MetaFilter posts tagged with dungeons

Enter, Stranger

lalochezia — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:31:00 -0800

How we made Knightmare The creator and the dungeon master of the 1980s fantasy game show revisit dodgy technology and terrified children. The wikipedia entry explains more. Knightmare mentioned previously on mefi

Roll for Initiative!

boo_radley — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 14:42:10 -0800

Dungeons and Dragons Classics -- First Edition. Second Edition. Third and Fourth Editions. Even Basic and Expert sets. Psionics, Magics, Ninja and Samurai, Are you looking for modules? Come on down to DnD Classics! Wizards of the Coast has decided to release D&D sourcebooks as PDFs for your enjoyment and reminiscence.

Critical hit vs. productivity

Shepherd — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 07:44:36 -0800

Brian Posehn has started a new podcast where he plays Dungeons and Dragons with his friends: Nerd Poker. Is your thirst for D&D podcasts still unslaked, aural warrior? [Community creator] Dan Harmon's Harmontown podcast features weekly D&D goodness. Beer and Battle and Drunks and Dragons lay bare the association between pretending to be a half-dragon dwarf-mage and copious amounts of alcohol. The official Wizards of the Coast D&D podcast frequently features the creators of Penny Arcade, PvP, and less frequently Wiil Wheaton in podcasted games. Critical Hit, Death d4 Dishonor, and many more await in within the DnD tag at RPGPodcasts.

"Sweagledactyl": swan stuffed in giant eagle inside a pterodactyl

JHarris — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 17:45:57 -0800

Courtesy of that saint of old school gaming and dark god of the underworld Jason Sholtis, who runs the awesome, previously-posted blog The Dungeon Dozen, it's a new adventure to run using the game system of your choice: THE SECRET PARTY-HOUSE OF THE HILL GIANT PLAYBOY (PDF viewer w/ available download). Looting, slaying, and party crashing beckon to the bold!
Also from Sholtis: the one-page dungeon FLESH FOR THE WITCH QUEEN. (PDF viewer with download) Be sure to keep reading until you get to the stats for the new monster, the slugbear.

(but I still feel the faded scars of claws digging at me from below)

Sebmojo — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:18:50 -0800

The AV Club's Todd Van der Werf enters the Dungeon "I’ve been at this for three days straight, and I need to start getting back to my everyday life, to start settling back into my real role as a TV critic with -3 dexterity. I go through the motions of playing the good guy, of standing in front of doors as we open them, in case they’re booby-trapped. This, of course, is how I end up getting splashed with copious amounts of acid, which begins to eat away at my health. (“It’s not a second-edition game unless there’s a room full of acid,” Brett says, and everyone agrees.) Instantly, I’m into it."

"Except for that Abercrombie. Swear that guy has Plot Armor to prevent anything bad from ever happening to him, just like his characters."

Fizz — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:23:12 -0800

10 SFF Authors Play D&D Together’ by Brent Weeks

The Tome of Awesome

jedicus — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:08:35 -0800

If you enjoy playing Dungeons & Dragons or similar fantasy RPGs, or if you just like reading in-depth analysis of fictional worlds, then the Tome of Awesome [pdf] is for you. The Tome of Awesome is part rules summary and analysis, part homebrew rule-fixes, part homebrew classes/skills/feats/spells, and, best of all, part fantastic overthinking of the economic, political, and sociological implications of the Dungeons & Dragons rules and default fantasy setting. It focuses on the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 rules and so should fit well with Pathfinder. Some excerpted highlights include: Alignment (§ 4): The Morality of Necromancy: Black and Gray: Is using negative energy inherently evil or morally neutral like fire or cold? Is a skeleton an evil creature or just an automaton made of bone? Morality: How Black is the Night: What does Evil mean in D&D? What makes a good villain? Law and Chaos: Your Rules or Mine: "Let’s get this out in the open: Law and Chaos do not have any meaning under the standard D&D rules. We are aware that especially if you’ve been playing this game for a long time, you personally probably have an understanding of what you think Law and Chaos are supposed to mean. You possibly even believe that the rest of your group thinks that Law and Chaos mean the same thing you do. But you’re probably wrong." The Economicon (§ 8.3): How does an economy function when spells like wish not only exist but can be cast a virtually unlimited number of times by creatures like djinn and efreets? How do coins work, as a practical matter, when items are priced in what amounts to literally tons of gold? Advanced Combat (esp. §§ 10.5-10.7): A fantastic set of vignettes describing the possible motivations of various player and non-player races before and after a hypothetical large-scale war. Adventuring (§ 13): Living with Yourself After a Raid: Justifying some of the apparently depraved actions common to D&D adventuring parties. Empirinomicon: Another great analysis of several common non-player races and creatures. The Constructanomicon: Why dungeons are ridiculous and what can be done about it. The Book of Gears (§ A): Character Advancement: Power and Wealth. This one is worth a longer quote that really gives the flavor of the Tome:

D&D society is essentially impossible. Not because Wizards are producing expensive items with their minds or because high level Clerics can raise the dead – but because the character advancement posited in the DMG is so fast that it is literally impossible for anyone to keep tabs on what the society even is. High level characters are the military, economic, and social powerbases of the world. And they apparently rise from nothing in about 2 1/2 months. That means that if a peasant goes home to plant his crops, then when he gets back to the city with his harvest in the fall the city will have seen the rise of a group of hearty adventurers who attempt to conquer the world and achieve godhood four times while he’s gone. The city will have been conquered by a horde of Dao and sucked into the Elemental Plane of Earth and then returned to the prime material as a group of escaped Dao slaves achieved their freedom and themselves became powerful plane hopping adventurers who graduated to the Epic landscape. Then a team of renegade soldiers from the Dao army will have run off into the countryside and survived in the Spider Woods long enough to return with the Spear of Ankhut to return the city to the Dao Sultan in exchange for a gravy train of concubines and wishes. Then a squad of frustrated concubines will have turned on their masters and engaged in a web of intrigue culminating in the poisoning of the Dao Sultan with Barghest Bile and ultimately turned the city into a matriarchal magocracy run by ex-concubine sorceresses. So when the peasant returns with his harvest of wheat, he returns to a black edifice of magical stone done up in Arabian styles and bedecked with weaponry from Olympus that is all controlled by epically subtle and powerful wizards who are themselves the masters of a setting created from the fallout of the destruction of a setting that is itself the fallout of the destruction of a setting that was in turn created out of the destruction of the setting that our peasant walked away from with a bag of grain come planting time last year.

More information about the Tome can be found at the project homepage and The Gaming Den forum.

OPD2011

kaibutsu — Fri, 20 May 2011 17:55:09 -0800

It's that time of year again... The 2011 One-Page Dungeon Contest has announced winners[15mb pdf] in 15 categories ranging from the more traditional "Best Investigation"[pdf] to "Best Use of Teleporters."[pdf] (previously.) The One-Page Dungeon Contest solicits role-playing game adventures that fit on a single page. There are no stat-blocks, so that the 'dungeons' can be as system-independent as possible, serving as a minimalist jumping off point[pdf] for a game master with a time crunch. Due to the odd format and lack of ties to specific genre, the Contest attracts innovators in game design: amongst this year's winners was Jason Morningstar, creator of the (fantastic) game Fiasco, which, with its lack of game-master and light rules, walks the line between role-playing and improv.

Will the greatest Dungeon Master ever make his save vs. Hipster or lose his group?

Nanukthedog — Thu, 12 May 2011 10:19:32 -0800

There’s a new indie film in the works about nerd culture and coming to terms with the hipster cooption of the sacred cow of Dungeons & Dragons : Zero Charisma. This is brought to you by two folks Katie Graham and Andrew Matthews who’s prior work includes the cinematography and film editing of Best Worst Movie (previously)

You set a magic missile on my heart and charm person on my brain...

Gator — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 18:57:15 -0800

Yes I like playing Dungeons and Dragons with you... "This Fantasy World" by the Doubleclicks, with animation by Brad Jonas. [SLYT]

Betty Is Basically A Supervillian

The Whelk — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 19:26:23 -0800

Mad Men D&D Character Alignments from the venerable mightygodking

Tymar lives!

JHarris — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 05:09:43 -0800

Speak With Monsters -- A comic about the most interesting parts of D&D. Courtesy of Metafilter's own, the much-linked Lore Sjöberg. Formerly "Monster Manual Comix." While mentioned in past threads, it turns out never to have been on the front page. Flightless Bird, Efreeti, Giant Leech, Cockatrice, Blink Dog, Ki-rin, Purple Worm, Displacer Beast, Troglodyte, Roper, Green Dragon, Merman, Gnoll, Pixie, Hell Hound, Griffon, Lamia, Carrion Crawler, Ghost, Djinni, Giant Spider, Halfling, Fire Elemental, Trapper, Shrieker, Centaur, Ogre Mage, Hobgoblin, Manticore, Leprechaun, Ear Seeker, Beholder, Peryton, Anhkeg, Berserker, Dryad, Iron Golem, Umber Hulk, Xorn, Rakshasa, Giant Ant, Demogorgon, Bulette, Ceratosaurus, Invisible Stalker, Ettin, Medusa, Mummy, Will-O-(The)-Wisp, Minotaur, Troll, Kobold, Pseudo-Dragon, Harpy, Mimic, Owlbear, Herd Animal, Skeleton, Shambling Mound, Vampire, Doppelganger, Mind Flayer, Unicorn, Orc, Rust Monster, Succubus, Sahuagin, Chimera and Rot Grubs.

Someone get Jeremy Irons on the phone.

boo_radley — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 16:19:54 -0800

The Legend of Drizzt — a film based on the books based on the roleplaying game brought to you by Ruben Studios.

You see a well groomed garden. In the middle, on a small hill, you see a gazebo.

Lord_Pall — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 08:38:56 -0800

Wanna Play D&D? Nobody to play with? Got a computer? Wanna experience The Temple of Elemental Evil, Castle Amber, The Palace of the Silver Princess, and Danger at Dunwater in your pajamas? Start with Circle of Eight Modpack forThe Temple of Elemental Evil and play the most complete Dungeons and Dragon game ever made. Think 3rd edition is for chumps? Show your true Moxie and revisit the modules of yore with the Classic Adventures Mod for Baldur's Gate II. You can get TOEE from GOG.com, or simply use a retail install. There is not currently a digital purchase option available for BG2, but it's looking like GOG will be releasing it shortly.

These tunnels go down forever

JHarris — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:08:29 -0800

One of the better online random dungeon generators out there. Scroll down a bit to see it. You can change the size and learn more about it from the home page. The maps look exactly like the kind of thing hundreds of DMs scrawled out on graph paper in the 70s, probably because they're composed by piecing together selections from many hand-made maps. They are stocked using early-edition D&D monsters and dressing, but the layouts of course do not regard petty considerations like versions and systems. There are natural cavern sections, secret doors and passages, pillared hallways and large chambers, hidden springs, staircases, under- and over-passes, and they are all used (mostly) intelligently. Various techniques are used to obscure the regularity of the maps, but if you know what to look for you can see some holes in the algorithm. Each cell connects with nearby cells at certain hard-coded points. This is more evident at the edges of the map, where you can just see the edge of the unused passage connection. And there is a chance to have "locked-off" sections of the dungeon. Still this is a clever, if fairly low-tech, technique, and they do seem to have a lot of dungeon pieces. Via Grognardia.

Play like it's 1974!

paulg — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 11:11:10 -0800

In 1974, a pair of wargame enthusiasts from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin transformed the nascent hobby gaming world by publishing three little brown booklets. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson's Dungeons & Dragons has become an important part of the lives of generations of young gamers. Along the way, D&D went through numerous editions, each with increasingly complex rules. Some gamers feel that added complexity makes the game less fun, or makes it an entirely different type of game than old-school dungeon crawls. Is this enthusiasm for old-school D&D just nostalgia, or did those classic rules play differently? Matt Finch answers with A Quick Primer to Old School Gaming [PDF, but worth it], and Philotomy's OD&D Musings add further details. Given that those old-school rules are no longer published or officially supported (and vintage copies run up to $5,000 on eBay), gamers have taken it upon themselves to produce a number of retro-clones. If you want to play the 1970's original "0e" rules, check-out Swords & Wizardry. If you're hankering for the 1980's Basic rules, look no further than Labyrinth Lord. Even 1st edition AD&D has OSRIC. Most retro-clones are available as free PDF's, and there are a growing number of small press modules and accessories to support them.

You die ...

painquale — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:15:46 -0800

Desktop Dungeons offers an unquestionably unique approach to Roguelike games by taking compactness to the extreme. It distills the entire genre to a few core ideas which pay homage to the greats while forging new ground with gameplay similar to that of Oasis or Tower of the Sorcerer. It also features emergent complexity that rewards truly skilled and thoughtful players.

I cast Magic Missile at the darkness!

Rei Toei — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 06:12:59 -0800

"I guess it's the stereotype of playing it - [the players] are usually fat, sweaty, hairy dorky men who are socially inept who happen to live in their mom's basement."

Dungeons & Dragons, the 1974 published fantasy role-playing game that once delivered your child to Satan, is still associated with self-deprecating nerds, played in secret (along with embarrassed "comings out") and scorned by jocks/Salon writers and their cheerleader girlfriends everywhere.

But what better way to break, or affirm, the stereotypes, than by listening to a 4th Edition D&D game being played, featuring not just by some scrubs off the street, oh no, but the creators of Penny Arcade, Tycho and Gabe? Still not tempted? How about if we throw loved/hated Star Trek actor, prodigious blogger and all round nice guy Wil Wheaton into the mix?

All files available as Podcasts and/or embedded in page. Warning: audio links feature some strong language. Series 3 is now in session, found on the Wizards of the Coast Podcast archive page.

Me Go Too Far! Me Am Play Gods!

WCityMike — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:55:50 -0800

Caveman Science Fiction. Me Go Too Far! Me Am Play Gods! Also: Advanced Dungeons and Discourse, You're a Good Man, Charlie Darwin, and the large gaping hole in the center of your chest. All from the smart-funny that is Dresden Codak.

Dungeon Days

macross city flaneur — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 08:42:39 -0800

Hey, role-players! Want a break from rules-light, cinematic systems? Nostalgic for the days when d u n g e o n s were sprawling and tough and the centerpiece of your gaming night? Well, Monte Cook is there for you with Dungeon-a-Day. Using a unique subscription business-model, he's building a mega-dungeon just for you. New content is released every day, complete with encounters, maps, photos, podcasts, and diagrams. Basically, it's an attempt to use contemporary networked tools to deliver a very old-school experience. (And no, I don't work for Monte - I just think this is awesome!)

Hack and slash

JHarris — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 19:12:29 -0800

Remember old D&D? What, 3rd edition? Pah! Not 2nd edition AD&D either, nor 1st edition. Not even "original" Basic/Expert/Companion/Master/Immortal. I'm talking really original D&D, based off of Chainmail wargaming rules. OD&D! Read about it at Delta's D&D Hotspot, which discusses the development of a game system that is almost 35 years old. So you know, he really doesn't like what he's heard about 4th edition (and I think I agree with him). Some of the more interesting OD&D posts: No thieves until the first supplement! Monotheistic clerics! The evolution of clerics from wholly defensive spellcasters to having lots of attack magic! The original intentions behind Stone To Mud and Silence '15 Radius! The strongest monsters! The good and bad of the system. More information on the pre-Blue Box history of the game is at the Museum of Role-Playing Games' Review of White Box D&D. For use in starting a game is Philotomy's OD&D Musings, thought you'd have to turn to eBay or other sources for full rules.

I cast magic missile...

falconred — Sat, 16 Oct 2004 22:22:59 -0800

Dungeons & Dragons Turns 30