I've always wanted to do a megadungeon. I love drawing maps, I love creating encounters and I have some very specific and particular ideas about dungeon ecology and layout.
What I've never had is time. When you think about it, putting together a 200+ room dungeon is a crap ton of work, on the scale of writing a novella or long graphic novel. And I never could figure out how to divide up the time so that I could manage it.
And then along comes #dungeon23, suggesting I do a room a day. One room, one day, each day for a year. Got an idea for two days? Put the pen down after day one and sit on it for 12 hours. The idea for force myself to work in smaller, manageable chunks is itself a habit worth getting into (I'm one of those people who works at 200% until burnout) and if I can keep it up for a year, I figure the discipline alone will be worth it.
That's the background. I'm going to do #dungeon23. I've ordered a nice journal, which should arrive sometime next week. After some nervous consideration, I've decided that any actual rules I incorporate into this dungeon will be of the "Old School Revival" variety. I don't think I have enough time and energy to worry about dungeon design and complicated ruleset balance. So it will be OSE or OSRIC or (more likely) a horrible mish-mosh of both.
I have a general backstory written up as well. I'm not going to show it to you now because it would reveal too much about the dungeon ahead of time. And I'm proposing releasing a small block of text with each entry explaining the dungeon as your standard adventuring party encounters it for the first time. Thus you, the reader, will explore the dungeon along with me, the author.
That's all. Wish me luck. I have no idea if I can keep this up for a year.
What I've never had is time. When you think about it, putting together a 200+ room dungeon is a crap ton of work, on the scale of writing a novella or long graphic novel. And I never could figure out how to divide up the time so that I could manage it.
And then along comes #dungeon23, suggesting I do a room a day. One room, one day, each day for a year. Got an idea for two days? Put the pen down after day one and sit on it for 12 hours. The idea for force myself to work in smaller, manageable chunks is itself a habit worth getting into (I'm one of those people who works at 200% until burnout) and if I can keep it up for a year, I figure the discipline alone will be worth it.
That's the background. I'm going to do #dungeon23. I've ordered a nice journal, which should arrive sometime next week. After some nervous consideration, I've decided that any actual rules I incorporate into this dungeon will be of the "Old School Revival" variety. I don't think I have enough time and energy to worry about dungeon design and complicated ruleset balance. So it will be OSE or OSRIC or (more likely) a horrible mish-mosh of both.
I have a general backstory written up as well. I'm not going to show it to you now because it would reveal too much about the dungeon ahead of time. And I'm proposing releasing a small block of text with each entry explaining the dungeon as your standard adventuring party encounters it for the first time. Thus you, the reader, will explore the dungeon along with me, the author.
That's all. Wish me luck. I have no idea if I can keep this up for a year.
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