Dungeons & Delvers: Black Book B&W Softcovers Available!
B&W softcovers of Dungeons & Delvers: Black Book are now available!
I ordered it and both hardcover proofs at the same time, so I guess they ship them individually (even though I'm sure I only paid one shipping and handling cost). But, oh well, hopefully that means the others will show up in the next day or two.
Note that the book does not include any content from the Appendix D or houserule documents. It's only what you see in the Black Book PDF (specifically the black and white one).
If you already own the PDF, check your email for a print-at-cost discount link so you don't pay anything extra for the book. As more print versions become available, you'll also get links for those, too, so feel free to use any or all of them.
From the original PDF release post:
In case you have no clue what Dungeons & Delvers: Black Book is, this is for the most part Dungeons & Dragons how I'd do it, which might also be in some part how you'd do it, too.
It's still roll-over-target-number d20, you still got ability scores and saving throws and armor class (mostly). If you've played D&D or something d20 this should be stupid-easy to learn, and one of the playtest campaigns uses the Age of Worms adventure path so in practice it's easy to convert stuff over (the other uses A Sundered World so that'll be a d20 thing at some point).
But of course we have changed some stuff.
For starters, the magic systems: wizards and clerics don't use the same pseudo-Vancian mechanics, wizards can recover spent magical energy sooner than clerics and have a wider array of magical abilities, but they burn through random amounts and can exhaust or even kill themselves if they aren't careful (and/or lucky). They're also squishier.
Kobolds and some other monsters like ghouls are more inline with their mythological roots. Kobolds replace halflings as a starting race choice because they can do more interesting things, but if you really want halflings just use the abilities and mechanics from your favorite edition and add them back in.
Other assorted things include: armor mitigates the damage you suffer, characters have a small hp pool that recovers with a bit of rest (short rest that takes 30 minutes), magical healing isn't essentially required to get by, and characters are a lot more flexible (and you can to a point control how complex your character gets, yeah even wizards).
There's more, and if you don't like the entire package even mostly as-is odds are you'll find something you can lift for another game.
We're very interested to hear what people like/don't like about this game, primarily the stuff you don't like and why. We're going to build on it over time, adding more classes, races, expanding the level cap, craft skills, an organic multiclassing system (that Melissa has been really digging thus far), magic items, houserules for a bunch of stuff, and so on, but we don't want to build too much only to find out people really don't like this or that.
You can see previews of it over on DriveThruRPG.
Another Note: If you purchase using the PayPal Buy Now button, we will also send you a complimentary copy through DriveThruRPG. Please allow up to 24 hours for delivery, though it usually ends up being at most eight (depends on if you buy it after we've gone to bed).
I ordered it and both hardcover proofs at the same time, so I guess they ship them individually (even though I'm sure I only paid one shipping and handling cost). But, oh well, hopefully that means the others will show up in the next day or two.
Note that the book does not include any content from the Appendix D or houserule documents. It's only what you see in the Black Book PDF (specifically the black and white one).
If you already own the PDF, check your email for a print-at-cost discount link so you don't pay anything extra for the book. As more print versions become available, you'll also get links for those, too, so feel free to use any or all of them.
From the original PDF release post:
In case you have no clue what Dungeons & Delvers: Black Book is, this is for the most part Dungeons & Dragons how I'd do it, which might also be in some part how you'd do it, too.
It's still roll-over-target-number d20, you still got ability scores and saving throws and armor class (mostly). If you've played D&D or something d20 this should be stupid-easy to learn, and one of the playtest campaigns uses the Age of Worms adventure path so in practice it's easy to convert stuff over (the other uses A Sundered World so that'll be a d20 thing at some point).
But of course we have changed some stuff.
For starters, the magic systems: wizards and clerics don't use the same pseudo-Vancian mechanics, wizards can recover spent magical energy sooner than clerics and have a wider array of magical abilities, but they burn through random amounts and can exhaust or even kill themselves if they aren't careful (and/or lucky). They're also squishier.
Kobolds and some other monsters like ghouls are more inline with their mythological roots. Kobolds replace halflings as a starting race choice because they can do more interesting things, but if you really want halflings just use the abilities and mechanics from your favorite edition and add them back in.
Other assorted things include: armor mitigates the damage you suffer, characters have a small hp pool that recovers with a bit of rest (short rest that takes 30 minutes), magical healing isn't essentially required to get by, and characters are a lot more flexible (and you can to a point control how complex your character gets, yeah even wizards).
There's more, and if you don't like the entire package even mostly as-is odds are you'll find something you can lift for another game.
We're very interested to hear what people like/don't like about this game, primarily the stuff you don't like and why. We're going to build on it over time, adding more classes, races, expanding the level cap, craft skills, an organic multiclassing system (that Melissa has been really digging thus far), magic items, houserules for a bunch of stuff, and so on, but we don't want to build too much only to find out people really don't like this or that.
You can see previews of it over on DriveThruRPG.
Another Note: If you purchase using the PayPal Buy Now button, we will also send you a complimentary copy through DriveThruRPG. Please allow up to 24 hours for delivery, though it usually ends up being at most eight (depends on if you buy it after we've gone to bed).
$6.99
$6.99 (PDF)
$10.99+ (Print + PDF Combo)
$10.99+ (Print + PDF Combo)
Announcements
It look a lot longer than expected, but we finally released The Jinni. As with our other monstrous classes, this one is more faithful to the mythology (so don't go in expecting elemental-themed jinn).After putting it to a vote, the next couple of classes on the docket are the warden (think 4E D&D warden) and apothecary (gotta go see what they're all about).
Dwarven Vault is our sixth 10+ Treasures volume. If you're interested in thirty dwarven magic items (including an eye that lets you shoot lasers) and nearly a dozen new bits of dungeon gear, check it out!
Just released our second adventure for A Sundered World, The Golden Spiral. If a snail-themed dungeon crawl is your oddly-specific thing, check it out!
By fan demand, we've mashed all of our 10+ Treasure volumes into one big magic item book, making it cheaper and more convenient to buy in print (which you can now do).
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