Before delving into the intricacies of the review of Micro Dungeons, a small but very interesting collection of dungeons for D&D5e, we would like to thank ND Hobbies for sending us all the material to be able to tell you about it.
If at the end of this overview, if you’d like to buy one or more of the volumes in the series, know that you can find them directly in the official store at about 5 dollars (about 5 euros).
One year after the first publication, ND Hobbies has decided to collect all the dungeons already seen in a compendium that contains as many as 50. This volume can also be purchased from their store at a price of $29.90 (about 30 euros).
As we said, Micro Dungeon is a short selection of small dungeons for D&D5e, presented in a fresh, immediate guise and with an old-school conception.
The product is designed for novice players and Dungeon Masters of the world’s most famous role-playing game but can be easily approached by expert groups. Each dungeon can be played in a matter of hours allowing for an immediate approach to fill an evening or to intersperse longer campaigns.
Product Versatility
It certainly happened to everyone to find themselves, at some point, unable to carry on the gargantuan Dungeon & Dragons campaign that had begun with all the emphasis it was due. In turn, some of the players have other commitments or, simply, the complexity of the plot (or its repetitiveness) begins to tire a little.
In other cases you need a quick dungeon to set up a one-shot. Or there is a need to show a new player how to approach the game.
In all these cases and many more, Micro Dungeon certainly comes to the rescue of Dungeon Masters and playgroups.
5 Tiny Dungeons
As we will see in this review, Micro Dungeon is an extremely specialized specialist product. It is a small volume of about twenty pages and presents 5 dungeons to be entered in a matter of minutes.
In fact, this volume includes Chapel of the Rift God, Nightcrystal Keep, The Underground Garden, Heads of the Hydra and The Molten Sanctuary.
Each dungeon includes a map, an introduction to the adventure and all encounters. There is no shortage of traps or puzzles for the different rooms. In addition, each dungeon includes at least one new monster specific to that adventure.
It is obviously not possible to show here, to avoid spoilers, the entirety of the dungeons. However, I would like to underline that each of the proposed itineraries has a simple and at the same time interesting structure. While never featuring more than 8 rooms, each dungeon offers interesting challenges and great versatility in terms of discounts, traps and treasures.
I particularly appreciated that the texts contain direct hypertext links to the publisher page or to the appendix, where all the stat blocks for the new monsters are present.
Micro Dungeons Aesthetics review
All the twenty pages of this collection are extremely pleasant to browse. The layout compresses each dungeon into a single page, making it very easy for those who approach it to have everything under their eyes.
Even the complexity of the maps, designed quite clearly to be used by the dungeon master, are however extremely simple to transport on a sheet of paper, squared or not.
The choice of print colours (sand dotted with red and black) makes everything particularly easy to recognize. Each dungeon, presented in the middle of the page, is then surrounded by information boxes; thanks to the symbols on the map, they detail the description of the room, any traps and treasures.
If the Dungeon Master wishes to include one or more of these scenarios in his own campaign and does not find a match with the difficulty level of the encounters, he can refer to the appendix. In this section, you will also find the tables to make the encounters more or less dangerous. This is a particularly functional and intelligent choice, which makes the product much more versatile than it might seem by looking at its size.
Even the images, few but decidedly punctual in terms of aesthetics and detail, are in perfect agreement with the type of project.
Micro Dungeons Review Conclusions
However small and inexpensive, I believe this volume can be a great tool. Its versatility allows it to become part of every Dungeon Master’s ready-to-wear toolbox; starting from the novices up to the most experienced. It is an essential and easily transportable product.
I am convinced that it can really turn a mediocre session for the better, and help newbies to approach the most famous RPG in the world.