Dungeonslayers Game Session #1

As I mentioned in my previous post it was my plan to get a proper game going of Dungeonslayers RPG. I was hoping to give it a try at a local game shop to introduce some new players to the system. But I was unable to get time out of my busy week, last week, to see if we can get a free game table from the hordes of Magic the Gathering ( or insert card came here) attendees. Generally speaking it may not have been that hard - but I just decided to enlist a few fellow gamers over to the house this afternoon for a try-out. To my luck there was a player invited that had never played a tabletop game before which was great.

We played a Dungeon2Go one-sheet adventure (No. 8 The Mistress of Spider Mountain) and it was killer. Though I did find a few tweaks that I would change. In fact the adventure is going to be a two-part session due to some long combat sessions with some Monstrous Spiders that just didn't want to die (ie. lots of high attack rolls and low defense rolls) It was just one of those things really...

Even better news is we had all three new players making CTN rolls in no time. The concepts are easy to grasp and just simple and fast. Slayerpoints were a total hit with the players that were accustomed to RPGs as well as myself - it added spice and made the game play unique. Slayerpoints are an optional rule that you can add to combat. A player earns a slayerpoint for every time he/she inflicts damage to an opponent. These slayerpoints can be collected through the course of the the encounter and cashed in to receive perks, bonuses, and mulligans.

I think one thing I might look at is how we can add good RP to the use of each slayerpoint spend. Such as having the players describe their special action, or even myself do the description as to the how/why this special bonus occurred. But I will have to give that more thought and perhaps see if other DS GM's have tried this in some way as well.

Even though this was a real hack-n-slash dungeon crawl they all seemed to dig it and understood that this was probably a good way to learn the system. Once the players finish this adventure I hope to get the real campaign rolling. :)

I also want to give a thank you to Dextolen on the Slayerforums for his DS Placemat creation. I printed these on card stock paper and gave them to each player as a crucial quick reference it was a godsend.

Here are some quick and dirty photos of the session. (sorry I was really to busy to take nice and arts-y photos) Please also forgive the Pathfinder paper counters too. :) They are handy as hell.

Possibly the coolest, easiest, most fun tabletop fantasty rpg you may have never played?

I have been following the game Dungeonslayers RPG for some time (late 2011 I think). My son and I had a go with it when I first became aware of it and at that time he was gosh.. maybe 8? It really helped open up the world of table top roleplaying games for him and this game is responsible for rekindling my love for gaming after decades. Because of that I guess Dungeonslayers RPG holds a special place in my heart but I got to tell you, regardless of my little sappy story - there is a lot to like about this little game and here are some highlights that come to mind. This quick little write-up is likely the first of many about this game.

A character can be created in less than 10 minutes if you choose - but can be added with nice details and fleshing out to keep any character creation freak happy enough. So there is simplicity and depth that you can turn on and off when you want. There are hero clasess  (level 10+), lots of Talents (skills) to play with, Slayer Points, optional firearm rules, and a race tool kit to try as well. All within a neat little 170ish page book (electronic version is free for download)

Dungeonslayers is released and available licensed under the Creative Commons license 3.0. So you can really contribute and expand the game how you see fit. Please take a look at what others have added in the way of optional rules, monsters, alternate magic/spell systems, etc. etc. to get your creative juices flowing. English 'Slayerforum' & International Forum

This is a hack and slash, beer and pretzels game to the core... but also offers plenty for players / GMs to start up a nice long campaign. Within the book is an introduction to the game's fantasy world setting, Caera, to get you started as well as over 80 monsters to sprinkle in.

The game revolves around a single d20. In combat, one roll of a d20 will decide hit/miss and also the damage inflicted based upon the attacking party's melee attack or ranged attack value. This interesting mechanic makes for some fast and bloody encounters, and also a quirky-cool factor that I love. 

There are several "kid friendly" RPG games that have been released recently. The problem I had for some of the systems is you take one look at it and I am like...yuck... too "kiddie for my taste.. look at it, its like a bad PBS cartoon". There is no reason why an adult should have to bite their lip and resort to playing a game with crayons. Dungeonslayers RPG is so easy to grasp the basics that it is a really cool gateway for the young ones. My daughter (7 years old) got a kick out of designing her female elven wizard (Josie) and within minutes she was blasting giant rats in the dungeon with her fire beam spell in giddy laughter. If anything, you need to reach for this game if you have any desire to introduce a child to gaming, no question and ITS FREE.

Actual Play Recap with the kids - Session #1

As I mentioned in another recent post, the printed rulebook showed up in the mail recently with much delight. And since his first introduction to DS and RPGs, my son that has moved on to playing Pathfinder with me and a loose local group, as well as other game systems, has been talking about Dungeonslayers since we got the book and finally, last night, we had some time to create some characters and play one of the introductory adventures in the book as the kids are home from school on their winter break.

Essentially, in Adventure 1 : The Lord of The Rats the party meets in an Inn after a long journey. The party, hungry and thirsty order up the mead only to discover that the tankards are empty. The innkeeper explains that they have run into a rat problem in their cellar that is destroying all of their stores. The adventures are lured into a deal to help the innkeeper rid his cellar of the pesky rats and the rodent extermination fun begins. I must admit, its very basic but a great way to run through the combat mechanics, the "check" system, and earn a few coins and treasure for new players in about an hour to and hour and a half. The kids had fun battling the nasties and searching rooms, we had a great time going through the first half of the dungeon before we had to call it a night, last night... but it left them in a bit of a cliffhanger, and thirsty for more. We hope to pick back up and finish with Session #2 before the weekend hits us.

I am really thinking about setting up a pickup game at my local game store/meetup  and see what others think of it too. Wish me luck. :)


Purchase Printed Copy

Throwing Paint Around

Last night I had great time getting to work on my Enforcers Strike Squad for Mantic's Deadzone skirmish wargame/boardgame.

Assembly is somewhat of a pain with these guys. Glueing the limbs and gun was tricky as they (the arms) are not recessed at the shoulder area allowing a good fit. Its pretty much a flat surface. I elected to try clay and I found some great stuff at Michaels Craft Store for $1.79 a package. (Fimo Effect from a co. called Staedtler) just a tiny piece rolled and warmed in your hand can hold an arm, torso, gun, etc. in place to allow the glue to dry. It worked like a champ. This stuff will be at my reach at all times from now on that's for sure.

The funny thing was that the silver/grey color was such a oddly close match to Mantic's unpainted models that I neglected to take some of the clay off of the models once the glue set (forgot it was even there) So when I threw primer black on them and noticed the clay.. I really had to give them another hit.

Once assembled, I blasted a black primer coat and was planning on trying to do a Mantic paint style for the Enforcers. However working with white/bone/grey is not something I am that good with, so I decided to go with a different approach and went back over the models with Caliban Green spray from GamesWorkshop. I wanted to go for a more hard-scifi/grunt style look... in my opinion I achieved it. It is nice to see my feeble skills starting to improve. :)
The only regret and lesson that I took away from this session is back off of the dry brush metallic a bit.. it caused some issues for me, oh well...

So this is the second post.. and really I haven't gotten too serious about this blog. I just have been toying with the idea mostly.

I saw this as a great way to share what I have been doing with friends and fellow gamers that I have known over the years but no longer get a chance to game with in person due to distance, or people I have been talking with online. I also am kinda putting my neck out to see if there are some people in my area with similar interests in gaming that might want to join a few of the groups I play with here and there. Needless to say I have kinda received second wind regarding doing a little blog so I hope to post regularly. Now time to catch up. :)

Soooo what have I been up to...

Last month I ran a One-Shot test run at my home using the West End Games D6 Space system with my son and a few friends. It was wild because it was the first time I ran a game in like (holy crap..) 22 years, I think. It was a good challenge as WEG D6 is pretty "loose" in the rules department. All in all - its something that I may go back to and try out a full blown campaign with - but the system didn't quite hit the sweet spot for me so I am still on the hunt for the right Space Opera rpg system. I am beginning to think that what I really crave is something more crunchy and more of the hard-scifi vein but not all 2300AD and shit.

Last week I finally received my printed copy of the fantasy tabletop rpg game, Dungeonslayers. I so love this game and I am thrilled to finally have this little book. I promise to revisit this game properly and hopefully give a report back about my first game in the near furture.

Yesterday I had the chance to play a SciFi Horror game powered by the Fate Core rules system at my friend Matt's house.  I was worried that I wouldn't be able to because of my kids and wife getting hit with the cold/24 hr bug that has been going around. At any rate we pulled it off and it was pretty cool. Though character creation was different and honestly it took me a bit of time to wrap my head around how to deal with 'Aspects' and stuff - but it was fun putting my character together and creating his "story". I am looking forward to returning to the adventure next weekend.

Mini Wargaming took a backseat a bit other than getting my hands on a sweet deal at my local games store that was practically giving away Mantic's Warpath starter set, "Fate of the Forgestar" for just over 15 bucks! So friggin crazy of a deal, I had to. It turns out Mantic just might be, no it IS, the game company that I think I really can get behind. They are the anti-GamesWorkshop in a way. They really seem to want to create a great community and also not rip the player off. I highly suggest that you check out their stuff. Ironically I recently found a Mantic fan in my area. He has been a big help in educating me about their rather new game releases. It looks like we are going to be playing Deadzone soon and I am starting to put together my Enforcers faction now. Look for pictures of my progress soon as well as a battle report. Thanks Michael!

http://www.manticgames.com/mantic-shop/warpath.html