A downloadable game

This is a rough and ready rules-lite solo roll and write game of dungeon exploration. Use a full set of polyhedral dice to:

Hunt for treasure! Kick down doors! Narrowly avoid traps! Fight monsters! Bribe monsters!! Hire monsters?! Give yourself a fighting chance by using Amulets and Blessings. Gain experience and Level up… if you live long enough. And if it all gets too much run away screaming. All on a single print and play page.

Warning, this game is old school, in the sense you will die… a lot. But that’s ok as character gen takes less than 30 seconds, with 216 starting combinations you’ll be back in the action in no time.

The whole thing is just 369 385 425  471 words and two tables.

The dungeon exploration part of this game is a super condensed hack of the amazing Four Against Darkness by Andrea Sfiligoi (buy that game!). The combat system was inspired by 36-word Solo Dungeon by Anthony Hobday (36 words of solo dungeon crawl perfection).

Note: I'm still playing testing this so there will be regular updates as I spot typos, come up with new ideas and remove bad ideas.

Updated 5 days ago
StatusIn development
CategoryPhysical game
Rating
Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars
(3 total ratings)
AuthorQwertock
TagsDungeon Crawler, four-against-darkness, OSR, Print & Play, roll-and-write, Solo RPG, Tabletop role-playing game

Download

Download
Tiny Solo Crypt Delver Playsheet v1.6.pdf 468 kB
Download
Tiny Solo Crypt Delver Rules Only v1.6.pdf 422 kB
Download
Tiny Solo Crypt Delver Quests V1.1.pdf 36 kB
Download
TSCD Rats, Chasms & Cave-ins v1.1.pdf 29 kB
Download
TSCD Blessings of the Old Gods v1.1.pdf 17 kB

Development log

Comments

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(1 edit)

Playtest comments:

  1. The character creation says "Roll 3d6 3 for…". I assume the "3" is not supposed to be there, and I only roll 3d6?
  2. I love the generated names, and the fact that the names are tied to rewards. This is the sort of casual world-building that doesn't come naturally to me.
  3. The horizontally stacked d6 tables are clever. They save space and are fun to look things up on.
  4. In the level up section it says "level up costx", which I assume is a typo.
  5. I noticed there are some assumptions needed. e.g. "kick down door" is an action, but I could not figure out what that related to until I saw the doors on the third room type. I assume the only way I can enter that room is to kick down the door.
  6. Once I recruited a goblin, combat became much safer, though I never fought a boss because I didn't play for long.
  7. Exploding dice feel great.

There's lots of variety here for so few words. I think there's a few places where the rules could be made slightly clearer, but I don't mind that it assumes the reader isn't stupid.

If you ever want to collaborate on a slightly fancier/shinier/more polished version of this (still one page, still few words, still lots of variety), let me know. Could sell it for $1.

Thanks for the great feedback, I'm really glad you like it. I've uploaded v1.1 taking on board your comments:

1. It's a typo, I don't get much time to work on this and when I do it's always rushed!

2. Thanks, I did some research on Anglo-Saxon names and I thought a table like this was a quick way to give characters flavour.

3. I'm glad they're not confusing.

4. Another typo corrected in the new version.

5. When the nobles left they locked all the doors! The new version has more words to explain this and I've added new room tiles with more doors!

6. For the sake of a few more words I've added +1  to Monster table rolls when you hire a monster (stacks). This should push up the chances of meeting bosses! 

7. They really do.

It would be good to produce a fancier version, I think I've pushed the limits of my artistic skills and what I can do with google docs so I'd be interested in your thoughts.

Despite how all of my games look, I’m a designer in my day-job.

I think what I had in mind was that I’d work with you to produce a more polished layout, and probably change some text slightly to make things clearer where there’s any potential for confusion.

Mainly I’m interested because you’ve hit on a good mix of simplicity and variety here, and I think you could charge a little money for it if the first impression grabbed people.

Having said, I don’t charge money for any of my games, and if we did work together on it I have no idea how the money would work, so I haven’t thought about this practically 😂