Dungeon Delve #2 - Charting a Course! (MythCraft RPG, and miscellaneous)
Dig deep and uncover a fantasy TTRPG that's a fresh take on the familiar. Quick-start inside!
I. You Enter The Next Chamber…
A foreward.
A massive vaulted chamber hangs above our adventurers. As the door closes with a thunderous boom, small floating spheres with concentric rings animate, spinning faster and faster. Spectral tendrils flow from their surface and solidify, taking the shape of antique chandeliers, their lights illuminating the room.
The floor is a polished engraving of stonework in the form of the realms surface; a world map. Many of its landforms and monuments are unfamiliar. To the astute sage, it is the ancient world, long lost in myth but now revealed. Yet, the rogue notices a stone which seems out of place. A trigger perhaps? Once emboldened, and party readied, they place a pack upon the pressure plate.
The world reforms. No longer is it the surface of an antique world. Rather, a subterranean network of countless caverns and tunnels, some known, but most not. At the site of the ruins, a sprawling labyrinth, far more complex than even the sage could have anticipated.
Our adventurers realize how unprepared they are for the Umbral Depths; a colossal beast that could swallow them whole. A terror is felt; one of being lost in the darkness, forever forgotten.
The paladin speaks. To not go forward at all would guarantee their story be forgotten. With bravery, they press onward...Salutations, friends!
As we draw deeper into the depths, we find long lost revelations of a more ancient surface world, and are met with the nature of things before.
This past week has been a HUGE flurry of me scouring cyberspace and immersing into tons of tabletop RPG spaces, looking into new games and products, and building out the repertoire of future Dungeon Delves.
Our first issue went out to 50 subscribers! … A modest but very exciting number. As we continue to blow the horn and bang the drums, we’re pushing to double our count by the end of the month!
(Okay. Sure. Its the “royal” we. =3 … Ya work with whatcha got, right? Perhaps someday it will be a true we.)
… So, alongside all of the work we (I’m) doing to broadcast the delve, if YOU know anyone who would really enjoy the kind of content this newsletter brings, send them over to the Substack!
II. The Sage Speaks!
The sages backstory quest to build a master dictionary, one issue at a time!
TTRPG Glossary (Crawls - Part 1)
Point Of Interest (POI): A location within geographic space in an RPG world that is relevant to the world, character, plot, or encounter.
Crawl: A scenario in RPGs where characters move across a geographic area divided into small segments. Segments represent paths, points, or POIs, and can be either revealed, or hidden until discovered. Crawls can be a useful mechanism for open exploration in RPGs.
Dungeon Crawl: A crawl in which heroes navigate a labyrinth of monsters, traps, puzzles, and treasure. Most often, the setting is a dungeon with a square grid, but can include any other dense environment that’s an arrangement of interior rooms and passages.
Worldbuilding / Writing Glossary
Primary World: Referring to the real physical world (out-of-universe) as it pertains to certain elements of world building. An example would be the process of a writer constructing a language for a story.
Secondary World: Referring to a world constructed for a story (in-universe) as it pertains to certain elements of world building. An example would be the history of how a language (constructed for a story) was developed and adopted by its appropriate peoples within the lore of the world.
III. Markings on the Wall
Latest rumors, discoveries, and puzzling finds in the RPG world and beyond!
TTRPG News and Finds
[Backerkit Launch!] MythCraft TTRPG Enhanced: New Loot, Reprint, and VTT Support! - Check out QuasiReal Publishing’s own epic fantasy TTRPG; a unique twist that is fresh, but familiar! … Expect a full review at www.ChaoticanWriter.com in the near future!
2025 Is the Year of the Beta - Prismatic Wasteland dares you, as a creator, to be bold and to put out a BETA version of something that YOU are working on this year!
Better Character Deaths in Dungeons and Dragons - Nominated for the 2024 Bloggies. Thoughtful alternative approaches for the big sleep. Its DnD-related, but the big picture lessons apply.
[Local MN/USA] 2D Con Unplugged begins Jan 31st thru Feb 2nd - The annual tabletop and board gaming convention with a focus on relaxation and community. An escape from larger conventions.
Worldbuilding Links
Worldbuilding Magazine: V7 no.2 Philosophy & Intellectual Pursuits - Last month, WBM’s new issue dropped with a handful of short stories, but also a cool essay on “Forbidden Lore: Why is Knowledge Power”
Gothic Architecture 101 - Sharing this insightful page on Cathedral.org which helped inform some of the setting description and story text from the Foreward above.
Fantasy Worldbuilding: Tolkien’s Primary and Secondary Worlds - Further context to todays world-building definitions.
Eye Candy (Artist Shoutout)
Alex Mitchell - I’m an enthusiastic owner of the first volume of “Random Encounters With Interesting Monsters” by Alex, and their style and work is fantastic! Check out their portfolio!
IV. Looting the Room
Free and PWYW Stuff
Factions TTRPG (Pay What You Want) - A play-by-post (PbP) tabletop role playing game (TTRPG) where you create your own faction and play as its leader. The rules are lite (8 pages), setting-agnostic, and accommodate any writing ability.
»MythCraft RPG Free Demo« - Give this fresh take of epic fantasy TTRPGs from QuasiReal Publishing a go with a free demo!
Perilous Shores by watabou - A random map generator with a number of parameters that you can customize, including map details, style presets, region labels, pins and icons, and much more!
Old Maps Online - A digitized archive of maps from across the globe and across history. Looking for a realistic example for a map your are creating? Why not borrow directly from history?
40 Free Fantasy Fonts for Creative Projects - Past article on Chaotican Writer highlighting some delightful fonts for maps and fantastical projects.
V. Treasure Chest (Sponsored Ads)
Want to see your ad here? Click here for submission rules and contact link!
Outlanders: Journey to the End - Outlanders: Journey to the End is a dark fantasy TTRPG about the corruption of magic coming to Kickstarter in 2025. Sign up on our pre-launch page to be notified when we go live!
Want to see YOUR project here? … Click on this link to learn about how you can submit your ad to Dungeon Delve!