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Anyone here subscribe to Monte Cook's dungeonaday.com? I saw it when it first launched, but didn't subscribe at the time. Anyone here use it? What's it like running a dungeon without any hardcopy? How's the PFRPG compatibility? How interesting is the dungeon? Is it fun to explore, or more of a Diablo-esque meatgrinder? How well does it stand on it's own?
I want to start a dungeon-crawl, and I'm torn between converting either Undermountain or Ptolus to Golarion, making up something from scratch, or using Dungeonaday.com (moved to Golarion). Unfortunately, the front page of the website doesn't give a great feel for the project, and I can't find any unbiased "reviews" anywhere.
Thanks
Anyone here subscribe to Monte Cook's dungeonaday.com? I saw it when it first launched, but didn't subscribe at the time. Anyone here use it? What's it like running a dungeon without any hardcopy? How's the PFRPG compatibility? How interesting is the dungeon? Is it fun to explore, or more of a Diablo-esque meatgrinder? How well does it stand on it's own?
I want to start a dungeon-crawl, and I'm torn between converting either Undermountain or Ptolus to Golarion, making up something from scratch, or using Dungeonaday.com (moved to Golarion). Unfortunately, the front page of the website doesn't give a great feel for the project, and I can't find any unbiased "reviews" anywhere.
Thanks
I subscribed to DaD almost from the very beginning. It's a really unique experience and I very quickly did not regret my decision (I became a charter member, which is the big yearly package that gives free access to the PDFs.)
I have not run the dungeon itself as a massive dungeon, but I've taken a lot of the encounters and used them on my own campaign, as well as taking entire levels of the dungeon and using them in my own campaigns. It's really great for a guy like me who no longer has the time to design a full dungeon, but likes to include some dungeon crawling in his D&D.
It's very easy to convert to Pathfinder. In fact, there's regular updates from the Paizo staff on the site giving notes on how to convert your DaD stuff over to Pathfinder - very useful for some of the more custom stuff that Monte includes.
Running the dungeon is, for me, quite easy - particularly since the site is set up in a very Wiki-like manner. There's a large hyperlinked copy of the maps of each level where you can simply click on the area of the map the PCs are at and it'll send you to the page of the room. If the room refers to something in another room, there's a link in there too. Overall - it really is taking full advantage of the hyperlinkability of the web, and that makes things run so much easier.
The dungeon itself stands, in my opinion, quite well on its own. It's very far from Diablo-esque. It's not very hard and at no point are your PCs *forced* into going forward for anything. If they're finding one level too difficult for them, they can just go up a level and come back to that area when they're ready for it. And unlike Undermountain, or World's Largest Dungeon, etc., there is *far* more to Dungeon a Day than just full on dungeon crawling (despite the name!) There's a mythical island to explore, a haunted castle, and a demonically infested tower that serve as "side quests" to the main dungeon.
One caveat I will note, however - Monte has recently handed off the design of the project to the Genius Games guys. I've generally found no fault with their designs, though there have been quite a few growing pains for them. (To mention a few of the problems: They're not being as responsive on the forums as Monte used to be, some of the room designs feel incomplete or leave *way* too much up to the DM to customize, some rooms that could have been explained away with one entry are inexplicably split into two days' worth of entries... those are the major ones I've noticed.) However they've only been on the job for a little over a month, so I'm sure those pains will eventually iron themselves out. (Hopefully, at least.)
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It's very easy to convert to Pathfinder. In fact, there's regular updates from the Paizo staff on the site giving notes on how to convert your DaD stuff over to Pathfinder - very useful for some of the more custom stuff that Monte includes.
Thanks for the review. One more question, though, if you don't mind: As a johnny-come-lately, do I still get access to those articles on PFRPG conversion, or have they drifted "out-of-print"?
I've been a subscriber to Dungeonaday since the start, and I got the feeling that it jumped the shark with the last level. But it's started to pick up again recently, so maybe there is still hope.
I agree with the criticisms, and as a huge dungeon crawl it's about on par with Castle Whiterock (which I happen to think is quite good). But the greatest perks about it are IMHO Monte's little gems when it comes to unique magic items, encounters, NPCs and stuff. Much of it is easy to lift out and use in any campaign.
Another nice feature is the Revisit section, where most of the rooms have encounters for rooms already explored. That gives the dungeon a lot more dynamic feel than most dungeon crawls.
The PFRPG conversions are lagging a great deal and only cover the first levels, but they should still be around. Generally converting from 3.5 isn't that big a deal. If you're looking for a pure dungeon-crawling campaign, this is probably as good as it gets.
What do you get if you subscribe now? Is it just the new stuff, or do you have access to the older material?
What do you get if you subscribe now? Is it just the new stuff, or do you have access to the older material?
(And also to Uriel's post above) You should get access to everything that's been posted on the site. It's basically just a giant wiki/blog.
You might try it out for a month to see if you like it, then ditch if you don't.
Edit: Only thing that monthly subscribers don't get access to are the PDFs - you have to buy those if you're a monthly subscriber. If you're a charter member, you can download PDFs of entire levels (very well formatted in Malhavoc Press style).
I read this forum post here and got very excited about DungeonaDay.com. I don't know how I missed it before!
But I'm having trouble subscribing to the site. I get caught in a loop through PayPal that won't let me use my PayPal account to subscribe. It asks me to add a credit card and then if I cancel that, I'm sent to a screen to use my bank account or credit card, but that takes me right back to the add a card screen. I've sent a couple of messages through the Contact Us link on the DungeonaDay site, but haven't got any response. I've also tried to use PayPal's help, but that's useless.
Did anyone else have this problem? Is it because the yearly subscriptions are closed, now that the charter member period has ended?
Thanks for any help you can provide!!
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But I'm having trouble subscribing to the site. I get caught in a loop through PayPal that won't let me use my PayPal account to subscribe. It asks me to add a credit card and then if I cancel that, I'm sent to a screen to use my bank account or credit card, but that takes me right back to the add a card screen. I've sent a couple of messages through the Contact Us link on the DungeonaDay site, but haven't got any response. I've also tried to use PayPal's help, but that's useless.
Contact me at ostephens (at) aol (dot) com, and I'll see what needs to be done to get you signed up.
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But I'm having trouble subscribing to the site. I get caught in a loop through PayPal that won't let me use my PayPal account to subscribe. It asks me to add a credit card and then if I cancel that, I'm sent to a screen to use my bank account or credit card, but that takes me right back to the add a card screen. I've sent a couple of messages through the Contact Us link on the DungeonaDay site, but haven't got any response. I've also tried to use PayPal's help, but that's useless.Contact me at ostephens (at) aol (dot) com, and I'll see what needs to be done to get you signed up.
I actually had a pretty identical problem myself in the middle of last week trying to renew my subscription I had let lapse for a couple months.
After getting caught in the paypal loop asking for me to add a card and then saying the card already exists I managed find a way to select that I wished it drawn directly from my account rather than going through a credit/debit card. That seemed to work and everything was approved, but the funds haven't left my account yet and I haven't gotten any sort of confirmation emails. I also sent a message to dungeonaday on Friday just to check on the status. I'll email you personally Owen if that is better.
On topic however, I was a charter subscriber for dungeon a day and kept up my subscription until some issues took me off the face of the earth and out of being able to keep up with RP stuff for a bit. The site always was a wealth of information and seemed a good mix of hack 'n slash and interaction that had a classic feel along with good ideas.
I'm really looking forward to getting back into it and catching up on all I have missed and give the site a great recommendation.