This is a question I occasionally see on the OSR subreddit. Before answering it, a clarification: in my opinion, a megadungeon is not simply a large dungeon like Caverns of Thracia. It is a dungeon so vast and rich in content that it can sustain an entire campaign on its own. Examples of such dungeons include Rappan Athuk, Stonehell Dungeon or Barrowmaze. These modules are designed so that the exploration of their many rooms becomes the central focus of game sessions, encouraging players to spend most of their time delving into its depths, interacting with the factions and secrets it contains. In this dynamic, the base town plays a secondary role as a point of resupply for resources, mercenaries, and occasional allies, while the megadungeon dominates the action.
As the characters gain experience and resources, they seek to minimize trips back and forth to the surface to avoid the megadungeon, in all its complexity, “repopulating” its previously explored areas—a common technique to maintain challenge. Shortcuts to lower levels help mitigate this effect, though we’ll delve into those later.
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| A section of Rappan Athuk, showing the vertical relationships between different levels |
A hexcrawl, on the other hand, offers the opposite experience. Its structure encourages characters to move from one hex to another, promoting wilderness exploration and curiosity about what lies in the next hex rather than the next room. Adventure locations, as a result, are smaller and are not intended to dominate the central narrative. Hot Springs Island and Evils of Illmire are good examples of modules that utilize shorter dungeons. Many DMs, in fact, choose to include 5 room dungeons in their design or divide modules like Keep on the Borderlands across several hexes, distributing the action in smaller spaces. In this context, factions no longer control sectors of a dungeon but entire geographical zones, adapting their dynamics to a more open world.
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| The evocative hexmap of Hot Springs Island |
This difference creates a tension between the two structures. A megadungeon and a hexcrawl require different session organization, and including a megadungeon in a hexcrawl can drastically shift the campaign’s focus. If what you’re looking for is an exploration experience where the map itself is the protagonist, it’s better not to include a megadungeon, because one of two things might happen: either the players ignore it (turning it into an unused hex) or it becomes the centerpiece of the game, leaving the rest of the map unexplored and wasting all the preparation effort.
If both you and your players are interested in the megadungeon experience, you might consider including a hexmap as a complement. This can provide moments of respite from the main adventure, offer a tonal change, or, in the case of something like Highfell,serve as a prelude to accessing the megadungeon. For this purpose, I would suggest a small hexmap with adventures that provide a distinct experience or include shortcuts to deeper levels of the megadungeon for higher-level characters. These could be a lake or underwater cave providing an alternative submerged entry, a portal to lower levels, or an ancient escape tunnel.
In conclusion, the optimal number of megadungeons in a hexcrawl is between 0 and 1. Including one can be an interesting and well-considered choice, but more than one would likely waste material that could work better in a separate campaign.
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