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View Full Version : I've just finished my retro-clone: Dark Dungeons



Blacky the Blackball
2010-05-26, 09:06 AM
It's taken me 9 months and over 500 hours of work, but it's now finally ready to be released on an unsuspecting world...

Dark Dungeons is a free retro-clone role-playing game - a game in the style of old-school 1980's and 1990's role-playing games; harking back to the days when rogues were thieves, races were classes, and you could start your adventuring career exploring a few basic dungeons and end up travelling the planes as an immortal being of pure divine power.

http://darkdungeonsblog.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/hb-front.jpg

The 340+ page Dark Dungeons rule book contains the entire game in a single work, so there is no need to cross-reference between multiple rule books and supplements.

The game is available as a free PDF download, and as a print-on-demand hardback or soft cover book. All of which can be reached from the Dark Dungeons website (http://darkdungeonsblog.wordpress.com/).

Kaiyanwang
2010-05-26, 09:08 AM
I recognize an epic plane-shifting bard on the cover.. Am I right?

Question: I don't find the download :smallredface:

Found it.

artaxerxes
2010-05-26, 09:14 AM
Downloading now.

Always respect the rules writer, rules make the game fun!

Axolotl
2010-05-26, 09:18 AM
Just glancing through my first impression is that this is very good technically well laid out looking more professional than alot of game books certainly more than any free pdf I've seen. However one question does spring to mind.

Why is Wish so nerfed? It's near impossile to cast a yet very limited in what it can do.

Project_Mayhem
2010-05-26, 09:20 AM
Extra hilarity points for using Blackleaf and Elfstar as sample characters ...

Totally Guy
2010-05-26, 09:20 AM
Did you do much playtesting with it?

Blacky the Blackball
2010-05-26, 09:25 AM
I recognize an epic plane-shifting bard on the cover.. Am I right?

I had a zero budget, so I was limited to public domain art.

Kaiyanwang
2010-05-26, 09:28 AM
I had a zero budget, so I was limited to public domain art.

Actually, I am very, very pleased by your choice.

Blacky the Blackball
2010-05-26, 09:32 AM
Just glancing through my first impression is that this is very good technically well laid out looking more professional than alot of game books certainly more than any free pdf I've seen.

Thanks!


However one question does spring to mind.

Why is Wish so nerfed? It's near impossile to cast a yet very limited in what it can do.

Those limitations are in the original rules that I'm emulating. I haven't nerfed it from them.

However, the advice about not turning it into a competition between the GM and the player is my own.

The way the game actually plays, by the time a character can cast "Wish", they're likely to already be Immortals - but it does count as a mortal level spell rather than an immortal level one, so it can be found in items (such as Rings of Wishing) occasionally.

Project_Mayhem
2010-05-26, 09:34 AM
Which edition specifically are you emulating?

Blacky the Blackball
2010-05-26, 09:36 AM
Did you do much playtesting with it?

I've done a couple of campaigns, one of which reached Immortal levels.

However; since it's a retro-clone of an older set of rules, those rules have been played and playtested for decades by thousands of people...

Human Paragon 3
2010-05-26, 09:37 AM
Yes, I am also wondering what your design goals were with this. A cleaned-up and playable 1e? Or just a roleplaying game with the feel of oldschool D&D? Does it share its core mechanic with d20?

Axolotl
2010-05-26, 09:39 AM
Thanks!Going over the whole thing I want to reiterate what I've said. The art choices especially are very good.



Those limitations are in the original rules that I'm emulating. I haven't nerfed it from them.Which rules are you emulating? I guess the Rules Cyclopedia?


However, the advice about not turning it into a competition between the GM and the player is my own.

The way the game actually plays, by the time a character can cast "Wish", they're likely to already be Immortals - but it does count as a mortal level spell rather than an immortal level one, so it can be found in items (such as Rings of Wishing) occasionally.When I made that post I had assumed immortals weren't in it (since every other retro-clone I've seen has always avoided them) you work gains more respect from me for including them, I always loved the Gold Box especially the adventure published for it and I'm glad to see Immortal rules included.

Kaiyanwang
2010-05-26, 09:42 AM
Which rules are you emulating? I guess the Rules Cyclopedia?


I'm pretty sure he did (Elf class, as an example).

But he introduced other rules directly in the class progressions, in rule cyclopedia they aren't (like the weapon mastery, or smash attacks).

Blacky the Blackball
2010-05-26, 09:45 AM
Which edition specifically are you emulating?

The simple answer is that it's a clone of the "Classic D&D" that ran alongside AD&D.

However, to be more specific, it's a clone of the BECMI (Mentzer's Basic/Expert/Companion/Master/Immortal boxed sets) and Rules Cyclopedia version of those rules rather than the earlier B/X (Moldvay's Basic and Cook & Marsh's Expert) version of those rules.

If you want to really go into detail, it's about:

60% Rules common to both BECMI and the RC.
20% Rules from the RC that aren't in (or are different from those in) BECMI
10% Rules from BECMI that aren't in (or are different from those in) the RC
10% My own "house" rules

Although those percentages are only guesses, naturally.

Blacky the Blackball
2010-05-26, 10:06 AM
Yes, I am also wondering what your design goals were with this. A cleaned-up and playable 1e?

Basically, it's a cleaned up Rules Cyclopedia (+Wrath of the Immortals) in the way that OSRIC is a cleaned up 1e and Labyrinth Lord is a cleaned up B/X.

My main goal was to include all the stuff from the RC that the other retro-clones generally skip - like weapon mastery, skills, dominions, mass battle rules, mystics, immortals, high level demi-humans, and so on.

However, much of this material is optional in the original RC - and the various sets of optional rules don't always play nicely together. So a secondary goal was to smooth out contradictions and inconsistencies.

And a tertiary goal, of course, was to put it all on one book so you don't have to keep switching between supplements and you don't have rules in one book overridden by rules somewhere else.

Starbuck_II
2010-05-26, 10:10 AM
Interesting, no action to load crossbows.

Mystics are like Monks, but better.

Altair_the_Vexed
2010-05-26, 10:16 AM
This is the game I grew up with - and which my campaign setting is written in.

I may have to distribute this round my fellow gamers and have a go at running a new group through the old adventures...