d-Infinity Live! Series 5, Episode 11: Words With Friends Dungeon Challenge [live on 04-14-2016]

Welcome to setup for our first "d-Infinity Challenges" episode! Co-host Michael O. Varhola has volunteered to create it based on his musings that Words with Friends game boards look like dungeon maps and that they could be keyed out based on the words that appear in them. Your challenge, should you choose to accept it — which co-hosts Will Thrasher, Brendan Cass, Clint Staples, and Amanda Kahl have — is to create a compelling a mini-dungeon/encounter area inspired by a screenshot of a completed Words with Friends game. 

Welcome to setup for our first "d-Infinity Challenges" episode! Co-host Michael O. Varhola has volunteered to create our first one, which is based on his musings that Words with Friends game boards look like dungeon maps and that they could be keyed out based on the words that appear in them. Your challenge, should you choose to accept it — which co-hosts Will Thrasher, Brendan Cass, Clint Staples, and Amanda Kahl have — is to create a compelling a mini-dungeon/encounter area inspired by a screenshot of a completed Words with Friends game.

First, choose one of the four screenshots that appears below, as each of our co-hosts has already secretly done. Rules for the challenge follow them. 

 

 

* Create a mini-dungeon or encounter area using, to the greatest extent possible, the words that appear on the screenshot you chose. It is not necessary to use all or even most of the words, but the more that are effectively incorporated, and the more cleverly they are employed, the better your dungeon will be regarded. They can be used to determine general characteristics of your dungeon or things like the people, monsters, magic items, spells, or other features that appear within it. 

* Any existing game system is acceptable and must be declared, along with the title of your work, the level of character it is intended for, and any other pertinent information.

* Spaces with words are open passageways, chambers, etc., or other sorts of active areas, while other spaces are considered solid or otherwise inaccessible. Determine your scale (e.g., 1 square = 5 feet, 10 feet, etc.). Single squares at the edge of the board represent entry points to your area and, if there are none, you must address how people can get into or out of it; assume at least one square of passageway beyond any of the entry points to your dungeon, and feel free to specify any reasonable length of approach to it. A regular stonework dungeon is the default but is by no means required (e.g., your open areas could be paths and clearings in unnaturally dense woodland). 

* During the "d-Infinity Live!" show on the evening of Thursday, April 15, each co-host will present his or her dungeon and explain the choices they made in developing it and viewers will have the opportunity to vote on those they like the most. Then, we will move on to talking about any dungeons by viewers who have accepted the challenge and submitted their creations to the show. In the days following the show we will also be posting to d-Infinity Online the co-hosts dungeons using their text and any maps, illustrations, or other elements they have created, as well as any dungeons submitted by viewers that they have asked to have posted and which are appropriate and sufficiently developed. 

We hope you will enjoy seeing what our hosts come up with and that you will accept our challenge yourself! Feel free to share your own attempt at the challenge in the comments below.