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
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“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…
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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
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Posted Wed Sep 20, 2006 10:47 am
