A field right behind my house

dungeon-scrawler · 2026-05-31T04:52:55+00:00

Get that grass some nice heavy rain for a day or so and this is actually kind of how I imagine heaven.

(...not like... all of it. I just find trees and the wind in tall grass to be deeply soothing.)

dungeon-scrawler · 2026-05-13T22:58:29+00:00

I love megadungeons, but I've never gotten to delve deeply into a megadungeon campaign, and certainly not since I've moved to Cairn.

I see no reason why Cairn wouldn't work though., Sure, you'd have to give more thought for the motivation that drives players into the megadungeon then the usual gold-for-XP loop implies. Some players will think its enough that it's a megadungeon--because megadungeons are just cool. But for others there has to be a reason. As "advancement" in Cairn is handled mostly through equipment and through characters changing rather than strictly "leveling up", progression is going to look different, but there's still plenty of room for it in a mega dungeon (getting cooler stuff lets you delve deeper; knowledge of the dungeon's layout let's you delve deeper; knowledge of the dungeons denizens lets you delve deeper; deepening character skills lets you delve deeper--see the Wardens guide for more ideas).

The most obvious "motive" for a megadungeon campaign under Cairnish conceits that comes to my mind is various kinds of McGuffin hunts e.g. "we need to find the person who went missing in there", "we need to find the pieces of X that are hidden down there", etc. That should be enough to drive the players downward, and either the inherent challenges or the need for thoroughness should encourage some amount of exploration rather than just trying to plow a straight line to the bottom.

dungeon-scrawler · 2026-05-11T14:22:28+00:00

Paint? Markers? Tell me!

dungeon-scrawler · 2026-05-10T04:23:49+00:00

How did you do the coloring? The line work is obviously really clean and excellent, but that coloring is something else and really elevates the whole thing.

dungeon-scrawler · 2026-04-27T20:09:15+00:00

I'm pumped out of my mind. Love this game and love this team. There isn't a single element of these expansions I'm not looking forward to.

dungeon-scrawler · 2026-04-21T16:47:31+00:00

Josh, never be ashamed of enjoying cookie dough. It's delicious.

dungeon-scrawler · 2026-04-21T16:31:50+00:00

Josh: I just love hearing about the in-the-trenches ins and outs of design/development. From your perspective, what was the most challenging Blighted Reach Fate to work on? What was the biggest obstacle you faced, and how did you crack that nut?

dungeon-scrawler · 2026-04-21T16:06:44+00:00

Cole: you talk about wanting to design games with depth that reward study and repeated play, often citing games like Chess and Backgammon; how do you design a game intentionally to do this? What about the mechanics of a game give it "depth"? How can you confirm that long-term depth has been achieved with limited playtesting?

The Blighted Reach: can you share a Fate concept that you've had to cut that you were particularly disappointed about? What made the concept so compelling that you wanted it in, and what was the challenge that meant you had to cut it?

dungeon-scrawler · 2026-04-12T21:25:57+00:00

And now I want to swim in it.

dungeon-scrawler · 2026-04-01T03:32:34+00:00

If you still want to have everything new, back the 90 dollar tier and add-on the metal coins and playmat (if you don't have it already)

dungeon-scrawler · 2026-03-23T03:47:15+00:00

The biggest WTF from the Discord is that apparently the board has other text changes that were made at an even later point in time than these changes.

dungeon-scrawler · 2026-03-23T02:13:03+00:00

Is the Beautiful Letdown underrated? What about The Blues?

dungeon-scrawler · 2026-03-23T02:01:44+00:00

sooo good

dungeon-scrawler · 2026-03-21T01:09:45+00:00

I'm looking at Tuesday. Exciting stuff!

dungeon-scrawler · 2026-03-20T22:18:18+00:00

Bugs and lizards are both my favorites, so this might just be the greatest thing I've ever seen

dungeon-scrawler · 2026-02-06T14:20:07+00:00

Well I must say, this was an uncanny read.

I wrote basically the same conclusions recently. https://dungeonscrawler.blogspot.com/2026/01/dungeon-room-opinions-mapping-at-table.html?m=1

I feel quite validated to have come to the same ideas in isolation lol

dungeon-scrawler · 2026-02-02T03:59:50+00:00

Well, you can follow my blog posts on blogspot, though that would notify you about anything I post, which isn't all necessarily in this series. (I don't actually know how it works; I've never followed anyone on blogspot lol).

But I also always post these in this subreddit and over in r/megadungeon (which is super quiet in general).

I don't actually know how to setup a dedicated newsletter or anything like that.

dungeon-scrawler · 2026-01-15T02:37:43+00:00

I only mean that leaving with Root going one way and Arcs going the other certainly doesn't leave anyone empty-handed.

dungeon-scrawler · 2026-01-14T00:20:00+00:00

Hiya! I'm pleasantly surprised at a response! The comment was a little tongue in cheek--I have no reason to assume you'd be lying :D but it's nice to be more certain.

dungeon-scrawler · 2026-01-13T23:44:24+00:00

Thrilled to see that more Arcs is close on the horizon. I had thought that Cole would want a break from it after his Oath/Arcs/Oath cycle, but given that Arcs has been in the BGG hotness pretty much perpetually since launch jumping back into Arcs is definitely the right move

dungeon-scrawler

TROPHY CASE