d23 Retrospective

I haven't been talking about it much, but I've been steadily working on my d23 project since December. (I'm using a hobonichi weeks planner and it starts in December '22, so there's a level 0 in my dungeon.) Up until this month I've mostly kept on track writing one room a day and if I fell behind it was only for a day or two and easy to catch up. Now I think I'm going to change my approach.

At the end of June I took a short break to look back on what I'd done and consider what to do going forward because I was starting to flag.

I work best when I can completely focus on a project, get it done, then move on to the next thing that inspires me. A year-long ongoing project like d23 is the exact opposite of that and after six months it was wearing on me. Having something unfinished for that long got stressful (mildly, but still noticeable) and worse, it split my focus and distracted me from other projects.

I also discovered, after writing every day for six months, that writing every day is not ideal for me. It's good practice for some folks, but I need stretches of time where I don't write and let ideas percolate. I knew that before, but hadn't realized how much I needed that fermentation time.

So with that in mind I've decided to stop slowly grinding away at d23. The one room a day schedule isn't working for me, so I'm not going to stick to it. I'm just going to finish the whole thing now. This isn't a marathon anymore, it's a sprint and I think it'll be fun as hell.

I've actually been having fun doing d23. Despite my brain's complaining it's been a blast and I'm genuinely proud of everything I've made so far. It's been excellent practice for drawing maps and creating concrete-feeling physical spaces, both things I've historically struggled with, and it's made me seriously think about how a dungeon goes together. I know how to organize rooms, add stairs/exits/loops, and why Jaquaysing is important. Even so, actually doing the work and making decisions about where things go on the map made me examine those internalized concepts and refine them. I'm definitely better at this now than I was back in December. I also probably wouldn't have started a project this size at all if not for d23.

It's also been nice having a project that's just for me. I started this with no intention of publishing it. d23 is for me. My dungeon for my table to be run by me. I might share it as an ashcan eventually, but that'd be it.

So the plan going forward: Write the last five levels.

My method from the beginning was to get a concept of what I wanted the level to be, draw the whole map, and make an outline of all the rooms at the start of the month. Then I'd write the rooms in detail each day and make a d30 encounter list (or two/three) at the end of the month once I was sure what lived there. It's a solid system so the only thing that's going to change is the speed I work.

I've already got the ideas for what I want to do on the remaining levels laid out, so now I just need to map and write.

Making Traps Fun

Traps are a dungeon crawling staple and honestly, usually not very fun. Your classic traps like poison needles, spikes, swinging blades, and pits are iconic but serve a very specific purpose of forcing the party to be cautious as the explore. They deal damage and your reward for foiling them is that you're not maimed or dead.

That's boring.

Pain is fleeting and uninteresting. Obstacles are engaging. Instead of just doing damage traps should change the game by altering how the players can interact with an area. They should do something beyond grinding the party down.

When you write traps try creating ones that:

• Have a reward beyond survival. If you manage to not die you can find bits of loot and interesting things left by or on previous victims, or the parts of the trap itself might be useful (or valuable).
• Add structural interest to the dungeon. Let traps act as new paths or access points for secret areas once they're tripped. (Ex: Pit traps that have an access door at the bottom for cleaning crews to enter. Deadfall traps that have something behind them in the space where the "fall" material came from. Arrow slits and murder holes that you can see through once you find and deactivate them.)
• Move the party unexpectedly to another section of the dungeon. Elevator rooms that drop you down levels, stairs that turn into chutes and slides, and walls that drop to split the party are classic examples. These introduce the same "will we have enough resources?" tension as a damage-dealing trap, but are more interesting because they create a new situation instead of just pain.
• Can be reset and used against enemies or have an interesting effect the party can play with. (Ex: Gravity tricks with a magic fall-up pit trap.)
• Confine but don't injure the person who trips them. (Ex: Falling cages or barred gates over doorways.) The party's unharmed but now they have a new problem to solve.
• Sound alarms (either audible and obvious or silent) and alert the dungeon inhabitants to the party's presence.
• Are clearly telegraphed as dangerous, but exactly what they do is unclear so the party goes "What the hell is that?" and has a chance to figure it out.
• Have bizarre effects like teleporting victims away or forcibly astral projecting them. Something that's just part of the dungeon's tech and is only dangerous because the party's not trained to use it.

There's so much potential for adventuring shenanigans with unorthodox traps. Embrace it. Make them entertaining to interact with and figure out. Make them cause unexpected, unpredictable, immediate problems to deal with beyond massive bodily trauma. (Unless you're Luke Gearing, then keep doing what you're doing. That hallway is beautiful.) Have fun.

1d20 Troublesome Inheritances

1 A crumbling secluded estate

2 A business in truly staggering debt
3 An extremely remote private island
4 A ship known to and wanted by several governments as a pirate vessel
5 A hippo farm
6 A funhouse dungeon, no documentation on how to find or disarm the traps
7 Custodianship of an arch-demon trapped in suspended animation
8 Legal guardianship of your distant cousin's baby
9 A golem with unknown instructions
10 The first truly sentient AI
11 A nuclear stockpile
12 A small private army
13 700 millions gold and 6 copper
14 An accurate map to a famous, massive treasure hoard
15 An intensely haunted doll
16 An overzealous dragon's protection
17 Three favors from a fae who wants to be free of their debt as soon as possible
18 All your parents' enemies
19 The family curse
20 A loud and willful terrier