*My design goal with Vornheim was to have a handful of pages describing the setting, a few complete locations which exemplified the Vornheim style described with maximum efficiency and clarity and then to have the remaining 30-odd pages be basically just one big GM screen for city adventures. Everything you need right there.
So: the 30-page GM screen.
I feel like there are really only 3 honest models for an RPG book:
1-The Weighty Game Tome--(hinted at in the AD&D DMG and Monster Manual, perfected by Games Workshop in their original Realms of Chaos supplements, and much imitated today by everything from DC Adventures to Mouse Guard)--an eldritch encyclopedia of absorbing madness that takes you completely out of the world and mundane understanding and immerses you entirely in the game's mythology.
2-The overfed GM screen--(almost achieved in early TSR but mostly abandoned afterward except by a few clever pdf merchants) which has what you need and makes it easy to find and does nothing else that would interfere with that.
3-The "For Dummies" model, where you explain the game as if to someone who has never played an RPG and has to be persuaded it will be easy.
(There are many dishonest models and most more-or-less involve either packaging the RPG product as an advertisement for itself or simple laziness.)
Model 2 is of special interest to DIY D&D because:
1-DIY D&D, by definition, rarely has enough money to publish Weighty Game Tomes, and
2-It's mostly the province of busy adults who were sucked in by Led Zeppelin-length Weighty Tomes rife with mythology long ago and need not be sucked again.
So here's my question:
Vornheim has, I hope, a decent 30-page DM screen for city adventures, Kellri's CCD pdfs provide a model for efficient coverage of monsters and spells, The One Page Dungeon Contest
is a master class in usable cartography for individual locations.
The gaps I see are:
-a "30-page-DM-screen" book for dungeons, and
-a "30-page-DM-screen" book for wilderness adventures.
The Dungeon Alphabet (which I own, operate and enjoy) comes close but that book is more about pregame inspiration than during-the-game-nitty-gritty. And there is a lot of space given up to pictures.
So, kids:
1. What tables or other stuff would you want to see in your "30-page-DM-Screen" for dungeon adventures?
2. What would you like to see in your "30-page-DM-screen" for wilderness adventures?
Who will be making these projects? Don't know, don't care, but the R&D needs to get done, so let's do it...
_________
*Clutch quote, Ramones picture--confusing, I know. It'll be ok.
