*** February 2010 Challenge - The One Page Dungeon Contest ('OPDC')

[ravells]

This month's challenge is a tie-in with Kensata's One Page Dungeon Contest posted on the news forum here.

The following taken from the Contest Webpage:

What is a One Page Dungeon?
The easy part first: whatever it is, it has to fit on one page. Letter format or A4 is the limit. It must be readable when printed: if the font is too small or if it requires a web browser to read, then it won’t do.
But now for the hard part: what’s a dungeon? Traditionally, a dungeon is the map of a connected series of rooms full of monsters, traps, and treasure. Then people proposed random dungeon generators. These had no map, but instructions on how to create a map. Then people started saying that a wilderness, a village, or a big building could also be treated as a dungeon. I don’t think we’ll agree on a single definition of dungeon in the roleplaying context. Thus, in the spirit of “I know it when I see it” we’ll leave the decision up to the judges.
Maps: If you want a map but have a hard time making one, don’t worry. You’re not alone. If you look at last year’s entries, you’ll find submissions with anything from hand-drawn maps to maps created in Microsoft Excel.

__________________

This contest gives you two bites of the cherry, you can make an entry here and win or lose, submit it to the OPDC contest. Closing Date for submissions to the OPDC is 1st March 2010 which means you must email your entry to Kensata in PDF, Open Office, or Microsoft Word format to Alex Schröder (Kensata) → kensanata@gmail.com in time for the closing date of the OPDC. Winners of this month's competition will of course earn the incomparable and quite beautiful (crafted by the nimble fingers of RobA himself) Gold challenge medal. Winners of the OPDC have some juicy (but IMO less prestigious) prizes in store. Check out the full OPDC rules and prizes here.

It is entirely up to you if you wish to just post a map or a map with accompanying text - the voting members will decide which entry they like best, so there may be an advantage to posting a 'complete' OPDC entry with text.

Good Luck to everyone and above all, enjoy the contest.

Let the games begin!

[Immolate]

At 300 DPI, an 8.5"x11" with 1/2 margins on each side is 7.5"x10" or 2,250 pixels wide and 3,000 pixels high. The trick is the make your text readable when printed on the paper, as it will be readable on your screen at a size that is too small to read on paper.

[Ascension]

Crap, I may have to sit this one out...both of my printers died last week (my large format printer and my color printer). And I really wanted to go up against DJ to stop his winning streak Someone else gotta take down da man. Just kiddin DJ.

[NeonKnight]

SO, if I understand correctly, the concept is the Dungeon and the KEY ITSELF must both fit on the single page?

[ravells]

Yes, everything on one page or I suppose to be more precise, one side of one page. Check out the winning entries from last year from the links above. Some of them are really good. Good maps too, why aren't those people at the guild? Grrr.

[mrrkyl]

Hmm...this is tempting. I don't like contests but this could be a fun break away from all of the PS tutorial's I've been trying to make sense of. I'll probably go back to my CC2 roots for this.

[Djekspek]

hehe, guess me be hiding this month then ... hmm or maybe just waiting for the tingle of inspiration ...

[ravells]

Go for it DJ!!!!

[ExMachina]

Just to clarify, the challenge here is completely separate from the other site if I'm reading this right...the contests are running simultaneously such that you could use the same map for both entries, correct?

Also, as I've never laid a finger on dungeon mapping, what would be the basic requirements for such a map, does it have to be "playable" or can it just look nice?

[ravells]

Just to clarify, the challenge here is completely separate from the other site if I'm reading this right...the contests are running simultaneously such that you could use the same map for both entries, correct?

That's correct. In fact you are encouraged to submit your entry here to the OPDC. As far as playable vs. nice goes, for the comp on this site it's up to the members to decide when they vote. For the OPDC, I think the judges will all have their own criteria, but I don't think there's any set criteria outside the rules.