OSR Megadungeon: Dwimmermount Review

This is a great, weird book, if you're willing to do some work.

 

There's something really strange about Dwimmermount. Some parts are overwritten, while others are under-written. It's oddly organized. Some of the dungeon keys are downright disorganized. And yet, I enjoyed using it. I took it apart, inputting the dungeon keys into a spreadsheet. I rewrote rooms as their contents changed due to player action or dungeon restocking. I expanded and extrapolated on the brief descriptions of locations. I removed, added, and expanded parts of the world. This product, with all of its warts and flaws, made me a better dungeon master, because it made me work. I had to file off the rough edges, which left me with something that is more than the original product: I was left with something that was very much my own creation; my own modification. My own world.

 

It's certainly not for everyone; the dungeon is closely linked to the campaign world, and stripping it out would remove much of its uniqueness and usability. It's kind of an all-or-nothing product. It's ideal if you're willing to start a new campaign in the setting, otherwise you shouldn't bother.

If you do bother, you'll find this book has absolutely everything you need to run a long-lasting and robust old-school campaign, better than any official 5e starter box product (for OSR play, anyway), as long as you're willing to work for it.

The Idea

Dwimmermount began as one blogger's foray into megadungeon design in 2008. His campaign reports tracked his philosophies and discoveries as they happened. His goal was to return to the original campaigns run by Arneson and Gygax, and see what new wisdom might be gleaned from such a work. The game is heavily based in his personal D&D world, which is just different enough from standard D&D to be interesting:

• Dwarves are magical creatures literally carved from stone by gods. They only reproduce by carving "sons" from stone, covering them in gemstones and performing a magic ritual. Thus, all dwarves are male (or genderless if you like), and dwarven family trees are more like blades of grass: Separate and non-intersecting.
  
• Elves are mysterious alien-like people who live forever, and reproduce via a mysterious alchemical ritual (uncovering this mystery is part of the adventure)
• Instead of magical planes of existence (like the planes of Fire and Water) there are different moons that orbit the planet, that wizards used to travel between via portals. Most of the strange creatures come from these places, which (for me) helped explain why all of these strange creatures with no natural ecological niche are running around an otherwise Earth-like planet.
  

These differences are woven into the very fabric of the module and dungeon itself, which would require some modifications from DMs to make it work

Although the game is a megadungeon, it also comes with a surprisingly robust setting that surrounds it; there's a sizable world map (pictured above) and dozens of cities, lairs and other places of interest when the players want to go looking for adventure. I'm a busy (and lazy) man, so I just took the whole package and went. Other, more fastidious GMs might change some or all of the details of this world, or otherwise not use it.

My  conversion of the map using Hexographer (notice the pointy tops compared to the original)

Layout and Organization

This book is a 428-page behemoth, with a bookmarked PDF. The first part of the book details the history of the world, which I initially dismissed as being "not important." After all, haven't we all read the background fluff of some product and decided it's a waste of our time? Interestingly, it all became very important later, as the players started delving deeper into the dungeon, and asking questions that expanded the world beyond the boundaries of the book. That "not important" section became something I later imported as a Google Doc and shared with players, to fill in the information as it became available ALA Risk Legacy, adding one or two paragraphs at a time as players uncovered wall carvings and ancient texts.

The second part of the book is a detailed gazetteer of the area seen in the map above. The map is the old Wilderness Survival map, which Gygax recommended in the early D&D products. While it's functional out of the box, I found the geography cartoonish and unrealistic, and I eventually my own map. I didn't show the players the map until dozens of sessions in: I simply described distances and the types of terrain, and players decided how to travel.

When I played Hot Springs Island I learned there's something negative and even immersion-breaking about having a visible map for players to interact with. It makes the game feel more like a board game, with players having a more omnipotent view of the world. Otherworld immersion demands that we make the world a bit mysterious and confusing. By omitting an objective visual map, and by using evocative descriptions, players must imagine themselves in a real world, and react accordingly. 

 

Of course, there eventually came a time when players needed to see the map, which is when I was forced to create my own (more realistic) version (see below).

 

My updated map, designed with a terrain generator and Adobe Illustrator

The book is split into three sections: Outside the dungeon, inside the dungeon, and appendices. There's a lot in each section, as you might expect. Section 1 contains the first 7 chapters.

Outside the dungeon contains the complete world history (that I initially disregarded) and the region gazetteer, along with the details on the different races and what makes them special in this setting. There's a cool bit where it provides different information about the dungeon to the different races; elves believe things about it that humans and dwarves don't. It's more interesting than a random rumor table (which is still present) and makes sense that different cultures would have alternate beliefs about this ancient mountain.

Interestingly, the game provides rules for selling information about the dungeon. This is something I didn't make obvious to the players (as I was learning a lot of new systems and techniques, it just passed me by). During the adventure, players can acquire clues in the form of numbered paragraphs. These paragraphs (from that initial history section) help paint a bigger picture of the ancient world. Although I didn't give XP for recovering information, I did collect all of the discovered paragraphs into a google document that was shared with the players. I never forced players to read it, but those who did were perhaps slightly better equipped with dealing with the dangers. It created an interesting dynamics during downtime, which will be discussed in my ACKS review.

There's details on trade information that fits in with ACKS' rules, which, again, I initially discarded because it seemed like meaningless busywork, but turned out to be extremely useful. There's also some rules for dynamic domains and lairs, which read like an early version of the dynamic lairs from ACKS.

 

My most recent map revision, to be more readable, and include elevation information.

 

The rest of the book is dungeon, which is always not very fun to read, but very useful at the table, followed by a hefty bunch of appendices. These include info on specific magic items, unusual magical substances only found in this campaign setting, and astrological information, mostly relating to the planet's moons. It does a good job of giving enough info to be useful, without overloading the GM with useless facts. I've considered expanding my setting to include some playable areas on these moons, but frankly, I was nowhere close to running out of gameplay after a year and a half of play.
 

Verdict

I can only recommend this product if you're looking for these very specific things:

• A complete setting that is hard to separate from the dungeon
  
• A mega-dungeon that gets quirkier the deeper you go
• A specifically old-school product for old-school games
• A book the requires some elbow grease from the DM to get working right

If you're looking for these four things, this book's for you. There's enough content here to keep your campaign running for a long time.

Let me climb onto my soapbox for a minute and explain why this approach is so good. Look, I live in the same world you do. We (probably) watch all the same YouTubers, and listen to most of the same podcasts. You might even listen to mine. I've heard all the same advice you have, and let me tell you, from the bottom of my heart:

You already have everything you need to start playing D&D.

I really mean it. You can spend the rest of your life reading, listening and watching people explain how to do something to make you a better GM. But if you want to play D&D, just start playing. Seriously.

Dwimmermount gives aspiring GMs literally everything they need to start playing. In fact, I wish it were called something like "THE MEGADUNGEON STARTER SET" to appropriately frame how useful this product is. I think Games Workshop does this with their products, releasing new boxes that are easy to start collecting. D&D has a few starter boxes, but 50% of them are trash.

 

If you're looking to start an OSR game, and don't know where to begin, you should pay the $10(!) and start playing. You'll learn a lot about yourself, your players, and your preferences. You'll have to make some decisions regarding certain aspects of your game. Also, you'll have a big sandbox into which you can easily slip a bunch of other adventures. I recommend literally everything Autarch makes, because everything they make is usable out of the box, and 100% compatible with the ACKS version of Dwimmermount (they also sell a non-ACKS version).

So yeah. It was great for me, but it might not be great for you.

You can buy the PDF for $10 right here. It's not an affiliate link, I just like supporting art.