Paladin's Quest

I have started a new blog, called Paladin's Quest, that covers my experiences as a Christian LARPer. Only problem is that COVID is preventing me from LARPing. I am compensating with some dungeon crawl gaming.

I played out the first adventure and posted the report there.

Edit - During a blog re-org, I deleted my TTRPG posts on my Paladin's Path (formerly Paladin's Quest) blog. I'm leaving this post here as a reminder of this short-lived campaign.

I thought I'd discuss the game design here.

The adventure is based on the 1980s Basic D&D module Castle Caldwell (specifically the first adventure). I laid out a simplified version of the castle with 10 designated encounter areas.

I then created a list of possible encounters. I added a couple more empty encounters.

I made one change to the module and made the main boss an ogre. I recently played Castle Caldwell with a D&D group, and the DM made this same change. It seemed to work well so I copied it.

The stats listed on the table are Attacks (ATT), Fight (F), Defense (Df), Damage (Dmg) and Health Points (HP). They are used with the dungeon crawl rules I have been developing over the past month, as described here. This time, however, I used 2 heroes instead of 1. The heroes did not get multiple attacks per combat round.

I made a set of numbered cards, then set them out in accordance with the castle's layout.

For example, the gatehouse is populated by encounter # 4, which is a party of goblins.

Note that I am using meeples and blood tokens to keep track of attackers and wounds.

I knew that the boss was in the keep, but I didn't want the party to go straight there, so I created a mechanic to force them to explore more areas. They needed to find the key to the keep, which was randomly located elsewhere on the grounds. I ruled that they found the key on a D10 roll less than the number of completed encounters. As it turns out, they found the key pretty quickly, resulting in a short adventure.

The Adventures of Balthazar the Bold

After his bitter defeat at the hands of the Goblin King, Sir Balthazar the Bold vowed that he would return and see that evil met its fate.

Rather than killing off a defeated character, I decided to give him a second chance. I may give a total of 3 lives before killing the character.

Once more, Balthazar stepped into the Goblin Caves.

He first met 2 hobgoblin guards. They landed a couple of blows, but Balthazar's armor proved up to the task. After passing through an empty room, he was swarmed by goblins. His trusty blade cleaved through them like butter.

The giant rats proved more difficult. Balthazar tried to overawe them, but they paid little heed. Instead, they attacked and caused two wounds. Balthazar's strong physique warded off disease. He then countered, and in a burst of fury, slew them in swift progression.

Balthazar then contended with some goblin warriors. He suffered a wound but struck down the enemy.

He was then fortunate to find a healing fountain. With his vigor restored, Balthazar felt up to the task of confronting the Goblin King. He strode boldly into the throne room and challenged the king. The unholy creature launched an attack, piercing Balthazar's armor. The paladin retaliated with a powerful blow. Green blood oozed from the wounded goblin.

The combatants then began a series of feints and blows, but neither could overcome the other's defenses. Then Balthazar prayed for assistance. Power filled his frame; he went on the offensive. He struck a flurry of blows with Herculean might. Each pierced deeply; the Goblin King collapsed in a heap.

With the Goblin King dead, the rest of the colony scattered to the four winds. Travelers and pilgrims were now safe to pass through the foothills.

Game Notes

• I'm beginning to feel that I have the balance right. Naturally, the fickle nature of fortune plays a role in the final result, but I think the core rules are solid.
• I also feel that D10 is the way to go for these rules.
• I have played the goblin caves adventure multiple times while play testing. I think it is time for a different challenge.

Blasphemy and Horror!

The Prototype
Recent efforts with a (virtual) card-based dungeon crawl game have been proceeding well, so I decided to create a physical prototype.

I picked up a jewelry box (about 6 x 8") and some wound tokens from Litko. I put a rules summary, character sheet, and encounters on index cards. Throw in some dice and the game is ready.

Blasphemy!
Do you see the bit of blasphemy in the picture above? I did something that I don't think I've ever done on this blog before.

Yes, those are 10-sided dice.

For years, I have been a proponent of the ubiquitous D6, eschewing all other dice. But as I worked on my dungeon crawl rules, I realized that there were drawbacks to both a D6 system (not enough granularity) and a 2D6 system (difficult to make multiple attacks with a single roll). I decided to experiment with D10s and purchased a whole bag of them.

Horror!
Anyway, I ran a character through the dungeon. Below are all the encounters, along with the final boss.

At first, I thought the dungeon was too easy. My paladin character entered the final encounter with a single wound (out of 6 health points).

Then disaster struck!

In one turn, the Goblin King inflicted 4 points of damage on my intrepid explorer! A couple of turns later, with both combatants down to 1 health, the Goblin King struck the decisive blow.

Thoughts
Despite the defeat, the system worked fine.

The dungeon:

• The dungeon consists of 6 encounters, then the final boss. There is an Empty room card and a feature card (a healing fountain in this dungeon), so the hero may not have a full 7 fights.
• For each encounter, draw 3 encounter cards from the deck without looking at them, then choose one. I think this creates an illusion of choice, which adds interest to a random dungeon.
• Unused cards are shuffled back into the deck.

The hero:

• A lone hero will take on the dungeon.
• The hero and monsters are given ratings for Fight skill, Damage inflicted, Defense (e.g. Armor), and Health.
• The hero also has some abilities, like D&D feats. Each is usable once per dungeon, so this creates some additional decision making.

Fighting:

• Combat resolution is a simple D10 + Fight >= 5 + enemy's Fight. This is the same whether the hero is attacking or defending.
• I do it this way because a more skilled opponent will be harder to hit, even if he/she has no armor. I can attest to this from years of fencing. A poor fencer like me will never get close to touching a master.
• The hero gets 2 attacks per turn. This makes it likelier for a lone hero to win.
• The bad guys don't roll to attack. Instead, the hero rolls to avoid enemy attacks (the hero is assumed to either dodge, block, or parry the attacks).
• The enemies are like Hollywood bad guys; they don't all attack at once. There is a limit (an Attack stat) to the number of attacks per turn for the whole group. This also helps the lone hero; he/she is less likely to get steamrolled this way.
• If hit, then roll damage, with a possible health point loss of 0 (a graze) to 2 (a serious wound). Most minions can only take 1-2 health points while I started my hero with 6 health.
• Armor plays a role when you get hit, as a negative modifier to the damage roll. After all, armor doesn't stop you from getting hit, but it reduces (and possibly negates) the amount of damage done.

As I mentioned, my hero breezed through the early encounters. I was worried that I made him too powerful (due to bonuses, he had +2 Fight and 3 Defense/Armor) or the enemies too weak (most had 0 Fight). However, he succumbed to the Goblin King so I may need to experiment more before fine tuning stats.

Ultimately, I intend to create nicer cards with illustrations. Here are some prototypes for the encounters from the the above dungeon (not all were used), using graphics from the internet.

More Dungeon Delves

After my recent attempt at a solo dungeon crawl (literally solo, as I ran one character), I decided to experiment with different rules.

I haven't made cards yet; I want to settle on the rules first. Instead, I created the game on an Excel spreadsheet.

To the left is the character sheet. Then I created some virtual dice; hit Recalc to roll them. On the top right is a chronicle of the dungeon; it starts blank then gets filled in as the hero progresses through it. The bottom right displays the next challenge / encounter. I took an idea from One Deck Dungeon. In that game you lay out 4 encounter cards face down, then pick a card. Essentially, that's the room you chose to enter. I used 3 choices instead of 4. Pick one, then Recalc to determine the encounter.

How about the rules? I keep trying different things.

D6 with Upgrades
I used the same D6 system as before, which was based the Age of Heroes skirmish rules I've been blabbing about for the past 2 months. This time, I gave my hero some upgrades I created.

• Berserk - bonus to attack
• Barbaric Yawp - a ferocious battle cry that terrorizes the enemy
• Iron Will - shake off (i.e. heal) wounds

Each of the upgrades was usable once, which gave an element of resource management.

This time, the hero survived and beat the dungeon, although it was a near run thing against the Goblin King.

Four Against Darkness

I already have a D6 dungeon crawler, Four Against Darkness, so why was I trying to re-invent the wheel? I decided to give it a go.

I needed to make some changes. My goal is a game that allows a lone hero take on a dungeon, while 4AD has a party of 4. To even things up a bit, I gave the hero 2 attacks plus gave him a couple of extra abilities (Barbaric Yawp and Iron Will).

Again, the hero was bloodied but victorious.

The battles weren't as exciting as the AoH-based system, primarily because battles were over too quickly. 4AD is geared toward super-quick resolution, which allows you to explore a sprawling dungeon with a score of encounters in a reasonable time frame. When you cut the dungeon down to 7 encounters without any mapping, it is just too abrupt. In essence, I need a little more crunch.

2D6
For years I have experimented with a homegrown 2D6 system, but could never get it right. Still, I keep coming back to it. I decided to give my latest version a go as a solo dungeon crawler.

This time I created a lone paladin. I didn't quite finish (I still need to fight the boss), but I have some definite impressions. To reduce dice rolling, the hero only made one defense roll per turn, modified based on the number of attackers. However, I allowed the hero 2 attacks per turn, which probably made things a bit too easy.

Overall, the system seemed to work. The paladin did breeze through most of the dungeon. However, he struggled with a party of goblins. At one point, they got a critical hit on him, and he lost 3 out of 4 health points. Fortunately, he had a Heal.

Although I think I need to work on the stats a bit, I think this system has promise. If it fizzles, I can always go back to Four Against Darkness.

Grom the Goblin Hero

In the caverns of the Bone Breaker tribe, they sing of the exploits of their great hero, Grom the Barbarian Slayer.

'Twas a pleasant and peaceful morning in the lair when he, the Barbarian arrived. Until that day, he was considered just an old wive's tale, used to scare the children. But lo, there he was in the flesh.

With nary of word of warning, he attacked, splitting the skull of the hobgoblin guard who first challenged him. He then slew a handful more. Only one of the unfortunate guards escaped!

The guard ran swiftly to the king and delivered the warning. The king replied, "Fear not, my friends and countrymen. He cannot surpass all of our defenses. Wait and see."

But the Barbarian made it past the mushrooms of death, whose poison spores could stop a troll in its tracks.

Next he dodged the falling rock trap, with only a minor wound.

Then he slaughtered the pack of guard rats. The goblinkin were worried, but the Goblin King assured them that all would be well.

Nevertheless, he turned to his captain and quietly commanded, "send more troops."

And thus, Grom's band received the call to defend the lair. Although we should note that at that time 'twas not strictly "his." Grom was not in command, but was still a lowly spear carrier.

The defenders set out and soon encountered the maddened Barbarian. They charged the foe, but his deadly sword cut them down left and right.

Soon, only Grom remained. He confessed that his knees shook and he thought of running. But something kept him there. Instead, he stabbed with his spear. It caught the Barbarian in the thigh. Blood began oozing from the wound.

The Barbarian cursed in his vile tongue and slashed down with his mighty sword. Grom caught the blow on his shield. The shield broke and he was nearly knocked to his knees. But once again he stabbed, this time piercing the Barbarian's arm. More blood splattered across the cavern.

The Barbarian was truly enraged now. He swung wildly, but Grom dodged. Finally, Grom struck again. This time, the spear point stabbed deep into the Barbarian's vitals. The monstrous barbarian crashed to the ground.

And that is how Grom became known as Barbarian Slayer.

Game Notes
Pardon the lengthy narrative, but I was inspired after my latest skirmish endeavor.

Sometimes, I am feeling a bit lazy (I don't want to pull out miniatures or map out a Four Against Darkness dungeon) but I still want to slay some monsters. I've played around with card-based dungeons before (such as these home brew rules and One Deck Dungeon). Recently I had some ideas for a new home brew set and decided to try them out. I used index cards to create encounters for an attack on a goblin cavern and then statted up a lone barbarian to challenge the dungeon (I've been reading Lin Carter's Thongor series and wanted to unleash a lone barbarian on the world).

Berp the Barbarian managed to survive the first few encounters but ran afoul of a goblin patrol. He killed 4 of the 5, but the last one proved to be a tough nut. I then decided to write the tale of the barbarian slayer.

What of the rules themselves? I think the concept bears further experimentation. Pulling cards to determine encounters and create the dungeon is an excellent mechanic. I need to work on the rules though. I was using a variant of the Age of Heroes skirmish rules. For a card-based dungeon crawl, there were not enough decision points (for example, there is no maneuvering). It basically was a dice fest. I am thinking of adding some D&D style feats, which will add some "resource" management decisions to the game.

Heroes in Space

Sci Fi Arena
Around the same time as receiving my 10mm fantasy minis, I obtained some 10mm sci-fi figures from Pendraken. I managed to finish painting these first, so I had to try them out, using Age of Heroes.

Imperial Legionnaires (red) vs. Federation Marines (blue). The Imperials wipe out the Marine center for the victory.

Next they faced the Saurian lizard-men. Once again, Imperial marksmanship triumphs.

Finally they take on the alien monstrosity. Oh the horror!

But massed firepower proves superior!