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by sdonohue

The Deck of Old-School Dungeon Lore is a 2025 release from Philip Reed Games. It was written by Philip Reed and is intended for use with any fantasy game (or maybe any game which might have a dungeon-crawling component).

Presentation
This is available as a pdf and as a printed poker-sized deck in a tuckbox. The pdf comes with two versions, one is a 102 page file with each card and back as it's own page and the other is a 7 page version, with 5 pages of 9 cards each, 1 of 8 cards, and one more with 9 copies of the back. The printed version comes in a tuck box and the cards are good quality. All the version are in full, but somewhat muted color; and most have at least one illustration. The deck is 52 content cards and 1 instruction card.

Content
The concept is simple, draw three cards and combine them to create an idea for a dungeon. 42 of the cards have sort of a beginning, middle and end structure. The beginning explains why the dungeon was built and it's original purpose. The middle explains how the dungeon fell into ruin (or at least why it no longer serves it's original purpose) and the end card explains the current state of the dungeon.

The other 10 cards are called "You are not alone" cards and each suggests someone (or some thing) that is also exploring or traveling through the dungeon. This can range from a lone thief to a dangerous monster or even a group of creatures. Some of these encounters are inherently hostile while others might be willing to work with the party so they can both achieve their goals.

Using the cards is simple: deal yourself three cards and then assemble a beginning, middle, and end from those cards that you find inspiring. The beginnings always start with "A long time ago...", the middles start "The dungeon fell into ruin when..." and the ends begin with "Today the dungeon...". If one of your three cards is a "you are not alone" card, keep it as fodder for the dungeon and deal a new card to replace it. These cards are system-less, so whatever you draw will be inspiration and you'll need to work out the details of the dungeon and any inhabitants yourself.

Evaluation
This is a system-less supplement intended to inspire a gamemaster's creativity. There are a lot of ideas here. 42 beginnings which can match with 42 middles and then 42 ends means you have more than 74,000 ideas here, not including the chance for you are not alone cards which would mean more than 740,000 ideas. Admittedly, some of them will make odd partners and may need to be rejected, but those might be the most interesting.

The beginnings, middles, and ends are unique and, while some are pretty standard ideas, many are more creative and are likely to give the GM inspiration to create an interesting and unique dungeon.

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