2013 One Page Dungeon Contest

In my Gold & Glory campaign I've placed dozens upon dozens of past One Page Dungeons  to fill out wilderness, under The City, stuffed in megadungeons as sub levels, as "events" to spice up the doldrums,  everywhere.  Really an amazing resource.  Great shout out to Alex Schroeder for keeping it going.

2013 One Page Dungeon Contest is on!

I judged one year, it was a blast if a bit overwhelming. Maybe if I get not lazy I'll put together a submission deadline is April 30

The particulars copied from 1PDC page:


Submissions: Here’s how to submit your entry.

• Create a One Page Dungeon.
• Submitting a dungeon to the contest releases it under the Creative Common Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license with credit to the contest participant.
• The submission must have a name, an author, and a link to the license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).
• The judges and readers play a variety of systems. Don’t waste valuable space with a lot of system-specific stats.
• A link to extra material on your blog such as wandering monsters, random events, adventure background, introduction, descriptions of tricks or traps are welcome for readers but will not be considered part of your submission.
• One entry per participant. Participants may revise/replace their entries up until the end of contest, with the last revision counting as their official entry.
• If your font size is too small to read, you will most probably not win.
• Many people will print your submission as a black and white document. Adding colors is no problem as long as the black and white printed copy is still good enough.
• Help us keep file size in check. A single page should not take more than an image with 3000x2000 pixels (1-2MB is cool, 5MB still works, 10MB is too much).
• Submission must be mailed in PDF format to Alex Schroeder → kensanata@gmail.com. Usually we can help you convert your Open Office and Microsoft Word documents to PDF.
• If you have a blog article talking about your submission, send us the link. We’d love to link to it from the One Page Dungeon Contest page.

Judges: Alex Schroeder, Erik Jensen, Brett Slocum, Clinton Dreisbach, Thom Wilson, Brennan O’Brien.

Process: Here’s how we’ll determine the winners.

• Every judge nominates their favorite entries and proposes a category for each.
• We try to make sure that every judge has at least three of their nominations in the final list. The idea is to not only reflect popular opinion but to also capture some of the more eclectic entries out there. We’ll make sure that every judge is well represented with three entries each.
• Based on the categories proposed in the first step, we try to assign a category to each entry on the list.
• Judges gets to check whether their favorites are still on the list.
• We fix omissions and rename categories until we’re happy.
• We publish our list of winners!
• We will ask each winner for three items they’d prefer to win and any items they prefer not to win. Then we try to do a best match, giving precedence to those winners that got more nominations in the first step.
• All the entries and a special PDF with all the winners will be available for download at no cost.

One Page Dungeon Contest Winners

Man I'm late posting this but here is a download of The 2010 One Page Dungeon Contest winners (24 MB). And All One Page Dungeon Contest 2010 Submissions (74 MB). w00t, w00t!


The Winning Entries 

Adam Thornton – Central New Jersey After the “Big Whoops”	Best Post Apocalyptic Goodness
Antti Hulkkonen – Den of Villainy	Best Pirates
Chris Gonzales – The Tunnels of Turrack the Terrible	Best Sound Effects
Clarabelle Chong – Time for Tea	Best Victorian Sci-Fi
Corwin Riddle – City of Traitors	Best Lost City
Craig Brasco – The Vault of Zerduzan	Best Evil Cultist Hangout
Heron Prior – Trolls will be Trolls	Best Lair
Herwin Wielink – The Crypt of Luân Phiên	Best Architectural Design
Jimm Johnson and Jeff Lynk – The Contemptible Cube of Quazar	Craziest Map Award
Lord Kilgore – Heart of Darkness	Best Mini Campaign
Paul Siegel – Four Corners	Best Fitness Center
Peter A. Mullen – Laboratory of the Asmodean Techno-Mage	Snazziest Way to Push the Envelope
Rob Antonishen – Mine! Not Yours?	Best Mine Crawl
Shane Mangus – Raid on Black Goat Wood	Best Cthulhu
Simon Bull – The Ruination Of Tenamen	Best Monsters
Stuart Robertson – Dungeon From A Distant Star	Best Mixing of Genres
Tim Shorts – Where is Margesh Blackblood	Most Hideouts for the Head Bad Guy
Tom Holmes – The Bone Harvest Horror	Best Cartography

Congratulations everyone, prizes are on the way, enjoy.  I sure enjoyed reading all the entries.  When I have some more time I hope to highlight a few of my favorite entries.  

More info and links to 2009 contest on the 2010 One Page Dungeon Contest Page.

One Page Dungeon Contest Nominations

I've been helping judge this years One Page Dungeon Contest.

Part of the process was for each judge to nominate 20 entries and a "category" for each one.  Below are my twenty.

Just to be clear. These aren't the final winners.  These are just the twenty entries I picked during the first round of judging.  Other judges picked there own set of twenty.  And it was hard to narrow down to only twenty. There were 35 in my "these are awesome" pile after my first read through of the ~60 entries.

BTW Here are all the 2010 One Page Dungeon Contest Entries.


Fit Into the Most Categories:
Simon Bull -- The Ruination Of Tenamen

Place I Most Want to Visit ;)
Rich Lee -- Maddam Lila’s Speakeasy, Bath, and Brothel

Most Accomplished In Under 100k File Size:
Philippe Tromeur -- The Laughing Mausoleum

Wildest Wilderness: 
Lord Kilgore  -- Heart of Darkness

Coolest Cityness:
Paul Siegel -- Four Corners

Sexiest Sci-fi: (also best/only good? use of Flumph)
Stuart Robertson -- Dungeon From A Distant Star

Best Non-Fantasy:
Clarabelle Chong -- Time for Tea

Best Non-Dungeon:
Tim Shorts -- Where is Margesh Blackblood

Tastiest Treasure "bottle of soup" from a child:
Rob Antonishen -- Mine! NotYours

Best Back Story:
Maximilian Thieme -- The Bride of Visbek

Most Makes me Want to Listen to Very Loud Heavy Metal:
Michael K. Tumey -- Necromancer’s Crypt

Best Cartography/Art:
Tom Holmes -- The Bone Harvest Horror

Best Map:
Paul Fini -- Tomb of the Warrior King

Pulpiest:
Antti Hulkkonen -- Den of Villainy

Flavorfullest:
Craig Brasco -- The Vault of Zerduzan

Cthuluest:
Brenton Haerr -- The House of Lost and Found

Left me Wanting More:
Sven Vogler -- Under the Mountain

Most Ready/Inspiring for Expansion:
Heron Prior -- Trolls will be Trolls

One I Most Want to Run:
Jimm Johnson and Jeff Lynk -- The Contemptible Cube of Quazar

Most likely to be Really Cool if I Understood it Better:
David Bedell -- Under-desert of Qualorm

One Page Dungeon Contest Winners

One Page Dungeon Contest winners won't be announced until April 18, 0:00 GMT. But that doesn't mean you have to wait until then for to indulge in one page dungeon goodness.

A smörgåsbord of talent and creativity from One Page Dungeon Contest 2010:

• Aaron Schneider – Tower of Light, Tunnel of Stone → blog post
• Adam Thornton – Central New Jersey After the “Big Whoops”
• Andrew Durston – Familiar Territory → download from the author
• Antti Hulkkonen – Den of Villainy → download from the author
• Brenton Haerr – The House of Lost and Found → blog post
• Caleb Jensen – The Phantom Tribe's Groto (late)
• Chris Gonzales – The Tunnels of Turrack the Terrible
• Chris Maler – The Pit of the Mad Sage → blog post
• Clarabelle Chong – Time for Tea → blog post (also features a black and white copy for easy printing)
• Corwin Riddle – City of Traitors → download from the author
• Craig Brasco – The Vault of Zerduzan → blog post
• Darcy Stratton – The Sage’s Tower
• David Bedell – Under-desert of Qualorm
• DeForest Piper – Smugglers Chantry
• Deane Beman – Escape from the Dragon's Lair
• Dennis Carter – The Order of the White Wick
• Eric C. Alderson – Reliquary of Adin
• Fabien Deneuville – Sewers of Victorian London
• Gabriel P – Dungeons of the Forsaken Abbey → blog post
• Gottfried Neuner – Under Oak Hill → blog post
• Greg Hartman – Hall of the Undying
• Heron Prior – Trolls will be Trolls
• Herwin Wielink – The Crypt of Luân Phiên
• James Carr – Woodland Ruins
• James D. Jarvis – Gas-n-Die
• Jens Thuresson – Tomb of Orcus → blog post
• Jesse Rothacher – Arena of Bloodlust
• Jimm Johnson and Jeff Lynk – The Contemptible Cube of Quazar → download from the author
• John Laviolette – Triune Labyrinth of Insane Mutations
• Lee Barber – The Emboweled Coffin of the Tutelar Fiend
• Lord Kilgore – Heart of Darkness
• Maximilian Thieme – The Bride of Visbek
• Michael Christensen – Archibald’s Arena
• Michael Hutchinson – Zombies Maties
• Michael K. Tumey – Necromancer’s Crypt
• Michael Wiemholt – Last Priest Argentscale → download from the author
• Moritz Mehlem – Prisoners of the Mountain King
• Mrrkyllothur – The U-Turn Challenge
• Onno Tasler – Sunken Pegasus
• Patrice Crespy – Halls of Ksarnia Dungeon → blog post
• Paul Fini – Tomb of the Warrior King → blog post
• Paul Siegel – Four Corners
• Peter A. Mullen – Laboratory of the Asmodean Techno-Mage → download from the author
• Philippe Tromeur – The Laughing Mausoleum → download from the author
• Redrobes – Three Witches and a Hermit → download from the author
• Rich Lee – Maddam Lila’s Speakeasy, Bath, and Brothel
• Rick Ray – Crypt of the Shattered Mage-King
• Rob Antonishen – Mine! NotYours
• Ron Parker – Squatters
• Samuel Dennler – The Secret Lab of the Mages
• Scott Morrison – Copper Mine Conundrum
• Scott Wylie Roberts – Epsilon Outpost
• Shane Mangus – Raid on Black Goat Wood → blog post
• Shawn Harris – The Horrible Hermitage
• Simon Bull – The Ruination Of Tenamen
• Stuart Robertson – Dungeon From A Distant Star
• Sven Vogler – Under the Mountain
• Tim Hartin – Under the Blood Moon Banner
• Tim Morgan – The Village of Fairfen → download from the author
• Tim Shorts – Where is Margesh Blackblood → blog post, download from the author
• Todd Hughes – The Haunted Shrine
• Tom Allman – Arena of Horrors
• Tom Holmes – The Bone Harvest Horror → forum thread
• Tom Livak – The Illusionist's Tomb

Or a bandwidth busting 74MB zip file containing all the entries.


So, who has run a one page dungeon (they didn't write) from either this year's or last year's contest? How'd it go?

Judging the One Page Dungeon Contest

Thanks to everyone who submitted an One Page Dungeon Contest entry.  I've really enjoyed reading them. Although some weren't my style, I can't recall one I'd consider "bad".  Some made me laugh, others inspired my creativity, more than a few made me jealous of author's artistic, writing, and adventure crafting skills.  But, in reading them I feel I've "leveled" up those skills.  Which was my hope when I volunteered to be a judge. Thanks.


The first step in selecting who gets all this fabulous One Page Dungeon Contest Loot is for each judge to nominate 20 entries as "best" in 20 categories.  It was very hard to trim down to only 20 entries.  Much easier to come up with categories, I had about 27.  I'm holding off on revealing my twenty 1PD picks until the contest is over.  Here's my list of twenty categories.

1. Fit Into the Most Categories
2. Place I Most Want to Visit
3. Most Accomplished In Under 100k File Size
4. Wildest Wilderness
5. Coolest Cityness
6. Sexiest Sci-fi
7. Best Non-Fantasy
8. Best Non-Dungeon
9. Tastiest Treasure
10. Best Back Story
11. Most Makes me Want to Listen to Very Loud Heavy Metal
12. Best Cartography/Art
13. Best Map
14. Pulpiest
15. Flavorfullest
16. Cthuluest
17. Left me Wanting More
18. Most Ready/Inspiring for Expansion
19. One I Most Want to Run
20. Most likely to be Really Cool if I Understood it Better

I'm fairly open minded about what constitutes a One Page Dungeon.  Pretty much anything.  But, I draw the line at stuffing in more than crap loads of text by using a tiny ass "6pt" font.  Sorry, the couple of entries like that I barely skimmed before tossing into the ain't gettin nominated by me pile.  It was just too hard to read them, the fun plummeted to zero. If it's no fun to read your entry it has failed in my book.
I am saddened by the relative dearth of Sword & Planet, Mutagenic Future, and Carcossan/Algolian/Fomalhautesque Sword & Lasers styled entries.  On the other hand there were several entries that stretched the 1PD concept, which I'm all sorts of in favor of.  Deane Beman's "Escape from the Dragon's Lair" is an entire game. "Laboratory of the Asmodean Techno-Mage" is a page full of awesome Peter Mullen Art. Michael Hutchinson created a location with "Zombies Maties" that works across multiple genere.  Couple "Victorian/Horror", few sci-fi, few defying easy categorization the entries were heavily "fantasy" focus.  BTW you can view all the 1PDC entries on the One Page Dungeon Contest Page.


Even sadder, no one notices/acted on the obvious monkey clue in my original one page dungeon contest post. Their loss, could've had easy guranteed #1 spot, jk, kind of.  ;)

Judging One Page Dungeon Contest

I've been resisting reading various blogger's posts about their 1pdc efforts. I thought it was only fair and also I wanted my first look at each "dungeon" to be a big surprise. That has totally been the case.

Wow! You all are sure creative. I've only reviewed a couple dozen, out of ~70 entries, and I'm already very impressed by the variety of cartography, writing styles, concepts, and silliness. Looks like several of you are either intentionally or otherwise pushing the boundaries of what is a "dungeon" and what a one page dungeon should be. That's awesome! Those who are pushing what can fit on one page (6pt font person that means you!) aren't quite as awesome. Still, it's all good.


Next step, as judge, is to nominate 20 "best" entries. I'm telling you, it's gonna be hard to trim down to 20! But it's also gonna to continue to be a blast. Thanks to Alex for allowing me to judge and for all of you who have created and submitted one page dungeons.

The One Page Dungeon Contests are examples of what's best about the DIY RPG hobby/community.

We rock!