Urheim

Some of you may recall that, shortly after I resumed blogging in the late Summer of 2020, I began a public project – the Urheim megadungeon. Though the posts relating to it were well received, I eventually lost interest in continuing it, largely because I wasn't running Urheim. Instead, it was a purely theoretical pursuit, an attempt to do what I had hoped to do with Dwimmermount. Because I was doing it without any intention of making use of it, I didn't feel a connection to the megadungeon and abandoned it.

Recently, though, an opportunity to correct this has arisen. The Metamorphosis Alpha campaign I began last year is on hold, owing to the departure of a couple of players for several months. That led to some discussions with the remaining players, who felt it might be worthwhile to play something else until the absent players returned. When one of them admitted that he had never played a megadungeon-based campaign, the conclusion was obvious: I should referee one for him and, rather than returning to Dwimmermount, I would pick up Urheim where I left off.

For this campaign, I'll be using Old-School Essentials as its base, modified with some house rules I've assembled over the years. The house rules bring it closer to OD&D + Supplements – what I have, in the past, referred to as D&D 0.75 – which is my preferred version of the game. It's closer to the simplicity of pure LBB-only OD&D while also possessing more of the flavor of AD&D that I think a lot of people have as the default frame for conceiving of Dungeons & Dragons. Also included in my house rules are some unique races like the Gargantuas and unique classes like the beggar.

Of course, what really excites me about this is the opportunity to continue my development of Urheim in the context of actual play. While I don't think it's absolutely necessary that every piece of game writing must arise out of regular campaign play, I do think that writing that does is generally better and more vital. This is, I think, especially so in the case of megadungeons, which are generally so large that the only way to build them is a couple of steps ahead of the player characters – or so I have come to believe (perhaps I'll write about that in another post).

It's been a while since I last regularly refereed a megadungeon, so this will be a good experience for me as well. As the campaign develops (assuming it lasts for any length of time), I'll no doubt have thoughts to share, including additional details about the Telluria setting in which Urheim exists.