A look back at a decade of Mini-Dungeons.
Mini-Dungeons are two-page adventures which are setting agnostic and are easily inserted anywhere in your campaign. These grab-and-go adventures are great when you need something in a pinch! Mini-Dungeons are available for use with 5th Edition, Pathfinder, and Pathfinder 2nd Edition.
I have created more than 300 full-color maps for this series, written nearly 50 of the adventures, and have been integrally involved in the game design process throughout the series from inception to the release of Mini-Dungeon Tome II.
Mini-Dungeon Series Titles
History of the Mini-Dungeon Series
The Mini-Dungeon series is rooted in the history of Dungeons & Dragons. The general concept of “plug-and-play” adventures dates back the earliest days of game design by Gary Gygax with the TSR release of “Dungeon Geomorphs” in 1976, which introduce the idea creating an adventure on-the-fly by utilizing a self-contained modular design.
That same year Jennell Jaquays presented what she called “mini-adventures” with the release of “F’Chelrak’s Tomb” in the very first issue of The Dungeoneer. The adventure can probably be considered the first published adventure outside of convention-play modules that was intended to be completed in one game session.
These seminal publications served as direct inspiration for what would become AAW Games Mini-Dungeons. In fact, I would later pay homage to Gary Gygax’s Dungeon Morphs when I created the “Dungeon Builder’s Deck” as a part of the early Mini-Dungeon series.
How the Mini-Dungeon Series Started…
To understand why the Mini-Dungeon series was such a fantastic fit for AAW Games, one only needs to examine the acronym that comprises the company’s name. In 2012, adventureaweek.com opened its doors to the public—a hybrid game publisher/web-based subscription service that would… release one adventure every week.
I first met Jonathan G. Nelson, owner of AAW Games, about a year before public release of his game company. First being introduced to his “geek news” imprint, NerdTrek.com for which I would do some graphic design work. I would later become a part of the small beta team of about eight individuals testing the functionality of adventureaweek.com. It was incredibly ambitious endeavor, and for a while, the company released a new full-size module every week. These titles make up what are known as the A, B, and C Series of adventure modules published by AAW Games.
However, that business model was nearly impossible to sustain week after week. The level of production effort that goes into releasing a full-size module would make for a busy month, pulling it off in a week was more than an epic feat. Honestly, I’m astonished that it was accomplished successfully for so long.
During that time AAW Games had also added a daily blog to the lineup, jokingly referred to as the “Aawblog”, of which I had become a regular contributor. The concept with the blog was a monthly theme. Through episodic daily posts, at each month’s end, the blog had created and released a new complete adventure module one post at a time.
By 2014, I was writing between a third to half of the entire blog’s content each month. This themed cycle of posts would go on to win us AAW Game’s first ENnie award (for Best Blog), and some of the more popular monthly themes were later released as the “Aawblog Presents” series of modules. This helped to alleviate some of the production stress of offering a new module every week, and Jonathan took notice of our efficiency in utilizing the method to manifest an entire adventure module.
In late 2014, Jonathan and I met at his request—he wanted to bounce an idea off me. He showed me a copy of Gary’s Dungeon Geomorphs and prompted the question: What if we did something like these, but with adventure content like you’re already writing for the blog? The idea struck a chord instantly. We were both on board to make this happen. These would become an adventure a week.
The very next day, I developed a set of Photoshop actions that allowed for quick and easy creation of the rudimentary maps that the earliest Mini-Dungeons would be released with, and the team (Jonathan G. Nelson, Jonathan Ely, Stephen Yeardly, and I) wrote the first four modules by the end of the week, and a new series was born.
The first Mini-Dungeon, #1—Buried Council Chambers, written by Jonathan G. Nelson, would be published in January of 2015, and the series has continued and thrive and evolve ever since.
Mini-Dungeons Unite! In Search of the Tomes…
As the Mini-Dungeons series continued with weekly releases, I would soon take over management of the series so that Jonathan could focus on transitioning the company from adventureaweek.com to AAW Games. The intent was to continue with the subscription based service, but rebrand the company as a game publisher first and foremost. This would result in a flurry of hardcover publications including Snow White, Aventyr Bestiary, Underworld Races & Classes and the Into the Wintery Gale series.
As the weekly releases continued, and we neared our 100th Mini-Dungeon, I came to a realization that the primary traffic for the series consisted of subscribers. The individual adventures weren’t performing all that well as stand-alone products. This prompted the idea of releasing a hardcover anthology compiling all of our released Mini-Dungeons that could be then marketed as a more direct product to a broader audience.
When I initially pitched the idea to Jonathan, it was rejected. His focus was on creating new content for hardcover releases, not re-hashing existing releases. However, I felt confident it would perform well and continued to inquire about it every few weeks. On the fifth attempt, Jonathan acquiesced and agreed that we would run a Kickstarter to gauge interest. We would utilize the first 120 Mini-Dungeons, and go with the book title, “Mini-Dungeon Tome” that I had unceremoniously utilized in the concept mock-up I had provided to him during the pitch.
In 2017, I designed the Kickstarter, and it was a resounding success—out-performing our other product lines three times over. Subsequent successful Kickstarters would see the release of the tome for other popular game systems.
In 2023, we would repeat the process with the publication of the Mini-Dungeon Tome II, including an additional 140 adventures, and again subsequent successful Kickstarters to release versions of the book for additional game systems.
The Adventure Assistants
What would be useful for a massive collection of modular adventures? The ability to quickly find the perfect fit to plug into your ongoing campaign. Pulling from my extensive web development background, I provided AAW Games with a solution for just this!
The Mini-Dungeon Tome Adventure Assistant is an interactive web-based interface that allows game masters to filter through all the adventures by metrics including: game system, level, party size, environment, and whether there are undead monsters, traps, or riddles and puzzles involved in the Mini-Dungeon.
The returned results provided game masters with a convenient summary of the adventures that fit their needs, including a thumbnail of the map, all the aforementioned metrics, the intro and summary of the adventure, and even a listing of what monsters needed to be prepped. And, of course, what page number the adventure could be located on in the relevant edition of the Mini-Dungeon Tome.
After developing the first, I made a second for the Mini-Dungeon Monthly zine that had essentially the same functionality, allowing game masters to search through the zine adventures by logical metrics, and outputting all the details including which issue and on what page number the adventure could be found.
The web applications no longer appear to be publicly accessible, but provided quick reference for adventures in the series for several years.
It’s Time for a Quest. A #zinequest!
In early 2019 Kickstarter started an initiative to promote tabletop roleplaying games. It was called #zinequest, and the goal was to have creators run short two-week campaigns to fund zine sized projects. Hearkening back to the days of fan-published zines and newsletters like The Dungeoneer, the whole concept really called to me. To me, it would feel like a symbolic full circle for Mini-Dungeons to return to the roots of “mini-adventures” in a zine-style publication.
I decided to pitch the idea of doing a Mini-Dungeon zine to Jonathan, but the idea of diving into a yet another new project was initially rejected. At the time he was deeply involved with preparing for the publication of Rise of the Drow: Collector’s Edition hardcover. However, I persisted since I felt like a zine really captured the “punk rock” vibe that AAW Games has always embraced.
The final selling point to get approval for the project to move forward was when I suggested that the Mini-Dungeons written for the zine could all go towards the content of a second Mini-Dungeon Tome.
Our little black-and-white publication was a go! I designed another successful Kickstarter to fund the project, and we released a year’s worth of issues on a monthly schedule, each containing five new adventures.
The zine remains one of my favorite series to have worked on; the themes and aesthetic appealing to my grassroots tendencies.
During the zine editing process, Jonathan would make the call to trim the adventures in length to fit the print format he wanted to use. This would render them unsuitable for use in a second book, ultimately relegating the adventures to only appearing in their initial zine releases. The decision also delayed a second Mini-Dungeon tome by a couple years since it equated to the loss of half the content that would have comprised the book.
As the year-long publication of Mini-Dungeon Monthly came to a wrap it would also signify the end of my tenor as manager over the series. After the release of the final issue, I would decide take a step back from game design during the pandemic to take some time for myself after several friends and family members died from COVID complications. I found myself in a dark, less than creative space for awhile.
However, before taking that break, I had already designed a huge stash of nearly 100 maps dedicated for the series, and in my absence those maps would find each of their adventures from a slew of talented Mini-Dungeon authors. And, I would return in time to assist in the launch and publication of Mini-Dungeon Tome II!
Moving Forward…
With the company making significant changes with marketing image, content direction, and branding, I haven’t done much work for AAW Games recently, and as of early 2025, I am not a part of the official design crew there any longer. My last substantial project with the company—perhaps most fitting—was getting Mini-Dungeon Tome II for Pathfinder 2E out the door.
There will always be fond memories of the 14-years spent on-staff creating adventures together and forging this series that would thrive for over a decade. It remains a chapter in my game design history that I am proud of, and I hope that the series finds a niche where it will continue to grow in the coming years.
Thanks for reading! Have some bonus content!
Back in 2014, a company called Mythoard began what was the first-ever subscription box service targeting TTRPG gamers. The contents of the crates were a combination of "new old stock" from a handful of sources as well as fresh content submitted by current publishers. I became involved with the company by creating a deck of "encounter cards" for them that would be released one card in every box to build an entire deck of 50, and after discussion with Jonathan, AAW Games got on board as well. Several specially formatted Mini-Dungeons printed on card stock were included in the subscription boxes. So, for any Mini-Dungeon collectors out there, this was the only place to find the uniquely-sized 8x10" version of the adventures.
Here is a small gallery of photos displaying the content of five of those "Mini-Dungeon" Mythoard boxes...
