Xandering the Dungeon - Complete Collection (Patron Special)

As a special bonus for patrons, here's a PDF collection of the full Xandering the Dungeon series.

If you're wondering what xandering a dungeon is, well you might know it by another name.

Xandering wasn’t the original title of the article, nor the original term I coined to describe both the process of creating a non-linear dungeon  (xandering) and the properties of a non-linear dungeon (xandered). The original term was “jaquaying,” which was, of course, an eponymous term I  had chosen based on how much the work of Jennell Jaquays had inspired  me.

In 2023, for better or for worse, this term was changed to xandering. I want to offer a brief explanation for why this happened.

First, Jennell Jaquays wanted a change. She didn’t like that the term  dropped the “s” from her name. Her name is very important to her. This  wasn’t a problem. In fact, Jennell had previously requested some  sweeping changes to the article for similar reasons, and I’d made those  changes. Based on that experience, though, I knew that making this  change would not be a quick or easy process: It took weeks of effort,  followed by months of extra work to make sure all the metadata had been  properly scrubbed on the site. Making this change would be even more  substantive, because I’d been using the term for over a decade and I’d  need to track it down in every single article. (As I’m writing this, in  fact, I’m still in the middle of that work.)

Second, Jennell’s preference for a change in the term had been  mentioned in some interviews. Unfortunately, this began a harassment  campaign: Whenever somebody used the term “jaquaying the dungeon” they  would be targeted. Some of this just took the form of saying, “You  shouldn’t use that word.” Some of it escalated to claiming the word was  bigoted. In a few cases, I’ve had people tell me they received death  threats.

And to be as crystal clear as possible here: Jennell had absolutely  nothing to do with the harassment. She didn’t want it. She didn’t  encourage it. And if anyone tries to use this as an occasion to be an  asshole and harass her or her fans, I’d really like to emphasize that  (a) you are no fan of mine and (b) you can come for me first, because  I’m definitely a fan of hers.

Obviously, however, this could not be allowed to continue.

I spoke with Jennell earlier this year. We both agreed that the name  should be changed, and I said it would be a large project to do it, but  I’d make sure it happened by the end of the year.

The final factor here is that I had also been working on So You Want to Be a Game Master,  a book in which I discussed non-linear dungeon design that had  originally used the term “jaquaying.” So I contacted the publisher and  said, “We need to make sure we change this term.”

Long story short, this created a legal question. Not an arduous or  terrible one. But one that resulted in the conclusion, “There is some  risk in using a word based on someone else’s name. Let’s not do that.”

One option at this point would have been to drop the neologism  entirely and just refer to “non-linear dungeons.” But I’d originally  created a verb because I found a verb useful; other people had found the  verb useful over the years; and it would be substantially  easier to update all of the various articles that had used the term over  the years if I could just swap one word out for another. (As opposed to  rewriting entire articles.)

After a bunch of back-and-forth, we finally settled on the term  “xandering.” And so, from this point forward, my dungeons will be  thoroughly xandered.

If you’re reading this historical note in November 2023, shortly  after I’ve posted it, then there’s likely still a few instances of the  old term floating around the website. If you’re reading this in the  mid-term future, then this is likely the only place on the Alexandrian  where you’ll still find the term being used. If you’re reading this even  further out, then it’s possible you’ve never even heard of “jaquaying  the dungeon.”

There’s a part of me that feels sad about that. But I also know that  this was the right thing to do and that it needed to happen.

FAQs and additional information here: https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/50123/roleplaying-games/a-historical-note-on-xandering