Gryzz Loves Games

Last prep day before the project starts! Today, I just want to think a little bit about the overall structure of the megadungeon (but not over think it, of course!), and how that fits into the practical process of building it out room by room. As I've mentioned several times, this dungeon is going to be centered on Greystone , the greatest city of the First Imperium of the Dwarves. Greystone was the center of Imperial society in its age. It was massive and sprawling, the pinnacle of Dwarven engineering in its time.  The First Imperium was very different to the current Imperium, however. One of the most notable differences will be language. Third Imperium Dwarves speak Dwarven  which is actually a patois of Giantspeech.  Is this a result of their centuries of enslavement at the hands of the Fire Giants. During their time under the giants almost all of Dwarven culture was lost, including their history, customs and language. As a result, virtually no current-era Dwarves can ...

We're almost there! I went to bed last night thinking about this project and woke up this morning with it still on my mind.  I think that's a good sign! Today I'm thinking more about system and setting, finalizing some decisions. System first. I'm definitely going to build this dungeon with an OSR style game in mind. I've played a ton of 5E and though I like it, I've come to really understand what I don't like about it.  That's not with this post is about, so I'm not going to go into a lot of detail.  Suffice it to say that I think Old School Essentials works very well as a system for the kind of experience I'm going for with this project and I'm less convinced that 5E will be a good fit. I know there are hundreds of other systems, but these are the ones I'm most familiar with and most likely to actually play. I have to design for that purpose. As I mentioned yesterday, I'm also thinking about portability to other systems.  I've n...

Like I mentioned yesterday , today's post is going to be all about resources that I'm going to use to help me on my Dungeon23 project. First up will be this post from Sean McCoy, first laying out the idea for Dungeon23. Specifically, I'm going to draw inspiration from his list of one-word prompts to inspire each week's work. I'll repeat the list here just for reference: Ancient Death Sunken Love Empire Heavy Rural Darkness Bloom Rust Noise Childhood Time Excess Decay City Factory Flood Sleep Cold Ash Touch Meat Solitude Growth Greed Luck Fall Pit Chaos Laughter Smoke Forgotten Library Ocean Song Roots Bones Hangman Blood Prophet Idol Door Light Stars Bridge Mask Cut Sacrifice Incense Rise Gold OK, so those are freaking great. Each word feels like it has so much to offer for inspiration! So many of them seem to fit together thematically as well.  Like "Bloom" (birth or rebirth) followed by "Rust" (decay); or "Greed" followed by "Lu...

I'm not an artist. That's just a fact.  I can barely manage a straight line let alone some of the beautiful stuff folks are already producing for their Dungeon23 projects. My dungeon map will not look that good.  And that's OK, right? That's not really the point. At least not for me. For me, this is really about finishing a thing. I've heard it said that "perfect is the enemy of done" and I feel like that's important for me to remember.  Actually with just a tiny bit of research, it looks like Voltaire is credited with writing that  "...the best is the enemy of the good." Meaning trying to make the best version of something will prevent you from making a good version of that thing. For me, just finishing Dungeon23 would be very good. So, I'm not going to kill myself trying to make the best Dungeon23. Too often (read: all the damn time!), I get deeply caught up with trying to perfect every little detail of a project in the middle. Pretty ...

The first project I'm going to tackle for 2023, is  Dungeon23 , the brainchild of Sean McCoy of Mothership fame.  Sean has always struck me as super creative and prolific. I remember him mentioning a room-a-day Megadungeon project in 2022. I tried that, but didn't keep up with it. So, like many many other RPG fans, I'm prepping to try it again in 2023. I mentioned previously , that I co-run an open-table 5e game that's on the cusp of it's third year. That game takes place in the Sunset Territory , which is the frontier of the great Third Imperium of the Dwarves . The Third Imperium is a setting I've been messing around with for many years. I'm inclined to put this new megadungeon in the same world. I won't get deep into Imperium lore here (though I might do that in the future), but millennia before the Sunset Territory  game takes place, there was the original Imperium of the Dwarves (now usually referred to as the First Imperium).  This Dwarven empire l...

In 2020, I got cancer. Lymphoma. I told myself, if I got past that, I'd do something different with my life. Just over 2 years ago, I finished chemo. I've had no return of the cancer in the ensuing two years and so it looks like I'm officially in the clear. Time to get on with "something different". I've been a gamer for as long as I can remember.  I play video games, board games, miniatures games and most of all roleplaying games.  I've been into D&D since I was 11 years old.  And I've been a DM for most of that time. Two years ago, I started an online, open-table-style 5E game with my buddy. We play two or three sessions a month and it's going great. But I want more.  So, I backed the big Old School Essentials Kickstarter earlier this year and my stuff arrived shortly before Christmas.  With all the holiday work, I haven't had a lot of time to look it over, but I played B/X back in the day, so I'm very excited. I'm not sure yet w...