Preparing for Dungeon23, Part 2: Stacking the Deck

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 much anyone creative will tell you that this is counterproductive. You've got to actually finish the work.  That's more important than making it perfect.

I know I'm going to struggle with this. That's why saying it now (and probably many many more times) is important. I have to give myself permission to produce something flawed as long as I produce it.

I'm also kind of a cheap-ass. I'm not going to buy a Hobonichi Weeks journal, or any fancy pens. I'm going to be working pretty much only with tools that I already own. I really am a #2 pencil kind of guy, so virtually everything I do on this project will be pencil on paper.

Organization is going to be important for me though. I often talk about "stacking the deck." In games (or gambling) that means cheating to give yourself an unfair advantage. Like literally stacking a deck of cards such that the right cards always come to you. In my regular life, that means recognizing my own weaknesses and arranging things in a way to counteract them.

Here's a non-game-related example. When I was in chemo, it was very important that I drink a LOT of water. But I was never the kind of person who would stop what he's doing to go fill a glass. But I am the kind of person who will just drink and drink and drink a beverage if it's on hand. A full glass never stays that way for long if it's in reach. So, my wife and I came up with the idea of getting me a big-ass jug to fill with water every day. I'd have a full gallon of water at hand at all times. Since it was there, I'd just drink it continuously. And since it was already a full day's hydration, I wouldn't have to stop what I'm doing to fill it up. We recognized a weakness and leveraged an existing attribute to counteract it. That's stacking the deck.

So, to stack the deck for myself on Dungeon23, I need to make it easy to make a room every single day. Having a place to do this work that's already set up for it will be critical. Because if I have to do a lot of prep every day or if it's a hassle to make a tool fit the job, I'll just quit and do something that's more fun.

To that end, I'm going to be using Monthly Mega Dungeon Maker by Shouting Crow. It's free, printer-friendly and exactly what I want for my dungeon. The first two pages have copious space for notes, brainstorms, etc.  Then every two-page spread has all seven days of the week, a good-sized grid for the map and space for notes and encounters. The front cover even has a calendar that I can check off everyday.

This thing is just what I was looking for.  I'll print one out every month and... wait. Maybe I should print all twelve now, actually.  Right in this moment, it feels like having the notebooks pre-printed is another "stack the deck" move. Anyway, every month will be in it's own little notebook. Every two-page spread will be a week's work or roughly seven rooms. Each of these mini sections will be somewhat themed and connect to the other three or four sections to make the whole dungeon level for each month.

OK, I think that's it for today. Tomorrow, I'll talk a little bit about other resources I'm going to use. Things like Sean's 52 weekly prompts, reference sheets for drawing the actual dungeon and a cool resource I often use for dungeon "dressing".

See you tomorrow!