For the month of February (which is also the two-year anniversary of the atlas), I am presenting the dungeon challenge.

Challenge is simple enough; map one of the dungeon levels for the mega-dungeon. One entrance from above, one going down to the level below.



As before, even if the challenge is related to the atlas, you can participate in the challenge without handing in the map for the atlas, although I do hope most people will allow their map to be used in the atlas. This is also a very good starting point for new contributors to the atlas. But if you just want to participate in the challenge and not contribute to the atlas, that is also completely fine. The goal here is participation, with atlas maps as a secondary bonus.

The fun part about this challenge is that each person participating will map a dungeon level, and together, they will form a mega-dungeon. So, to make this wok, there is one requirement for the dungeon level, it must have one entrance from above, and one exit going down. Since nobody knows what map will be above or below theirs, don't add any other kinds of exits/shortcuts (like pits opening up to the level below, bottomless chasms and such) that would lead off your level, stick with the single entrance and exit.

You can make the dungeon level as small or as large as you want to. Please do make the exit down reachable from your entrance, we don't want your level to block the ones below from being reachable. Getting to the exit should obviously be a challenge, but it shouldn't be impossible. If it is hidden, provide some clues at least, not every adventuring group spends hours checking every single wall segment for a tiny button

As usual, if you intend your final map to be allowed in the atlas, you must adhere to the atlas guidelines.

When participating, please make a topic of your own and show the progress as you create the map. It is so much more fun seeing the map being developed than just get a completed map in my hands.

When done, please post your finished map in this thread (and make sure to get me the .fcw file if the map should go into the atlas). To participate in this challenge, the final map must be posted before midnight GMT+1 on February 28th. (It is never to late to add another level to this dungeon though, it will be permanently open as an atlas sub-project)

I hope to see many people participating, and feel free to spread the word.

And please don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions.



The Temple of the Unholy has a rich, terrible and varied history. Located east of The Scar on Alarius, it has seen centuries of use. The first part of the structure were built by elves more than a millennium ago, but since then it has changed hands many times, due to war, diplomacy, treachery, deception and murder.
The temple as it stands today contains architectural elements from dozens of different races and time periods. But perhaps the most fascinating thing about the temple is not what lies on top, but what can be found below. What started with simple basements quickly turned into a dark sprawling dungeon. Each inhabitant of the temple up through the millennium have both changed the existing dungeon, as well as adding on, making it larger and better fit his needs. That need being prison cells, secret escape routes, traps for the enemies, hiding places for the faithful and so on. Some places which now are part of the dungeon even used to belong to underground races, some of which even extended the dungeon upwards to assault the temple from below.
This has all resulted in the temple sitting on top of an uncounted number of dungeon levels, designed by different races for different purposes. No expedition have yet reached the bottom, and returned to the surface to talk about it. Mind you, it is certainly possible that one of the lost expeditions did reach the bottom, for lost expeditions severely outnumber the successful ones. Who knows, perhaps some of the people from the lost expeditions still walk the corridors of the dungeons below The Temple of the Unholy?

Nah, a stream would be fine. Underground rivers do exist at various depths below the earth.

Might be worth thinking of relaxing the "one staircase" limit for access to future levels in the final Atlas version of this, as it risks becoming very linear otherwise. Plus as the entire concept of dungeons originally in D&D was to set them up with each subsequent level being a more dangerous place for characters to work through - essentially so as to keep pace with the growth of character powers in the game, of course - the upper levels should become rapidly stripped of anything interesting in a mega-dungeon set-up like this, where everyone has to go through all the earlier levels before they get to the more difficult levels, where treasure and monsters still survive. As usual, setting aside all logic in this, naturally ;)

I have thought of a bit here and there for a sub level.

We are all stuck at home today due to a massive snow alert, its not snowing, so I have time to map. I'll work on more than one level.

What about a few small 'connector' generic levels ? Say 250' x 200' ? Or would it be preferable to make mine all the same size ?

I did think about, after seeing the circle level, to do an L-shaped level. Or a large square level, with a pit in the middle that appears to go somewhere, but doesn't.

Posted By: JimPWhat about a few small 'connector' generic levels ? Say 250' x 200' ? Or would it be preferable to make mine all the same size ?

Sure thing. Same size is not required at all.

Oh, just thought of this.

How are we going to label these maps ?

My suggestion would be megadungeon_mapperinitials01, megadungeon_mapperinitias02, etc. for our submissions. Would that work ?

I figured you had a system. I was just trying to sort it out n my brain.

I'll be submitting at least two maps.

No height limit (within reason, there are after all a stack of other levels above/below). Just make sure your system is enclosed, i.e. not open to the levels above/below

Here are my submissions. Hopefully I'm not too tired to do this correctly.

Yippee ! Posted info on Dragonsfoot.org. forums that we now have 300 maps in the Atlas. edit: corrected a misspelling.

Great. Means we are up to 6 floors now. Hope many more will participate, we need floors.

And remember, the more people that participate in a challenge, the better it becomes. These challenges are also the perfect way of challenging yourself too, perhaps an opportunity to try something new just for the fun of it. Haven't mapped a dungeon at all before? Well, now is a good time to start.