Actually, it's quite hard to stop him, which is exactly what I like to see in a writer.

He chatted to All Year I Dream About Gaming Conventions about DIE generally, and the Metadungeon specifically, and (I am given to understand) a good time was had by all!

https://shows.acast.com/all-year-i-dream-about-gaming-conventions/episodes/episode-195-die-valiantly-with-gareth-ryder-hanrahan

- Chant

That's right, folks, we now officially know what a Metadungeon looks like!

Thanks to your ideas, and some suggestions from the RRD team - who, it turns out, all have highly specific trauma around dungeons - I was able to send Juan (Odd Artworks on YouTube) a set of art prompts, which he's now turned into a map.



While the map is not of the Metadungeon, in that it is not the map of the dungeon that will be in the book, it is an expression of the Metadungeon: the ideas that go into it, and some examples of the fun details a GM could tailor to their group's experiences. ("Oh good, we've found the NPC we're inevitably going to adopt. Everything is proceeding to plan.")

Odd Artworks' drawing process is also just a really fun thing to watch. He's endlessly creative and his art is joyful. Check out the Metadungeon map video here:



Or go and watch it on YouTube, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-llYgemS2NE.

- Chant

Friday's update was beset by gremlins, it turns out. If it didn't go into your spam folder, it showed up with a warning about a dangerous link. If you did manage to see it, you probably couldn't comment on it.

Given all that, let's give it another go.

I would really like to know what goes in your personal Metadungeon - what the tropes and standards are that remind you of your own games. And I'd like to then get Odd Artworks (YouTuber, nice fella) to draw them.

I promise there's no scary or scammy stuff in the link, which is just to Odd Artworks' channel, and I'm hoping this update won't go into your spam folder. And I categorically promise that commenting's properly enabled now. 

Pop by the last update and give us your ideas! 

Chant

Help us find out!

I mean… we know what’s in it. It’s all of the things you remember fondly from dungeons and adventures of eras past. Roughly hewn walls, puzzles you need three real-life languages to solve, secret doors, a wine cellar/crypt (I’m fondly remembering my own ‘90s vampire games here, OK?).

What are those things, though? What are the classic props and décor and stuff that conjures up your favourite (or least favourite – sometimes that’s easier) era of RPGs?

It doesn’t even have to be a dungeon.. After a couple of years of D&D, most of my teenage roleplaying was White Wolf games, which means there’s a full-on goth club in my personal Metadungeon. (How would I represent that? A corridor suddenly covered in layers of band posters half an inch deep? Sticky floors?). Probably a tech-dragon’s lair, too. Definitely an eldritch library full of secrets man was not meant to know.

If you started later, maybe your memories are high school parties from Monsterhearts, or a group of nerdy-voice actors consistently defeated by simple doors. Maybe it’s a bunch of criminal bears doing a heist.

To help us envisage the aesthetic of the Metadungeon, we’ve arranged for YouTuber Odd Artworks to bring a version of it to life. Odd Artworks, amongst his many talents, draws mini-dungeons based on random prompts – you can check out his latest example here:

Or watch his whole mini-dungeon playlist here.

This map isn’t going in the book (probably), because it’ll be a chaotic mashup of every possible era, whereas the real Metadungeon will be neatly sectioned into one level for roughly every decade of RPGs.

Instead, it’ll be a powerfully nostalgic, probably tongue-in-cheek representation of what we, as a tightly-knit band of just over 1,000 friends, think of when we say “classic TTRPGs.”

If you’ve got a classic memory of “your” RPGs, whether it’s something you love or something you love to hate, leave it in a comment on this post. I am 1000% sure we’ll get some people with very similar memories, and that’s all part of the process, so go with your first thought. We’ll skim off the best comments and turn them into a list of prompts for Odd Artworks.

Then… Odd Artworks will attempt to draw them. And put the result on YouTube. So brave. So confident. I hope he’s ready for what’s coming to him.

Please help, otherwise me and Grant are going to have to write all these prompts ourselves.

- Producer Chant

SURPRISE!

Many Sided Media, who make My First Dungeon, have just recorded a new DIE actual play podcast, run by Gillen Himself.

If you already know the DIE RPG, this is a hell of a chance to see it played by some truly excellent players (including guest player Nathan Yaffe, from Drawfee). If you don't, it's a short, two episode game and a delicious taster of what you can expect.

The first episode's out now on Many Sided's Patreon, and the first hour is free on Spotify, and Apple podcasts. The second part drops on 25th February. Go listen to part one here:

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/die-total-party-149508485

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5BpUwGLHOKzuQ8ycOvIedn?si=e4b9549bec8048b0

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-first-dungeon/id1601290088

- Chant