One-Page Dungeon Contest Update 2: Four on the Template

After 2 weeks, the one-page dungeon contest is revving up nicely.  Entries have been coming in at a steady pace from all over the world. Seriously, this week we got entries from Australia, Italy and Germany just to name a few.  The dungeons are also very very diverse showing off various genres and themes.

I can’t wait to start judging this as I already expect some heated discussions between the judges.  Hopefully it won’t come to dueling.

This week Chgowiz and I thought it would be nice to discuss how the template can be used to help DMs/GMs create adventure faster. We’re taking a He said/He said approach to it, so after you’ve gone through my answers, have a look at his.

How can I use the template to Brainstorm adventure ideas?

What’s great about a one page template is that you can print out a bunch of them and have at them with nothing but a pencil.  Depending on your personal adventure design style, you may start with drawing a map and then as you draw/cross-out/erase/redraw you might see an adventure seed unfold.  As ideas come to you, you can jot them down directly in the large white spaces (The Title bar, the right box or the bottom half ‘dungeon key’) sitting around the map.

Don’t feel constrained by the page, you don’t have to finish one, you can scrap it and start again, or you can return to an unfinished one to steal an idea, a structure or complete it.

Once you’ve got your dungeon’s idea firmly in mind, you can re-do it with your favorite document creation tools (Word, Gimp, Photoshop, etc).

Alternatively, you can start by jotting down plot ideas and room contents on the template and draw a dungeon to fit your ideas.  This backwards approach is also a great brainstorming  strategy as the constraints you give yourself by pre-designing the adventure’s content can help you draw a map more easily.

At least, that’s how my creative process works for me.

How do I approach dungeon building that includes a sense of setting when being brief?

A common thing among GameMasters is that they get lost in the details of their adventure.  They start to design an adventure and get caught up in writing pages and pages of maybes/options/background material. All this, while possibly useful in the coming game, can end up eating a lot of your most productive time where your mind is set to prepping your game.

Using a one-page document to fit your adventure forces you to focus on what the PCs are going to have to do in the adventure, and spend less time on “getting it perfect”.  If you see it to the end, you’ll at least have a good idea of what’s going to happen and how.

Once you are done doing that, you will likely have a To-DO list of things to finish your prep, keeping you organized and focused.  For example, when I designed the Font of Sorrows, I drew the map and filled the template in less than 2 hours (counting me inking over my pencil-drawn map and cutting and pasting the document).  After that, I knew that I had to get monster stats, place treasures and work out the terrain features and of each encounter.

This was as clear a roadmap to finish the adventure as I was likely to get.

How do I make the one-page template fit my own system of choice?

I think that the one-page template is perfect for D&D 4e if you use it at two different levels of your prepping.

First off, the template is perfect to act as a summary of your site-base adventure.  Exactly like the maps and short keys you find in current D&D published adventure, a completed template can represent each locale or dungeon level in your adventure.  In that, the template is used exactly like for other role playing game.

But here’s where the template really shines.  You can modify it a bit to use one sheet (possibly two) for each encounter!  The map is there to draw a larger scale depiction of the encounter’s battlemap and you can use all the remaining white space to include monster stat cards, tactics and terrain features.

Even if you keep monster stats in a different place, you can detail individual NPC reactions and describe traps and other hazards in detail.

In fact, when I have a bit more time to focus on that, I think I’ll mod the template and release a 4e pack.

How do I think the one page can be used by other DMs?

The template is simple enough to cater to the styles of all types of DM.

Freeform DMs that prefer Sandbox campaigns can create many one-pagers to drop on players at a moment’s notice and improv anything that isin’t already written.  In fact that’s probably what many old-school users of the template do.

DMs who prefer more structured game notes can use the template like I’ve been describing above.  First they can use it as a brainstorming tool.  Then, they can use it again as a more refined adventure summary to place at the start of thier gaming notes.

Also, note that the one-page limit only applies to the contest we’re having now.  DMs are free to explode the template to take as many pages as they need too.

There you have it. Now I’m curious to see what Chgowiz said on his side… I guess I’ll know later when both posts go up.

So don’t wait, send in your entry if you haven’t done so already.  The number of prizes is large and the pool of entries is not that big, you have a good chance of coming out with a prize!

Best of luck!

Contest Rules:

1. Participants create a one page dungeon using the template found here. For a contest entry example see here.

2. The dungeon must have the following features:

• Name of Dungeon
• Map
• Dungeon Key (in an edition-neutral form: Description of monsters, Treasure, Traps, etc… No game stats)

OPTIONAL (If you can fit them on one page…)

• Wandering Monster or Random Event tables or a list of scripted “events” that can occur over the adventure
• Background
• Additional descriptions that add to the dungeon, such as detailed description of trap or trick or unique feature.

3. Only one entry per participant. Participants may revise/replace their entries up till the end of contest, with the last revision counting as their official entry. Entry may win grand prize or one of the runner up prizes, plus any number of alternative prize categories.

4. Participants are allowed to modify the template, provided it remains a one-page entry.

5. Submission must be emailed in PDF, Word or Open Office format at the following address: onepage@chattydm.net

6. Submitting a dungeon to the contest releases it under the Creative Common Share-alike license (US 2008) with credit to the contest participant.

7. Contest closes on May 14th 2009 at Midnight.

The prizes (oh yes, the prizes!)

Grand Prize

• Patron membership of Wolfgang Baur’s Open Design
• Quarterly membership to Monte Cook’s Dungeon a Day
• A full Licence for Smitework’s Fantasy Grounds II
• 1 year membership to Obsidian Portal
• 50$ Gift Certificate from One-Bookshelf
• 4 Badges to Neoncon 2009

Grand Prize Runner-Up: Old School Dungeon Design

• Bundle of Goblinoid Games product
• Bundle of Brave Halfling Production products
• Otherworld Miniatures Demon Idol Miniature
• Bundles of Fight On and Knockspell issues
• Bits of Darkness Bundle from Tabletop Adventures
• 6 month membership Obsidian Portal
• 2 Badges to Neoncon 2009

Grand Prize Runner-Up: New Edition Dungeon Design

• D&D 4e Dungeon Delve & Adventurer’s Vault
• Fantasy Grounds II License
• 6 month membership Obsidian Portal
• 2 Badges to Neoncon 2009

To divide among other Categories

• Open Design’s Kobold’s Guide to Game Design
• Quarterly membership to Monte Cook’s Dungeon-a-Day
• Bundle of Necromancer Games products
• Bundle of Brave Halfling Production PDF products
• Bundle of Knockspell and City Encounter PDFs
• Bundle of Fight On Magazine (issues 1-4 PDFs)
• Tabletop Adventure’s Bits of Darkness Bundle
• Tabletop Adventures’ Deck O’Names Set
• A few D&D 4e Adventures and Hardcovers
• Otherworld Miniatures – Pig Faced Orcs (Or Box of Minis)
• Goodman Games – Random Esoteric Creature Generator
• Badges to Neoncon 2009

Our sponsors!
These prizes have been generously donated by our sponsors – they really are excited about this contest and we hope you are just as excited about their support. Please be sure to show them your support as well.

• Avatar Art
• Brave Halfling Publishings
• DungeonADay
  
• Fight On Magazine
• Goblinoid Games
• Goodman Games
• Mythmere Games
• Necromancer Games
• NeonCon
• Obsidian Portal
• Open Design
• Otherworld Miniatures
• Smiteworks
• Tabletop Adventure

If you have any questions about the contest, please feel free to contact either of us: Phil (Chattydm@chattydm.net) and/or Michael (chgowiz@gmail.com)