Here's the basics before I dive into details:

• D&D 5e system
• Mega-dungeon style game
• Small Party Focus (4 members)
• Narrative Story and Combat, Maps may be provided, but will be non-specific nor to scale

Alright, so I've got two base ideas for a Mega-Dungeon campaign.

The first idea is for a abandoned Elf fortress.  Elves and Demons waged war on each long ago, and this is a relic from that war that was abandoned centuries ago.  The new Elf King wishes to reclaim lost knowledge and relics from that time, and he has decided to charter a group of adventurers to pursue his interests.  This game would be largely focused on the exploration of the fortress, learning about its history, and solving its mysteries.  On a 5 point scale (1 is low), this would be a Combat 4, Complexity 3, Puzzle 2, Roleplay 3, Exploration 5 kind of game.

Next, I have an idea for a strange world where the underground areas, known as the Dark Expanse, are normally sealed off from the rest of the world by complex mechanisms and machinery that no one really understands.  No one's sure exactly who constructed the Dark Expanse or what its purpose is though many of the races have their legends and theories.  All that's known is that the entrances, Portals, to the Dark Expanse only open once every century for one hundred days.  The group is a part of a new guild that wishes to make its mark by use of some exclusive information that the guild leader has come across.  This game's ratings would be Combat 5, Complexity 4, Puzzle 2, Roleplay 3, Exploration 5.

For those curious about the ratings, here's a quick summary of their meanings:

Combat: How often and difficult combat encounters are expected to be.  1 would indicate that fights are rare and happen once per day at the most.  A 5 would indicate that you can expect a minimum of 2 fights in a day and that the difficulty means that character death is likely.

Complexity: An indicator of the number of skill checks to be made in a game.  Also indicates the level of consequences associated with failure of said checks.

Puzzle: Indicator of how much logical reasoning is expected of players outside of their skill checks.  In other words, rolling a 20 for an Intelligence check in a 5 rated game will not point you in the correct direction by default.

Roleplay: How much and quality of writing to be expected inside the game.  Also indicates how much character development and interaction is influential.  A 1 rating would be an OP game about a group of murder hobos.  A 5 rated game will require extensive backstory construction, creation of NPC's and associations, and will require above average writing skills.

Exploration: How much impact the setting will have upon the game. You can expect lore, history, and encountered locales to be of extreme importance and to be very detailed in a 5 rated game.  A 1 rated game expects the setting to have little to no impact.

Anyway, which idea would be more appealing?  A one off kind of idea inside a larger setting, or a setting where the idea is the larger problem at hand?
This message was last updated by the user at 16:39, Fri 30 Jan 2015.

Sounds like fun! Im all for the Dark Expanse game. I do not have any copies of 5th edition but I have played a game of it.

both of these sound super awesome, leaning just a little bit towards the dark expanse cause i've never heard of a game like that at all. i dig both, though.

 Agreed with the other two, Dark expanse sounds like fun, though having only 100 days to do the exploration and fight what ever is there...still plenty of time to get killed.

I'd be interested in both, especially the Dark Expanse game. ^_^

I am interested.

So for roleplay being a three, how much depth or length do you expect in posts or backstory?

What sort of posting rate are you looking at?

Alrighty, I'll start working out some details for the Dark Expanse idea.  It will be a bit to sort out the details, but I'll update with progress as I go.  It'll probably take a handful of weeks (2 to 4) to get things in order and ready to play.  Mostly, I'll need time to map out the dungeons and some extra mechanics, since that will be the large focus of this game idea.

Some extra details now that I've started doing some basic planning.

• Starting level is likely to be level 3.
• I'll probably be providing a minor magic item to each player, but I've not worked out just what or any other details as of yet.
• This is going to be a high magic game, which means that magic is common and widely used in many aspects of life.
• Characters will be previous associates of each other.  Details of this to be determined later.

@ArgamenPhish:  For a rating of 3, the expectation is for about a paragraph per post.  Some detail about what you're doing, some conversation, and maybe an inner thought every now and again.  A 3 says that one liners and just posting absolute basics isn't enough and that some character development is planned or expected.  Nothing huge or changing though.  A 4 rated game would mean that alignment change and such is far more likely and that such things are expected to have impact on the storyline's progression.  Conversely, a 2 rated game would require each character to have and maintain a personality throughout a game, but that such things wouldn't have much or any impact on a story's progression.  A 3 rating looks for some kind of middle ground where roleplay is important and meaningful, and good roleplay can shift things in the story while not becoming the end-all-be-all of the story.  I hope that clarifies it in short, but I can go more in depth if you want.

@Finlos:  I'd be looking at an expected rate of 3-4 posts per week.  That's just what my schedule allows while allowing me to maintain a certain standard of writing and planning for myself as the GM.
This message was last edited by the user at 22:51, Mon 09 Feb 2015.

Any chance for one of your former player to slide in a spot?

Very likely!  :)

Thanks, I am definitely interested in this game then.

Update!

World building is progressing at a nice steady pace.  Most of the backstory writing and GM notes are done with a couple of notable exceptions that I need to do some more thinking on.  At the moment, I'm working on creating maps of all the interlocking areas that will be making up the portion of the Dark Expanse the group will be exploring.  There's still a good bit more to do, but I wanted to let you guys know that things are going at about the pace I expected for planning and getting things all nice and ready for players :)

I anticipate two more posts similar to this one before everything is nice and complete.  I'll link to the game after it's completed as its still very much a work in progress.