One Page Dungeon

The year before last, I became aware of an interesting phenomenon known as the One Page Dungeon. The idea is simple: instead of a whole book of keyed encounters and a suite of maps, a 1PD tries to make do with just a simple map and key. Most of the text in a standard adventure is superfluous, goes the argument -- monster stats, historical background, and the like can be found in various supplements or generated on the fly, and usually change with campaign or gaming system. At its core, the 1PD tries to distill the essence of an adventure scenario to its essential elements: the map and a key.

The idea originally came about during the development of one of the megadungeons in the 90s. A forum member proposed that the contributors should produce their dungeon section on a standardized 30x30 graph with a key on the same page. The idea evolved quite a bit, and then a few years ago a contest was announced. I didn't manage to get in on it in 2009, and I missed the cutoff in 2010 by days, but I was bound and determined to make a One Page Dungeon for the 2011 contest. I almost missed it as the website wasn't updated with recent info until the beginning of the month, but April 1 is the deadline this year, and my submission is almost complete. When it's done, I'll post it in this blog for commentary.

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