Sunday, April 19, 2020

Uncommon Dungeons Design Document



I ran across this little concept outline for game designers.  Seemed like it was mostly for video game designers planning a game.  But I was procrastinating so I wrote it up for my ongoing game project.  I guess maybe it did clarify a thing or two.


Design Document

Game Identity / Mantra: 

Overload the dice-chain for swift & surprising adventures in traditional fantasy game.  

Design Pillars:

  • Push your luck
  • Strategic resource use
  • Weird dice & minimal math
  • Random tables sublimate tedious sub-systems 

Genre/Story/Mechanics Summary:

  • Swords & Sorcery
  • Traditional dungeon delving
  • Roll high in war, low in peace

Features: 

  • Dice chain (d30, d24, d20) for roll-under mechanics (Saving Throws, Skills, Magic) 
  • War Dice for Warriors (+1d3, d4, d5 etc to hit/damage)
  • Spell Points & Dangerous Sorcery "push your luck" mechanics
  • Doom Dice for initiative, tracking time, resource expenditure, morale, encounters etc for Combat Rounds, Dungeon Turns, Wilderness Turns & Home Turns between adventures

Player Interface: 

  • Clever roleplay: interaction with the logic & spirit of the campaign world
  • Rolling dice
  • Risking more & powerful spells
  • Carousing, tithing, researching & feasting between delves
  • Drawing pictures, writing stories & other incidental play inspired art

Art Style: 

  • Classic 80’s line drawing like the Basic Red Box
  • Larry Elmore
  • Erol Otus
  • Peter Mullen  
  • Alan Lee
  • John Howe
  • Frank Frazetta
  • Ralph Bakshi

Music/Sound: 


Development Roadmap: 

Platform: PDF & Print    
Audience: My friends & maybe some grognerds
Milestone 1: Playing the Game!
Milestone 2: Printing rulebook zines at work
Milestone 3: Magic booklet
Milestone 4: Final Digest book on Lulu
Milestone 5: Commissioned art
---------------------------
Launch Day: Maybe never?

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