Three More Mapping Game Paradigms

12 Mar, 2026

In the conversation that led to The Mapping Game -- Conventional Dungeon Paradigm, Scribble & I imagined a few additional paradigms that could support a game focused primarily on player mapping (while de-emphasizing combat & role-playing). With his blessing, I have recorded them here.

I have not found the capacity to assemble beautiful game drafts like Scribble did for MG-CDP; for now these are just half-baked ideas, recorded here so they don't disappear. If any appeal to you, feel free to use them for whatever you want.

Escape the Ergastulum of Endless Evil

Players are prisoners in the dungeon trying to escape.¹ They have a 'home area' where they can prepare expeditions more or less freely, but whenever they venture into the labyrinth they have to avoid wandering supernatural jailers.

If the players make it back to the home area after exploring, the referee photocopies their maps & hands them back next session. Otherwise players must rely on their memories & maps drawn by the last surviving expedition.

I imagine the jailers or wardens as being extremely powerful, such that evading them adds to the navigational challenge.² It would suffice to say that they can only be damaged by magic weapons, or that specific types of warden can be countered with special items (e.g. an invisibility cloak, or a wand of Slow).

The dungeon could draw on escape room design, with various puzzles and tasks needed to enable an escape. In particular, if escape were to require some number of actions carried out in quick succession (e.g. pull four levers that reset at the end of the day) it would force players to assemble a map that not only includes the way out, but also is detailed enough to chart a path between each required action and the exit.

Scribble noted that this version closely resembles the situation in Severance.³

Just for fun, here are some crimes that could land a character in the Ergastulum of Endless Evil:

Strand-type Dungeon Game

The least fleshed-out idea, borrowing the term Hideo Kojima coined for Death Stranding. In this paradigm, the dungeon would be designed as a 'conventional' underworld and players would be dungeon couriers, perhaps hailing from one of the monster lairs.

Gameplay would involve delivering messages from one lair to another. Players would have a rough sense of a message's destination but would need to explore & map specific routes. Wandering monsters would generally be neutral or friendly, but mindless foes like oozes would still be a hazard. The primary enemy, however, would be marauding plunderers from the overworld -- their depredations could serve as the driving force for the campaign, where the players-as-messengers coordinate the resistance of otherwise-hostile monster factions.

(To generate messages, there could be a second layer where a separate set of players controls different lairs a la Diplomacy or Cataphracts, arranging missives in order to conduct negotiations? Possibly managed via play-by-post?)

Just as Death Stranding lets players unlock ziplines and vehicles, one could stock a strand-type dungeon with materials for telegraph lines, scrolls of Sending, and other communication technologies.

The Dept. of Labyrinth Studies

In this variant, the players inhabit scholars rather than plunderers.

To set up the scenario, the referee must procure a dungeon map & stock it with provocative enigmas -- cryptic inscriptions, strange statues, abstract friezes, fragmentary notes, denizens with peculiar cultural mores & myths.

Next, either the referee or a selected player writes a scholarly manuscript (or three) about the dungeon, advancing a thesis about its origins, purpose, and/or inhabitants. This serves as the initial Labyrinth Studies Corpus.

Players play as a team of graduate students venturing into the dungeon in order to evaluate the claims made in the initial LSP manuscript. To do so, they must take notes, conduct interviews, gather data, & draw maps. Once a suitable corpus of notes has been compiled, they can distill their findings into a co-authored manuscript. This then joins the Labyrinth Studies Corpus and is available for subsequent expeditions to refute or build on.

XP is earned by publishing manuscripts & acquiring citations, perhaps advancing characters from Master's, to Ph.D., then Post-doc, Adjunct Professor, Lecturer, Tenured Professor, Distinguished Professor, Provost, Dean, etc. Experience gain is modified somewhat by the highest-level co-author (scholars have to hustle to get prestigious advisors to endorse their work).

Regardless of level, scholars have 1-1 HD & cannot effectively wear armor (other than helmets). They are subject to the usual need for light, rest, and rations. As labyrinth studies experts, they have a basic command of goblin, kobold, orcish, etc. & can negotiate safe passage, but are still at risk of faux pas & miscommunication. Against animals and oozes, cans of bear spray, firecrackers, and PPE will have to suffice.

There could be an En Garde!-esque structure for the academic year, with expeditions occurring during summer & winter break. During spring & fall, characters could take (and teach) classes for extra XP, jockey for (or to avoid) departmental positions, etc.

The hardest part of this paradigm is the scenario design -- the Referee has to create a scenario full of strange enigmas and prepare a manuscript about it. The scenario should be packed full of interesting data points that are coherent enough to advance theses about but open-ended enough to not have a single "right answer" that settles the scholarly debate once and for all. A megadungeon with highly coherent background lore like Arden Vul might work if revised to be less lethal, but my preference would be to develop something from scratch.

#musings #slush-pile