Quite a few people emailed to inform me of a neat little project currently accepting pledges (with a stated goal of $6500 by May 21): DungeonMorph Dice! They're basically a set of five six-sided dice, each of whose faces contains a different dungeon geomorph. Each side is also numbered, so they can be used as randomizers as well, if you're so inclined. Of course, it's the geomorphs that really make these dice noteworthy.Pledges start at $1 but larger pledges (starting at $9) earn the donor goodies of various sorts, starting with a single die but going all the way up to multiple complete sets of dice and the right to design/describe one of the geomorphs used in the final product. Being a big fan of geomorphs, I heartily approve of this project and hope it's able to meet its goal. At present, it's a little under halfway there, with over 50 days to go, which is a good start.
Looks awesome. I approve of the 10x10, 8 entrance format. It works well with the OPD 30x30 map. A pass with an eraser to block off certain connections would make the assembled dungeon far less predictable.
ReplyDeleteThe image above makes it look useless to me though. You want each die to be a theme so if you want a labrynthine dungeon section you roll the labrynthine die, if you want broad caves, narrow twisty caves, filled-in style dungeon, city street, alleys, etc. you just roll the appropriate die. Mixing it up like in the example above means you would have no control over the look of the dungeon. If you wanted that, you would roll dice from multiple sets.
Great idea!
ReplyDeleteI'll gladly pledge what little I can afford *IF* Joe Wetzel guarantees that each of the dice will be themed like 1d30 described. Otherwise, like s/he said, they'll be useless to me.
Thanks for the publicity!
ReplyDeleteThe layout I'm proposing isn't final, so if I see this comment echoed I can revisit the layout of the designs.
That said, the logic of the current layout was to give each die a big room design, a design with dense medium/small rooms, a design with just corridors and maybe one small room, likely two designs that would be a good mix of dead space, corridors and medium/small rooms, and a design of something special. (Like the Maze pictured.)
So in one roll of one set of the dice, you could have one of each type or all of one type or anything in between.
In your scenario if I understand correctly one would need multiple sets or else reroll the one dense rooms die (if that's what you want for several adjacent areas) and note the details. But with how I have it laid out, one could just reroll a couple of the dice until you get another dense side or two. Correct me if I'm wrong.
As I said, nothing is final yet. And I think they look cool and have some use, even if it is just inspiration. There are also the cavern dice set that look more and more likely to happen and maybe even a second dungeon set considering how things are going.
That's pretty interesting. It seems like the "themed die" idea would be solid. Pair with another master die that selects a theme if you want that? Or opt to grab the theme you're working on currently.
ReplyDeleteWhat I took 1d30 to mean was that each die needs to be themed to a different setting -- such as "labrynthine dungeon...broad caves, narrow twisty caves, filled-in style dungeon, city street, alleys, etc." Each die would still provide the range of possibilities you described, but themed to its specific setting.
ReplyDeleteI think Delta's idea of a master die is a good one too. But, if you do any city-mapping dice, then, of course, you'd need separate subterranean and urban master dice.
Didn't Chessex already make something like this? http://www.thediceplace.com/acatalog/chxcd_Chessex_Dice_-_DM_s_dungeon_dice_-_16mm_d6_with_numbers_and_dungeons.html
ReplyDeleteWhile it's true that Chessex did already make something based on the same core idea, it looks like the DungeonMorph Dice would be *MUCH* more elaborate than the simple corridors and basic rooms on Chessex's dungeon dice.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading more of the project description at Kickstarter and what Joe posted here, it's possible that my concern about die theming might be mistaken -- if what he means is that the entire set of 5 dice will be themed to "labrynthine dungeon" and, if that's successful, then other themed sets might come later.
ReplyDeleteEd: Can you define "labrynthine dungeon" so I can confirm what you stated. (Or point out the differences.)
ReplyDeleteThomas: I saw the Chessex dice well after I started the planning for these. The key difference is the Chessex versions seem to have just one room or corridor on each side. (However, all I have to go on was that picture.) These as you can see have more complexity in the design and match the style popular among a number of bloggers/cartographers. The Chessex dice have more complexity regarding the look of the dice.
Hmm. I need to scrape together forty bucks....
ReplyDeleteI'm having a lot of trouble getting kickstarter.com to give me anything other than Error 500. I'm hoping it's because they're having trouble handling the massive load from the Grognardia bump.
ReplyDeleteJoe:
ReplyDeleteI gotta admit that, when I used 1d30's term "labrynthine dungeon", I didn't (and still don't) know exactly what s/he meant by it, but just had (and still have) the vague notion that it probably means a constructed subterranean complex of passageways and rooms that, intentionally or not, form a labyrinth. That's what I meant when I used it, anyway.
And I don't know how that differs from a "filled-in style dungeon" -- unless what that means is a "dungeon" thats map has no unused space around its passageways and rooms -- like the floorplan of an above-ground structure.
Thanks Ed. Maybe as I start gathering the designs the best way to split them up will become more obvious. The other blog writers/cartographers are also thinking about the issue and plan to do some mock-ups for testing it out.
ReplyDeletePaul: Yes Kickstarter seems to be having issues for me too. From the few times I had seen their site today (I was getting a response every 5th or 8th time I tried) I think they added some dynamic-ness to it. (Viewing the list of popular projects caused new ones to be added to the page as you scrolled instead of having to press a "next" button after every 15 results, for example.) Hopefully they'll fix it or back out their changes this evening or by tomorrow.
The Kickstarter site seems to be responding consistently now. (Hope I don't jinx it.)
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ReplyDeleteIt worked long enough for me to pledge.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I sent an email about this to the other gamers I know -- my niece, my sister-in-law and her husband -- and my sister-in-law says she's going to pledge too!