Dungeon Planner Set 2: Nightmare in Blackmarsh
Dungeon Planner Set 2: Nightmare in Blackmarsh is an adventure published by Games Workshop in 1984 for use with fantasy role-playing games. Contents. "Dungeon Planner Set 2: Nightmare in Blackmarsh" is a complete package for a gamemaster that includes Unlike the previously published "", this package does not contain a ready-made adventure. Publication history. Games Workshop had produced a licensed supplement for "D&D" in 1978, "Dungeon Floor Plans", but generally was focused on the publication and distribution in the UK of American role-playing games. In the 2014 book "Designers & Dragons: The  '70s", game historian Shannon Appelcline noted that in the early 1980s, Citadel Miniatures — which been founded with start-up money from Games Workshop — was developing "Warhammer Fantasy Battle" for Games Workshop, a tabletop miniature wargame that would require the use of 25 mm metal miniatures and a map using a 1" square grid. In order to further promote Citadel's miniatures trade, Games Workshop started to develop role-playing products that would also use miniatures and a square-gridded map. As Appelcline relates: "A reprint of their "Dungeon Floor Plans" (1982) — no longer sporting the "D&D" logo — was the first  of several gaming supplements. Three more mapping sets plus two "dungeon planners" — which included both floor plans "and" "AD&D" adventures — followed it." Games Workshop envisioned a series of linked "Dungeon Planners", packages that would contain everything a gamemaster would need, including maps, regional information, ideas for adventures, and information about notable characters the players could meet. As the name "Dungeon Planner" suggested, the product would not be a completely detailed adventure; the gamemaster would have to spend time filling in a lot of the required details of an adventure, including planned encounters and story hooks, monsters, room furnishings, etc. Each  adventure's regional map would be linked to the map of the previous product, so that as each product was released, a larger and larger "world map" would be revealed. The adventures would be "generic", not keyed to a specific role-playing system such as "D&D" or "RuneQuest", so that any gamemaster could adapt the adventures to whatever role-playing system they were using. Because the products would use a 1" grid, gamemasters could customize or extend the dungeon floor plans using "Dungeon Floor Plans" products. The first two products in this line, "Dungeon Planner Set 1: Caverns of the  Dead" and "Dungeon Planner Set 2: Nightmare in Blackmarsh", were published by Games Workshop in 1984. All writing, artwork and cartography for "Dungeon Planner 2" was done by Albie Fiore and Robert Neville. As planned, the map in "Dungeon Planner 2" of the region around Blackmarsh could be married to the regional map from "Dungeon Planner 1", providing a much larger regional map that would eventually encompass an entire world. However, "Dungeon Planner 2" was the last product to be released in this line, as Games Workshop changed course and moved away from role-playing products to focus on "Warhammer . Reception. In the December 1984 edition of White Dwarf" (Issue #60), Doug Cowie admired the production values, saying, "Graphics, materials, printing — they're all first rate." He also found the map of the village "most attractive. The invitation it extends to get some figures out and start playing on it is almost irrestible." But he found the gamemaster's screen too thin to use, and pointed out that the encounter tables printed on the screen suggested that the gamemaster should take the time during the game to randomly generate encounters, rather than planning them ahead of time. However, comparing this  package to "Dungeon Planner 1", which was set in a dungeon, he commented "The selection of a village is a much more sensible idea... an ideal setting for referee-designed adventures but a time-consuming project for a referee to map and describe him/herself." Cowie concluded that ""Dungeon Planner 2" is a much more useful product than "DP1". Undoubtedly it would have made a lot more sense if it had been released first." He gave this product an average rating of 7 out of 10.