I’m making a giant poster that will encapsulate the original Dungeon Master’s Guide dungeon-creation rules on a playable dungeon map. I’ll be funding it as a kickstarter.

GO HERE AND PLEDGE!

The above is just a little piece of the poster, which is currently ten square feet of half-inked, insanely detailed dungeon map, filled with hundreds of corridors, rooms, traps, monsters, stairs, treasures, and other dungeon features, as detailed by the DMG’s Appendix A.

Here’s how you can use it: This project is an experiment in information presentation. It’s based on a couple of facts: a) the information in the DMG’s random dungeon charts can be rendered as a flow chart; b) any flow chart can be rendered as a dungeon; c) therefore, the procedure to make dungeons can itself be drawn as a dungeon. There are a couple of ways to use the poster.

a) You could use the poster to generate traditional dungeons: As a DM or as a solo player, you could trace your way through the dungeon, rolling dice at decision points and mapping on graph paper as you go, just as you would using Appendix A from the DMG. You’ll end up with a unique dungeon map.

b) You could skip the mapping and wander through random dungeons: There’s no need to map: if you follow the arrows through the dungeon, you’ll be presented with a succession of passages, doors, and wandering monsters. You can use minis or counters to track your place in the dungeon and your current dungeon level. You’ll meet different challenges every time you play.

c) You could ignore the dungeon-generation rules and use it as a literal dungeon: go through this door and find some stairs; go through this passage and find some treasure. If you do it this way, it will be the same dungeon every time.

d) You could hang it on the wall: OK, I drew it, so I’m not impartial, but I think this poster is pretty nice looking. It’s got a central portrait of the recurring page-border adventuring party from the 1e DMG, and along the edges there are lots of details to stare at.

Sounds good, right? You should

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Edition: The poster is pretty edition neutral. It can be used as is for D&D, 1e, and 2e as it is. For 3e, for specific tricks/traps you need to convert the occasional “save vs. magic” to “Will save” or whatever. For 4e, you’ll use “will defense” and probably double all trap damage. I play in OD&D and 4e games, and I plan to use it for both campaigns.

Here’s what it looks like: The poster is not fully inked and cleaned up yet, but I can show you a couple of pieces. Here’s a section called “Stairs”, and here’s the DMG chart upon which it’s based.

Here’s what the kickstarter is setting out to do: First, I’m raising money to print the poster. Second, I also want to reprint my OD&D Wandering Monsters poster, which is now sold out.

I’d like to get the posters delivered to pledgers by April 17, when Wizards reprints their first edition core books. My Dungeon Map generator gives you some dungeoncrawling fun to indulge in while you wait for Wizards to reprint some adventures.

If we raise extra money, I have a bunch of bonus goals in mind.

If we raise $1000 more than my goal, everyone who pledged at least $23 gets a free poster, either this poster or the OD&D wandering monster poster, their choice.

If we raise more than that, I have some other donation plans: I’d like to be able to donate 50 or 100 posters for the Gygax Memorial Fund to sell at Gen Con. I think the posters might be able to raise a couple thousand dollars.

I’m pretty sure I must have sold you by now so

GO HERE AND PLEDGE!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 7th, 2012 at 10:02 am and is filed under 4e D&D, advice/tools, legacy D&D, news, RPG Hub. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.