OPD 2020: Heroes and Minions

I have just put the finishing touches on my entry for this year’s One Page Dungeon Contest. There is still time for you to get yours in as well, as the deadline was pushed back this year to July 1st.

You can download a copy here while you wait for the full contest release.

In this dungeon, the monstrous intelligence at the heart of this place is springing its trap as the adventurers enter. It will summon waves of disposable minions to overwhelm and surround the intruders. Luckily there are hardy heroic spirits here that have resisted being devoured by the dark magic of this place, and can be motivated to hold off these endless minions so that the adventurers can put a sword in the dungeon’s heart.

The mechanic of the dungeon is intended to function similar to tower defense style games, with fixed Minion actions and streamlined defenders. This should keep combat flowing while the players still get to strategize the placement of their “tower” Heroes and kill multitudes of Minions while keeping combat quick by using average damages with no attack rolls. Due to space limitations and mechanic complexity, I had the Minions not interact at all with the Heroes so that Minion turns should fly very quickly.

I gave this style of mapping another try, with all the images and map being GIMP-edited pictures of my own gaming terrain. I found the process to be very intuitive, as I can lay out rooms like I would for my own campaign, but also got great experience with some new image editing techniques for taking my painted miniatures and turning them into iconography. How does it look for you? I am curious what changes you would suggest for intelligibility or design.