First off, what an awesome Kickstarter week! Backers of the Dinocalypse (including a handful of us at Intwischa) received our PDF copies of the first novel (as well as Spirit of the Century and Spirit of the Season). Furthermore, one of my favorite projects titled Full Moon (covered here last week) received funding AND hit all its stretch goals! Congratulations!
This week, we share links about dungeon design from perspectives of both artistry and functionality, and we look at the virtue of simplicity in roleplaying game design. Have links on these subjects you’d like to share with us? Post them in the comments!
Dungeon Mania
As the One-Page Dungeon competition month draws to a close (and I debate whether I’ll be able to get something out before the end of the week), I’m noticing dungeons and maps of all sorts popping up on the blogodrome. Maps seem to be a fascination of many gamers, and I’m thrilled at the growing trend of “form meets function” in gaming maps.
The Closet Barbarian nails the one-pager, producing a quite large dungeon with copious notes all on one piece of paper. His own design goal was to create a system-neutral map, which is perhaps my only critique… when I think of cross-referencing what happens in these rooms to rules which exist elsewhere, my pulse quickens. I’d like to see how this works in actual gameplay.
Meanwhile, Roger the GS at Roles, Rules, and Rolls shows off the mapping done by some of his players. This calls to mind Bryan’s musings on Chase’s table side artwork. I love seeing this kind of stuff. Thanks for sharing, Roger!
Telecanter muses on chaos and rules in dynamic dungeons, giving examples such as “The 100 Frog Chambers” and “The Tabernacle of Resolute Egalitarians.” I want to play in these dungeons! Interestingly, while reading his thoughts on the latter, the tablet-device video game “Where’s my Water” came to mind, and now I’m pondering at a dungeon puzzle that requires players to manipulate wind, water, poison, etc… to solve the dungeon.
Finally, JDJarvis at Aeons and Augauries reflects on a dynamic dungeon of a different sort, where the denizens of the dungeon (rather than the dungeon itself) are always changing. I’ve seen this many times in terms of cities (as in, “the city changes while the adventurers are away), but never thought to apply it to dungeons. JDJarvis gives us a number of ideas of how to make this happen.
Links:
- The One Page Dungeon Contest
- Sample Dungeon using Proposed Generic One-Page Format from The Closet Barbarian
- Tomb of the Iron God: My Awesome Players’ Maps from Roles, Rules & Rolls
- Dig If You Will This Picture from Intwischa
- The Rule-Based Dungeon II from Telecanter’s Receding Rules
- What’s Going On in your Dungeon (part 1) from Aeons and Auguaries
Rules!
I’m happy to see that Paul Stefko’s Full Moon project is getting funded (with three campaign settings due to Kickstarter stretch goals, no less!) As I’ve mentioned, one of the things that attracted me most to his project was his goal of a simplified and streamlined version of FATE.
Paul at Blog of Holding muses on simpler RPGs as well, posting his thoughts of d4 Basic which is in open beta right now. I’m intrigued at this game, but still lament that it contains a “What is an RPG” section. Seriously, have you ever picked up a board game that had a “What is a board game?” section in the rules? I feel like it’s just a bumper sticker that says, “WARNING: You’re about to do something really weird that’ll brand you as a freaky outcast. But don’t worry, we’re going to rationalize it for you here.”
Links
- Interview with Paul Stefko: Creator of Full Moon RPG from Intwischa
- Full Moon: An RPG of Life on the Lunar Frontier from Kickstarter
- Try an Easy RPG: d4 Basic from Blog of Holding
- d4 Basic from Two Kings Games
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