← War Dungeon

War Dungeon — About Build Brief

BBWD25 Build Brief War Dungeon

Page intent

The War Dungeon About page is the brand-story surface. Three visitor jobs: understand who War Dungeon is and what it stands for, trust the people behind the storefront, engage further (browse the range, join the loyalty programme, write to the workshop). The page is narrative-led — atmosphere is the point. Brand register dialled to maximum: this is where the Maximalist Industrial methodology gets to fully express itself, with no conversion-CTA clean-zone discipline competing for attention.

Subject content (for the mockup)

Render the page with: a founding narrative (placeholder shopkeeper voice — “What started in a back room with a single Combat Patrol and a chipped enamel pot has grown into the Frontier’s best-stocked workshop for the painted and the painted-curious…”), a three-principle list rendered as brass roundels (Saddle Up — “we make wargaming feel like an outfit you’re proud to ride with”; Square Deal — “fair price, fair stock, no spinning yarns about availability”; Shop Talk — “every order ships with a saddlebag of paint tips and a hand-signed thank-you”), a founder showcase (plated portrait of M.E. Marsh with a signed-letter copy block), a workshop gallery (4 plated-frame photographs: paint station, kit-bashing bench, display cabinet, dispatch corner), and a dual closing CTA (“Browse the Range” → shop archive; “Join the Crew” → loyalty programme).

Mandatory structure (top to bottom)

  1. Pre-header announcement bar — REUSE announcement-bar.
  2. Global header — REUSE site-header.
  3. Breadcrumbs — REUSE breadcrumbs. Home / About.
  4. Content-page hero — Dark cowboy inverted band with bronze gear-pattern at 10%. Eyebrow (“Frontier outfitters since 2019”), page title in modesto-condensed display (“About War Dungeon”), lede paragraph in palatino-linotype body, plated-frame photograph on the right with corner rivets. NEW block content-page-hero — distinct from hub-header / hub-header-with-cta / transaction-step-header per the hero-distinct rule. This block is the substrate for every static content page introduction (Contact, Generic content page, future Privacy / T&Cs / etc.). Two-column side-by-side at desktop; stacks @980px.
  5. Section divider — REUSE gear-divider.
  6. PAIRED ROW — Founding narrative LEFT (≈⅔), Principles roundel-list RIGHT (≈⅓):
    • LEFT: Long-form narrative copy in palatino-linotype on dark cowboy inverted panel with bronze gear-pattern at 10% opacity. Display-scale opening line in modesto-condensed display, then 3–4 body paragraphs in palatino-linotype on the dark ground. NEW block narrative-band. NON-NEGOTIABLE — this band MUST render on dark cowboy. It is the longest copy section on the page and must carry Maximalist Industrial’s dark-dominant register. It is NOT an atmospheric breather — those are reserved for legibility-critical surfaces where reading density wins (the homepage’s Choose Your Game grid, the product page’s Recently Viewed, MWD32’s longform policy body). Reference: match the dark-cowboy + gear-pattern treatment used on MWD5 homepage’s dark-band sections, NOT the light rodeo treatment of MWD32 longform-body. A drift to light rodeo on this section flips the page’s dark/light balance away from Maximalist Industrial canonical and is a fidelity miss.
    • RIGHT: Three stamped brass roundels stacked vertically, each carrying a principle name (modesto-condensed caps) and a one-line definition. NEW block stamped-roundel-list — distinct from the horizontal trust-strip (this is brand principles at editorial weight; trust-strip is micro-reassurance below conversion bands).
  7. Section divider — REUSE gear-divider.
  8. Founder showcase — Two-column at desktop: founder photograph LEFT in plated-frame with corner rivets; founder name + role + signed-letter copy RIGHT in palatino-linotype, closing with a stamped signature glyph. NEW block founder-showcase — distinct from creator-spotlight (creator-spotlight is for partner creators; founder-showcase is the brand-owner pattern). Stacks @880px.
  9. Section divider — REUSE gear-divider.
  10. Workshop gallery — 4-up grid of plated-frame photographs with corner rivets and brief captions in palatino-linotype small-caps beneath each. NEW block workshop-gallery — distinct from painting-showcase-gallery (community submissions); this is brand-owned imagery. Collapses to 2-up @1080, 1-up @640.
  11. Closing CTA band — Two CTA cards side-by-side: “Browse the Range” (links to shop archive) + “Join the Crew” (links to loyalty programme). Each card has a stamped-shadow CTA in a clean zone, ridge-bronze frame, and a one-line teaser. NEW block dual-cta-band. Stacks @720.
  12. Trust strip — REUSE trust-strip at standard scale.
  13. Global footer — REUSE site-footer.

Block reuse intent (conservative — per locked brand rule)

Reused: announcement-bar, site-header, breadcrumbs, gear-divider, trust-strip, site-footer, plus primitives (eyebrow-stamp, section-head, btn, stamped-roundel, plated-frame).

NEW blocks expected (6):

  • content-page-hero — page-introductory band for static content pages. Will be reused on Contact (BBWD26), Generic content page (BBWD27), and every Phase-2 utility page. The most load-bearing new block on this page.
  • narrative-band — long-form narrative copy band on inverted dark panel with gear-pattern surface texture.
  • stamped-roundel-list — vertical three-roundel principle list. Distinct from horizontal trust-strip (different rhetorical job).
  • founder-showcase — two-column owner-photograph + signed-letter pattern. Distinct from creator-spotlight per hero-distinct reasoning (different rhetorical job: brand owner vs partner creator).
  • workshop-gallery — 4-up plated-frame photo grid with captions. Distinct from painting-showcase-gallery.
  • dual-cta-band — two side-by-side CTA cards. Likely reusable across content surfaces with similar closing-CTA jobs.

Content principles

  • Maximalism is the message. No clean-zone discipline needed — no primary conversion CTA competes for attention. Gear-pattern, rivets, ornament, and dark inverted panels go full register throughout.
  • Photography is load-bearing. Plated-frame photographs do as much storytelling as the copy. Founder portrait and workshop gallery photos carry equal weight to the narrative band.
  • Principles are stamped, not stated. The three brand principles render as brass roundels — physical weight matches their weight in the brand. Don’t let them collapse into a bullet list.
  • Two closing CTAs without competing. Browse and Join are complementary jobs (transactional vs relational); they sit side-by-side and trust the visitor to pick.
  • No transactional language in the narrative. “Buy” / “Add to cart” / “Order” live only on the closing CTAs. The body of the page is story, not sell.

Voice notes

Old-West shopkeeper voice at maximum register. The founding narrative reads like a homestead origin story — first-person plural, present-perfect tense (“we’ve stocked”, “we’ve shipped”), period vocabulary (“a fair shake”, “the long ride home”). Principles named like saddle-leather virtues (Saddle Up / Square Deal / Shop Talk). Founder copy reads as a signed letter, closing with “Yours from the workshop, M.E. Marsh, founder.” Workshop gallery captions stay terse and proud (“The paint station — twelve years and counting”).

Render direction

Locked methodology: Maximalist Industrial at the Frontier styleguide (SWD1). Canonical references MWD5 / MWD9 / MWD14 / MWD15 / MWD16 / MWD17 / MWD21 / MWD22 / MWD23 / MWD24 / MWD25 / MWD26 / MWD27 / MWD28 / MWD29. The brand’s 86-block reuse catalogue auto-supplies methodology-consistent chrome. Author NEW under the same methodology for the narrative + portrait gaps: dark cowboy inverted panels with bronze gear-pattern at 10%, 4px ridge bronze on cards / frames, brass rivets at corners, stamped brass roundels for principles, engraved gear divider strips between sections, modesto-condensed caps with bronze underline rules, stamped-shadow CTAs in clean zones (closing CTA band only).

Hero-distinct rule (locked 2026-06-07): page-introductory bands are each their own catalogue block. content-page-hero is its own block — distinct from hub-header (browse-mode), hub-header-with-cta (contribute-mode), transaction-step-header (funnel-mode), dashboard-header (account-mode). Reusing content-page-hero across Contact / Generic / utility pages is INTENDED — those surfaces share the same page-introduction job.

Desktop composition (locked brand rule, 2026-06-07)

War Dungeon is desktop-first. Mockups render at 1440px first; mobile is graceful collapse. About is content-rich; pair sections side-by-side where complementary: hero (copy + photo), founding narrative + principles (⅔ + ⅓), founder photo + letter. Workshop gallery is full-width focal (4-up grid). Closing CTA band is full-width focal (two CTA cards). Mobile collapse: 980 (hero stacks), 880 (founder stacks), 720 (CTA band stacks), 640 (gallery 1-up). Brand ornament stays below 480 — no mobile simplification of register.

Technical constraints

  • Page max-width 1440px. Base font size 20px.
  • No interactivity beyond standard nav (no AJAX, no forms on this surface).
  • Workshop gallery photos lazy-load below the fold (4 images @1x + @2x).
  • Closing CTAs link to /shop and /loyalty-programme respectively.
  • Founder showcase photo + plated-frames use srcset with @2x assets for retina.
  • Hero photograph uses loading="eager"; everything below the fold lazy-loads.