REVIEW: Dungeonaday.com

Short version: Much better than I'd expected but also much pricier than I could justify spending (which is good, since Monte Cook very kindly gave me a free month's access).

Now, for the long version.

As people should know by now, I am very -- how shall I say? -- protective about the term "old school." I'm one of those rare birds who strongly believes the term is both meaningful and useful, which often puts me at odds with some of my fellow gamers, who, for different reasons, would prefer that it be banished to the terminological netherworld. Ironically, this fact hasn't stopped lots of people from throwing around "old school" to describe games and products that, by any reasonable definition, are nothing of the kind.

But I readily admit that I'm an eccentric among eccentrics on this score. So, when Monte Cook conjoined the words "megadungeon" and "old school" when announcing his latest project, Dungeonaday.com, I was among only a handful of grognards who took it as an affront (a "hissy fit," one ENWorlder called it). There are several reasons I felt this way, the main one being that the old school renaissance is really hitting its stride right now. Lots of gamers are taking notice of our little corner of the Net and engaging our ideas in a way they never did before. "Old school" and "megadungeon" are now regular topics for debate and conversation on forums and blogs and I don't think there's any question it's because traditional gamers have done a great job of showing their continued relevance to the hobby.

The second reason I felt as I did was because it wasn't someone I strongly associated with old school D&D who was launching this site but Monte Cook, whom I primarily connected to the decidedly not-old school Third Edition and Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, a module I both disliked as an adventure and that I felt misrepresented Greyhawk lore. To be fair, Monte did a lot of stuff I did like, such as his various Planescape products, but I don't consider Planescape "old school" by my definition. Finally, I was miffed by the subscription model, which I think is problematic when you're dealing with an electronic product. I realize that most professional game designers aren't going to follow the approach of the old school renaissance and give things away for free, but there's something about paying for the privilege of having a product parceled out to you in small pieces over many months rubs me the wrong way.

Combined, my first reaction to Dungeonaday.com was probably irrationally over the top, even if it was understandable. Having now had a chance to explore the site at much greater length over the last week and a half, I'm in a much better position to evaluate it on its actual merits and flaws rather than on what I presumed it would be like. What I found was something that was decidedly more old school than we've probably seen from a big name designer of the 3e era. By that I mean that, if Monte Cook is a poser, he's doing a very good job of it. Dragon's Delve, the megadungeon he's constructing, hits most of the right old school notes. There is in fact a great deal to like about it and I'm not ashamed to admit I may even steal an idea or three from it. At the same time, Dungeonaday.com also highlights how much WotC D&D has strayed from its heritage, both mechanically and philosophically.

Dungeonaday.com is a very straightforward and easy-to-use website. Navigation is simple and intuitive. Each page is nicely presented, with just enough graphics to be useful but not so many as to create visual clutter. I know some people have expressed disappointment at its relatively "bare bones" look, but I personally find it refreshingly elegant. The pages load quickly and I never had any trouble figuring out where to find what I was looking for. There's also a built-in search engine in case you still have difficulty, along with forums to which Monte regularly responds with answers, even to technical questions about the site.

All dungeons live or die by their maps and Dragon's Delve has some nice ones. First there's a side view map of the place, which I just love. Not only does it remind me of the best old school dungeons, such as Stone Mountain from the Holmes set, it's got a lot of flavor in its own right. I love each level of a dungeon having a name that describes it and apparently Monte Cook does as well. Level 1 is so far the only level to have its own map, which is to be expected, since the site is detailing Dragon's Delve a couple of rooms a day. Level 1 is fairly small by the standards of truly old school megadungeons, but Monte has indicated that deeper levels will be bigger. Personally, I think size is a fairly small quibble, although I do agree that it would have been nice if Level 1 had more obvious room for expansion, since near-infinite expandability is an important quality of the megadungeons of old. On the other hand, the map doesn't strike me as too obviously linear, with lots of options for meaningful decisions.

Each room receives its own page on the site, complete with an image of a bit of Dwarven Forge dungeon terrain constructed to represent it. I think that's a great idea, actually, first because it provides the referee with a better idea of what the room looks like, and second because it keeps the level map uncluttered with too much detail, a flaw common in many modern dungeon maps. As you can see by looking at a sample room, the descriptions are exhaustive, far moreso than I generally like. This is true even of otherwise empty rooms, since Monte has stated that, "Each [room] will have something of interest, and most will be fairly elaborate." This is a case where I think the realities of his subscription model -- providing something "meaty" every day -- has trumped old school dungeon design principles, which demanded not only a large number of otherwise empty rooms but empty rooms without much of interest in them.

Looking back at the sample room, you can see a few features that I think are telling. As noted, they're highly detailed, meaning you can just read the description and run with it; there's little need to wing it. Whether one considers this a good or a bad thing is a question of taste, I suppose. The information is presented very clearly and is well organized, however. You'll also immediately notice how unwieldy 3e D&D is, since game mechanics, particularly the stat blocks of unique NPCs take up a lot of space. You'll also see that pretty much everything in the dungeon is quantified, with Difficulty Classes aplenty, not to mention formulae for calculating the effects of spells, etc. I recall Monte Cook stating that he was amazed at how "light" the mechanical component of Dungeonaday.com felt to him, but, from my perspective, I found it the opposite, but then I play Swords & Wizardry these days. Many rooms also include a "Revisit" entry, which explains what the room will be like once the PCs have cleared it of its original inhabitants. That's a nice touch and one that goes a long way toward conveying that a proper megadungeon isn't a static place. There are also wandering monsters, for which I give Monte bonus points.

Overall, the site is extremely slick without being soulless. It's easy to use and has lots of nice features, like the ability to download every page (or print it off) as a PDF, as well as hyperlinks to the D20 SRD and other useful outside sites. I hope there will be an ongoing compilation of the entire dungeon, as the Greyhawk Grognard is doing with his The Castle of the Mad Archmage. That would go some way toward making up for the lack of a print product associated with the subscription, since those who let their subscriptions lapse would still have something to show for the money they spent beyond some disjointed PDFs. In addition to the aforementioned forums, Monte also has a blog where he discusses the design of Dragon's Delve and related topics. A lot of it would be of interest to old schoolers, I think, but much of it is also well known to us and there are also times when it's clear Monte has very different interests and priorities than we do, at least some of which stem from the design philosophy behind 3e.

Dungeonaday.com is a very ambitious project and a good enough idea that I'm going to be imitating it in broad terms. I would still balk at calling it "old school" without qualification, since both its native rules set and the nature of the subscription model demanded compromises I don't consider wholly congenial. Despite that, there are many nifty things in Dragon's Delve, as I said, and, in most cases, you can "retro-fit" its contents to make it more amenable to the TSR editions of the game. And there are times, such as in the presentation of puzzles, where Monte seems to understand the limits 3e places on play and so abandons mechanics entirely to make it a challenge to the player rather than his character. This isn't revolutionary to old schoolers, but I imagine it might be to a lot of younger gamers, for whom 3e is the first D&D they ever knew. In this way, Dungeonaday.com might prove an unexpected ally to the old school renaissance, by disseminating its ideas outside of the narrow confines of our community, but it's too early to tell.

In the end, my biggest beefs with Dungeonaday.com are the price and the subscription model. At $10 a month ($8 a month if you subscribe for 12 months, reduced to $7 a month if you do so before the end of March), it's too rich for my blood, considering that I already have my own Dwimmermount, not to mention Urheim, and a host of other megadungeons available for next to nothing. That's a shame, because I do think Dungeonaday.com shows great promise and hope its possible success will prove beneficial to the Old Ways. However, I'm not sure I can justify the cost in my particular case.

Presentation: 8 out of 10
Creativity: 7 out of 10
Utility: 6 out of 10

Buy This If: You're a fan of Monte Cook, are looking for a new megadungeon, don't mind a subcription model for content and/or don't find the 3e rules a distraction.
Don't Buy This If: You can't stand 3e rules, already have a megadungeon of your own, and/or dislike content being parceled out in small chunks over time.

Monte Cook is Cool

In light of recent events, I'd like to state clearly that, whatever our philosophical differences, I think Monte Cook is a good fellow. I received an email from him yesterday in which he offered me access to his Dungeonaday.com so that I could see for myself what he was up to. He did this without any strings attached and in fact said upfront that, if I didn't like what I saw, he'd have no beef with my saying so here. He didn't have to do that and, honestly, after the uproar my posts caused, I'm mightily impressed he did so. Monte is obviously a bigger man than I.

More than that, though, he's a man who's interested in engaging in discussion about the points I've raised here. Our initial email exchange ranged over a number of topics pertaining to the "old school" question and I'll admit that I was taken aback by some of what he said -- not in a bad way but because a lot of it sounded like things I myself have said here on this blog. And as I'm constantly reminded by some of my commenters, I like nothing better than having my prejudices confirmed by others. All the better if Monte Cook is among them!

That's not to say we agree on all counts, because we don't, but I didn't expect we'd agree on half the stuff we do agree on, so those sources of disagreement seem a lot less significant by comparison. In any case, I certainly hope to continue this dialog with Monte; it's already been immensely useful to me as I grapple with a couple of issues related to the "old school" question. I'll also be taking a good, hard look at Dungeonaday, as I said I would in my initial post. Once I've had a chance to do so, I'll compose my thoughts into a review, with an eye toward its utility for gamers whose understanding of "old school" is roughly similar to my own. My first peeks at it left me with a positive feeling. There are things I already know I dislike about it, but there's also a lot to admire and approve of. But I'll save those thoughts for another time.

My hat's off to Monte Cook. He's one of the good ones.

Don Quixote Rides Again

I've been thinking a lot about Monte Cook's Dungeonaday.com and I have to admit that I'm a little miffed about the whole thing. There are two reasons for my feelings, one rational and one not. Let's go with the irrational one first, because it's more easily dismissed. On a primal level, I feel as if there's a poacher in the King's Forest. Cook hasn't shown much evidence that I can see that he's at all sympathetic either to old school gaming or to the old school renaissance. I rather suspect (though, admittedly, I don't yet have proof) that his use of the term "old-school tradition" in his announcement is a marketing fiction rather than a statement of his philosophical commitment to the Old Ways. Like I said, this is my irrational, lizard brain reaction to the whole thing, so please don't criticize me for it.

My more rational feeling pertains to the commodification of the whole thing. Yes, I know Monte Cook's a writer and he needs to make a living just like everyone else, but knowledge of those realities doesn't change the bad taste I get in my mouth when I think about this. For what it's worth, I think WotC's D&D Insider is a similarly crass venture. Over the last year, the old school community has done some amazing stuff, much of it for free or for nearly so. We've launched not one but two fanzines, seen multiple retro-clones made available (all with free PDFs), and shared our ideas and homebrew dungeons with one another -- and all for the love of this hobby. When you consider that, it's hard for me not to wonder why anyone would bother to subscribe to Cook's latest project.

So, I've decided to take up the gauntlet and create an old school answer to Dungeonaday.com. Like Fight On!'s "The Darkness Beneath" and Matt Finch's "Megadungeon Slam," I envision this as a collaborative project, drawing on the talents of as many people as want to contribute. Though I may revise my plan, these are the major points of my proposed approach:

• I draw up a scheme for the entire dungeon, including its levels. I'll probably need help with this from someone who can make maps.
  
• I create a rough background for the dungeon to use as a framing device for the entire project.
• I get some maps for the various levels, again with the assistance of people with actual skills in this area.
• All of these things get posted to a website somewhere, free of charge.
• Then, each day, a room, collection of rooms, or some other aspect of the dungeon -- starting on Level 1 -- is created and posted to the website. By default, I'll do this myself, but I would very much like help in doing so. To that end, if anyone wants to submit something to me, it'd make my life immensely easier.
• My hope is that each daily entry will include something new: a magic item, spell, monster, or even a clever new use of something we've all seen before. Even empty rooms -- of which there must be many -- will be interesting in their own right.

I will be exercising some degree of editorial control over the whole project, since I want there to be some "evenness" to the dungeon. That doesn't mean I'm opposed to the wild or whimsical, but I do favor a broad coherence even in a dungeon. At the same time, I am open to persuasion, so if you have a terrific idea for something that's rather off-kilter, I can be convinced to use it. I'm going to try very hard to come up with a broad background for the dungeon that allows for a lot of variety, so rest assured that this won't be a boring place.

I welcome any help people are willing to offer, but it'll be without any compensation beyond my thanks and the knowledge that we're doing something really remarkable. I especially need cartographers and artists who are willing to offer their skills, as I lack the ability either to draw or make maps. I likewise need writers who can contribute anything, no matter how small. Your work will be credited in your name and it remains yours to do with as you please, so long as I may use it for the purposes of this project.

Unless there's a huge uproar against this, I plan to use Swords & Wizardry for the rules -- yes, even with the damned Ascending AC -- but the goal really is to keep it as free of rules as possible. S&W has the advantage of being very simple and easily compatible with all pre-WotC editions of the game. Plus, it's what I use in my own campaign.

I plan to get this up and running ASAP, but a lot depends on how quickly I can get dungeon maps, so if you're able to help with that, let me know. After that, I'll get the ball rolling in a serious fashion.

Yes, I am aware that I am crazy.

Dungeonaday

Monte Cook, one of the designers behind Wizard of the Coast's Third Edition of Dungeons & Dragons, has just announced his latest project: Dungeonaday.com. The site doesn't go live till next week, so there's nothing to see there just yet. According to the announcement on his blog, Dungeonaday.com will be "a subscription-based website that will offer new game content every weekday," with a subscription costing $7 a month.

Now, normally, I wouldn't give much consideration to announcements like this, since I'm not really a fan of subscription-based gaming content. What I found interesting, though, is the further explanation Cook gives for the nature of the content on the site:

Basically, what I'll be doing is building an ongoing dungeon-based campaign of a decidedly old-school tradition, but utilizing all the newest presentation options. [italics mine]

He elaborates on this description further:

Dungeonaday.com describes Dragon's Delve, a mysterious (mega-)dungeon of vast size, fascinating secrets, and great danger. It includes such locales as the Font of Dreams, the Domain of the Venom Cult, the Prison of the Red Saint, the Aberrant Laboratory, the Sprawl of the Demon Leige, and the Secret City. It offers weird and wild encounters with the Bestial Host, the Insidious Kings, swarm-demon Czarzem the Wicked, and the Prince of Dragons. It holds treasures and secrets like the Twelve Secret Sigils, Sao's Bones, and the mystical wendways. But the adventure includes much more than just a dungeon. Dungeonaday.com also describes the surrounding area (filled with intriguing ruins), the nearby town of Brindenford (which is far more involved in the goings-on than it first appears), side trips to a mysterious island and an extradimensional tesseract, and forays into strange other planes. And that's just for starters. Seriously.

Notice the use of the M-word -- megadungeon. I can't deny that this does sound very intriguing, particularly since I'd actually been contemplating a vaguely similar concept for Grognardia, although without a subscription component. Though it's far too early to tell how accurate it all is -- and Monte Cook is a master of hyping his own products -- I do get an old school vibe from that description. The mention of multiple named locales, for example, reminds me of Castle Greyhawk and its Machine Level, Bottle City, Black Reservoir, and so on. As things stand now, Dungeonaday is being written with v.3.5 D&D in mind, but Cook intriguingly notes that it's extremely "rules-light" and could easily be used with any edition of the game.

The proof will be in the pudding, of course. Monte Cook is a very talented writer, but his credentials as an old school module designer are slim at best (he was, after all, the writer of the execrable Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil), so I am skeptical. Still, I think the fact that a big name "modern" RPG writer is going to try his hand at a megadungeon is a testament to just how far the old school community's ideas have spread. Likewise, Cook's emphasis on "rules-light" suggests two things. One, he's interested in attracting fans of editions other than v.3.5, including those of us who play pre-WotC editions. Second, I think it's an indication that D&D players are permanently split between partisans of many different editions.

Again, I remain skeptical of the whole enterprise, but I'll be keeping an eye on it when it launches next week. There's supposed to be lots of free preview content available then and I'll certainly be looking into it carefully. Still, there's a big part of me that wishes the old school community could organize itself into a similar kind of project but without a fee. I know we have the talent to do so.