Dungeonstack A to Z: Fiery Updraft

And now, to round out the card types I definitely plan on including in this first go-round of Dungeonstack, here is an event card...

Some thoughts that might be of note:

First, on the rules...pulling from my post a couple of days ago:

When a hero moves into a new room (with possible directions indicated by the arrows on the cards), cards are turned over from the top of the Dungeonstack (deck) until a room card is revealed.  Any items turned over can be found in the room...any monsters are there for an encounter...and any events take place immediately.

Easy enough, I hope...these are the little twists of fate that occur while the dungeon is delved.  It happens before the room can be dealt with.

Second, on saves:

I left off any reference to saves on the hero cards...seems like an easy sacrifice to simplify things.  I do like the way Swords & Wizardry keeps things easy with the unified saving throw, and I don't mind taking things a step further:  All classes save the same in this game.  If there needs to be a class that's especially good at saves - or specific saves - well, fine, that can be part of their rules text.  The basic rule for saving throws will be to roll and add level (or hit dice for monsters), aiming for a target number, with the default being the round-ish target of 15.  (If I recall correctly, the D&D minis game used level for all saves...I think it's a nice simplification, but I guess I'll see if it's too simplified...)

And finally, I just want to use the event cards to highlight another reason I settled on Dungeonstack: April's Quest rather than Henchmen & Hirelings: The Quest of Atoz for my theme this month.  H&H, as the card game I envision it to be, includes cards like this one:

Now, all of that gibberish has meaning in my mind and in the game that might eventually materialize...but I wanted my efforts this month to produce something that might be generally useful to OSR gamers that have no interest in playing my little card game.  I don't think things like the Quest of Atoz up there hit that mark very well.

For Dungeonstack, I think the event cards probably stretch universal useability the thinnest, but even they might have some use in general RPG play.  I'll be pondering this more as the month continues and more cards are added...

Thanks for reading!  Tomorrow, I give another nod to an internet bud...!

Dungeonstack A to Z: Elven Chainmail

Today's card, representing the great letter E, is another simple item to be found on April's Quest...good old Elven Chainmail...

I definitely wanted to include some armor as an item to be found...April is a warrior, after all, but based on the art I chose, I kept her at the base Defense/AC value for her starting card...

(Of course, the option will also be there to give her the armor from the start for an easier go of it.  I'm all about options.)

Thanks for stopping by!  Tomorrow, I finally round out the card types...!

Dungeonstack A to Z: Dark Stairwell

I guess it's time that I finally got to the heart of the game of Dungeonstack.  Here's a room card...where the action happens:

A few things to note on this one:

First, that border.  Using a brick pattern of some sort as the border on room cards is really growing on me, and I kinda like this one.  I think it could look nice on the table once the cards are trimmed...

Second, on the rules(!):  Dungeonstack is based on my experiments with The Stack Hack, a solo, card-based dungeon crawl modeled on The Black Hack's rules.  With apologies to anyone who might be disappointed by my abandoning TBH as a base (although really, you'll be able to play things just about as easily using David Black's excellent ruleset), I'm switching things up to make the game more generally OSR-accessible (with special nods to the simpler versions of Swords & Wizardry).

In a nutshell, when a hero moves into a new room (with possible directions indicated by the arrows on the cards), cards are turned over from the top of the Dungeonstack (deck) until a room card is revealed.  Any items turned over can be found in the room.  Any monsters are there for an encounter.  And...as I'll get to in the next couple of days...any events take place immediately.

A quick aside:  One of the main reasons I settled on "Dungeonstack: April's Quest" for my A to Z topic, rather than "Henchmen & Hirelings: The Quest of Atoz," is that among my card game ideas, this one lends itself really well to solo playtesting.  Since, for the most part (and while I'd like to develop some competitive rules), it's about solo play, after all!  I'd like to think this will help me actually produce something complete and worthwhile in the long run...!

And finally...you may notice that "darkvision" is mentioned in the rules text for the Dark Stairwell.  That's connected to the fact that a convention of Dungeonstack is that all rooms are assumed to be sufficiently lit...except in cases like this.  Overall, that seemed like a simple enough allowance to eliminate a fair amount of rules complexity and tedium in what will hopefully be a quick-playing game.

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So, there we are...a room!  I hope you'll join me tomorrow when I fit another very simple item into the 'stack...!

Dungeonstack A to Z: Crossplanar Barbarian

Today...another monster!  I'm following up on yesterday's bugbear with this guy in part to show that I'm going with that old-school RPG tradition that holds that "monsters" aren't necessarily monsters in the traditional sense.  They're just stuff to fight...!

This fellow is also signifcant in being a little nod to another gaming blog that's part of this year's A to Z Challenge...if you have any interest in the stuff I post here at Monstrous Matters, you're sure to love +Mark Craddock's Cross Planes.  I was drawn to his work by our shared interest in a certain Eternian defender (hence this entry); he's putting together an RPG hexcrawl this month, and I'm looking forward to watching it unfold...!

Dungeonstack A to Z: Bugbear Scavenger

April marches on, and so does the Dungeonstack!  Since today is #MonsterMonday, I thought it only appropriate to post something...well, monstrous.

Encounters in Dungeonstack are centered on the monsters found in each room.  Like this guy:

Just print at 2.75x3.75" and cut on dotted lines.
Collect them all!

The top of the card has Hit Dice and name, and the bottom holds all the important combat stats (shifted down from just below the picture on the hero cards).  Based on typical old-school monster presentation, I know I could get away with not having the attack bonus listed...and probably hit points, for that matter...but I liked the consistency with the hero card.

And yeah...I realize that's probably not really a bugbear in the art, but I think it looks like it could be pretty close...even with the horns.  If you're a stickler for that kind of thing...accurate portrayal of bugbears and all...well, sorry!

Dungeonstack A to Z (extra): 2 Platinum Pieces

Well, like I've been saying, I'm really excited about April this year, and that means I don't feel like letting this Sunday slip by without getting an extra card in for Dungeonstack!  So, after hitting on hero cards yesterday, today I'll introduce something much much simpler: item cards.  Sometimes, this will be stuff that can be used on the adventure.  Sometimes, it'll just be plain old treasure.  Like this:

Just print at 2.75x3.75" and cut on dotted lines.
Collect them all!

Yep.  Simple.

While I'm posting, I may as well also give a bit more detail on the form in which I'm presenting these cards.  They really are set up to be printed out at 2.75"x 3.75" and trimmed along the dotted lines (rounding the corners if you like) to come out to poker size.  They can then be slipped into card sleeves (or not, if they're printed on a thicker stock) for play.  I do plan on putting up PDFs that make printing at the proper size much easier.  Eventually, I'll be able to take this...

...and make this easily enough...

So yeah...that's the plan!

Dungeonstack A to Z: April MacMulligan

Holy crap...I can't believe April is here.  And y'know...I'm pretty stoked to see what those around me in the tabletop-gamey-and-generally-geeky blogosphere have to offer for the 2017 Blogging From A to Z Challenge...!

I haven't even had a chance to post since that fateful day last month when we revealed our topics for the year.  And so, to recap...I will be presenting one playtest card per day for a game I call...

Henchmen & Hirelings: The Quest of Atoz

Oh...wait.

Scratch that.

Henchmen & Hirelings: The Quest of Atoz

I will be presenting...something very similar...but slightly different...

Dungeonstack: April's Quest

The beauty of this change is that pretty much no one has the slightest idea what the hell I'm talking about with either of them, so it's almost like no change at all!  As the month goes on, I will share why I made the change and give a little bit of background on both ideas.

For now, though, I'll just get to the card!  This is April MacMulligan, our game's hero.  Dungeonstack, you see, is essentially to be an OSR-based dungeon crawl card game where the deck is the dungeon, and to play it, you'll need someone to do the crawling.  That's what April...and any other heroes that come along this month...will be for.  Or, y'know, just roll up your own character.  Up to you, really.

Just print at 2.75x3.75" and cut on dotted lines.
Collect them all!

(April herself is clearly a relative of a previous adventurer I've used in a similar enterprise.)

Now, what do we have on this card?  It is, as you can probably tell, a condensed character sheet.  Level, class, and name at the top.  Attack bonus, damage (that's 1d6+1, by the way), armor/defense, and hit points under the artwork.  And then ability scores at the bottom, along with the bonuses that are there.  The base system here is essentially Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox or Light; I might have even tried to keep up "official" compatibility if it weren't for that pesky descending-AC requirement.

But hey, I like sending out generic OSR love!

So, this is how Dungeonstack starts.  I can't wait to find out how it plays itself out...

Now, to see what you other cats are posting today...!