Campaign Design Project - 2022 (Part 3)

And Caverns Old

We now have a hex map of the local region for creating our campaign, but no where for our adventuring party to loot treasure and rout evil. So we need to start creating our centerpiece dungeon~ exciting! The party may venture off to other oneshot-type escapades, but this dungeon needs to last a while. As we get into it, let's go over some quick terminology.

In a classic Gygaxian campaign, these focal dungeons are common: His personal Castle Greyhawk, the namesake for the Campaign setting in which the Castle resides; Temple of Elemental Evil from…Temple of Elemental Evil; or my personal favorite, the crashed UFO from Expedition to Barrier Peaks. Each of these is an archetypal dungeon that a campaign can be focused around. They are also often referred to as Mega-dungeons.

Campaign Design Project - 2022 (Part 2)

 

Travel by Map

Week two of the 75 Challenge introduces the concept of the hex map and helps us start designing our basic local region. We're not designing the whole world, just the areas the party will immediately be exploring around their home town and "the dungeon". 

Before we get into it, let’s look at the steps of week 2 (again, from Ray Otus' booklet) :

Get a sheet of hex paper. Draw the following items on it. Name anything worthy of a name.

Campaign Design Project - 2022 (Part 1)

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe

In 1975, D&D only a year old and making the rounds in the wargaming community, Gary Gygax was doing his best to explain his view of how roleplaying and running a campaign should work to the uninitiated. In a series of issues of Europa fanzine (part 2 of his article still survives), Gygax laid out a "challenge" in an article wonderfully titled:

"HOW TO SET UP YOUR DUNGEONS & DRAGONS CAMPAIGN – AND BE STUCK REFEREEING IT SEVEN DAYS PER WEEK UNTIL THE WEE HOURS OF THE MORNING!"