Goodman Games to Publish “The Dungeon Alphabet”

Finally, the big news:

The Dungeon Alphabet
An A-to-Z Reference for Classic Dungeon Design

Designing dungeons is as easy as A, B, C! The Dungeon Alphabet compiles twenty-six classic dungeon design elements in one place to assist the game master in creating subterranean challenges. A is for Altar, B is for Books, and C is for Caves: the Dungeon Alphabet has advice, hints, and randomized tables that bring new life to your adventures. Suitable for any rules system, the entries are accompanied by outstanding art from classic fantasy illustrators, with a foreword by noted game designer Zeb Cook.

Rules Set: Systems-neutral, designed to be used with any RPG

Writer: Michael Curtis
Foreword: David “Zeb” Cook
Cover Artist: Erol Otus
Interior Artists: Brad McDevitt, Jeff Easley, Jim Holloway, Doug Kovacs, William McAusland, Jesse Mohn, Peter Mullen, Erol Otus, Stefan Poag, Jim Roslof, Chad Sergesketter, Chuck Whelon, Mike Wilson
GMG4385, 48 pages, hardcover, $19.99

The official announcement went live on the Goodman Games website today, freeing me up to make public something that I’ve been sitting on for months now.

Not too long after “The Dungeon Alphabet” appeared here, Goodman Games approached me about expanding the Alphabet into a gaming supplement. The goal of the book was to give game masters, bright-eyed newcomers and grizzled old veterans alike, a handy reference guide for use in creating and stocking their dungeons. Each alphabetical entry would be expanded to include advice, hints, and random tables that would help fire the imagination and provide a new way of looking at some of the classic elements of the dungeon. Certainly not the easiest challenge! But I very pleased to say that I took up that challenge and my more than twenty-five years of gaming experience on both sides of the screen came in quite handy. I truly feel that I rose to the task and I’m very proud of the newly-expanded Alphabet.

As the project continued to grow, I kept getting updates as to who had signed on to lend their talents to Alphabet. Just by looking at the names above, you can imagine how excited I was to have so many legends in the hobby agreeing to participate. Well, maybe not, because I don’t think there’s a word that accurately describes the emotional state of proud/shocked/ecstatic/scared/mind-blown/giddy. But if there were, that’s what I was feeling.

But enough about me. After all, compared to some of the names above, I’m a flyspeck on the face of role-playing. Let’s talk about the art, my friends. Having seen the completed pieces that will be sharing page space with my words, I can honestly say that there’s not a single piece of art that I don’t love. I wouldn’t mind owning several of the pieces to adorn my home and gaming area. Even if you don’t find my talents to your liking, I encourage you to take a look at the book if only for the artwork.

Hopefully I’ve sold you on the idea enough that you’ll be interested in getting your hands on a copy of The Dungeon Alphabet (Hey! I can put that in italics now because it’s officially a book title!!) when it hits your local game store. I’ll have details on the release date when I get them but I believe the plan at the moment is to have it available at Gen-Con.

As could be expected, I’ve pulled the Dungeon Alphabet posts from the blog. I hope you’ll forgive me for turning off the freebie tap but I obviously want to encourage people to buy the book. It’s bigger and better anyway, and chock full of great art, plus neat tables, cool adventure seeds, and other weirdness from the mind of yours truly.

I want to thank Joseph Goodman for having the faith that I, an unknown writer, could pull this off and for getting so many luminaries in the gaming world to contribute their talents to The Dungeon Alphabet. I've very grateful to everyone for their amazing work.