#dungeon23

One room a day, one level a month.

That’s the idea anyway.

If you want to read more about it, start here.

I know it’s been very quiet around here for a long time. Work. Family. House. Gaming. Blogging is somewhere way down on the list. But I did want to come up for air to talk about this one.

For the past three summers, I’ve been part of a team running D&D summer camps for teens at my wife’s school. Each year, I spend a good month cracking open the ‘ole D&D nerve center of my brain to do a fair bit of story building and dungeoncrafting. After last year, I started thinking maybe…maybe…instead of cooking up a new story each year, wouldn’t it be cool to create a huge old-school funhouse dungeon that the campers could explore year after year. There would always be a new corridor to explore, a secret door to some new sub-level, new mysteries to peel away at, a new faction to interact with. More “open table” than “west marches”. Each year, returning campers would bring with them a bit of lore to share with new campers. They only have five days worth of sessions to have at it. Then, the doors close for another year before they have a chance to go at it again.

Sounds fun, right?

Okay, maybe not. But it sounds like a lot less work than to come up with a new week’s worth of adventures ever year. And these are kids who cut their teeth on Twitch videos and Critical Role screencasts. A classic megadungeon is probably something they’ve only heard about and never experienced. Hell, I started playing D&D in the 80’s and **I’ve** never seen or played in a fully realized megadungeon before.

So, yes. Consider me intrigued.

And then, as if on cue, here comes the Dungeon23 challenge. One room a day, one level a month. No rules other than that. An entry doesn’t have to be word salad. No minimum word count to qualify. Just come up with one cool room idea each day.

Okay, dammit. I get it, Universe. I’ll do it. Starting Jan 1, one room a day. That should get me around 6 levels worth of megadungeon by the time my camps start. At 30-ish rooms a month, that’s 180 something rooms ready to be explored. Sounds like a plan.

Of course, with me, it can’t be just a bog standard wizard’s tower in the middle of a cornfield. No, I’m basing mine roughly on the ruins of Petra, setting it in a vaguely Sumerian-inspired corner of the Legendary Earth, the Empire of Mesphosia, in the Gygean Mountains. Instead of 12 levels straight down, the “dungeon” will be spread out over some six zones, each between 1-3 levels (or more, maybe). This makes it easier to explore in bite-sized chunks, which I think will serve our needs even better.

Yeah, it doesn’t sound very swashbuckley, but it sounds like a fun exercise. And maybe I’ll get some additional miles out of it.

What about you? Got a megadungeon that’s been burning a hole in your brain for 20 years? Why not let it breathe a little. Here. I have some graph paper for you.