First Donjon Game

[dunlaing]

I ran a game of Donjon last night for my Wednesday night group, which is taking a break from Amber.

Amber was the Town for this adventure, although it was in dire straits (I set the game in the backstory of the last Amber campaign). The party was hired by Julian to locate a Goblin Shaman* who might know where they could find a Jewel he wanted them to find.

The PCs:
Jean, a Fop with Charm, Attack with Rapier, Skewer, Dodge in Combat, and Take Damage in Combat

Thaddeus, an Argothian Defender with Smash with Weapons, Take Lots of Damage, Search Enemies, Spot Danger to Friends, and Drink People Under the Table

Rastan, a Magic-User with Magic, Detect Magic, Read Arcane Writing, Scare Mundanes, and Fight with Staff. His words were Reverse, Damage, Fire, and Sight

Thaddeus and Jean head down to Bloody Bills to engage drunks in drinking contests. Unfortunately, Thaddeus drinks the wrong drink too fast and vomits all over his feet, embarrassing himself in front of a lady. Rastan shows up and scares the mundanes.**

Jean leads Thaddeus on a shopping trip, trying to charm vendors into selling him nice rapiers on the cheap. He proves wildly unsuccessful until he heads to the nice part of town and charms the pants off of a fine weapon seller (literally). The next morning, Jean buys a chain shirt for his buddy Thaddeus.

Rastan goes on his own shopping trip, using his ability to Detect Magic to spot good deals on a magic staff and a magic ring.

The three men head out towards Arden. Thaddeus Spots Danger to His Friends as three Ratmen attack Rastan! One of the Ratmen manages to confuse Rastan by Speaking Ratman, then another bites him, causing Rastan to lose his wits for a while. Jean proves ineffective against the Ratmen, finding himself bitten most times he tries to attack them, but Rastan and Thaddeus do a good job of pounding them, Thaddeus with his two-handed Warhammer and Rastan with a variety of spells, such as Rastan's Sheet of Flame. They manage to loot the bodies for some cash*** and a healing potion, which proves ineffective at healing Jean's wounds. Fortunately, Thaddeus thought to bring along a healing potion and used it to heal himself.

As the three men head further toward Arden, they are attacked by two Manticores that swoop down on them. A battle is joined in earnest, and actually lasts more than one flurry! Jean starts the battle out well, doing by far the most damage to the Manticores in the first flurry, but is therefore targeted by the evil Manticores and soon finds himself poisoned to the point of ineffectiveness and barely able to keep his feet. Rastan and Thaddeus, in no small part due to Jean's distraction of the Manticores, manage to defeat the Manticores.**** Rastan and Thaddeus decide that they will loot the bodies, leaving Jean nothing from this encounter save for bruises and incapacitating pain. Rastan uses a spell to locate money on one dead Manticore and Thaddeus looks for a magic item, but finds none.

Later, on the edge of Arden, they are attacked by bandits. Unfortunately, it's late and everyone goes home except Nate.

Questions/Comments:
*Jim (who played Rastan) complained about the Goblin Shaman "hey, why does he have a Race and a Class?" I said that Goblin Shaman was a race, but I am planning on having both Goblins and the Goblin Shaman. Is this kosher?
**Rastan Gathered Magical Power and then Jim wanted to put the successes from that directly into Scare Mundanes without casting a spell. He reasoned that since you could see the Magical Power in him it would help him out. I thought he shouldn't be able to do that since magic is powerful enough already. Should I have let him do it? Maybe let him do it but use a Medium difficulty instead of Easy?
***While trying to loot the bodies for cash, the PC had 0 Wealth. How do you resolve that? Do you always roll at least one die, or would every die have been a success in that case?
****Rastan cast a spell to damage the Manticores' Wherewithal. He defined it as damage, not paralysis or anything weird like that. I ruled that he had to spend one damage success on making it affect Wherewithal instead of Flesh Wounds. Is that right? Or should magic be able to damage Attributes directly if that's how the spell is defined?

Overall Impression:
Despite my not being familiar enough with the rules to resolve certain things quickly, everyone said they had a lot of fun and I think it was a success.

I don't think Magic was overpowered in this scenario, although it certainly is the most versatile ability you can take.

Kudos, Clinton, on a job well done and a game well designed.[/b]

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Man, this sounds great. I'll try to locate your questions within here and answer 'em.

Questions/Comments:
*Jim (who played Rastan) complained about the Goblin Shaman "hey, why does he have a Race and a Class?" I said that Goblin Shaman was a race, but I am planning on having both Goblins and the Goblin Shaman. Is this kosher?

It's totally kosher. The race or class thing is a homage to original D&D and can be abused for NPCs easily. I've considered adding rules for races and classes in a setting supplement I want to do - the basic rule would be that your Main Ability is defined by your class and other Abilities by race.

**Rastan Gathered Magical Power and then Jim wanted to put the successes from that directly into Scare Mundanes without casting a spell. He reasoned that since you could see the Magical Power in him it would help him out. I thought he shouldn't be able to do that since magic is powerful enough already. Should I have let him do it? Maybe let him do it but use a Medium difficulty instead of Easy?

That's a super-inventive use, and should totally be allowed. For that matter, anyone could demonstrate their skill at something (Swinging Swords, for example) and use the successes in a Scaring Mundanes ability. However, if you feel it's too powerful, you could definitely use a Medium difficulty. You even have a good explanation: while magical power is visible, to make it so visible that it's frightening requires drawing more.

***While trying to loot the bodies for cash, the PC had 0 Wealth. How do you resolve that? Do you always roll at least one die, or would every die have been a success in that case?

I meant to put a sidebar about rolling 0 dice, and didn't because I thought it wouldn't come up. It's easy to resolve, though: give the person with 0 dice 1 die and add 1 die to the opposing pool.

****Rastan cast a spell to damage the Manticores' Wherewithal. He defined it as damage, not paralysis or anything weird like that. I ruled that he had to spend one damage success on making it affect Wherewithal instead of Flesh Wounds. Is that right? Or should magic be able to damage Attributes directly if that's how the spell is defined?

Damage goes against Flesh Wounds unless a success is spent. Now - that's how it works in combat. With spells, it's a little different. Look at page 45, which basically illustrates the three types of spells. To damage someone, roll like a normal Damage Test. To affect someone physically, i.e. lower or raise their Wherewithal, Virility, or Adroitness, roll against their Wherewithal + Save vs. Poison, Paralysis, or Transmogrification.

I'm glad you guys had fun!