Alchemy's Workbench #11: Putting Meat On The Bones

In my last post, I made comment that I would be looking to tweak the new release of Dungeon!, the classic board game of dungeon crawling. Despite a couple of questionable choices with the revamp, this was nothing to do with Dungeon! being a bad game. I just think that it could be more.

So here's what I have brewing so far:

Leveling up: Whenever you roll a double that is greater than your current level (you start at level 1), you go up one level. This should give a nice curve to progression, making it harder to achieve higher levels, which I feel is truly representative of early role playing games (and more modern ones come to think of it). I intend to introduce bonuses based on class and race that will be gained at various levels but those are still very much on the drawing board.

Character Generation: Instead of going with the box standard Halfling Rogue, Elven Wizard etc, players will be able to mix and match race and class as they wish. The treasure target will depend upon the combination selected, so whilst certain races may offer bigger benefits to the player, they will need to earn more treasure in order to win.

The race / class build list looks like this so far, using those in the base game:

Class

Rogue: +5,000 GP

Cleric: +5,000 GP

Fighter: +10,000 GP

Wizard: +15,000 GP

Race

Halfling: +5,000 GP

Dwarf: +5,000 GP

Human: +10,000 GP

Elf: +15,000 GP

So a Human Rogue would need to collect 15,000 GP worth of treasure and return to the Great Hall to win the game and, would have access to the Rogues and Humans bonuses as they leveled up.

That's all that I have so far but I also have a few ideas for the bonuses that certain classes / races might grant the player as well as a few other modifications that I would like to add to the game, including different "Monster Attacks" tables for different classes, maybe introducing puzzles in addition to monsters and traps that simply cause a player to lose turns instead of inflicting damage upon failure to overcome them. The actual monsters, their levels and, their values also seriously need tweaking.

Dungeon! (2012): Huh?

I finally picked up a copy of the Wizards of the Coast re-release of the dungeon crawling classic, Dungeon! and, on closer inspection I have been left wondering, well, huh?

As much as I appreciate Wizards breathing new life into this game and opening it up to a new generation of gamers, without forcing them to trawl E-Bay, a number of the changes that they have made have left me puzzled. Some of which just defy logic.

For example, one of the cosmetic changes that they have made is to include a minotaur, which is great. Minotaurs are a firm favorite of mine. But as a level 1 monster? Really? A minotaur on the same level as goblins and kobolds. Level 2 is only orcs and hobgoblins and, you're telling me they're tougher than minotaurs!? The values that they have assigned to defeat these monsters seems more than a little arbitrary as well.

The other major change (other than a tweak to the way magic swords work) is to the characters. This change is purely cosmetic, meaning that instead of Elves, Heroes, Super Heroes and, Wizards you now have Halfling Rogues (instead of the Elf), Dwarven Clerics (instead of the Hero), Human Fighters (instead of the Super Hero) and, Elven Wizards (instead of the Wizard).

Despite being purely a re-branding of the old characters, I did find it interesting that the introduction of Dwarves, Clerics and, Halflings didn't draw upon the expansions for those very classes released for earlier versions of Dungeon!

So all in all, the new release has raised a lot of questions, for me at least, but I am sure as with the previous versions the fans will set it straight in the long run. I may even have a crack myself. As a start though, some veteran players have released some interesting variants on the Wizards website that are worth a look.

A Brave New World #1: The Three.

When devising my own Tunnels and Trolls setting, I have decided to tie as closely with the rule of three as possible. But what is the rule of three?

For me it's the core of the original game. You have Warriors, Wizards and, Rogues. Warriors are purely physical, whilst Wizards are cerebral. Two sides of the same coin, with Rogues, at least earlier edition rogues being a balanced blend of the two. The same could be said of how I perceive some of the original kindreds. On the one hand, you have the Dwarves who are all about STR and, on the other you have the Elves, who focus on DEX, with Humans being the baseline between the two. So is it any wonder that we see a lot of Dwarven Warriors or, Elven Wizards? It's just the nature of the game as laid out by what I call the rule of three.

So, how is this applicable?

Well, the first thing I did when putting together a new setting was gut the old one, leaving only the humans intact. It seems bizarre that we can't seem to create a fantasy world without investing the most mundane of kindreds in it, but, hey as I said, they are the baseline against which most things are measured. Now I just needed to perch an "angel" and a "devil" on each and every one of those human shoulders to give me the symmetry required by by the rule of three.

For the task at hand, I have chosen Elves. Not live in the woods, firing a bow Elves but full on Fae folk. Incorporable, seemingly immortal creatures of pure magic, living in harmony with the world and restoring balance. Well, that's one side of the coin but, what of the other?

Well, Elves are far from perfect and some, more than a few, have picked up certain "bad habits" from humankind. Seeking power and, with more than a big enough bag of tricks to achieve it. They bend natural order and create un-natural things. If there's a "monster" walking the land, the chances are that they are behind it. Not that such crimes go unpunished amongst their kin, creating an effective state of war between the two kindreds. For every "monster" these tainted Elves create, their brothers and sisters must create an "antidote" to balance the scales. All this, with humanity stuck bang in the middle.

The tainted created the Orcs of Hellhounds, so the Elves created the Half-elves, imbuing their own spirit into Human children still in the womb.. And that's only the start. Every time the tainted bend natural order, the Elves step in. With humanity stuck smack bang in the middle.