#Dungeon23: Week 0 + 1

Encounter Table for Level 1 (Week 0)

#Dungeon23 Slush Pile: The Star's Prison

I too am jumping on the #Dungeon23 bandwagon. It seems like a fun and manageable way to do a large project, and I hope that having so many others do it simultaneously I'll stay motivated for longer. 

Though I don't want to plan too far ahead I do want to settle on a strong theme, some setting, something of a vague history of the dungeon, and collect a bunch of ideas I think would be fun. For this I am stealing the slush pile format, which I learned about through Dan of the throne of salt blog, but has been used to great effect by others as well.

Fun despite the system

Currently I am running a 5e D&D game for some friends of mine that I know through swordfighting. They invited me to start a D&D group and are really cool people, so despite my personal distaste for 5e, which I quickly learned they were most fond of/familiar with, I accepted. This was going to be more about hanging out with friends, than about prime gaming. 

Still, I held out hope: The players had said to be open to trying out other stuff as well, so maybe I could sway their opinion by introducing them to new, and in my opinion, better stuff like Into the Odd, Cairn, Mauseritter, Maze Rats or even Adventure Hour!. 

Until now I have run 6 games for this group, all in 5e, and am surprised with how much fun we are having despite everything I dislike about 5e. Remembering how much I didn't like using 5e before, this made me wonder how I was having this much fun despite adhering rather strictly to 5e rules. 

There are currently three reasons I can come up with, one of which is rather philosophical so I'll be sure to save that one for last. 

Gods and their servants

Here's how Gods work in the open table game I run for my students. Also, a God Soother class and three Cultists (Sun, Life and Death, and Moon). This is somewhat inspired by my previous religion post, but it is tailored more to this world.

Gods:

• Gods govern domains of the physical world: the larger their domains, the bigger their power.
• Domains are not so much aspects of human life, as they are places, conditions or things in the world. 'A river', 'anything the moonlight touches', and 'decaying matter' are all examples of domains.
• Gods are beings of order: they want the world to be more of the same, specifically more like them. Therefore: all Gods strive to increase their domains until they assimilate the world.