2010-08-12 Some One Page Dungeons I Liked

Remember the One Page Dungeon Contest 2010? I hear that the “Codex” with the best entries of the One Page Dungeon Contest 2009 was on sale at GenCon? I wonder if the guys responsible for that are interested in producing a nice book for the 2010 contest. I should get in touch with ChattyDM. 😄

*Update*: Phil says he doesn’t want to do it. Oh noes! Anybody else who wants to give it a try? You need to find somebody to do layout, organize an artist that does a cover (unless you want to stick to the simple black on white logo on the cover), do the PDF, find a publisher like Tabletop Adventures or figure out how POD services like Lulu work, raise some money (or sponsor it yourself), etc. It’s a neat little project!

Tabletop Adventures

Lulu

Or figure out how to do it on Lulu? I’d rather have somebody else do it, to be honest.

Anyway, back to the my favorite entries – the ones I had nominated myself.

I had nominated

warning: _Spoilers! ⚠ Spoilers! ⚠ Spoilers! ⚠ – this includes any players in my Alder King campaign where these dungeons might show up _

Alder King

Raid on Black Goat Wood* by Shane Mangus – The first thing to note is that it has a very nice, simple, clear and beautiful map. It isn’t complicated or complex. There’s only one entry into the dungeon, and not a lot of choice involved. Thus, the adventure is basically a number of random encounters followed by the discovery of an Old One – a “Dark Mother”. There is no obvious way to fight it. Its continued presence can have a long lasting effect on your campaign. It’s going in mine! 😈

Shane Mangus

Dungeon From A Distant Star* by Stuart Robertson – A classic genre-crossing dungeon involving an alien spaceship. This dungeon also features *vegepygmies* and thus places itself firmly in the tradition of Expedition to Barrier Peaks. I think I will place it and last year’s *The Omenous Portent of the Highlands Meteor* by Tim Hensley in my campaign. What’s better than two crashed spaceships? Two crashed spaceships! One was in pursuit of the other, or spare parts from one can used to fix the other? Again, the map is clean and beautiful. Using hexes inside the ship and squares outside the ship is a nice move.

Stuart Robertson

Expedition to Barrier Peaks

Velth, City of Traitors* by *Corwin Riddle* – A small collection of buildings being the remnants of a cursed underground city suspended from by colossal stone chains above an abyss... How can this not be cool? In addition to the undead citizens we get some classic underground creatures: dark dwarves, dark elves, giant spiders, goblins, trolls, and mindflayers. Yay! The map looks nice and organic. If I think too much about the visuals I get confused, however. Are these buildings on a stone disk? What is preventing characters from walking across the surface? The nice part is that the map offers alternate routes for the intrepid explorers to reach their goal – a “powerful magical weapon” that you need to incorporate into your campaign somehow. Done!

The Sage’s Keep* by *Darcy Stratton* – The party in my campaign is going to be visiting a sage or two. This adventure is about a naga impersonating a sage sending heroes on dangerous missions to retrieve a magic item it would like to get. Imprisoned sage, kobolds, ogres, gelatinous cubes, a tower that can be entered from above or through the main entrance. I like it. Excellent setup.

Hoping to write more impressions in the days to come. 😄

#RPG #1PDC

Comments

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Glad to hear you might use The Omenous Portent of the Highlands Meteor! I keep meaning to write up a broader expansion for it with the entire thing stated out for LL and I keep forgetting about it.

– tim 2010-08-12 15:20 UTC

tim