I was away from home doing field work for my job this last week...and I took along some hobby things... I did some painting at nights and when we had a weather day I decided to try something new...actually playing a game with some of my figures!!??! I know its a crazy idea...But even this old dog can learn new tricks!
Since Gareth the Grot announced his self written set of rules for dungeon crawling called "Cavern Crawl" (see here) I've been itching to give them a try. They sound like a good low stress and fairly fast set of rules. I have no experience with Hero Quest or any of the other Dungeon Crawl type games so this is a first for me.
The first order of business was to pick some characters...both good and bad. As I had grabbed figures fairly quickly as I left on this trip I simply picked four of my favorite dwarf figures and a selection of Orcs and Goblins for them to slaughter...for the Big Boss BadDude I picked a recently acquired Chaos Wizard and a nasty chaos hound for his pet. The choice of a party composed entirely of Dwarfs kind of misses one of the great points of the Dungeon Crawl games...the diversity of races and classes...but I had to work with what I had. So I made one of my Dwarfs a "Knight"...one a "Mage"...one a "Barbarian"...and one a "Ranger." This way I would get a feel for most of the classes...if not the different races.
So lets meet our Heroes (Fair warning...I'm terrible with making up names...sorry about that...) Covering the slinging of spells for our heroes is Magnison the Mage
Wielding a a large axe and looking for some heads to crack....we have Yorin Yellowbeard ...the Dwarf Knight
Filling out the Head Bashing section of the party is Yorin's slightly unbalanced brother Florin Flamebeard...Dwarf "Barbarian"
Along for the ride...and handy with a bow is their cousin Dorek...the dwarf Ranger...
On the Side of Darkness...we start at the Bottom with the near worthless minions of the evil tyrant our heroes will be attempting to kill...a couple of Goblins...
Slightly bigger...slightly meaner...and slightly stupider...are the Orc minions... both archers and warriors.
trying to keep a handle on these minions are two slightly meaner Orcs....namely ....Larlog the Lasher (chieftain) and Uorglock (captain)
Defending our villianous leader...and keeping is feet warm at night...is his faithfull pet Fluffy (direwolf)
And finally...the master of disaster himself....Drakenhoff the Dark (Archmage)...
Now that we have met our cast of characters...lets look to the playing area. As I wanted this to be a fairly fast and furious game I choose to keep the playing area quite small...only a few rooms and hallways...Here is the layout.
Quite a small "Cavern" but it should be big enough to allow me to get a feel for the mechanics of the game...and have a bit of fun in the process.
In the next post we can look at the beggining of the gane in Earnest!
Cheers for now!
Blue
Wow! At lower levels, Fearsome can be a real pain, so Barbarians (Fearless) Rangers (with their ranged attacks) are your best bet at tackling such creatures. Drakenhoff the Dark looks immensely hard and I'd be interested to learn how our stunty friends faired in that large chamber. I see a few Great Weapons floating about too, which should make things interesting.
ReplyDeleteAnother individual who's downloaded the rules has contacted me regarding balance, something that I haven't really addressed in the rules. I feel that in a dungeon environment points values are worthless as the heroes meet their opponents piecemeal and potentially have time to heal in-between bouts.
Currently the best way is to play the game on a small scale, as you are doing, to get a feel for the rules and then designing and stocking dungeons should make more sense. I do have a 'level 1' adventure written up, if you'd like to take a look. I'll probably included this in the proper version of CC as a guide.
Starting heroes are incredibly vulnerable - though I note that you've tooled yours up somewhat! - so early adventures shouldn't be too hardcore.
I look forward to seeing how things went and if you have any queries then please let me know. Cheers!
Yeah...I might have made Drakenhoff a bit over gunned...but adventuring is tough business so we'll see how it plays out...maybe he will live to torment a future crew of mine as well.
DeleteAs far as Great Weapons...I gave one to Florin Flambeard...for his brother Yorin I considered his a War Axe.
I'll be working up a list of questions and clarifications to send along to you when I wrap up the battle report. I got well into the large room before I ran out of time...so I will have to set up the dungeon again at home and play through the last few rounds.
Stay Tuned!
Very interesting. I will have to give these a read. However it makes me want to go dust of Heroquest. Close the freaking door Zargon!.
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