#052 - january 2025 TTRPG newsletter
Rise of the Drow, Elric, Megadungeon
New year, new games, here is the summary for January.
I’ve had a pretty busy month with the start of a new campaign, this time as a player. Back to D&D 5E (2014 version) for the Rise of the Drow adventure. Time to beat up those treacherous elves (or get beaten up ourselves, for that matter, as the campaign is known for being punishing). And we managed to get in three sessions this month. Fun fact: one of my players from my Adventures in Phandalin and Adventures in Otira/Abominations Vaults campaigns is the Dungeon Master! Who said he was getting his revenge?
I was able to participate in an open table using a system similar to (A)D&D. And finally, I ran a session of my very own open table game in my very own world of Kalendir, this time using Shadowdark and a tomb that has not yet revealed all its secrets. The end of the month was less active because I was caught up with work...
Random megadungeon
In the latest part of my series Let’s Draw a Dungeon, I talked about creating a dungeon in a semi-random way. This gave me ideas for developing a location in my world of Kalendir, near the Dark Forest, for a potential future megadungeon called the Mines of BlackForge. I started working on it, with “mandatory” halls and rooms, and random junctions and passages, most of it inspired by the classic Moria. But there is, of course, more to that... We shall see if I work more on it in the future.
Readings
I finished a fantasy trilogy, only available in french, which could be translated as Noon of the Black Sun and is inspired by Lankhmar. And then switched to the first volume of the Elric saga, which is my main reading goal for this year. The french edition adds Elric of Melniboné and The Dreaming City and was a good read.
Creations, tips, shop…
I’m still working on multiple projects. First I re-released a One Page Dungeon, part of a series about chromatic dragons. When I have time, I still work and try to improve my #Dungeon23 megadungeon, hoping to publish it this year with some additional levels. I also prepped some parts of a new ‘semi-random’ megadungeon (see above): the Mines of BlackForge.
And also drawed some map in ye olde way, with pen and paper, as I find it very funny, relaxing and rewarding. I’m still searching for the style I’d like to make them but I think I’m getting close. A close project to that is having small dungeons that a GM can throw in a campaign with random content and minimum efforts. A mix between 5 Room Dungeons and One-Page Dungeons, if that makes sense. Modular dungeons is a WIP title, I’ll think more about it soon™.
What do you think?
My creations are on DriveThruRPG and/or my Ko-fi shop.
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