Dungeon Master Forum

There seems to be a lot of announcements regarding custom dungeons on the way so I thought I may as well introduce my work in progress too. It's been under development on and off for the past 6 months or so, and it's [currently] called The Prison. it still has a long, long way to go yet but there are so many ideas and things in my head that i'm desperately trying to integrate into it.

I've been trying to come up with a simple and rough back story to give the play an idea of what's going on, and to introduce and learn story elements throughout play. What's going on throughout the adventure is fairly straightforward, but by only letting on small bits of info here and there I'm hoping to really activate the player's imagination and get them thinking "hmm what's going on?" as they play.

Backstory: the small village of Erorakeep has stood by itself for many years, beneath the shadow of an old and disused prison - the only remaining testament to a brutal and war-filled past. after a long period of tranquility, reports of a nearby orc encampment cause widespread panic, and a band of a dozen or so brigands is mustered and sent to investigate.

what happened that fateful night is gradually learned through diary entries found strewn throughout the prison, for what happened back then is only the start of the story of this dungeon. learn what happened, realise what is happening now, and desperately try to stop the terrible events waiting to take place!

i have tried to keep a good balance between linear level design and free-roaming. you are [sometimes] free to visit any of the locations, and some of the maps are quite free-roaming, although there are some linear areas too so the player doesnt get too overwhelmed with the options open to him/her.

Key elements:
there are several different locations which can be visited surrounding the village - some outside, some inside, some both - a map scroll is available near the beginning which hints at where they are. you don't have to manually go there, just reach a certain 'travel' point and you get an interim screen before reaching your destination. beware though, as travelling wears down you food/water/stamina, and travelling also has its other risks!

many 'new' monsters - kindly borrowed from similar RPG games

new items/weapons/sound effects/floor/wall objects/tilesets/and introducing spell scrolls!

no hero portraits - rescue your party as you go along

NPCs which can help you or require your help

coins are a currency which you can spend at the tavern / shoppe / or to gain hints on some of the tougher puzzles found within the prison and the other locations

this is a glimpse of the swamp hag's hut - seconds before death!

Cool, looking good -- some interesting new items there too!

Glad to hear there won't be portraits! Too many games use this mechanic which most of the time just doesn't make sense. It was fine for DM, but most new scenarios don't start with a ghost choosing the party!

Couple of points: Don't mix high res and lo-res imagery as it tends to look amateurish. Try and stick to one or the other (the scroll with the moon on looks really out of place).

Try and match wall items to the walls better -- the DM alcove against the DM2 walls looks wrong to me.

Other than that, looks like a fun new adventure! Keep up the good work.

...and I like the backstory!

Hey,

Want my DM->DM2 graphics conversions?

Here are examples (double sized for web viewing).

This is the square alcove from DM2:


These are the ones I composited together to match:






I'll be glad to share the whole graphics set if it will help.

crash they look great - if you are happy then i would love to include them in my dungeon

Please send me your e-mail in a private message (pm) and I'll send you the files. I'll probably make adjustments to a few of the graphics, but updating the graphics should just be a matter of overwriting older files with updated ones.