Dungeon23 and my Dungeon Dilemmas

 

Like many of my fellow ttrpg folks and my beloved OSR freaks, I’m jumping on Sean Mcoy’s #dungeon23 bandwagon.

“Megadungeon for 2023. 12 levels. 365 rooms. One room a day. Keep it all in a journal.” - Sean McCoy

It’s a neat little idea and a great way to A) get a good writing streak going and B) handle a ridiculously large scale project like a Megadungeon. 

I don’t really like the idea of keeping it all in a journal.  I can’t draw maps, and my handwriting is an illiterate scrawl that sometimes even I can’t read. I prefer to work with a pen and pad, and then go to WP, because if I don’t type up my notes within a week, large chunks of text are lost to the ether. I just can’t read half the strange squiggles hurriedly scrawled across the paper in an OSR fever dream.  So, Google Docs and blog posts for my dungeon Key. 

I have two approaches for the mapping side of things. The first is to ignore the mapping. Contraversial I know, but again my mapping, like my handwriting, is shoddy. A room description can stand on its own merit, and somebody with actual cartography skills can always be tasked to add a map later. The second is to force myself, no matter how unskillfully, to do my own mapping. After all, if I draw one room map a day for a whole year, even if I’m no Dyson Logos by the end of it, at least my cross-hatching will be half decent.

My other dilemma as to how I approach #dungeon23 is whether I go with the original proposed 12 level, 365 room Megadungeon, or alternatively use the daily dungeon key writing to flesh out the Hexcrawl I’m working on. I love the idea of ticking off the Megadungeon from my DIY D&D creators bucket list of 2d6 must have projects. Also, the Hexcralw needs a lot of content:villages, temples, forts, wizard's towers, all in various states of occupation, abandonment, and ruin. Plus lairs, general ruins, dungeons and a Sorcerer King’s Citadel. That could easily gobble up a year's worth of material.

I could go for a moon shot and try both. But I fear, as someone with a chronic illness that includes fatigue as one of the symptoms, and an already sub-optimal writing habit to boot, that this might just be folly.

I’m more or less brainstorming as I write this blog post, and it occurs to me that the festive period is upon us (bah humbug) and Jan 1st will roll around faster than a 18 DEX B/X Halfling rolling Individual Initiative (Optional Rule). So perhaps it’s a little late in the day to come up with a decent concept and backstory for a Megadungeon (#dungeon24 mayhaps). I should key out stuff for the Hexcrawl, as I know what that is, and isn’t. On the other hand, I could just dive into a vanilla Megadungeon with no plan, concept, theme or form, and see what happens?

These are my dungeon dilemmas heading into #dungeon23. Of course, it is Dungeons & Dragons. I could do a dragon themed Megadungeon, as well as the Hexcrawl. Maybe. Possibly. Or Not. Perhaps. I might. I could. I couldn’t. Could I?