[Donjon] Some basic questions

[peccable]

Hi.

I've been playing in a TSOY campaign, and recently played The Prince's Kingdom with my niece, so when I found reference to an 'old skool flavored' RPG on the CRN website, I figured it'd be a good bet as I've really liked my previous experiences with Clinton's games.

I've since read the CC version of Donjon cover-to-cover, so to speak, and I have to say, I'm pretty impressed.  I like a lot of the ideas it throws out (abstraction of pretty much everything, giving control to players in the form of stating facts, etc), and I think I'd like to try playing it sometime.

I did some searching on these boards and though I did find some general answers (see my question about dice below), I'm still confused on some points:


1. Do characters have any starting weapons/armor, or must they buy everything in the starting town using their Wealth?  What happens if they fail the roll?  Are they simply out of luck on that piece of equipment?

2. What is the point of Hospitality?  The rules seem to imply that the DM's job is to get the adventure hook going and get the party out of town ASAP.  Is there any advantage (mechanics-wise) to 'staying at the inn', etc?  Or is this just color?

3. WRT minatures and combat - as I understand opposed Movement Checks, on a success, both characters move (on a failure, only the one initiating the movement moves) - but this, in turn, sets off *another* movement, yes?  Which could be opposed by anyone on the table?  Also, if the movement pulls one from "In Close" to "1 Action Away" do any characters adjacent to you get a free hit, as in a normal movement?

4. I've read mention of alternate systems of dealing with successes/failures, but can't find specifics on the board.  The huge pools of dice sound like they'd be fun at first, but a little wearying as you go along.  Are there alternate systems that don't mess up the mechanics?  I found a post where Clinton gives a rules variant of "half the dice, 1 die = 2 facts".  Has anyone tried this?  Does it work?

5. And, our of curiosity: does anyone still play Donjon?  The implication on some of the posts is that it's an 'old game' and it doesn't get a lot of attention.  Has anyone played recently?  What was your experience?  Any advice?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help out.

-d-

[The Dragon Master]

1. Players start out without any items. You buy them before the first adventure begins. If you fail the roll, then the GM can say that they get the item, but it's cursed, or some other weakness up to the amount the roll was failed by (at least, thats how I understand it to work).

2. Not sure about hospitality. But staying at the inn is just color that costs gold.

3, 4 Can't really help you here as I haven't played yet (still trying to get a game going with my sisters kids).

5. From what I've been told on the forums it is a dead system. No new games have been formed (or at least talked about) in a while, though you could probably get a game going on the forums here if you wanted to.

[Ante]

5.

You have hit upon of the weaknesses of this forum. Many very bright individuals create games like crazy and some are pure gems that evolve the way others here (and other places) think about gaming. The bad thing is everyone here is so concerned about creating stuff that many good games "die" after a while when the author jumps unto another project.

Now, no game is ever "dead" when it's still available and there are someone thinking about a game. I too have found it a bit sad, having found out about Donjon fairly recently, that it has fallen to the side. It's part of The Forge, though. :-/

[Hans]

5. And, our of curiosity: does anyone still play Donjon?  The implication on some of the posts is that it's an 'old game' and it doesn't get a lot of attention.  Has anyone played recently?  What was your experience?  Any advice?

I have played it recently (within the past 6 months), and it was a near thing between Donjon and Spirit of the Century in one of my play groups as to the next thing to start up a couple of weeks ago.  It is my pick-up game of choice, in that I know that with almost any group of people I can simply say "lets play Donjon" and we can have a good time for as little or as long as we want to play it. 

As to your other questions:

1 There is a post somewhere around here that suggests one each wpn, armor, and misc, with no more than 5 dice spread amongst them.  At least, that is the rule I have used. 

2 Hospitality is simply a mechanic to add a bit of colour to the process of rolling spending tests for provisions and equipment in town, no more, no less.  It has never come up any game I have played or ran.

3 In my own games I have allowed any character to "resist" movement.  Essentially, let anyone who wants to roll a movement test, and those who succeed against the moving character can adjust their position appropriately.  This lets the orc chasing the thief chasing the cleric move when the cleric moves and the thief chases.  I usually allow free hits in any circumstance where a character can be classified as "running away", which means that one character can take it on the chin from several others.  However, I don't allow free hits for passing by someone when moving from point a to point b. 

4 I have never had any problems with the base system, and never tired of the piles of d20s, so I can't help you here.