MDBC 20: Grande Temple of Jing (Fourth Floor)
Megadungeon Book Club is moving on to Grande Temple of Jing (2016).
See last week's post here.
The Blindeye Caverns
Another darkness gimmick level, though this one still allows darkvision to function, making it much more likely that the players will simply be totally unaffected by it. The dungeon is evenly split between a neutral faction who apparently do no wrong and everybody hates (the vabata), a faction of cunning hostile ambush predators that attack on sight (the dark creepers), and a living god that can stop time and smush you to a pulp. The individual rooms of the dungeon are evenly split between "nothing much to interact with or do in this room" and "filled with explosive spikey ball proximity mines that do damage around corners." There's a few good ideas for rooms like the rune-filled wraith summoning trap and the dessicated cleric, but largely the rooms here seem destined to be forgotten as soon as the party leaves the area.
My recommendation is to mine it for room ideas and ditch the rest.
Halls of the Hills
This is fairly solid ogre-themed pointcrawl masquerading as a dungeon floor. It could easily be taken out of the dungeon and used somewhere else, though the Jing-specific statues and effects would need to be replaced. The "locked in" aspect of the floor making it so parties need to find two keys to leave is a bit odd (do their PCs not want to explore?) but do add an element of looking in every nook and cranny to the dungeon. This dungeon has a lot of potential connections to other dungeons and to the megadungeon as a whole, I wish there were more like it.
Nexus of Doors
You know how D&D is sometimes jokingly referred to as a game about opening doors? That's this dungeon!
Much of the content of this dungeon is from the table of random door properties following the map, many of the doors change their properties (trappedness, lockedness, size, material, etc) on the hour. The rest of the content is a fairly standard dungeon filled with door-themed creatures and dungeon dressing.
The dungeon is nothing super special, but might be fun to take and use somewhere else if you're the type of GM that likes to overuse a bit until it's funny again (I know I am). Playing some variant of Dwarven Door Game in this dungeon could also be fun. If you're not the sort of GM who treasures repeating "this door is also locked with a fine quality lock, hinges on the other side, made from stout timber and banded with thick iron...", then I would skip this floor.
The Swampy Caves
This dungeon is nothing special but it gets a pass for not being totally linear. Several room descriptions end with a variation on "GMs, do something creative here!" which is a particular pet peeve of mine. Several opportunities to engage in diplomacy with the denizens of this floor, even more than its partner dungeon (Halls of the Hills above). Dungeon currently holds the title for "Most likely to be labelled a 'Water Level' by players and immediately abandoned." We'll see if it gets any competition on that front further down.
The Cyclone Maker
Finally, a dungeon built to make use of the "Dungeon Shifts" result from the Hazard Die!
In all seriousness, this dungeon is a joke with one punchline. If "mutant dinosaurs shoved you into a tornado and maybe you died" isn't funny to you, you're not going to like this level. The table of Silly Spells (classic D&D spells with minor alterations such as "Raise Dead" -> "Praise Dead") is fun and could be imported anywhere D&D is played.
Infernal Observatory
This level is a classic Pathfinder mystery dungeon. A foul murder has occurred recently and the players can learn all about what happened through convenient journals and clues left all around the small area. Fortunately for them, it turns out the morally correct and easiest solution is to just kill everyone they encounter and then resurrect the murder victim with the spell of Remove Consequences!
The dungeon could be pulled out very easily and put basically anywhere. It's not a very satisfying "mystery" but might be a fun change of pace for players who typically don't interact with the non-combat powers of demons and devils.
Trial of Choice
This is a completely linear dungeon designed to give out temporary mechanical bonuses. The bonuses are numerical only. Skip this dungeon.
Gauntlet of the Jing Ring
This dungeon is the first of the tournament/con-play dungeons that actually seems fun. Players need to rotate their character sheets around as they enter different rooms to collect Macguffins until they can complete the floor and leave. While the rooms are entirely mechanical in nature, they're a bit more than just the pure combat-on-rails linear gauntlet rooms from before which is appreciated. This gimmick dungeon could be taken and used with alterations if your players enjoy a mechanical or meta trial (I'd certainly much rather use it for a Trial campaign than the Trial of Choice above).
Floor 4 Conclusion
Grande Temple of Jing is settling into a good rhythm where the average dungeon is good enough to use elsewhere and the terrible experiences are becoming easier and easier to spot from afar. The pattern of dungeons catering to the dominant play culture at the time is getting more pronounced which is not great, but there are still some good times to be had despite that. The individual level of description in the room keys continues to vary wildly.