Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Topic started by: phreedh on 31 March 2011, 12:55:50 PM
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I've always loved dungeon crawling... be it computerized, rpg driven or board games. Haven't found that perfect table top experience though, so I'm looking for alternatives.
I have a very extensive home made Warhammer Quest-set but we didn't really enjoy that as much as we had hoped. Felt too limited and combat was very static. Likewise, we tried Dungeon Bash with D&D 3.5 and that was too much faffing about.
We're looking for a good co-operative two player experience, rules light and with random exploration and monster encounters. It must allow for character progression and diverse equipment lists, so a higher resolution than 1D6 combat dice is probably needed. Best bet would most likely be to strip a retro rpg system.
There's an expansion for Song of Blades & Heroes called Song of Gold & Darkness. While pretty decent for most of our requirements, character and monster profiles are a bit too stripped down and basic. For instance, the lack of wounds means everything dies from one hit. I'd prefer a little more granularity, especially for the sake of player character attrition (losing a little health every time a group of monsters are encountered, micro managing potions and healing spells).
Anyone have any own experiences of putting something like this together, or have a nice out of the box solution ready? The first person who say D&D 4E gets a swift kick in the nads. =D
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I have to confess Phreedh I'd like to hear an answer to this. Played quite a bit of W.Quest for a while, but want something with a little more flavour.
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I love Advanced Heroquest.
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Basic DnD perhaps with some house rules, a table for random rooms/corridors but use the rules to stock it. Down load Labyrinth Lord for free and your away.
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Down load Labyrinth Lord for free and your away.
That's actually my plan, but I want to see what options there are and if someone have allready done this I might not need to re-invent the wheel.
The DM-less dungeon crawl is a holy grail game of many, many gamers. It baffles me to no end that there's no clear option for it... it's 2011 and we still haven't figured it out?!
I'm leaning towards a heavily edited and rewritten Labyrinth Lord rule set, with cards (hate tables) for dungeon construction, monster encounters and loot.
Is it koscher to share a rulebook "based on" Labyrinth Lord in the same way LL is based on the old D&D?
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I use my own .45 Adventure 2nd edition game tailored to fantasy.
The last time we ran it was here:
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=27574.0
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Melee http://bluwiki.com/go/Tft-melee (http://bluwiki.com/go/Tft-melee) and Wizard http://bluwiki.com/go/Tft-wizard (http://bluwiki.com/go/Tft-wizard). The old DM-less microquests might be hard to find, but Dark City Games http://www.darkcitygames.com/ (http://www.darkcitygames.com/)publishes some excellent, compatible ones in their legends of the ancient world line. I particularly recommend Raid on Cygnosa.
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Sounds like Super Dungeon Explore might actually fit your needs. Download the free demo rules here:
http://web.sodapopminiatures.com/selectcharacter?product=SDE
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We played Quest for years, it doesn't get much better at higher levels . We played Descent by FFG, it was close to Quest, but the setup of the game was murder...
Played DND 3.5 but it was too rulesy.
Haven't yet found that holy Grail of Dungeon Crawls...
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I recently started playing the FF Descent boardgame with the family. Everybody enjoys it immensely. My wife likes it as a "lighter" D&D. She's not into the recordkeeping and complex combat mechanics. ;)
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Problem with Descent is that it's NOT a dungeon crawl but a race game. Drag your feet and explore, and the overlord gets you.
I want something capturing the feeling of Alternate Reality: The dungeon, or Bard's Tale (old computer games for you luddites or whippersnappers). You have a small party of four, venture off into a randomly generated dungeon for a randomly generated purpose, fight randomly generated monsters and get randomly generated loot. For your randomly generated characters, ofcourse. :)
Smooth, but detailed. No faffing about. Rules out in the open, no leafing through 300 pages of rules only to find that the table you're looking for is in the OTHER 300 page book.
Labyrinth Lord might be it - but there's plenty to strip away.
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Have you looked at the Dungeon World rules available free from Pendraken and highly suitable for their 10mm dungeons and figures. You can download them from http://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=1001.0 (http://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=1001.0)
And Ganesha Games are meant to be brininging out a far more detailed game than Song of Gold and Darkness, called Tales of Blades and Heroes. It is meant to be coming out in the early months of 2011. See http://www.ganeshagames.net/tales-of-blades-and-heroes-rpg/ (http://www.ganeshagames.net/tales-of-blades-and-heroes-rpg/)
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First of all take a look at Dungeonslayers : Link (http://dungeonslayers.com/).
This is an old fashioned roleplaying game.
Next idea, Dungeoncrawl : Link (http://dungeoncrawl.smackwell.com/). This is classic HeroQuest with some ad ons (for example a very nice skill system!)
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Have you seen the new Wizards of the Coast games
Castle Ravenloft http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/59946/dungeons-dragons-castle-ravenloft-board-game
and
Wrath of Asharladon http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/66356/dungeons-dragons-wrath-of-ashardalon-board-game
they use (unpainted) D+D miniatures figures and are a solo/co-op stripped down D+D 4th edition dungeoncrawl
gameplay is a little simple but as a sandbox you get all the bits you need to beef it up a little
and the dungeon tiles are an amazing system for making random dungeons every time - this element works very well
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I hear you, Phreedh. I failed to find anything I liked so far, so am kicking around a homebrew set at the moment with a Malory-influenced twist.
That said, I'm a lazy b*gger, so I'll be checking out all the suggestions above. ;) :D
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Super Dungeon Explore
Sorry mate, too cutesy.
First of all take a look at Dungeonslayers : Link (http://dungeonslayers.com/).
This is an old fashioned roleplaying game.
Hm... not half bad, actually. Will have to take a closer look. Cheers!
Next idea, Dungeoncrawl : Link (http://dungeoncrawl.smackwell.com/). This is classic HeroQuest with some ad ons (for example a very nice skill system!)
Knew of it since before, but thanks for bringing it back to my attention.
Have you seen the new Wizards of the Coast games
Yup, I've read up on them when they were released. Have most of the minis and all of the floor plans allready. Not too impressed with what I've read about the games from my current perspective, but would be interested to play them as beer & pretzel boardgames.
Cheers for all suggestions guys! At the moment, it looks like Labyrinth Lord is the closest match.
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Hi phreedh, I`ve had this very idea kicking around in my head for a while (I think we all have to some extent). The idea was revived when I saw Blacksmith`s 10mm dungeon bash:
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=27542.0
So here are the rules I would like to try in the future:
1. The guys at the Fubar website have a set of rules called Dungeoneer (9pgs), Matakishi has an adventure on his website for these rules.
http://thegamesshed.wordpress.com/2009/04/05/dungeoneer/
http://www.matakishi.com/downloads.htm
2. I was going to try the free Pendraken rules (already mentioned).
3. Was also going to try the DragonSlayers rules (also free, also already mentioned).
Are you going to play with pen and paper or are you thinking building a dungeon? I was thinking of getting the Pendraken 10mm dungeon. Doesn`t take much room and not very expensive plus they have all the dungeon accessories for sale as well (chairs, tables, traps, etc).
Cheers
Damien
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Yeah, the holy grail. count me as one of the many looking for it too. I was looking at Dungeon Slayers. Loved the look of the game. But it is way to too far into the RPG sepctrum and would need a bit of work transferring it to table top (ranges, areas of effect, etc.)
Also looked at Dungeon Plungin. http://www.oversoul-games.com/oversoul_download.html Had some good ideas in the rules. Can't get past the overly cartoon look
Then there was Chronicles http://chroniclesgame.wordpress.com/
I don't think I saw Dungeoneer mentioned (not the atlas games game by that name), and one that I think has some potential. A freeby that I think was released about two months ago.
http://www.rebelpublishing.net/pdfs/Dungeoneer.pdf
The big downside is the over generalization of the monsters. Though I think that might be fixable.
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We tried Castle Ravenloft, and were not overwhelmed. We will probably try it again, since sometimes you don't obtain a good feel for a game after one outing.
Perhaps a hybrid would work - use the Warhammer Quest set-up rules but the Mordheim combat system. A few years ago we did some dungeon exploring using the Mordheim rules and it was quite fun.
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Sorry mate, too cutesy.
So just use the rules, not the cutsey figures, etc.
It seems like it does what you want in terms of simple mechanics, etc.
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So just use the rules, not the cutsey figures, etc.
It seems like it does what you want in terms of simple mechanics, etc.
I might be dismissing it unfairly... Will have a look at it. So far, Labyrinth Lord really looks like the mutt's nuts though. =)
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I might be dismissing it unfairly... Will have a look at it. So far, Labyrinth Lord really looks like the mutt's nuts though. =)
Are you familiar with the Holmes version of basic D&D? You may find that closer to your needs than LL.
There's also a passable random dungeon generation section in the 1st Ed AD&D DMG.
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Not certain but I think the, "same", tables can be had free by down loading Osric.
I get jolly mixed up with these early D&D edditions, is Holmes the first version with LL being Moldvay?
If so what does Holmes have that Moldvay doesn't?
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Are you familiar with the Holmes version of basic D&D? You may find that closer to your needs than LL.
Nope, not at all. Is it available digitally? What's special about it?
There's also a passable random dungeon generation section in the 1st Ed AD&D DMG.
I think that's the smallest problem for me, really. Toying with the idea of making a deck describing rooms and corridors, instead of just putting a picture of the dungeon tile on it (as in WHQ). Could make it less dry and more atmospheric to have to read it aloud and collectively deciding on which tile to place based on the description. It is, after all, closer to the old "mapping from the DM narrative" method which we loved.
I actually started editing the Labyrinth Lord rules yesterday to cut away all the fluff and just keep the meaty rulesy parts.
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There are also hybrid boardgames that could work, I have a game called 'Citadel of Blood' that is a dungeon crawl game works with chits. 1 - 6 players, lots of different classes to play.
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3248/citadel-of-blood
It is from the 1980's only reason I am mentioning it is that a new version seems to have come out (2011). Now instead of chits, the dungeon is made with tiles. Looks cool, slight mods might be in order though.
http://boardgamegeek.com/image/703157/citadel-of-blood
Damien
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Nope, not at all. Is it available digitally? What's special about it?
It's the basic (blue book) version, with the cover pic of an archer and a mage attacking a dragon sitting on his treasure pile. I'm pretty sure it's not available digitally (legally, anyway), but you can often pick it up on eBay for a few quid/euros/kronor. It's a very simple, straight-forward version of the original D&D rules, well-written and concise, dealing with basic characters up to 3rd level. I still use it as an intro for new players who haven't RPGed before.
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How about AD&D Battlesystem Skirmish? I have a copy I bought at half priced books and it is interesting...
I'd love a Mordheim/WH Quest Hybrid!
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We chaps at the Forge of War Yahoo Group also have a range of one page RPG's. The one you might be interested in is called Dead Simple Fantasy and can be found here:
http://thegamesshed.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/dead-simple-rpg-rules/
it has a number of one page supplements covering games-mastering, dungeon design, cities, monsters various etc.
The rules are free, open source and supported by the developer community of the Forge of War Yahoo Group.
The same engine is used in a range of other one page rpgs covering Oriental Fantasy, SciFi, Steampunk, Superheroes and more.
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I'd love to see how you get on with making LL for Dungeon Crawling ;)
Oh and another suggestion Skulldred it's currently free as it's only in beta but it does include rules for dungeon crawls..
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Dungeon crawling y'say? Dungeons & Dragons 3.5ed is my preferred method, obviously not your cup of tea though. Space Hulk is another "crawl" I fancy. ;)