Meatgrinder Dungeon: Critters & Clockwork
A group of artificers used Druidic magic to hide a great power in the forest. Your task is to retrieve this boon and make it out alive—if you can.
$15.00
/ Session
Details
Once / Saturday - 11:00 PM UTC
Apr 11
Session Duration / 3–4 hours
0 / 5 Seats Filled
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About the adventure
In this oneshot, players are encouraged to make several characters and feed them one at a time to the meatgrinder this dungeon was created to be. In each Meatgrinder adventure, the structure is similar: complete 3 rooms of combat featuring and a puzzle or PVE chamber that all revolve around two kinds of monster or threat coming together in hellish synergy. Monsters of relatively low CR have been put together in ways designed to devastate an unsuspecting party, and it's up to your 3 5th-level characters to clear the dungeon and reach the lair of the guardian at its center. In this case, the magic of nature itself has been augmented and enhanced by artificery, as a city of gnomish engineers worked together with a druidic circle to hide a weapon of great power: A Wishing Well. The last time this dungeon was played, my players set a record of 7/15 characters surviving the gauntlet. Can you beat them?
Game style
Combat Heavy
Dungeon Crawl
Rule of Cool (RoC)
Tactical / Crunchy
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(6)
Less than a year on StartPlaying
Highly rated for: Inclusive, World Builder, Teacher
About me
Now in my 7th year as a DM, I've been running players through games in a series of exclusively homebrew worlds. My players have gifted me with opportunities to hone my skills as a story-teller, a collaborator, and an improviser, and have walked away satisfied from both one-shots and longform campaigns alike. My tables are guaranteed safe for members of the LGBT+ community, as I am a member of that community myself. My villains may try to kill your characters, but they won't misgender them. My degree and background is in political science and activism, which gives me unique insight into world-building and intrigue and affords me the privilege of establishing urban environments that feel real and alive. My career as a social worker and background in mental health ensures that my tables create a trauma-informed environment in which to gently explore difficult topics and themes. My games will not use generative AI in any form.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
Players are encouraged to make three 5th-level characters on Roll20 (Link will be provided on sign-up.) Standard Array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8) and rolled HitPoints. (you may re-roll your first 1 for each character.) Each character sheet may have 1 +1 Weapon, a spellcasting focus, 2 Basic healing potions, and their regular starting gear. Automatic Stat Increases may be replaced by a Feat. You may use anything published by WotC that isn't Unearthed Arcana, and you may use Tasha's rules for "racial" ability score bonuses (so your bonus won't be bound to a specific race/species.)
What to expect
Preparing for the session
A prepared player will have a ready account on Roll20 and the ability to use either Google Meet or Discord to communicate. You should have your 3 5th-level characters ready to go, and bonus points if you have filled the sheets out on Roll20 (but it isn't strictly necessary.)
What Max brings to the table
What awaits you is a cleverly-designed dungeon built to use monsters that, on their own, would be a perfectly fine challenge for a single party of 5th-level adventurers. These monsters are paired with counterparts or traps or environmental hazards that increase their lethality significantly. My intention is to kill as many characters as possible—without being unfair or making my players feel they never had a chance. Rule of cool is honored here so long as the cool things you hope to do don't utterly break the spirit of the challenge before you.
Homebrew rules
To drink a potion, you may either use a Bonus Action and roll the healing dice associated with that potion, or you may use an Action and get maximum healing. Wild Magic range scales up with every failed wild magic roll (I.E. the first spell you cast only creates a wild magic surge on a Natural 1; the next one will do it on a one or a two, and on until a surge is triggered.)
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How Max creates a safe table
At the beginning of the session, players will be given an RPG consent sheet to make sure the experience stays safe for everybody involved. We will also utilize X-cards and the Stoplight system to manage difficult subject matter. There will be time after each room of the dungeon for a post-room talk to make sure players are okay and feel up for continuing.
Content warnings
Safety tools used