Beta Test v. 3/30/13
Written by: Matthew J. Hanson Edited by: Michael Border
Cover Illustration: Whitney Misch
Interior Illustrations: André Castaigne, Canaletto, Edward Theodore Compton, Caspar David Friedrich, Gerard de Lairesse, Arthur Rackham, Humbert Robert, George Stubbs
www.sneakattackpress.com/abstractdungeon www.facebook.com/abstractdungeon
Abstract Dungeon Published by Sneak Attack Press, Copyright 2013. Sneak Attack Press and the Sneak Attack Press logo trademarked by Sneak Attack Press.
Contents
Introduction
3
Character Creation
6
Playing the Game
11
Game Master Guidelines
17
Treasure
24
Monsters and Other Challenges
43
Into the Forest Dark: A Sample Adventure
58
The Orcish Baker: A Sample Adventure
64
Abstract Dungeon
Since this is a beta-test document, we want to hear your feedback. Please take this short survey. We’re running a Kickstarter Campaign August 13th to September 15th!
Introduction
Welcome to Abstract Dungeon! This is a beta-test version of a new roleplaying game designed to be super fast and rules-light. Because this is the beta test version of the game, it is still evolving and your feedback is welcome. You can learn more about the playtest process at
www.sneakattackpress.com/abstractdungeon.
What Is a Roleplaying Game?
In a roleplaying game (also called RPG), you get together with a bunch of your friends and create a story together. Most of the players control one character, appropriate called a player character (or PC). Players interact with a fictional worldthrough that character’s eyes. One player, called the Game Master (GM for short) controls the rest of the world, including friends and foes of the player characters.
Most RPGs don’t have a way to “win.” You might have goals for your character, such as to gain wealth, find a missing loved one, or found a kingdom, but these are decisions you make, not a game mechanic. The main goal of an RPG is just to have fun.
Abstract Dungeon is just one of many games out there, and
all of them (including Abstract Dungeon) have their strengths and weaknesses.
So What is Abstract Dungeon’s Strengths?
Fast and Easy
Abstract Dungeon is one of the fastest playing RPGs out there, in every
respect. You can create a character or run an epic battle in just minutes, and you can run a whole adventure in just an hour or two. There are only a few general rules that you can apply to nearly every situation (spending dice), so the rules are easy to master. Once you’ve played a few sessions, you should never have to pause the game to look up how to do something.
Abstract Dungeon also makes things easy for the GM. It’s easy to
create monsters and other challenges for your PCs, so you can focus on crafting a story for them. It’s also super easy to whip things up on the fly when the PCs inevitably make choices you didn’t expect.
Flexibility and Control
In many roleplaying games, the designers try to create rules that represent different actions in the fictitious world. Abstract Dungeon instead has a basic mechanic (spending dice) and asks the players to describe what the spending of those dice means for each situation in the fictions world. Because your character’s abilities and actions represent general abstractions, you can do just about anything.
Most RPGs also have a random mechanic that determines whether your actions succeed or fail. In Abstract Dungeon, you determine if you succeed or fail by whether or not you spend your resources (your dice). If something is important, you can always succeed... until you run out of dice. With no more dice, you have no more resources, and failure is inevitable.
To play a roleplaying
game, you get
together with a bunch
of your friends and
create a story
This document uses sidebars to help convey additional
information. Large text is used to reinforce important points. Small text is for examples.
And Because It’s Good at Those It’s Also Good For...
Story and Character
Because you spend less time worrying about rules and because battles go so quickly, in Abstract Dungeon, there is more time to focus on roleplaying your characters and developing a shared story. The game also has a trait mechanic which further encourages players to roleplay their characters by giving them mechanical benefits for acting in character. The GMs’ section of the book also gives other suggests on how to entice your PCs to contribute to the story.
Beer and Pretzels
The speed and simplicity of Abstract Dungeon also makes it great for a casual style of play where people just want to get together to have fun, and nobody worries to much about the rules. (This is often called “beer and pretzel”, though neither beer nor pretzels are required .) PCs can use random character generation to make a character in minutes. The GMs can use the Random Plot-Hook Generator (page 23 to kick off an adventure and encounters are easy to build that they come up with the rest on the fly.
Wow That’s Amazing! This Game Does Everything!
Well... maybe not everything.
Like everything else there are trade-offs. While Abstract Dungeon does some things extremely well, it does not work for all play-styles. But don’t dismay, if you prefer these other play styles there are other great games out there that might be a better fit for you.
So what are Abstract Dungeon’s Weaknesses?
Grim and Gritty
It’s really hard to die in Abstract Dungeon. Really hard. In fact either the PC or the GM needs to make a conscious decision to have the PC die. Some players feel that without this risk, they don’t get as much of a payoff when they succeed at their goals. Other players feel like letting the PCs have any kind of “plot protection” breaks their sense of verisimilitude, or what they think could actually happen. If you feel this way, Abstract Dungeon might not be for you.
Speaking of Verisimilitude
Abstract Dungeon relies on the players and GMs to impose anything
resembling verisimilitude. Many games try to enforce this sense of reality with mechanics, like rules that say a two-handed sword deals more damage than a dagger. To keep Abstract Dungeons quick and simple, we don’t worry about these with codified rules, though GMs are free to make such rules if it’s important to them.
PCs in Abstract Dungeons also play by different rules than
everybody else. They are innately more powerful than the vast majority of NPCs. NPCs don’t even use the same mechanics to accomplish their
A “beer and pretzel”
game technically
requires neither beer
nor pretzels.
goals. In fact NPC’s mechanics only exist in relation to the PCs. If NPCs interact with each other, the GMs simply decides what they wants to happen based on the needs of the story. While we think this helps
Abstract Dungeon focus more on the PCs and their stories, some players
prefer a rule set that helps create an simulated world, where NPCs have mechanics to reflect their place in that world, not their place in the PC centered story..
Tactical Wargaming and Power Gaming
There is some strategy in Abstract Dungeon, mostly dealing with resource management: deciding when to spend your dice and how to spend them most efficiently. That being said, the strategy in Abstract
Dungeons does not compare to the amount of tactical decisions found
in many RPGs. While tactical combat is fun, it also takes a lot of time and requires a lot of game knowledge. Abstract Dungeon sacrifices hefty tactical rules on the altars of speed and simplicity.
Similarly many people who enjoy the tactical element also enjoy trying to create the most powerful characters they can with the options and resources they are allowed. Because we keep the rules so simple for
Abstract Dungeon, there’s not much opportunity for this. When it gets
right down to it all characters are basically the same pile of dice. It’s how you interpret the dice that matters.
Character Creation
Before you can play the game, you need to have a character. While many game offer pre-made characters for those who want to get started right away, character creation in Abstract Dungeon is so quick, we recommend you create your own.
You can use the character sheet on the final page of this document to record the result of your character creation.
Step 0: Talk to Your Group
Before you start to make your character, talk to the GM and the other players about what kind of game you all want to play. Some people enjoy off the wall character concepts, like a talking monkey who rides a giant bee. Others find these characters distracting and take away from their experience. When conflict arises between players, do your best to work them out amicably.
Additionally, if your GM has a specific type of campaign in mind, she might stipulate certain conditions for your character, like they might all have to come from the same town, be the same race, or characters cannot be wizards.
You will also want to decide if you are making your characters randomly, choosing ability, or doing a mix of the two.
Step N: Character Concept
At some point you need to create a concept for your character. This is Step N because it can happen at any time. Your character concept describes who your character is in the fictitious world of the game. It might be something as simple as “A dwarf with a big axe,” or it might be something more complex like, “The last scion of a noble line of dwarven kings. Though his kingdom fell long ago, he seeks to reclaim it from the orcish scum who have defiled his halls. He wields Grief Bringer a magical axe forged by his grandfather’s grandfather in the heart of a live volcano.”
If you are choosing your abilities and traits, you probably want to have at least a general concept in mind when you start, but if you are creating a character randomly, your concept might not come until the end. Further, your character concept will probably evolve as you play.
Step 1: Abilities
The first step in creating your character is to assign your ability dice. All characters start with the following:
One ability with four dice (this is your primary ability). One ability with three dice.
One abilities with two dice. One ability with one die.
You may assign these dice in an order you choose, or roll randomly on the random ability flowchart on page 9. If you use the flowchart begin in
Jim rolls on the ability flow chart, and ends up with four in Toughness, three in Intellect, two in Spirit, and one in Agility. Josie, Jim, Simon, and Riley get together Friday night to play some
Abstract Dungeon. They decide
they want a casual game, so anything goes.
Jim doesn’t have a character concept in mind, so he decides to roll randomly.
the middle (where it says "start here"). You will make a series of three die rolls. Follow the die roles until the bring you to the final box which gives you the values for your four abilities.
Toughness
Toughness represents your physical strength and endurance. It is the primary ability for tasks such as climbing, jumping, swimming, and breaking things.
Attacking with Toughness usually represents melee weapons, unarmed combat, or throwing heavy items. It might also represent intimidating somebody with your strength, absorbing the negative effects of alcohol, or entertaining a crowd with your feats of strength.
Attacks against Toughness represent physical threats such as weapon attacks, suffocation, or poisons.
Agility
Agility represents both your speed and your dexterity. It is the primary ability for tasks such as balancing, tumbling, dodging, as well as delicate tasks like opening locks and disarming traps.
Attacking with Agility usually represents ranged attacks and light melee weapons like daggers or rapiers. It might also represent impressing a crowd with acrobatics, or tripping somebody up with fancy footwork.
Attacks made against Agility represent things that the character must dodge away from, such as most ranged weapons, explosions, and dragon breath.
Intellect
Intellect represents how intelligent and well educated you are. It is used to locate clues, solve puzzles, harness arcane magic and recall important information.
Attacking with Intellect often represents casting magic spells. It may also represent attacks made with clever inventions, attempts to confuse foes with words, or persuade them with a well reasoned argument.
Attacks against Intellect represent psychic attacks, charms, and compulsions. They might also represent verbal assaults.
Spirit
Spirit represents your sense of empathy, your charisma, and your ability to connect to the spirit world. You will use it to sense danger, convince people with a passionate argument, or inspire your friends.
Attacking with Spirit typically represents harnessing holy magic or tapping into the power of nature. It might also represent commanding your foes to surrender through your sheer force of personality, or channeling your emotions into physical attacks.
Attacks against spirit represent things that demoralize, drain your will, or induce fear. Undead creatures like ghost and vampires frequently
The four in Toughness makes Jim think his his character is a strong warrior, maybe a half-orc.
With a one in Agility, Jim decides his character is big and slow.
Jim’s character has a three in Intellect, so he’s pretty smart. Jim decides his character uses magic to enhance his fighting skills.
The two in his character’s Spirit doesn’t inspire Jim to add any more details to his character, and that’s okay.
Step 2: Traits
At character creation, you assign your character three traits. Traits are adjectives or short phrases that describe your character. Traits should be fairly specific. “Strong” is too generic, but “good at lifting things” might be appropriate. Traits do not have any description beyond the name, you simply bring them into play when you think they might be useful.
You may either chose your traits or roll randomly. If you roll randomly consult the table on page 10. Roll three different-looking six-sided dice, and decide beforehand which die result will go in the hundreds place, the tens place, and the ones place. Alternatively you can roll on die three time, the first being the hundreds digit, then the tens, then the ones. (Either way, this is called a hundreds-tens-and-ones roll.)
We’ve organized traits into several categories so that if you or the GM wants to ensure that you have a trait in a certain category, you can pick the category and just roll a tens and ones roll. The table have also been organized so that the more “out there” traits have high numbers for their tens digit. If you are trying to run a serious campaign, you might reroll any tens digit that comes up a six.
If you chose traits, you are not limited to the ones on this list, but consult you GM when assigning other traits.
Step 3: Bonus Die
Every character begins play with one bonus die, and may gain more as they level up. At any point during play you may add the bonus die to the die pool of any abilities, traits, or magic items. Typically players save their bonus die until they have exhausted at least one die pool.
Step 4: Fleshing your character
The final step is to flesh out your character. Fill in any details about your character’s appearance or personality that are not covered by traits. You can decide what species you want your character to be and what kind of training and attacks the PC uses (does he fight with sword or spell?)
Feel free to give you character any equipment that you and the GM agree is reasonable, but in most cases this will not count as treasure and does not have a die attached to it. In order to get treasure that grants you dice, you have to go adventuring.
The Pointy Teeth trait reinforces the half-orc idea, so he goes with that, and names the character K’thax. Jim decides that K’thax is forgiving because he’s used to being misjudged. As a boy K’thax was a sheep herder before a hedge wizard recognized his potential. The wizard trained K’thax to us magic, and the boy taught himself sword play. Now K’thax roams the land in search of wrongs to right and gold to line his pocket. Oh, and he fights with a katana, because Jim thinks katanas are cool.
Jim also rolls randomly for his traits, and comes up with Forgiving, Animal Handler, and Pointy Teeth.
Start Here!
Roll a six-sided die. 4 Toughness 3 Agility 2 Intellect 1 Spirit 4 Toughness 3 Agility 2 Spirit 1 Intellect 4 Toughness 3 Spirit 2 Intellect 1 Agility 4 Toughness 3 Spirit 2 Agility 1 Intellect 4 Toughness 3 Intellect 2 Spirit 1 Agility 4 Toughness 3 Intellect 2 Agility 1 Spirit 4 Agility 3 Toughness 2 Intellect 1 Spirit 4 Agility 3 Toughness 2 Spirit 1 Intellect 4 Agility 3 Spirit 2 Intellect 1 Toughness 4 Agility 3 Spirit 2 Toughness 1 Intellect 4 Agility 3 Intellect 2 Spirit 1 Toughness 4 Agility 3 Intellect 2 Toughness 1 Spirit 4 Intellect 3 Agility 2 Toughness 1 Spirit 4 Intellect 3 Agility 2 Spirit 1 Toughness 4 Intellect 3 Spirit 2 Toughness 1 Agility 4 Intellect 3 Spirit 2 Agility 1 Toughness 4 Intellect 3 Toughness 2 Spirit 1 Agility 4 Intellect 3 Toughness 2 Agility 1 Spirit 4 Spirit 3 Agility 2 Intellect 1 Toughness 4 Spirit 3 Agility 2 Toughness 1 Intellect 4 Spirit 3 Toughness 2 Intellect 1 Agility 4 Spirit 3 Toughness 2 Agility 1 Intellect 4 Spirit 3 Intellect 2 Toughness 1 Agility 4 Spirit 3 Intellect 2 Agility 1 Toughness Your primary ability is Tough-ness. Roll 1d6 for your final stats.Your primary ability is physical. Roll 1d6 1-3 Your primary ability is mental. Roll 1d6 4-6 1 2 3 4 5 6 Your primary ability is Intel-lect. Roll 1d6 for your final stats. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Your primary ability is Agility. Roll 1d6 for your final stats. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Your primary ability is Spirit. Roll 1d6 for your final stats. 1 2 3 4 5 6 1-3 1-3 4-6 4-6
Social Traits
111 Smooth talker 112 Seductive 113 Intimidating
114 Good at reading people 115 Liar 116 Honest 121 Well connected 122 Shunned 123 Feared 124 Pariahs 125 Misunderstood 126 Unflappable 131 Trusting
132 Blends into a crowds 133 Bombastic 134 Forgiving
135 Knows how to party 136 Creepy
141 Loner 142 Honest 143 Humble 144 Condescending 145 Good with kids 146 Good at insults
151 Knows how to find people 152 Famous 153 Streetwise 154 Orator 155 Pitied 156 Forgettable 161 Negotiator
162 Knows everybody’s secrets 163 Divides and conquers 164 Looks that can kill 165 Has groupies 166 Loves everybody Mental/Emotional Traits 211 Cowardly 212 Easily offended 213 Hot-headed 214 Friendly 215 Scheming 216 Naive 221 Prudish 222 Stern 223 Fickle 224 Imaginative 224 Practical 226 Level-headed 231 Forgetful 232 Depressed 233 Over confident 234 Superstitious 235 Cautious 236 Dependable 241 Reliable 242 Well-prepared 243 Resourceful 244 Skeptical 245 Patient 246 Fearless 251 Optimistic 252 Pessimistic
253 Obsessive compulsive disorder 254 Phobia 255 Schizophrenic 256 Multiple-personality disorder 261 Unforgiving 262 Angsty 263 Compulsive liar
264 Breaks out spontaneously into song 265 Paranoid
266 Insomniac
Motives
311 On a mission from god 312 Greedy
313 Vengeful 314 Prideful
315 Defender of the weak 316 Thrill-Seeker 321 Obsessed 322 On the run 323 Cursed 324 In love 325 Inferiority complex 326 Owe a debt 331 Show off 332 Bloodthirsty
333 Want to redeem the wicked 334 Looking for conversions 335 Disgusted
336 Seeking self-perfection 341 Want to see the world 342 In lust
343 You’re a hero 344 Seeking knowledge 345 Copy cat
346 Need to regain what’s lost 351 World domination 352 You are the chosen one 353 It is your destiny 354 Terrified 355 Loyal
356 Adhering to a code 361 Making amends for past sins 362 Quest for immortality 363 Born to rule 364 They all laughed 365 Trying to win a bet 366 Why not? Physical Traits
411 Cast Iron stomach 412 Keen eyed 413 Foul mouthed 414 Fleet footed 415 Sharp eared 416 Strong armed 421 Strong scented 422 Luxurious hair
423 Always land on your feet 424 Wicked scar
425 Acute sense of smell 426 Bad breath 431 Built like a brick wall 432 Tall 433 Short 434 Sure footed 435 Soft footed 436 Captivate stare 441 Significant tattoo 442 Exotic hairstyle 443 Dirty 444 Albino 445 Double Jointed 446 Slender 451 Pointy teeth 452 Raze-sharp nails 453 Evil Eye 454 Thick Skinned 455 Fur 456 Halfbreed 461 Element infused
462 You are missing one of your body parts 463 You have an extra one of your body parts 464 Prehensile tail
465 Prehensile tongue 466 Part machine
Skills and Hobbies
511 Good with languages 512 Student of history 513 A head for business 514 Master storyteller 515 Reads a lot of maps 516 Nature lore 521 Inventor 522 Has a pet 523 Heavy drinker 524 Likes to tell long stories 525 Burns things
526 Reads the stars 531 Gambler 532 Ambidextrous 533 Collector
534 Good sense of balance 535 Weather sense 536 Talented rider 541 Eidetic memory 542 Amateur athlete 543 Stage magician 544 Cultured 545 Alchemist
546 Knowledge of foreign lands 551 Snake charmer
552 Psychic
553 Sees dead people 554 Dancer
555 Singer 556 Mime
561 Does complex math in your head 562 Sleeps with your eyes open 563 Good at finding shiny things 564 Whittler
565 World champion whistler 566 Metagame knowledge Background Traits
611 From a wealthy family 612 Of noble birth 613 Expert Smith 614 Animal Handler 615 Farmer 616 Street urchin 621 Orphaned 622 Squire
623 Ran away from home
624 Imprisoned for a crime you didn’t commit. 625 Imprisoned for you crime you did commit. 626 Cook
631 Hunter 632 Lumberjack 633 Pirate
634 Raised by another race 635 Raised by wild animals 636 Military Brat 641 Preacher’s Kid 642 Escaped Slave 643 Pit fighter 644 Artist 645 Wandering minstrel 646 Rat catcher 651 Tinker 652 Tailor 653 Soldier 654 Spy
655 Last heir to a ruined kingdom 656 From a land across the sea 661 The only one of your kind 662 Stolen by faeries
663 A formerly inanimate object given life 664 From another world
665 From another time 666 You have died
Playing the Game
Now that you’ve got a character, you are ready to play the game. There are only a few rules that you need to know to do so.
Dice Pool
The central mechanic of the Abstract Dungeon system is the dice pool. One thing that sets Abstract Dungeon apart from most games is that you don’t roll the dice your character takes action in the fictional world. Instead you roll all the dice at the start of the game or whenever you refresh (see page 14). When you start play each ability has a number of dice equal to your score in that ability. You also roll one die for each trait, and a single bonus die (after you’ve leveled up you might have more than one die per trait, or multiple bonus dice. See page 15). As you adventure you will also find permanent treasure that have dice attached to them. You also roll permanent magic item dice at the start of the adventure, but not single-use treasure like potions.
Make sure to keep them organized according the ability, trait, or treasure that granted you the die, because for most things it matters what kind of die you use. The easiest way to do this is to place your character sheet flat on a table, then put your dice on the corresponding part of the character sheet. You can also use different color dice
to represent the different abilities. If you have the dice for it, we
recommend matching the dice color to the ability ovals on the character sheet (red dice for Toughness, etc.)
Each round, every
player can spend up
to one ability die,
one trait die, and one
treasure die.
You don’t roll the dice
your character takes
action. Instead you
roll all the dice at the
start of the game.
As you go about the adventure, you will slowly deplete the number of dice you possess. There are two ways that you reduce your dice pool: spending them to accomplish goals and taking damage. When you make attacks you always spend one or more dice. You must spend the entire die and may not save some of it for later. When you take damage however, you take a value of damage. This might eliminate entire an entire die, or reduce the value of one or more dice.
Challenges
Things that require PCs to spend dice are generally known as challenges, and they come in two main varieties: conflicts and obstacles. The main difference is that in a conflict PCs are in danger if they do nothing, but against an obstacle they are not. A band of hostile goblins is a conflict, while a locked door in an obstacle.
Conflicts
Conflicts are challenges that the PCs need to overcome that include danger. Battles are the most common type of conflict in Abstract
Dungeon, but conflicts might also include negotiations, interrogations,
and environmental dangers. Conflicts involve some sort of danger to heroes, may it be physical, social, or psychological. If there is little danger, the conflict is either an obstacle or not a really a challenge at all. In the latter case simply allow the PCs to succeed. Climbing a tree is not worthy of a conflict. Climbing a tree while its on fire is. Haggling with a sword merchant for a lower price is not worthy of a conflict, but trying to negotiate the surrender of an opposing army qualifies.
Setting up a Conflict
The first thing that happens in a conflict is that the GM sets up the opposing side by rolling dice for each opponent in the fight. Weaker opponents are represented by single dice, while stronger opponents are represented by more dice (bosses are represented by lots and lots of dice).
Making Attacks
Each round the players take turns to declare what they want to do and how to spend their dice. The player character always act before their opponents. Each player can spend up to one ability die, one trait die, and one treasure die per round (a maximum of three dice). Players may spend fewer dice, and need not spend any dice if they so desire. Among the players there is not set order to who goes first, and most usually players just speak up when they have a good idea.
These dice defeat any number of enemy dice whose total is equal to or less than the PCs total dice spent. If the hero’s dice are enough to defeat the enemy’s dice, then any extra value from the dice is lost. It may not be banked or partially applied to enemies.
If the PC’s die is less than the enemy’s, then they have the option of working towards a partial defeat. In this case place the PC die next to the
K’thax, Sargos, and Bob are exploring some ruins, hoping to find treasure. Instead they stumble upon three goblins and an ogre. The goblins are each 1 die creatures, so Josie rolls three separate six-sided dice resulting 3, 4, and 2. Because the ogre is much stronger Josie rolls three dice scoring a 4, 5, and 6. This is going to be a tough ogre!
Goblins Ogre
While Jim created K’thax, Riley created a drunken dwarf warrior named Bob, and Simon made a wizard named Sargos with a fondness of cartography. Josie is the GM and will run the rest of the world.
enemy die. Other PCs can, on their turns, use their dice to work toward further defeating the challenges dice. When the total value of the PCs’ dice is equal to or greater than the enemy;s die, then remove that die from the challenge.
When all the dice of the challenge are removed, the challenge itself is also defeated. The specifics of “defeated” means depends on the nature of the challenge, and how the PC acted. In combat it often means slaying the monsters or knocking them out, but it can also mean forcing them to flee or surrender. If defeated by magic, enemies might be put to sleep, blown up, or turned to stone. In a social conflict defeating the challenge means that the PCs convinced their opponent to agree with them, forced them to back down, or negotiated an arrangement that works for everybody.
Resist and Vulnerable
Some monsters resist or are vulnerable to certain kinds of damage. If a monster resists an ability, such as Toughness, attacks made with those dice are considered to be one value lower for the purposes of defeating the monster. If it is vulnerable to a specific ability, dice made with those attacks are considered to have a value one higher. Even if attack die is used against more than one enemy, the resist and vulnerable only change the die value by one.
Taking Damage
After the player characters act, any threats they have not defeated get to act and deal damage. The challenges statistics describe the amount and type of damage (see Monsters and Other Challenges on page 43). Damage is always a value rather than a die. When you take damage subtract the value of the damage from dice in the appropriate dice pool. If you wish, you can spread this among several dice in the ability pool or take it all from a single die. So if you take two damage to Agility, you may lower of your Agility dice by two, or two dice by one. Because damage is a value, you cannot place it all on a die whose value is less than the damage value (though you can place enough on that die to reduce it to zero, in which case you discard the die).
Damage targets one of the four one or more ability scores by default. If the damage scores are listed with an “or” (Toughness or Agility) the player may chose to remove the damage from either or both abilities. If the damage is separated by an “and” (Intellect and Spirit) then both of these dice pools suffer that amount of damage.
Players may attempt to divert damage to a different ability or a different player may volunteer to have his character take the damage instead, however both these options increase the amount of damage dealt.
The first step in diverting damage is convincing the GM that it is possible by describing how you are going to do it. For example a holy knight hit by an orc’s blade might say that he’s using Spirit to cast a healing spell to cure the physical damage, and thus takes the damage from Spirit.
Bob’s player has a 5 die in Toughness which he decides to apply to defeat both the 3 and 2 value goblin. He also has a 4 in his Intimidating trait, which he’ll use to finish off the last goblin. Bob’s player describes how he cleaves the two goblins in half with a single blow, then lets out a blood curdling scream that causes the final goblin to turn and flee.
Sargos’s player decides to spend a 4 from his Intellect pool to defeat the ogre’s 4 die. He describes shooting a blast of colored lights into the ogre’s eyes, dazzling the brute. Because the ogre sill has two dice left however, the it is not defeated.
K’thax knows that he will not be able to take out the ogre this turn, so he decides to use one of his low dice. He applies a 1 that he rolled for Intellect to partially defeat the ogre’s 5 die. Later K’thax or an ally will add more dice to K’thax’s 1, so they only need a value of 4 more to defeat the ogre’s 5. K’thax casts a spell to create a gust of wind, but the wind does little more than distract the ogre.
If the GM accepts your rational, you may deduct the damage from the other die pool. Doing this, however, increases the damage you take. If you use an ability adjacent to the default ability or use a trait instead of the ability, increase that damage by one. If you use the ability across from the default ability increase the damage by two.
Taking damage for another character is also possible, but also requires you to give the GM a good explanation for what you want to do (perhaps you leap between your friend and the dragon). Doing this also increases the damage by one. Furthermore, if you choose, you may both take the damage for a friend and use a different ability, but the damage increases both for changing the ability and for changing the target. If you use Intellect to divert an attack against your friend that normally deals one damage (Toughness) you would deal four damage to your Intellect, one extra for changing the target and two extra for changing to a non adjacent ability. This might represent cast a spell to summon a magic shield to block an spider’s bite. Because you cast the spell so fast, you experience additional mental exhaustion.
Some magic items have dice pools that can be used specifically to absorb certain types of damage. Using magic items to absorb damage in the manor that they are intended does not increase the damage taken. If your GM is especially generous she might allow you to use magic items in unconventional ways to absorb damage. Again, this would increase the damage. For example the GM may allow you to use your flaming sword to prevent cold damage. If you are so lucky, the damage increases by one.
Obstacles
Obstacles are similar to conflicts, except they do not have a damage phase. In general an obstacle should offer the PCs some kind of a rewards. This might be a concrete reward like extra treasure, or a story based reward, like giving the PCs clues to solve a murder. If the PCs action does not offer any kind of reward, just let the PCs do it. For example a PCs who wants smash a treasure chest to get the gold inside is facing an obstacle, but a holy zealot who wants to smash some idols of an evil god should just go ahead and narrate it.
Because obstacles do not deal damage, you do not need to take turns as with conflicts, nor are you limited to spending a single die from each category.
Refreshes
In Abstract Dungeon, you may sometimes be able to refresh some or all of you dice pools mid adventure. These generally fall into two categories depending on who initiates them. These are either PC refreshes or GM refreshes.
PC Refreshes
When player characters initiate refreshes, you typically get rid of all dice you currently have, and re-roll all your dice pools (as though you started a new adventure). The PCs also need to justify why they are regaining
The ogre blinks, shrugs off the blindness and swings a massive club at Sargos.
The ogre normally deals 3 (Toughness or Agility) damage. Unfortunately Sargos’s player rolled poorly for both of these dice pools today, with only a value of two in his Toughness Pool, and value of three in his Agility pool. He could use his Bonus die to survive the roll, but instead K’thax (who rolled very well for his Toughness pool) takes pity on Sargos.
Jim decides that K’thax pushes Sargos out of the way, but in doing so takes the brunt of the ogre’s attack. Because K’thax is takes damage for an ally, that damage increases by 1, for a total of 4. K’thax has a 6, two 5s, and a 3 in Toughness. He could split the damage among the dice, but decide to apply it all to one of his 5 dice, reducing it to a 1.
Experience and Leveling Up
As you complete adventures your character gains experience points (XP) and levels up.
In the default method of character advancement, each adventure is worth a certain amount of XP, and when you successfully complete the adventure, you gain that amount of experience. However, each time you take a PC refresh during the adventure, the XP you receive decrease by their strength and energy. Most often PC refreshes represent spending some time to rest and heal from their wounds, though their might be other possible options.
PC refreshes often have consequences, such as decreased experience or missing time-sensitive opportunities.
GM Refreshes
When the Game Master grants the PCs a refresh, the PCs keep all dice they have not spent and gain additional dice. The GM might allow you to regain all of your dice (in which case you wind up with more dice in many pools than you initially started with), or she might allow you to only refresh some of you dice, such as gaining back three Ability dice and one Trait die.
GM refreshes are commonly used to reward the PCs or as tool to propel the story. What might seem like a generous refresh may actually signify that you are about to face a terrible battle (have some dice... you’ll need them).
Each time you take
a PC refresh during
an adventure, the XP
you receive for that
adventure decrease by
one.
one. So if the adventure is initially worth three XP, and you take one PC refresh before completing it, you instead receive two XP.
As you gain XP, you level according to the level advancement chart on page 17. (For math geeks out there you increase in level when your XP = [current level]2).
Variation: GM Fiat
This optional rules replaces the standard rules for leveling and advancement. Instead of tracking XP, the GM simply tells the PCs to periodically level up. This method saves time on book keeping, but if you use this rule also consider modifying when the PCs are allowed to initiate refreshes. Without the XP sacrifice there are no mechanical intensives for them not to refresh often.
Benefits of Leveling Up
As you level up you gain additional dice in your dice pools. Every time you level up, you add one die to one of your dice pools. A default progression is suggested on the table below, but the GM is free to alter what pools you add to at which levels.
When you add dice to traits, you may either increase the number of dice dedicated to a single trait, or add a new trait. Your primary ability is the one that started at four at level one, and all other abilities are non-primary.
Level Advancement
Level Total XP Die Pool Increased
1 0 -2 1 Trait 3 4 Primary Ability 4 9 Trait 5 16 Non-Primary Ability 6 25 Bonus 7 36 Trait 8 49 Primary Ability 9 64 Trait 10 81 Non-Primary Ability 11 100 Bonus
Game Master Guidelines
The gamer master (GM) is another player in the game, but your role is different. Instead of controlling a single character, you control everything else that happens around the characters. You can think of it being like the narrator of the story, or the director of a film. The PCs are the protagonists of the story, while you play all the extras and minor characters.
GM Jobs
As a GM, you typically have to wear several different hats, and
frequently need to do more work than the player typically does. It can sometimes seem a little overwhelming, but it here are a few of the most important guidelines to keep in mind.
Have Fun
Never forget, this is a game, and people play games to have fun. You and the rest of the players should have fun or there’s no point. All of the rest of the guidelines below (and all the rules in this book) are designed to help you have fun. We think they should help, but if any of them get in your way, feel free to disregard them.
That being said everybody has bad nights, and some game sessions are less exciting than others. However if you find that you or another player is not having fun it’s time to have a talk. Maybe you need to take the campaign in a new direction, or maybe you’d like to step down as GM and become a regular player. In extreme circumstances you might even switch to a game other than Abstract Dungeon (yes there are such things) or even another hobby.
Make The Players Describe Their Dice
Abstract Dungeon is not a game about winning, it’s a game about
creativity. The most important part is not that the PCs spend the right dice to defeat their challenge, it’s how they describe spending those dice. Sometimes players will see a die value that perfectly matches the threat they face, but they don’t know quite how the source of the die matches the challenge. (How can I use my keen sense of smell to slay this orc?) In these circumstances players may be tempted to just push out the die and move on.
Don’t let them! Players always need to describe what their
characters do, and if it’s not clear, they need to explain why the sources of the dice can help in the current conflict.
What you can do is give the player some suggestions of how they might describe their dice, or better yet, solicit ideas from the other players. Frequently somebody at the table will have a good idea of how to describe using the die a productive way, and encouraging other players to help out keeps them engaged and reminds the players that they’re a team.
As GM you also get to decide whether the player’s description is enough to justify the dice the spent. Do you let the PCs use his sense of
Never forget, this is a
game!
[The party is trying to convince the guards to let them into town with all their weapons, and Riley’s character Bob is the last to act.]
Riley: I’ll just spend my six from
Intellect to defeat the last guard.
Josie: Okay, so what does that
look like?
Riley: Umm... I use my dwarven
debating skills to convince him that they should listen to us.
Josie: Cool. So what exactly are
you saying?
Riley: [Thinks for a few seconds.]
I’ll point out that the mayor’s hired us to deal with the dragon near town. “What if the dragon lands in the middle of town. We’ll need our weapons to fight the beast. Unless ye want to fight the dragon, Do ye?
Josie: Panic flashes in his eyes.
“Well... if you’re working for the mayor. Move along then.”
smell to detect the orc sneaking up behind him, and give him a thwack when the orc is not looking? It is a little far fetched. Maybe if the PCs are in a lightness environment and the heightened sense of smell really would be useful.
In general you want err on the side of letting the PCs do their thing, but sometimes there will just be no good explanation on how that die can work. That’s okay. The PCs will still survive the fight, and the player will get another chance to spend that die.
Enforce The Tone
What explanations you accept from your PCs is on of the biggest factors on the tone of the game.
Initially you should have a conversation with the players to
determine what tone of game everybody wants to play in. Do you want a more serious game where the PCs actions need to follow real-world logic? A silly game where you try to come up with the most hilarious descriptions you can? Or a low-key game where you just let everybody do their own thing? All of these are fine choices, the important thing is that everybody knows the expectations and try to follow those.
As the GM, you are the final arbitrator of what the PCs can and cannot do, therefor you have a lot of responsibility for enforcing the tone once everybody has agreed on one. This is most important in a serious game, since silly things in a serious game are more distracting than serious things in a silly one. If you’re running a game based in reality, and a player tries to kill an opponent by convincing the foe into believing he is already dead, you should probably say no. The player might be disappointed in the short term, but in the long term it will strengthen the campaign.
If you find that you frequently have to say no to silly requests, it might be time to have another talk with your group and see if you as a group want to change the tone.
Come Up With Ideas...
When you come to the game table each play session, you want to have at least some idea of things that could happen that night. This might be a fully fleshed out adventure that you wrote or found in another source (such the sample adventure Into the Forest Dark on page 58). It also might just be a collection of notes or a few ideas for adventure hooks. In general, the newer you are to GMing the more you want to be prepared. If this is your first time playing a game of Abstract Dungeon, we strongly recommend that you play a pre-written adventure, such as Into the
Forest Dark.
You want to come to the table prepared, because players (especially beginning players) frequently act more reactively that proactively. Their character are usually assumed to be hanging out in a tavern until mysterious old man appears to offer them employment. If you have an idea for some threat to be stopped, a magic item to recover, or a dungeons that needs to be explored, that at least gives the PCs are starting point for what they should do.
If you’re starting a new campaign, you’ll also want to give the players a rough idea of what the world is like. You don’t have to have an entire atlas and history created (in fact we recommend that you don’t). You do want to have a name for the town that PCs start out in though, including a few ideas of who important NPCs might be and what some major threats and mysteries in the region are.
...But Don’t Be Afraid To Improvise...
You want to have something to bring to the table, but there’s no way that you can plan for every possibility. Nearly every session the players will ask you questions you had not thought of, attempt tactics you had not considered, or explore areas you did not think they’d go. When this happens don’t panic, just roll with it.
Fortunately Abstract Dungeon makes it extremely easy to
improvise. All challenges are represented by dice pools, and it does not matter if the PCs try to stab the kobolds to death, or convince them to abandon their guard post to get some delicious soup. Either way it comes down to the players spending their dice to defeat the challenge. Sometimes it will make sense to change the way that the challenge respond to the PCs however. Kobolds normally attack by stabbing with their spears (dealing Toughness or Agility damage), but if the PCs use the soup tactic, the Kobolds might instead insult the PCs’ cooking (damaging Intellect or Spirit).
It’s also quite easy to create challenges on the fly if your PCs end up exploring an area you had not detailed. You can quickly come up with an idea of what might be lurking out there, then make some encounters using ideas found in the Challenges on page @@, or create your own challenges using those challenges as a base.
...Or Ask the Players
Sometimes the players will hit you with a real stumper. Instead of going east (as you expected) they go west. So you throw down some ruins of an ancient tower populated with goblins, but that’s not enough. One of the players asks who built the tower. You have no idea and your Mountain Dew saturate brain cannot come up with a good response. What should you do?
Turn to the player and ask, “who do you think built the tower?” Involving the PCs in adventure and world creation can be an tremendously rewarding and entertaining part of the game. Some players shy away from it (that’s why they’d rather play PCs instead of GMing), but others are happy to jump in. There are several advantages to this. For one it takes some of the pressure off of you, and you’ll find that players often come up with interesting ideas you never considered. It also helps keep the players engaged and makes them feel a part of the campaign world. Because players know their character better than you do, they are also likely to create adventure hooks and story ideas that have a greater impact on their character than a generic adventure might.
[The adventuring party is traveling to the tower of the evil wizard Nosnah, who has been threatening the kingdom. Josie has prepared for a battle at the tower, with no obstacles along the way, but she decided to add some scenic description.]
Josie: You walk along the dried
remains of a river bed. The
canyon is pockmarked with caves. As you proceed...
Simon: Hold on guys. I think we
should check out these caves.
Jim: I don’t know, I rolled poorly
for today, so I’d like to save my dice.
Riley: Bob likes caves. Caves
have treasure. Plus Josie wouldn’t mention it if it wasn’t important. Let’s check them out.
Jim: Fine. But if we’re going in
though I want to be prepared. I look for tracks and listen at the mouth of the cave.
[Josie could just say the caves are empty, but she decides to go with it. She rolls on the random plot-hook table, and after a couple results she doesn’t like, she gets “A kobold king want to open a gate to another plane.]
Josie: Okay then. You find
some tracks that look like small humanoids, and you hear a faint echoes of what you think is high pitched chanting.
As you get comfortable with Abstract Dungeon and your gaming group, you may even want to create opportunities for the players to contribute to the story line. For example if there’s an long abandoned wizard’s tower not far outside of town, the PCs have doubtlessly heard rumors about it. Ask them to each write down a rumor of terrible danger and another rumor of great reward that can be found in the wizard’s tower. You can then use these rumors to help shape the adventure, and of course, like all rumors they may not all be entirely true.
Creating Your Game
Preparing to GM Abstract Dungeon means a number of different thing, from coming up with a few specific events to creating a world of warring nations and petty gods. Abstract Dungeon breaks down some of the decisions you make into categories of different “sizes.” You can think of these as different units of measurements, like inches, centimeters, miles, or kilometers. From largest to smallest these are the campaign, adventure, and encounter. While we describe them in order from largest to smallest, when you are preparing your game, you don’t really create them in any order. Indeed creating an encounter is part of creating an adventure, which in turn is creating part of a campaign, so in most cases you are doing all three at the same time.
Campaign Building
The campaign is the largest unit of game planning that you’ll deal with. A campaign is an ongoing narrative that last for many gaming sessions. You can think of it as a television series or an ongoing series of books.
Typically a campaign features a set group of PCs and a world that remains constant from game session to game session. Sometimes campaign have overarching plots and recurring villains that tie the various adventures together. Other campaigns are just tied together by the characters and players who run them, and like many television programs the campaign resets to the status quo at the end of each week.
Setting Building
Creating your campaign often includes information about the world the PCs live in, like the town they are based in, the kingdom they live in, and the powerful enemies they might face. Don’t feel like you need to create all of this information up front. Start small, and add to the setting as the story demands. Also feel free to enlist your players in this process, especially when related to their PCs. If one of the PCs comes from a distant land, ask them to describe it. If a PCs was trained in a special war academy, ask the hero where it is, and what it taught.
Adventure Building
Adventures are the middle length unit of story in Abstract Dungeon. It is equivalent to and episode of TV, or a single book in a series. In an adventure there is a beginning, middle, and end. In most adventures the
[The party has defeated the kobolds and stop their plans to open a portal. Now they examine the aftermath.]
Riley: I'd like to examine the
remains of the ritual to see if I can find where it was going to go.
Josie: Okay, sounds like you're
using Intellect, you can do that with a [rolls on die] three.
Riley: {Spends a die.] Yeah,
I remember reading about something similar.
Josie: Yes you do. What do you
remember?
Riley: From the arcane runes I
can tell that the portal would have opened to the afterlife, allowing spirits of the dead to return.
Jim: Wait, wasn't there something
about Nosnah going crazy after the death of his wife? Maybe he was using kobolds to open the portal so he could bring her back.
Simon: But why would he use
kobolds instead of doing it himself?
Josie: It occurs to Sargos that
opening such a portal can be extremely dangerious, and you might want to test it on somebody expendible.
[Going into this Josie was not planning for Nosnah to try to bring back his wife, but now that her player's though of it, it's too good of an idea to pass up.]
PCs learn about a problem at the beginning of the adventure. Then they work to solves this problem, and uncover more information about the problem. At the end of the adventure they solve this problem.
Because Abstract Dungeon is such a quick game, you can complete most adventures in a single game session lasting between two to four hours, though some adventures make take two or more sessions.
Experience
When you craft an adventure to try to think about how many dice of opposition the PCs are likely to encounter. The amount of opposition determines how much XP the adventure should be worth.
In general an adventure is worth a number of XP equal to the number of dice people are likely to face, divided by six, and then divided again by the number of PCs. (So a group of four PCs who face defeat 48 dice worth of challenges would receive 2 XP each) If you have developed the adventure before hand, you can let the PCs know how much
potential XP the heroes gain. Then if the players decide to take a refresh, the potential XP decreases by one.
If you make up the adventure as you go along, you can instead count the number of dice as the PCs defeat them. Then grant them one XP per six dice per PC.
Treasure
As you create your adventure, you should also think about what kind of treasure the PCs might find during the adventure. This treasure could take any form, from gold to magic swords, to a lifetime supply of pies (see the Treasure Chapter on page @@ for more).
In a default campaign PCs should have a number of permanent treasure dice roughly equal to their level. Keep track of this, and when you see some PCs falling behind on the treasure track, try to customize the treasure to be something that appeals to those characters.
Encounter Building
The encounter is the shortest story unit in the game Abstract Dungeon. It is the equivalent of a scene in a book or movie. In it, the PCs typically encounter a single challenge, or possibly a few linked challenges. When you create an encounter you are focused on the immediate level, thinking about what the PCs will do in a very short amount of time.
Encounter Difficulty
PCs are likely to overcome nearly any encounter because the odds are so heavily weighted in their favor, but some encounters take more effort than others.
Easy: Easy encounters have fewer dice than there are PCs. They are
just about always resolved in one round, and frequently do not require all the members of the party to participate. You should include a few easy encounters in an adventure for small problems that the PCs can easily overcome.
PCs should have a
number of permanent
treasure dice roughly
equal to their level.
Standard: A standard encounters has more dice than there are
PCs, up to double the number of PCs. If the PCs want to overcome the challenge in one round, they must all participate, and must either spend some of their higher-value dice, or spend dice from multiple sources. Standard encounters often last more than a single round and thus have a chance to damage the PCs, but they seldom last a a third round. Most encounters in your game should be standard encounters.
Difficult: Difficult encounters have dice equal to more than double
the number of PCs. PCs are unlikely to defeat the challenge in one round, even if they spend multiple dice. The final encounter of an adventure is typically a difficult encounter, and longer adventures might have a few more difficult encounters along the way.
Challenge-Free Encounters
Not every encounter needs to contain a challenge. This frequently occurs in social encounters, where the PCs just want to talk with some NPCs, or maybe have a drink in the pub. These challenge-free encounters are an important part of the game an add a lot flavor.
Not every encounter
needs to contain a
challenge.
Random Plot Hook Generator
A... Wants...
11 Goblin king 11 To loot
12 Kobold chief 12 To steal
13 Orcish hoard 13 To pillage
14 Hobgoblin war leader 14 To conquer
15 Gnoll pack leader 15 To devour
16 Lizardfolk king 16 The bones of a fallen comrade
21 Necromancer 21 To raise an army of undead
22 Enchanter 22 To enslave the masses
23 Illusionist 23 To pit enemies against each other.
24 Transmuter 24 The philosopher’s stone
25 Diviner 25 To change the future
26 War wizard 26 The greatest war on earth
31 Councilor to the King 31 To assassinate the King
32 Escaped prisoner 32 Revenge
33 Fallen knight 33 Redemption
34 Traveling bard 34 A powerful secret
35 Forgotten princess 35 Attention
36 Misguided zealot 36 To make everybody understand
41 Cult 41 Release an unspeakable terror
42 Thieves’ guild 42 To control the streets
43 Merchants’ guild 43 To control the economy
44 Secret society 44 To control the government
45 Adventuring party 45 What the PCs have
45 Druid’s circle 46 To reclaim the wild
51 Dragon 51 A horde of treasure
52 Demon 52 To corrupt the pious
53 Angel 53 To cleanse the impure
54 Troll 54 Dinner
55 Giant 55 A powerful magic item
56 Golem 56 To live
61 Vampire 61 Blood
62 Lich 62 Immortality
63 Ghost 63 Closure
64 Werewolf 64 A cure
65 Sphinx 65 To solve the ultimate riddle.
66 An elemental 66 To open a gate to another plane.
Random Plot Hook Generator
You can use the random plot hook generator to spark ideas whenever you need them. You might use it whenever the players throw you a curve ball, or when you just want to come up with some potential plot hooks that the heroes might investigate.
To use the random plot hook generator, just make two tens and ones rolls. The first tells you who the primary antagonist is, and the second tells what that antagonist wants.
Treasure
Treasure is a major tool that you can use to reward your players. Treasure typically comes in the form of money, magic items, or wealth. A die worth of gold represents a large some of money that the PCs can spend to acquire expensive items. Magic items are enchanted items like flaming swords and boots that let the PCs fly. Wealth represents non-magical property that still give the PCs power and influence, such as a tavern or the rights to a silver mine.
Treasure is also separated into permanent treasure and single-use treasure. As the names imply, PCs can only use single-use treasure once, but they keep permanent treasure until they are otherwise parted from it.
Treasure has dice just like abilities and traits do, and PCs can spend these dice to overcome challenges when it seems reasonable the
treasure would be useful. In most cases PCs roll their dice for permanent treasure at the start of their adventure, but don’t roll for single-use treasure until they actually use it.
Money
Money represents whatever currency is present where the PCs live, most commonly coins of gold, silver, and copper. In more unusual settings it might also represent paper notes, coca beans, or living souls. Money can also represent valuable goods that are easy to find buyers for, such as precious gems.
Money is by default a single-use item (though the GM’s section contains ideas for making it a permanent item). PCs can use it directly, such as by bribing a corrupt official, or they can use it to buy other treasure.
By default, PCs can only use money to buy wealth, not magic items (though as always the GM can adjust this). To purchase single-use treasures, the PC just removes the money die and gains a die for that item. To purchase permanent wealth, the PCs must spend an amount of money equal to five times the value (in dice) of the item purchased. PCs can also upgrade their items by spending five dice worth of money for each die added to the permanent treasure. See the chart below for details.
Treasure
Dice Cost New Cost to Upgrade from...
1 2 3 4 1 5 - - - -2 10 5 - - -3 15 10 5 - -4 20 15 10 5 -5 25 20 15 10 5
As the names imply,
PCs can only use
single-use treasure
once.
Random Treasure
You can easily generate a random treasure by rolling on the tables below. For completely random treasure, start with the treasure dice table, then move on to the kind of treasure table, and proceed from their. You begin on another table if you already know some of the details (if you know you have want to give out a two dice weapon, just roll on the weapon table).
The top of each table tells how many dice you should roll using the d6 notation. For random treasure tables add dice together.
Treasure Dice Table (2d6)
Roll Treasure Dice
2 5 3 4 4 3 5 2 6 1 7 1 8 1 9 2 10 3 11 4 12 5 General Treasure Table (1d6) 1-4 Single-use treasure 5-6 Permanent treasure Single-Use Treasure Table (1d6) 1-3 Gold 4-6 Potions Permanent Treasure Table (1d6) 1 Weapon 2 Armor 3 Ring
4 Rods, staffs, wands
5 Miscellaneous items 6 Wealth Random Potion Table (2d6) 2 Flying 3 Love 4 Invisibility 5 Shrinking 6 Mana 7 Healing 8 Dragon Breath 9 Growth 10 Fire Resistance 11 Shape Stealing 12 Heroism Magic Weapon Table (2d6) 2 Holy Avenger 3 Talking 4 Phasing 5 Dancing 6 Winter 7 Flame Tongue 8 Slaying 9 Seeking 10 Disrupting 11 Venomous 12 Vorpal
Magic Armor Table (2d6)
2 Breastplate of the Silver Host 3 Snake Skin Suit
4 Interposing Shield 5 Shadowed 6 Dwarven Plate 7 Elven Chain 8 Glamored 9 Throwing Shield 10 Bone 11 Dragon Shield
12 Mail of the Burning Legion
Magic Ring Table (2d6) 2 Spell Turning 3 Regeneration 4 Mind Shielding 5 Elemental Command 6 Animal Friendship
7 Ring of Feather Fall
8 The Ram 9 Invisibility 10 Shielding 11 Wizardry 12 Three Wishes Rod, Staffs, and Wands Table (2d6) 2 Death Stick
3 Rod of Lordly Might
4 Fairy Wand 5 Staff of Healing 6 Icicle Wand 7 Immovable Rod 8 Staff of Fire 9 Staff of Snakes 10 Transmuter’s Staff 11 Wand of Wonder 12 Staff of the Arch Magi
Miscellaneous Magic Items Table (3d6)
3 Crystal ball
4 Glasses of x-ray vision
5 Necklace of vermin
friendship
6 Figurine of wondrous power
7 Portable hole
8 Chain of binding
9 Elven cloak
10 Boots of water Walking 11 Boots of jumping 12 Hat of disguise 13 Rope of climbing 14 Spoon of sustenance 15 Ever-full stein
16 Coin of good luck 17 Flying carpet 18 Helm of telepathy Wealth Table (2d6) 2 Mine* 3 Crafting Shop* 4 Library 5 Boat 6 Art Object 7 Bling 8 Fancy Clothes 9 Mount 10 Hirelings* 11 Tavern* 12 Castle*
*These items are unlikely to be part of an actual treasure hoard. The result might represent a deed or contract, or you can simply reroll.
Jim: So what do we find in the
kobold hoard?
Josie: [Rolls some dice.] Looks like
there’ s a suit of dwarven plate armor.
Riley: Dibs!
Jim: I don’t know. K’thax could
use some magic armor.
Riley: But I’m a dwarf, and it’s
dwarven armor.
Riley: Fine, but I get the next cool
treasure.
Josie: Bob notices some dwarven
writing and a family crest on the armor. What does it say and whose crest is it?
Riley: [Thinks for a minute.] It’s
the crest of the Ironguard clan. The entire clan was destroyed by... something?
Simon: Demon invasion.
Riley: Yeah, that’s the ticket. And
the righting says it once belonged to the hero Bosrack Ironguard. Hey I found the armor of a hero!
Riley: Any other treasure? Josie: Let me see. [Rolls some
dice.] Looks like you also found an ever-full stein.
Sample Treasure
The treasures described in the following section are examples of treasure that player characters might find in your campaign. These are not the only treasures they might find, so please come up with your own ideas for new items to discover.
Weapons
Weapons are items that can be used to physically harm somebody, such as axes, swords, or nunchucks.
Dancing
Weapon
At your command this weapon can animate and fight against your foes.
Disrupting
Weapon
These weapons are particularly effective against undead, by disrupting the necrotic energies that fuel the creature’s unlife. A single blow from a disrupting weapon can reduce an undead creature to dust. Disrupting weapons are frequently bludgeoning weapons like maces and hammers.
Special: When used against undead, treat any dice from the weapons as though they had a face value of six.
Flame Tongue
Weapon
Upon command this weapon bursts into flame. It sheds light as torch, and burns anything the blade touches.
Holy Avenger
Weapon
These weapons appear to be fairly ordinary in the hands of most characters, but in the hands of the most pious warriors, they explode with radiant power. If you are such a warrior, can use the holy avenger to create a divine barrier to protect you and your allies from harm, in addition to using the weapon to attack.
Special: Most characters cannot use more than 1 die from a holy avenger. Holy warriors who can unlock its full potential can use all of its dice. If you are such a character, when you use the weapon against demons, devils, or undead, treat the value of any dice spent as one higher than face value.
Talking
Weapon
When drawn from its scabbard, this weapon immediately begins speaking. Each different weapon has its own personality and you may wish to roll on the Traits Table on page @@ to determine just how the weapon acts. Talking weapons grant their bonus dice either because they give you advice, or because they hurt your foes.
Phasing
Weapon
This weapon is typically a missile weapon such as a bow or crossbow. Projectiles fired from this weapon pass through solid obstacle until it strikes a living target.
Venomous Weapon
This weapon secretes a poison that is passed into the bloodstream of any creature it hits. Though many such poisons are deadly some merely paralyze their victims, or render them unconscious.
Seeking
Weapon
Seeking weapons are ranged weapons. When the weapon is thrown it homes in on its target, changing its path to go around corners, or follow escaping foes. The ammunition from bows and crossbows similarly follow their targets.
Special: This must be a ranged or thrown weapon
Slaying
Weapon
This weapon is designed to slay a particular kind of creature, chosen at the moment of its creation. They are often carved with runes to state their purpose, and glow whenever their designated foe is near.
Special: When used against creatures that the weapon is keyed against, treat the value of any dice spent as though it were one greater than face value.
When you discover a slaying weapon, make a tens and one roll to determine what kind of creature it is keyed against.
Slaying Weapon
11 Angel 31 Ghost 51 Ooze
12 Beast 32 Giant 52 Ogre
13 Bird 33 Gnome 53 Orc
14 Cleric 34 Goblin 54 Plant
15 Construct 35 Halfling 55 Rabbit
16 Demon 36 Hobgoblin 56 Reptile
21 Dinosaur 41 Human 61 Skeleton
22 Dragon 42 Insect 62 Spider
23 Dwarf 43 Kobold 63 Troll
24 Elf 44 Lizardfolk 64 Vampire
25 Elemental 45 Lycanthrope 65 Wizard
