MDBC 16: Grande Temple of Jing
Megadungeon Book Club is moving on to Grande Temple of Jing (2016). We read the starting matter for this week's post, everything up to the beginning of floor 1.
Intro Matter
This is an old-school dungeon rewritten and expanded for Pathfinder players and you can tell. The intro matter spends quite a few pages mechanizing and explaining their repeating patterns and motifs (different kinds of statues and uncheesable magic progression doors). It's great to see some patterns that will repeat throughout the dungeon to tie the theme together, because the rest of the explanation of the dungeons are that they're essentially going to be funhouse-style teleporter dungeons created by an omniscient being (the eponymous Jing). There are also some inclusions of video-game style mechanics like automatic party linking (for players who have to miss a session and for keeping the party together in general), boss-rush style arenas, "dungeon resets" to reset doors/traps/chests every set amount of time, etc. The intro matter caps off by filling the rest of its page count with advice that boils down to "do whatever you want, the creator of the dungeon is capricious and rule bending" and "here are very explicit rules that you can use to change the dungeon" (yes I'm aware these two points seem to contradict).
While I complain about the page count and long-windedness of the intro matter, this is still an old-school dungeon written for Pathfinder players. They're used to long-winded blocks of text explaining mechanics and procedures, and covering concepts that may be unfamiliar to them (tithe-for-xp, riddling statues, anti-cheese measures, "funhouse style" as opposed to "Gygaxian Naturalism style" dungeon design) in a familiar manner is useful. I like that the text sets up easy methods of travel throughout the dungeon via the Grande Elevator and the Grande Staircase, and allows for easy plug-and-play connections via the magic progression doors ("Jing Blocks"). The intro matter is essentially a connector piece to connect an old-school dungeon up to the expected mechanics and procedures of Pathfinder and it functions well as that.
I'm overall a fan of the intro matter largely because of the additions, but definitely in spite of the writing style.