TSOY: dungeon crawling?

[anonymouse]

Clinton,

Since TSOY was originally designed as a heartbreaker, I was curious if you've run it through ye olde dungeon crawlin' and what it looked like in play.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

You know what? I've never run a dungeon crawl with it. I set it up to have lots of dungeon-y action, though. Maldor's cities will do it. I can also see a "cleanse the infections on the Green World" game in Khale.

And exploring the ziggurats of Qek! Man, those would be badass.

[Judd]

The glory of Keys is that a character can get experience points for any number of reasons and the player can make their key something specific, letting the GM know they want a certain type of game.

Finding old cultures, figuring out riddles or traps, being first through the door (MARCHING ORDER!), or even just finding good ole fashioned treasure.

With games that have these kinds of mechanics, the player has an in-game way to open a dialogue with the GM about what kind of game they want.

[James_Nostack]

Since TSOY was originally designed as a [fantasy] heartbreaker, I was curious if you've run it through ye olde dungeon crawlin' and what it looked like in play.

Our group is in the midst of doing that now, actually--some of the formatting is off, but this is an example: http://random.average-bear.com/TSOY/KapoorAndTheToiletOfTheGods

Dungeon crawling in SOY is pretty tricky!  Pool depletion complicates matters.  You can only replenish your pools through recreation with other NPC's, which is hard to find in a dungeon environment.  This problem is compounded for the "prestige classes" in Near, who generally must spend from their pools to power their abilities.  The end result is that you keep pushing yourself until you're utterly exhausted... in the middle of a hostile environment.  (This may sound cool in theory, but death spirals can be really frustrating in practice.)

Unless a Storyguide specifically intends to push the heroes into a grueling test of endurance, it seems like there should be a "maximum depth" of the dungeon, or the situation should permit a return to civilization every so often.