People are getting excited about #dungeon23. I am one of them! In this post I’m going to share my thinking on the framework I’m putting together for doing mine.

There are a lot of posts about people’s plans and strategies to try and get a large dungeon out of small daily additions over the course of a year. It’s been interesting to see how different people have different priorities, values, and outcomes they want from this challenge. It’s got me thinking of what has me interested in embarking on it as well.

First, it’s cool to have a big dungeon in your pocket! I’ve enjoyed running Rappan Athuk and love the concept of a megadungeon aesthetically. It’s also just a fun way to play OSRish game. But one of the biggest challenges with running megadungeons is having a decent understanding of the whole, and I have little patience for reading published adventures. It’s much easier to have a good overall sense of a dungeon when you’re the one who made it. So a self-made #dungeon23 dungeon, even if it’s minimally keyed and pretty simple, is still a lot more useful to me than many published dungeons.

Second, I like the idea of building an adventure in a way that doesn’t get in the way of my everyday life. I am a disorganized person and often strapped for time. I am forgetful. Taking on new habits is difficult and hard to make stick. When it comes to side projects, the smaller the commitment, the better. Sean’s reminder that you can turn a bad day into progress by keying an empty room felt like a breath of fresh air. This feels like a commitment I can actually make, even when I’m at my worst.

I’ve decided to start my dungeon in the new year. In the meantime, I am working on putting together the pieces to minimize the chances of losing momentum. To do that, I am following these principles:

  • (P1) Have a structure.
  • (P2) Keep it portable.
  • (P3) Keep it simple.
  • (P4) Minimize distractions; automate what’s necessary and skip the rest.

Minimizing distractions is an important one, as I am prone to losing focus and getting blocked by minor issues. For me, it means focusing on the parts of dungeon creation that I enjoy and eliminating those that tangle me up in a cycle of rumination. Everyone has their own distractors; these are mine:

  • (D1) Mapping. A beautiful map is a wonderful thing, but figuring out the relative shapes, sizes, and configurations of room tends to get me fussing, which isn’t conducive to this challenge. Still, it is helpful to have a rough understanding of how different nodes connect, and good dynamic layout that makes for interesting choices and multiple pathways. Mapping is necessary, but also something I want to give as little conscious thought as possible.
  • (D2) Treasure. I have a hard time stocking treasure – this is just a fact. In OSR games, a big component of stocking treasure is an accounting exercise in making sure your treasure values add up to something worth your party’s time in XP. A lot of this treasure can be mundane. A beautifully engraved silver teapot is more interesting than a pile of silver coins, but not by much. Treasure stocking should be about coming up with interesting and exciting finds, not crunching numbers and rolling on loot tables. That can happen later, when there’s actually a party preparing to explore the dungeon.
  • (D3) Stats and numbers. I care a lot about numbers. Maybe I shouldn’t but I do. I also like writing monster stats. However, this is a fairly easy task for me and one that I am comfortable doing in the half hour before a session, or even during. Numbers of monsters appearing tends to throw me off, because a lot can pivot on how many of a given enemy there. A first-level party has good chances against 1d6 mooks. What about 2d6? 3d6? More? These are decisions I want to make before I get to the table, but they don’t need to be happen while I’m coming up with rooms.

That’s all I have time for today. As I suggest above, I’ve been developing ways to automate some of the more significant distractors and keep the process structured, simple, and portable. I’ll expand on those in another post soon.