2016 One-Page Dungeon Contest!

One-Page Dungeon Contest began in 2009, this year is #8!

The One-Page Dungeon Contest for 2016 is happening now! Entries are due by May 1st at 23:59 UTC (That's 4:59 PM here in the Pacific Time Zone). The concept is simple: design a dungeon that fits on one side of a standard 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper. YOU decide how much map or art versus verbiage, whether or how much to include game mechanic stats, what font size (below 8 point is too small), etc. There are a number of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners who receive prizes!

Last year I submitted at the last minute, which was a bummer because there are a few technicalities like each submission must have "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0" somewhere on the page. Doh! So I was scrambling around at the last minute.

The good news is that if you make a submission early, you can replace or revise your submission up until the deadline. All submissions are made available for free after the contest is over. Here are last year's submissions. So get yer game on and create something for the DIY community. :~)

Downward into Insanity!

Demon Hole...

Lurking in the secret treasury of the Kobold-Lich, the party was rejoined by the strange dwarf in crystal armor and fiery elfin hybrid. The pit extended down 100' where it opened into a chamber, then extended downward over two hundred more feet unto molten magma.

Following impetus from wandering, huge, gelatinous cube, adventurers braved (some knowingly, one not so much) symbol of insanity warding the opened chamber to discover an a demonic court run by a 20' tall nalfenshee served by seven alastor demons wielding murderous scythes.

Nalfenshee Court

Following ferocious battle, several of the demons fled by teleport, alas also many adventurers in this unstable prime material realm, leaving only paladin, barbarian, and reptile priest.

Searching through this bizarre set of caverns all seemed a trap, or worse. Joined by the Man With No Name, the party worked their way jumping rocks over pools of sinister mist, barbarian moving ahead of the others. The heroes survived an energy blast of unholy fire to reach the barbarian, finding the sinuous half-orc warrior shaken in a temple-like hall with walls of ebony bricks. An immense statue of a ram-headed, bat-winged demon holding a skull-tipped mace; a gargantuan, wingless creature glowing in a violet hue that seems to seep from between the creature's craggy scales raises its toothy maw...

The Man With No Name uttered a long forgotten two word phrase, "Plasma dragon."

Plasma Dragon

The Eye of Incongruous Elocution (or Tsolya'ni Poorly Pronounced)

End of Night Visage

Had an entertaining night running essentially "out of the box" 1975 Empire of the Petal Throne game for a half-dozen kind folks at DunDraCon #40. Not two minutes out the gate for first combat and had to make a rules adjustment (damage appeared to be too bizarre, deadly, and weighted against player characters. Unless Phil Barker was showing "Do not fight!").

My brief oversea sojourn vignette set to introduce players to the rules actually turned out to be the most entertaining part of the evening. By the time the PC's arrived at my planned introductory EPT scenario, The Tomb Complex of Nereshánbo, the hour was approaching 11pm which only permited time for excursion through approximately one fifth of the Tomb Complex scenario.

Lesson for next time: Should a brief random set of encounters be proceeding most entertainingly, go with the flow rather than shoe-horning in the original pre-made scenario.

Nonetheless a pleasant visit with some brilliant (not kidding, who figures out the density of lime stone on the fly for an RPG game?) gamers. Thank you very much Chris, Basil, Mel, Ken(?), Saul, and "youngest player at the table." (damn, I should have wrote this closer in time to the event!)

DunDraCon XL!

DunDraCon, the west coast's longest running gaming convention, is celebrating it's 40th anniversary this approaching 2016 Presidents' Day weekend February 12th to 15th.

The convention started in 1976, but missed a year in 1981 as a result of the hotel venue changing ownership and no longer hosting conventions. (The DDC organizers did hold "DunDraClone" Labor Day weekend in 1981, which was my 2nd ever D&D convention)

Since 1992 DunDraCon has been held at the Marriott Hotel in San Ramon, California. Our gaming group has ran our games there at every convention except 2014, and I attended every one in San Ramon to different degrees except 2005.

Dooo It!

(A brief history of DunDraCon)

Witchcraft - Suicide - Violence

I happened to encounter a pamphlet, "Dungeons and Dragons - Witchcraft Suicide Violence," from a controversial time during the 1980s for The World's Most Popular Role Playing Game. My gaming group by 1980-83 had essentially moved on to DIY campaigns as a result of TSR's T2 delays and Judges Guild losing license to publish scenarios and settings using 1st edition rules (Judges Guild began using the "Universal System"which is in retrospect a pretty darn useful tool), so I actually missed the "seriousness" of all the controversy at the time.

The focal point of protest was from a group Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons (B.A.D.D.) founded by Pat Pulling, whose son had committed suicide in 1982. The controversial connection between The World's Most Popular Role Playing Game and teen suicide resulted in a 1985 segment on the news program 60 Minutes, but was thoroughly debunked in "The Pulling Report" by Michael Stackpole. Pulling essentially used news articles and police speculation to support her claims, not scientific research.

I had never heard it mentioned before, but suppose there is some significance to note that the medical doctor most commonly associated with Pulling, Thomas Radecki (who also appears in the 60 Minutes segment), had his medical license revoked in March 1992 by the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation for a five-year minimum as a result of his "engaging in immoral conduct of an unprofessional nature with a patient." In September 2012 Radecki voluntarily surrendered his Pennsylvania medical license while facing allegations of unprofessional conduct with patients that included claims Radecki traded drugs to patients in exchange for sex.

A detailed analysis of this pamphlet has been posted on The Escapist. My interest is how closely this pamphlet resembles a vintage gaming supplement or current DIY product. Ha, there is actually so much info cribbed in the pamphlet from game rules it would be interesting to see if a game could be run solely using "Witchcraft Suicide Violence."

(click photo for .pdf copy of pamphlet)

At long last... THE NECROMICAN!

Fantasy Art Enterprises was an undertaking by Mathias Genser, Paul Reiche III, and (just about the quintessential old-school artist) Erol Otus. I've written about their rare tome on monsters and items called Booty and the Beasts, which is pretty expensive to buy but if you hunt around in the usual file-sharing services (*caugh* scribd *caugh*) you "might" find a PDF copy of it.

The gents in 1979 also produced a companion book of magic user spells called The Necromican. I have seen copies on eBay running for around $400, but this book is rare! So I've had this little project where I was culling spells and art from different reviews and putting together a copy that just gave me some flavor of what this book is like. Anyhow, I was using my little assembled version as inspiration for some traps down on the 10th level of Underport and I just thought "well someone has to have posted a PDF of this thing somewhere..."

Lo and behold, after braving the murkier side of the interweb, and for purely historical reasons, I found it!!! Ssshhhhh.... and I'll provide a little taste of Erol Otus art and an interesting spell.
(P.S. here is a link to my "fabled" Necromican, formatted to print booklet-style in Adobe Reader)

 BENIGN BOOTS, (8th Level)   Duration: Until caster's body is safely home or until dispelled. No. Affected: Caster only. When cast, this spell will create enchanted boots around the mage's feet. These boots will act completely normal until the wearer dies. When this happens, the boots transport the corpse and themselves into the astral plane and then run at 3 times man's speed per turn to a predesignated place of safety. During this journey the corpse should be treated as though a preservation spell had been cast on it.

(Don't know why, but I find this spell strangely refreshing!)

FInally, Te'kumel at DunDraCon

"You of polite anonymity are invited to science-fantasy adventure 100,000 years in the future. On Te'kumel, demons and devils are real, magic possible, politics treacherous, slavery, sacrifice and assassination routine..."

Here at last, for DunDraCon (The West Coast's Premier Game Convention), is a game I intended to run at DunDraCon 38, but had to retake a certification exam (blast), and again at DDC 39, but 5e came out and I participated running a game celebrating that release, so here we are two years later. (heck I was even in my forties back then!)

The project is as I left it back in November 2013. The rules booklet for players is almost complete, I have two panels to finish for my judge's screen, and prepared scenarios for mercenary, mission, and (almost) Jakallan underworld. Ha, sorry, if the team wants to run arena battles at first level probably that's not going to end well for the combatants (if only because, gosh darnit, stupid arena combat may confuse my brain with DarkSun).

Anyhow, it was very nice of Mark Schynert to spotlight the game again. Empire of the Petal Throne really is a rarity in the annals of RPGs and should receive greater attention. 

Hailing from a decade when the lines between sci-fi and fantasy were blissfully more fluid, EPT garnered a reputation for the complexity of language and social conventions in the setting. Essentially, the conceit is a non-European flavored feudal realm, preferring instead metaphorical expression from India and the South and Central Americas. At it's heart, however, Empire of the Petal Throne is a game with incredible options for exploration and adventure as a direct result of the genre-bending, millennium-spanning background.

Unfortunately, character death remains a real possibility. Thus in whatever scenario pursued by the adventurers I won't dwell on the language and social "niceties" so much and rather keep a stable of NPC nearby for a player to sub-in once PC bids aeternum vale.

(click through link and scroll waaay to the bottom for DDC game listing)