Hi. The node maps in the zine are just an example. The expectation is that you would make your own and then identify the features I talk about: Entrances, Clusters, Critical Paths and Outliers.
As for HOW you would generate them, there's a few ways. You could do so abstractly or randomly. Just draw a bunch of circles and wire them together in what ever way seems interesting to you. Then you can draw your dungeon map based on your abstraction.
Or you could work backwards from your dungeon map. Just go ahead and draw the dungeon map the way you normally would but then make the node abstraction from it. The circles are room and the lines are the doors and passages that connect them.
The point is to able to look at your dungeon layout a bit more abstractly and using the features of that abstraction to help focus the content you put in the dungeon when you move to the more concrete aspects of it.
Does that help?
Hey, thanks for that! It totally does help (and also thanks for the speedy reply). The method you describe is kinda what I've been doing, but it doesn't always lead to an obviously dramatic "main area" (the 'room 2' in the book). I've recently been experimenting with Sersa Victory's cyclic dungeon generation, and mixing that with Dilemmas seemed an obvious choice. Knowing a bit more about the "how to" really helps, so I'll persevere and see what happens. Cheers, Joe