Friday, April 17, 2009

Entry - One Page Dungeon Creation Contest

I am generally a sucker for contests so I recently did a write up for one floating around the OD&D blogs. Here is my submission to the One Page Adventure Design Contest. My submission is streamlined version of a homebrew adventure which I've had decent fun running several times in the past year. Also I'm a bit lazy in drawing new maps so that is another factor in not doing something on the spot.

As for the promotion, I like the idea for the 1-page adventures but in all honesty I find the format to be uninspired. It is a simple 'big map here' 'other crap every where else' with no formatting to speak of. I tend to be more creative with limitations so honestly things like word count, font type, strict layout would have been a favor to me.

So, what is a good 1-page adventure? The box set From the Ashes came with about 30 or so 1-page adventures that were terrific. Some I still use some to this day. Too bad the format in the contest can't really cater to this plot-heavy type of adventures. It seems like it is simply old-school for old-school sake rather than being practical.

2 comments:

  1. That's an interesting observation. What formatting or other limitations would you have thought useful? I'm curious what would have inspired you? (Since I don't have From the Ashes, I can't comment on the comparison, but if you can provide more info, that'd be awesome.)

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  2. I scan from one is here
    http://mysite.verizon.net/vze4zjyn/WoG_card.pdf

    These were printed on card stock, front and back. Some had maps, others did not. Some were naturally better than others (this one is not particularly notable). Anyhow the format was usually level range, hook, with a layout for the adventure following. It could usually be kept curt if you wanted to keep it a one shot, or protract them into quite lengthy adventures.

    I suppose the difference is the emphasis of plot elements rather than just populating a map. Apples and oranges I guess.

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