EverQuest II ushers in a new age of player-created content with its new Dungeon Maker system, a ridiculously easy and entertaining way to amaze and kill your friends.

Released earlier this month as part of the Age of Discovery expansion, EverQuest II's Dungeon Maker is a tool that allows a player or (groups of players) to design, publish, and share their own dungeon designs. While it sounds a great deal like City of Heroes' mission architect or Star Trek Online's foundry, building a dungeon with Dungeon Maker actually feels more like getting together with a friend in Halo's Forge mode.

I got a chance to poke around a bit with Dungeon Maker before the expansion was released, and I really liked what I saw. The builder picks a floor plan and then wanders about placing items, decorations, and creatures via a simple point and click interface. Monster behaviors can be programmed with a few mouse clicks, making it easy to set a patrol path or plan an ambush on unsuspecting players.

Once the dungeon is finished the creator can publish it so others can give it a go. Character levels don't matter here: When you play a dungeon maker game you are given a choice of premade characters to play. Just hop in, play a round, and vote up the dungeons you like the best. Players win tokens good for equipment for playing dungeons, while creators earn rewards for hitting the top of the leaderboards.

What makes the feature even more interesting is that certain dungeon layouts and monster spawners can only be found by going out into the world and adventuring, so there's a nifty element of collection on top of all that creativity.

The Dungeon Maker is available right now as part of the EverQuest II Age of Discovery expansion.