A game about drawing, How To Host A Dungeon is a most delightful work, effortlessly combining days of scribbling as a child, the frustrations of becoming lost in roleplaying game systems when all you really want to do is delve into a dungeon, the simple, now forgotten joy of taking a pen to a paper and self-made, analogue fun. It’s brilliant.
The idea is that you take a piece of paper and draw a dungeon. The game tells you how to go about it, building the dungeon in sequential ages, Primordial Age to Age of Monsters and so forth, with numerous groups moving in, expanding their territory, and likely perishing, leaving a neat dungeon behind. Adventurers might explore it, disaster might strike. You use pens, beads of some sort – I have coins – and your own fingers (for measurement, silly) to draw it in all its glory.
How To Host A Dungeon is an inexpensive ebook, currently downloadable at 5 USD. (There is a printed version, if you’re so inclined, but it works neatly with your standard printer.) If you’re very cheap, there’s a limited free version to check out, as well, so if you’re at all intrigued, just get to the site already.
Check out some dungeons created with the game in this Flickr group. It’s too cool. (This is my favorite so far.)
You don’t have to regret growing up if you never stop to play.
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