I took stock of all of my Appendix N reading to date, which entailed a mix of staring off into space, combing my shelves, and blowing the dust off my long-dormant Goodreads account. Of the 29 authors in Appendix N (well, 28 plus an editor), I have: I made it further than I thought back […]
Cataloging my Appendix N reading Read More »
Back in 2012, as my interest in old-school D&D was returning and flourishing, I started a project to read all of Gary Gygax’s famous Appendix N. I came up with a detailed plan, researched and assembled a 100-book Appendix N reading list that included recommendations for those authors whose works Gary didn’t note by title
Returning to Appendix N (vewy vewy quietly) Read More »
I wrote my last #dungeon23 room today! I have no idea what I’ll do with the Black Furnace next, if anything, but I’m proud to have finished it. This is only my second or third dungeon ever, and by far the largest I’ve ever created. It’s a rough draft, but everything starts out as a
My Black Furnace #dungeon23 project is done! Read More »
I haven’t written about the end of the world in Godsbarrow, but the entire setting — everything I’ve ever created for it that doesn’t live here, on Yore — nearly vanished today. I woke up to a corrupted hard drive, which Windows helpfully automatically recovered for me…but without hundreds of gigs of files, including my
Godsbarrow apocalypse narrowly averted Read More »
Driving home from running a DCC RPG session, I was noodling about why I love dungeon crawls so much. My usual line of thinking is that I love dungeons because they’re basically sandboxes, and I love sandboxes. With a dungeon, we agree on the boundaries of the sandbox, we discover toys therein, and we play
A dungeon is like a pinball machine Read More »
While working on my Corsair Voidscarred kill team, I spent a few days reading about Aeldari and Corsairs and noodling about names. I adore the warband name “Sunblitz Brotherhood,” and that’s the energy I wanted to capture. I jotted down all sorts of ideas, but eventually returned to one of my first good ones: the
My Corsair Voidscarred: the Void Tigers (with color guide) Read More »
I’m quite enjoying #dungeon23 so far. Having 1/3 empty rooms is a fantastic safety valve, allowing me to bank the fire of inspiration for days when I’m feeling it. Although it’s now day 40, level 1 of the Black Furnace is “only” 35 rooms — because this dungeon has five entrances, and I wrote those
First level of the Black Furnace complete Read More »
Today I finished the draft of the first area in my #dungeon23 project, the Black Furnace. Level 1-A is the servants’ quarters, home to the cult of Hürak Mol. It’s accessible from one of the Black Furnace’s five entrances, and connects to level 2 and level 1-B. I can’t remember the last time I drew
The Black Furnace level 1-A Read More »
I’m not sure all my notes (many rolled in Tome of Adventure Design [affiliate link]) will survive the next steps, but I’m off to the races with #dungeon23. Weep at my terrible handwriting! I like megadungeons with multiple entrances and verticality, so the Black Furnace has a main entrance, two chimneys (which can be used
#dungeon23: off to the races! Read More »
I’ve juggled things around a bit since my initial #dungeon23 post. With less than 24 hours to go until my first room, it’s time to lay the last bits of ground work for the Black Furnace. The thing I’ve changed up is mapping: I bought a graph paper notebook (4 squares/inch) and a Jujutsu Kaisen
#dungeon23: ground work Read More »
