The idea repository: a dungeoncrawl game.

[Jim LotFP]

So...

One project is at the point of just needing someone else's contributions to be turned in.

Another project is in the hands of a kind game designer who sounds like he is eviscerating it.

I've been thinking again about a LotFP: RPG project that would be an actual game, not a release for another game. That was the original idea behind paying for the website and everything.

The first ideas never really took off (although one manuscript advanced to the point of being sent to people for playtest).

The last idea along these lines was for a "Weird Tales" kind of game, but the mechanics I was working out really didn't really match the atmosphere I was trying to achieve.

I was looking through some old notebooks and found notes for a combat system (and some other unfinished odds and ends) designed to work for a D&D/Tolkienish fantasy game. It's a decent little system, I like it a lot... but it's hardly a game.

I thought back to this post from rpg.net.

"Someday I'm going to make a 15 level dungeons with all sorts of nasty everythings and clues about some things scattered far away and find three or four people ready to attack it and are OK with possibilities like "today's six hour session dealt with securing room 34b."

There is a game in that.

It's going to look like the "standard fantasy RPG" on the surface. Humans, dwarves, elves, halflings. Warriors, Wizards, Rogues. The idea isn't to "innovate," it's to take familiar elements and just have a narrow focus.

 

[Jim LotFP]

Idea One: The Combat System

It'll be team-based. No initiative or individual actions - everyone will just distribute their combat points between offense and defense and all actions in a round happen simultaneously. While I'm sure there are other games using team-based systems, the only two I am aware of are Tunnels & Trolls and now Forward to Adventure. I haven't seen either system (I really have never opened a T&T book!) but judging from reviews, my system is different. Not that it would matter much if it was the same.

Two reasons to do it this way:

Players of battle-oriented PCs get to see their character shine and be the fight-winners without players of non-combat PCs having to sit around and feel like dweebs during fights. Mechanically they're all performing the same amount of actions, playing the game equally. This increases the viability of non-combat PCs as well as carting along NPCs of various types without assuming they're all going to get fried.

Great heroes can exist and fell mighty foes, but they don't break a setting - being outnumbered by thugs in a back alley or a squad of city guard on the street becomes a cause for concern no matter how many dragons or giants the hero has singlehandedly slain.

I think the combat system handles both issues well. I'm hoping it will work out to where the team system means conflicts can scale up to handle mass combat as well.

Detail for armor and weapons will be unnecessary. Three generic armor types (leather, chain, plate probably) and four weapon types (personal/dagger type, 1H weapon type, 2H weapon type, and missile weapon).

No need for miniatures or a combat map as positioning will be mechanically unimportant - combat is handled abstractly.

 

[Jim LotFP]

Idea Two: The Dungeon Crawl

The point of the game. Not that play will be limited to dungeons, but that's the style the game will support. But... what does "dungeon crawl" mean?

1- Exploration. Going into every nook and cranny and discovering all of a location's secrets is the heart of the game. Maybe there's a "get something/somebody and get out" plot going on. Maybe not. But if thorough exploration of the location isn't a priority, you're playing the wrong game.

2- Resource and time management. Move quickly or explore thoroughly? Each choice should have advantages and drawbacks. Do the characters have enough of x to do y? These should be the primary questions the game asks, and answers.

The idea is a massive underground complex can be the entire campaign and it will be totally possible to spend an entire session on a few rooms. This playstyle is completely antithetical to what's popular these days, but it's not like I'll be sinking tons of dollars into this game or trying to get it into wide release. If this gets finished (big if with me, haha), and only a handful of groups play it, I'll consider it a success.

Even granting that this will only appeal to a certain mindset in the first place, gameplay shouldn't be a tedious bore, either. Here's how I'd make these two things work:

Searching an area will be a team effort, with the time taken to search determining modifying the search rolls. One roll will determine if anything was found, and who in the group found it. Same rules for "looking for traps and for checking secret doors while walking down a corridor" as ransacking an altar room. Time taken will be important because the old Wandering Monsters thing will be important. So people will have to be on the lookout instead of searching, which will either take more time to search an area, or result in a less effective search...

Since that's the main mechanic in a dungeon crawl game, there will need to be strong guidelines for actually making every location interesting. Certainly not every location will be important, but it should be interesting. Nondescript rooms will be easier to search.

Resource management is a tricky one.

There needs to be a mechanical advantage in the rules for staying in the dungeon and exploring further instead of retreating back to town to rest at every opportunity. Doing that should make the dungeon harder, and make the "one more room?" decision meaningful every time. With the team combat system, hiring NPC men-at-arms becomes an effective decision even at high levels of play.

There needs to be a simple but comprehensive encumbrance system. There's only so much loot that can be carried. Pack animals and NPC porters could become important.

 

[Jim LotFP]

Idea Three: The Realm

There will be no default setting, but there will be an implied medieval setting. There will be generic rules for determining appropriate characteristics for the base of operations nearest the dungeon. How many people are there? How oppressive is the government? How wealthy is the area?

This will impact the availability and cost of gear, hirelings, and pack animals as well as control how loot may be transported out of the dungeon and disposed of.

It'll be possible for "town" to simply be a medieval manor, and hiring a peasant farmer to be a torchbearer might involve the local lord demanding full shares from the expedition in exchange for allowing one of his subjects to be hired off, since if he doesn't come back it'll make it that much harder to farm the fields...

In more urban areas, competent help might be expensive, as a laborer can already work for crappy pay without risking his life going down a hole.

This creates an important need for the social stat, and also creates more choices for the PCs in organizing their expedition. Hire too many people and risk losing money on the whole thing if the dungeon is small or has already been picked over. Hire too few people and it'll require many trips to and from the dungeons and that'll make it more difficult to clean out.

 

[Jim LotFP]

Idea Four: Magic

Wizards don't have a spell book and don't need to choose spells... they know all of the magic available in the game and can cast whatever spell they want at any time, including spells with continuous effects.

Of course there will be penalties for casting more than one spell or casting more spells while there is already a spell or spells in effect. Screwing up these spell rolls will be bad, the degree of which will depend on the attempted power of the spell.

The implied setting will be low-magic all the way. Character creation and advancement will encourage wizards to simply max out their magic capabilities which means they'll be weak in every other area, thus encouraging a diverse party - a party full of mages would just tempt fate with bad magic rolls far too often for comfort! And out in "the world," few can afford to pursue magic to the exclusion of everything else, so they don't do it.

Magic items will need to be fully detailed - not just "gives +1 to combat rolls" or such... not that every one will be a MAJOR ARTIFACT, but enchanting any item is a BIG DEAL so there should be no "minor" magic items - and permanently enchanting something is the same thing as cursing it... so I guess the question is just whether the magic item's user likes the curse or not.

... and magical books will be well worth having. And defending. And burying deep within the earth so nobody finds it for ten thousand years...

 

[Jim LotFP]

Idea Five: Cooperation vs Competition

The theme for the game is "this... or that?" with every decision helping in one way and hurting in another. The same will be true of characters cooperating with each other or competing with each other.

The team-based combat features the players needing to decide amongst themselves who takes damage and how much. That should be fun for any GM. "Here's your damage, I'm going to go shopping while you guys argue about how to divide it amongst yourselves. Tell me what you decided when I get back... if you're done."

Character advancement will be level-based. At the end of each session, you are not awarded experience points, you are awarded chances for experience points. This is done because these chances are largely going to be based on how successful a character is compared to other characters.

The search rules will ensure that characters get to pocket stuff without the others knowing. This will be encouraged because whoever ends a session with the most loot... gets an extra experience opportunity.

The races and classes will have built-in guidelines for what triggers extra experience chances. These will conflict, so your priest and your fighter, your dwarf and your elf, aren't just arguing over what the best solution to the situation is, they're arguing for the solution that benefits them personally.

Cooperative players can manipulate this system to their benefit. But so can competitive players.

Decisions, decisions...

 

[Jim LotFP]

Idea Six: Character Definitions

Character stats are going to be easy, and character creation should take thirty seconds if you know the system. Two characters' complete stats should fit on an index card (equipment excepted). I'm still trying to figure if generation (and advancement bonuses) should be random or chosen.

Mechanically, characters won't differ from each other. Everyone (except wizards, they use magic) has the same stats and they work the same way. Classes will just get free improvements to certain stats every level.

I think this too is against the trend of current successful games but it takes the focus of the game off of who the character is and places it on the actions the character makes. Not for everyone.

Character advancement will be level based as noted, but experience values will be low. Characters start at zero. To get to the next level, you have to gain experience equal to your current level. Example:

1st level characters require 1 experience point to reach the next level.
5th level characters require 5 experience points to reach the next level.
25th level characters require 25 experience points to reach the next level.

And when you level up, you lost all accrued experience.

 

[Jim LotFP]

A set of 19 questions from here.

1.) What is your game about?

Making decisions about the best way to explore an area, and deciding whether to take actions that benefit themselves or the group.

2.) What do the characters do?

The characters explore a set location for the purpose of retrieving a specific thing, finding specific information, or simply to collect treasure.

3.) What do the players (including the GM if there is one) do?

The players make the decisions for their individual characters. The GM presents the setting and controls the actions of all NPCs. A very traditional setup.

4.) How does your setting (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?

It looks like Classic Gaming, because what happens in the game is Classic Gaming stuff.

5.) How does the Character Creation of your game reinforce what your game is about?

It requires the player to make choices about what his character will be good at, and what his character will merely be average at.

6.) What types of behaviors/styles of play does your game reward (and punish if necessary)?

It rewards planning and patience, and it will punish the those looking to quickly complete their tasks and those always looking for action.

7.) How are behaviors and styles of play rewarded or punished in your game?

The idea is that every decision has a reward and a penalty, but "slow and steady wins the race" is what I'm trying to design in as the true way to succeed.

8.) How are the responsibilities of narration and credibility divided in your game?

The GM is responsible for the setting, the opposition, the rewards, everything. The system is all about the characters unlocking the secrets of all these things. In many ways the game as envisioned is quite limited - "explore this area" - and players will need to be OK with that fact.

9.) What does your game do to command the players' attention, engagement, and participation? (i.e. What does the game do to make them care?)

Not a thing. The entire premise of the game is presenting a different way of accomplishing the same things people were doing at the dawn of this hobby. A lot of the character elements (races and classes) will be familiar - intentionally. I don't want people to have to dedicate brainpower to that. People either care about exploring dungeons and gathering treasure or they don't. The game doesn't try to say, "This is awesome!", it says, "If you already like doing this, doing it this way will give you a bit of a different experience. You might like it." The mechanics merely facilitate the activity happening in the game.

10.) What are the resolution mechanics of your game like?

Most tasks are resolved as a team, with each player controlling his character's participation. There are mechanical rewards and penalties for participating and not participating so each roll is potential decision between personal success and team success. If everyone decides to just look out for themselves, nothing gets done (and it's a potential disaster). If everyone cooperates but one guy decides to go into business for himself... cha-ching!

11.) How do the resolution mechanics reinforce what your game is about?

By deciding on every roll how to or whether to contribute to the group dice, the "me or us?" factor of the game is highlighted.

12.) Do characters in your game advance? If so, how?

There is a class/level system. Characters advance by experience points, but they are never automatically rewarded experience points, merely the opportunity for experience points. They receive these opportunities by participating, surviving, behaving in certain ways as preferred by their race and class, and gaining the most treasure.

13.) How does the character advancement (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?

It creates competition between the players/characters and forces decisions to be made for the individual that might be against the interests of the group. The races and classes will have opposed values so taking actions that give certain characters more opportunities for experience will give others less opportunities. And PC deaths will result in greater experience opportunities for the survivors, with a sole survivor gaining the greatest amount of opportunities of all.

14.) What sort of product or effect do you want your game to produce in or for the players?

You're in a thousand-year old dungeon filled with hideous monsters, deadly booby traps, and mystic curses because you're looking for treasure. You're cut off from the world, there is death around every corner, and the only people to rely on are those that are those so greedy or bored that they can't handle an average existence. Feels like the walls are closing in, doesn't it?

15.) What areas of your game receive extra attention and color? Why?

The combat and search mechanics will be most important, since fighting and searching are the top activities that happen in the dungeon.

16.) Which part of your game are you most excited about or interested in? Why?

The "outside realm" mechanic, since it will effect all preparations in entering and leaving the dungeon and as far as I know is the most unique thing about the entire system. The social stat won't be used in the dungeon itself really, but a party that treats it as a dump stat is going to see far, far, far less profit for their efforts if they can't deal with the local lord.

17.) Where does your game take the players that other games can’t, don’t, or won’t?

My perception is most games either want to make things move quickly, at an "action movie" pace... or they want to be so full of details to highlight all of the awesome little things the characters can do.

My game intends to do neither. "Medieval fantasy archeology" with the "Oh shit, that mummy's alive...!" feel.

My game has abstract character definitions and group-resolution mechanics so the "look at how awesome this guy is!" is downplayed. The interesting part of the game should be the setting - the dungeon - and gameplay slowly reveals it. This isn't an action-oriented game.

What is this place? and Did we plan well enough for this? and Do I look out for myself or for all of us? are the questions this game should answer.

18.) What are your publishing goals for your game?

Publishing a system that works for people right out of the book.

The physical product will be low-cost, profit is not a concern (but breaking even is!). I am not a business and I don't want to be a business, I just like writing, gaming, and publishing. My game book will not be a work of art or thrilling reading - it's simply a tool. When I go buy a hammer or a stapler, I go buy the cheapest thing that looks like it can do the job, not the fanciest thing that I hope will impress my friends. I want it to be convenient and eminently affordable for someone to buy copies for his entire gaming group without it seeming like a significant expense. And if the dog eats it, it shouldn't be a big deal to replace it - lunch money.

I suppose a pdf version would be appropriate even if I find no use for such things myself.

If people actually give a crap about it, then I can finally publish this setting I've been knocking around since 1990, and maybe do a dungeon book or three. Or maybe I can do those even if nobody gives a crap about it.

19.) Who is your target audience?

People who like uncovering a mystery at an easy pace more than epic questing and monster vanquishing. Probably .01% of people in the hobby.