Dark Souls MegaDungeon Board
Welcome to the world of Dark Souls.
This project started as my Firelink shrine map. It started growing a bit too much. If you’ve played Dark Souls, you will recognize the areas easily. They are not exact copies, but inspired on the main zones of the game. This is an extremely complicated map, with serious performance issues. I’ve tried to keep decorations to a reasonable level. It is highly recommended that you study the map before setting your players loose on it! . Also, monsters not included 🙂
So, this is designed as a four wings dungeon, with places for boss encounters (and minibosses too) along the way. Start at the bonfire in Firelink Shrine. From there you can cross the graveyard and explore the catcombs, to find out a boss at the bottom. Or you can descend to find out what happened at the ruins of New Londo, now abnegated with water. Be careful not to fall into the cold water, for strange creatures may devour you while you try and find the mechanism at the tower to lower the water level, and then explore the cathedral for another boss encounter. Then, move on to the aqueduct that leads into the desolated Undead Burg, crossing from the roofs to the ramparts, and reach the bridge. You can find there a way to go down, to street level, to another cathedral ruins, where the entrance to the sewers awaits you, a deadly and dark labyrinth culminating in another boss fight. Or cross the bridge if you dare, reaching the upper city, the undead parish, where the cathedral will dare you to climb its rooftops to a final battle at the top of the tower. Also, feel free to explore Sen’s fortress, full of treachery, serpents and falling boulders.
There is an image explaining the routes and which zones have alternative roads or shortcuts (usually blocked by doors, ladders, etc). It is recommended that you as the DM decide which ones are going to be available to the players, and which ones will only work as shortcuts after been unlocked. You have plenty of rooms to prepare your encounters, or simply explore, and some bigger rooms or boss zones. (taurus demon, the bridge, capra demon, gaping dragon, etc). The zones are quite straightforward, with a main path, sometimes two (three in the sewers as an exception). This is a highly vertical map. Not only in the sense that it is reaaly tall, but also most zones have bridges crossing over other passageways, lots of vertical combat situations, and deadly falls.
The camera will give you some trouble in some areas. Be patient with your players, guide them or create some cutscenes to help them see better the enviroment. Sen’s fortress, the catcombs and the sewers are by far the most complicated parts, study them beforehand. Be ready to “correct” their movement, as it is quite common to move one more tile than intended and fall down, so you will have to pick their minis back to their intended place.
I’ve considered expanding this to include more areas in the future. That is why you can find some dead ends (a tunnel leading to the swamp, some blocked paths in the city, the entrance to Darkroot basin…etc). And of course, Anor Londo floating above Sen’s fortress. Fortunately, the developers made a massive improvement to the lighting system, so it is very probable that an “expanded” version will appear sometime! You have plenty of interesting places in it, and dungeons to explore. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did building it.
Blinking heck,,,that is huge,,,,and may I say dam awesome,,,,wow,,,really think that is well cool,,,brilliant
Thanks! It is indeed huge… will take you a lot of time to just walk around it with a mini!
amazing!
Thankyou! I’m glad you liked it!
I’m in awe.
This is amazing, like I feel like my computer going to blow up from amazement at looking at this :O I will so be using this one day if possible for a one-shot or a campaign
Thankyou! It is structured exactly just for that, with 4 “wings” leading to areas for you to plan a boss encounter. My players have yet to complete it. So if you end up playing that one shot, let us know how it all went!
Its amazing but man is it so fuckin big. the areas on the top of the map are such a pain because of this. I think the graves and new londo could have been different boards to help with the height limit. that or they hopefully raise the height limit at some point cause this is amazing.
Thankyou!, it is indeed intentionally too high. Could have been various boards, but I really wanted to connect everythin (in fact the plan was to connect everything with some caves under the mountain, but had to stop at some point). The height limit makes it a bit uncomfortable, specially in the upper city, but I’m sure at some point the devs might raise it or have easier ways to traverse really high maps. right now, this is just an abnormal map, so there is no much need for it, but who knows 🙂 (I’m even building the upper parts of the map, with a floating city above for the next version!)
You did leave one miniature on the board. How did you do “crow deco 01”? It looks like the crow on the tombstone but without the tombstone and I can’t find that version. (you can see it at 0:04 of the video)
Indeed, I left it there on purpose 🙂 . It is not a normal creature token. It is a decoration found under Nature section, converted from prop to creature using GMTools. It is located in Props – Nature, next to the big bones. Its so small and black that it is easy to miss it.
Holy crap! This is wild, I just spent so long going through each area! You’ve done us undead great justice.
Thankyou, I’m glad you liked it!
may I say, absolutely f*****g amazing I love it, thank you. is there more in the works? perhaps blightown, or anor londo?
Thankyou very much. I’ve considered expanding it, but found myself deviating a bit too much from the original layout (blightown going upwards from the sewers, as an example). Maybe I’ll continue and release it as another map, because this is big enough as it is, and the wings are more or less balanced. In any case, got myself busy with other projects, so it will take some time if I expand it.
The amount of dedication to this map is trully unvelibable. I cant wait to run it to my players!! Ty so much for this!!
Thanks! I really hope you enjoy it with your players! Be careful, players tend to get creative to try and “bypass” zones by climbing or levitating. Please tell us how it went when you play it!
This looks great! Thanks for your hard work on the detail. I wish the monsters were included 🙁
the map is pretty confusing what’s what, do you have any notes on the place?
Thankyou, I’m glad you liked it! It is indeed quite confusing. The last of the images has a.. “node map” of the main areas. It follows the main game (more or less), and I tried to include the main shortcuts from the game. I decided against including monster for two reasons. One, it would be a mess with so many monsters there, and second, If i place the monsters, then I’m making it more difficult for people to adapt it to their game needs. What I find easier in this cases is: first I place the players, then I decide the monsters I’m going to use in the immediate area, and then we just use those and cleanup. It takes a bit more time to start a fight, but in the long run it makes sense, specially if they find a “creative” shortcut and skip part of the dungeon.
Appart from the notes on the last image, There is not much to help you with the navigation. All the submerged part is quite linear, as the upper city. Sen’s fortress is somewhat open to alternate ways of climbing up. I tried to have 2 paths in every zone so they don’t become boring. The most confusing parts are the many connections in the city (from the bridge down, the shortcut back up to the begining of the roofs, the tower up to the bridge, etc), and the sewers. The sewers have 3 paths to the main boss area, including one set of fences to block one path and one lever (to unlock that fences, like in the game), and a complete side loop. It is not as complicated as the original, but makes for a twisting and non linear exploration part. (also, players could skip it jumping down to the boss room, depending on their level and what you are playing).
If there is anything in special or any concrete part I could help you with, do tell me, I’ll try my best 🙂 And above all, have fun.
I appreciate you getting back to me! Have you considered using some minis morphed into wooden signs to post notes throughout the map? and I can understand not leaving the monsters present. You got a lotta love for this build, have you thought about making a video on it? if not that’s cool I explored the map after my comment and kinda got a jist on it, it just takes a lotta time trying to figure out the map.