Mr. Mask
2016-03-07, 07:40 PM
Someone mentioned playing as the bosses in the dungeon instead of a hero... this thread was inevitable.
Remember Dungeon Keeper? It's about being the overlord of a dungeon, who builds a dungeon filled with monsters and kills incoming adventurers who try to stop you. There have been a number of spin-offs and games based off this formula, with varying levels of success. Not sure there've been so many tabletop games.
What would be the best way to run a Dungeon Keeper style game? How many players could you have and what would their roles be? What does the dungeon overlord do in the game? What sort of system would you use for it? These are the sorts of questions you ask.
The basics would seem to be that you need to manage and expand a dungeon and its minions, so the question is whether there are any good tabletop RPGs similar to The Settlers, where the focus is building up your infrastructure and troops. There might be some tactical wargaming elements, where you control the dungeon forces in the battle with adventurers. The advantage of tabletop RPGs is you can have lots of creative tactics and design your dungeon (beware of over design that makes it impossible to siege).
Potentially you could instead have simplified combat, making your role more like resource management when under attack. If there are adventurers coming in through two lines of caverns, how many and what do you send where to stop them? RPGs that do a good job of resource management would be good inspirations for that.
Raiding your enemies outside your dungeon would also be a feature, no doubt. That probably wouldn't be too different from standard DnD encounters and skirmishes, perhaps with a choose your own adventure styling. "A crossbowman is picking off your troops from a high window. he's a good shot, and is inflicting some casualties." A) Have the ogre throw a boulder at the window. B) Send goblins into the house. C) Take cover and fire back. D) Burn the house down! Etc..
Those are some general thoughts about the concept, some of you might have experience with running a game like this, and how to make it the most interesting.
Remember Dungeon Keeper? It's about being the overlord of a dungeon, who builds a dungeon filled with monsters and kills incoming adventurers who try to stop you. There have been a number of spin-offs and games based off this formula, with varying levels of success. Not sure there've been so many tabletop games.
What would be the best way to run a Dungeon Keeper style game? How many players could you have and what would their roles be? What does the dungeon overlord do in the game? What sort of system would you use for it? These are the sorts of questions you ask.
The basics would seem to be that you need to manage and expand a dungeon and its minions, so the question is whether there are any good tabletop RPGs similar to The Settlers, where the focus is building up your infrastructure and troops. There might be some tactical wargaming elements, where you control the dungeon forces in the battle with adventurers. The advantage of tabletop RPGs is you can have lots of creative tactics and design your dungeon (beware of over design that makes it impossible to siege).
Potentially you could instead have simplified combat, making your role more like resource management when under attack. If there are adventurers coming in through two lines of caverns, how many and what do you send where to stop them? RPGs that do a good job of resource management would be good inspirations for that.
Raiding your enemies outside your dungeon would also be a feature, no doubt. That probably wouldn't be too different from standard DnD encounters and skirmishes, perhaps with a choose your own adventure styling. "A crossbowman is picking off your troops from a high window. he's a good shot, and is inflicting some casualties." A) Have the ogre throw a boulder at the window. B) Send goblins into the house. C) Take cover and fire back. D) Burn the house down! Etc..
Those are some general thoughts about the concept, some of you might have experience with running a game like this, and how to make it the most interesting.