Close to the Target

The layout is finally done! It took me a week to work on this, but I'm quite happy with the result so I don't consider it a waste of time. Each one page dungeon will include a Credits page, two facing dungeon pages and finally the OGL page. I'm not quite happy with the logo distribution, but all in all it's working so I'm fine.

As you can see pages 2 and 3 (the actual dungeon) have page numbers. The numbers will increase with each dungeon, so the first document will have 1&2, the second 3&4, the third 5&6 and so on. The idea is that you can print them and put them into a three ring binder, with the number of pages growing as the dungeon itself grows. I have chosen to go with facing pages instead of front and back of the same page so that you don't have to turn the page as the party explores a given section. As soon as I start putting the PDFs online for download, I think I'll adding a new page to the blog to collect all the links, and all the blog posts related to the project. In fact, I'm not going to add information about the dungeon's background in any one page dungeon, but blog them so you can use them or write your own for your campaign. Uh, and the format is an american-friendly US Letter (8.5'x11'), so I'm sorry european guys!

Everything going well, I should be able to revise the whole project once finished and finally publish the Amen-Rha megadungeon. Pray for it!

UZZAH!

Still Experimenting

I know I was supposed to publish the first dungeon today, but I'm still working on the layout so you'll probably have to wait another couple of days or so to see it completed. I'm also working on a couple of different methods of dungeon filling/design. In particular, I'm trying to see how it works with fixing the number of rooms first, filling them and finally drawing the dungeon – it's turning out nice, BTW.

Fill Before You Find Out: Filling

Random generated stuff is just awesome! In the last 15 minutes, I came up with this for The Huge Ruined Pile Level 1a:

1. 200 sp in several sacks, guarded by 11 orcs
2. Cask enchants victim to perform a difficult quest
3. Empty
4. Empty
5. Empty
6. 1,000 sp in an iron trunk. There’s contact poison on the container (Save to avoid 1-6 damage; victim is stoned for 3 turns.)
7. Empty
8. Empty
9. Empty
10. Empty
11. Empty
12. 12 Giant rats
13. Special (stairs?)
14. 10 brigands, have 1.100 sp in several sacks. The leader owns a Potion of Levitation.
15. 1.100 cp in iron trunk, 825 ep in a huge chest, guarded by a shrieker.
16. 7 orcs
17. Empty
18. Altar sends victim to Ethereal Plane if touched.

Since the Traps/Tricks section in Appendix A totally sucks (really), I decided to use Kellri's amazing Old School Encounters Reference. I'm still laughing about the charming cask! I'm so happy I've decided to go ahead with this project, I'm having real great time!

Level 1A Complete

Still missing pits and furnishings, but it's almost done. I've spent a lot of energy on creating a good looking map style, so please give me some feedback! On the plus side, now that the style is done, creating a map only takes up to 15 minutes – Photoshop magic!

Megadungeon Madness, Dungeon Look

Lot of work with that, but finally done. Still three days till the end of the week, I can do it!

The floor tile has been created in photoshop raping (you really have no idea what I had to do to make it look acceptable) a Rappan Athuk Reloaded pdf page. It looks awesome to me! I can wait to see how the project will look once complete.

Megadungeon Madness, Template Done

It took me quite a while to familiarize myself with InDesign, find the right fonts, the right dungeon look, but I'm quite finished and ready to start with Level 1A. Again, thanks to Logan for solving my little font problem! (See previous post.)

As you can see, I've chosen a two facing-pages layout, so as to have enough space for all the information needed, yet still no pages to turn during the game (unless the characters move to another quadrant, of course.) What you can't see, is that I've applied a three column layout. This is a "space saving" decision, since OPD entries tend to be quite short, and wrapping on the whole page is an unacceptable waste of space. The copyright section is still missing.

Fill Before You Find Out

One thing I would like to try with this new Megadungeon project is to fill the dungeon before trying to find how why things are there. I'm quite obviously using DMG and the awesome Kellri's CDD4 – Encounter Reference to randomly fill the dungeon.

This should give the whole project a Huge Ruined Pile feeling, which is exactly what I'm looking for. Perhaps, since each map piece is a 30x30 squares grid, I may also using a bit more of Appendix A. I'm still working on the layout, by the way.

Is it May Already?

May is going to be the first One Page Megadungeon Madness Month here on The Yaqqothl Grimoire: I'm writing/publishing a one page dungeon each week, for the next four weeks, and let's see how it goes. If it works, then I'll try to continue this way for some time, and see how big my megadungeon gets. I still have to work out a couple of things about the layout, and to pick a ruleset. All in all, I think I'll go with Labyrinth Lord for a couple of reasons:

1. It's free;
2. It's great;
3. No really it's amazing;
4. It's perfect for one shot games.

Quite awhile ago I read about the Megadungeon Binder on How to Start a Revolution in 21 Days or Less, and the idea just made my head explode. Why not combine it with the crazy Jeff's One Issue Campaign? In the space? No, wait.