Yep, more maps
Hello folks! It’s gonna be a short one for real this week, but the maps must flow. I’m a few weeks behind on writing daily entries, but I squeeze in chunks of two or three at a time. Actually writing a dungeon room every day just doesn’t make sense for my brain. Interestingly, this newsletter has been better for developing a writing habit than the actual creation of the dungeon. I think the fact that 17(?) people subscribe to this is a good source of accountability. Currently, my plan is to share maps every two weeks until I’ve completed all 365 entries. At that point, I’m likely going to scale back to posting once a month and hopefully I’ll have the brainwidth to share some other interesting ideas and art. I’ve got a handful of other RPG projects in the works and I’m very much looking forward to setting this dungeon aside for a while. Along with my usual burnout, my enthusiasm for this has lagged. I do have some playtesting planned for it early next year, and that should ease me into starting to make sense of the early levels. Things have gone in unexpected directions at these lower levels and I’m unsure what will even make it into play. I have lost many threads in this process and found a number of new ones. No problem, it’s a first draft!
What else am I working on? Illustrations as always. I spent the weekend painting guitars so I can try to get a few things wrapped up before the upcoming holiday. I’ve got an elaborate Mothership thing I’m writing that I can talk more about later, several smaller projects (I’m fascinated by double-then-trifold pamphlets), and a new map for a certain Abyss that I may document here as I draw. I’m also devising a system to generate a huge city map by numbering this fidget cube and throwing it on a sheet of paper a bunch of times. It lands in interesting configurations sometimes and I’ve been thinking about that instead of this dungeon. Stick around for some of that next year!
Week 35: The last few areas of August introduce one of the more powerful and baffling entities to be encountered in the dungeon. Seems like a good ally to have if you can make any sense of its aspirations. Or you can sit and watch what happens to the unworthy. The domed walls sing with every step you take on the grand bone stair. September! September is…different. Trying to experiment with the form a bit more and change up the maps. This level is essentially a point-crawl through various pocket dimensions accessed via a variety of magic mirrors. It is disorienting and it is dangerous. What you see in the mirror is what will be.
Week 36: The question of dungeon presentation and design style keeps coming up. For a point-crawl, all we need are some nodes and paths. I’ve done the bare minimum of trying to dress them up, if not for presentation at least for my own clarity. Some of them got silly. For this mirror maze in particular, many of the paths are one-way, which adds a level of challenge as you move about. I also intend to add a mechanic that determines the order in which you will encounter “exit” mirrors. Some of the creatures you encounter here may follow you through the maze if you give them a reason to. Most of the rooms in this dungeon are keyed with a word or two for a descriptive (or cryptic) title. For some reason I decided each of these mirror worlds should have an arbitrary made up name. Silly. This section features a bit of time dilation, a beach vacation, some soothing words from an outsider. It may be wise to protect one’s nose against being devoured.
Week 37: Ok, at this point even I am asking myself why this exists. I told you, the burnout is real. Like the dungeon, quality ebbs and flows. Sometimes writing is a formidable monster to be overcome. Some paths cannot be reversed. Heroes traversing the mirror maze will realize that this is a place of sorrow and a place of memory. Like other parts of the dungeon, you can become lost here. It doesn’t mean you’ll die, but you may never leave. I’ve thought a lot about what would happen if the PCs just wander off into a mirror universe and start adventuring there! Could you forge a peaceful living in the glistening tendrils of the mountain tyrant? The key to the journaling nature of this dungeon is that I physically have no space to elaborate on anything. A couple sentences and it’s done. Time to move on. So many hanging hooks and tasty tidbits to be revisited and revised in a later draft.
Week 38: A giant tetrahedron on which every side is down…the worst. This section of the mirror maze features a genuine Way Out! This leads to the surface. Yes, the real surface. Do you remember what that is? I’ve always imagined a hex map will detail the surface of this new continent that houses The Pit and every curious thing within. I’m sure the opposite end of this portal is well hidden somewhere, perhaps a well guarded wizard’s tower or maybe just behind some farmer’s outhouse. Thinking about surface locations sure seems fresh and exciting. I’ve been down here for so long. In one mirror you will be chased by tiny psychotic city dwellers while in another an immense hairy creature will assist you if he doesn’t accidentally step on you first. I clearly wasn’t reading my own writing here because I’ve got two room descriptions that are nearly duplicate ideas. ROUGH draft. Next episode: The mental health parallels between the writing of a megadungeon and the exploration of said dungeon.
This post has been converted from a previous Substack post and dated accordingly. Please let me know if it seems like something got lost or if you find any major formatting issues.
If you’re still reading, you are awesome! Please subscribe and share if you find this worthwhile. Perhaps some user engagement would help get my creative juices flowing. I think they’ve slowed in anticipation of Minnesota winter. Later!
Andy
