[Donjon] Beer & Pretzels vs Serious Campaign Gaming

[Morfedel]

Ok, I'm considering getting Donjon. It looks to me at first glance to be just a beer-n-pretzels game, but i've heard rumors that long term, serious games are possible too.

I like to run long, epic style games where there is a serious, world threatening bad guy type the PCs have to stop. Is that possible in Donjon, or is it more B*P dungeon crawling?

If the latter, thats fine... it sounds like it would be great for a change of pace, but I just needed to know.


Thanks!

[Zak Arntson]

You can do either. In fact, because the XP system, it rewards long-term play. So I'd say yes, get it and play out a long-term campaign. And, when you need a change of pace, bust it out, make some crazy characters, and have fun.

It is entirely possible to play the game straight-faced. In fact, on page 8 of the rulebook (screen version), there is a "dial" you set before the game begins, ranging from: Monty Python and the Geeks (over-the-top) to Serious. This isn't reflected in the actual system, but it's an important part of setting up your group's expectations.

[edit: changed "5th level characters" to "crazy characters". Don't know what I was thinking before.]

[aplath]

I agree with Zak. Go for it! I am preparing a "serious" campaign myself and, at least at preparation, it looks promising.

That said, if you have never played Donjon with your group, I think it might be worth to run a beer & pretzels session or two before you start your serious campaign ...

The first time I ran Donjon, no matter what happened the dial went way beyond Monty Python levels several times. The players just couldn't resist it...

But after the first session people finaly went over this first stage and we managed to do more interesting things (not that the Monty Python stuff wasn't interesting ...)

One thing that will certainly help set the tone is the choice of abilities during char gen. The right choice of magic words for magic characters will also help keeping the tone.

regards,

Andreas

[Valamir]

Andreas is right on the money.

It would require super human feats of will to not go over the top silly the first time or two playing Donjon.  But once you get that out of your system there is nothing in the system requiring silly.

There is also nothing preventing it except the social contract of the group established by agreeing to set that dial Zak mentioned.

Setting the appropriate tone in the abilities is also key as mentioned.  "Student of the Temple of Bast" says one thing "Trained in the way of the Pregnant Moose" says something else.

You may also want to change the names of the attributes back to the more traditional D&D names they're derived from as a way of establishing a different tone.

[Morfedel]

Hm.

while I'm at it, I heard a complaint that magic user types are too powerful; while the examples were amusing (the narrative discussed a character called a Cheesomancer, who was bringing down foes with Flaming Gouda spells while everyone else twiddled their thumbs), it nevertheless brings the question of balance....

[aplath]

er ... balance ? What is that ? ;-)

Well ... yes, magic is a bit too powerful.

But I think the solution is presented in the rules: you can make the gathering roll a Medium dificulty one instead of Easy. That should bring things to a more fair level.

Also, I'm not sure if I'm right, but the way I've been using the rules casting a spell requires at least two actions (gathering and casting). This means that, in combat, there is always a chance of the magic user being hit between gathering and casting and that might cause the spell to backfire.

Again, I'm not sure if this is the right way. But it sounded right when we read the rules. Clinton ?

As a side note, I'm designing a Darksun campaign for Donjon. In Darksun there are two kinds of magic: Defiler and Preserver. I'm ruling that gathering for the first is Easy and for the second is Medium (and a special case of Preserver which is Concealed Casting is Hard).

This way I hope to tempt the Preserver PC's to cast Defiler magic which have interesting in-game consequences. :-)

Before setting the dificulty to Medium, try to play it by the standard rules. Then you will find out for yourself if it is too powerful or not.

Andreas