In 2023, I embarked on the Dungeon 23 challenge, aiming to create a unique room for a mega-dungeon each day throughout the year. The goal was to end up with a dungeon consisting of 365 rooms by December 31st 2023. My plan was to build on my own mega-dungeon (in the form of a town), focusing on roleplay rather than combat.

Initially, I was making good progress, but then my wife and I welcomed a baby into our lives. For those who have children, your brain has just said. “Ah, I get you.”. For those without, imagine having a second job that you love but never get a break from. Needless to say, I didn’t complete the entire Dungeon 23 challenge.

However, I did manage to complete about 70% of the challenge, which I’m quite proud of. This accomplishment marks not the end of my Dungeon 23 journey, but the beginning.

Grounding Design

Beyond not having any free time, another challenge I faced working on Dungeon 23 was not using a pre-established world to ground my ideas. Without an existing world to build upon, I had to create everything from scratch, which made the process more difficult. Without an established world as reference or system mechanics as a framework, I sometimes found myself in the dark without a guiding light.

Creating system-agnostic material requires a skilled writer, and with only a handful of TTRPG writing credits to my name, I’m still learning the ropes. Some people might consider working without an established world freeing, but as someone learning this skill I feel I need that support. I don’t consider aiming for a mega-dungeon to be overly ambitious, as I believe that any creative skill requires numerous failed attempts to master. My goal is to complete my Dungeon 23 so that I can improve my content creation skills for future projects.

My plan moving forward is to set aside my Dungeon 23 project while Knights of the Braille work on our first TTRPG. Once that project is completed, I’ll return to my Dungeon 23 and use the Knights of the Braille TTRPG as the grounding force to help me consolidate and complete the project.

Beyond 23

Working on Dungeon 23 showed me the importance of creating content specifically for blind and visually impaired TTRPG enthusiasts. It goes beyond structuring tags or image descriptions or large print options. Creating ideas for Dungeon 23 made me realize that it feels different to bake accessibility into the core design of content, and that’s something I want to focus on.

The only way I can improve, is to keep working at it. Dungeon 23 is being put away for now, so I can focus solely on the Knights of the Braille TTRPG. Once that is complete, I’ll see where we’re at and go from there. Dungeon 23 will be my main project again one day, when I feel I’m good enough to take it back on.

I’m comfortable putting a project aside, to improve, as I have a long-term goal. My hope is that in the future I will have the skills and knowledge to begin creating content which is not just designed accessibly, but is also representative of our community. One day.

Who Is Jim?

I realize that my blogs are titled ‘Jim’s Blog’, but some of you don’t know me. My name is Jim, I have Stargarft’s Disease and cataracts, as well as being hearing impaired. I started Knights of the Braille 5 years ago as a few visually impaired strangers in a Google Hangout, playing D&D. Today, we have a growing community and a website to provide people direction on accessible tools. We also have a small group of amazing folks who help run this endeavor, with Richard and Phil taking on the brunt of it.

I don’t get a whole lot of time to actually play TTRPG’s nowadays. I play in some local groups, here in Toronto, when I have time and I run a bi-weekly virtual game. I’m always looking for community projects to work on for Knights of the Braille, but I need to be selective due to a limited amount of free time.

If you want to contact me to chat, share ideas or ask questions; I’m in the Knights of the Braille Discord server as @jimjam91337 or you can email knightsofthebraille@gmail.com

Thank you for taking the time to read this.