The Strata of Civilizations

Dungeons in general – and megadungeons in particular – are excellent at conveying the strata of civilization. Adventurers, like archeologists, find layers of progressively older civilizations as they dig deeper. Even the more archetypical (or stereotypical) D&D adventures – orcs in an abandoned dwarven mine, or bandits camping in the first level of an ancient tomb – fit this pattern, in a very simple way. But megadungeons have the scope to do it especially well.

Caverns of Thracia is an excellent model. Its factions tell the story of four civilizations, each different from the societies that came before them. And these civilizations are not merely window dressing; the PCs’ understanding of each group should change as they unravel the history of the dungeon (a history that no single faction understands completely). The beastmen will most likely be hostile to the PCs, and have many antagonistic individuals in their ranks; but the players may be more sympathetic to them after learning about their history of rebellion against death-worshiping slavers. Many modern dungeons trace influence directly from Thracia (the creator of Ardun Vul, for example, calls Caverns of Thracia “the greatest early (published) mega-dungeon”). Listening to the 3d6 Down the Line podcast's playthrough of Ardun Vul, it sounds like it learned those lessons well.

When a game fails to present coherent strata of civilization, it kills verisimilitude. I was immediately annoyed when I played last year's Zelda game (TotK) and it premised its action and exploration in the land of Hyrule on the discovery of an ancient lost civilization that once wielded great power (the Zonai). The previous Zelda game (BotW) had also been about a different ancient lost civilization that once wielded great power (the Sheikah).

There is no trace of the Zonai in BotW. Practically speaking, I understand that the game’s designers only created the Zonai during TotK’s development, well after BotW was complete. That’s why there’s no in-game logic to the relative ages of these civilizations, or a sense of how they might have influenced each other, or represented different eras in the world’s history. But no one forced the game’s designers to make that choice. They chose this incongruity. My immersion was broken. I didn’t believe that both of these societies had existed in the world of Hyrule, except as gamified plot devices.

It is worth noting that most previous Zelda games rebooted the world entirely with each new release, avoiding such continuity problems. The iterations of Hyrule in each game have connections and callbacks and overlapping ideas, but they avoid defining their cosmological and mythological relationships too clearly. With a few exceptions – including BotW and TotK – Zelda is a good example of loose canon. 

The Rise and Fall

When a dungeon (or other kind of adventuring site) tells the story of the strata of civilization, it is telling the story of the rise and fall of those civilizations. It is intimidating for a DM or game designer to try to communicate thousands of years of overlapping history through in-game action. I have found it helpful to avoid names and dates, and instead focus on culture, beliefs, traditions, and customs. The Fall of Civilizations podcast is an excellent source of these ideas. I get a half-dozen or more ideas for games from each episode.

There are many reasons for societal collapse, including but not limited to:

• Changing climate 
• Changes in water or soil quality or availability
• Exhaustion of finite resources
• Breakdown in internal or external commerce
• The retreat or fall of the society’s parent civilization or allied civilization
• The rise of an antagonistic civilization or civilizations

In a fantasy world, we can add others:

• The actions of gods or other supernatural entities
• The ravages of monsters, from lowly monstrous hordes to mighty dragons
• Epic magic, whether hostile action by an archwizard or misguided hubris by the society’s own high magus

These two lists can be merged quite easily. Ancient peoples often did attribute the natural to divine or supernatural boons or banes. We can simply make those connections explicit when crafting strata of civilization in a fantasy setting.

Irregular Layers

A new DM’s first go at a dungeon can be pretty simple. Their first floor is goblins, second floor is ghouls, third floor is gargoyles… and so on. Fine for a first effort, but experienced DMs and PCs will quickly begin to question why these creatures adhere to such artificial constraints. Iterating on this basic idea, the DM might spread goblins out into the surrounding countryside. Perhaps they were displaced from the second level of the dungeon when the ghouls were awakened from their tombs (with a handful of ghoul-goblins to show for it). The gargoyles, immune to the ghouls’ paralytic touch, have been herding them deeper into the dungeon to harass their enemies, the giants… and so on.

The dungeon levels, the factions that occupy them, and the strata of civilization don’t exist independently. They are spread over each other and interact.

Consider Thracia once again. While the first and second floors are dominated by its two “present day” factions, the older factions can be found quite early. Inquisitive players on the first level of the dungeon can find a hidden room – not far from the main entrance! – occupied by an ancient death priest, locked in stasis. A secret door on the second level can quickly take PCs to the abandoned temple where the Immortal King – one of the most dangerous creatures in the campaign – lies slumbering. When I ran Thracia, my players nearly stumbled right into the Immortal King’s tomb, but (wisely) retreated.

They Don’t Make Them Like This Anymore

The ruins of these civilizations are not interesting only for their archeological or anthropological value. Understanding who these people were could be one motivation for dungeon exploration, but it usually won’t be the primary one. 

Instead, it is the temptation of treasure and magic that brings adventurers to the dungeons of those ancient societies. Key to this idea is that there are things down beneath the ground that the modern world outside the dungeon no longer knows how to create. Magic and technology that has been lost or forgotten.

I have never enjoyed the style of D&D that developed in 2nd edition and hit its stride in 3rd edition, where magic items were neatly quantified tools that PCs could churn out during downtime (or, more likely, purchase from well-stocked shops). The very idea of a “magic shop” is anathema to me, except in specifically high fantasy settings. And high fantasy games have a proportionately weaker connection to the dungeon anyway; why go to the trouble of delving deep into a pit full of monsters when you can buy what you need from fantasy Walmart?

Standing in a store aisle, counting coins, and weighing the benefits of a Belt of Battle versus an Ioun Stone is not an interesting fictional scenario to me. The foolish and brave venturing deep into the depths to recover the lost arts of a forgotten age is more interesting.

Next Week: Cyclopean Masonry and Making Civilizations Feel Forgotten and Ancient