Doom of Dwarves, Session 1

You can now purchase Dungeons & Delvers Core Rulebook from Big Geek Emporium, avoiding the hassle of waiting for me to check my email and then send you a Google Drive link.

While I like the concept of a megadungeon I've yet to see a satisfactory example. Generally it's because they're too implausible: the layout and placement of rooms doesn't make any sense. Hallways can be ridiculously long for no reason. Some rooms feature treasure that should have long since been looted (especially those near the entrance), or monsters that inexplicably exist or persist.

I feel like I'd be asking too many questions, nothing would make sense, and it would ruin it for me. I get that most dungeon environments aren't fully realistic, but it's like watching a movie with only a few inconsistencies or minor plot holes: you can ignore or forgive some if the rest of the movie is otherwise well done, but there are limits.

So I figured I'd do what I always do and make my own, see how well I could pull it off. It also provides an easier method to playtest more 2nd Edition content, as the kids are getting annoyed with all the small campaigns and one-shots. Especially my oldest daughter: she's actually read he entire 500+ page rulebook cover to cover, and really wants to get a high-level PC.

The setup is that there's a dwarven city so ancient that even dwarves have forgotten its location and history (including why it was seemingly abandoned). It was discovered far from the hostile, hazy boundaries of civilization, at the top of a mountain that not only takes over a week to scale, but is inhabited by monsters.

A hidden-and-fortified camp (Stoneshield Camp) was established at the base of the mountain for adventurers to stay at and resupply in between bouts of trying to not only survive the trek up the mountain, but whatever dangers await them within the ruined city. And if they make it back, there are one or more buyers for whatever treasures they happen to find.

How we're running things is that each player picks a pregen character, or rolls up their own. They go up the mountain, I roll for random encounters en route, and if they make it to the top can explore as much as they dare. Should their character die, they can pick another pre-generated character (which anyone can roll up whenever they please and drop it into a Google Drive folder), or roll up one if they want to take the time to do so.

Whenever we resume playing, they can also pick another character and try to make it up the mountain.

In addition to exploring the city, there are dangers on the mountain that the players can tackle, making things easier (such as reducing travel time, or making supplies cheaper to buy). There are also dangers in the ruins that, if handled, would provide an idea spot for a new base of operations, eliminating the need to go up and down the mountain at all.

THE ABRDIGED PLAY REPORT

For the first session the party consisted of a sword-and-board fighter and rogue, with a porter, linkboy, and mercenary as hirelings, and a donkey to lug around supplies. They made it to the top without much trouble (but ate most of their food in the process), and quickly found the most obvious dungeon entrance pretty quickly (evading a very much "level inappropriate" wyvern in the process).

The first section was essentially an underground highway for people going in and out of the subterranean area, with ramps for wagons and carts, all flanked by staircases for just people. They made it past a huge, partially open stone gate, after which a pair of dwarven zombies rose from the rubble to attack.

In Dungeons & Delvers dwarves "return" to stone as they age, and can also turn to stone after death. I decided to give them a bit of DR in general, further enhanced against edged weapons. This made things tricky since everyone had either a spear or dagger, but they managed to succeed with minimal damage thanks to their own armor (I'll explain later).

They dealt with a few more groups of zombies while exploring some side passages, which contained the mechanisms to fully open and close the gates (might be useful later), but near the end ran into something that resembled a dwarven zombie, just quicker on its feet, covered in infernal symbols, and possessed the ability to fling fireballs.

In the end the fighter nearly died (we got to use the Dead Man Walking rule), but all the hirelings made it out okay and they were able to loot a bunch of gold nuggets from the zombie corpses. They ended up having to wait three days for the fighter to recover, but were able to hunt mountain goats for food, which provided them with more than enough to make it back down the mountain.

We ended it once they got back to Stoneshield Camp and resupplied: next time they're going to bring a cleric along since I told them that they could play more than one character. Plus the playtest will at least be somewhat more accurate this way.

2ND EDITION RULES THAT WE PLAYTESTED

Combat Phases were...odd. Previously it was group initiative, with everyone on one side taking their turn, then the other side, and it just goes back and forth until combat's over.

With the new setup you still roll group initiative, but everyone declares actions, and then each side takes turns alternating each "phase" of combat. The current phases are Missile, Movement, Melee, and Magic, and must be performed in that order unless you for some reason delay your action. Charge attacks occur during the Movement phase.

The idea is that with this procedure, a guy with a crossbow won't just stand there while an orc moves 30 feet and stabs him, or a fighter won't just stand there while a goblin runs right past to clobber the wizard. It also makes it easier to actually interrupt spells, since you start casting at the start of the turn.

The downside is how to handle it if, say, you're going to drop a Fireball, but then your target(s) are already slain. Might give wizards a Talent to reclaim lost Willpower, or even shift spells to another one that's part of the same spell chain (ie, if Fireball won't do, you can adjust it to Scorching Ray or Burning Hands).

Or they just suck it up and nothing happens. In any case we're going to keep at it, because if the kids can figure it out then there's no reason why adults can't.

The new rules for Armor Class weren't as complex. Everyone has a Defense value, which is what an attacker has to meet-or-beat in order to successfully strike a target in combat. In this way it's identical to Armor Class in normal D&D.

Here though Armor Class is the value you need to meet-or-beat in order to overcome (or partially overcome) a target's DR granted by armor (including some forms of natural armor). Here's an example of what it looks like in a stat block:

Defense 13 DR 3 AC 18 (DR 0)

If you roll 13+ the attack is a success, but a 13-17 means DR applies, while an 18+ means that you struck a weak part in the armor, or a spot it didn't cover, and inflict full damage (DR is reduced to 0). The only exception is "steadfast" DR (which barbarians and perhaps Unyielding Mountain monks get): you can't roll high enough to just bypass it. Instead you'll need high AP or attacks that ignore armor.

In this instance it would look like this:

Defense 14 DR 2

No AC value, so no way to overcome it. Now if you were, say, a barbarian with steadfast DR wearing armor, it would look like this:

Defense 14 DR 5 AC 19 (DR 2)

DR is 5 because of his base 2 from being a barbarian, +3 from a gambeson. Here, if you hit the barbarian he gets to shave 5 points off, but if you roll a 19+ you bypass his armor's DR, but not his natural DR.

Accurate Strikes (or "over-hitting") is where you deal +1 damage for every 5 points you exceed the target's Defense. This has been great for helping overcome high DR targets (and plays well with the existing Ganging Up mechanic), and I see no reason to stop using it.

It would be interesting to have spells and effects that call for saving throws to do more if you fail badly (target suffers more damage, the spell's duration lasts longer, etc), but that might overcomplicate things. Even so, I like the idea of nat 1-ing a Dexterity save against a Fireball and suffering another 3d6 damage on top of everything else. Or just taking maximum damage.

One more idea is a sort of Focused attack or action, where if you don't move at all during your turn you get to choose from a +1 to hit for your next attack, +1 Defense or save against the next attack made against you. Something of a middle ground between getting a bonus attack or something when you don't move, given that during the time it takes to move you could clearly make an additional attack.

Spellcasters wouldn't get this, because without a Talent they can't move at all while casting a spell.