Description
Designing Dungeons is as easy as A, B, C!
The Dungeon Alphabet compiles inspirational tables on classic dungeon design elements to assist the game master in creating subterranean challenges. This fifth printing adds a new topic for a total of forty-four tables of inspirational materials.
A is for Altar, B is for Books, and C is for Caves: the Dungeon Alphabet has advice, hints, and randomized tables that bring new life to your adventures.
Suitable for any rules system, the entries are accompanied by outstanding art from classic fantasy illustrators.
Reviews:
- Lamentations of the Flame Princess: “Forget OSRIC, Labyrinth Lord, and Swords & Wizardry. Forget Castle Zagyg, Carcosa, and Fight On! If you’re looking for the monumental and important release of the OSR, you haven’t yet found it. The Dungeon Alphabet by Michael Curtis is it.”
- Bat in the Attic: “Now that I have seen it I think this product is a outstanding achievement in both content and art. At its price it is a great value.”
- Prime Requisite Games: “From the wondrous to the disturbing, The Dungeon Alphabet is teaming with ideas that would prove valuable at the fingertips of any dungeon designer.”
- Carter’s Cartopia: “The DA indeed deserves to be singled out as an exemplary old-school product: technically system-free, it introduces the OSR “rules light” vibe to any gamer who might pick it up, and I assume that it would be a useful resource for almost any referee, regardless of system. And very well produced with absolutely top-notch art. Kick ass!”<o:p></o:p>
- Jeff’s Gameblog: “This book is very nearly perfect.”
- Spell Card: “I’d pre-ordered Michael Curtis’ wild and woolly Dungeon Alphabet from Goodman Games back in December and it arrived this morning. I can’t tell you how un-be-liev-ably cool it is–so I’ll just show you!”<o:p></o:p>
- Grognardia:“Indeed, it may be the single best statement of the Old Ways yet put into print, a feat that’s all the more remarkable because it’s not presented as a philosophical manifesto but rather as an abecedarian syllabus, employing the principle of “show, don’t tell” to sidestep the usual litany of complaints about how “old school” can’t be defined and any attempt to do so is both wrongheaded and doomed to failure.”
- I See Lead People: “This is more than a gaming book; it’s a wayback machine and happily so. I’d have gladly paid twice what I did, but at a price of $10 you are nuts to pass it up.”
- There’s a Bugbear In My Kitchen: “The point is to get people thinking outside the box when it comes to Dungeon Design. And this product does this in spades!”
- Gnome Stew: “For the veteran GM this book is a great reference and will give your imagination some new fuel. With every letter, your mind will be a buzz with ideas. Your biggest problem will be not to put all these elements into a single dungeon.”
- Gaming on the Precipice: “The art ~~~ it is awesome, there is amazing art on almost every page. The Erol Otus on page 5 is friggin cool. I stared at that single page long enough that I wasn’t able to read the whole book. I wanted to be there while each line was drawn and be able to see how it came together. Also, the Easley drawing on page 36 – priceless. The Mullen on the inside cover… Crazy… Hats off to Goodman Games and Michael Curtis – they done good.”
- DragonLance D&D Game Blog: “I know the next time I start fleshing out a dungeon, I’ll be looking over my copy of The Dungeon Alphabet for fresh ideas (wow, sorry for the cover-blurb). Hopefully this will be the first in a line of similarly inspired books. If so, I know I’ll be back for more!”
- A Paladin in Citadel: “This is a great value, and I would recommend this to anyone looking for a system-neutral dungeon-design resource that is both entertaining and inspiring.”
- Dr. Fischer’s Game Night: “I’ve already gotten my money’s worth just from the pleasure of reading the entries and my players and going to love some of these pools, traps, doors, and weird.”
- Realms of Fantasy: “It is entirely possible that a gamemaster armed with this handy book plus a good list of random monsters could whip up an entirely satisfactory dungeon in just an hour or so.”
- Akratic Wizardry: “The descriptions of the different dungeon elements are brief yet inspiring. The charts are delightful, and will almost certainly serve as a catalyst to future creative adventure design.”
- Reviews from R’leh: “Entertaining, thoughtful, and evocative, from the moment that you crack open its pages, The Dungeon Alphabet: An A-Z Reference for Classic Dungeon Design delivers a critical hit to your nostalgia button.
- Homer the Greek’s Rhyme Blog: “Michael Curtis’s The Dungeon Alphabet is the book I wish I’d had 20 years ago when I first began my serious attempts at world building. Yes – world building, not dungeon building.”
Resources:
- Dungeon Alphabet Podcast: The Ninja Mountain Scrolls interviews Erol Otus, Jeff Easley, Stefan Poag, and Joseph Goodman regarding the Dungeon Alphabet, old-school art, and other such things!
Rules Set: Systems-neutral, designed to be used with any RPG
Writer: Michael Curtis
Cover Artist: Erol Otus
Interior Artists: Jeff Easley, Jim Holloway, Doug Kovacs, William McAusland, Brad McDevitt, Jesse Mohn, Peter Mullen, Russ Nicholson, Erol Otus, Stefan Poag, Jim Roslof, Chad Sergesketter, Chuck Whelon, Mike Wilson, and Lutz Winter
PDF format
