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I've been searching everywhere for a megadungeon with a decent story line/backdrop or darklands sandbox AP. No luck so far.
Here's what I've found that comes close:
Throne of Night by FMG - For starters, it wont be finished and available before I'm in diapers again. Also, its riddled with mechanics errors and some very questionable creative decisions IMO.
Rappan Athuk - Very little story line at all. And...nobody could realistically survive through the end of the dungeon.
Emerald Spire - Very little story line, not a big fan.
The Night Below - Haven't found a compatible re-write of this particular classic. Also not much of a sandbox. But if theres an available 3.5/PF re-write it would definitely be a viable option.
Any suggestions or helpful insights would be welcome. I'm not asking for you to agree/disagree with anything I've listed above, just use it as a reference to help you understand what I am/am not looking for. Thanks.
Soooo... you want a sandbox... with a storyline?
No I get what he probably means, it's not as contradictory as it might sound. A sandbox can still be set with rich lore, which is a story element, it just doesn't have a predetermined plot.
Have you seen Rise of the Drow? There's lots of extra goodies available for it. It has an underground city sandbox, a fungal jungle, and a storyline if your players want to follow it. Also, AAW may still have a hardcover copy available if you ask. It's one of the prettiest hardcover adventures I have on my shelf.
You could also take a look at Slumbering Tsar. It's very sandboxy and very tough (it IS Frog God Games). Also, I have not had a chance to read the whole thing yet...
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Rise of the drow would be a vey good choice nice book.
Froggod games offers Both Sword of Air and Slumbering Tsar but they are hard just like Rappen Athuk but they are true sandboxes and unlike Rappen Athuk they do have stories. The Frogs are my go to for sandbox megadungeons.
If you are willing to go back to 3.5 Ptolus is the finest piece of work IMO ever put out and it is a sandbox city/Dungeon.
Its not out yet but hopefully this summer Hammerdog will finish Grande Temple of Jing. It will be a megadungeon but don't know if it has a story yet.
Savage Mojo has a series called Dungeonlands Tomb of the Lich Queen then it follows up with Machine of the Lich Queen and Palace of the Lich Queen. It is available for pathfinder. They offer a few freebies on OBS if want to check it out first. It is an expensive 3 part series.
All the rest of the pathfinder mega dungeons I can think of right now don't have stories, so not going to mention them.
The people behind 13th age recently put out Eyes of the Stone Thief if you are willing to convert.
Finding megadungeons is a tall order I love them myself buy all of them that I can find but most don't really have stories.
I am currently mashing together purple duck games purple mountain, throne of night, and rise of the drow. Purple mountain is great.
I also added in some locations, obsidian citadel full of duergar and a city of troglodytes ruled by a dragon. And at some point some snake men.
Pick up a copy of the Inner Sea World Guide and use it to build the backstory to the dungeon of your choice IE: Emerald Spire. That's what the resource books are for - to help you develop the stories of your world.
If you adjust your title to "Sell me on" then you'll get about two thousand more responses. Those threads are always great for lulz.
For darklands material check out the Imperial Gazetteer by Kobold press, specifically the chapter on the ghoul nation. (Empire of the Ghouls was a closed patronage project btw)
Frog God Games also has the Lost City of Baracus (mini mega dungeon) and Cyclopean Deeps (Darklands deep deep down, with Dark Folk iirc)
If you're looking into FGG consider signing up for the Daily Deals by them here. Each day you get an email with code for a heavily discounted product.For example you just missed the Tsar HC for $100.
I'll suggest Tomb of Abysthor (which has been reissued as a Pathfinder upgrade as the Stoneheart Valley). You can eliminate the prequels and just run the dungeon, if you want. It feels very similar in some ways to the old 1E dungeoncrawl Temple of Elemental Evil, and it's got shoutouts in it that go all the way back to Blackmoor.
And it's a great piece. (I have done some fanwork with it and have a document available, which I claimed was a 3.5 conversion but really is more an expansion/adaptation).
I'd be interested in seeing that "conversion/expansion" document... :)
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To piggyback on Greg's post, I'm a big fan of FGG's Splinters of Faith. No megadungeons, but each part (10 parts in total) has a small-ish dungeon. It definitely leans more towards story than sandbox. It also, in my opinion, makes a good trilogy of campaigns, along with Rappan Athuk and Slumbering Tsar (I've heard that Sword of Air also ties in nicely, but haven't yet gone through it in depth enough to comment).
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Thokar, Shattered Star is a Paizo AP that might fit what you want. It's got a strong plot thread and a number of large dungeons. For that matter Rise of Runelords (3.5e) does also. I'm not sure I'd call any of them true megadungeons, but some are quite extensive.
For 3PP stuff, you've GOT to check out Frog God Games as mentioned by several posts above. I know I'm extremely biased, but with what you're looking for you are basically our prototype customer. You've seen Rappan Athuk and correctly noted that it is a lot sandbox dungeon crawl, but not a lot of true storyline. That is not true of everything we do, however.
Of those mentioned above:
Cyclopean Deeps (an Underdark-style sandbox) is probably closest to Rappan Athuk in that it is sandbox with lots of plot points to work from but not so much a single strong storyline running throughout.
The Slumbering Tsar Saga is going to pretty much fit the bill for what you're looking for, it's got a lot of wilderness (with a number of small dungeons), a lot of ruined city (with several large dungeons), and a humongous megadungeon (including Underdark portions), and the entire thing is built off of a coherent progressive storyline. However, it is a significant investment so you might start with something less ambitious first to test the waters.
The Lost Lands: Stoneheart Valley or The Lost City of Barakus are both multiple megadungeon sites. Stoneheart is more plot driven but Barakus gives you many plot options from the nearby city of Endhome.
Sword of Air is super plot-driven but has a lot of wilderness/travel from place to place and a large number of dungeons ranging from small to good size. I don't know if I'd classify any as true megadungeons though. Like Tsar and for the most part Stoneheart Valley, the whole thing is one giant story, though.
We're about to launch our Cults of the Sundered Kingdoms Kickstarter which is a very plot-driven adventure path also with a lot of sandbox options for a GM so...
Greg, sorry for the delayed response. I thought I had a line on what I was looking for, but as the adventure progressed we realized too late that it took a lot of customization to give it the feel we were looking for. In addition to all of the helpful comments above, you've given me a great deal to look into. Thank you for taking the time to respond.
I've been running emerald spire the last few months and have added quite a bit, giving it an overall story. But if you are looking for a sandbox I would argue against it as there is the potential for players to hop around the various levels. A fun idea but one that will likely just end with them getting killed.
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I am hesitent to recommend a product I have not actually read myself, but Razor Coast sounds perfect for what Thokar is looking for.
Semi-thread Necro but worth adding to...
This will take some conversion as it's from the 3.5 days but... This is one of the best designed Dungeon Crawls ever . I have not run it, but I did read/prep it all to eventually get to it.
It's definately modular enough to be sandboxy, for instance in my outline, I removed levels 8 and 8a and replaced then with The Sunless Garden which I blended into the main story and history of the area as well as geographically.
Again IMHO, this is what all boxed sets or mega-dungeons should be measured against design-wise. It contains appendixes and booklets designed to make everything in this 700 page monstrosity quick to find and easy to run.
If you don't use it, it's still well worth the PDF price just for a read-through. If you do pick it up, Grab this as well. It's a great little dirt cheap (official) expansion.