Dungeoneer Adventures: Designer Diary #1: The Perilous Life

Dungeoneer the RPG is fast paced and easy to learn, and yet is packed with depth and tactical game play. You can set up your game session in moments and enjoy playing for hours.

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warpweaver
Far-Sighted Wanderer
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Jul 09, 2006 11:33 am

Dungeoneer Adventures: Designer Diary #1: The Perilous Life

Post by warpweaver »

The Perilous Life.

The Dungeoneer expandable card game provides an excellent (if slightly bloodthirsty) evenings entertainment. My friends and I love to scream and yell as we slap down an evil trap at just the right moment. We always appreciate a useful shift or warp that allows us to slip into our opponents map tile and challenge them for their escort quest. Everybody moans when someone gets eaten by a monster from their own pack! The Dungeoneer expandable card game is a lot of fun, especially when you get to kill your friends.

When we first started developing Dungeoneer Adventures, my regular D20RPG group sat down with Thomas Denmark and had a wild run through the Den of the Wererat. While we never managed to slay the master wererat, I still clearly remember the highlight of the game. Dzintars knelt down to loot the corpse of a slain commoner in the Wiley Wench tavern. Thomas, playing the dungeonlord, decided to punish us for our bad behavior. Killing common men, even if they were angry and trying to pick a fight, was not allright.

There was no long moralistic speech about our murderous act. As Dzin bent down to do his looting, he collected more than a few copper coins and a rusty dagger. He collected three peril as his punishment.

Awesome.

It was then that we recognized that the core Dungeoneer system had some real potential to grow into a great new role playing game. Not only could you level up, find treasure and learn great new skills, spells or maneuvers, but unlike a standard role playing system, the heroes could have some direct control over how nasty an environment they will face. Players would need to learn to manage their peril.

In the Dungeoneer system there are two core currencies, peril and glory. Peril represents the potential for bad things to happen. The more peril you have, the more dangerous the world. Glory is the opposite, it’s the currency you pay to activate abilities and to ready treasures or boons. The more glory you have, the more powerful you are.

Normally heroes in a dungeon have very little control over the state of the environment. While each player has some control over how they use their hero's resources (hit points, spells, potions and so on), they have limited influence over the rest of the world.

Now, with Dungeoneer Adventures, all that has changed for the better.

As you take the role of a hero in Dungeoneer Adventures, you have great influence over not only how you go about gathering the glory you will use to activate your abilities and ready new boons or treasures. In addition, as you work through the exploration phase and the role-playing phase, you can influence just how much peril you and your allies accumulate.

It's your world, play it as you call it.

Feel like paying back your informant for his useless information?
Gain a peril.
Need to teach that pompous bodyguard a lesson?
Gain two peril.
Want to punish that ancient wizard for sending you on a wild goose chase?
Take three.

If you think you can take it, go right ahead and gather that extra peril.
But always remember, if you go down to a nasty trap next round, you knew you had it coming!

Welcome to the grim fantasy world of Dungeoneer Adventures!
Last edited by warpweaver on Tue Feb 13, 2007 4:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
bye for now,
richard pocklington
EvilDwarf
Gongfarmer
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 4:19 pm
Location: Huntington, WV

Post by EvilDwarf »

Wow! I can't believe there's not been any response to this Diary update.

I'm so psyched about this game that I've been scouring the internet for details on the card game, and I've already ordered two sets from Amazon.

But, the suspense is KILLING me! This game sounds exactly like what my group needs. Also, there's a lengthy discussion on the EN World boards about "The Next Big Thing" and there's a lot of talking up the niche for a game that would be a hybrid RPG/board game/card game.

So, is there ANYTHING else you can divulge?

Will there be a gamemaster role? Will a GM be optional? Will there be rules for a campaign mode? In the card game, players play against each other. Will the RPG model this also? Will the role of GM rotate during the game? Will the RPG use cards at all? Is the basic game mechanic a sort of story-teller mechanic, or more like a traditional dice model using Glory and Peril like action points?

C'mon, give us just a little more dish? Pleeeeeeeeze??
warpweaver
Far-Sighted Wanderer
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Jul 09, 2006 11:33 am

Answers to pressing questions.

Post by warpweaver »

>So, is there ANYTHING else you can divulge?
Yes.

>Will there be a gamemaster role?
Yes.

>Will a GM be optional?
No.

>Will there be rules for a campaign mode?
Yes.

>In the card game, players play against each other. Will the RPG model this also?
No.

>Will the role of GM rotate during the game?
Not in the basic rules.

>Will the RPG use cards at all?
Yes.

>Is the basic game mechanic a sort of story-teller mechanic, or more like a traditional dice model using Glory and Peril like action points?
Movement points from Dungeoneer XG have become action points in Dungeoneer RPG. They can be used for many of the things you might do in an RPG world.

The role-play storytelling aspects of Dungeoneer have been greatly expanded. You can tell a good story with the game, if thats what you want to do.

More on these topics later.
bye for now,
richard pocklington
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