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View Full Version : Alternatives to Dungeon Crawls



Beelzebub1111
2010-04-06, 09:34 PM
I was considering that, instead of a randomly generated dungeon crawl, we could play Descent: Journeys in the Dark. If they lose they'd get xp for playing along, and if they win they get more xp and some magic items.
So I guess my question is three part:
1) Is this a sound idea?
2) What would an appropriate reward for beating me be if the party is level 4?
3) Any other ideas in this similar vein of thought?

Eldariel
2010-04-07, 07:04 AM
I propose you extrapolate. What exactly do you mean by "Descent: Journey in the Dark"?

Beelzebub1111
2010-04-07, 07:15 AM
It's a HeroQuest-type board game:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descent:_Journeys_in_the_Dark

Altair_the_Vexed
2010-04-07, 07:16 AM
Do you mean that instead of playing a game of D&D (or the RPG you're using), you play a game of Descent?

In this game of Descent, are you planning to play by the Descent rules, or the D&D rules?
Will players use substitute characters if you play using the Descent rules?
Or are you planning to use the Descent rules to make a dungeon, and then play in it using the D&D rules?

Or what?

TheMadLinguist
2010-04-07, 07:21 AM
I believe he's suggesting a minigame interlude.

pffh
2010-04-07, 07:33 AM
That descent game sounds like a fun boardgame, is it worth picking up?

Beelzebub1111
2010-04-07, 07:46 AM
Do you mean that instead of playing a game of D&D (or the RPG you're using), you play a game of Descent?

In this game of Descent, are you planning to play by the Descent rules, or the D&D rules?
Will players use substitute characters if you play using the Descent rules?
Or are you planning to use the Descent rules to make a dungeon, and then play in it using the D&D rules?

Or what?

We would basically playing Descent to represent the party's random dungeon crawl. They'll be playing the game by its rules and with its characters until a time where I learn the game well enough to make balanced characters for each of the PCs using Descent rules.

Saph
2010-04-07, 08:02 AM
That descent game sounds like a fun boardgame, is it worth picking up?

It's very fun. It's basically the pure combat aspects of D&D. Go into dungeon, kill things, take their stuff, level up, buy loot from town, portal back into the dungeon, while all the time the Overlord (aka the DM) is throwing a neverending stream of monsters and traps at you. It's like a D&D dungeoncrawl, except that one combat encounter takes 10 minutes instead of an hour.

Yora
2010-04-07, 08:13 AM
Reminds me of The Sorcerer's Cave, a game from the 70's in which you add new tiles to the dungeon and find rooms with monsters you can fight for treasure cards or recruit for your party. :smallbiggrin:

Altair_the_Vexed
2010-04-08, 02:09 AM
We would basically playing Descent to represent the party's random dungeon crawl. They'll be playing the game by its rules and with its characters until a time where I learn the game well enough to make balanced characters for each of the PCs using Descent rules.

So you'll be using Descent as the in-dungeon mechanics of a larger role-playing campaign.

Well... as long as you make sure that none of the characters is seriously different in the dungeon to out of it, I don't see why you can't do this.
Lots of older games have very few rules for non-combat and non-challenge play, and some new games too.
Most of the rest of the world - dealing with the local lord, gathering rumours, and so on - can be dealt with by ad hoc rulings and DM decisions.

Where you might run into problems is if you try to blend Descent with another set of rules. I don't know the Descent rules - does it use the same ability scores, does it have character levels, and so on?
If there's a big difference between Descent and the other game system you want to use, I'd advise against it. Just stick to free-form roleplaying of the action outside the dungeon, and use one set of rules.