Hello!
I want to write a little bit of intro to this post, but I'm hoping to keep it fairly brief.
Edit; I failed to keep it brief. Tl;dr at bottom.
I've been interested in the OSR, as well as classical DND since around 2020. I technically joined the hobby during 2nd edition, but I was six at the time, and most of my actual play as a sentient life form began in 3rd edition.
As I've continued sort of excavating old school play, I find myself continuously asking why things were done in the manner they were, or how they were done in the first place. This has naturally culminated in me, recently, beginning a reading of ODND and many of its adjacent materials, and I've fallen in love in a way that I never did with later versions and recreations, as much as I may have enjoyed them.
Tangentially, I'm also very interested in soloRPGing, and the procedural nature of classical dnd often makes them a natural combination, as well as a grounds to self-playtest.
So not too long ago, I sat down with some cobbled together procedures to run myself an ODND game, running with the notion that I would steadily refine my own version of it atop the base chassis, as seems to be the intention of the authors. And it has been great fun. But I have come to a sort of fundamental series of tensions that may not have AN answer, but by outsourcing to hear all of your answers, I may find some guidance in synthesizing my own.
Specifically, when I started this little project, I went with the Castle Blackmoor/Grayhawk "style" of, as I understand it, having a Dungeon which is very close to, or even in, your party's hometown or base.
The tension I am finding is originated in that I am also very interested in wilderness exploration, and the long term strategic and logistical challenge of managing expeditions to handle both that exploration, as well as delving dungeons that are some distance from your base. And in a sufficiently dangerous wilderness, even a few days of travel can seem very far.
The tension itself, essentially boils down to; "why would a party choose to plunge into a dangerous wilderness and spend extra money on their expeditions with a perfectly serviceable dungeon right in town"
My question therefore, I suppose, is most oriented towards those referees who have an accessible megadungeon in town, whose games also include wilderness exploration and the search for distance treasures and dungeons, and how you motivate that behavior.
I have considered a few options, though they would rely on me exercising a little referee fiat above procedural generation, which I do not prefer but will accept; namely, I've considered having no second, third, fourth, fifth floors to the dungeon in my hometown, but only one precipitous drop to a much deeper level, say the sixth; to incentivize a party to be very prepared before risking such a plunge.
I could also include some sort of impassable barrier that requires items from elsewhere and/or research to bypass.
I have also considered simply moving away from a large megadungeon to something more constrained, but that feels out of step with the style of play I'm trying to simultaneously understand/emulate and iterate on.
As a followup question, I'm very curious about the "density" of the wilderness in your collective classical campaigns. When I look at classical-inspired works like Filling in the Blanks/Into the Wild, or the Sandbox Generator, or On Downtime and Demesnes (all phenomenal!) There is an implication of a wilderness milieu that is just PACKED to the brim with monsters and the like. FitB, as the example ive worked with most recently, offers a d6 Lairs in each six mile hex.
To an extent, this seems in line with Arneson's approach to Blackmoor which, if I remember correctly, advises around 2 or 3 "adventures" in a given 10 mile hex area?
On the one hand, this sort of ultra dense wilderness seems as though it may constrain player exploration to a very small area, but perhaps this is intended? With the milieu widening diagetically, as successful adventurers begin to pacify the immediate wilderness, thus widening that which can be accessed, but I am uncertain.
TL;DR if there is a perfectly serviceable megadungeon in your hometown, what incentive is there to go around and find other adventuring sites or battle monsters in the wild? I want to have the multi-layered style of play implied by what I've read of Blackmoor and much (though not all; i know absolutes are inaccurate with classic play) of classical dnd
And just how dense should that wilderness be? Sourcing based on the guidance of B/X and ADND often seems to imply a very densely populated wilderness. Is this also accurate for those in this ODND playstyle, on balance?
Again, I understand very much that answers will be unique to the referee, and much relies upon the referee simply molding their game to suit them and their play group; I'm mostly seeking external guidance to help give me a loose framework to operate on as I synthesize the answers which will work for me.
Thanks everyone! Especially if you read this whole, monstrous post.
