Dungeon ‘23 - Week 0
Sean McCoy (of Mothership fame, amongst other things) came up with the idea for Dungeon 23. The premise is simple, you create one room each day of the month and at the end of the month you have a complete dungeon level. Each month you start a new level, and at the end of the year you have a megadungeon!
My buddy NondairyGiant introduced me to the concept and after some waffling about I decided to revisit an idea he and I had toward the end of last year: a magical castle. Largely inspired by Howl’s Moving Castle and Krull with some additional inspiration from Castlevania, I got to work writing down notes and drawing up some crude sketches of the castle overall (pictured below).
Crude sketch of the top view.
The background for the castle is that a powerful Sorcerer named Ossifrage created the castle and then captured a demon named Haborym to power it. With his flying fortress, Ossifrage can travel safely throughout the world doing whatever it is that insane wizards do.
Rather than traditional “levels,” I’m designing the castle in “zones.” The first zone is a series of Natural Caverns, which I generated the layout of with some simple dice drops (pictured below). The second zone is the Furnace Level, where Haborym the Demon is imprisoned. Above that will be the Castle Dungeons, serving as the third zone.
Caverns beneath the Castle, generated via a simple dice drop system.
The fourth zone is the Outer Keep, which consists of the Barbican, Walls and Guard Towers, and Grounds. I’m thinking about putting a hedge maze and magical orchard somewhere on this level. The fifth and sixth zones are going to make up the Inner Keep, or the castle proper.
The next four zones are four magical towers connected to the Inner Keep, each of which will be the home to a powerful magical creature: Kaikias the Peryton, Euros the Griffin, Lips the Sphinx, and Skiron the Wyvern. I have some themes in mind for each tower to make them feel like distinct zones. The eleventh zone is going to be some weird demiplane - I haven’t really thought about it too much yet, but I’ve got plenty of time. The final zone will be the Tower of Ossifrage himself.
I love factions in dungeons, so I’ve been brainstorming some for Ossifrage’s Castle. So far the main factions are the animal-headed knights and nobles that live in the main keep, animated tools and objects (a la Beauty and the Beast), and Haborym the Demon and his imps. Interestingly enough, I have no idea what I’m going to do with Ossifrage himself, but again I’ve got 364 more days to figure it out.
Looking forward to working on this project throughout the year and actually writing a dungeon. It’s always been an area in the RPG world that I’ve been lackluster in, so this is a good opportunity to shore up those skills. I’m hoping to post weekly updates, so keep an eye out!
