Dyson's Random Morph Map

I'm a little behind the curve on this one (the Ruminator beat me to the punch), but Rob Lang over at the Free RPG Blog put together a handy-dandy little web-page that randomizes the totally awesome geomorphs being produced by Dyson (of A Character For Every Game fame). I absolutely adore Dyson's map work. His style totally resonates with me. His maps evoke an old-school aesthetic, are easy to read, and best of all are bursting with ideas for cool encounters. These particular geomorphs do what I didn't think was previously possible... they incorporate multi-level ideas on a two-dimensional map in such a way as to seem totally natural.

If I get the time (and I'm not sure when I will), I may try to expand on Rob's script. It seems to me that the only thing missing is the ability to rotate or flip the geomorphs. I also can't wait to see what this all looks like when Dyson completes his set (as of today, he's on geomorph #39). At 100, there's bound to be a staggering variety.

This all makes me want to do another solo dungeon-crawl. I've done some with Mythic using my AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide (or OSRIC depending on my whim). But the dungeons produced seem to lack coherence that I hope geomorphs could provide.

One Page Dungeons from Snikle

Still on that Old School kick...

Early this past summer, while fire-hosing myself with retro-gaming goodness, I came across the One Page Dungeon Contest (winners and all entries can be found here). What became readily apparant from reading the many excellent submissions is that Risus is a perfect fit for the format. What other system offers such brevity in writing up opponents?

An early example of a Risus one-page dungeon that I discovered was Snikle's Zombie Tower. What I didn't realize at the time is that Snikle had created a large handful of brilliant Risus one-page adventures. Check out The Tomb of Galron Dor, The Innsmouth Lighthouse, The Spider Caves of Grinlok, and The Ruins of Kal-Kamen.

Snikle's blog also contains a healthy dose of Risus goodness, if you look for it.

Stock Characters

Hat tip to Guy Hoyle at Risus Talk for pointing out this excellent WikiPedia entry on stock characters. While generally useful for any game, it is especially appropriate for Risus (where clichéd characters are the game's chewy center).