#Dungeon23

#Dungeon23 is about making a megadungeon throughout 2023, one location per day. I'm joining in.

Like photo-a-day, selfie-a-month, and landscape-painting-a-fortnight activities I've joined before, I expect this fad to last no more than a few days. But perhaps 2023 will be different?

You see, last night I had an idea. An idea for an Electric Bastionland megadungeon.

9 months ago, noted surgical-tools magnate The Very Mentionable Theophilus Q. Trocad Snr., lost his only daughter, Madamoiselle Cadero I. Trocad III, due to a tragic accident during her 47th plastic surgery operation. “The World will not forget my Cadero’s name”, Trocad told an assembly of press and radio journalists at the time, “you will all see, I shall build an incomparable public monument to her memory, This shall be my great gift to humanity, to the people of Bastion. This will show that Cadero did not die in vain.”

After 9 months under a very large dustsheet, the latest addition to Bastion's downtown shopping district has been revealed: THE CADERO, a bulbous monolith (a little like a bakelite version of the Sage Gateshead) housing a bloated shopping mall.

The Cadero is 416 feet high and about half-a-mile long, with 365 locations across 8 levels above ground (including 3 shopping galleries and a private members’ club) and 3 basement levels (with a not-at-all-hard-to-navigate car park, and easy-ish connections across Bastion, via the Underground). Everything you desire, all under one roof! (Please note, due to delays with contractors the Gorkinson’s Department Store in the East Wing is not yet open).

The Cadero: level 1 draft floor plan

What is that shopper looking for? (d66)

11: A map of the mall
12: A lost child
13: The information desk
14: An escalator?
15: The ice rink
16: The car park

21: Somewhere to eat
22: Somewhere to drink
23: Somewhere to pray
24: A remote working space
25: The soft play area
26: Somewhere, anywhere, quiet

31: Workwear
32: Outdoorsy clothes
33: Underwear
34: Partywear
35: Surgicalwear
36: An item of clothing for a relative of unknown size

41: A haircut
42: A shoeshine
43: A makeover
44: A chiropractor
45: A dentist
46: A plastic surgeon

51: Someone who's in charge here
52: Security staff
53: A personal shopper
54: A mandrill mockery
55: A gullible passer-by
56: A jar of BBQ-spiced chicken stock

61: A pocket watch
62: A set of saucepans
63: A spare part for a combined gramaphone and radio set
64: A very particular book
65: Three planks of wood (assorted sizes), a hammer, and a pot of nails
66: Chewing gum

Gelatinous Cube podcast

I've just driven from one end of England to the other (ish), which means that I've just listened to a lot of podcasts, one of which was the excellent Gelatinous Cube.

Most RPG podcasts feature reviews of games, or actual play, or occasionally a bit of pontificating about games design and worldbuilding. And then there's Gelatinous Cube, in a class of its own.

Each GC podcast starts with a very short prompt for an adventure: "This Goblin Wears Lipstick", "This Mountain has a Witch on it", "The Spirits are Restless". One of the two presenters, siblings Adam and Rosie, acts as DM for that episode, and explains the encounter or short adventure they have written to go with the prompt. If they've already incorporated this encounter into their campaign then they also talk about how their players responded. The two then throw the idea about a bit, talk about ways it could be fleshed out, alternate takes, possible consequences and follow-ups... and then they throw it over the the show's silent third host, the eponymous Gelatinous Cube, for an alternate take. Working only from the short prompt, the Cube presents its own entirely different set of encounters/adventures.

It's a really simple and delightful format, and its bursting with ideas. If it were just Rosie and Adam discussing their adventure ideas, this would still be well worth a listen, but The Cube's creative contributions take it to another level, and really get the creative juices flowing. Comprehensive show notes mean that each episode is playable pretty much as-is.

I listened to a LOT of gaming podcasts 18 months ago, but Gelatinous Cube is the only one that I still regularly download and listen to. 

All of the the podcasts are here, but if you want show notes for the more recent ones then head over here. 

noisms and the Hall of the Third Blue Wizard

I interviewed noisms, who blogs as Monsters and Manuals, publishes noisms games, and is best known for his fantasy game setting Yoon Suin, the Purple Land. Right now he'a running a Kickstarter for The Corridor of the Seventh Green Magic User  The Hall of the Third Blue Wizard, a zine featuring high-quality commissioned RPG modules and short stories. Although I fucking hate acronyms, for sanity's sake I'm sure I'll be referring to it as THOTTBW or THotTBW or THot3■W by the end of this post, however dirty that makes me feel.

Here are audio and video versions of the interview, and below them are a summary of what we talked about with LOTS of notes and links and other good stuff.

Gespenwald, Cairn, and the NSR

Firstly, I have a new thing out. It's called Gespenwald, comes in the form of a PDF (printable as a double-sided A4 trifold), and can be downloaded here. I will have printed copies available in a couple of months.

It kicks off with a children's rhyme:

On Narren Night, my love and me
We met beside the Gespen tree
We kissed and counted, one, two, three,
And turned, and touched the Gespen tree

The Gespen Tree, the Gespen Tree
Her elbows wrapped around her knee
As old as bone and stone is she
The Gespen Tree, the Gespen Tree

In Gespenwald, around the tree
We spent the night, my love and me
Until the sun returned and he
Left me alone, beside the tree

Oh Gespen Tree, oh Gespen Tree
Return my stolen love to me
Next Narren night, please set him free
Oh Gespen Tree, oh Gespen Tree

Gespenwald is a freeform adventure written for the Forests of Another Name jam. Although it's written for the game Cairn, it can easily be played with Into the Odd and its derivatives; or adapted for other games; or even, like my previous publication Mostly Harmless Meetings, read as a piece of Oulipian fantasy fiction.

I thought I'd use the release of this new piece of writing as an opportunity to talk a little about Cairn, a game which many people won't be familiar with, and, via Cairn, to talk about the "NSR" community.