An amazing Dwarven Delve

Got an email today from Cedric Plante with some pictures of an amazing How to Host a Dungeon map he created with a friend. I love this stuff. This is what's great about dungeon adventure gaming. Every time I think I've squeezed everything dungeon-themed out of my brain, I see someone else's work with a new slant or a new aesthetic, and I want to go back to the dungeon again. Also, it has an Ankheng.

Arena of Deth

I spent today giving How to Host a Dungeon a careful edit for the third printing. Going through the game reminded me again how much I like it, so I pulled out my supplies for a game tonight.


A superintelligent Ettin with delusions of grandeur and funded by a stolen dragon hoard expanded the ancient ruins of a Dark Elf arena into a massive lair, laying waste the surface kingdoms and forcing its people to fight for his amusement. There are some other great features too, including an entire kingdom within the hollow Earth whose people have never made contact with the surface. Possibly only the ancient clan of crabmen know of the existence of both worlds.

Here are a couple more pictures:


Deep in the Age of Monsters, a powerful party of adventurers lay waste to the dungeons, removing much of its treasure. Most of them succumb to wandering monster attacks before the surviving thief flees with their accumulated trove (8 loot!).



The Dawn of the Ettin's age of villainy. Things aren't as great for him as they seem. Unless those Crabmen succumb to a lucky adventurer attack, he's going to have tough competition for treasure.

The new printing of How to Host a Dungeon should be ready pretty soon. I'll also be offering a print bundle along with The Purple Worm Graveyard. The new edition contains mostly minor alterations, though I have streamlined the Dark Elves quite a bit.

The Next How to Host a Dungeon?

This weekend I discovered that I'm near the bottom of the second printing of How to Host a Dungeon! So now I'm starting to think about what the next printing will look like. So what do you want to see or think would be cool in a new version of How to Host a Dungeon? Good as is? Needs more monsters and villains? Or something else entirely?

Hibernation

I'm still hibernating...

It's a weird transitional time right now. I'm forced to realize that so much has changed in my life in the last 4 months that going back to the same-old isn't even an option.

I'm back from Canada and the news is that my Mom is doing much better than anyone, including her doctor, considered possible! She's currently recovering in hospital. At her age a heart attack is always a serious matter, but the current news is good. Thanks to everyone that sent prayers and wishes.

At work, the big software launch is imminent, which means there will be some pressure off in the consulting business, which means a bit of a break, hopefully. This has been the biggest and busiest few months in my career history, which has all sorts of implications for what comes next.

With lots of time on the plane and in hospital rooms over the last week, I decided to take a bunch of movie stills from the old Tron movie and play with the design aesthetic to see what I can make of it for some weird cartography and illustration stuff. So now I've got a big stack of new ideas to play with.

The Year of the Dungeon art show was also an unforeseen success. I really did not anticipate the response (Thanks ya'll!). That opens up a whole bunch of options for me artistically.

Plus the Purple Worm Graveyard and How to Host a Dungeon sequel are quietly mutating in my desk drawer.

So the upshot is that I may have a modicum of time and even a bit of capital to play with over the next few months. There's a strong potential for life-chaning awesomeness in all this.

But in the meantime, I'm working, thinking, and hibernating.