When I started the Advent of Dungeons (late), I wasn’t sure how it would turn out. To be frank, the Advent of Dungeons came about as a wild hair. It wasn’t obviously a great idea, but if I started, I knew Iwould see it through.
23 days later, I have 23 prompts and 23 bits of TTRPG content. I mostly produced those on the prescribed days, so I’m overall quite proud for having completed it. Let’s run through some of my other goals for it.
Constraints are good
Rather than starting with an empty page, the prompts were supposed to be a good starting point. And they really were. On most days, I combined three things:
- The prompt e.g. frogs, poker
- Type of content e.g. adventure, encounter, item
- Tone e.g. silly, suspenseful, uplifting
And that was enough for me to get started. After deciding on those three things, I frequently had an idea come to me immediately. It wasn’t always good, but if I didn’t have a better one after another minute or two of thinking, I just started filling it out.
Not only was the prompt a useful constraint, the advent structure was helpful in three other ways.
First, I knew that there was no time to procrastinate. I had no more and no less than 24 hours to deliver.
Second, I couldn’t fake the results. Let’s be real: most GMs have faked an entire session because they didn’t get around to preparing. Some of those might have been great sessions, but it was a mistake not to be repeated. In this case, the result is the write-up, not running the game, so I had to do it.
Third, I typically was writing these right before bedtime. The longer I took, the less time I had to sleep, so I was ready to produce word vomit every time.
Some of it was junk
Just like running an actual game, some days turned out better than others. Honestly, I didn’t post some of these to Bluesky because I was embarrassed about how the content turned out.
At least I now recognize that I don’t have a Midas touch. Even though I make a big deal about having a public presence around TTRPG content, I am no better than the next GM prepping for a game.
…but not all of it!
However, some of them turned out pretty well. In general, I’m most proud of the encounters (like skydiving for TOM CRUISE), but I would use some of the adventures, too, like transporting a MARBLE statue.
I liked the encounters more because I’m usually lazy and unimaginative in combat encounters. My players have had plenty of fights in square rooms with no environmental features of consequence: they just find a place to stand and keep attacking. However, these prompts helped me to imagine different circumstances and rules to back that up.
I was specifically proud of the dice mini-game for POKER, too.
So I would use some of these for real.
Training for the real thing
When I actually had to do real game prep during December, it never went as easily as the Advent of Dungeons bits. The lack of constraints above hurts, and the additional constraints of working within an existing storyline with existing characters in an existing lore make for actually more work.
However, I felt more comfortable going with an odd direction and seeing if I could make it work. I suspect I’ll fall into usual writers block again in the future, but it marginally helped.
Final thoughts on the Advent of Dungeons
Of course, the big question is: will the Advent of Dungeons be back in 2025?
I don’t know. I enjoyed doing it, but this entire venture of TTRPG blogging is still new to me, and we will see where this brand and the wider Daggerheart community are in a year.
That being said, I am very glad and proud that I did it once.
Elsewhere in Daggerheart
The Daggerheart RPG Realm is a Discord community dedicated to, well, Daggerheart. The creator seems plenty enthusiastic, so I have high hopes about where the community goes.
BladeBound Saga talks about Beast Feast, which, again, I am so excited for. I stumbled across Delicious in Dungeon by accident on Netflix, and it was incredible
Leave a Reply