D&D General Anyone else heard of this dungeon 23 thing?

[Charlaquin]

Apparently this “Dungeon 23 challenge” has been getting some attention on social media. I only just heard about it because a YouTube video about it popped up in my recommended feed. The idea is to add one room to a dungeon every day in 2023. By the end of the year, you’ll have a 365-room megadungeon. Additionally, you can have each month be a level for a total of twelve 28-ish-room levels, and each week be a themed section for a total of 48 themes. Seems like convenient timing with revised D&D rules set to come out in 2024. I think I’m gonna go for it. Anyone else giving it a go? If so, it might be cool to have a thread to discuss our progress together. Also, if a thread like this already exists elsewhere, I’d appreciate being pointed in its direction.

 

[Cadence]

Had not heard of that. If you start a thread, I'm in.

 

[Charlaquin]

Had not heard of that. If you start a thread, I'm in.

Awesome! I have some ideas kicking around, but I’ll save them for Sunday. Maybe try to post about my progress each day.

 

[darjr]

Lots of resources and some examples of folks that have started here.

D&D General - #Dungeon23

There is a new design challenge, kind of like nanowrimo, called #dungeon23. Design a megadungeon for 2023, one room a day. I think this blog post and twitter post was the initial start of it. https://seanmccoy.substack.com/p/dungeon23 Here are some recommendations from the blog post. Don’t...

www.enworld.org

 

[Faolyn]

I'm considering doing it, although I have no idea how long I'll keep it up.

 

[Charlaquin]

Lots of resources and some examples of folks that have started here.

D&D General - #Dungeon23

There is a new design challenge, kind of like nanowrimo, called #dungeon23. Design a megadungeon for 2023, one room a day. I think this blog post and twitter post was the initial start of it. https://seanmccoy.substack.com/p/dungeon23 Here are some recommendations from the blog post. Don’t...

www.enworld.org

Thanks very much! Since that thread already exists, I think it’s probably best to take my thoughts there.

 

[Charlaquin]

I'm considering doing it, although I have no idea how long I'll keep it up.

I spent about a day hesitating after I heard about it. But in the end, I figured “what’s one room a day?” It’ll probably take like 15 minutes tops to sketch out a geometric shape with one or more connections to other shapes on the page, roll a couple dice to generate something to put in it, and make some brief notes contextualizing the results. It’ll only be a huge undertaking if I make it one.

 

[John R Davis]

In a notebook as well ( so that's 365 pictures!).

 

[Charlaquin]

In a notebook as well ( so that's 365 pictures!).

Yeah, though a lot of folks are doing it digitally and I don’t blame them. I’m going with the notebook though, for sure.

 

[jgsugden]

I spent about a day hesitating after I heard about it. But in the end, I figured “what’s one room a day?” It’ll probably take like 15 minutes tops to sketch out a geometric shape with one or more connections to other shapes on the page, roll a couple dice to generate something to put in it, and make some brief notes contextualizing the results. It’ll only be a huge undertaking if I make it one.

If that is all you're going to do, you can find online generators, right?

I'm using this opportunity to update my first megadungeon to modern rules via an entire rebuild. I'm not going to hold myself to a room every day (because I have a life), but I will hold myself to 28 to 31 per month. Before it begins (tomorrow) I am respecking the plot, major players, and storylines. I will revise as I go, but I already know that:

1.) The 'dungeon' is an island with a village, fort, mansion and cavern complex under it - and mirror versions in the Shadowfell (a Ravenloft domain), Feywild (the abode of a Trickster Archfey), and the Ethereal Plane. It will go into the Underdark, as well as connect to additional planes. (Elemental, Hells, Astral).

2.) There are villains aplenty. There are short term low level groups with a bad guy leader, medium level powers that will stand in the way of the PCs, and high level threats that lurk in the shadows. I know what each wants, what each knows, and where they'll be located, roughly.

3.) Because it is 4 overlapping mirrored planes I will only need about 120 layouts - but many of them will be used 2, 3 or 4 times with modifications.

 

[Charlaquin]

If that is all you're going to do, you can find online generators, right?

I mean I guess, but an online generator is just soulless RNG. If I’m doing it myself, there will be a human brain fitting the results together in a conscious manner, ignoring the random results when they harm the overall design, and occasionally hand-crafting things entirely. And it’s not like I’m going to randomly generate the rooms themselves, just their contents.

I'm using this opportunity to update my first megadungeon to modern rules via an entire rebuild. I'm not going to hold myself to a room every day (because I have a life), but I will hold myself to 28 to 31 per month. Before it begins (tomorrow) I am respecking the plot, major players, and storylines. I will revise as I go, but I already know that:

1.) The 'dungeon' is an island with a village, fort, mansion and cavern complex under it - and mirror versions in the Shadowfell (a Ravenloft domain), Feywild (the abode of a Trickster Archfey), and the Ethereal Plane. It will go into the Underdark, as well as connect to additional planes. (Elemental, Hells, Astral).

2.) There are villains aplenty. There are short term low level groups with a bad guy leader, medium level powers that will stand in the way of the PCs, and high level threats that lurk in the shadows. I know what each wants, what each knows, and where they'll be located, roughly.

3.) Because it is 4 overlapping mirrored planes I will only need about 120 layouts - but many of them will be used 2, 3 or 4 times with modifications.

That sounds awesome! Good luck with it!

 

[jgsugden]

I mean I guess, but an online generator is just soulless RNG. If I’m doing it myself, there will be a human brain fitting the results together in a conscious manner, ignoring the random results when they harm the overall design, and occasionally hand-crafting things entirely. And it’s not like I’m going to randomly generate the rooms themselves, just their contents.

Is that less work than just creating? If you put in the effort in advance and have a plan, then writing an average of a room a day is pretty easy stuff, right? On the other hand, taking random offerings and then figuring out how to retrofit/regenerate them to fit into elements that were fairly randomly assembled earlier and that you don't have a creative tie to seems much harder.

It sort of feels like the difference between assembling a 3 foot by 3 foot 1500 piece showing thousands of people in a marathon and drawing a 3 foot by 3 foot picture showing a scene from your favorite book.

 

[Charlaquin]

Is that less work than just creating?

Overall, probably about the same amount of work. But the important thing is that it’s work that can easily be done at a steady pace.

If you put in the effort in advance and have a plan, then writing an average of a room a day is pretty easy stuff, right?

I mean, I’ll be doing some advance work either way, and I’ll be doing an average of one room a day either way. The important thing is finding a workflow that’s going to be easy to maintain over a whole year.

On the other hand, taking random offerings and then figuring out how to retrofit/regenerate them to fit into elements that were fairly randomly assembled earlier and that you don't have a creative tie to seems much harder.

I disagree. Random generation is a great seed from which inspiration can bloom. Starting from a blank slate is a lot more overwhelming.

It sort of feels like the difference between assembling a 3 foot by 3 foot 1500 piece showing thousands of people in a marathon and drawing a 3 foot by 3 foot picture showing a scene from your favorite book.

I don’t follow the analogy. Regardless, by all means do whatever works for you. I know if I overplan in the early stages I’m gonna run out of steam before the end of the year.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I predict an uptick in megadungeon kickstarters launching one year from today.

 

[Umbran]

There are already two other threads on this on the first page of the forums.

D&D General - #Dungeon23

There is a new design challenge, kind of like nanowrimo, called #dungeon23. Design a megadungeon for 2023, one room a day. I think this blog post and twitter post was the initial start of it. https://seanmccoy.substack.com/p/dungeon23 Here are some recommendations from the blog post. Don’t...

www.enworld.org

Level Up (A5E) - Dungeon 23

#Dungeon23 So I'm planning to participate in this challenge. I'll be using the Dungeon Delver's Guide random generation tables so I thought I'd post here as I progress. My history with blog posting is poor so this will be a challenge to post every day, but I will try. Anyway, I'll post here and...

www.enworld.org

So a third is a bit much. I'm going to close this one, and direct people to those others.