Mega Dungeon Crawl to End All 5e D&D Dungeon Crawls

April 17, 2019

We were contacted by the folks over at Hammerdog Games about their latest KickStart:

The Grande Temple of Jing – 5th Edition: The DUNGEON CRAWL THAT RULES THEM ALL

Now updated for 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. And with exclusive miniatures! This thing is massive with huge amounts of talent on this project – Danny O’Neill with Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Ed Greenwood, Jim Ward, Chris Pramas, Stan!, Grimtooth, Matt Mayhew, Dave Gross, Kevin Andrew Murphy and more.

This is the 5e D&D version of the Pathfinder original. With minis, character maps, and some improvements to the book. It’ll still work with Pathfinder, but the focus is on 5e. Did I mention this thing is massive? 65 themed dungeon levels in a book that is 500+ pages. There are levels that are appropriate for levels from 1st all the way up to 20th.

When Hammerdog Games reached out to us about doing some sponsorship I wasn’t aware of the KickStarter going on. First thing I did was pop over to KickStarter and take a look. I must say the first thing that struck me was the sheer amount of talent on the project. Monte Cook, Ed Greenwood, and Skip Williams names jumped out at me right away. They are a couple of my RPG idols from my early gaming days.

The next name that jumped out was Chris Pramas of Green Ronin Publishing. Our gaming group played his Mutants and Masterminds from Green Ronin for years. It’s still one of our top non Dungeons and Dragons games. All of this made us working with Hammerdog Games a no brainer. We are extremely happy to share this project with our fans and followers.

I have the utmost confidence in this KickStarter with so much talent on it.

The premise of this mega dungeon crawl for 5e D&D

It’s the dungeon home of a trickster god. That makes it an anything goes dungeon crawl. The entire thing has an ecology and a logic to it, but otherwise, you could find literally anything in its halls and caves. It’s a wonderland for players to discover.

The book and the dungeon are designed with the Dungeon Master in mind. The DM *IS* Jing. As such, they can break the temple apart and arrange it in the way they like. They introduce content, levels, and adventures that you can’t find elsewhere. There are jumping cave sharks in the temple. Levels that act like puzzles. Quests that are impossible in normal dungeon settings.

What can a Dungeon Master Expect for their Players?

There are special mechanisms in the temple that keep the challenges fun for both the Dungeon Masters and the Players. Creatures may be enchanted to be much more powerful than they appear to be – and may have strange abilities that their “normal” versions do not. Curses called Jinxes to hamper magic spells, helping keep the most munchkin-like players on their toes. But perhaps the most fun of all – when players die a “good” or “entertaining” death – Jing will resurrect them. The DM decides how many times this happens before the group is claimed by Jing.

It all adds up to a kind of sandbox that allows the Dungeon Master to run the dungeon of their dreams. There are multiple campaigns to choose from. Dozens of quests. And each level is modular and has its own theme. There are puzzle levels, combat levels, horror levels, humor levels, humanoid levels, and so on.

Finally, everything about the temple is epic. It’s size, it’s scope, it’s design – everything. There are levels that are only a few rooms in size and those that contain dozens of rooms.

But there is also a forest level that contains other levels within it. And there is a level that contains an underground vampiric sea. There is a quest where players attempt to free a shackled god.

A campaign in which players must gather pieces of an epic poem in order to gain the language of all animals (it’s a real poem in the book – 10K words long).

There are epic monsters of course, and treasures too. But the most epic part of the Grande Temple of Jing is the way it makes you continuously feel the wonder and joy that comes with discovering a truly magical dungeon.

Did I mention there is xorn poker! That’s right xorn poker I don’t know why but this made me so happy. It even inspired to write a little parody ditty inspired by Sir Mix-A-Lot.

Oh, my, Gods Dorn, look at that dungeon
It is so big, it looks like
One of those Hammerdog Games mega-dungeons.
But, ya know, who understands those Hammerdog Games Dungeons?
They only build those dungeons, because,
It looks like a total TPK, ‘kay?
I mean, that dungeon, is just so big
I can’t believe it’s just so deep, it’s like way down there
I mean gross, look
It’s just so, dark
I like big dungeons and I can not lie
You other adventurers can’t deny
That when a dungeon appears with an itty bitty 5 rooms
And an evil thing on your map
You get sprung, want to pull up tough
‘Cause you notice that dungeon was stuffed
Deep with treasure, it’s filled with monsters
I’m hooked and I can’t stop delving
Oh dungeon, I want to get in’ya
And take your treasure
My adventuring party tried to warn me
But that dungeon Hammerdog Games got makes (me so Murder Hobo!)
Oh, Dungeon-o’-glittering-treasure
You say you wanna get in my dungeon?
Well, delve me, delve me
‘Cause you ain’t that average adventurer
I’ve seen ’em loomin’
To hell with preppin’
It’s deep, deep
Got it goin’ like a quickling
I’m tired of maps
Sayin’ 5 room dungeons are the thing
Take the average adventurer and ask them that
Dungeon gotta pack much levels
So, adventurers! (Yeah!) adventurers! (Yeah!)
Has your gaming company got the dungeon? (Hell yeah!)
Tell ’em to delve it! (Delve it!) Delve it! (Delve it!)
Delve that mega dungeon!
Hammerdog Games got dungeon!