Pocket Dungeon

I did a quick experiment of a quick play portable dungeon crawl game. I haven't come up with all the rules yet. I just wanted to test the general concept.

The Heroes

I decided to run the game with 2 heroes. One can be too tough a challenge and 4 is more work to track. Two seems like a good compromise. I've had success using 2 heroes in the past.

Heroes have stats for level (starting at 1), attack bonus, defense bonus, and hit points. The attack value = level + attack bonus. The defense value = level + defense bonus.

For this test, I have two warriors named Hans and Franz. They are level 1, have a defense bonus of 1 for light armor, and have 8 and 10 hp respectively.

The Setup

I decided to set up the dungeon in a general flowchart manner. There are 6 encounter areas arranged in pyramid form.

I then choose 6 possible encounters, including a boss. The boss will go into the final area (right) while the others get assigned randomly and secretly to the other areas.

I assign a combat value and hit points to the monsters.

For this test, I used the Skeleton Cavern adventure from Micro Chapbook.

Exploring the Dungeon

Here is the process I used for exploring the dungeon.

• Select a room from the left column to enter.
• Reveal the encounter. Resolve any combat.
• After combat, I allowed the characters to attempt to heal a wound.
• Choose the next area to enter. You can only move to the next column if you roll a 4-6. This will possibly cause a little meandering.
• Continue moving through rooms until you come to the boss.

Resolving Combat

To resolve combat, follow these steps.

• Determine initiative
• When the heroes attack
• Compare their attack value to the enemy's combat value
• To hit on 4+. Add or subtract 1-2 if the enemy value is higher or lower. This is like MicroBattle.
• A hit causes damage of 2.
• When the heroes defend
• Compare their defense value to the enemy's combat value.
• Defend on 4+, modified for differences in values.
• A hit causes set damage depending on the monster.

I still have not worked out the effects of magic.

The Adventure

Hans and Franz enter the dungeon and run into a pack of rats. They kill the rats but take some damage. They fail to heal wounds. 

They find the entrance to the second level where they fight skeleton archers. Again, our heroes succeed but take wounds. Franz manages to heal some damage. 

They continue on the second level, fighting a floating skull. Another victory but more damage.

On to the third level where they encounter the boss, a necromancer. They whittle the necromancer down to half his hp, but then Hans falls. The necromancer fights on and soon Franz is clinging to life. He decides to flee!

The adventure was a failure but the concept worked well enough!