Monday, October 3, 2011

Abandoning the Megadungeon Project (For Now)

Much earlier this year, I boldly announced that I was commencing a Megadungeon Project. While the plan I had for the dungeon's layout is a very good one, and the specific place in which I planned to develop it is a key location in the mythology of the Lands of Ara, I have found that I am indeed a true old-schooler at heart, and need to develop my megadungeon through play (like Dwimmermount), NOT via detailed pre-design.

In the early months of 2011, I did a decent amount of mapping, maybe two to three partial levels' worth, but then lost steam and kind of drifted away from the whole thing for several months.  So here I am now, in early October, realizing that until a group of PC's gets anywhere near the place, I might as well "close up shop" on the project for the time being.*  

This clears space in my schedule for a few other projects that I am excited to tell you about, including:

- Co-writing and -editing The Lands of Ara Compendium 2011, collected highlights of the gaming content from the Lands of Ara blog from its inception in 2009 until the end of 2011.  The Compendium will be written and edited by Spawn of Endra and myself and will feature illustrations by some old-school favorites including Kelvin GreenThe Lands of Ara Compendium 2011 will be released as a free, downloadable pdf in the first weeks of 2012.

- Running episodic sessions of Tales from the Hotel Kaladarian, my new ConstantCon campaign.

- Possibly getting a local old-school D&D [probably Labyrinth Lord] group going.  As regular readers know, my attempt to get a Basic Dungeons and Dragons Group going at the local bookstore last month did not immediately pan out.  I think my new tactic locally will be to simply get a small group gaming, whether it be at my own house or at that bookshop or at some FLGS, I don't care.

- Writing and revising The Tower of Death, a spruced-up version of the module I ran at OSRCon in August, to be made available in early 2012 as a free, downloadable pdf.

Stay tuned for more Lands of Ara updates!
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* Reminder to self: when I pick up steam on the project again, remember to create a cool Megadungeon Project Binder.

2 comments:

  1. I know the feeling - I've often dropped projects, especially when I feel they aren't producing the results I want.
    One really good blog post I've come across is from Chatty DM, called Nerd Projectitis (http://critical-hits.com/2009/06/11/friday-chat-nerd-projectitis/) - blogger won't let me turn this into a functional hyperlink. This blog post has been more a matter of inspiration and reassurance than raw information.

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  2. Thanks for the link, will check out forthwith!

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