#Gygax75

The Dungeon So Far

“Step 3 involves the decision aspect already mentioned and the actual work of sitting down and drawing dungeon levels. This is very difficult and time consuming.” (Gary Gygax, Europa, April 1975, 19)

To what “decision aspect” Gygax refers I know not, but I am intimately familiar with the “actual work” next mentioned. I sat down, for more than a hundred days, to draw dungeon rooms. Difficult? Maybe. Time consuming? Definitely. Enjoyable? I love it!

And then other obligations distracted me, and for more than a hundred days since, I have not been so diligent. Progress on Deep Dungeon Doom halted at the bottom of Fury’s Deep, level 4. I intend to get back to it, but we’ll see if I conquer that dragon. Meanwhile, I continue here with Gygax’s step 3: “The location of the dungeon where most adventures will take place.”

“In beginning a dungeon it is advisable to construct at least three levels at once, noting where stairs, trap doors (and chimneys) and slanting passages come out on lower levels, as well as the mouths of chutes and teleportation terminals” (The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures, 4).

Although the mapping pace is one room per day, I take this advice and seek opportunities to slip in ways to get to lower levels. In area 1 Cave Entrance (the first day), I placed a secret door (1a) and a deep pool (1b). Both, I imagined at the time would lead to another level.

Once drawn, a chute marked “to level unknown” hangs in the air until the cartographer advances to the logical terminus. Eventually, the secret door at the Cave Entrance opens into a network of secret tunnels (39) that riddle Lyceum Arcanum. More recently, the deep pool turns out to be the upper end of a watery passage through two areas that begins on level 4 (92 Force Field). An exciting part of #Dungeon23 is realizing that a stairway or chute from an upper level, placed weeks or months before, should come out in the room you are going to map tomorrow.

“Each level should have a central theme and some distinguishing feature, i.e. a level with large open areas swarming with goblins, one where the basic pattern of corridors seems to repeat endlessly, one inhabited by nothing but fire-dwelling or fire-using monsters, etc.”1 (Europa).

Here, Gygax lays out an important aspect of dungeon design long overlooked by my younger self. Early in my dungeon-drawing career, I got the idea that a dungeon was all about what treasures were guarded by what big mean monster in its lair. Certain, monsters and treasures are an integral part of a dungeon. But a compelling theme helps to capture the players’ imaginations, gets them into the dungeon, and holds their interest long after the monster is vanquished, its treasure removed, and the lair restocked. The difference between a collection of rooms and an interesting delve environment is theme.

Cross-section map showing surface locations, a tall tower in ruins, and subterranean strata.
Early Rendition of Dungeon Plan

I summarize Deep Dungeon Doom’s levels as completed, before outlining a few ideas for deeper levels.2 The ideas are mined from the dungeon’s time line (see “Using How to Host a Dungeon for #Dungeon23”). Plans, if executed, may change.

Completed Levels

Lyceum Arcanum [Level 1]

A magic school built during the reign of the Lore Kings and destroyed in the Time of Vengence, it is still haunted by magic-users, living and dead.

Ningalgaur [Levels 2, 3]

Within this area of natural caves, the Illmind first constructed a holding area where they stored brain vessels (any sentient beings) prior to harvest. Only a few wall carvings hint at the purpose. Later, demons converted the structure into charnel pits, carving horrid faces in wall reliefs. To block a deep chasm, dwarves built a fortified drinking hall on the edge of the “Abyss.” The hall is now defended by the Doommaker Cult.

Fury’s Deep [Level 4]

A sinkhole descends over 400 feet to a bottomless pit. Between the surface and infinite depths, a precipitous path winds by access points to several dungeon levels, including a faerie cascade through which is a one-way portal to other worlds and an ancient dwarf-built subterranean road.

Future Levels

Old Dwarf Road [Levels 4, 5, 6]

During their civilization, the dwarves connected their subterranean realm to neighboring dungeons. The sinkhole that makes Fury’s Deep opened access to a still-intact portion of the ancient highway. It runs through a former dwarf dormitory that was re-purposed as laboratories by the Lore Kings and now serves a wyvern as lair. The highway continues down a gentle slope to a bridge across a wide chasm. A river flows below. On the opposite side, a wizard’s tower overlooks the chasm.

Giant Stronghold [Level 7]

The subterranean river flows toward the Abyss (Ningalgaur, above). Along it, a treacherous path leads to an oversize castle built into the rock wall of a high cavern, where the river falls into the Abyss. This was the principle stronghold of the giant empire. A few giants still occupy the place, along with dragons, trolls, and wraiths among others. A clan of ogre magi pretends to sovereignty.

“Garden of Eden” [Level 8]

To increase the quality of the harvest, the Illmind created favorable living conditions for the brain carriers captured on the surface. A nearby magma chamber provides heat. A central orb radiates magical light and darkness in a daily cycle. Fresh water flows through canals. The area became—and yet remains—a lush subterranean forest. Heaven in earth? More like hell, because its inhabitants were aware of their fate.

Sealed Empire [Level 9]

Thanks to a platinum vein, adamantine deposits, and their metalsmithing craftsmanship, the dwarves built an empire wealthy beyond imagination. But they got too curious about the workings of the mysterious device in a deeper level. When the gate opened, a demon horde poured through it. Many dwarves were slaughtered in a great carnage. Survivors fled to the imperial throne room and sealed themselves inside. Though they could not enter, the demons did not retreat for many long years. The location of the sealed door is now lost. Should someone find it and break the seal, an empire’s riches await.

Arena Arcane [Level 10]

The Cyclopes, primordial creatures enslaved by the Illmind, quarried granite from this region. From the space, deep elves later carved an arena. During the giant empire, it served as a slum, before the Lore Kings restored the arena.

Deep Elf City Ruins [Level 11]

The pits and sanctums of an ancient deep elf city are in ruins. The once-magnificent opera house is more or less intact. While they have not lived here in millennia, deep elves frequent the place, seeking lost treasures and forgotten lore.

Infernal Sanctum and Demon Gate [Level 12]

The Illmind constructed the gate to the demons’ home plane. Before departing, they opened the gate to call forth the horde that would destroy any of their remaining works. The dearth of remains from the Illmind civilization testifies to the project’s success. The adjacent sanctum is a cyclopean complex wherein the demons held their infernal revelries.

Deeper

“Before the rules for D&D were published ‘Old Greyhawk Castle’ was 13 levels deep” (Europa).

Ours is to be twelve levels by years end. From the start, I imagined Deep Dungeon Doom to comprise 24 levels at least: 12 beneath the surface, 12 more rising up through the tall tower, called a “donjon,” of the Greater Ones. There are, however, ideas and space for many more levels.

Godthrone [Level 13]

The Illmind built a thing atop the donjon. No one is certain of its purpose. It resembles nothing more than an enormous chair. Hence, it’s common name: Godthrone. The location has been used on and off throughout the millennia as a place of worship.

1 Gygax’s dungeon-level theme examples may seem uninspired to modern adventurers and dungeon makers. In his defense to posterity, the co-creator points out: “The first level was a simple maze of rooms and corridors, for none of the participants had ever played such a game before.” I for one would trade my jade spectacles for a seat at that table.

2 Here, at the crossroads of #Dungeon23 and #Gygax75, I am neglecting McCoy’s precept “Don’t make a grand plan” (“#Dungeon23,” Win Conditions). Rather, the instigator advises: “Just sit down each day and focus on writing a good dungeon room.” Time to get back in the dungeon…

In Deep Dungeon Doom, I follow #Gygax75 and #Dungeon23 to create a D&D dungeon campaign in a few minutes per day for one year. I intend to post irregular updates here. To get the daily rooms, follow me on Mastodon.

Domesday and Environs

In Deep Dungeon Doom, I follow #Gygax75 and #Dungeon23 to create a D&D dungeon campaign in a few minutes per day for one year. I post irregular updates here. To get the daily rooms, follow me on Mastodon and Twitter.

“Step 2 requires sitting down with a large piece of hex ruled paper and drawing a large scale map. A map with a scale of 1 hex = 1 mile … will allow you to use your imagination to devise some interesting terrain and places, and it will be about right for player operations such as exploring, camping, adventuring, and eventually building their strongholds” (Gary Gygax, Europa, April 1975, 18).

Making the Wilderness Map

Scale

We might assume a “large piece of hex ruled paper” is tabloid (A3) size, although I have no idea where one would acquire hex paper in the mid ’70s, especially tabloid size.1 Even at that size, one mile per hex makes what seems to my eyes a too-small area for building strongholds. I suppose I’m used to establishing a barony and having extensive space to explore.

When perusing Dave Arneson’s First Fantasy Campaign (Judges Guild) map and text, though, I imagine a more intimate setting for several PCs and their interactions, the 1977 map’s scale notwithstanding.

Furthermore, with Deep Dungeon Doom’s focus on the dungeon, a small wilderness area feels right, and Ray Otus points out that we’ll have “time to draw a larger scale map in week 5” (The Gygax 75 Challenge, 11).

The reMarkable gives me a hex grid that comes out to ½" hexes on a letter-size page.2 One hex per mile—and limiting the map size to 8" × 10", so as to fit on either US letter-size or European A4 paper—gives us an area of 16 × 20 miles or 320 square miles. Intimate.

Settlements

Following Otus, I place a large town on the coast and a couple villages support-distance away. I like to work in as many terrain types as is logical for a map’s aesthetic appeal and to exercise the wilderness encounter tables, which are differentiated by terrain.

Domesday and Environs.

Mysterious Locations

I choose a remote, vacant area between highlands for a mysterious location. I don’t know why the vale is forgotten or why it might be important to the campaign, but I’m guessing it’s got something to do with the Doommaker herself.

Also, inspired by the real-world map source, the central hills connecting the north and south mountain ranges also mark a geographical divide between the eastern highlands and the western lowlands. A long, straight, sloping tunnel runs between the two. Parallel to it, a series of level tunnels joined by sheer precipices runs the same length. Both structures are huge and blocked by rubble, debris, and monsters. A surface-level track also traverses the hills.

Cyclopean Tunnels

The parallel tunnels are a remnant of the Greater Ones. The sloping tunnel was used for ground transport. The other, after the builders diverted the river, was a series of locks for watercraft. The elves of the eastern woods re-diverted the river some longtime ago.

Dungeon and Base Town

The dungeon, which I name after its most prominent feature, is located off-center, and I place the base town—a stronghold—nearby. I also add regions inhabited by PC races, plus monstrous races for tension.

So early in the campaign—the PC party is still practically at the dungeon entrance, I don’t expect the neophyte adventurers to explore the wilderness soon. I highlight only geographical features on the map, marking each with a single large icon, and restrain myself from adding further detail—apart from an encounter table.

Wilderness Encounter Table

I divide the wilderness map into quadrants, marked by the central hills. Entries separated by a pipe “|” should be read west|east; those by a slash “/” north/south. For example, a 3 result yields halflings when traveling in the west or elves while exploring east of the central hills.

2d6Result
2Magic-User (Men*) (L or N)
3Halflings|Elves
4Knights**
5Orcs/Dwarves
6Men*|Humanoid*
7Roll on Wilderness Encounter Table*
8Bandits
9Lizard Men|Goblins
10Ogres
11Trolls/Hill Giants
12Magic-User (Men*) (C)
* See Wilderness Encounter Table (X57-8).
** Knights? I don’t know yet.

Daily #Dungeon23 Rooms on Mastodon and Twitter

I post the dungeon map, updated with the day’s room and a brief description, every day on Mastodon and Twitter.

1 Avalon Hill of course. In “Hexmaps and Random Encounters Before D&D,” Tom Van Winkle notes that the makers of Outdoor Survival (1972) sold 22" x 28" hex maps for amateur game designers (Tom Van Winkle’s Return to Gaming, September 2, 2023). In an email exchange, Tom points me to a notice in the July 1964 issue (Vol. 1, No. 2) of the Avalon Hill General. Under the heading “Design Your Own Games” on page 1, AH offers the large hex maps in sheets for $1.00 each.

2 Only interesting for reMarkable users: To achieve half-inch hexes, I use the reMarkable template medium hex grid, portrait orientation, exported to PNG, and printed at 176 ppi. Use the highlighter in different colors and export grayscale to get the varying shades. I have to turn the tablet landscape, because reMarkable got the hex orientation wrong. The engineers maybe never played Outdoor Survival, whose map board has the horizontal lines at top and bottom. This is, therefore, the “correct” orientation.

Added footnote 1. [19:04 8 September 2023 GMT]

Edited footnote 1 to include the source. [5:45 11 September 2023 GMT]

Using How to Host a Dungeon for #Dungeon23

“Not playing through it, I use the rules booklet as a reference work. Tony Dowler’s dungeon-building game provides primordial nexuses, ancient civilizations, and master villains to fill out the dungeon’s space and history should need arise.”

—on How to Host a Dungeon, Inspiration, “Campaign Hook: ‘To All Who Enterin—DOOM’”

As a prelude to some future rendition of Deep Dungeon Doom, I’ll play through an extravagant run of How to Host a Dungeon to establish a robust and detailed history for the 24-level adventure locale. By extravagant, I mean: instead of eight, the dungeon spans 24 strata; not one but a few nexus points are planted within; instead of one each, I’ll run several ages of civilization, monsters, and villainy. Even greater in scope than Wyrm Dawn, it’s a dream project for another day.

Book cover, How to Host a Dungeon: The Solo Game of Dungeon Creation, by Tony Dowler
How to Host a Dungeon: The Solo Game of Dungeon Creation, 2nd Edition, Tony Dowler, Planet Thirteen, 2019.

Meanwhile, for this outing, we adhere to #Gygax75 and #Dungeon23’s prime directive: “Don’t overthink it!” How to Host a Dungeon is a reference work. I use elements from the game’s various “ages” as focal points. So, “rooms” that might be built during civilization and villainous periods become sections of the dungeon, principle characters become major historical figures, and a brief outline of history based on the successive ages becomes the framework for hanging past events on a time line.

“The (unobserved) past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities.”

—Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinow, The Grand Design

Working Framework for Historical Events in Deep Dungeon Doom

The following table outlines the major historical periods in the dungeon. This is how I see the time line now. Other—perhaps many other—civilizations, monster ages, and villainous periods, certain to have taken place, may be inserted as the campaign progresses. A thing is malleable until it is observed, that is, used in play.

Time Line—Deep Dungeon Doom

AgesPrimordial NexusesCivilizationsVillains
Prehistory
Void
Primordial Monsters
Alien (Illmind)
Cyclopean Complex
Godthrone
Gateway (Abyss)
Demon
Devil (empire)
Bronze Age
Drow
Iron Age
Dwarven
Giant (empire)
Dark Age
Medieval Age
Magician (Lore Kings)
Fearthoht (empire)
[Present]?

This historical framework is mostly for the DM, so to maintain some coherence as I build out dungeon areas. The process also informs the present situation in the dungeon. Player characters might learn some of the dungeon’s history as they explore it, but they are not obliged to. Players themselves may not much care.

Illmind

The Illmind is a sinister collective of hyperintelligent, extra-dimensional beings. It is responsible for the Rending—the cosmic cataclysm that is the campaign world’s origin. (See Song of the World Dragon.) After the cataclysm, the Illmind established a colony at this location. The colony, whose objective is not yet known to me, grew into the dungeon’s first civilization.

The Illmind civilization ends with the construction of the Godthrone (Megastructure) and the Gateway (Uplift Facility). The latter gates in demons to destroy alien works. The former is now called “Godthrone,” but its true purpose is unknown.

Lyceum Arcanum

To get straight into the thick of things, I want to start the campaign with something about the wizards. Looking at the magician civilization’s constructions, I am attracted to “Lyceum Arcanum.” According to How to Host a Dungeon1, this large structure is built at a nexus point either above or below ground (16). I place it on the surface, knowing that, at civilization’s end, it is buried under a new surface level. For the required nexus, I choose Ley Lines, which is one attraction for the immigrant magicians and later generations.

Lore Kings

As it may be of immediate usefulness, we sketch the history of the magician civilization. It is important to note that, when referring here to ages and civilizations and empires, we speak of the local dungeon and its environs. Other ages, civilizations, and empires take place in the greater world, in parallel and at greater scale.

During the dark age that followed the fall of the Giant Empire, mages were drawn to the donjon, a towering remnant of the Greater Ones from before the Rending. As they grew in power, the mages formed a civilization that brought the dark age to an end.

The magician civilization was ruled by a succession of monarchs, who sought arcane lore lost in the Rending. The Lore Kings discovered much but lost it again in their own apocalypse, which sages now call the Time of Vengeance.

Sometime later, Fearthoht Doommaker rose to dominate the dungeon in an age of villainy that ended with her imprisonment. Now, the dungeon has fallen into another age of monsters, in which the Doommaker Cult attempts to free Fearthoht and promote her to godhood.

Meanwhile, other monster groups vie for power—either through amassing wealth or increasing their numbers—in order to become the dungeon’s next master villain. To determine which monsters form what factions would be overthinking it. Details spill from play.

1 Dowler credits Philip LaRose for the Magician Civilization.

Campaign Hook: “To All Who Enter Herein—DOOM”

In Deep Dungeon Doom, I follow #Gygax75 and #Dungeon23 to create a D&D dungeon campaign in a few minutes per day for one year. I intend to post irregular updates here. To get the daily rooms, follow me on Mastodon and Twitter.

Gary Gygax, in the Europa article (April 1975), notes mythology, folklore, and fantasy and swords & sorcery literature as typical sources of inspiration.

“Settings based upon the[se] limits (if one can speak of fantasy limits) can be very interesting in themselves, providing the scope of the setting will allow the players relative free-reign to their imaginations” (18).

In addition to listing our inspirational sources, Ray Otus suggests we write a few concise bullet points in describing the campaign setting to arouse the players’ excitement (The Gygax 75 Challenge, 7). My general inspiration, as well as two of five specific sources, comes rather more from D&D itself. The dragon eats its tail.

Mimicking a source, I preface the lot with a brief background. And, because Winninger’s Dungeoncraft is in my DNA, I make up a secret, which I hide behind a spoiler tag. Those who wish to explore the dungeon in play should not peek.

Background

“…the dungeons beneath the ‘huge ruined pile, a vast castle built by generations of mad wizards and insane geniuses.’”

—Gygax and Arneson, Men & Magic (D&D Vol. 1, 5)

The last of these mad wizards desired godhood. In a laboratory on the dungeon’s lowest level, Daerdread Fearthoht constructed a device that would channel divine energy. She had only to capture a god. A religious order tricked the wizard, trapping her in the device, thus preventing the apotheosis and rendering the wizard impotent. But not before Fearthoht, now called Doommaker, threw a powerful curse on the dungeon: “To all who enter herein—DOOM!”

Doommaker

Fearthoht feigns impotence. Though trapped in Godthrone, she communes with a sect of evil mage-priests devoted to the would-be deity. The mage-priests have reversed the energy flow between trap and device. Their continuous prayers restore the wizard’s power.

Description

  • DONJON LANDS setting: The campaign takes place in a far-future Earth: “a world with magic, monsters, and a ring around it, with stars that aren’t fixed but dance and swirl.” See also its creation myth Song of the World Dragon.
  • Medieval Greek and Roman culture: An empire recently encompassed the known world. Following a collapse of imperial power in the west, an overlord retains power over eastern realms.
  • Dungeon campaign: Game play focuses on dungeon exploration with occasional wilderness forays.
  • Wizard opposition: The principal villains are Fearthoht Doommaker and an array of powerful wizards and their many and diverse minions.
  • Fun-house dungeon: Encounters and adventures are intended to be fun without so much attention to fantastic realism.
  • Deadly: The mood is doom.

fun house noun
: a building in an amusement park that contains various devices designed to startle or amuse

—Webster’s

Deep Dungeon Doom, a Dungeons & Dragons campaign “…the participants can then be allowed to make their first descent into the dungeons beneath the ‘huge ruined pile, a vast castle built by generations of mad wizards and insane geniuses.’” —Gygax and Arneson, Men & Magic (D&D Vol. 1, 5) Campaign hook: dungeon environment, wizard opposition. “To All Who Enter Herein—DOOM”

Inspiration

  • Tegel Manor: Commonly considered the original fun-house dungeon, the 1977 Judges Guild module’s terse descriptions also lend well to #Dungeon23’s short-handed stocking method.1
  • Magic-users of Jack Vance and Clark Ashton Smith: Various works of these two authors portray the sort of “mad wizards and insane geniuses” I’m looking for.
  • How to Host a Dungeon: Not playing through it, I use the rules booklet as a reference work. Tony Dowler’s dungeon-building game provides primordial nexuses, ancient civilizations, and master villains to fill out the dungeon’s space and history should need arise. I may elaborate on this point later.
  • World history: The campaign is set in a place and time similar to the 11th-century Byzantine Empire.
  • Greek and Roman mythologies: Gods and religion are drawn from an amalgam of these two real-world mythologies.

My notebook is a reMarkable tablet.

1 “365 rooms written like ‘3 orcs, 25 gold pieces’ is better than 5 rooms written like ‘In this beautiful hand carved obsidian room sit 3 orcs arguing over a dice game. 25gp sit on the table, each of them…’ See what I’m getting at?”—Sean McCoy, “#Dungeon23”

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Read more about the article #Gygax75 and #Dungeon23: Create a D&D Dungeon Campaign in a Few Minutes a Day Without Too Much Thinking

#Gygax75 and #Dungeon23: Create a D&D Dungeon Campaign in a Few Minutes a Day Without Too Much Thinking

Setting Up a Campaign in Original D&D

In the original 1974 DUNGEONS & DRAGONS rules booklets, Gygax and Arneson give us scant guidance on designing the surface and underworld environments in which a campaign will take place, and hardly anything at all about setting up “the campaign for which these rules are designed” (Men & Magic, 3).

The first of three thin volumes, under Preparation for the Campaign, advises:

“The referee bears the entire burden here, but if care and thought are used, the reward will more than repay him. First, the referee must draw out a minimum of half a dozen maps of the levels of his ‘underworld,’ people them with monsters of various horrid aspect, distribute treasures accordingly, and note the location of the latter two on keys, each corresponding to the appropriate level” (Men & Magic, 5).

This summary is followed by the assurance: “This operation will be more fully described in the third volume of these rules” (5).

The third volume provides some degree of satisfaction in the details. The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures opens with an illustration, showing a “Sample Cross Section of Levels,” and a half-page of text, which again points out the referee’s burden of time, the necessity to draw maps of a few dungeon levels, that eventually the dungeon should have a dozen or more levels with new levels under construction, and that, indeed, the depth and breadth of a dungeon is limited only by the world’s capacity to manufacture graph paper (3-4).

The book then provides a sample dungeon map accompanied by several examples of tricks and traps and advice on placing monsters and treasures (4-8).

We will see shortly that the DM’s burden of time is a recurring concern for Gary Gygax. Much like entering the dungeon, we are warned against it, but we do it anyway—That’s where the fun is.

Later, in The Wilderness section, the referee gets an outline of maps necessary to run surface-level adventures:

“First, he must have a ground level map of his dungeons, a map of the terrain immediately surrounding this, and finally a map of the town or village closest to the dungeons (where adventurers will be most likely to base themselves)” (14).

Following brief examples of the now-iconic Blackmoor and Greyhawk base towns and a suggestion to use the Outdoor Survival map board for “off-hand” or “general” adventures, the rules then get into conducting play in areas previously established. In all that, though, the D&D referee has little in the way of an overview of how to set up the campaign.

Europa

To the April 1975 issue of Walter Luc Haas’s Europa zine, Gary Gygax contributed an article “HOW TO SET UP YOUR DUNGEONS & DRAGONS CAMPAIGN—AND BE STUCK REFEREEING IT SEVEN DAYS PER WEEK UNTIL THE WEE HOURS OF THE MORNING!”1 (18-20) In it, the co-creator breaks the daunting task into five steps. I paraphrase the headings:

  1. Campaign Hook
  2. Environs
  3. Dungeon
  4. Base Town
  5. Greater World

While still cursory, the article’s three letter-sized pages give the referee a more structured process to set up a campaign.

#Gygax75

A blogger named Charlie (who goes by @Thatakinsboy on Twitter), coming upon Gygax’s Europa article in 2019, was inspired to follow the guidelines to set up a campaign. In a September 10 article on his blog Dragons Never Forget, Charlie introduces the Gygax ’75 Challenge and invites us to play along. He gives us a series of articles in which he walks the reader through the five steps over the next couple months, as he creates the Valley of the Three Forks, a post-apocalyptic fantasy campaign setting inspired by sci-fi and fantasy literature.

Meanwhile, in October, fellow blogger Ray Otus of the Viridian Scroll saw Charlie’s introduction and caught the bug to make a campaign using Gygax’s brief guidelines. He reviews the article in “The Gygax 75 Challenge.” Then he went further: Otus wrote a 40-page book, outlining Gygax’s steps in “achievable, bite-sized prompts and goals for a week-by-week program.” The Gygax 75 Challenge booklet (PDF) walks a DM through the five-step process in as many weeks.

After laying out the purpose of the book in the Introduction, Otus reminds us of the weekly deadline and addresses Gygax’s recurring concern:

“You are allowed one week, (no more, no less!) for each step. That may sound a bit overwhelming, but don’t overthink it!” (1)

Some time afterward, the hashtag #Gygax75 began appearing on social media, as twenty-first-century old-school D&D fans became likewise inspired.

Questing Beast Ben Milton touts Ray Otus’s Gygax 75 Challenge as “one of the best resources you can use [to build your own D&D campaign],” saying, “It’s a great way to give yourself some structure and to shepherd you through until the end” (“The ‘Gygax 75’ technique for building DnD campaigns,” 2:29-3:04).

#Dungeon23

More recently, Sean McCoy started work on “a cool little project.” McCoy tweeted:

“Megadungeon for 2023. 12 levels. 365 rooms. One room a day. Keep it all in a journal” (Twitter, December 5, 2022).

McCoy elaborates on the project in a December 6 post, “#Dungeon23,” on his Win Conditions Substack. “I love dungeons and megadungeon play,” he writes, “but writing a megadungeon is difficult!”

Journal

In the post, McCoy mentions using a stand-alone notebook or journal. He uses a Hobonichi Techo Weeks planner, whose layouts have seven days on one side, for each room of the week, and a graph-ruled page on the other, for the week’s map section.

Random Generators

For days when an idea is lacking, McCoy suggests, “Generators are your friend.” He points us to Courtney Campbell’s Tricks, Empty Rooms, & Basic Trap Design and “a billion d100 lists on Elfmaids & Octopi.”

Flying Dungeon Stocking Tables

Here, I add my own Flying Dungeon Stocking Tables, random content generation tables with probabilities based on guidelines in Holmes Bluebook D&D, Monster & Treasure Assortments, and Dungeon Geomorphs. Available in PDF for print and phone.

DM’s Burden of Time

McCoy also addresses the recurring concern, proposing “one room a day” to reduce the otherwise daunting project into small tasks, achievable in a few minutes.

“Once you realize you can create a dungeon of this magnitude, your whole world opens up with what you can do.”—Sean McCoy, “#Dungeon23,” Win Conditions

A game designer with several RPG product credits to his name, including the wildly successful Mothership RPG, McCoy further encourages the dungeon-maker. In the same words as Ray Otus, he admonishes, “Don’t overthink it.” He continues: “Don’t make a grand plan, just sit down each day and focus on writing a good dungeon room.”

Later, he adds further advice: “The goal is the finish line. Just get to the finish line,” and “Once you realize you can create a dungeon of this magnitude, your whole world opens up with what you can do.”

Inspiration Inspires

There are also hashtags now for #City23, #Hex23, and #Facility23. Maybe you have another idea…?

Now It’s Our Turn

Ray Otus closes his Introduction to The Gygax ’75 Challenge with more good advice: “Just get started.”

Starting now and throughout 2023, I am combining #Gygax75 and #Dungeon23 into a project named for the resulting old-school D&D campaign: Deep Dungeon Doom.

1 Gygax’s is a title upon which no pundit can resist comment. Mine is reserved for this footnote.

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