[CROWDFUNDING] Work On What You Love
something, something, never work a day in your life
Six new roles, over 100 new spells, prayers, and magic items, new d100 tables, and a new adventure—all for Dungeoneering, the quick and dirty dungeon-crawling game. If you want to learn more either click the image above or the button below.
This week I launched Dungeoneering: Catalysts, an expansion to my Dungeoneering ruleset that adds a ton of stuff (go check it out if you want to know what kind of stuff). As of last night, the project is officially funded and we’re working towards the first stretch goal.
I’ll be honest, I love this season of the hobby. ZineQuest is in full swing (which as an aside, I have some recommendations below to check out), a bunch of new content is getting launched, and it feels like everyone is settling into 2024 and showing off what a month of “new year, new me” got them.
I’m certainly no exception, but for my project I feel a certain sort of comfort that I think contrasts with the excitement and anxiety of other projects. Dungeoneering is my system, crafted by me, made for me, and shared with folks who like games like me. It’s not trying to be all things, in fact, it’s notably bad at certain things. It’s not the world’s most popular dungeon crawler, but its mine and there’s a sense of pride in that. I don’t get nervous about sharing my project because even if it doesn’t succeed I know I mostly made it for me.
That’s not to say that each time I manage to fund a project for it I’m not humbled by how many other folks like it. Each play report I receive, each comment on itch.io, every email just absolutely makes my day. Cloud nine. 10/10. So I always encourage everyone who’s into these fantasy elf games to share their ideas and swing for the fences with publishing it publicly; you may be surprised to learn your idea that you adore probably strikes a chord with someone else as well.
That all being said, I wanted to briefly talk about what Dungeoneering does and what it sets out to do, because I think what sets the system apart from others is specifically in its mission and ethos:
Dungeoneering is a game about dungeon crawling. It does this through six-sided dice and X-in-6 probability, where X is your ability to do something (determined by your sheet). There are rules for when to rest, when to eat and drink, and there are dungeon turns to facilitate them. Spells work a certain way, prayers work similarly but slightly different. Etcetera.
Dungeoneering sets out to do the above in an extremely simple way. I personally don’t love massively complex rulesets with lots of moving parts and pieces. Additionally, the game tries to be a game you can play whenever and wherever and with whoever. Its simple to learn, simple to set up, and simple to play. You don’t need to know how spells work if you don’t have a Magician in the party, just as you don’t need to know how Lockpicking functions if there is no Thief. You learn what is directly in front of you and just have fun.
My game doesn’t intend to give you a wholly balanced experience. There are ways to kill your character in the first room of the dungeon. There are also ways to become functionally untouchable. Because the game intends to be fun first, it doesn’t get caught up in what is traditionally right.
Does this make for a long-lasting, intricately designed game? Probably not, but its what I think is fun: getting with my friends on game night and getting up to shenanigans. If that’s something you enjoy, you’d probably like Dungeoneering.
A Detour
I mentioned at the top that I would share a few crowdfunding campaigns that I’m interested in, so in no particular order:
Galactic Grit by C.M. Replogle
Galactic Grit bills itself as a “high-trust, rules light, tabletop roleplaying game set in the universe of a fantastically gritty space western”. As someone who knows the author fairly well and has actually played the game, I can attest that its what it says on the tin. If you wanna see how it plays, you can check out an actual play below:
Songbirds by Snow
Songbirds is a long time coming. This being the third edition of the game, I first heard of Songbirds last year due to some very positive reviews I had been seeing. Downloading it, I found a game that was evocative in a way I think a lot of games miss. Dabbling between the arcane fantasy and digital present, Songbirds is about going out into the eldritch world and bringing spirits to rest.
I’m also a sucker for red and blue versions (and the rumored green version, digital only). Really highlights what the inspirations for the game are and the headspace of the author. The book is full of stuff like that and I can’t recommend it enough.
Grotten by Tommy Sunzenauer
Grotten brings memories of DUNGEON by Paper Apps back from 2021. Comprised of a booklet and tiles, Grotten seems perfect for when you want to just play a dungeon crawler (wonder why I like that so much) and you don’t have time to prep or plan. Love the art style, love the theme, love the execution. This is one to watch as well.
That’s it for this week’s newsletter. I’ll be back next week to chat about a method of running long campaigns and how to set yourself and your players up for success.
Till then,
Nate