Drawing Dungeons

To date, Loke BattleMats has become best known for its maps which it publishes as books. So far these have included the Big Book of Battle Mats: Rooms, Vaults, & Chambers, the Big Book of Cyberpunk Battle Mats, The Dungeon Books of Battle Mats, The Wilderness Books of Battle Mats, The Towns & Taverns Books of Battle Mats, and Castles, Crypts, & Caverns Books of Battle Mats. These are all big products, containing big maps, ready to play. Conversely, the Dungeon Designer’s Deck: 100 Cards to Level Up your Dungeon Game is quite small, but it can actually do quite a lot and is quite flexible. As its subtitle suggests, it is a deck of cards which can be used in multiple ways. This includes as a dungeon and adventure generator, a solo-adventure generator, and as a set of terrain accessories. The box does say that it is suitable for use with Player Characters of Levels One to Ten and it is compatible with Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. However, do not let the latter put you off. The Dungeon Designer’s Deck will work just as well with any retroclone.

As its subtitle suggests, Dungeon Designer’s Deck: 100 Cards to Level Up your Dungeon Game consists of one hundred cards. This includes sixty ‘Terrain Feature Cards’, ten ‘Quest Cards’, ten ‘Room Cards’, ten ‘Door Cards’, five ‘Enemy Generator Cards’, two ‘Random Loot Cards’, and three ‘How To Use Cards’. This includes sixty Terrain Feature Cards, ten Quest Cards, ten Room Cards, ten Door Cards, five Enemy Generator Cards, two Random Loot Cards, and three How to use Cards. In addition to this, there is a foldout map and a reference book. The map is double-sided and shows plain flagstones on one side and a simple room arrangement on the other. If the Game Master or player wants other room arrangements, the Terrain Feature Cards do work with other maps from the publisher.

The three ‘How To Use Cards’ are double-sided and in turn describe the card types, the core principles of using the Dungeon Designer’s Deck, how to use the ‘Random Dungeon Creation’, adjusting the deck based on party size and solo play, and explanations of the ‘Difficulty’ and ‘Damage’ keywords. For ‘Difficulty’ keywords, this sets the Difficulty Class values from First Level to Tenth Level, depending upon whether the task at hand is routine, difficult, very difficult, or near impossible. The ‘Damage’ keywords set the possible damage values in similar fashion depending upon whether it is minor, light, major, or lethal damage.

The ten ‘Quest Cards’ provide a mission, a backstory, clues and where to place them, the rooms the specific locations the missions requires and when to place them, where the finale takes place, any special rules, and rewards. They include a ‘Vault Heist’, ‘Tome Raiders’, ‘Rescue Mission’, ‘Loot and Run’, and more. Each of the ‘Room Cards’ details the ‘Encounter Cards’ to be drawn, extra ‘Clues’, and ‘Troops’ to be encountered, as well as a description of the ‘Finale Encounter’. They include a ‘Headquarters’, ‘The Kennels’, an ‘Evil Temple’, ‘Treasure Vault’, and even a ‘Sewage Plant’. The bulk of the cards in Dungeon Designer’s Deck consist of the sixty ‘Terrain Feature Cards’. Unlike the other cards, these are double-sided. One side depicts a feature of a room or furniture. For example, a ‘Stargazer Study’, ‘Sewer Pool’, ‘Reading Corner’, or ‘Skull Altar’. On the back a table of three or four random options, some flavour text, and a little extra detail. These  ‘Terrain Feature Cards’ will essentially be dressing the adventure. Lastly, each of the ten ‘Door Cards’ describes a door, such as a ‘Vault Door’ or a ‘Mossy Door’ with its stats and details on the back, whilst the five ‘Enemy Generator Cards’ have tables on them for randomly generating encounters.

The Reference Book replicates all of the content on the cards and can be used during play or during the designing of a quest or dungeon. The contents of the Dungeon Designer’s Deck can be used randomly. So ‘Encounter Cards’ can be drawn when a new room is entered and ‘Door Cards’ when a door is found, and this can be done randomly, whether the Dungeon Master is drawing it for her group of players and their adventurers or a player is drawing the cards for solo play. Unlike other solo and/or random dungeon generator tools, there is map making or drawing necessary, though there is nothing to stop the Dungeon Master or player from drawing a map. The Dungeon Master can use the cards to help her create a dungeon as part of her preparation. Alternatively, the ‘Quest Cards’ provide outlines of missions that can played solo and run for a group. These require some preparation and whilst the Dungeon Master might run the same ‘Quest Card’ more than once, there is still plenty in the box for the Dungeon Master to use, whilst a solo player might try again to see how well he can do this time.

Physically, Dungeon Designer’s Deck is a handy little boxed set. The writing is good and all of the art and cartography is excellent. The cards have a matte finish on the reference side and a gloss finish on the picture side. This does feel very slightly odd, but you get used to it.

The multi-purpose Dungeon Designer’s Deck: 100 Cards to Level Up your Dungeon Game has the potential to provide quite a bit of game play, whether from creating quests and dungeons for solo or group play and enhance that game play with attractive scenery that can be different each time it is drawn. The Dungeon Master will need to provide the connective tissue, that is, the narrative to the story generated and the corridors between locations, but that is her job.

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Loke Battle Mats will be at UK Games Expo which takes place from Friday, 29th to Sunday 31st of May.