Dungenerator Series 2 Card Deck by ROLLINKUNZ

Colorful, inky cards to randomly generate a dungeon as I GM’d. I bought these cards on Exalted Funeral after missing a Kickstarter for them. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite what I aimed for in-game. The deck may be better as a prep tool to map dungeons and create a layout. Using it to create a goblin warren in-game proved more difficult than I thought it would be.

Play Time: Two sessions, about 2 hours each session. I may revisit these and try to prep a dungeon using Dungenerator cards.

General Thoughts: A fair product that hinges on a gimmicky or niche premise, definitely aimed at GMs who want something novel or new. RPG players aren’t going to have any use for these cards, they’re very GM-centric. When used in game to create a goblin warren, I had to flip through cards and look for a viable cave to fit my mental image of where the PCs were.

I used these in our Shadowdark game when the PCs invaded the Red Blade goblin warren (cribbed from B10: Night’s Dark Terror, the old Basic D&D module by TSR UK). I wanted to experiment with them, and had high hopes that the cards would add some spice to the PC’s goblin crawl.

The cards worked OK for what they were supposed to do, but I found there was a lot of flipping between cards looking for a viable goblin cave, and I had to continuously readjust my mental framework for what was in the warrens. This was easier the second time I used the cards, since I’d already stumbled through using them once, and so knew what to expect.

The cards were good at points, leading to some really interesting moments: the second time into the goblin cave, the goblins had abandoned the warren and left behind a bunch of undead, including some ghouls and a ghast. There was also a treefall from the petrified forest above, and I was able to find a Dungeonerator card that had a nicely drawn image that met this exact type of layout.

The problem with the cards stems from a couple of points: using them on the fly requires a ton of cognitive overhead, and juggling the map generation, monsters, encounters, and PCs proved to be one thing too much for me. I do think these cards are really pretty – they’re visually appealing and the black ink with green edges, along with the chunky, gritty feel of the map art hits a sweet spot.

I’ll probably revisit the Dungenerator cards next time my group decides to explore a cave system, but use them to prepare a dungeon beforehand, instead of a live-fire exercise. The cards have some high and low points, but may have use for a GM looking for something new map-wise.

Card deck available on Exalted Funeral: https://www.exaltedfuneral.com/products/dungenerator-series-2-card-deck-pdfs

PDF deck available on DriveThruRPG (affiliate link): https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/405919/The-DUNGENERATOR-Series-2-without-Roll20?affiliate_id=14013