June of Dungeons
Dungeon23 Roundup - Part 2
Hey! Do you like exploring dim, humid, scary underground dangerous places? Yes? You’re in the right place then: welcome to Dungeon23 Roundup - Part 2! In this newsletter we’ll hear Ben Laurence tell us what megadungeons are really about, and chat with Chris Bissette about their Dungeon23 ongoing project. But, wait, what the heck is Dungeon23? It’s a tabletop RPG year long design challenge sparked by Sean McCoy, designer of the RPG Mothership. Go check Dungeon23 Roundup - Part 1 for more info. BTW there will be a Part 3!
But first let me give you some quick news from The Lost Bay Studio.
Lost Bay Studio News
The Great Sandram
Minidungeon release! The Great Sandram is a new fantasy adventure compatible with Skyrealms. It extends the core book, and can be played as a one shot or within a larger campaign. It features amazing art by Roque Romero, and faithful to the spirit of the core book: all the art in the adventure is fully colorable.
That’s the cover:
Let me show you a couple of spreads:
That’s an Emobeast, called Beast. They’re cool, but can get angry pretty quickly.
No, you don’t want to fall in this pool.
Get yourself a treat, pick the adventure on itch. And by the way, I’m warning you: this is an expanding universe, there will be more coming!
Do you speak Spanish?
Role per second made a very cool upbeat readthrough/analysis of Skyrealms. Gosh I’m so happy about this. I really dig their work. These content creators like Irvin are the connective tissue of the scene, they keep the info flowing, which is primordial for us indie enthusiasts.
Go watch the video here
And Speaking of Spanish, Skyrealms is being translated by La Esquina de Rol. They do solidarity translations, to help connect the Spanish speaking TTRPG community with the rest of the international scene. That’s such a generous thing to do. The translation is halfway through, I’ll add it to the itch page soon.
Now, back to business.
Dungeon23 Roundup - Part 2
OK, so Dungeon23 is all about designing megadungeons. But what is a megadungeon? I’m going to be honest: I’m not sure. I’ve never played or ran one. The very concept of a megadungeon kind of overwhelms me a bit. And this is probably why I broke down my Dungeon23 project into several smaller dungeons.
But there are folks out there who play and run megadungeons like I drink coffee. And one of them is Ben Laurence, designer of the more than excellent Through Ultran’s door series, a dream infused collection of adventures with a unique retro vibe, retro in a super cool way.
I know for a fact that Ben plays megadungeons because I had a chance to do multiple calls with him on this subject: megadungeons are his jam, he’s been putting a lot of thinking in them, both from a design and gameplay perspective. So I asked Ben to help us understand what a megadungeon is.
How does a dungeon qualify to be a megadungeon?
A megadungeon is a single adventuring site that is the focus of an entire campaign. It needs to be big enough that it cannot be fully cleared or even explored. It’s more a living, breathing world in itself than a dungeon as we would normally think of it.
What’s the longest megadungeon campaign you’ve played?
I’ve been a player now for two years in Nick Kuntz’s Twilight Age campaign. The game was running a ton early on, and has slowed down to some extent now, but is still going. I think it’s had well over 100 sessions, maybe closer to 200, with a huge base of players. My character, Phasmo, is a 4th level magic-user. He recently died, but was brought back to life with a potion he had squirreled away a year ago for just such an eventuality.
Why are megadungeons fun to play?
For me playing in a megadungeon campaign has been a revelation. Because the players are rooted in single location for downtime, and because all adventuring (in the main) happens in the megadungeon, you get a very vivid sense of how the world reacts and changes because of what we do. Given how many players are involved (like 20 active at any given time), there’s this amazing dynamic where it’s not really about the story of any one group, and nobody knows everything that’s going on. The other thing I love about megadungeons, at least this one, is the way that the lower you get, the deeper the secrets revealed, and the more metaphysical the whole thing gets. The way Nick has run it, it almost felt like peeling the layers of the onion of reality.
OK this is intriguing. I might want to try this, both as a player and a GM. 20 active players seems like a lot, how do you do that? And also, is this what dungeons are about: unwrapping the secrets of reality? Revealing the hidden truths? This makes sense, in so many literary traditions, deep below is where you’ll find what’s been hidden from sight, both metaphorically and in a more mundane way.
I can relate to this: I grew up in a context where secret factions and sects, underground wars and alliances were very much a real thing. And I’m trying to inject that in The Lost Bay RPG: one of the bay districts, the World Below, is exactly this, a place where unthinkable beings and truths are revealed, about the world, and also about yourself.
Anyway, before talking with one of the most prolific and kickass designers out there, Chris Bissette, let’s strike a pause, and do some signal boosting.
Weird Hope
Remember Eco-MOFOs? The post-apocalyptic weird hope (yes, that’s a new genre, this game sparks it) TTRPG. I’m involved in this project as an editor. Well it’s going to be on Kickstarter very soon. And trust me, it’s going to be one of the coolest games this year. Just look at this:
Doesn't this look absolutely sick?
The game is by David Blandy and the team includes fine folks such as Daniel Locke, Samantha Leigh, Zedeck Siew, Logan Dean, Brandon Yu. I’m super excited about this project, and if you are into: post-punk, post-apo, Cairn/ItO, you should be as well. Here’s the KS link.
Back to dungeons now
Chris Bissette
Unlike me, Chris Bissette kept designing their Dungeon23 on a pretty regular basis despite doing so many other things, including writing fiction. You probably know them, I absolutely dig their work, and find them one of the most inspiring designers of the scene. So I jumped on the occasion and asked a couple of questions. If you’re interested in designing dungeons, you’ll find some extremely inspiring stuff below.
When does a dungeon become mega?
A dungeon is just a dungeon - somewhere you visit once or twice for a single “adventure” and then put behind you as you carry on with your campaign. There may be lots of dungeons along your road of varying sizes.
A megadungeon shapes a campaign. You’ll return to it time and time again, exploring and mapping and plumbing new depths, making alliances and enemies and everything in between with the people who live inside it. Exploring a megadungeon isn’t just a matter of seeing what’s there, taking what you can, and getting out. You’re stepping into an ecosystem and an economy - often multiple economies and societies - as a disruptive, invading force.
Dungeons often feel like they’re sitting there waiting for the characters to enter them, vanishing off screen as soon as you’re done with them. A megadungeon existed before the characters came near it and will exist once they leave it. It’s a space that’s always shifting and changing, a web of influence and personality and geography that’s never the same from one day to the next.
How do you design a megadungeon?
Personally I discover everything as I write. I might have some vague ideas, but I just start putting words on the page and see what happens. With a megadungeon especially I think it’s important to actually start playing it as soon as possible. I’ve been running my D23 megadungeon since the end of January, at which point I had two floors fully mapped and written. That was enough to start running it in short sessions, building ahead of the players as they delved deeper into it. Seeing it in play makes it come alive, and once it’s alive it’s no longer a matter of writing the dungeon but of discovering the dungeon.
How does the writing happen? Do you write on paper?
I always write on paper first. My Dungeon23 dungeon exists in a notebook, I break each month down into weeks and I give each week a two page spread.
In terms of the writing, it depends, but I’m a big believer in ritual and routine when it comes to writing practice. If I’m only writing one room a day then I do it as part of my writing warm up when I first sit down at my desk to start work for the day. I don’t allow myself more than a couple of minutes to do it. I just pick it up, scan the rooms I’ve already written that week if I need a refresher, and write something. If I’m writing more than one room a day then I do one as part of the warmup and one as the last act of my day when I’m sitting in bed about to go to sleep.
In terms of the “not allowing myself more than 5 minutes” thing, that’s just sort of emerged naturally. Because I write it every day I’ve got the shape of the whole thing in my head anyway, and I tend to know what I’m going to write already before I sit down. That anticipation, that excitement to get to the notebook and put pen to paper, is one of my favourite things in writing and it’s nice to have a project that sustains it over a long period of time.
What are the themes of your D23, and/or what will adventurers find in the deepest levels of your dungeon23?
I haven’t really planned any themes into the dungeon, though some have emerged naturally as I’ve written. There are themes of rot, of decay, of petrification. I’ve got forests of statues, weird symbiotic moss cults, and shrines to ancient religions that nobody remembers the details of. To be honest these are themes that crop up a lot in my work anyway - D23 has been good for allowing me to play firmly within my comfort zone, so that I can extend myself elsewhere in my more commercial work.
I think my favourite thing in the dungeon so far is the staircase mimic that exists on levels 2 and 3. It lives on the random encounter table, forming links between the rooms on the two floors, moving and shifting and making the space impossible to accurately map. It’s an ancient, intelligent ambush predator, and so far it’s eaten several hirelings and one PC and nobody has quite figured out what’s going on yet.
Will you release it as a zine/book?
At the start of the year I was publishing weekly chunks in plain text to my Patreon but I stopped doing that some time around March. Not because I didn’t want to anymore, but the act of typing it up for even that sort of publication became a little too much like Work and I didn’t want my enthusiasm for a fun, personal project to be diminished as a result of that.
I don’t yet know if I’ll do anything with it other than keep running it. I’m writing it for my game A Dungeon Game, so there’s definitely a possibility that it will end up published as a module for that once it’s all complete, but I’m not thinking about it yet so that I don’t put any pressure on myself to make it a Product.
Thanks a lot Chris, that was super inspiring! Writing before falling asleep is definitely something I practice, but I could do better about creating a ritual writing space/routine.
If you’re not familiar with A Dungeon Game, go check it, it’s free. It kind of condenses all what I would expect from a high-impact OSR-ish fantasy game. It’s got a very cool hardcore Scar mechanism, I’m sure you’ll like it https://loottheroom.itch.io/a-dungeon-game
When in Rome, Rome
Remember the cool image I used as an intro to this newsletter? It’s a real world mindungeon: the underground levels of a 1700 years old tiny church that lays right behind where I dwell in Rome, Italy. Below the church is a crypt, below the crypt a ancient Roman house that was used as a church, eons ago, and below the house another crypt that held relics of early Christian saints (or popes? I’m not sure)
More pics for you.
Would you like to see more pics of actual ancient underground half-crumbling stuff? LMK in comments, I can do that for you.
More signal boosting
Last year, the fine folks at TTRPGkids did some serious signal boosting for Skyrealms. They kind of helped me fund the zine. They’re super cool folks, and basically TTRPGkids is a resource for families, teachers, creators, and everyone in between who wants to use or make TTRPGs for kids. Sounds great, right? Their site includes over 250 articles covering game reviews, guides, educational tips, community leader interviews, and more so you have all your kid-focused TTRPG material in one place. This is all available for free, however, it hasn't been free to run, and TTRPGkids also wants to grow! To support their efforts, TTRPGkids is running a Crowdfundr starting June 15 with some awesome rewards available for both gamers and creators to enjoy. Check it out today to sign up and get notified for day 1 bonuses and help keep TTRPGkids rolling!
One more!
Before going to do some horror TTRPG writing (that’s the Wednesday chore haha) one more Dungeon23 link. Mac Makes Things is sharing regular updates on their massive Dungeon23 project. I really love the vibe of it, characters and situations are super creative. The dungeon has a "cool-fantasy" atmosphere which takes me back to some CYOA books I read eons ago. This map is so cool.
That’s all for today.
But wait!
In the next newsletter, I’ll make an announcement about a very big thing I’ve been working on for a few cycles, together with a gigantic crew of super talented designers and artists.
Here’s a hint:
MOTHERSHIP
