Mobius Strips are one-sided shapes that you can create by taking a length of paper, half-twisting it and fastening the ends together. If you trace your finger around the edge you will end up all the way around the strip, and back where you started from, having covered every part of the surface.
Now imagine that Mobius Strip is a Dungeon Map.
It’s the ultimate carry anywhere self-contained infinite dungeon!
I ran a Mobius Dungeon back in the day (“back in the day” being the official name for the early eighties), figuring it to be a Ringworld-like creation with little or no origins or explanation. The Mobius Dungeon just was.
Monsters came and went (where from? who knew?) and increased in level with the PCs. Was this some kind of cosmic testing ground, or all just a figment of someone’s imagination? These, and other questions, remained cheerfully unanswered to this day.
Back then, of course, I drew the dungeon by hand, and the original is long lost to the wastebasket of time. Now you too can have a Mobius Dungeon of your very own, all thanks to the Miracle of Technology!
The key is to use Dave’s Mapper. Create a long, thin dungeon (2×10 makes a good starting strip, larger for a true Ringworld Mega-Dungeon experience) and don’t close off the dungeon edges. Export as a .png (the little white icon next to “Hide Img Menu”), then refresh to generate another with the same parameters. Save that one too.
Print out the first to fit a sheet of paper (Scale to Fit Media in Photoshop is your friend), then print the second on the back, making sure it lines up. Cut it out, twist once, tape, and……
The Mobius Dungeon lives again!
Now to populate this puppy.
Nicely done. Unless you like going over the edges though, I’d suggest a 1×10 with closed edges, then just remove the top and bottom corners/edges. Same size strip, but the sides will be closed to prevent confusion.
I quite like the idea of having wrap-around edges so the PCs can flip around to the other “side” to take shortcuts, and a 2×10 gives just a little bit more variety when it comes to routes and paths.
A 1×10 looked to be a bit too linear to me, but of course I might be wrong :)
In that case, wouldn’t it be more appropriate to call it a torus? Or am I having a bad math day?
I guess it could be both a flattened torus and a mobius strip, both at the same time.
AT THE SAME TIME?!
AT THE SAME TIME!! :D
Take a flattened torus, cut it, give a half-twist and reseal.
You end up with something like this. Only not quite so much woodiness.
Sweet sauce.
No, awesomesauce! This is great! I’m printin’ up half a dozen!
(Well, maybe not, but 3 at least)
4e Court Of The Shadow Fey has a mobius strip made of shadow. Monsters can reach through the ground and pull you to the other side. (Bursts and attacks can go through to the other side.
Would you give the map to the PCs? or is this a DM tool for tracking the party?
I would give the PCs fragments of the map, possibly letting them have the full map (in pieces) over time. It’s up to them to work out how it all fits together though.
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Time to run my Mobius Dungeon, I think. http://t.co/NtwSbrbI #dnd #rpg