Random Mapping Rocks!

Okay, so, three posts up today that grabbed my attention and made me say "Very Interesting" because they were all kind of connected. 

First, Telecanter is talking about giving players a map of the dungeon before they start hacking their way through it. Great, now the DM has to listen to the players plot and plan for hours and hours before any dice are rolled. Actually, I really like the idea. All of 'em. 

Next, we've got some random encounter thoughts from Father Dave at Blood of Prokopius, which offers a certain spin on random encounters that had never occurred to me, and I like it very much. 

Last but certainly not least, Jarvis at Aeons and Auguries has an interesting concept for mapping out a megadungeon: do it one little bit at a time. This I think is brilliant. I may be a little too OCD to just run with it like that, but I'm getting ready to send my kids into the Underdark, so we may have the perfect little laboratory here... 

Anyways, all you guys F'n rock!

Dodecahedrons Rock!

I'm a sucker for good random charts. I'll use 'em at every opportunity. Which us why this site totally rocks.

The Dungeon Dozen

He must have a lot of random D12 charts that he's cooked up over the years, because he's been steadily releasing a new one everyday since he started the site. That or he's by far one of the most creative bloggers we've got around these parts.

Compilations Rock!

Whew, I've let this blog sit idle for far too long. My New Year's Resolution is keep on rockin' in the free world, so I'm starting early.

A couple of things really rocked today, and they deserve recognition.

First, over at Beyond the Black Gate, is Al's third annual Compilation. It is an excellent resource for any old-school DM. I know I'll be printing it off for use in my Microlite74 Kids' Campaign for sure!

Secondly, all this Secret Santicore stuff has paid off. Jez over at Giblet Blizzard put it all together, with artwork (and typos!) in a 10mb, 100 page document. Oh, and it's free. Just like Al's Compilation.

Two Page Dungeons

Roving Band of Misfits has a great idea up today: put all those amazing little maps, like the ones Dyson Logos draws, to good use by writing up mini-delves that are generally system- and level-neutral. I think this is great, because I often look at the hand-drawn dungeon maps that spring up around the RPG blogosphere and I'm never really sure just what to do with them.

Here's the first of what will hopefully be many more in this series!

So, thanks Roving Band of Misfits! Your Dungeon is ROCK!

And while I'm at it, thanks for all the maps, Dyson! You Dungeon is ROCK too!

Tuesday Traps? Rock On!

Grognardling is starting up a new regular feature called "Tuesday Traps". Personally, I am really looking forward to this, as trap design is probably my biggest stumbling block when it comes to dungeon design.

Thanks for helping us all out, Grognardling! Your Dungeon is ROCK!

Porky Rocks!

You know who rocks? The Porkster rocks.

He posts pretty frequently, and links to a lot of totally excellent gaming stuff covering a wide spectrum of geeky pursuits.

Porky's Expanse, your dungeon is ROCK!

The Constitution

Alexis has an excellent article up at the Tao of D&D concerning his views on the American Constitution as an important piece of technology. It's an A+ article, and has generated some decent conversation over there.

Alexis, your dungeon is ROCK!

D20 Threshold

If D20 systems are your thing, this guy is doing some interesting stuff, and its all free! All of it seems like it would be pretty easy to drop into an existing Pathfinder or 3.x game. Check it out!

d20 Threshold

D20Threshold, your dungeon is ROCK!

Torch and Sword

And we've got a new retro-clone on the scene! This one is emulating the original D&D game and from my quick, initial perusal, seems pretty well-written and at 79 pages, packs a lot in.


http://quicklyquietlycarefully.blogspot.com/2011/07/torch-sword-beta-1.html?m=0

Quickly, Quietly, Carefully, your dungeon is ROCK!

Bigby's Middle Finger

Just because he gave me the finger, I think I'll point everyone his way.

DM: Sully, roll to save versus poison or go on another rant, and this time, you can't be nearly as nice as you were to Alexis


Sully: Phew! Just barely! 

Countdown to Game Time, your dungeon is ROCK!

Old School meets New School

Cool post over at Rather Gamey about using the Vornheim supplement in a 4E Essentials game. I think the backstory he's developed for his setting is awesome. Check it out.

http://rathergamey.blogspot.com/2011/07/re-skinning-vornheim.html

Grind4E

Just to be clear, I will do my best to highlight little-guy blogs from all over the D&D spectrum, old-school and new-school. Also, there will be two types of highlights. The first is to point out a little-guy, blue collar blog I think is really cool. The second will be when I see something posted anywhere that I think is most excellent.

I was pondering starting up an online campaign of some sort, but didn't really want to do either "play by email" or "play by post" on a forum. Just as I was starting to think about using a blog to run a game, I discovered...

Grind4e.blogspot.com

This guy is running SaveVersusDeath.com's 4E Grind dungeon on the blog itself. Lots of pictures, maps, and just pure gaming goodness. Each post sets the stage for a room in the dungeon and the playere and DM hack it out in the comments.

4EGrind, your dungeon is ROCK!

Respect

First off, thanks to everyone who commented to show their support for this idea, and everybody who joined as a follower! Thirty-two followers in one day is pretty impressive, as far as I'm concerned.

EDIT:
CAUTION! EDITORIALIZING AND CRITICISM AHEAD! HIGH-FIVES AND GOOD-TIMES CONTINUE IN NEXT POST! CONTINUE READING AT YOUR OWN PERIL!
END EDIT

It's come to my attention, as I have done some more reading of the various on-going discussions about Your Dungeon is Suck, that there are some things that blog actually does well every once in a while, like pointing out certain bits of BS within the community. I don't agree with the style that this is done; hell, I couldn't stomach the incessant butt-licking jokes enough to even find anything of any substance on the site.

My biggest thing, I guess, is this: the quality of our community is directly represented by the manner in which we poke fun at our leaders. I have long considered John Stewart of The Daily Show to be a national treasure for America, for precisely this reason. America is great in part because it has a satirist like John Stewart to call bullshit on the top dogs in government, business, and media.

Seriously, D&D Community, is "Your Dungeon Is Suck" the best we can do? Butt-licking jokes? We can do better than that. Hell, I can do better than that.

So, in addition to pointing out the little-guy, blue collar blogs that are chugging along in relative obscurity and doing some great work (something I will actually do a post on tomorrow) I may also occasionally have a few sarcastic points to make about some things when people in our community take themselves too seriously.

There was actually a great example of this today. Over at "The Tao of D&D", Alexis has set his comments to "moderate" and is demanding respect. Now, I had a lot of respect for Alexis. I think he's earned it for the work he's done with the Same World Wiki and the way he conducts himself on his blog. This post, however, reeks of the worst kind of self-righteous, acrimonious, ivory-tower bullshit. Poor guy was too smart for his own good, got picked on throughout his formative educational years and spent a lot of time reading.

Join the club. I imagine that most of the people who enjoy blogging about their D&D games have had similar experiences. If you think that makes you special in some way, take a number and get in line. I had a similar experience. Maybe if I had listened to my teachers and followed instructions, I wouldn't be working construction, outside, in the 110 degree heat these days. Maybe, just maybe, a couple of them might have been just a little bit right.

Alexis is now also demanding respect from the denizens of the internet. He gets a ton of comments on his blog and sees only conspiracy in the compliments and disrespect from anyone who is clearly not as intelligent as himself.

Alexis, the work that you have done clearly demands respect. There are always going to be people who are not quite so intelligent as you, who haven't done the voluminous research that you have accumulated in your mighty brain, and who have no idea they are making an ass of themselves in the comments on your blog. I haven't read every comment on your blog, nor do I care to. I had a lot of respect for you, until you gushed your sob story on us today and demanded respect from all the denizens of the internet.

Alexis, your dungeon is most definitely Rock. But respect is earned. When it is demanded, it is squandered. Stop whining about being popular and having to put up with people who are not as smart as you. Don't tell us we have to respect you. Keep showing us why we should.

Rock On!

Welcome to YOUR DUNGEON IS ROCK! This is a place for me to point a finger at other D&D Blogs (mostly small timers, as the big guns don't need any extra publicity) that totally rock the house. My other blog, A Pack of Gnolls, is where I post up all my useful D&D stuff.  This is for my random thoughts and musings on geek culture and the stuff that goes around the D&D blogosphere. So you can expect more editorial-type content here, as well as plenty of linkage.

And up first, the blog (and controversy that inspired the creation of this little corner of the blogosphere!): Destination Unknown! Christian isn't exactly "small time", at 239 followers, but he deserves a shout-out for the way the OSR has rallied around him in the past week. Go check his blog out. He's in the process of getting it up and running again, so it's short on posts at the moment, but he appears to have quite a bit saved and is reloading things on a regular basis.