MDBC 19: Grande Temple of Jing (Third Floor)
Megadungeon Book Club is moving on to Grande Temple of Jing (2016).
See last week's post here.
Housetrap!
So this dungeon is a reference to the board game Mouse Trap. Anyone that's ever played that game knows how fiddly it is to get working. I know that anytime I was unfortunate enough to be caught in a game of it as a child that we would inevitably not be able to even start the game due to the flimsiness of the props and end up just giving up to play with what was left in the box. I expect a similar scenario to happen here, with GMs stuck doing their best to get PCs to "complete" the setpiece encounter, possibly aided by "miraculous" dice rolls.
The central conceit for the dungeon is that it's essentially a giant puzzle that the PCs explore backwards, all the while followed by 7 ghostly nerds who explain how the puzzle rooms work. Seeing the puzzle in backwards order is helpful once the PCs actually know what's going on so they can work from what a success looks like back through all the trials and tribulations they'll need to engage in to get back to that success state. The problem is that the PCs are unlikely to know how the puzzles work unless the ghost gnomes literally explain it to them, and then the GM is just dictating the PCs' actions for the next couple hours.
I think that there is a fun setpiece encounter session within this dungeon once the PCs have been clued into what's going on and have already bought into the dungeon. I can imagine a lot of fun to be had guiding the explosive electrified sphere through the maze without touching it and also keeping up with it the whole time. The lack of ability to escape once inside the dungeon and the lack of ability to use out of the box problem solving within the floor make it not my cup of tea.
Caverns of Chaos
This is a pretty classic old-school style dungeon. It's a bit chaotic as the name implies but it would easily fit into the likes of dungeons from the 70s and 80s (if they were converted to Pathfinder :P). This dungeon could easily be yoinked for any old-school campaign.
Halls of Chaos
We get to another funhouse dungeon, like the Gnashteeth Orc Halls on the First Floor. This dungeon is very similar to that one in tone. I recommend stealing individual rooms from this dungeon, the quality varies but they seem to be on average better than I expect.
The faction of hobgoblins on this floor are eminently reasonable in their actions and seem to be written as destined allies of the PCs (they even forgive a few slain hobgoblins as long as it's not too many?). They hate Jing but tithe enough treasure to him to keep the devious trickster off their backs, a tactic they should probably teach to the other monster groups that are all seemingly cursed by Jing.
The River Caves
It's a thematic dungeon likely built entirely around the idea of putting an apparatus of the crab somewhere in the world. It works pretty well as a "water level" of a dungeon, lots of environmental dangers combined with doing battle with the denizens of the dungeon. The fact that the crabmen are seemingly just blank evil humanoids that can't be talked with or allied with kind of sucks, but this could be changed fairly easily by an enterprising GM. It's a neat little dungeon that could be yoinked fairly easily, it would fit in most places with an underground river.
The Front Door
This dungeon is an alternate entry into the megadungeon that's a bit more "realistic" to stumble upon from the outside world. The actual dungeon is mostly miss just due to the vast amount of "and then we wander in a straightish line until you start reading more boxed text" PCs will need to do, but the idea of the dungeon is sound and could be repurposed.
Trial of Gold
This is an interesting-looking puzzle dungeon that would become actually pretty linear in play. The levers that the PCs have access to randomly open doors throughout the dungeon, they need to go around to each corner of the map, find some macguffin coins, and dump them in the center room. Since the levers control random doors, they aren't able to plan much beyond "hope the ones we need are opened." The actual contents of the corners of the map are standard Pathfinder closet monster fare. I'd skip this dungeon.
Black Gauntlet
It's another linear gauntlet dungeon. Skip unless your players really want to test out their character builds.
Adept's Arena
This is a "dungeon" that is actually just the first arena for the gladiatorial quest posed at the beginning of the book. The scenarios presented offer different ways to make basic setpiece encounters within a Pathfinder context. It's ultimately just a combat room, you'll either want it for the arena quests or skip it if not.
Floor 3 Conclusion
Glad to come back from Floor 2's trend of not having any useful dungeons, several of the ones presented are easily used outside the context of the Grande Temple of Jing. There's still not a lot of cohesion between dungeons, but I've given that up as it seems the text has too. I think between the good dungeons of Floor 1 and the good dungeons of Floor 3, there's enough to make one cohesive "Upper Floors" megadungeon region to run instead of the Jing floor structure, I'd likely roll with that if I were to run this.