SKELGAMOG! Update 2: Slow week.

 Sometimes the ideas just flow and everything clicks and you get a ton of shit done. And sometimes things just drag. This was one of those times. Motivation was zilch and everything felt like a chore. I started brainstorming out one of many Necromancer Hideouts, but goddamn I couldn't get through with it. No biggie though. I'll take a break over the weekend and come back with fresh eyes and new inspiration. No way in hell I'm giving up on this.

SKELGAMOG! Update 1: Mapping the Ziggurat.

 Not a big update this week, just finishing up with the working map of the Sunken Ziggurat. Check it out.

Top layer. 1 square = 10 feet.

Middle layer.

Bottom layer, west side.

Bottom layer, east side. That big black area is a chasm.

I think I said this before, but there's no way I'm making every level of the dungeon this goddamn big. The bottom layer alone took a couple weeks just to get through (granted, that's with procrastination and me just being a lazy asshole). That's unacceptable to me. I want to be able to crank these things out. I think the middle layer hits that sweet spot between size and time investment, so I'll aim for about that size for most of the other areas.

SKELGAMOG! Update 0: The dungeon so far

 Believe it or not, I haven't just been fucking around for a month. I started this shit the first week of January. Here's what I've got so far.

The Overworld
The town of Skogsby lies at the edge of civilization, heaped on the last spit of dry land before it gives way to swamp and bayou. Spires of weathered Titan Bone tower over the landscape. Foul Necromancers hide within their lairs, singing praises to their dark gods. And an ancient ziggurat, half devoured by the fetid waters around it, tempts delvers into the depths below.
This'll all fit into a single 6-mile hex (broken up into 1 mile sections, for a 6-by-6 area). I want SKELGAMOG to be easy to just plonk down anywhere in your map. Plus it gives more focus to the dungeon rather than overland travel. Some megadungeons like Gunderholfen and Rappan Athuk have these HUGE fucking wildernesses over them, and I just think that's too much. Not trying to knock them or anything, but goddamn. Chill out.

The Mainline Dungeon
I've got 20 levels mostly planned out for the "main" dungeon. Right now they only exist as notes. I'm working on mapping them, with the Ziggurat nearly done. I tell you what though, I'm definitely not making every area this big. Holy shit.
Anyway, area names and actual stuff used is bound to change. Also, maybe spoilers for the finished thing, if you care about that sort of thing.

Level 1: The Sunken Ziggurat: Infested with the degenerate descendants of the ancient serpent-men empire, crawling with giant bugs and savage wildlife, and packed full of traps, hazards, and danger. Flooded, overgrown, and the lowest level is split by a great chasm.

Level 2: Caves of the Eel-People: Series of flooded caverns where two tribes, the titular Eel-People and the Hagfish-Men, war for territory. Both are kidnapping folks for their own ends (Eels eat them in a cannibal blood orgy, Hagfish turn them into zombies for their young to pilot around).

Level 3: Fungal Grove: Because you gotta have a mushroom forest in your megadungeon somewhere. I'm pretty sure it's the law. There's a myconid village down here, cordyceps-infected giant bugs, a mi-go tower, and a doomed expedition that was trying to get exotic mushrooms to eat.

Level 4: The Mirrored Halls: Some bygone civilization trapped an alien god-thing in an obsidian mirror and a maze of crystals. Now its mirror realm is starting to leak through into reality. Oops.

Level 5: Mind Flayer Outpost: Illithids are fucking cool, but they're copyrighted. That gives me an excuse to make my own squiddly betentacled brain-devouring bastards. Anyway, this zone's an observation/raiding outpost, and the Mind Flayers are doing all sorts of experiments and horrible shit.

Level 6: The Shifting Labyrinth: This is where I get the inevitable dick-DM urge out of my system. The Labyrinth is meant to be just and absolute bitch to get through. The whole place is a maze, kobolds follow the party around and erase their markings, chambers spin around, etc.

Level 7: Vault Sealed by Time: Ancient Egyptian vibe. The gimmick is once the group opens this level up to go inside, they've only got a few hours before the vault closes again and traps them inside.

Level 8: The Great Machine: Constantly built, expanded, and maintained by a former cult-turned-weird-undead. It's possible to shut the thing off, which makes the zone go from intense heat and noise to suffocating silence and cold.

Level 9: The Pits of Pain: A lich is being guided by literal nightmare monsters to imprison and torture people in order to awaken some primordial thing to destroy the world. Standard supervillain stuff.

Level 10: Caves of Corruption: The ooze level! It's a nauseating rainbow of every fluid, slime, and gross gunk imaginable. Yes, you're gonna have to wade waist-deep in it. Jubilex's similar-but-legally-distinct cousin is down here, just chillin'.

Level 11: The Worm God's Throne: One of the absolute raddest books from 3.5 D&D was Elder Evils, and you bet your ass I'm gonna steal shit from it. Kyuss is imprisoned, his spirit split from his body by the legendary Sword of Sundering. A monastic order was supposed to watch over this prison of all time. So of course something went wrong, and now some dipshit is trying to set the Worm God loose.

Level 12: The Deep Caverns: The Underdark before the actual Underdark. A deeper darkness lingers in these depths (which means darkvision and natural light just stop working), and foul, forgotten monsters lurk in the cramped tunnels. Big Veins of the Earth energy.

Level 13: The Mythril Mines: Hey, guess what! The dwarves dug too deep! Now there's a balrog running around, along with goblins and other nasties. It's Moria, and I don't give a shit.

Level 14: The Runic Prison: Ancient demon jail, and probably where the balrog from from 13 came from.

Level 15: The Forgotten Fortress: A subterranean castle taken over by an army of cycloptoids. I'm picturing a high-level party laying siege to the place with their own minions.

Level 16: Vampire Temple: Just a whole bunch of vampires and their creations worshipping the Holy Blood. Kinda Castlevania, kinda Darkest Dungeon's Crimson Court, and kinda Flesheater Courts from Warhammer.

Level 17: City of Dreaming: A dead-but-dreaming leviathan of old whose dreams have been populated. I'm pretty sure I got this from Throne of Salt, and it's a damn good idea so I'm putting it in.

Level 18: The Kraken's Domain: Big squid! Skeletal pirates! An Apparatus of Kwalish! Seriously, aquatic shit doesn't get nearly enough love in my opinion.

Level 19: The Lost Tombs: I got Tome of Beasts a while back, and despite not playing 5e anymore it's become one of my favorite books in my collection. Anyway, there's some stuff about a ghoul society in there that I'm stealing, as well as a liberal sprinkling of 3.5's Libris Mortis.

Level 20: Halls of Twisted Iron: Titan Bone buried deep beneath the earth, warped by unfathomable forces into impossible flowing shapes

What's Next?
I've got about 10 other overworld locations to plan out (which probably won't be nearly as extensive as the main route). After that I've gotta map, key, and stock everything. Then it's on to mapping out the Underdark and everything in it. And after that, I've gotta do all of that AGAIN for the underworld/hell/bottom of the world
When I said that this was the deepest dungeon that ever was, I wasn't fucking around.

SKELGAMOG! Intro bullshit.

SKELGAMOG!
The deepest dungeon there ever was!
SKELGAMOG!
The foulest curse upon thy name!
SKELGAMOG!
The folly of a thousand delvers!
SKELGAMOG!

I've wanted to make a megadungeon since I first learned about the OSR scene. I've tried and lost interest a few times already, but 2022 is the year. I'm gonna fight myself to finish it, and it's gonna get done damnit.

Inspirations
As much as I like traditional "elves, dwarves, orcs, and dragons" fantasy, I think I'm burnt out on it. I want weird, I want gonzo, I want grotty and gross and balls-to-the-wall crazy. This thing's gonna be a funhouse and I don't give a shit about realism.

I think it was Tim Sievert's Clandestinauts that really got this ball rolling for me. I dunno what it is, but that art is great. It's like the kind of thing you'd doodle in the margins of your school notebook and then get in trouble for because a rad zombie wizard popping a dude's head like a grape in a microwave is "too violent".

Hell yeah!

Dungeon Crawl Classics has the same sort of vibe going on, and if it weren't for the funky dice I'd probably be using the ruleset for this project. Magic-User patrons are wicked cool though, definitely gonna steal that.

I don't watch a whole lot of movies these days, but some of my favorites are Indiana Jones and The Mummy series (even The Scorpion King). I love the adventure, the pulpy action, the locales, the booby traps, the monsters, and all that delicious cheese.

Some other media I'll throw in the chemical vat; Rob Zombie music videos (Dragula and New Gods of Super Town), Dark Souls, Hellboy, some comics I picked up at a con a while ago and have forgotten the names of, and miscellaneous horror flicks that catch my eye.

The Plan

Step 1: Brainstorm an absolute fuckton of areas. I use GFC's method (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p3b07kxTGw) and it works pretty damn good.

Step 2: Map EVERYTHING. I generate the maps using Appendix A of the AD&D DMG and do the actual mapping on Dungeon Scrawl. 

Step 3: Stock rooms. Not gonna lie, this is going to be the most boring bit for me, personally. It's just a lot of dice rolling and tedium. I am gonna experiment with a bullet point layout for the rooms, so we'll see if that pans out.

Step 4: Stat monsters, spells, magic items, etc. Another sticking point. I like making shit, but actual numbers and mechanics are a drag.

Step 5: Art. I am not an artist, but I'll settle for doodles.

Step 6: Get the thing published. I'll probably go for DrivethruRPG for snazzy print-on-demand copies or something. I'm definitely including a free version somewhere though, because fuck it.

Step 7: ???

Step 8: Profit

And, kinda a side step, I'm working on this bitch EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Even if it's just a little bit. Like I said, this is going to get done. Full stop. No ifs, ands, or buts. 

Tools

Like I said, I'm using the AD&D DMG's Appendix A to generate the majority of the maps. Once I start stocking rooms, I'm definitely gonna use the Tome of Adventure Design (if you don't have a copy, what the hell is wrong with you?). Other than that, I'll probably just pick and choose random shit I find on the internet to help with whatever problem I currently have.

As for system for this monstrosity, I'm going with Swords and Wizardry. I toyed around with making my own system to stick in the front of the book (and I still might just do that), but that takes focus away from the meaty dungeon content I'm supposed to be making. S&W has some modern conveniences that make it not a total pain in the ass to run, so that's what I'm using.

If you got any other tools you think might help, give me a heads up.