Inq. of the Week: How Caffeinated?
Addressing one of the more criticised aspects of 4th Edition D&D, last week Dave wanted to find out what the most popular class role is and it looks like he got some good results. Striker came out in a short lead with 27% of the votes, followed closely by the leader role with 22%. Defender recieved 16% of the votes and Controller came in last with 15%, while a solid 20% of those voting either don’t like class roles, don’t play 4E, or really like bananas.
We’ve had a lot of Origins 2009 coverage over the last week, and on Saturday celebrating the 4th of July Dave and I realized that GenCon is only a few weeks away. This realization makes me ponder what keeps me going through such hectic times, and more often than not the answer always comes back to caffeine. I’ve been a huge soda fiend since middle school, and even though my day job has stopped buying soda but still provides coffee, I just can’t bear switching over!
My assumption is that most of you are fans of my favorite legal addictive substance as well, so let us find out what the most popular source is!
Loading ...In discussing the topic with Phil the Chatty DM, he pointed me to this great website that lists the various sources of caffeine and how much each contains per oz. It’s definitley useful information to have at hand.
Origins 2009: Monte Cook "Designing A Better Dungeon"
Our last bit from Origins 2009: guest of honor Monte Cook, in addition to his seminar on game mastering, also did a seminar on designing dungeons. Here are my notes from that event.
Before the event started, an audience member asked if he was going to be writing anything for 4e. He replied that he had mostly retired from game design, but the Dungeon-A-Day project was just such a cool idea that it brought him back for it.
Dungeons are often maligned as an old fashioned way to do a D&D adventure. Monte loves dungeons, and thinks they are a great way to tell an adventure.
As stated in the 3e DMG, dungeons are cool because if you step back from them and look at them in the abstract, they’re just adventure flowcharts. “You go to hallway to room 1, and then it forms to room 2 or room 3.” These are decision points that branch, and PCs can make decisions off that, etc. Another way to look at it is that the dungeon as an abstraction for how we tell stories in role playing games. RPGs tell stories in very different ways than books and movies, because they’re ongoing- they’re more like TV series or comics. Stories are broken down into small bits, but lumped together to form a story arc, and story arcs form campaign. Dungeons are like that as well: a bunch of rooms or encounters, themed together into a level. Then put levels together and you’ve got a megadungeon. [Read the rest of this article]
Critical Bits for the week ending 2009-07-04
- Big Weekend for Dominion: It won both an Origins Award and the Spiel des Jahres
- Top 20 sites on the RPG Bloggers Network
- Cole of PvPonline serves up some wonderful DM advice (via Asmor)
- “My favorite 9 non-RPG geek shirts”: http://geek6.com/u/8 #4 is my favorite (via @joshgeeksix)
- Monthly DDI update hitting July 7th: http://tinyurl.com/ltcgbt – Includes PH3 Psion, Eberron, Hybrids, traps and hazards (via @Trevor_WotC)
- If you’re using the 4E character generator, give this a shot! Http://www.gelworksonline.com (via @GWLlosa)
- Frank Frazetta paintings done in real life (and the prize is meatcards)
- Bruce Cordell shares 4e psionic secrets in a new interview.
- July 2009 D&D Errata. Looks like Battlerager Fighters and Righteous Rage of Tempus got hit with serious nerf-bat.
- Dale Yu’s account of the Spiel Des Jahres award ceremony
- World of Tweetcraft
Friday Chat: Dealing with Aggressive/Jerk Players
A few weeks ago I got a very interesting letter.
I joined my past 2 live tabletop campaigns as a new player joining a pre-established group of players for a new campaign. In both, I’ve encountered a particularly nasty type of player that has caused no end of strife and grief, as follows:
1. Their PC immediately latches onto something about my PC, usually their race or “they act funny”, to justify constantly taunting them, insulting them, bossing them around, and shouting them down during in-character debates with words like “You don’t get to talk, freak! Shut up!” I don’t know how I got the horrible luck of being the victim twice, but I think it’s because I was the newest member of the gang and therefore the easiest target.
2. Their PC acts constantly angry and touchy, insulting NPCs we’re trying to work with and attacking them if they retort. The rest of the party often ends up running Damage Control for them.
3. Their PC either acts defeatist (“Screw it, we’re boned, let’s just go up there and attack them all!”) or reckless (“We need to save my girlfriend now! Plan? Eh, we’ll toss one together. Even if we fail, I will be reincarnated gloriously!”) and then try to shout down the rest of the party into going along. One of them nearly caused our GM to abort the campaign because he refused to let the party do anything other than kamikaze to get out of a bind. The other one insisted on going with a half-assed plan that we were warned would lead to us being shunted into a deadly plane; when it failed and we got shunted, he basically shrugged and said we were bound to end up there sooner or later.
Both PCs have made me ponder quitting the campaign outright, or having my PC slit their throats in their sleep. Both GMs complained about the players’ actions in private conversations, but either didn’t bring it up to them (“He always acts like this, just have to live with it.”) or try to change them IC ineffectively (“He’ll sober up IC once he realizes his lover needs his help.” He didn’t.). At best, the rest of the party just tolerated/ignored them; at worst, one or two of the other PCs supported their half-baked plans.
OOC, they act nice enough, if snappy at times. It isn’t until they turn IC they go mean. One of them not only made a backstory justifying why he’s an arrogant, kleptomaniac, violent barbarian, but has joked about the other PCs they have lined up and how they will annoy the party and “make you wish my first one was there instead!”
I wonder if this is a common problem in RP groups. If you take in a new player, is there usually an asshole that decides to make him a target? How often does the Instigator actively try to wreck plans they don’t agree with? Is there any way to rein them in that works?
Wow… After reading that I was speechless, then I became annoyed. You see, I have never played with such players, or if I did, they never were that aggressive and acting like jerks around me.
I started asking around on Twitter and on Gtalk and my heart sank when I realized many people have dealt with such players in their gaming groups. And many wanted insights on how to deal with them…
Now those who read me know that I’m a moderate type of blogger. I don’t rant often and I don’t stir the pot. But this… I’ve no tolerance for whatsoever.
These players (if I can use the term) are the absolute paragons of asshatery. You know those stupid griefers that keep camping your body in World of Warcraft so they could kill you as soon as you resurrect? Well they probably play D&D as described above.
That, dear readers, is the epitome of Chaotic Stupid. Socially retarded players who create characters that can’t function in any type of society even fantasy ones.
I freaking hate those players with a passion! They’re the reason why so many potential RPG geeks flee the hobby and never return to it.
Do note that I’m not talking about someone getting excited or frustrated and losing his/her temper on rare occasions. Humans have a tendency to burst when overloaded with emotions and such people usually end up apologizing shortly after that.
Now, just so you don’t think I take the easy way out of profanity, I actually have a pretty good idea of the why of such behavior. I’m ready to bet that such players are motivated by getting the players to react to his antics. They get their kicks by testing how hard they can push the group before it breaks. They seek to subvert or control the group’s dynamic.
I also think that most of these players are irremediably selfish, in my mind, the worst sin of a RPG player.
Such players are probably delighted to see none of the other players confront them. If they are confronted, they always have a plan. First they’ll start to shout and bully opponents into silence. If that doesn’t work they’ll start hurling insults or try to deflect the conflict. “It’s the DM’s fault, he let me play a Drow!” à
If all else fails, he’ll try to be made the victim “That’s it, I was just having a little fun, trying to make this boring game more lively and now you’re all against me!”
If you are familiar with the techniques used by Trash Radio DJs, such players use similar techniques. And they’re very effective techniques, I’ll grant that, just not conducive to a successful group endeavor that is a RPG Campaign.
Now as I said I don’t have much experience with such players but I will share my thoughts on spotting and dealing with such players before turning the mike to you.
Spotting an aggressive player before he joins a group is kinda hard. Unless the player proudly reveals that he’s been with 15 different groups in the last 18 months or talks about how he made super messed up PCs that pissed everyone off, chances are you can’t spot them. However, if a player starts to challenge other player’s choices, raises his voice to quell other people’s and acts aggressively toward others either in game or out of it, there’s a serious problem in the group.
I won’t lie to you, I doubt that such players can be reasoned with. Often, they will say that they see what the problem is or they’ll once again try to be made into the victim. While I advocate trying to work it out with the player, I doubt that such a player will change the motivations he seeks in RPGs.
In fact the absolute worse thing you can do as a DM is to tolerate such a player. There is absolutely no reason to allow a player to bully others out of their fun. I don’t care if you tell me that the player is the boyfriend of that girl who really wants to play in your campaign or that he’s the older brother of the guy whose house you play at.
The longer you tolerate that player in your group, the longer you’ll validate his behavior and the likelier your campaign will crash and some players will quit the hobby in disgust.
Having people quit the hobby because of that? Nothing is worth that…
And just so I’m crystal clear: You should kick such kind of players out of your games, maybe they’ll finally get the hint.
What about you? You have stories to share and/or insights on how to deal with such players?
Image Credit: Wizards of the Coast (Bully-wugs! get it?)
Origins 2009: Exhibit Hall in Words, Pictures, and Sounds
One of the biggest draws of any big game convention is the exhibit hall, and Origins is no exception. This year saw a return to using the entirety of the exhibit hall for booths (even though as always there are some strange presences: recruiters for the Department of Immigration and Naturalization jumps out, as well as the large booth for a Carrom organization). There’s always plenty for gamers to spend their hard earned cash on, and this year saw a number of new releases, as well as some hidden gems recommended to me by other show-goers that may have been around previously.
I also recorded a few short blurbs at some of the booths to give you a little more of the experience of being there.
Dice
No gaming convention would be complete without its dice sellers. The Crystal Caste booth was the most prominent upon entering the hall, but GameScience had a significantly expanded presence (with laptops playing Colonel Zocchi’s dice video and volunteers hand-inking dice), and both Chessex and Koplow had their usual offerings.
Z-Man
Z-Man had two games nominated for the Origins Award for best board game (Agricola and Pandemic, with Pandemic ultimately winning the category) and had plenty of copies of both for sale. However, the big deal for me was picking up Tales of the Arabian Nights, since I knew there was a limited number of copies. The stack above is what was there shortly after opening, and they were completely sold out by Saturday. I’m glad I picked up my copy when I did, but I sure didn’t like lugging around that heavy box for my first pass around the hall!
Dominion
It was a great show for Dominion… Dominion: Intrigue, the first expansion, came out to great acclaim at Origins. Then it won the Origins Award for best card game (up against stiff competition). Then right after the show, it won Spiel Des Jahres! There was also a different booth in the hall with the above sign, which I thought was a very smart move.
Rio Grande, in addition to putting out Intrigue, also had an expansion set to Race for the Galaxy that many went straight for when the hall opened.
Bucephalus Games
I profiled this new game company earlier, and was happy to see them have a better located booth this year. I also complimented them on having some of the most photogenic displays of their boardgames that I’ve seen. I picked three of their (many) games to profile that I thought the Critical Hits readers would be interested in, and got Anthony Gallela, their VP (and former executive director of GAMA), to explain them in a few minute spiels.
- Dwarven Dig (MP3)
- Zombie Mosh (MP3)
- Timestreams (MP3)
Are You The Traitor?
Looney Labs debuted a brand new game at Origins: Are You The Traitor?, a Werewolf-style party game with a Lord of the Rings-style theme. I’ve been excited for this one to come out for a while (disclaimer: I worked heavily as a playtester on it) and so was really happy to finally see it in print and in the hands of eager players. It’s not the game for everyone: like many psychologically based games, it doesn’t always click what the “moves” are when you first play, but to someone like me who loves that genre (and the theme), it hits all my gaming tastes right away. My favorite Looney Labs game, now available to all.
One other note about Looney Labs: this Origins held the 20th Annual International Icehouse tournament. Congrats to my roommate Jacob for winning it all (again), and for the Looneys for putting on such a prestigious event.
North Star Games
Sticking in the “party games made by Marylanders” for a moment, North Star Games had their hits Say Anything (which won the Origins Award for best Children’s, Family, or Party Game) and Wits & Wagers being demoed almost constantly. They also released a Wits & Wagers expansion with new trivia cards, as well as 4 promo trivia cards made by boardgaming folks. Of course, they also featured the giant Select-O-Matic 5000 prize wheel, which must have been the creation of some kind of genius…
Things I Want And Can’t Afford
OK, not an actual company, but two booths that stood out in that area at Origins. First, the Dwarven Forge booth (which I would probably own more of if they stocked any in their booth) featuring its always amazing 3D dungeon terrain, and the Sultan gaming tables, specialized wooden tables customized for gaming. Dwarven Forge sets cost a few hundred a pop, whereas each Sultan table floated in the thousands. Once this blogging thing makes me fabulously rich, I’ll be sure to pick some up… or maybe the companies will give me review copies? Pretty please?
Dark Platypus Studio
I’ve seen one of Dark Platypus‘s products in previous years: the Bendy Dungeon Walls, which are pretty neat and easy way to add some 3D to your game. This year, they had a number of other products, including magnetic condition flags (which improve on the Alea magnets both for being obvious what they mean and not causing magnetic craziness) and a magnetically receptive battlemap. Geek’s Dream Girl has already talked about these a bit, but I also recorded a short bit with the owner to have him explain the different products.
- Dark Platypus Studio (MP3)
Hellas RPG and Maid RPG
I missed what the collective booth was called (edit: it was the Khepera Publishing booth, which also included Ninja Burger and Vox), but this was a collection of smaller RPG publishers sharing booth space and explaining each other’s games. Maid I recognized because of certain bloggers, but Hellas I had never heard of, being described to us as “300 in Space” and using a really great sounding Fate mechanic that allows you to do awesome things… but when you run out, your fate has come to pass. After checking it out, we were told by Monte Cook that it was one of the coolest things he had seen at the show, so I had to go back and record an explanation of the game. Not that I needed the urging: Hellas is an amazingly put together product, which marries great production values (especially for a small company) with a unique setting and very interesting sounding mechanics.
- Hellas (MP3)
Also, I promised that I would publish the photo from Maid of a favored piece of art:
Game Publisher’s Association
Across the aisle from the previous booth, but together in spirit, was the Game Publisher’s Association. They sell a number of small press games (RPGs, board games, and otherwise). I checked them out to pick up some of the Asmadi Games I was missing (including the brilliant Win, Lose, or Banana) but noticed they also covered some old favorites like Battlestations.
Wealth of Nations
At the Origins awards, I got an @ reply from someone else there, and it turned out to be Jennifer Norris from Tablestar Games. She invited me to come by the next day and check out the Origins Award-nominated board game Wealth of Nations, and so I did! I recorded her explanation of the game, and hope to be able to give a full review after I play it.
- Wealth Of Nations (MP3)
Steampunk
Just as an example, you can buy more than just games at Origins. I’m pretty sure this steampunk apparel booth was new, and definitely a welcome change from all the corset vendors (I also noticed no Utilkilt booth this year). I was strongly tempted to buy one of the hats with goggles, though I’m always worried about buying hats to fit my big head.
Chibithulhu
Last year, I bought a lot of Cthulhu paraphernalia at the combined SJ Games/Atlas Games/FFG/Cthulhu stuff booth. This year, I picked up the little guy above for Geek’s Dream Girl who was fawning over it all weekend, as well as a new Miskatonic University sticker for my new laptop. I love all the stuff they sell that just pretends like Miskatonic University is a real college. I’ve been wearing the hat from them since last year, and gotten asked on more than one occasion “Where is Miskatonic?” (The answer is either: A. in a book, or B. in Massachusetts).
Battletech Pods
We close with something that was actually OUTSIDE of the exhibit hall, in the walkway. A row of pods was connected along the wall, each one bringing you into the cockpit of your very own Battletech mech (or a video game simulation thereof). I didn’t get a chance to try it, but a friend who did said that while the graphics were worse than a home computer, it was still a lot of fun and not all that expensive for just a session or two. I’m hoping to give it a try myself at GenCon, and face off against Bartoneus… he won’t be able to use his headshot-rolling dice for this!
One Page Dungeon Winners Announced
The winners of the One Page Dungeon contest have been announced over at ChattyDM and Old Guy RPG Blog. I was honored to serve on the judging panel, and I’m glad to give a hearty congratulations to the winners.
You can read Alex’s recap of why he voted the way he did on individual entries. I can tell you that I evaluated the entries primarily on a strong core concept, with a healthy dose of “would I want to run or play in this?” The details of what was in each individual room were mostly lost to me, as a lot of it blended together. (This differed from most of my fellow judges, I’m sure). The ones I enjoyed the most were the ones that jumped out as “wow, this idea is cool” and then followed up with a solid execution. Even just evaluating on those two factors, there was still a lot of work to cut the list down to just a few winners.
To those who didn’t win anything, don’t despair… there were plenty of favorites among the judges that we just didn’t have enough prizes to award everything we liked. Hopefully some of you will take your one page idea and run with it, whether it’s just for your own campaign, or make a full adventure out of it.
Tales of the City Within: Session 1, Part 2
See part 1 here.
(After writing part 1, I realized that I got the order of how each of the four plots were introduced wrong. Instead of correcting it, I’ll adjust the tale accordingly. Let’s just assume that the PCs convinced the Drow to give them a few hours’ respite).
When the PCs, standing on one of the City’s upper terraces, saw that an Adamantine Dragon was eating everything it could get its claws upon, they started thinking they were in way too deep.
However, when I mentioned that the Dragon seemed to be very careful not to eat or hurt anyone, going as far as removing inhabitants from a house before eating it all, the PCs relaxed and gathered for a little Pow-Wow.
Romero rears his head
As the PCs were discussing how to deal with the current problems I decided to drop the final bomb on the group. While the players were chatting excitedly, I reached over to Franky and I pulled on his sleeve repeatedly.
When he looked at me, I mimed wiping a runny nose…
Snotty Kid: ” Mister Shaman Sir? My poppa tole me to come an find you. (SNORT) He says that some Advenchewrors died at da Inn last night and now they be walkin’ all over da place!’”
Franky (recoiling from me with horror): No, No, No, you have GOT to be kidding me Phil! ZOMBIES?
‘fraid so dear Franky…
Seeing that the dragon wasn’t killing anyone yet the PCs followed the kid to the Inn and got confirmation that it was overrun by Zombies! They called in the city’s militia and had the Inn surrounded, strongly suggesting that the soldiers not let anything leave the Inn under any pretenses. Dworkin (Franky’s dwarven Shaman) also had the snotty kid be placed under tight surveillance, convinced that he was the source of the Zombie plague.
How to fast talk a Dragon and blow the DM’s socks off.
The party then returned to the dragon to see if it could be reasoned with. It was obviously ravenous and seemed to be looking for something that would appease its unnatural hunger. I informed that players that getting the Dragon to acknowledge the PCs as a credible source of help would require a Skill Challenge (5 successes, 3 failures) based on the Diplomacy, Nature, Arcana and Bluff skills.
What followed was a beautiful example of team play where players with low skill bonuses used ‘aid another’ so that skills would have maximum bonuses. However that wasn’t just dice rolling. If a player had a hard time coming up with a description of how his PC used his knowledge, other players (and myself) would suggest examples. Some were so cool that they garnered hefty bonuses.
It made for such a great narrative. Some PCs recalled reading an old legend about a draconic champion of Bahamut who was as proud as it was hungry for riches and glory. The legend said that Kord chastised that dragon to eternal hunger until it found, somewhere in the City Within, the one thing that would satisfy it. It slept, buried deep, for 200 years and woke up whenever the Nexus departed.
The PCs then tried to convince Carilyx (the dragon) that the curse was likely a parable and that to break it the dragon likely had to perform some sort of act that Kord would approve of. Then Corwin sealed the deal by saying:
“In FACT I’m 100% sure that what you need to do is fight the enemies of the city in it’s hour of need! Just stop eating for some time and we’ll give you some juicy enemies!”
All this, the players made up as they were going along. I looked at my notes for what I had written as likely solution to deal with the dragon and then promptly chucked it away. My player’s solution was so much cooler!
At this point I said something about not having had one fight yet, to which Math responded “We don’t need one, this is too much fun!”
What more can a DM ask for?
Carilyx accepted to wait for up to 3 days before it would start eating again (the skill challenge called for 3 days, minus 1 per failures).
Ah the sweet stench of knowledge!
With still some time on the clock before dealing with the Drow, the PCs came back to the lava problem. It was apparent that they had to find the 5 original souls that would need to sacrifice themselves. Jaiel (Deva Avenger) was one of them so she went out to seek the other 4 Devas that were the City’s sworn defendant. I told them that he could easily find 2 of them. He was also preety sure that a third one could be found in University burg.
Jaiel went there to look for the 3rd Deva but was shocked to see the whole place overruned with Zombies!!! She promptly turned back.
Mwa Ha Ha Ha!
Drow Faceoff!
As the PCs were getting ready to face the Drow, I told Rocco (halfling Rogue) that he had learned some interesting facts about the Drow while getting ready to move his career from the surface to the underworld. Before the event that destroyed the world so many centuries ago, the Drow were a force to be reckoned with. But after their patron goddess failed to capture this world, her interest in it vanished and the Drow were left to fend for themselves. All Drow cities were destroyed or were abandonned and the few remaining Dark Elves were usually nothing more than Mercenaries or Hustlers.
When I was done explaining that, all my players decided to go and confront the Drow as a bunch of frauds out to steal from the city’s overly gullible gouvernment. Seeing their bluff being called, the drow gambled on killing the PCs.
A fight was finally at hand, but I had only one hour for it as I had a teeneaged babysitter at home.
The fight was hard, the Drow were all a few levels higher than the PCs. The details are fuzzy but I recall dropping one PCs into negatives . By the end of the hour, most drow were either KOed or Bloodied, that’s when I called that they all surrendered.
And that’s when the players realized…
“Huh, guys? What will the Dragon fight now that we’ve dispatched the drow?”
Priceless.
This such an awesome game!
Lessons Learned
- The 5X5 Formula of interweaving plots worked wonderfully.
- While I worried that I PCs would not have to make significant choices, I was wrong as players made choices and took some decisions that sent the adventure in places I didn’t foresee.
- I need to give better descriptions of key NPCs when major scenes with them happen.
- Part of what slows 4e is players looking at power cards and trying to find the best move. There’s not much we can do about that except keeping gentle pressure to keep things moving and ask players to prepare turns in advance.
Post Mortem
After the game I got a fairly detailled written feedback post from one of my players. One point bears mentionning here. The player told me that he had the feeling that the Leadership of the city was seriously lacking. He had the feeling that the City Council was not a credible gouvernment and that should the PCs leave, he was sure that the whole place would topple like a house of cards. He mentionned that while the Dungeon had a clear plan, the City didn’t.
He is entirely right. In trying to make the PCs feel like badass heroes, I underplayed the role of City leaders. My friend would have an easier time immerssing himself in the game if there was a circle of competant leaders that supported the PCs in whatever mission was at hand.
I noted his feedback and will try to work this into the main storyline when we return to it in August.
Origins 2009: D&D 4e Villains Seminar
At Origins 2009, Rodney Thompson and Robert J. Schwalb hosted a seminar (courtesy of the RPGA) about designing villains for your 4e game. The seminar described the process of doing the villain design, from role in the campaign to touching on some of the mechanics you might use. Here’s my notes from the session.
First thing is to decide what “duration” you’ll see the villain:
- campaign-long villains
- tier-long villains
- adventure villains
- encounter villains
Once you determine the scale of the villain, you’ll know how detailed to make it. [Read the rest of this article]
One Page Dungeon Winners!
What started as a crazy idea in the last few weeks of Winter has finally come to its conclusion.
Since late May a panel of 6 judges: Chgowiz, Dave: the Game, Sham, Amityville Mike, Alex Schroeder and myself have slogged through 112 entries and we’ve finally arrived with the final results.
If you are curious about our judging process, have a look at Alex’s excellent post on the subject.
So without further ado, here are the winners of the first ever One Page Dungeon Contest:
Honorable Mentions - these dungeons will not receive a prize, but they are extremely worthy of note and made it into the final Judges Picks before we had to whittle the list down to the last winners. These dungeons will be included in the Winners One Page Dungeon PDF publication. The category listed was the decision of the judge who selected these honorable mentions.
Best Dungeon Circa 1974: The Crumbling Dungeon – Lord Kilgore
Best Dungeon Crawl: Shrine of the Savage Jungle – John Laviolette
Most Elegant: Clockwork Crypt – Gary S. Watkins
Funniest: The Vareh’gra Depths – Gary McCammon
Best Geometry: Halls of the Mad Mage – Justin Alexander
Best Introductory One-Shot: The Tomb of Durhan Oakenshield – Dyson Logos
Best Non-Dungeon: The Great Cloud Caper – Jonathan Lee
Best Unconventional: Traps-R-Us – Chris Torrence
Best Use of Tables: Mountain Lair of the Misanthropic Magus – Sean Wills
Runner Ups – these dungeons were the top of the Judges Picks, after we had picked the top 3 winners. Each of these represents an outstanding dungeon, showing high quality and inventive design. These dungeons will be awarded prizes as noted. The category is as the Judge picked it:
Best Hack-n-Slash: The Gray Goblin Warrens – Christopher Brackett
Prize: Random Esoteric Creature Generator
Best Non-Fantasy Entry: The Horror of Leatherbury House – Michael Wolf
Prize: Bundle of Goblinoid Games products
Best Pub: Arendt’s Old Peculiar- Antti Hulkkonen
Prize: Tabletop Adventures bundle: Bits of Darkness, Deck O’Names
Best Replayable Entry: The Infinite Tower – James E. Raggi IV
Prize: Otherworld Minatures – Pig Faced Orcs box set
Best Retro Use of 30×30 Space: Megadungeon of the Mad Archmage Gary Stu – Adam Thornton
Prize: Bundle of Knockspell and City Encounter PDFs
Best Silly Dungeon: Maze of NAMCAP – Patrick Riley
Prize: Bundle of Wizards of the Coast D&D 4e Adventures (or equivalent)
Best New School Dungeon: Cry of the Gravegod by Heron Prior
Prizes: Bundle of Necromancer games product, Fantasy Grounds II License, Wizards of the Coast – Dungeon Delve book and Adventurer’s Vault book, 6 month membership to Obsidian Portal, AvatarArt free artwork, Quarterly membership to DungeonADay.com
Best Old School Dungeon: Valley of the Necromancer Kings by Andrew Gale
Prizes: Bundle of Brave Halfling Production products, Demon Idol Miniature, 6 month membership Obsidian Portal, Fantasy Grounds II License, AvatarArt free artwork, Bundles of Fight On and Knockspell issues
Now here’s the best of the best! This dungeon was highly favored by almost all of the judges, once we lined up our top picks, this entry got unanimous support to be declared the grand winner of the contest…
Best Overall One Page Dungeon: Secrets of the Old City by Simon Bull
Prizes: Patron membership of Wolfgang Baur’s Open Design, Kobold Guide to Game Design, Quarterly membership to Monte Cook’s Dungeon a Day, A full License for Smitework’s Fantasy Grounds II, 1 year membership to Obsidian Portal, 50$ Gift Certificate from One-Bookshelf, Bundles of Fight On and Knockspell issues.
Also, please note that we will also be offering passes for the Las Vegas NeonCon gaming convention to any of the honorary mention, Runner ups and Best of winners, that would like to attend.
Our next step will be to create a swanky PDF with all the entries described in this post. The PDF will feature a color cover to be created by the recent winner of the Erol Otus/Fight On!/Otherworld art contest: Mark Allen and will feature a scene from the Secrets of the Old City winning dungeon. It will also contain a few One-Page dungeon related posts that Chgowiz and I wrote and will feature a copy of the template itself. The PDF will be distributed for free by Tabletop Adventures and will be available on most RPG PDF outlets.
We will also create a second PDF which will feature the winners and runner ups, but will not feature the color cover and additional freebies. This PDF will be placed into an archive (ZIP) file which will also have all the entries for you to download. Yes, if you want to see all 112 entries, you will be able to do so. We’ll work out where that will be hosted, but be forewarned, it’s a large 68 MB file.
This contest would not haven been possible without the tireless work of Chgowiz and the active support of the other 4 judges. I also want to thank Graham Poole who had initially signed on as a judge but got called away by real life. I also want to thank you all dear readers and Twitter followers who have been so enthusiastic about the whole thing, making us even more motivated to see this through.
Finally, I wish to extend a big thank you to all Sponsors who have been so generous and have provided so many great prizes:
- Avatar Art
- Brave Halfling Publishing
- Fight On Magazine
- Goodman Games
- Malhavoc Press/DungeonADay
- NeonCon 2009
- Mythmere Games
- Necromancer Games
- Obsidian Portal
- Open Designs
- Otherworld Miniatures
- Smiteworks
- Tabletop Adventure
All right! This is done!
Now who wants to hear about my “Kill Drittz for Charity contest” idea?
