World's Largest Dungeon

Last updated
The World's Largest Dungeon
Publishers Alderac Entertainment Group
Genres Fantasy
Systems d20 System
Playing timeVaries
Chance Dice rolling
SkillsRole-playing, improvisation, tactics, arithmetic

The World's Largest Dungeon is a Dungeons & Dragons adventure set entirely in an enormous dungeon. It is over 800 pages long and was produced by Alderac Entertainment Group in 2004. It also includes 16 full-color poster maps, making its single tome one of the largest campaign settings in one product.

Contents

The players cannot leave the dungeon the way they entered because the entrance uses a one-way wall of force effect. This means that all supplies must be taken into the dungeon with them. The campaign is designed to take four to six characters from first level to 20th or above over the course of two real-time years and at least a year of game time. The dungeon contains examples of every type of monster in the System Reference Document [1] as well as a few new ones.

Publication history

The World's Largest Dungeon was published in 2004 by Alderac Entertainment Group, and along with World's Largest City (2006), was one of the final d20 publications released by AEG. AEG advertised The World's Largest Dungeon as the largest sourcebook ever produced for d20, with 960,000 words and reprinting every monster found in the d20 SRD, on over 840 pages. AEG estimated that the book held enough material to be played for two years, and that was the largest role-playing game book ever produced at the time. [2]

Impact

The World's Largest Dungeon was parodied in Knights of the Dinner Table as the Biggest Damn Dungeon Ever which was a product by the fictional creators of Hackmaster, but unlike the World's Largest Dungeon, it was only an alphabetical collection of monsters.

In 2006, the Guinness Book of World Records listed World's Largest Dungeon as the most expensive roleplaying book to date at $99.95. [3] It has since been eclipsed by several other books.[ citation needed ]

Reception

The reviewer from the online second volume of Pyramid stated that "Alderac Entertainment Group's magnum opus, The World's Largest Dungeon, is nothing if not ambitious. An 800-page monster, it's the biggest game adventure ever published." [4]

Reviews

Related Research Articles

<i>Dragon</i> (magazine) Magazine published by TSR

Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, along with Dungeon.

<i>Monster Manual</i> Sourcebook series of Dungeons & Dragons bestiaries

The Monster Manual is the primary bestiary sourcebook for monsters in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, first published in 1977 by TSR. The Monster Manual was the first hardcover D&D book and includes monsters derived from mythology and folklore, as well as creatures created specifically for D&D. Creature descriptions include game-specific statistics, a brief description of its habits and habitats, and typically an image of the creature. Along with the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide, the Monster Manual is one of the three "core rulebooks" in most editions of the D&D game. As such, new editions of the Monster Manual have been released for each edition of D&D. Due to the level of detail and illustration included in the 1977 release, the book was cited as a pivotal example of a new style of wargame books. Future editions would draw on various sources and act as a compendium of published monsters.

<i>Players Handbook</i> Series of Dungeons & Dragons player rulebooks

The Player's Handbook is the name given to one of the core rulebooks in every edition of the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). It does not contain the complete set of rules for the game, and only includes rules for use by players of the game. Additional rules, for use by Dungeon Masters (DMs), who referee the game, can be found in the Dungeon Master's Guide. Many optional rules, such as those governing extremely high-level players, and some of the more obscure spells, are found in other sources.

<i>Dungeon Masters Guide</i> Role-playing game rulebook

The Dungeon Master's Guide is a book of rules for the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. The Dungeon Master's Guide contains rules concerning the arbitration and administration of a game, and is intended for use by the game's Dungeon Master.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alderac Entertainment Group</span> Game publisher

Alderac Entertainment Group, or AEG, is a publisher of role-playing game, board game, and collectible card game products. AEG was formed by Jolly Blackburn in 1993 and is based in the city of Ontario, California. Prior to getting into their current markets, AEG was involved in hobby gaming magazines, with their first product the magazine Shadis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legend of the Five Rings</span> Collectible card game and setting

Legend of the Five Rings is a fictional setting created by John Zinser, Dave Seay, Ryan Dancey, Dave Williams, DJ Trindle, Matt Wilson and John Wick and first published by a joint venture between Alderac Entertainment Group and ISOMEDIA in 1995. The setting primarily involves the fictional empire of Rokugan, though some additional areas and cultures have been discussed. Rokugan is based roughly on feudal Japan with influences from other East Asian cultures such as China, Mongolia and Korea. This setting is the basis for the Legend of the Five Rings Collectible Card Game as well as the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game. Legend of the Five Rings was also the "featured campaign setting" of the Oriental Adventures expansion to the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons, though this book is now out of print.

<i>Shadis</i> Defunct American independent gaming magazine

Shadis is an independent gaming magazine that was published in 1990–1998 by Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG). It initially focused on role-playing games.

The Five Rings Publishing Group (FRPG) was formed as a spin-out of Alderac Entertainment Group and ISOMEDIA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stargate SG-1 (roleplaying game)</span>

Stargate: SG-1 Roleplaying Game is a role-playing game based on the TV series Stargate SG-1, released in 2003 by Alderac Entertainment Group. The game, based on AEG's Spycraft, uses the d20 System. Since Sony did not renew AEG's contract to publish the game, it is now out of print.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Wick (game designer)</span> American role-playing game designer

John Wick is an American role-playing game designer best known for his creative contributions to the tabletop role playing games Legend of the Five Rings and 7th Sea. He self-published Orkworld under the Wicked Press banner, and later co-founded the Wicked Dead Brewing Company with Jared Sorensen. His games under that company include Cat, Schauermärchen, Enemy Gods, and Thirty. He has won the Origins Award for Best Role-Playing Game and Best Collectible Card Game twice.

<i>Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting</i> Dungeons & Dragons sourcebook

The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting is a role-playing game sourcebook first published by TSR in 1987 for the first edition of the fantasy role-playing game Advanced Dungeons & Dragons that describes the campaign setting of the Forgotten Realms. It contains information on characters, locations and history. Various revised and updated editions have been produced over the years.

<i>Big Eyes, Small Mouth</i> Anime-themed tabletop role-playing game

Big Eyes, Small Mouth (BESM) is a tabletop role-playing game originally produced by Guardians of Order in 1997 that was designed to simulate the action of anime and manga. The title alludes to the common anime drawing style of characters with large expressive eyes and comparatively small mouths.

The flexibility of the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) game rules means that Dungeon Masters (DM) are free to create their own fantasy campaign settings. For those who wanted a pre-packaged setting in which to play, TSR, Wizards of the Coast (WotC), and other publishers have created many settings in which D&D games can be based; of these, the Forgotten Realms, an epic fantasy world, has been one of the most successful and critically acclaimed settings. Many campaign settings include standard sword and sorcery environments, while others borrow Asian, Central American, swashbuckling, horror and even space-travel themes.

<i>Pathfinder</i> (periodicals) Several related series of roleplaying game books

Pathfinder is a line of roleplaying game supplements published by Paizo Publishing since 2007. Originally designed for use with the revised 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons, they transitioned to the first edition of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game in 2009, then to the second edition of Pathfinder in 2019.

<i>The Lost City</i> (Dungeons & Dragons)

The Lost City (B4) is a Dungeons & Dragons adventure module by Tom Moldvay. It was first published by TSR in 1982 and was designed as a stand-alone adventure for use with the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set. The working title for the module was "The Lost City of Cynidicea". Moldvay designed the module as a low-level scenario to give novice Dungeon Masters experience in fleshing out adventures such that it is only partially complete. The plot involves the player characters discovering a ruined subterranean city slowly rising out of the sands. The adventure is set inside a huge step pyramid, with the lower pyramid only sketched out and the city itself described with a list of the major areas and a map. The adventure's main villain is Zargon, a giant one-eyed monster and his minions. The entire double pyramid, not including the city, contains over 100 rooms.

<i>Greyhawk: The Adventure Begins</i>

Greyhawk: The Adventure Begins is a 1998 sourcebook for the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. The 128 page book was written by Roger E. Moore and published by Wizards of the Coast under the TSR imprint it had recently acquired.

Ree Soesbee is an American game designer of collectible card games, role-playing games, and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), as well as a writer of primarily fantasy novels.

Ryan S. Dancey is a businessman who has worked primarily in the collectible card game and role-playing game industries. He was vice president in charge of Dungeons & Dragons at Wizards of the Coast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set</span> Role-playing game rule set

The Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set is a category of companion accessories across multiple editions of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. In general, the Starter Set is a boxed set that includes a set of instructions for basic play, a low level adventure module, pre-generated characters, and other tools to help new players get started.

References

  1. ↑ "Revised (v.3.5) System Reference Document". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on February 4, 2004.
  2. ↑ Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. p. 265. ISBN   978-1-907702-58-7.
  3. ↑ "Most expensive RPG (Role Playing Game) product | Guinness World Records". www.guinnessworldrecords.com. Archived from the original on 31 March 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  4. ↑ "Pyramid: Pyramid Review: The World's Largest Dungeon (for d20 System)". Sjgames.com. 2005-03-25. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  5. ↑ https://archive.org/details/colecaodragonslayer/Dragon%20Slayer%2002/page/n7/mode/2up
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.