Game: Dungeon Bash

Thread: Re: I already play D&D Minis...

ced1106 — 2008-11-25T00:45:51+00:00

Thanks for the clarification!

I've only read the review, but it looks like DB tries to do two things:
* Create a dungeon (randomly)
* Run a D&D game without a Game Master
- You will still need the 3.x D&D books

That's *sort of* what you would be doing with an official adventure and the D&D mini's rules, but not the same. (Are you using the D&D mini's rules, or the 3.x D&D books?) You would still need a Game Master to run the official adventure. Some players prefer not to play in a random dungeon.

I guess you could use DB to "test" a dungeon. You will make a random dungeon and play it. You could then use the same dungeon on other players. Of course, before publishing an adventure, the publisher *should* have playtested it first.

Finally, as a game master, I know players do unexpected things. Despite how much you prepare a dungeon, players will always find a way to do something creative, maybe even surviving through the process!

Thread: Re: I already play D&D Minis...

parduz — 2008-11-24T23:43:17+00:00

Well, i suppose i should have stated my question better

I have read the review, and i think i've understood it.
So i've got that DB is a "dungeon-building" system.

...

I'm writing and deleting so many times while writing this reply, 'cause it is hard to me to pose the right question (i'm not so good in english, sorry).
I'll try in this manner: if i take an "official" D&D adventure in a dungeon, and then i play it with the D&D Minis rules and cards, am i playing Dungeon Bash?

Again: if i buy DB, am i buying a tool that let me create a dungeon and "test" it before use it in a RPG session, or somewhat different?

Thread: Re: I already play D&D Minis...

ced1106 — 2008-11-24T23:23:41+00:00

Dungeon Bash = dungeoncrawl
D&D Minis = light wargame

What did you think of the Dungeon Bash review?

Thread: I already play D&D Minis...

parduz — 2008-11-24T22:29:35+00:00

...the collectible ones (i mean: i have already spent a decent amount of bucks).

So, why should i buy another d20 minis combat system?
(this question is to let you convince me )

Thread: Re: Plans for compatibility with D&D 4e?

Flyspeck23 — 2008-11-21T23:17:05+00:00

There will be a substantial rules update, including a SRD update. The first expansion will support both rules versions right off the bat.

Thread: Re: Plans for compatibility with D&D 4e?

viggy — 2008-06-14T22:29:38+00:00

Thanks for the info.

Thread: Re: Plans for compatibility with D&D 4e?

Elsairon — 2008-06-14T15:12:35+00:00

There is some info in the dungeon bash blog on Steven's website,
http://www.theothergamecompany.com.

Thread: Re: Plans for compatibility with D&D 4e?

graffspree — 2008-06-10T02:13:02+00:00

There are plans, but I'm not sure the time frame.

Thread: Plans for compatibility with D&D 4e?

viggy — 2008-06-07T15:37:51+00:00

I've been holding off purchasing DB until 4e was released in the hopes that it would be upgraded as well. Are there any plans to upgrade DB? If so, what's the ETA?

Thread: Re: Dungeon Bash - A game in itself or an expansion?

Flyspeck23 — 2008-03-18T21:41:30+00:00

Phreedh wrote:
Flyspeck23 wrote:
Thanks for your review And thank you for creating Dungeon Bash - I can only imagine how much time it must have taken you!
It was. But because it was the kind of game I always wanted to make: no biggie

Phreedh wrote:
Looking forward to the expansions and DB 1.2. How about a short teaser on what you're changing with 1.2, and an ETA? Also, am I right in assuming you'll stick to D&D 3.5 with Dungeon Bash and not "upgrade" to 4th edition?
ETA: some time after TOGC gets access to the 4.0 SRD.

I'm not sure how I'll add 4.0 rules: either as a stand-alone update document or a full update of the rules. In the latter case I'll probably keep the 3.5 rules intact, so people will be able to choose which version they want to play. Either way, the update will be free for all previous customers.

Here's the plan: 1.2 will include the 4.0 updates and a small introductory booklet. The rules will still be pretty vanilla - the web enhancements (of which there'll be more) is where the flavor is (if it's not enough flavor for your taste, you've got all the tools to add your own - that's part of the game, isn't it?).
So 1.2 will mostly be a rules update. But there's so much more planned, not all of which will cost you money

Thread: Re: Dungeon Bash - A game in itself or an expansion?

Phreedh — 2008-03-12T06:39:46+00:00

Flyspeck23 wrote:
Thanks for your review And thank you for creating Dungeon Bash - I can only imagine how much time it must have taken you!

Looking forward to the expansions and DB 1.2. How about a short teaser on what you're changing with 1.2, and an ETA? Also, am I right in assuming you'll stick to D&D 3.5 with Dungeon Bash and not "upgrade" to 4th edition?

/Mattias

Thread: Re: Dungeon Bash - A game in itself or an expansion?

Flyspeck23 — 2008-03-09T19:59:32+00:00

Thanks for your review

And you're right, it's not very newcomer-friendly. That's one of the changes coming with DB 1.2.
You're also right that our main focus was to provide d20 players a different experience - hack'n'slash entertainment without a GM. I would never have thought that DB would bring so many people to d20.

And no, we couldn't have explained the experience system under the license we used. We could've gone OGL instead of d20, but as mentioned above we aimed the game at d20 players. In hindsight OGL would've probably been the better choice.

As for a different take on the game, there's a plan to some day do "DB Lite" - a self-contained dungeon crawl game with all the rules you need to play (and if you're wondering where the "Lite" comes in: it'd be a simpler system than d20), but still offering the same flexible (and GM-free) experience. But first: the expansions ...

Thread: Re: Dungeon Bash - A game in itself or an expansion?

Rliyen — 2008-02-22T12:10:52+00:00

Thanks for the great review. Another game off the want list. I'd like a standalone game, not a game like Judge Dredd RPG by Mongoose where you need the Player's Handbook in order to PLAY the game.

Thread: Dungeon Bash - A game in itself or an expansion?

Phreedh — 2008-02-21T13:26:45+00:00

The first time I read about Dungeon Bash I went "woop!" and thought this was it. The holy grail I had been chasing, where board games meet role playing games in an awesome mix.

Unfortunately, it isn't.

While that is a bad thing, Dungeon Bash is still pretty darn good. Keep reading, and you'll find out why.

What exactly IS Dungeon Bash then?
Dungeon Bash is an expansion to the D20 Dungeons & Dragons 3.0/3.5 role playing game, more than anything else. It is NOT a stand alone board game, as no rules for combat or character generation are included in the rules. What you get for your 10 bucks when buying this game, is a well thought out and well structured framework to generate dungeons and encounters there-in randomly on the fly to either use in your D&D campaign, or to play through as a solitaire or cooperative board game. It basically allows you and your friends to go dungeon crawling without a dungeon master.

Components
There are A LOT of components to print out if you want it all. The floor tiles and counters amount to 17 pages at the least, if you do the basic set. Add the rule book and reference sheets, encounter tables, treasure tables and the monster reference book to that and you're beyond 120 pages.

The counters representing monsters look pretty naff (orange squares, with the name of the monster in white), so unless you're on a severe budget I'd suggest using miniatures.

Apart from the stuff included in the package you WILL need the D&D Player Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide. I'm saying "WILL" as the option is to print the free D20 rules (which are more or less a mess) and then nick the experience reward tables from the Dungeon Master's Guide. To play a good game of Dungeon Bash with the least hassle possible, you do need the commercial D&D rules.

Oh, don't forget the dice... you WILL need them!

Rule book
The rule book is very well structured and I liked reading through it. It's very professionally laid out, with tons of illustrations and graphical examples. The only thing I really find missing, is a thorough explanation on what else is needed. As I was a complete newbie to the D20 rule set and D&D (I used to play a Swedish D&D clone as a kid though) it was hard for me to get going, and a "Getting started" part would be great in future editions. I know I'm not the only person who came with no D&D experience to Dungeon Bash.

Tiles
The tiles and doors really look nice. My only complaint here is the blandness, as all rooms and corridors use the same floor tile texture respectively. A little variation would've gone a long way. One benefit of the included tiles, compared to the Dungeon Tiles sold by Wizards of the Coast is that the Dungeon Bash corridor and room tiles have a solid black border marking walls. This makes it much easier to keep track of which corridors that are dead ends and which corridors just haven't been fully explored.

They were fairly easy to mount and cut out, though the amount of 90 degree angles to cut made it a bit more fiddly than "really easy".

The actual game play
The actual game play is hard to review, as Dungeon Bash doesn't really have game play of its own. Anything related to actions and actual events happening while playing, is in and from the D&D rules. What Dungeon Bash adds is the random quest, the dungeon generator and the monster encounter generator.

Before the game starts, you create your characters as per the D&D rules. There are pre-generated characters included in the Dungeon Bash package, and there are also blank one page character sheets where anything irrelevant to Dungeon Bash has been stripped. I wouldn't mind a short step by step Character Generation outline in the Dungeon Bash rules, where no rules are quoted from D&D but referenced with page numbers.

Once you have a party of four dungeon crawlers, it's time to determine their first mission. You roll on tables to get the type of mission and any side quests, if any. Everything in Dungeon Bash scales with the Average Party Level of the characters, difficulty as well as reward. Thus, a mission might wield 300 gold pieces as the reward on level 1 while it pays you 3000 gold pieces at level 10.

After determining the mission, you enter the dungeon without any fuzz. There are variants posted here on the Geek, or on the Dungeon Bash product site where pre- and post mission travel hazards and random events are introduced. I recommend looking them up, for more variation.

Every new game turn, you start with checking for a random encounter. This is done by rolling a D20 and comparing the result to the Turn Tracker introduced with Dungeon Bash. If no encounter takes place, the Turn Tracker is increased with one step and the characters may make their actions - be it movement or battle. The chance of a random encounter is dictated by the current circumstances. If the characters are in battle, there's a higher chance of a random encounter. If no encounter happens for a while the chance also rises. Once a battle has occurred and ended, the Turn Tracker is reset to a lower value.

The random dungeon generating is done in segments. Whenever a character opens a door or peeks around a corner, you roll on the dungeon generation table and place the indicated pieces. There are optional advanced rules for this, with increased detail such as solid objects and light conditions but I've only played with the basic rules so far. It's complex enough when you don't know the D&D system by heart! There are three different tables; one for corridor exploration, one when opening a door from a corridor and one when opening a door from a room.

There are two types of rooms, and every time a large room tile is placed you check to see if it is the quest room by rolling a D6 and adding the amount of already placed rooms. If you roll a 6, you found the goal of your mission! One of my first missions, I managed to do this on the first door I opened. The starting corridor was a dead end with one door. When opening the door, I found the quest room (as I rolled a 6) and the room itself did not contain any doors (as per the exploration tables).

When entering a room, or encountering a random encounter you roll on the Encounter Tables provided with Dungeon Bash. For each Average Party Level, there is three different tables; Random, Room and Quest Room encounters. This is one of the places where the creators have spent alot of work and unfortunately, this is also one of the things you want to customize yourself. As I use D&D miniatures to represent the monsters, I tried to limit my purchases to the cheaper minis. Some of the monsters suggested in the standard encounter tables are pretty expensive to get as miniatures so I removed them and replaced them with cheaper but equally dangerous stuff. Also, the diversity was a bit lacking so I ended up re-writing the encounter tables completely.

Battles and experience
Dungeon Bash doesn't cover anything related to battles, magic or experience. There are a bunch of replacement rules and alternate uses for skills, to fit within the random DM-less environment.

Also, there are flow charts with which you determine how your opponents move in battle and which character they attack. This is all pretty logical so you don't have to reference it much.

Expansions
The Other Game Company offer several expansions and web enhancements on their home page, and it's easy to customize or expand the game your self as well. There are a few big expansions planned by TOGC as well, to add random city adventuring and random wilderness adventuring too.

Conclusion
This is long enough already so I'll try to wrap it up.

Dungeon Bash is an AWESOME supplement to your D&D collection, if you want to dungeon crawl on your own or with friends in a random environment. It is really well made, most of the stuff included is top notch quality and what you don't like you can just change.

This is also where it shows it's not really a proper board game. There are no set rules, it's all a bit arbitrary. You can't really get come with zero experience of D&D and get any fun out of it unless you spend some serious time on it first. That's also the major drawback.

It would have been an awesome, awesome game if it had contained rules for battle, character generation and progress. That's a lot of rules though, and stripping it down to it's bare essentials would be too much work for a relatively cheap Print and Play product.

I like it though, it gives me the chance to scratch my RPG itch on my own. Considering it's only 10 dollars, what you get is a real bargain!

I've been having a lot of fun beating my ways through the random dungeons, but facts remain - I'm playing solo D&D with the help of Dungeon Bash, not playing Dungeon Bash itself. I wish it had been a stand-alone game which could be expanded by D&D instead of the other way around. As I'm not familiar with the D20 OGL (Open gaming license), I don't know how much of the battle-, magic- and character creation rules they could incorporate. Especially seeing how the experience distribution rules aren't covered by the OGL. I would love to see an all-in-one system based on D20 though, incorporating Dungeon Bash!

I realize my main gripe with Dungeon Bash isn't with the system as such, but rather how the creators set their scope. They never intended it to be a stand-alone game, so it's unfair of me to criticize the game for it. It's an awesome supplement for D&D and I recommend it to any D&D DM or player who feel like having a dungeon crawl on their own. I have had plenty of fun so far, and intend to continue having it - now I just need to do one more dungeon delve with my hired mercenary to earn enough gold to resurrect the poor dwarf cleric Ragus Orez.

The final verdict and score is an 8. Well done TOGC!

Image

Phreedh — 2008-02-02T08:27:15+00:00

All of the basic standard tiles from DB. Printed and mounted on foamcore.

Image

Phreedh — 2008-02-02T08:24:29+00:00

Overview of a game in progress. Instead of the standard tiles and counters, I'm using Dungeon Tiles and minis from WotC.

Image

Phreedh — 2008-01-31T21:32:37+00:00

My fighter gets ready to lay the smack-down on a few Hobgoblins.

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Phreedh — 2008-01-31T21:22:13+00:00

Close-up of my intrepid heroes and what awaits inside the low-level Quest Room.

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Phreedh — 2008-01-31T21:20:01+00:00

Using the pre-painted D&D minis and the DB floor tiles. Got to the Quest Room the first door I opened!

Thread: Re: Questions on materials and such

Flyspeck23 — 2007-08-29T10:34:21+00:00

A note on the expansions:

Each one will be less expensive than the core game. There are two expansions planned (city and wilderness - with the core rules and the two expansions you'll be able to generate a whole continent with cities, adventure sites and so on).

Each expansion will be huge though - generators (first expansion: city and buildings, second expansion: region/continent and vicinity (separate generators for woods, plains, hills...), NPCs and opponents, new quests, and new rules (of course).

Not sure when they'll be available, as each proved to be much more work than anticipated. I'll be looking for playtesters for the city expansion soon though...

Thread: Re: A few questions about gameplay...

Flyspeck23 — 2007-08-29T10:28:02+00:00

Elsairon is absolutely right.

DB is highly customizable. The rules to design your own encounter tables are pretty straight forward (and there are rules - take that, WHQ ).

It's all up to you, really. You could add classes, creatures, treasures from other d20 books - or not. You could even limit the party to the 4 "main" classes - rogue, fighter, cleric, wizard. You could design encounter tables with nothing but orcs and goblins on them.

And so on - your game, your choice

Thread: Re: Dungeon Bash Sessions

Flyspeck23 — 2007-08-29T10:14:45+00:00

Nice session report

And yes, the Blank Cards might help there (Blank Character Cards and probably GM Cards: NPCs and Locations).

Thread: Re: Just bought DB - now I just need the D&D rules too...

Flyspeck23 — 2007-08-29T10:11:14+00:00

Looking forward to your review

As a sidenote, the game doesn't care much which version you're playing - just remember that all the stats are for 3.5. The difference isn't huge though, and 3.5 stats should work with 3.0 rules.

That said, DB should also work with later editions of RPG - as long as CR are implemented you're fine. Depending on the difference between 3.5 and 4.0 I'll either make the update available for free or as a small supplement.

Thread: Re: Dungeon Bash Sessions

Elsairon — 2007-08-11T20:44:51+00:00

Looks like The Other Game Company has some blank cards on their site. I might check that out before my next session.

Thread: Re: Dungeon bash players, check this out.

Phreedh — 2007-08-10T11:52:37+00:00

Isn't the scale a bit small? Says 10 mm... granted, if you got the minis for the system too it would probably work - but it seems mighty fiddly.

Thread: Re: Dungeon Bash Sessions

jygro — 2007-08-08T07:19:21+00:00

Elsairon wrote:

Final thoughts:

There were at least 3 or 4 times I did not know if my party would make it out. Almost every time the fighter got in a good swing or two and leveled the field.

In the future I may switch to a different rules system, or find some way to simplify the character sheets, maybe using character cards. I spent alot of time leafing though the papers looking for this or that bonus. If I had all the characters on one page with all the commonly used skills and stats available it would have helped tremendously.

Even so, I would play this again even without the improvements.

I also had a problem of using a full character sheet to control all the heroes. Having to look at 4 different characers is a bit of a strain. I was thinking about looking into getting some of the D&D miniature stat cards and using that info to make easier monster/characers cards, but that has been slow going...

-Bren

Thread: Dungeon bash players, check this out.

dedindahed — 2007-08-07T16:20:09+00:00

I've had one of these for ages, and have been waiting for the right use for it.

http://www.pendraken.co.uk/pictures/basicset.jpg

I think dungeon bash could be the system, though i think i'm gonna have to buy more dungeon sets...

Thread: Dungeon Bash Sessions

Elsairon — 2007-08-05T06:59:53+00:00

Session #1

Started off with a party of four adventurers. Kordok Stonebarrel, a stout Dwarven Fighter. Rizzo Nimblenook, a Halfling Rogue. Talia Whiteshield, a Human Cleric, and finally Oblivius Oblamus, an Elven Wizard. All party members have light crossbow's except Kordok, who carries a shortbow.

My quest was to enter the Amazing Evil Tunnels and Blow the Dam. I decided to use the Goblinoid Dungeons expansion for the encounter tables. I was also using the basic dungeon generation tables as I was considering this mostly a learning session.

Encounters, & Notable events:

An Orc was shot down quickly by a volley of bolts.

A Goblin Rogue, engaged Rizzo in a one on one.

While Rizzo and Kordok fought the goblin, 2 orcs burst on the scene scene and attacked. One ran up and struck down Oblivius after he was struck by the mages Glob of Acid.

Talia and Rizzo took on the goblin while the Dwarf made quick work of the orcs, getting chopped once in the process.

Rizzo administed a healing potion and Oblivius was back in action.

Later while examining a door, Rizzo was struck by a poisoned dart that he failed to notice. Luckily he resisted the poison.

Another goblin rogue was sneaking around and moved into ambush position while the party was occupied with moving toward another room. Once Kordok and Rizzo had engaged a pair of orc warriors, the goblin tried to ambush Oblivius, but failed to strike. As the party mopped up those monsters, a Dire Rat wandered into the area and attacked.

Talia was bitten by it, but soon smashed it with her mace. 2 Hobgoblins attacked Talia as well, and she was knocked down. A healing potion looted from one of the goblin rogues put her back in action after the Hobgoblins were taken care of.

Soon afterwards the party reached the main Quest Room. There were two Orc Barbarians backed up by an Orc Cleric.

Round 1.

Rizzo dashed in and took a swipe at one barbarian, planning to tumble past the next round to get closer to the cleric. Kordok shot through the door, hitting one of the barbarians with a bolt before drawing his axe. Oblivius dashed up just outside the door and cast Color Spray, knocking one of the barbarians unconscious. Talia was around a corner down the hall running towards the room. The Orc Cleric moved in closer, planning to touch one of his barbarians to cast protection but was too far to make it that far in one round.

Round 2.

Rizzo tried to dive past the remaining barbarian but was chopped down to -7 with one swipe. The enraged dwarf ran into the room and struck down the one standing barbarian, killing him (-10 HP) with one blow. (perfect timing for a critical strike, without that Rizzo would probably have died) Oblivius moved into the room towards the ensorceled barbarian orc, readying his staff for a coup de grace. Talia managed to make it into the door in time to see the elf step over the unmoving body of the Halfling. The orcish cleric cast a protecton spell on itself, having no others to protect by this time.

Round 3.

Kordock advanced towards the cleric and missed with his waraxe. Oblivius smashed the unconscious barbarian, killing him. Talia cast cure light on Rizzo, bring him back up to -4 from -9. The orc cleric cast cause fear on Kordock, but the dwarf shrugged off the spell.

Round 4.

Kordock slashed at the cleric and missed again. The elf loaded his crossbow and moved around to get a better angle on the last orc. Talia stabilzed Rizzo. The orc attacked Kordok but missed.

Round 5.

Oblivus and Kordock missed the orc. Talia got ready to move into the fray. The orc cleric missed Kordok.

Round 6.

Kordok slew the cleric.

The party retrieved several healing potions from the slain orcs, gathered up some gold, set the charges, and started fleeing the place.

On the way out they encountered one lone orc, who didn't last long against Kordoks axe.

End Session #1

Total time: about 3 hours.

I spent a lot of time leafing though books looking up charts as this was my first time using the d20 system in a table top game and making a few paper counters to use for the monsters.

I expect the game to play alot smoother and faster next time as I'll know how the system works in general.

Final thoughts:

There were at least 3 or 4 times I did not know if my party would make it out. Almost every time the fighter got in a good swing or two and leveled the field.

In the future I may switch to a different rules system, or find some way to simplify the character sheets, maybe using character cards. I spent alot of time leafing though the papers looking for this or that bonus. If I had all the characters on one page with all the commonly used skills and stats available it would have helped tremendously.

Even so, I would play this again even without the improvements.

Thread: Re: A few questions about gameplay...

Elsairon — 2007-07-30T23:57:51+00:00

First note: I have not yet played DB, although I have played D&D & AD&D (pre WOTC), and run a couple campaigns. I had collected the 3.5 PHB and DMG which were sitting unused on my shelf. When DB came on the scene I thought about it for a a few months, and just a couple days ago went ahead and shelled out the 10 bucks for the download.

I have read through the rule book twice, and I have to say it was worth it. I am gathering materials for starting a solo campaign now.

Although the game does use the d20 system, there are step by step guidelines for all the monsters moves which are easy to follow, so you won't need to worry about forgetting anything. One session to brush up on a few things would do the trick.

If you don't like parts of the system, drop them, or make your own. It's been a long standing tradition in D&D to swap in house rules since the beginning.

It's all up to you. If you want the chrome, it's there fully with the d20 system. On the other hand if you just want to go with a basic hit and damage roll, no one is going to stop you!

There is a long list of the monsters that come with the game, too many to list here. You will probably recognize most if not all of the monsters on the lists. All the combat stats, spells used, etc. are included, although the monster descriptons are not, as far as I have seen.

But again, the recommendation is to make up your own encounter tables (to match your mini collection for example), or just because you want a certian theme.

For myself I want to have themed dungeons. For example, undead crypts, goblin lairs, lizard men sewers, etc. So what I plan on doing is making a set of encounter tables themed differently, and then randomly roll what themed encounters I am going to face, after my party enters the dungeon. In this way I won't be able to predict in advance what might be the best spells to memorize, or gear to buy in town etc.

I can't comment on WHQ as I have not tried that one. The DB game designer has addressed the lethality of the game though, so you can tweak it as you like. For the standard game following the rules without tweaking, there is always the possibility some characters will not make it out of the dungeon alive.

Thread: Re: A few questions about gameplay...

xombe — 2007-07-30T13:49:26+00:00

Blast from TABS has this so you can ask him directly...
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/user/Steve+Lefort

Thread: A few questions about gameplay...

ctalbot — 2007-07-29T19:15:22+00:00

I've been thinking about buying the Dungeon Bash PDF, but as a former D&D/d20 player who stopped GMing/playing the RPG because of rules complexities that slowed sessions down, I'm concerned that I'll need to be an expert on the d20 system to actually get good use out of Dungeon Bash.

How much of the d20 ruleset does Dungeon Bash take into account? Do I have to concern myself with five-foot steps, attacks of opportunity, the various combat maneuvers (charge, trip, etc.) and the rest of the chrome of d20, or is it more stripped down and basic?

Since it sounds like Dungeon Bash has all the monster information, what monsters come up in play? Is it the plethora of creatures from the Monster Manual or is it more limited to the likes of kobolds, orcs, goblins and other more common critters?

In terms of play time, fun and lethality, how does it compare to Warhammer Quest?

Chris

Thread: Re: Questions on materials and such

QWERTY_DREMILITY — 2007-07-10T14:01:39+00:00

thank you bot hfor your helpful respnses!

i appreciate the great list too ( might have to do some hunting for that fabled pencil with an eraser)

im hoping to order some manuals today or tomorrow then ill ge tthe download when they arrive.

--QD

Thread: Re: Questions on materials and such

tigerAspect — 2007-07-10T12:54:46+00:00

Ok, I'll try and answer you questions and clear up some misconceptions you seem to have.
QWERTY_DREMILITY wrote:
first off, a definite list of all needed objects for this game would be great and much appreciated
Player's Handbook 3.0/3.5 (I recommend 3.5 but 3.0 works well)
Dungeom Master's Guide 3.0/3.5 (As far as I can tell, nothing you'll use in the DMG has changed from 3.0 to 3.5)
Dungeon Bash files (You'll need: DB-print.pdf, DB-EncounterTables-S.pdf or DB-EncounterTables.pdf, DB-Opponents.rtf, DB-Treasure&Dungeon.pdf, DB-Counters.pdf (optional), and DB-FloorTiles.pdf (in the appropriate ammounts)
Dice (one each of d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20)
Character Sheets (free from the official D&D site)
Pencils (with erasers)

And, I'll highly recommend scrounging pawns from other games for PCs, counters work fine for monsters, but you'll be moving the PCs around a fair bit.

Hey, you wanted "definative".

QWERTY_DREMILITY wrote:
one of the things i have a large question about are the maps. do u have to use the ones that come with the download?
You do, IF you wand to use the dungeon generator tables unmodified, it should be fairly easy to modify though, so no worries.

QWERTY_DREMILITY wrote:
i would assume so since it seems like it says things such as "enter room that is "x" by "x" squares" so unless you have tiles or something of every size it would not work.
No, it doesn't, the Dungeon generator is based around tiles, not maps.
The tiles included are:
Large Room (6x8)
Small Room (4x6)
Doors
And various corridor pieces. (Section, double section, corner, t-junction, intersection, dead end)

There's a bunch more tiles for the advanced dungeon generator, but those form the basic one.

QWERTY_DREMILITY wrote:
Also, the expansions sound rather exciting especially as to how you might handle having the city vendors. one thing i am curious about is how much they will cost me in the future assuming i love the system and want more of it
Presumably, and extrapolating from designer comments on how it's a "similar ammount of content to the base game" (paraphrasing), you can reasonably expect DBX-Urban to cost about as much as the base game: an unreasonably cheap $10.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Robin

Thread: Re: Questions on materials and such

bwingrave — 2007-07-04T21:03:11+00:00

Regarding the stuff near the back of the 3.5 DMG: There aren't rooms as such, but there are the following, which could be copied, mixed and matched to make rooms of various sizes:
2-square x 7-square sections, with a wall on one of the long sides
1x7 section (no walls)
3x6 section (no walls)
2x6 sections with a wall running through the middle, the long way

Thread: Re: Questions on materials and such

bwingrave — 2007-07-02T12:52:39+00:00

I have been using a Chessex Megamat with 1" squares for a miniatures game for the past few years. I can draw on it with wet-erase markers. When the game is over, the mat rolls up for storage. I got mine at a local game store, but if you want to order one online, check out the site below:

http://www.chessex.com/mats/Battlemats_Megamats.htm

The Megamat has worked fine for the two sessions of Dungeon Bash that I have run so far.

If you have miniatures, or are willing to purchase them, they might add to the Dungeon Bash experience.

The Dungeon Master's Guide, version 3.5, has some pages at the end that could work as tiles. Really cool images, and they use 1" squares. I don't recall what the room sizes are tho. I'll try to remember to check when I'm home.

Thread: Questions on materials and such

QWERTY_DREMILITY — 2007-07-01T22:41:21+00:00

first off, a definite list of al needed objects for this game would be great and much appreciated i think. then it can be in one accessable place. it is my understanding so far that it includes the following:

Dungeons and Dragons Player Handbook(3.0 or 3.5)
Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Master Guide(3.0 or 3.5)
the dungeon bash downloads which include charts, maps, and rules.

one of the things i have a large question baout are the maps. do u have to use the ones that come with the download? i would assume so since it seems like it says things such as "enter room that is "x" by "x" squares" so unless you have tiles or something of every size it would not work. it seems that another solution to this problem is having one of those awesome tables that have a cry erase grid on them. does anyone happen to have a link to somewhere i can get something like that? a board of that stuff that i could use. i also read somewhere that you could somehow accomidate it to tiles that ou might already have. how would this work (A.K.A does it subtract from the game). im thinking about tiles that come in Mage knight dungeons or the awesome DnD dungeon tiles.

Also, the expansions sound rather exciting especially as to how you might handle having the city vendors. one thing i am curious about is how much they will cost me in the future assuming i love the systemand want more of it

well, i know i had somemore questions..but im forgeting all them now so i guess ill leave it at that for now.

i think that this game has a very strong appeal to it. i really want the experience of Roleplaying (not with a computer) but i have no group that i can play with and non of my friends have interest/parents that would allow them, so i have been looking for solid solo RPGs. already tried mage knight dungeons ( fun but really had no RPG elements) and dungeoneer (a great rpg like game but it didnt feel "epic" enough. with a single deck you end up playing on just a 3 by 3 grid. probably better with more expansions).

Thanks,

--QD

Thread: Re: Just bought DB - now I just need the D&D rules too...

Phreedh — 2007-06-19T16:42:05+00:00

Call me stupid, but I went and bought the PHB and DMG... just to play DB. Now, there's a matter of a whole lot of D&D Miniatures I bought off eBay as well...

Looking forward to trying it out solo on my vacation next week! Review, pictures and opinions to come.

The designer should write WotC and let them know how much money they've earned off me. Just don't tell my girlfriend. Please? =D

Thread: Re: Just bought DB - now I just need the D&D rules too...

Phreedh — 2007-06-02T21:20:01+00:00

Thanks alot for the info, TigerAspect - I'll cruise eBay a bit then I guess. =)

Cheers!
/Mattias

Thread: Re: Just bought DB - now I just need the D&D rules too...

tigerAspect — 2007-06-02T20:08:18+00:00

I was in exactly the same situation when I bought DB.

Here's the MINIMUM requirements:

Source Books:
D&D Player's Handbook (3.0 or 3.5)
D&D Dungeon Master's Guide (3.0)

Printouts:
Dungeon Bash Rules
Dungeon Bash Challenges RTF (this contains all the monsters used in DB, if you want to design your own encounter tables, use the SRD monsters.)
Dungeon Bash Encounter Tables PDF
Dungeon Bash Treasure & Dungeon PDF

Here's my recommendation:
3.5 Player's Handbook. If you haven't played for a while, this is a MUST, I recently acquired the PHB 3.5 after playing with the 3.0 for a few months (on and off, about 6 games), and it's night and day. 3.5 is MUCH better laid out, with logical groupings of rules (especially for combat), and clear examples. Like the rules for squeezing, which I STILL can't find in 3.0.

3.0 Dungeon Master's Guide. There's practically NO rules changes for 3.5, (I'm comparing to the SRD, so no guarantees) the major canges, I'm lead to believe, are huge numbers of formatting improvments, examples and suggestions.
It's probably a must for a newbie DM, but exeything you need for DB is in 3.0.

As an aside here, the only thing you need from the DMG is the Experience Points by Chalenge Rating rewards table, everything else is in the SRD, albiet scattered and confusing.

Enjoy!

Thread: Re: Just bought DB - now I just need the D&D rules too...

Phreedh — 2007-06-01T16:21:09+00:00

As I've understood things - If I get the PHB (3.0 or 3.5) I won't have to print the SRD... am I right there? I have very sneakily acquired an... uhm... "preview version" of the 3.5 core rules which I've glanced through. It seems to contain all the things I'd need - except Dungeon Bash. =)

Judging from your comments I guess I'm best off with the 3.0 rules then - as it's the cheapest option and I won't use any 3.5 modules.

Thanks for your reply, Bernard!

/Mattias

Thread: Re: Just bought DB - now I just need the D&D rules too...

bwingrave — 2007-06-01T14:13:24+00:00

You can download the current version of the d20 System Reference Document (a.k.a. the SRD3.5) at http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/article/srd35
if you want to take a look at a printable version of the rules first.

From what I have read about Dungeon Bash -- and I should stress that I don't have the game myself -- it relies on d20 for rules about character creation, customization and advancement as well as combat. These could be printed from the site above. I don't know how much you would need from the rest of the ruleset. The Player's Handbook has information on lots of other stuff (let me know if you'd like more info and I'll find some for you in the next few days). The Monster Manual has more information on individual monsters (including pictures and flavor text) than you'll find in the SRD. I can't think of anything significant in the Dungeon Master's Guide that you would need, based on what I've read of DB.

A note on 3.0 vs. 3.5 from a Dungeons & Dragons perspective: 3.5 has a bunch of rules changes (some say fixes), but unless you're a serious, longterm player, I don't know that they would have much effect on your enjoyment of the system. I played 3.0 for a few years before converting to 3.5, and it worked fine; the only issue I can recall was converting published adventures from 3.5 to 3.0. If you're a rules junkie and want to go the cheap way without printing stuff out, go with 3.0, get the errata from http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/er/20040125a and write it into the books where appropriate (i.e. the combat and character creation sections and any others you might use for DB).

Please keep us informed on what you decide to do and how it works out.

Edit: Please check out the following thread, if you haven't done so already, to get info on what's in the PHB but not in the SRD: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/156275
Looks like you would need the PHB (either 3.0 or 3.5) for a few things. And a table on experience earned for challenges (contact me for more info on this).

Thread: Re: Just bought DB - now I just need the D&D rules too...

Phreedh — 2007-06-01T13:37:35+00:00

edosan wrote:
You can look up the d20 stuff online here: http://www.d20srd.org/
Quite right, but I'm ONLY getting the D20 books for Dungeon Bash. =) Thus the general opinion on 3.0 might differ a lot between it's utility as a full RPG or just the rules framework for Dungeon Bash. That's the reason why I just can't Google the differences on 3.0 and 3.5 (which I have, by the way =) cause none of those sources take DB into account.

Even though that link answers none of my questions, thanks for your input. =)

Thread: Re: Just bought DB - now I just need the D&D rules too...

edosan — 2007-06-01T13:15:07+00:00

You can look up the d20 stuff online here: http://www.d20srd.org/

Thread: Just bought DB - now I just need the D&D rules too...

Phreedh — 2007-06-01T12:15:53+00:00

This is a question mainly directed at the designers, but anyone with knowledge feel free to answer it... =)

I just bought DB (looks very nice, I'm well impressed!) and I'm really looking forward to playing it. I haven't had an RPG session for the last 15 years or so. Been looking for a board game which scratches the itch, as I don't feel compelled to role play - just play an RPG-system. This will be excellent for when me and my cousin get together for gameplayign bachelor's nights when our wives. =D

My biggest question though, what's the easiest option to get going. I've understood I need the D&D Player Handbook. Is that it? I'm all set after that?

Furthermore, which version is needed. Will 3.0 suffice, is there a huge difference with 3.5 and would I better off with that? Consider the following: I might be able to buy 3.0 player handbook, dungeon master book and monster manual really cheap, locally. For 3.5 i need to buy new or over eBay (probably overseas) - to roughly the same price as I can get all three books for 3.0... how much "better" is 3.5, from a Dungeon Bash perspective?

Cheers!
/Mattias - complete and utter d20 newbie

Thread: Re: D20 SRD missing info.

tigerAspect — 2007-04-07T21:51:25+00:00

Flyspeck23 wrote:
Check out this thread at EN World: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?s=c29ebb66501aec29fe51...

Hope that helped.

And I agree: the description should be changed.

That was me
It did though, thanks for that.

Thread: Re: D20 SRD missing info.

jpat — 2007-04-07T18:48:03+00:00

Jason sums up the missing bits correctly, as far as I remember.

The game in question bears the d20 System logo, so it presumes that you have the PHB (probably v3.5). The SRD is intentionally designed to be missing some key components to require use of the PHB. You wouldn't literally need any of the other core rulebooks to get the missing information, although the SRD also does not contain anything in the way of what WotC considers to be intellectual property. So the monster listings include "generic" creatures but not D&D-specific ones; basilisks are in there, beholders are not, for example.

Thread: Re: D20 SRD missing info.

Flyspeck23 — 2007-04-07T18:18:07+00:00

Check out this thread at EN World: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?s=c29ebb66501aec29fe51...

Hope that helped.

And I agree: the description should be changed.

Thread: Re: D20 SRD missing info.

tigerAspect — 2007-03-14T15:16:00+00:00

Unfortunatley, I don't have enough experience with D20 to say exactly what's necessary.
Aren't those things you mention necessary to play DB?

Thread: Re: D20 SRD missing info.

ynnen — 2007-03-14T13:00:34+00:00

Could you be a bit more specific about what is missing that's necessary to play?

The SRD contains all the rules and information needed for combat, character development options, class lists/abilities, spells, maneuvers, equipment, magic items, creatures and the like, but there are a few very specific things the SRD does not contain:

1 - Character Creation Rules/Guidelines
2 - Experience Point/Reward Tables
3 - Character Leveling/Advancement

The online Hypertext SRD is an excellent source of SRD content available in a wonderful web format, including many optional and variant rules developed from several different sources (such as Action Points in SRD d20 systems).

http://www.d20srd.org/index.htm

Thread: D20 SRD missing info.

tigerAspect — 2007-03-14T12:24:25+00:00

Tihs is really a 2 part post.
First, is it necessary for me to purchase the 3.5 ed. PHB and DMG? There seems to be info missing from the D20 system that's required for play.

If so, the Description on BGG should be changed from the misleading
It relies in part on the published rules from the D20 SRD (which are the free-to-use RPG rules from Wizards of the Coast).

to something like

It relies in part on the rules from the D20 Core Rulebooks (published by Wizards of the Coast).

Any help would be appreciated.

Thread: Re: Character sheets?

Flyspeck23 — 2006-09-24T11:14:52+00:00

That's on my to-do list: form fields for the DB character sheets.

Not quite sure if it will be save-enabled though. Normally Acrobat Reader doesn't allow it, but the PDF can be modified that way. Sad thing is, I can't do it.

Thread: Character sheets?

jygro — 2006-09-22T10:08:17+00:00

Hello:

I got to say that the character sheet that the pre-generated characters comes on is awesome for this game, but the file is in pdf format. For that reason, I can't update the character sheet (or create new ones when a character gets killed). Is there any possible chance that we could get a blank character sheet in a file format that we can modify?

-Bren

Thread: Re: The start of an adventuring career.

Flyspeck23 — 2006-09-20T20:56:57+00:00

More! You stopped at the first room - even if that's the end of these four adventurers, I want to know how they died

The only other issue is how disjointed the quests are, but with a little imagination and thought it isn’t a major roadblock (besides the game is called dungeon bash and it does that wonderfully).
Have you seen the first web-enhancement, Goblinoid Dungeons?
http://www.theothergamecompany.com/bash/enhance.htm
This includes a mini-campaign (with a flow-chart), joining a few quests in a meaningful manner - seems like it's just the thing you're looking for.
And there are more web-enhancements planned - the next one (Drow Dungeons) will be linked to the first one...

I think a lot of issues that I have (the town and living expense rules specifically) will be cleared up when the outdoor/overland adventure module is complete.
You bet
But note that these won't be modules (that'd be web-enhancements, really), but full-fledged expansions, and will add much more to the game than just more places to bash your opponents. The first expansions (DBX: Urban) for instance will feature a city generator, many ways to interact with local NPCs, rules to handle downtime between adventures, and much more.

Thread: The start of an adventuring career.

jygro — 2006-09-20T09:47:37+00:00

Hello!

I figured to write a session report in a story format. Some solo games are great for creating a story as the events unfold and this game is no different. Actual game play details and any adding information will be located in brackets “[…]”. This is not the complete quest but enough to get some idea on how the game is played. Look at the review already for this game for more information

*********************

“You see my friends,” began Branadin, a stout hill Dwarf, “my clan has been searching for the entrance of the Azure Mines for generations and after decades of my own personal searching, I’ve found it! Unfortunately the many years have not been kind and I need help in the exploration of the actual caverns. Fear not my friends, I will pay you well for helping me out in this endeavor.”

[The first thing that you do after the selection of a four character party is to determine the quest objective; In this case, I rolled a 67 – Exploration. The description states that the party is hired to map a cavern and their job is done when there are no unopened doors left.]

Kayla Whitestone looked at Branadin and then at her fellow companions. The job seemed simple enough and depending on the reward, this could be a wonderful start to their adventuring career. Besides, how big of a cavern could a clan of dwarves make?

“Sounds promising, you got anything more that could help us make our decision,” she stated.

“The entrance that I found lies not more than a couple hours walk into the foothills north of Valen’s Crossroads. For starters, I will give you this potion of healing that I found on my travels about this area. I’m sure that it will aid you in your quest more than me in mine. I’ve also managed to amass a fair bit of money and I’ll pay each of you 100 gold pieces once I have the map to the complete cavern complex.”

[The game designers have generated 4 characters (at many different levels) to use if you don’t want to generate your own. I figured that since they went through the trouble of making them, I’d play with those provided. Kayla Whitestone is a female human sorcerer. The rest is a male dwarven cleric named Oigmor Stoneshoulder, a male half-orc fighter named Gorlokosh Hammerfist and finally a male halfling rogue named Sleet (Amazingly enough I have 25mm miniatures for all these characters if I change the sex of the halfling rogue. With a single cross out, the male Sleet becomes a female named Autumn). ]

[Next, under the quest description, the reward states APL x 400 gp, so 400 gp for completing this quest. Also if you are playing Dungeon Bash solo, the designers recommend that you start with a single healing potion (thus why the dwarf gives them this).]

Kayla looks at each of her fellow companions who all nod prior to answering the dwarf. “You got yourself a deal, we will leave at first light tomorrow. You got directions to this mine?”
Following Branadin’s directions and a short walk through the foothills surrounding the town later, they come across the cavern’s entrance. The surround area seems peaceful enough, so the party lights a lantern, readies their weaponry and head into the darkness. When they move into the beginning of the mine, they discover a long corridor ending in a dead end. A single door is on the left about 40 feet away.

[Starting at the entrance and anytime any member of the party moves to a square that would reveal more of the dungeon, you randomly generate it following a chart (either the simple one or a more complex in the advanced rules). In this case, I rolled a 19 which is two 2x4 square sections and a 2x2 square dead end (you can find all the needed tiles and counters included in the rule set). There should have been 2 doors, but there is a special rule for the exploration quest that states that you never place more than 1 door per roll. In that case, I placed it to the left in the dead end (completely my choice and left sounded good at the time).]

Seeing the door, Autumn knew this was her time to shine. She moved up slowly (but Oigmor was making too much blasted noise for her to do it quietly). She didn’t hear anything on the other side and with a nod from the rest, opened the door… With the sound of an audible click, she knew that she has somehow missed the trap on the door and could do nothing but watch as a fusillade of darts flew out of a tiny hole at the far end of the corridor and slammed into Kayla. Kayla had barely time to gasp before she fell to the ground with 2 darts sticking out of her chest…

[When a room is generated, there will be an encounter of some kind. The designers have created tables from EL 1 and up. As you can guess from the description above, I rolled a trap. For this one, I decided that it would be on the door and gave the rogue a chance to discover it, but she failed the roll. The rules have a simple way of deciding who gets affected by random events (based on initiative modifier). This also determines the party’s initiative order while not in combat. After the die roll, it was the sorcerer who was going to be hit and since there was no one else within a square of her, she was the only one caught in the trap (All opponents and traps that are on the encounter tables are included in a word document for easy reference). After a couple of die rolls later, Kayla was hit with 2 darts for 7 points of damage (putting her at –2).]

Time slowed to a crawl when Oigmor saw Kayla fall to the floor. He dropped his heavy mace making a deafening clang on the tiles and rushed to the fallen sorcerer’s side. He closed his eyes and searched for her living aura. Picking up a faint one, he cleared his mind and bowed his head praying to the gods of the Great Hall hoping that they would grant his prayers…

*************

Final Notes:

Since this game uses the d20 system, it’s fairly important to have at least the two main rulebooks (Player’s and Dungeon Master’s Guide). Granted most of the information is free and online, but I found that it was easier to have the actual books for reference. Your results may vary. The best thing about this game is how open-ended that it is. The designers have done a great job outlining how to create your personal gaming tables for whatever purpose (like using your personal miniatures collection). Using the d20 system helps in keeping most people from having to buy another rulebook with an entire gaming system included just to create dungeons for characters to explore.

There are a few holes in the rulebook, but nothing that a person versed in the d20 system can’t handle. The only other issue is how disjointed the quests are, but with a little imagination and thought it isn’t a major roadblock (besides the game is called dungeon bash and it does that wonderfully). I think a lot of issues that I have (the town and living expense rules specifically) will be cleared up when the outdoor/overland adventure module is complete.

Lastly, if you are looking into being a DM for any fantasy d20 game, these rules will really help you. Some of the ideas presented in the rules can be used for all campaigns and if nothing else playing this game solo will give you a fun way to learn the combat aspect of the d20 system completely.

-Bren

Thread: Re: Problem with Excel encounter generator?

gamer-stu — 2005-06-09T18:33:53+00:00

For whatever reason Excel didn't like the "DataOption1:=xlSortNormal" parm. I removed it, along with the continuation characters from the preceding line ", _", and it ran fine. Cosworth, maybe this has something to do with my version of Excel? I'm running Office 2000.

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gamer-stu — 2005-06-09T12:27:16+00:00

My "learning game" -- solo play

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Rednax — 2005-05-17T11:36:57+00:00

The gamedesigner (to the right) is testing his creation...

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Flyspeck23 — 2005-04-26T13:48:45+00:00

While the party is fighting a trio of bugbears, they're ambushed by a vampire. Terrain: Master Maze; miniatures: Reaper.

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Flyspeck23 — 2005-04-26T13:48:45+00:00

The party is ambushed by a pair of drow (fighter and ranger). Terrain: Master Maze; miniatures: Reaper.

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Flyspeck23 — 2005-04-26T13:48:45+00:00

A party battles a drider. Terrain: Master Maze, miniatures: Reaper.