon, and Kristen M. Collins. The publisher is Purple Duck Games. This is the second Porphyran Patreons product produced for Dungeon Crawl Classics.

This product is made possible with the generous support of Purple Duck's Patreons: Craig, Daniel Bishop, Diogo Nogueria, EnochSeven, Geoff Forcella, Hunyock, Jeff Goad, Jeremy Friesen, Keith Nelson, Lorne Cooper, M Woolsey, Maxwell Spann, Michael Jones, Patrick Pilgrim, Paul Go, Rompcat, Ryan, Stephen Murrish, Stewart Wilson, Terry Olson, Tony Hogard, Trevor Bramble, and Wes Fournier.

Disclosure: I am the author, and also a Patreon.

This fourth volume of Dispatches focuses on megadungeons, but contains advice that applies to developing campaigns as well. As with previous volumes, this material largely consists of reworked blog posts from Raven Crowking's Nest.

This volume contains:

Introduction: A brief introduction.

Dungeon Crawl Classics: Short Story or Novel?: Which way do we view this game? A sporadic series of short adventures, or a well-developed game? An argument may be made for both, but can you safely invoke Appendix N to bolster the "sporadic adventures" side?

Balanced Encounters: Who manages risk? The players or the judge?

M is for Megadungeons: We now leap into the design phase of making a megadungeon as part of a persistent campaign milieu. The next sections (The Importance of Names, Evocative Monsters, Legendary Treasures, Brainstorming, Pattern Mapping, Placing Elements, and From General to Specific) all follow a method of creating and then placing elements within a whole. By the end, we have a general layout plan for a megadungeon, as well as an overview of the above-ground portions of a ruined town.

In fact, the ruins of Balton Major, the village of Balton Minor, and the environs of the Greenshaw forest may be developed in full for Purple Duck at some future point.

Otyughs: Dwellers in Filth: "Deep beneath the city, where the offal from the sewers collects in deep pits, dwell the dreaded otyughs." This is a Dungeon Crawl Classics write-up of a Dungeons & Dragons staple.

The Megadungeon and Dungeon Crawl Classics: This article offers another way of looking at megadungeons in Dungeon Crawl Classics.

Get It Here!