Dungeon Fantasy Dungeon Planner

[Kromm]

These twisted tunnels
Reflect the architecture
Of a twisted mind

— Jag Fairchild

A dungeon is only as good as its planning. You could wing it . . . but getting that Genuine Old-School Feel™ calls for a map full of tunnels and chambers, walls peppered with doors (some of them secret), all of it keyed to monsters, traps, treasures, and tricky puzzles. The Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game includes all the forms you need, and even blank maps, but these are scattered across multiple books, which means a lot of printing and collating.

Dungeon Fantasy Dungeon Planner offers an alternative: an all-in-one notebook with everything collected in one place and placed in a sensible order. It includes:

• one blank dungeon map (43 hexes × 34 hexes)
• one Adventure Planning Form (Exploits, p. 109)
• one room index keyed to the room maps
• one History form with space for general notes unrelated to specific dungeon areas
• 16 blank room maps (16 hexes × 13 hexes)
• 16 expanded Room Record Sheets (Exploits, p. 112), one opposite each room map
• three pairs of Wandering Monsters and Random Traps tables (Exploits, p. 111)
• three sets of three monster cards (Monsters, p. 64) for creatures unique to your dungeon
• two sets of three traps cards (Monsters, p. 64) for pitfalls designed for this adventure
• three full pages to record notes as the adventure progresses

Not big enough? Do the delver thing and use more – say, one Dungeon Planner per level! No matter how many you use, it's a lot tidier than a binder stuffed with notes, and gives you a nice, neat "module" to exchange with other GMs. Oh, and it uses the same form factor as the core rulebooks, so yes, it'll fit in the box.

—

Print: https://www.amazon.com/dp/155634905X/ ($8.95)
PDF: http://www.warehouse23.com/products/SJG31-1011 ($2.95)

[DarkPumpkin]

It won't fit in my DFRPG box...that is already stuffed with DFRPG supplements...

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by DarkPumpkin

It won't fit in my DFRPG box...that is already stuffed with DFRPG supplements...

Thank you!

[Anders]

Originally Posted by DarkPumpkin

It won't fit in my DFRPG box...that is already stuffed with DFRPG supplements...

We're gonna need a bigger box.

Bought it and looked at it. Looks useful.

[tbone]

I left a few comments earlier in this thread. Short version: Simple but nifty and inexpensive product.

I imagine a lot of thought went into what to include or leave out. Should any other sort of form have been included? I suppose there could be a dedicated page to recap all the Rewards, as in the Rat book, but it doesn't seem particularly needed to me . . . The only other thing that comes to my mind is a form for key NPCs: something far shorter than a 4- or 2-page PC form, but with more space than a monster card. Say, a couple of NPC pages, with two big "cards" per page.

(That said, some dungeons won't have any key NPCs, of course, while others will have a dozen, so I can understand a suggestion of "just use the Notes pages".)

Then there's the idea I noted in the other thread: As the product is a journal, I think it'd be nice to see a dedicated space on the front cover to fill in the dungeon name (like the space adorning p. 2). Pretty unnecessary if you're just filling out one journal, but a GM filling out several will want to make them identifiable.

And here's a final pie-in-the-sky thought. It'd be kind of fun to see SJG sell filled-out Dungeon Planner journals - i.e., ready-to-play mini dungeons using the Planner format. Maybe that'd be a good area for new DFRPG authors to get some experience. Or a fun way to hold a "submit a dungeon" contest, with the winning submission becoming a product?

No particular reason why SJG should use the Planner format to publish dungeons. Just struck me as an interesting (?) idea.

Anyway. It's a good product to spur the creation process. I'll go for the Amazon POD version soon.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Not big enough? Do the delver thing and use more – say, one Dungeon Planner per level! No matter how many you use, it's a lot tidier than a binder stuffed with notes, and gives you a nice, neat "module" to exchange with other GMs.

Any chance of the PDF being form-fillable? A lot of folks are away from the printer nowadays.

[dcarson]

Originally Posted by Rasputin

Any chance of the PDF being form-fillable? A lot of folks are away from the printer nowadays.

Even if you have a printer available I can't read anything I wrote if it's been a day or so and I don't remember it without reading half of it. I need to be able to type the info.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by tbone

It'd be kind of fun to see SJG sell filled-out Dungeon Planner journals - i.e., ready-to-play mini dungeons using the Planner format.

One of my first thoughts when the planner came out was that it might be fun to try to work up a location in that format.

[Highland_Piper]

Originally Posted by Rasputin

Any chance of the PDF being form-fillable? A lot of folks are away from the printer nowadays.

There are plenty of free or inexpensive pdf software to allow you to add form fillable features yourself.