I just picked this up (ACKS version) and I'm looking at running this at some point with ACKS (I've owned ACKS for years but haven't attemtped to run it yet). Reading through the history and info on various races I like what I see. Oddly enough some things are similar to what I've used in my history and background when running my own setting.
So for those running or who have run it what changes to Dwimmermount did you make?
I am also very impressed with Dwimmermount and I am glad to see another conversation started about making potential changes (albeit I am late to the party). I have an off-again/on-again (currently on-again) project integrating the megadungeon with some of the background from the setting of Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea (using ACKs rules though).
Some of the more notable changes I am making are:
Replacing the Elves with Hyperboreans and replacing the Dwarves with Automatons/Clockworks/Warforged (I see this as completing the reskinning implied in text really)
I would also like to further replace / reskin some of the monster factions in the text to similarly weird them up but am a little less advanced in my thoughts on this.
I aim to change the home base and surrounding area. It's a matter of personal taste but Muntberg and most of the surrounds just come across as very 2-dimensional and jar with the depth and flavour of the megadungeon itself. I think this might have been James's original intention - to contrast the prosaic surface world with the 'mythic underworld' which turns the assumptions on its head, but it just doesn't work for me. There is some good commentary on this here: http://dungeonofsigns.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/dungeon-of-signs-reviews-dwimmermount.html
So I am planning on making a slightly more weird sword and sorcery surface setting than the one given, and elements of Hyperborea from North Wind Games seemed a good starting point. I am excited about mining the Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu for some potential ideas too!
I personally think that one of the things which is both a great strength of Dwimmermount (the integration of the dungeon with specifics of a particular campaign world) is also one of the things which has limited it in some ways because GMs generally like to tinker with products (dungeons especially!) for their own settings and this can seem overwhelming. At one stage there was talk of a conversion guide for Dwimmermount to the Auran Empire to come out with the ACKS version but that doesn't seem to have eventuated. I always felt that was a bit of a pity because I think this would have provided a great template/example of conversion to other settings (boxed texts would have been great too!) and I think we would see Dwimmermount popping up in many many worlds.
Would like to hear about some of the ideas for changes you (or others?) have had.
Your proposed changes to Dwimmermount sound great.
The nature of Dwimmermount precluded my successful adaption to the Auran Empire setting. While there were superficial similiarities between the two settings, the cosmogony and history of the two is fundamentally incompatible.
Hi Alex - thanks for the comment and interesting to hear that you also had difficulty integrating Dwimmermount into your campaign world (Auran Empire) - I have spent many an hour wrestling with how to make Dwimmermount fit the world I envision and not getting it there. I'd like to make clear that I think the way you completed and integrated the final product is fantastic - the many (MANY) threads are all weaved together and integrated so nicely and I can't imagine how much work it must have been. So I guess hearing that you struggled with an Auran Empire adaption both makes me feel better about the difficulties I've had with it but also makes me question whether it's a bit Quixotic of me to persist. I hadn't thought of it before, but I think you hit the nail on the head when you said it is the clash of cosmogonies which (often at least) likely makes it difficult to take Dwimmermount without Telluria.
That said, I am still really interested to hear from others what they have changed (or attempted to change) about Dwimmermount and what their experiences/challenges have been?
I haven't run Dwimmermount, but wrote down some ideas for "Unfathomable Dwimmermount". Here's an excerpt from my gameblog:
If I were to run Dwimmermount, I’d need to change things. The implied setting starts out as pretty close to “vanilla fantasy” which becomes stranger the deeper you delve. I’d prefer to make things a lot weirder from the start, by combining the setting with Operation Unfathomable (a gonzo funhouse mini-campaign) and taking ideas from Devilmount and Anomalous Subsurface Environment.
(There's also some further setting and rules ideas on my site.)
These are great ideas, K-Slacker. I have also really enjoyed taking a look at some of your ideas from your 'Astonishing ACKs" Campaign and will likely draw on some of those (hope you don't mind!) for my Dwimmermount + Hyperborea mix. In particular I like the look of the Hyperborean classes you came up with - I think I am likely to go with a more Moorcockian + Hill Canton Eld take in terms of fluff than the Prometheus Engineers take, though I really like that idea too.
I won Anomalous Subsurface Environment and may draw some elements from that, but had never come across Devilmount (not sure where to get this?) or Operation Unfathomable, which looks very interesting.
Oh, another way I have considered adapting Dwimmermount is to place it in a Meso-American setting - drawing on influences from the old cartoon "Mysterious Cities of Gold." I would perhaps replace the current setting (city-states period) with the early years following conquest by Conquistador types, likely use the "Guns of War" supplement and perhaps bits of Tekumel or Maztica. I haven't taken it any further than that though.
[quote="BronzeAger"]
Oh, another way I have considered adapting Dwimmermount is to place it in a Meso-American setting - drawing on influences from the old cartoon "Mysterious Cities of Gold." I would perhaps replace the current setting (city-states period) with the early years following conquest by Conquistador types, likely use the "Guns of War" supplement and perhaps bits of Tekumel or Maztica. I haven't taken it any further than that though.
[/quote]
Oh, now that's a really friggin awesome idea. Treat it as some sort of huge Aztec/Mayan structure. Change all the moon pool stuff to sun pool stuff, etc. Terms and his Termaxians become some sort of death cult.
Maybe slap the mountain in the middle of Isle of Dread or something similar.
[quote="koewn"]
Oh, another way I have considered adapting Dwimmermount is to place it in a Meso-American setting - drawing on influences from the old cartoon "Mysterious Cities of Gold." I would perhaps replace the current setting (city-states period) with the early years following conquest by Conquistador types, likely use the "Guns of War" supplement and perhaps bits of Tekumel or Maztica. I haven't taken it any further than that though.
-BronzeAger
Oh, now that's a really friggin awesome idea. Treat it as some sort of huge Aztec/Mayan structure. Change all the moon pool stuff to sun pool stuff, etc. Terms and his Termaxians become some sort of death cult.
Maybe slap the mountain in the middle of Isle of Dread or something similar.
[/quote]
DREADMOUNT
#MakeItHappen
Monte Pavor?
So, el Monte Pavor is an island that once existed in the Caribbean, or some fantasy world Caribbean. Adamas; or now Fuerte Irrompible, is a major Spanish fort, with a commanding location for supplying and defending the treasure galleons. Muntburg; now Pueblo Montana, is a heavily built fort near Monte Pavor itself, with the risky proposition of collecting raw materials (wood, stone, etc) for Irrompible amid constant threat from monsters unknown in the Old World.
It's rough, terrible, and costly, but it's managable, and the island is in a *great* place.
The name of the island is translated from the native tongue of the peoples that once clung to the edge of the shore; much reduced now to a pitiable caste of vagrants and beggars - they had always been fearful of the mountain, and the Spaniards put it down to heathen ways.
Until the auroras lit, and the island went completely berzerk.
Monsters, strange enclaves of unmet natives, and the threat of Monte Pavor.
I haven't actually run "Isle of Dread" before - have certainly heard a lot about it and would definitely be interesting!
[NB: Potential Dwimmermount Spoilers Below]
If I went with the Mezo-American setting I think I would have Clerics from the colonists serve the Church of Saints and Martyrs, and have them serve various saints rather than the gods described in Dwimmermount. Some scholars may have suggested similarities between the Saints and the gods of the locals, but this is mostly deemed nonsense, coincidence or heresy. Dwimmermount would look great as a sort of Machu Pichu hidden mountain ruin.
The Elves would be replaced by survivors from a sort of mythic ancient civilization - the lost land of Mu, perhaps. I imagine them with long arms and fingers and elongated heads. I haven't figured out the Dwarves yet... do Automatons still work? I really got into Meso-American history when I was younger but it's all a bit foggy so I'll have to do some reading.
If we wanted to preserve some of the inter city-state rivalry hinted at in Dwimmermount without overpopulating the Isle of Dread there could always be other Islands colonised by rival forces (analogues of the English Privateers perhaps?). Wilderness adventures beyond the Isle would take a more maritime approach (though with the Isle of Dread + Dwimmermount I imagine players are not going to run out of things to do).
I would be tempted though to place Dwimmermount in a larger space than Isle of Dread - inspired by mainland South and/or Central America - and enable the players to pick either Conquistadors (Fighters, Clerics, etc). or from the local population (Jaguar and Eagle Knights?). Perhaps conquest has not been so straight-forward, and there are some city-states dominated by Conquistadors and others still held by locals, with the Death Cult (Termaxians - which had siezed control of the Empire until displaced by the arrival of the Conquistadors) being a malign third party. The players would have a chance to tip the balance one way or the other, or at least shape the relations between these powers, with the wealth and power they accrue in Dwimmermount.
Several months ago I had this massive insight, that Turms Termax is Dacian Zalmoxis and Dwimmermount is the sacred Dacian mountain Kagaionon, while Skyrim has more in common with Roman Dacia than with Scandinavia. Now I can't get it out of my head - the idea of a quasihistorical acks campaign set in Dacia Traiana in times of Septimus Severus, instead of Termaxians - Dacian nobility cult of Zalmoxis who all became draugr mummies slumbering in countless crypts, local barbarian tribes instead of beastmen, warrior brotherhoods of lycanthropes, victims of magical experiments, alien horrors and ancient machines left intact, and forbidden artifact trade spreading corruption and chaos across Danube.
[quote="Ulfhrafn"] Several months ago I had this massive insight, that Turms Termax is Dacian Zalmoxis and Dwimmermount is the sacred Dacian mountain Kagaionon, while Skyrim has more in common with Roman Dacia than with Scandinavia. Now I can't get it out of my head - the idea of a quasihistorical acks campaign set in Dacia Traiana in times of Septimus Severus, instead of Termaxians - Dacian nobility cult of Zalmoxis who all became draugr mummies slumbering in countless crypts, local barbarian tribes instead of beastmen, warrior brotherhoods of lycanthropes, victims of magical experiments, alien horrors and ancient machines left intact, and forbidden artifact trade spreading corruption and chaos across Danube. [/quote]
I love this! Dacia/Ancient Romania + Skyrim + Lovecraft/BCK!