The first set of #dungeon23 pamphlet zines is now available from the usual sources (DriveThru and itch).
Because I really want to make at least a few of these real-world print copies, if you buy the set on itch this weekend (17-19 Mar 2023), I will mail you a copy within the US at no additional cost, or for an extra $2 for international post outside the US.
The second issue of the #dungeon23 Pamphlet Zine is now available on DriveThruRPG and on itch.io Individual issues are on the DriveThru site here:
Ordering on itch gets you 3 issues (first 2 are available now; 3rd will be added soon)
Print copies are only available through itch, at least for now. If you pick them up on itch, you’ll get all 3 of the ones planned for the first set (issue 3 is still coming at this time, but will be added soon). Since the print copies are going to be bundled by quarter, it makes it easier to manage if all three for each mailing are included at one time.
This is the start of a series of twelve pamphlet zines for #Dungeon23 and #ZiMo2023
The first issue is now available at DriveThruRPG. There will be an issue per month for 2023. The pamphlet is just a single legal-size (8-1/2″ x 14″) sheet folded in quarters, but packed with information. Each issue will contain at least three random tables for features or elements of a dungeon. There will also be at least three maps of dungeon intersections or fragments. And there will be an article on a topic related to dungeons and dungeon design.
The complete list of topics is still in process of development, but this is the plan at present:
Because it is just a single page zine, it should be relatively easy and affordable to mail these in a standard business envelope as first-class mail. Since the plan is to do 12 of these over the course of the year, each quarter, an envelope with three issues from the previous quarter can be sent off. And, by keeping it to simple first-class mailing, it should be possible to send copies outside the US without running up ruinous shipping charges. It’ll be more expensive than sending within the US, but maybe only $1-2 more than for domestic mailing.
The shipping is not set up yet, but if you are interested in more information about that once they are ready to go, drop a note to let us know. That will also help with working out the logistics of printing and mailing these once we are ready.
DriveThru link: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/428330/Dungeon23-Pamphlet-Zine–n1
Twitter is no longer a place of honor, and, speaking for myself, I’ve found an active and vibrant community for short-post social media in Mastodon (https://dice.camp/@rthorm). I’m generally not using Twitter on a regular basis anymore, and now, word has come from WordPress that the API that I’ve been using that automatically posts to Twitter when I add a post here may be breaking with some of the new management’s new caprices…, err rules.
I’m not closing down that account. Yet.
But I think, even if WP and Twitter do work out something new, I won’t be auto-posting there further. So this is a place-holding reminder that the two may be severed soon after this (we’ll have to see if this one posts or not).
This is a compilation of the random tables I’ve posted to my Mastodon account for prompts or elements to use for rooms for Dungeon23. These are meant as individual tables, not a sequential set. Some are d10, others are different.
Water
1 Dripping somewhere, coming from above
2 A small flow in a channel, crossing the floor
3 Puddle, or a deeper bowl, an armspan wide
4 Fast moving stream, more than a stride in width, dividing the room in two
5 Shower/waterfall from ceiling
6 Floor and walls are slick with water
7 Stack of water barrels in the corner
8 Umm.. that’s not actually /water/
9 Fountain spraying in the middle
0 There is no floor; this room is a pool
Ceiling:
1 Several heavy iron chains
2 A small flue or chimney
3 Crystalline minerals all over the surface
4 A glowing orb casting dull orange light throughout the room
5 Most of an old, but still legible fresco mural
6 Heavy timbers and broken rock
7 Narrow crevasse extending upwards
8 Something that looks like scales
One wall is:
1 fissured, with several cracks large & deep enough to reach into
2 stacked, rough-sawed logs with rope caulk and tar in the joints
3 actually a pair of large wooden doors
4 a very, very smooth, white stone
5 carved with a set of relief portraits
6 glassy and translucent, like amber
7 bricked up with properly finished masonry
8 a coarsely hewn rock surface with rubble at the foot
9 shot through with veins of gold
0 hidden behind curtains of stitched animal hides
Room is filled with:
1 Brilliant green leaves and vines
2 Decades’ worth of accumulated cobwebs
3 Swirling snow and ice covered surfaces
4 Some form of mist or fog
5 Incredibly foul odors
6 A glow, evenly illuminating everything, coming from an unknown source
7 Swarms of small flying insects
8 Stacks and stacks of bones
Details:
1 Wall covered with strips of old copper
2 Decorative gold inlay on wall near floor
3 Each corner of room is actually a full-height hinge
4 Floor is a bed of smooth, loose, fist-size stones
5 Crystalline projection about the size of a head
6 Floor to ceiling clear glass pipes in one corner
7 Perforated metal plate on wall away from the door
8 Hole shooting hot, moist air into room
9 Stalactites, but projecting from wall
0 Embedded, polished silver plates
This was originally inspired by insipidutopian on Mastodon, and they are compiling these from a number of contributors.
I’ve been posting about the Planetary Display for the past few weeks for people interested in the #planet23 #dungeon23 challenge for 2023. Now here’s a filled-out example of it to demonstrate how a planet can be mapped out.
The Planetary Display TITAN project is an example completed Planetary Display using 6 images of Saturn’s moon Titan as imaged by the Cassini mission, and fitting that information into the faces of the Planetary Display. (Since the images are all from an equatorial orbit, the poles are mostly incomprehensible. But 30 faces is a pretty good map.)
You can get the Planetary Display TITAN from DriveThruRPG or on itch.io
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/421077/Planetary-Display-TITAN
https://rthorm.itch.io/planetary-display-titan
The Wilderness of Ordurak adventure has been out for a few years now. The original backers (who picked that level) got print versions with both the adventure book and a poster (12″ x 18″) copy of the map. But, since it was made available on DriveThruRPG, the print version of the map has not been available, until now.
There were a couple of typos in the original Ordurak map. After the crowdfunding campaign, when we first made the adventure available to the public, after making the corrections, the print version had a lot of bad, unexplained pixelation. I tried a couple times to re-send the file, but I couldn’t get a decent print version. So this got shifted to the back burner. Most people were okay with getting just the PDF version anyhow, it seemed.
However, one long-time DQ fan wanted a print copy, and helped keep this in my attention. I recently got Affinity Publisher, and decided to try using that to export the print file, now that DriveThru is explicitly recommending Affinity as software to produce print ready files. So I used that to export the image file for the map and sent that to DriveThru.
And, although it’s the busy season, I got the proofs back yesterday, and this time, they look fine.
I think what had happened was just a production glitch; but I could never understand why the problems that we had cropped up. The side-by-side image above shows the older, pixelated version (right) and the current, corrected version (left). The pixelation is not in the original image file, and anyone who got the PDF version of the map had a perfectly good copy. But something about the printer’s settings at DriveThru caused problems.
So here is the link for the Wilderness of Ordurak map, if you’re interested in picking up a copy of the map yourself.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/150356/The-Wilderness-of-Ordurak–Map-only
Unfortunately, if you want to get print versions of the whole package (the adventure, the gazetteer, and the map), you have to place two separate orders, and pay shipping twice, because the map is printed by their cards facility, rather than their book facility.
If there are a number of people who want to get the full print package, I could assemble sets myself, and send them out as a complete package. It probably won’t be until mid-2023 that we’d do this, but if you would be interested in a complete print package from us, shipped all together, let us know here: orders@antherwyck.com
If we get enough interest to justify it, we’ll put together some whole sets for you and send them out.
Here’s a first section using the Planetary Display, to show how it might be used for #dungeon23 #space23
This pass is just sketching in the major hydrographics (bodies of water and rivers), a couple of major cities, and some mountains. One option could be to do a couple more passes at the sections, and fill in more of the detail, once I’ve got the preliminary layout done. Or maybe this will be enough, and the next month I’ll do another planet.
It seems like a good idea to play around with things a bit before the beginning of the year, so that it goes more smoothly once things get underway.
There’s lots more to be worked out with this, potentially. Three cities/settlements could be a later source for development, or wait until there’s something specific to do with the planet to add more of those details.
Back to a simple hatching style for this one, but with a small set of chambers that have a decent amount of interconnection and choices in the pathways from one side to another.
I look at this as a set of rooms with connecting passages, but I also can see it as a couple of larger chamber with some blocky obstructions in the middle. Wonder if there are other reads folks have for this?
As usual, feel free to use for any non-commercial purpose, or contact me if you’d like to use this on a commercial project, or if you would like to commission a custom piece.
There is a dungeon-drawing project currently taking off on Twitter and on Mastodon. The original suggestion was made by Sean McCoy, and is spreading with the hashtag #dungeon23 (or, for space-themed variants, with hashtag #space23). The idea here in the dungeon iteration is to create a megadungeon. Beginning on January 1, participants will create one room each day, and move to the next level each new month, using a journal or daily planner for this to collect the notes for this. At this rate, by the end of the year, you will have accumulated 365 rooms and descriptions over 12 levels – a megadungeon!
There are different approaches one could take for extending this idea from a classic megadungeon and doing something more science fiction. A tower complex or a space station are ready options I’ve seen some people discussing. I’ve also seen suggestions of doing a Traveller sub-sector. And, if you want to do a dozen planets for this, I have some resources for you.
Assuming that a few people might be interested in working with this, I’ve made discounts for these from DriveThru RPG:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?discount=95b542e778 (PDF)
A set of Planetary Display Log Book pages, with one section per page designed for printing an 8-1/2″ x 11″ notebook for mapping a planet.
This Logbook is designed for mapping the surface of a single planet (or other spherical body). The surface is divided into 32 faces; 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons, all with equal edge length.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?discount=95bf35c96c (softcover print)
A POD print version of the Planetary Display Log Book The print version has a blank globe on the cover (image right), but unfortunately, the glossy cover isn’t very easy to draw on.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?discount=95cf9d2af3 (PDF)
Single page PDF poster with the latitude and longitude lines and the 32 sections.
I hadn’t done anything with the Planetary Display logbook for a few years. But I just re-opened it to check it out again. I found it works very well as a digest (zine) size 5-1/2″ x 8-1/2″ booklet. I also did a re-ordering of pages and printed it in the order “1, 3-40, 2” which might also appeal to you as a better layout.
The discounts on these at DriveThru is good through the end of January.
A rough, jagged map seemed to be called for. Hatched poche seemed that it would be too much, so instead, you see the simple stipple for this. I wasn’t thinking about the last, swoopy map posted last week, but this is pretty much in contrast to that one.
I took a couple of pictures of the page as I was working on it, so I have a sequence of the various states of progress to get to this point. The whole thing isn’t all that involved, so it’s not all that dramatic or exciting, but I’m thinking about posting that as a way of showing the process and progression with this.
As usual, feel free to use for any non-commercial purpose, or contact me if you’d like to use this on a commercial project, or if you would like to commission a custom piece.
Maybe the last map made me long for doing some brick greebling. Maybe I just needed something that wasn’t a plan for a change of pace. In any case, the idea for this struck, and I wanted to knock out a quick and dirty version of it.
The flues are big and open, so you can see all the pathways. I was experimenting with a fill in the flues to make it dark, rather than white. But it was reading a little oddly, so this is a clean and readable version.
(And, as discussed on Mastodon, this is very fictional (and functionally unsafe)*. A real mason would have an aneurysm looking at this.
(*See also every crawl through ducts in any movie)
It seemed to me that this could be used as the map for some kind of a caper or heist game, where the plan layout of the space matters less than the arrangement of the fireplaces and flues for a crew to scamper around a building going between rooms and levels. If you make this work for something like that, I would love to hear about how that goes.
As usual, feel free to use for any non-commercial purpose, or contact me if you’d like to use this on a commercial project, or if you would like to commission a custom piece.
Sometimes, the final version of the map goes in a different direction than what was expected with the initial concept. In this case, the first idea for the drawing was to have hooks and switchbacks; that the connectors would have sharp turns rather than being more direct A-to-B kinds of connections. But the version that came out of that, with these swoopy, Art Nouveau lines, was not necessarily what I was after. It’s not a bad thing at all; just different from the initial thought.
It also clearly didn’t call for a Dyson-hatch or for a block wall style to outline the edges. The denser stipple at the edges along with the overall poche also seems pretty successful with this one.
As usual, feel free to use for any non-commercial purpose, or contact me if you’d like to use this on a commercial project, or if you would like to commission a custom piece.
This is a different sort of map in that it has a sense of directionality to it. It starts with a larger trunk, and then breaks down to smaller passages as it moves away from that base. Or maybe it’s like the dispersal in the delta region of a river. In any case, there is a difference between sides.
As usual, feel free to use for any non-commercial purpose, or contact me if you’d like to use this on a commercial project, or if you would like to commission a custom piece.
More experimentation with borders and poche fill in this. The corridor with piers running down the middle is a bit goofy, perhaps, but maybe it was once a mine or some kind of created structure.
As usual, feel free to use for any non-commercial purpose, or contact me if you’d like to use this on a commercial project, or if you would like to commission a custom piece.
Sometimes an earlier piece suggests doing the opposite in the next one. This was inspired by the idea of having passages that branched, which is true for most of the connections between the rooms in this.
As usual, feel free to use for any non-commercial purpose, or contact me if you’d like to use this on a commercial project, or if you would like to commission a custom piece.
Shape rooms and lots of connections; this is a very Jaquayed dungeon bit, but all of the corridors are simple end-to-end or room-to-room connections; there are no forks or decisions between the rooms.
As usual, feel free to use for any non-commercial purpose, or contact me if you’d like to use this on a commercial project, or if you would like to commission a custom piece.
It has been quite a while since I did one of these with a stone block style wall, and that was suddenly very appealing to do for a change. This is also a “boulevarded” dungeon, since there are several places where there are two passages running side-by-side, at least for a bit of the way. It was somewhat inadvertent, but it was interesting, so a couple more got worked in.
As usual, feel free to use for any non-commercial purpose, or contact me if you’d like to use this on a commercial project, or if you would like to commission a custom piece.
This map started with the central round chamber, and then extended from there. Unlike a lot of the Fragments, this one is rather interconnected, and has at least two ways to get to any area from any other area. The central area is definitely a point of focus of some kind, which makes this different from a lot of the rest of the series.
As usual, feel free to use for any non-commercial purpose, or contact me if you’d like to use this on a commercial project, or if you would like to commission a custom piece.
After doing many very rough-walled dungeons, it seemed like an appealing change of pace would be an alternative that was somewhat squared-off. But, not being drawn on a graph grid, this still has coarse walls and lots of irregularity. It certainly suggests more of a hewn mine, rather than a natural cave of any sort.
As usual, feel free to use for any non-commercial purpose, or contact me if you’d like to use this on a commercial project, or if you would like to commission a custom piece.
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