Serious Donjon Reloaded

[Nicolas Crost]

Hi all.

We started playing Donjon a short while ago and after the prototypical dungeon crawl with rather low seriousness, we started with new characters and had a serious adventure! It really went surprisingly well, no crashed shuttles in the middle of the desert... The whole adventure took place in a city and we didn´t even see a dungeon the whole evening! And I was really amazed by the creative uses for looking around, speaking with people and even reading minds skills.

To make things short: I guess most people mistake Donjon for some quick and funny one-shot engine. Which it surely does very well. But I think that Donjon has a much bigger potential for good storytelling, which admittedly is a little bit difficult to find under its rather funny shell.

Anyway, great game, we will continue playing and I´ll keep you posted.

Nicolas

[Mike Holmes]

To make things short: I guess most people mistake Donjon for some quick and funny one-shot engine. Which it surely does very well. But I think that Donjon has a much bigger potential for good storytelling, which admittedly is a little bit difficult to find under its rather funny shell.

I totally agree. I'm not even sure why people can't see it's potential for serious play, other than perhaps the style that the text is written in. It totally screams out to me for serious play.

Mike

[Matt Wilson]

In a review I wrote up for Donjon, I suggest that a group might need to play one or two "silly" sessions to get over the power trip.

It's a lot like what John Harper says about Wushu. You have to rely heavily on the social contract to make the game work. You as players all have to be in agreement as to why you're playing. I like that a lot about Donjon.

I plan on running a 4-5 session Donjon series in a month or two.

[Lxndr]

All this talk makes me wish Donjon was still in print.  *sigh*

[Mike Holmes]

In a review I wrote up for Donjon, I suggest that a group might need to play one or two "silly" sessions to get over the power trip.

Yeah, for the Traditional Gamer conversion process, I suppose so. I'm starting to see Clinton's genius here. Trap em with something light-seeming, and let them experience the serious side for themselves.

Mike

[Sadric]

Hi all.

We started playing Donjon a short while ago and after the prototypical dungeon crawl with rather low seriousness, we started with new characters and had a serious adventure! It really went surprisingly well, no crashed shuttles in the middle of the desert... The whole adventure took place in a city and we didn´t even see a dungeon the whole evening!
Nicolas

Whasnt the sewers a little Dungon. Ok, only one encounter. 2 Stealth-worms.
"I know all about the sewers. The dangerous animals down there are only worms. they couldnt make a sound (so they couldnt warn our enemies when we encounter them)." Giant stealth worms!

And I was really amazed by the creative uses for looking around, speaking with people and even reading minds skills.
Nicolas

Yeah, mind reading is cool. So you could say what people are thinking, and could create many new ideas and plots, without talking with the other people.

Sadric

Hi Nico :-)