The Classic Dungeon Design Guide

The Classic Dungeon Design Guide

Author: Kent David Kelly

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2017-01-06

Total Pages: 476

ISBN-13: 9781542405409

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Deep dwarven cities of the underworld, Infested by conquering orcs, Enslaved by demons of skull and pyre ... Black labyrinths of mad demigods, Proving grounds for daring adventurers And graveyards for greedy fools ... Twisting passages, all alike, Where lurking trolls and shadow beasts Guard the deepest riddles of the nether ... If you have ever wanted to know how to quickly and masterfully create your own mega-dungeon for your pen-and-paper Fantasy Role-Playing Game (PNP FRPG) campaigns, this is the perfect book for you. This Game Master's guide will show you, step by step, how to take your vague-yet-promising ideas and how to sculpt them with precise and careful design decisions (enhanced, if you prefer, by random die rolls), allowing you to conceive an endless mega-dungeon in record time. Best of all, the CASTLE OLDSKULL CLASSIC DUNGEON DESIGN GUIDE is also system-neutral. No matter which of the many FRPGs you choose to play, from basic skill level to advanced, a first edition or a fifth or anything in between, the lessons you master here will serve you in your gaming for years to come. Learn how to make the most of your ever-dwindling prep time, so that you can spend those saved hours gaming with your friends! This old school Guide is filled to overflowing with more than 450 pages of design material and dungeon generation tables. Highlights include: * Hack and slash and beyond. 39 adventure scenarios, with 20 diabolical twists, totaling 780 great ideas for your next campaign. * A myriad of options. Over 10,000 unusual benefactors ("quest givers"), unusual wilderness encounters your players will never forget, and extensive rumor and dungeon history generation systems. * Every endless labyrinth ever, under one cover. Extensive details on realistic underworlds, hundreds of dungeon dressing ideas, over 10,000 room types, and much more. * The imagined made real. A complete second book is included herein as a detailed example of dungeon design, featuring over 60 pages of specific examples. The Goblin Head campaign environment supplement reveals exactly how a 13-level mega-dungeon can be conceived in a matter of hours. The CLASSIC DUNGEON DESIGN GUIDE is brought to you by Kent David Kelly of Wonderland Imprints, a role-player and Game Master with over 30 years of play experience. Best of all, if there are any other materials you would like to see relating to dungeon design, feel free to contact the author. Many more CASTLE OLDSKULL supplements are being prepared specifically to support the players, initiates and Game Masters of the Old School Revival (OSR). This Guide is your gateway to the realms of sword and sorcery. Join us for the adventure! (A complete reference work designed to supplement existing pen-and-paper Fantasy Role-Playing Games. 12 chapters, over 100 section topics, 60,000 words, 475+ pages; organized via a fully ordered table of contents. Just one of the proud creations available now from Wonderland Imprints - Only the Finest Works of Fantasy.)


Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana

Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana

Author: Michael Witwer

Publisher: Ten Speed Press

Published: 2018-10-23

Total Pages: 450

ISBN-13: 0399580948

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An illustrated guide to the history and evolution of the beloved role-playing game told through the paintings, sketches, illustrations, and visual ephemera behind its creation, growth, and continued popularity. FINALIST FOR THE HUGO AWARD • FINALIST FOR THE LOCUS AWARD • NOMINATED FOR THE DIANA JONES AWARD From one of the most iconic game brands in the world, this official DUNGEONS & DRAGONS illustrated history provides an unprecedented look at the visual evolution of the brand, showing its continued influence on the worlds of pop culture and fantasy. Inside the book, you’ll find more than seven hundred pieces of artwork—from each edition of the core role-playing books, supplements, and adventures; as well as Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance novels; decades of Dragon and Dungeon magazines; and classic advertisements and merchandise; plus never-before-seen sketches, large-format canvases, rare photographs, one-of-a-kind drafts, and more from the now-famous designers and artists associated with DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. The superstar author team gained unparalleled access to the archives of Wizards of the Coast and the personal collections of top collectors, as well as the designers and illustrators who created the distinctive characters, concepts, and visuals that have defined fantasy art and gameplay for generations. This is the most comprehensive collection of D&D imagery ever assembled, making this the ultimate collectible for the game's millions of fans around the world.


Game World Generator

Game World Generator

Author: Kent David Kelly

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2017-01-07

Total Pages: 438

ISBN-13: 9781542433891

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Wolf-haunted wastelands of frigid tundra, Veiling lost cities sunken and frozen into the ice ... Mist-wreathed mountains teeming with orcs, Goblins, demons and dwarven underworlds ... Burning battlefields, reigned over By imperious and ancient dragons ... Steaming jungles, filled with headhunters And savage apes, guardians to ancient temples Filled with accursed gold ... These are the realms of old school fantasy role-playing, the world of your imagination. This world is a dark and wondrous place, an endless milieu teeming with danger, intrigue, exotic wonders, epic quests, and the bold heroes and villains who dare to conquer all. And you, as the Game Master, are tasked with creating those kingdoms from scratch. It is your mission to forge an entire alternate universe filled with infinite possibilities, a world which your friends and fellow role-players can explore for years to come. But how do you create a world? How do you even begin? The CASTLE OLDSKULL GAME WORLD GENERATOR is the only guide specifically and solely designed to assist you in creating an entire old school fantasy world. This is no "It is time for you to take the world into your own hands, and no one but you can decide what to include" copout dodge which demands everything of you and gives you nothing. This is a 430+ page step-by-step guide, from blank hex paper to the fully-realized game world, which explains the entire process to you in granular detail. Even better, this book is filled with dozens of helpful graphics which illustrate the entire mapping process. If you love lost worlds like Dave Arneson's Blackmoor, Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom and Pellucidar, Gary Gygax's Flanaess, Robert E. Howard's Cimmeria and Hyboria, Fritz Leiber's Nehwon, H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands, Michael Moorcock's Melnibone and J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth, then this is the book for you! Highlights include: world conception, mapping, scale, landforms, terrain, kingdoms and fiefs, wilderness design, feudal realms and foreign equivalents, city and wilderness names, treasures and resources, hierarchies of nobility, ruler classes and levels, realm alignment, campaign-tailored population formulae, demi-human enclaves, humanoid tribes, starting area development, dragon lair placement, dungeon placement and much more. Everything you need to turn your ideas into a solid, coherent and adventure-filled world is right here at your fingertips. The GAME WORLD GENERATOR is brought to you by Kent David Kelly of Wonderland Imprints, a role-player and Game Master with over 30 years of play experience. Best of all, if there are any other materials you would like to see relating to world or dungeon design, feel free to contact the author. I create the supplements that Game Masters want. Many more CASTLE OLDSKULL supplements are being prepared specifically to support the players, initiates and Game Masters of the Old School Revival (OSR). This book is your gateway to the realms of sword and sorcery. Join us for the adventure! (A complete reference work designed to supplement existing pen-and-paper Fantasy Role-Playing Games. 3 parts, over 100 section topics, 42,000 words, over 430 pages; organized via a fully hyperlinked table of contents. Just one of the proud creations available now from Wonderland Imprints - Only the Finest Works of Fantasy.)


The Classic Dungeon Design Guide II

The Classic Dungeon Design Guide II

Author: Kent David Kelly

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2018-09-05

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 9781727110753

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The sequel to the Classic Dungeon Design Guide is here ... Have you read every dungeon design book out there, but you're still hungry for great ideas to amaze your players? Would you like to possess the tools to generate countless millions of randomized results for bizarre rooms and shrines, dungeon doors, magical laboratories, skeletons, Lovecraftian abominations, and torture chambers? Then this is the book for you. This massive tome is the direct sequel to Wonderland Imprints' Gold Medal Best Seller, CDDG1: THE CLASSIC DUNGEON DESIGN GUIDE. Where Book 1 was a basic inspirational tome filled with thousands of ideas, Book II: Dungeon Mastery Design Tables is an advanced nuts-and-bolts guide that provides you with hundreds of pages of tables which you can use to create an infinite number of dungeon rooms, monster lairs, thematic levels and endless details such as barracks, caves, chests, corpses, fountains, prisoner cells, quarters, shrines, and magical gateways. You can even use this book's treasure trove of systems to create millions of deities, slime monsters, prisoner NPCs, and unique NPC villains and prisoners, using nearly 1,000 different experience level titles and other tools that intersect with DDE1, DUNGEON DELVER ENHANCER. Book One was only the beginning, the entry work to a series. This is one of the largest and most extensive dungeon design books in existence, with features branching out from CDDG1 including: data for on-the-spot creation of altars, barracks, caves, containers, corpses, doors, dungeon dressing, fountains, fungi, galleries, hideouts, laboratories, magical gateways, prisoners, quarters, stairways, torture chambers, unusual rooms, and those ever-baffling magical "unclassifiable chambers" which no one can fully comprehend. It's all here, the massive set of tables I have used for years to create new mega-dungeons for the Castle Oldskull OSR campaign. I have refined and expanded them over many months of writing, and now I offer them to you. So what are you waiting for? This book is the perfect companion for THE CLASSIC DUNGEON DESIGN GUIDE, and has been specially designed to serve both as a learning grimoire and as a tabletop go-to book for design and for sandbox play. After all, if you're going to dare to delve into the netherworld, you should probably take not just a lantern and an elvish sword of great antiquity; you should also carry the ultimate guidebook to help you from getting lost along the way ... Another classic Fantasy Role-Playing Game Supplement from Wonderland Imprints, Only the Finest Works of Fantasy.


Oldskull Adventure Generator

Oldskull Adventure Generator

Author: Kent David Kelly

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2018-09-06

Total Pages: 438

ISBN-13: 9781727138962

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The world's ultimate adventure creation tool. Infinite possibilities await you in dungeons, the wilderness, the seas, skies, netherworld, and the planes of existence. Whither are you bound? Years in the making, mega-supplement GWG2: OLDSKULL ADVENTURE GENERATOR is the "Rosetta Stone" of the Castle Oldskull system, the one master system which binds all of the present and future supplements of the Castle Oldskull OSR gaming universe together into a massive unified imagination engine. Harness the power of over 30,000 data elements to create dungeons, villains, quests, and more. Your worlds of adventure will never be the same! Using this colossal supplement, you can create millions of unique adventures for your players. There are so many options, that in a lifetime of play no two adventures will ever be the same. I believe (but would be happy to be proven wrong) that this is the most ambitious and extensive adventure creation tool available on the market. Using this volume, you can create an entire campaign of multiple adventures, entailing wilderness journeys, dungeons, monster lairs, traps, tricks, treasure, and unforgettable tales. When coupled with the GAME WORLD GENERATOR, you can create your own world of endless adventure and allow the Players Characters to journey anywhere. And you will be creating new realms of wonder every step of the way. Do you need a new island, temple, tomb, forest, swamp, mountain range, netherworld, or sea? This book will show you how to build them all, each uniquely detailed with their own locales and opportunities for play. Another old school gaming experience from Kent David Kelly and Wonderland Imprints, Only the Finest Works of Fantasy.


The Book of Dungeon Traps

The Book of Dungeon Traps

Author: Kent David Kelly

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 9781983723933

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Tumbling boulders crushing over powdered bones, Death pits filled with gibbering slime, Strangling vines, enchanted lodestones, lightning bolts, Hateful wraiths Imprisoned in chests of ancient gold, Chained by holy symbol and silver seal ... Every mechanical horror, every thief's demise, Every fell contraption Lies here, deep in this book of secrets. Would you like to fill your dungeons with traps, but you can never find coherent rules or guidelines to show the way? Are your players weary of arbitrary deathtraps? Have you ever searched in vain for a system which codifies spells into magical traps? Are you bored with the "famous four" - pits, gas, arrows and poisoned needles - but never know what to replace them with? Castle Oldskull Supplement BDT1, THE BOOK OF DUNGEON TRAPS, is filled with over 800 classic traps and trap variations. Herein you will find rules for boiling mud, Illusionary bridges, amnesia vapor, polymorph traps, unseen servant-triggered machinations, collapsing columns, and much more. Best of all, all traps are collated into hierarchies of Lethality Levels, so that you can always challenge your players without killing their heroes outright. This elaborate tome also includes rules for trap placement in dungeon designs, advice on trap locations, trap triggers, trap detection, trap removal, 10' poles as trap detection devices, and even a complete set of random monster tables to aid you in populating monster pits, cages, summoning traps, alarm-trapped dungeon chambers, and much more. Every trap type features detailed rules which have been culled from dozens of books and dungeon modules, turning hidden and obscure rulings into a methodical and internally consistent system for trap design. Everything you will ever need to fill every dungeon you create with any trap you can dream of, it's all here in a single source. This book is made to interface with Castle Oldskull Supplement CDDG1, THE CLASSIC DUNGEON DESIGN GUIDE, but the integration is completely optional. You do not need both books to make use of them; they simply amplify one another. 49,800 words, 308 pages. Another classic Fantasy Role-Playing Game Supplement from Wonderland Imprints, Only the Finest Works of Fantasy.


A Practical Guide to Level Design

A Practical Guide to Level Design

Author: Benjamin Bauer

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2023-02-28

Total Pages: 535

ISBN-13: 1000839591

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Written by an AAA industry expert with over 20 years of experience, this book offers comprehensive coverage of the practical skills that all successful level designers need to have. It covers everything from practical production skills to the social and soft skills required to thrive in the gaming industry. This book begins with a theoretical and abstract approach that sets a common language for the later hard-skill applications and practical examples. These later chapters cover a wealth of practical skills for use during the concept phase, while creating layouts, scripting, and working with AI. This book includes essential chapters on topics such as social skills, soft skills, world-building, level design direction, production, as well as how to gain employment in the industry. This book will be of great interest to all level designers, content leads, and directors looking to enhance their skillset. It will also appeal to students of level and game design looking for tips on how to break into the industry.


The Ultimate RPG Game Master's Guide

The Ultimate RPG Game Master's Guide

Author: James D’Amato

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2024-03-26

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1507221851

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"Up your game with everything you need to run your next tabletop roleplay game with expert advice, gameplay guidance, and playable content from RPG expert James D'Amato. Leading an RPG can be a challenge, but The Ultimate Game Master's Guide is here to help! With advice from RPG expert James D'Amato, you'll find answers to all these questions and more, along with guidance for bringing your game to life from behind the GM screen. James covers everything you need to know to bring your GM game to the next level."--


Lore & Legends

Lore & Legends

Author: Michael Witwer

Publisher: Ten Speed Press

Published: 2023-10-03

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 1984859684

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

An illustrated guide to Dungeons & Dragons’ beloved fifth edition told through interviews, artwork, and visual ephemera from the designers, storytellers, and artists who bring it to life. When the reimagined fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons debuted in the summer of 2014, the game was on the brink of obsolescence. But within a few short years, D&D found greater success than it had ever enjoyed before, even surpassing its 1980s golden age. How did an analog game nearly a half century old become a star in a digital world? For the first time, Lore & Legends reveals the incredible ongoing story of Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition from the perspective of the designers, artists, and players who bring it to life. This comprehensive visual guide illuminates contemporary D&D—its development, evolution, cultural relevance, and popularity—through exclusive interviews and more than 900 pieces of artwork, photography, and advertising curated and analyzed by the authors of the bestselling and Hugo Award–nominated Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana.