In this episode, I interview Nick L.S. Whelan about two megadungeon campaigns, "Dungeon Moon" and "Five Years Left". We talk about why GMing is so hard and what lessons we can learn from our failures. We talk about why some kinds of prep increase rather than decrease your anxiety at the table, how the GM's experience can be dissatisfying even when the players are having a good time, and how play is subtly shaped by what we take seriously at the table and what we're happy to let slide. Without further ado, here is Episode 5 “Lessons Learned” on your platforms of choice:
Listen to Episode 5 “Lessons Learned” on Spotify here.
Listen to Episode 5 “Lessons Learned” on Apple Podcasts here.
Listen to Episode 5 “Lessons Learned” on Pocket Casts here.
Listen to Episode 5 “Lessons Learned” on Podcast Addict here.
Listen to Episode 5 “Lessons Learned” on Overcast here.
Listen to Episode 5 “Lessons Learned” on Google Podcasts here.
Reader’s Notes
You can find Nick's long running and once prolific blog, Papers & Pencils here. You can find more about Dungeon Moon here, and you can read extensive play reports for Five Years Left here. (I always think looking at these campaign materials is useful for GMs who actually want to organize and run megadungeon campaigns of their very own.)
You can learn about the latest iteration of Nick’s fascinating concept of Flux space here, and Nick's fantastic posts about structuring encounter tables here. Both of these reference older posts where Nick floated the original ideas. All are highly worth a read.
You can follow Nick's next dungeon adventure project, Sanctimonious Slime vs. Expired Epicures, about looting a Medusa’s house inhabited by monster factions with opposing philosophies on Kickstarter here.
Nick is now generally designing for the Errant rpg under the publishing outfit Kill Jester. You can learn more about Errant and sign up for Kill Jester’s newsletter here.
Spine Chilling October!
Stay tuned to Into the Megadungeon for a spine chilling October! In this Halloween month, Into the Megadungeon explores horror themed megadungeons with two blood curdling interviews.
First, on October 17, I interview Luke Gearing about his current megadungeon campaign. But we also spend considerable time talk about his groundbreaking and award winning sci-fi horror megadungeon Gradient Descent. We discuss what is involved in designing and running a horror megadungeon, and how the mythic undeworld can be embodied to chilling effect.
On October 31st, a Halloween episode of Into the Megadungeon airs titled, “Literally from Hell”. In this episode, I interview Miranda Elkins about her incredibly long-running horror megadungeon, Nightwick Abbey. It’s probably my favorite interview yet, chock full of insights arising from experience running actual megadungeon campaigns for more than a decade, coupled with advice about how to bring horror to your game table.