One Page Dungeon Contest

The One Page Dungeon contest has announced the eleven preliminary winners. First I would like to congratulate all those chosen. Regrettably my entry was not among them so it’s back to the drawing board for next year. That said I’m hoping there will be more instruction and clarification for next year’s contest.

Looking at some of the winning entries I’m inclined to call them 3 or 4 page dungeons crammed into one page. If overall content is a factor obviously they have more weight but they are also not aesthetically appealing to the reader at all. We need writing guidelines for the future such as minimum and maximum font size. There should also be a similar standard in regard to word count.

My understanding of the contest origin in 2009 was to create one dungeon level in an edition-less format. Is that still the case? Should we even bother to think outside the box? If the answer to the former is yes I would like to see categories for future contests. Examples would include traditional dungeon crawl, gonzo, side trek, etc. It seems as though the judges in past competitions tried this with winning entries only. I think having categories designed before the contest would help the participants.

Without guidelines and new judges every year the standards potentially change. Next year’s judges may have a completely different idea of what truly constitutes a One Page Dungeon. While I like the idea of pirate waters it just leaves everything to ambiguous for my taste as a participant.

I hope my opinions to not draw the ire of the organizers and judges as their time is completely volunteer and very valued. And most importantly let’s remember the community benefits greatly from all the wonderful material generated by this cool contest. So keep delving and remember the plays the thing!