Simon Carryer @SimonCarryer@dice.camp

Pyramid of the Undying is my love-letter to my favourite DnD module, Moldvay's "The Lost City". I'm calling it a "fan-edit", and you can get it for free here: https://www.simoncarryer.com/pyramid_of_the_undying.html

For an online dungeon thing I'm making with, I'm stuck on how to make the interactions work. I have actions mapped to click and double click, but I need a third interaction. Right click is an option but it involves complex overriding of normal web behaviour. Hover is an option but it's a bit annoying. Am I missing something? Web development is really not a strength.

A thing I've started doing a lot is rolling a die when I need to know something about the detail of the fictional world. Can ghosts communicate with the living? Can skeletons write? Sometimes this leads to delightful surprises and exciting turns of events. Sometimes it leads to things that feel a little... "off" I guess. There's many cases where reasoning from principles and making a ruling is the better choice. I'm still figuring out what that line is.

This week's session of #TyrantOfMars saw us expand the theatre of operations to the whole of the City of Xanthe. A couple of characters were framed for a horrific murder by the mysterious Wax Men, so they're having to dodge patrols and are trying to discover a secret way in and out of the City.

I'm making a submission for this year's One Page Dungeon Contest! I've long been a fan of the contest and I figured it was time to put myself on the line. You should too!

Very nice review of my "Pyramid of the Undying" from 10-foot pole: https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=8010

What do you all reckon about "bad proposition" dungeons? Ones where the risks far outweigh the rewards, or where the rewards are a lie? I feel like they need a very particular campaign context to make sense, and I wonder if they're actually ever a good idea. But also I think I'm writing one at the moment.

Thinking about reading Lyonesse again (prompted by chatter on here). I have to be very careful though because when I read a lot of Jack Vance I start writing like a bad imitation of Vance, and it takes a couple of weeks to clear it from my system.

Still playing around with this "dollhouse" style of drawing dungeons. I really like it but I'm struggling to get the right schema for the shading. More naturalistic lighting might look better, but that will stretch my abilities a lot.

@rthorm The other direction you could take this is to think about how to make it easy for a GM to run this kind of campaign. How do you come up with interesting ports of call with relevant gameable scenarios?

@rthorm I took a look at "The Shipping Forecast". There are some interesting ideas in there and I think it's a good start. I think a useful approach could be to think about what *choices* you want players to make. What are the tactical decisions that players are concerned with, and what information do they have to base those decisions on?

I wonder if that translates into wider game design?

I've gotten way better at writing D&D adventures since I started trusting other DMs to be at least as good, if not better than me.

Did a quick sketch of an idea for a side-projection of a dungeon that still gives some depth to the rooms. Could be fun for a very vertically-oriented dungeon.

I'd be sad if this was a sign of a dwindling of the contest's relevance. There have been some great entries over the years. Maybe I should enter something - be the change I want to see, etc.

I just added entries from 2021 to my selection of One Page Dungeon Contest dungeons. I only selected four dungeons from 2021, none of which won any kind of award from the competition itself.

Mermaids make way more sense now: https://www.nature.com/articles/hdy200983

A mixed game of D&D today (3rd session of TYRANT OF MARS). The players had fun but I felt like my processes were not as clean as they could be. Too much rolling dice to decide, not enough reasoning from principles. One highlight though, the players coming away from the session saying "We need to get better organised! Marching order! Torch discipline!"

One thing I've started doing with random encounter tables is preferring flatter distributions in number encountered. 1d20 instead of 3d6 or 2d10. It leads to more dynamic situations and more "cat and mouse" interactions.

Conversely, if there's an organised force (like a military) I prefer fixed numbers ("a patrol is 6 mounted men with a captain"). It makes it easier for the players to make plans and strategise.

I want to prep more for my TYRANT OF MARS d&d campaign, but I really don't know what kind of material I'll need. All we know is that the characters are going to try to overthrow/assassinate the Emperor of Mars. I've written up Tharsis Palace, his Golden Ship, and some notes on his Death Legion and Eternal Guard. What else do I need?

@PaulCzege The book itself was... ok. Like a less angry Leigh Brackett. Some neat ideas but uneven storytelling and wooden characters.