Dooming Your Dungeon

DOOM-ing Your Dungeons. Lessons in Dungeon Design from Video Games. Sample file By: Irene D. B. DOOM-ing Your Dungeons. The essay you are about to read is the Credits culmination of almost twenty years of my life experiences. It is not a magnum opus, but my Written & Laid Out by: Irene D. B. first foray into codifying a philosophy that I have been bouncing around in my head for Interior & CoverArt by: Irene D. B. the past two years. That philosophy is that our dungeon design can only be improved by Cartography by: Irene D. B. understanding the language of the similar field of level design for video games. John Romero Quotes provided by: Tiogus of Helldorado The most clear example of the intersection of these two fields can be found by looking no further than the work of Jennell Jaquays. Not only is she considered one of the best dungeon designers, with herDark Tower adventure being nominated for the 1979 H.G. Wells Award for Best Role-playing Adventure, but she also has a very successful career as a video game level designer. This is no accident. I hope that you come away from this essay with a new eye when it comes to designing Sampleyour dungeons file 2 Using This PDF You know what’s wonderful? Technology is wonderful. We’ve gone from painting on walls to using light and subatomic particles to share information. And it is thanks to these innovations in technology that we are able to click on hyperlinks in our PDFs. So, whenever you see textLike This that means you can click on the text and it will take you somewhere. Go ahead, try it on the previous page. The Olivia Hill Rule One more point of order. This essay isn’t for fascists. “If you're a fascist, you're not welcome to use the techniques in this essay. It's against the rules. If you're reading this and thinking, "You just call everyone you disagree with a fascist," then you're probably a fascist, or incapable of drawing inferences from context and acknowledging a dangerous political climate that causes the oppressed to be hyperbolic. Don't read this essay. Heal yourself. Grow. Learn. Watch some Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood or something.” -RPG Museum Sample file 3 Introduction That’s why I decided to write this essay. Picture this. It’s a Saturday morning in 2002. You’re wrapped up in aSmurfs sleeping bag, curled up at your mom’s computer. You pop in DOOM (1993), and like always, you lose yourself to the way the levels twist in on themselves and the hypnotic beats of the synth sound track. You happily blast away through the labs of Mars, though you never can finish the game. You spend many years of your life not really thinking about it all that much, except in fond memories. In that time, you play many more, different video games, and develop a deep love and appreciation for the art form. Fast forward ten years. You’re a senior in high school. Your pre-calc teacher runs an after school tabletop gaming club. You finally join after one of your friends asks you several times, since you’ve always been kind of interested but not really sure where to begin with tabletop games. And you get hooked. Your teacher runs aD6 Adventures game, and you have a blast. You meet new people there, and one of them, a friend of your friend, invites you to a Dungeons & Dragons group that is forming off campus. You decide why not?And that begins your deep dive into an obsession that would shape the rest of your life. 8 years later, and you’re still playing table top The Maze of Tarot was roleplaying games, though that group has an early commission long since drifted apart due to various piece of mine. Note how reasons. You are constantly seeking ways to much wasted space improve your dungeons, and you stumble there is on this map with upon an article on Jenell Jaquays’ work as a the maze itself. I doubt dungeon designer called Jaquaying the the players visited all Dungeon. You read through it and then do parts of this map. This some research on your own and discover that was not a very good Jaquays not only did tabletop dungeon dungeon in my opinion, designs, but she also worked extensively as a though it does feature level designer for many video games, at elements of Jaquays’ studios like id Software - the same studio that techniques, such as producedDOOM (1993). It was then that it multiple routes and clicked with you. There is an intersection loops, and some of between the two things you loved – video Romero’s techniques as Samplegames and table top role-playing games. You well. file realize that you could sharpen your skills as a dungeon designer by picking up the skills and the tricks of the trade as a level designer. 4 Part 1: Foundations better understand the 3D space of the level. So, how exactly do the philosophies of 8. Create easily recognizable Romero and Jaquays intersect? Well, we landmarks in several places actually already have some examples that you for easier navigation. can play right now, at this very moment. We 9. Golden rule of level have video games that are based off of design – the “Horseshoe” tabletop role-playing games such as the layout. Baldur’s Gate franchise, which takes place in 10. Build your first level the Wizards of the Coast’s Forgotten Realms last. setting, and the direct adaptation of Paizo’s 11. Don’t constrain player Kingmaker adventure path in Pathfinder: movement (aka don’t let Kingmaker. In fact the reverse is also true, detailing get in the way of and we need look no further than online to gameplay). see a plethora of unlicensed adaptations of 12. Use fullbright textures. video games such as Street Fighter or Pokemon into tabletop role-playing game The main rules I want to focus on however systems. So, the idea that video games and are rules 4-11. Rules 1-3, and 12 are table top role-playing games can intersect is specifically for creating video games and are not a new one. But, I do not think I’ve seen not necessarily helpful for dungeon design, many things discussing how we can take level though 1-3 can be summed up more or less as design ideas and apply them to designing our “Consider ways to make your dungeon dungeons.After all, when you look at it on visually interesting by varying the materials paper there is very little difference between a the dungeon rooms are made out of”, and 12 video game level and a dungeon. InS1, E5 is entirely about lighting tricks in video of Devs Play of DoubleFineProd’s games. Youtube, Romero outlines the following 12 rules: 1. Alwayschangefloorheightwhen changing floor textures. 2. Use special border textures between different wall segments and doorways. 3. Be strict about texture alignment. 4. Use contrast everywhere in a level between light and dark areas, cramped and open areas. 5. Make sure that if a player could see outside that they should be able to somehow get there. 6. Be strict about designing several secret areas on every level. 7. Make the level flow so the player will revisit areas Another early map I designed, several times so they will The Fire Giant’s Castle.I originally drew this map on stream as the finale for my “Joy of SampleCartography” series.file E’s represent entrances, while As represent areas. You can see some of Romero’s rules in play here - several secret doors, and loops. 5 Use Contrast Everywhere In my own dungeon crawl,The Bone Daddy’s House of Fun, I intentionally made each room Of John Romero’s advice, this one is that the players came across shaped slightly probably the most important one and is the different, with different challenges in the foundation of his entire philosophy. Rules 1-3 environment. are all about contrasting the textures of your levels, and rule 12 is specifically about The first room was a simple room with two making things appear to be emitting their own doors and the corpse of a famous dragon- light in the darkness. Contrast is also an fighting plumber. One of the doors opened to incredibly easy way to create landmarks to a hallway that led to the next room, while the navigate with, as you are more likely to other door opened to a closet with a cartoon remember something that contrasts with its punching glove that would spring out when surroundings. There are even multiple times the door was opened. The second room where, during hisDev Plays segment with featured a tight rope across a pool of lava, DoubleFine Prods, he talks about how he which when I ran this adventure for a group prefers asymmetrical maps. Part of this is of players and a former player who had because he considers symmetrical maps lazy, previously run the dungeon was listening in but the other part of it is because it is yet on, prompted an “Oh god not the tightrope again, an extension of his contrast philosophy. bridge.” - this player had an incredibly The left side of the level should be radically difficult time crossing it due to bad rolls on different from the right side of the level, with her part. few exceptions. However, it was clearly a very memorable So how can we apply it to our dungeons? part of the dungeon.

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