I love dungeons. Dragons, too, but mostly dungeons.

They fire my imagination in a different way than all of the other trappings and oddities of fantasy RPGs, and I love running them as a GM and scampering through them as a player.

Last year, Philippe-Antoine Menard, author of Musings of the Chatty DM, teamed up with Michael Shorten (chgowiz) to run the one-page dungeon contest.

It’s a great concept: Outline a system-neutral dungeon on a single page, including a map. You can do a surprising amount with one page and a map, and it’s a cool format for sparking your imagination as a GM.

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The entries ranged from serious to humorous, and there were some truly excellent dungeons in the mix. Those standouts have been collected in a free PDF: The One Page Dungeon Codex 2009, Deluxe, edited by Phil and Michael, and published by the fine folks at Tabletop Adventures.

This is a good-looking PDF that includes more content than you might expect from 21 one-page dungeons: In addition to the dungeons, the one-page dungeon template is provided, along with background on the concept, advice on using the template, and ways to enjoy these dungeons in your game. The whole e-book clocks in at over 50 pages, and the zip file for the PDF includes both a screen-optimized and a printer-friendly version.

It’s impossible not to feel the enthusiasm Phil, Michael, the contributors, and Tabletop Adventures had for this project — and that makes for a fun e-book. I’ve been friends with Phil for a few years now, and while I don’t know much about Michael (other than that he seems like a good guy), I do know something about Phil: He has too much energy, talent, and publishing potential to let this project be his last.

And if you need still more one-page dungeon goodness, there’s also a PDF that collects all 114 entries in the 2009 contest.

There was also a one-page dungeon contest in 2010, though not run by the same folks. You can read about it here, plus see all the entries that have links, and grab a collection while you’re at it.

Will there be a One-Page Dungeon Codex 2010? The “2009” in the current compendium certainly suggests that — and I hope there will be.