D&D (2024) DMG 2024: Is The Sandbox Campaign Dead?

raises hand

I do all those things. The first draft of my homebrew setting map was made on graph paper during a slow period at work. I used tables to procedurally generate a wrecked post-apocalyptic neighborhood for my players to explore in a mid-sized modern city a couple months ago, and a different set of tables to determine the NPCs trapped in a flooded building with them.
So today, if you needed to design a dungeon for next week's session, you would bust out your graph paper and ruler and randomly determine every hallway and room using Ye Old Random Tables rather than pop onto Google image search and search "D&D dungeon" and find a suitable map?

You are addicted to doing too much prep work!

Hey, if it works for you, go for it. But WotC even puts sample maps in the back of the book because they know most people will take a map they find interesting and repurpose it.
 

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I am not sure I buy this, given how well received games like Shadowdark are -- which is probably 60% random tables.
Well received in the niche playstyle of retro gaming. People buying it are looking for that 60% random table experience. It's akin to saying vinyl is the most popular way to listen to music because of how many records vs CDs are sold at Target. It looks impressive until you realize most people stream music on their phones rather than buy physical media. Then the sales show what a niche market vinyl is.
 

So today, if you needed to design a dungeon for next week's session, you would bust out your graph paper and ruler and randomly determine every hallway and room using Ye Old Random Tables rather than pop onto Google image search and search "D&D dungeon" and find a suitable map?

You are addicted to doing too much prep work!

Hey, if it works for you, go for it. But WotC even puts sample maps in the back of the book because they know most people will take a map they find interesting and repurpose it.
I use a variety of resources, depending on what works best for the specific task and what the circumstances are at the time. And whether or not I do too much prep work depends on what my goals are. The only way to make a dungeon exactly how you want it is to make it yourself, for example. And besides, you asked who uses graph paper.
 

Well received in the niche playstyle of retro gaming. People buying it are looking for that 60% random table experience. It's akin to saying vinyl is the most popular way to listen to music because of how many records vs CDs are sold at Target. It looks impressive until you realize most people stream music on their phones rather than buy physical media. Then the sales show what a niche market vinyl is.
To be honest, it's hard not to see statements like this as a value judgement based on popularity and how much money one game makes as opposed to another.
 


To be honest, it's hard not to see statements like this as a value judgement based on popularity and how much money one game makes as opposed to another.
Not at all. I am pointing out that "Shadowdark is popular because its 60% tables" isn't indicative of anything. Vinyl is a superior listening experience to streaming (in terms of audio fidelity and system used to play it) but its audio superiority is competing with the ease of online tools to do the same thing. Shadowdark is popular with the people who want tables and are seeking those out, it is not indication that using tables itself is more popular than using online tools to do the same thing.
 


To go further, how many people in the Year of Our Lord 2025 are using graph paper [...] to sketch a dungeon?
:: raises hand ::

If I'm the only one who's ever gonna see it, I sketch it out on graph paper - far FAR quicker and easier than using a computer.

If I intend it for potential publication (as if; but one can dream, right?) then after doing it on graph paper I'll put it in the computer and spend the often-stupid amount of time it takes to clean it up and make it look presentable.
 

So today, if you needed to design a dungeon for next week's session, you would bust out your graph paper and ruler and randomly determine every hallway and room using Ye Old Random Tables rather than pop onto Google image search and search "D&D dungeon" and find a suitable map?
Yes, except I wouldn't randomly determine the rooms and hallways; there'd be a bit more design behind it than that.

That, and if I found something on Google I'd then have to print it out in order to make any use of it (my computer is in a different room than my gaming area), and I'm a serious cheapass when it comes to using printer ink. :)
 

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