I just came across a contest called “The One Page Dungeon Contest”.

I just came across a contest called “The One Page Dungeon Contest”.

I just came across a contest called “The One Page Dungeon Contest”. Basically, it’s a contest about making an adventure that fits a single page, and it has to be system neutral. Unfortunately, it ends today, so I can’t join in, which I really wanted to.

It did spark my interest however. I was thinking on a way of using this in a random dungeon style, based on this entry by I found on Dyson’s Dodecahedron:

http://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/one-page-dungeon-by-esophagus-brood/

Basically, the party is supposed to wade through a jungle in the above adventure, and they will inevitably encounter some bad stuff there. The encounters are random however, you roll on a table to see what you have to fight/overcome.

I thought about using this approach for one-shot games, meaning that instead of having a finished dungeon, you just roll to see what is in the next room. Every time you enter a room, you mark it off on the list, so that if you roll the same room again, you skip downwards on the list, until you get to a new room.

This allows the list to be longer than the number of sides of the die you roll. You could have 15 rooms and still only roll a d8. The higher the room number, the further into the dungeon it is.

As the party progresses, a map is drawn over the dungeon. The dungeon would be created randomly, but I just thought it could be fun to try out at some point.

13 thoughts on “I just came across a contest called “The One Page Dungeon Contest”.”

  4. This is probably gonna be a little more than a one-pager though. I decided to make a three level deep dungeon, meaning that I’ll have three tables for “random rooms”, along with monsters and a few traps. Also a front containing one or two dangers.

  6. I used something similar in my first session.

    The party was venturing into a magical swamp, and I basically rolled the next location they where moving to from a quick list I’ve made during characters generation.

    But I skipped the roll-for-location part when players or fiction pushed the party into another specific/desired direction.

    Also, I left the elements of the dungeon pretty vague, example:

    abandoned ruin of ancient temple

    and not

    abandoned ruin of ancient temple, now infested by an evils cult

    (something similar came up by rolling moves like spout lore and discerning reality).

    P.S. I didn’t rolled for encounter, just for location features and only because I want to develop a map on the fly while we were playing.

  7. Introduction

    You left the city with the horrors you witnessed firmly imprinted in your mind. The dragon came out of nowhere, setting large parts of the city aflame, trapping women and children inside the burning buildings.

    The thought of their dying screams still send shivers down your spine. You could have fled, but you knew that you were their only salvation. The dragon will come again, unless you kill it. That much was clear, when the kobold delegation came to demand tribute for their lord.

    It flew back to the mountains, so you headed there. It didn’t take long until you found some of its kobold servants, keeping watch outside a cave. You slew them quickly, their screams cut short by your blade, a blade sharpened by vengeance and tempered with hatred. You did not pity them.

    You stand there, watching the cave entrance before you, the dwarven ruins still echoing the lamentations of the dead. Who knows what will be waiting for you inside?

    In the depths you can hear the kobolds, singing songs of worship to their lord. A furious roar greets them. What do you do?

  10. I’ve used random tables for on-the-fly NPC names, quirks, terrain features, encounters, and events running Tunnels & Trolls, and it tickles a different lobe of my brain. I love it, and I was wondering if anyone uses random tables for stuff in DW.

    But I haven’t done this:

    > This allows the list to be longer than the number of sides of the die you roll. You could have 15 rooms and still only roll a d8. The higher the room number, the further into the dungeon it is.

    It reminds me of this, only simpler—

    http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2011/04/untested-collapsible-encounter-method.html

    — a lot simpler. I like it!

  11. On the topic of random tables, I’m curious if it’s good form to connect an adventure kick-off move (DW p352) to a random table. Like, the move includes a short list of minor exotic treasures of varying potency, and if you roll 7-9, you can roll once for an item on the list, and a 10+ gets you two rolls on the list.

    I’ve been thinking about turning this image into an adventure kick-off move:

    https://plus.google.com/112484087750169360510/posts/27VBejiHbvZ

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