Serious Donjon :-)

[Delta1]

Who here is running serious Donjon sessions?  How are they going?

[Clinton R. Nixon]

I'm also very interested in this. I know John Harper is thinking of running a Donjon Buffy game - which is perfect, by the way - and I'm running a serious Donjon scenario at this year's Game Storm called "A Chance in Hell." (It's even got moral themes! It's a dungeon crawling scenario to be sure, but it's got moral themes, I swear.)

Otherwise, though, most of the reports I hear are all very non-serious games of it.

[quozl]

I'm running a serious Donjon scenario at this year's Game Storm called "A Chance in Hell." (It's even got moral themes! It's a dungeon crawling scenario to be sure, but it's got moral themes, I swear.)

Since I'll probably be playing in this, any chance you could give a run-down on what it's about?

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Jon,

Sho'nuff, although I haven't written it yet.

The PCs get hired by a mad monk. A decade ago, a temple dedicated to some god of good (I'll make up a name) was digging a third layer of catacombs underneath - the temple is one above ground level, and three below - and broke a seal that opened a portal to some hell-dimension. Demons flooded into the temple, and the priests barely escaped with their lives, sealing off the temple using all their holy might to contain the demons, which can't leave.

A decade level, the demons are still stuck in there - it's a crazy temple turned into a little bit of hell - but this monk claims he's found records of a powerful artifact that was left behind in the temple, hidden even to the priests that were there. If the priests could get it again, they could drive the demons away; if the demons get it, they could turn the entire world into hell. Of course, if the PCs get it, they could enslave the demons. Basically:

Priests: save the world
Demons: destroy the world
PCs: conquer the world

So, the PCs have to make their way in, fight off demons, find the Qzit of Qzar, and then decide what to do with it.

[Bailywolf]

I ran a one-shot for a couple of friends with a gritty serious theme after spending a weekned binging on Fafard and the Grey Mouser and Noir flicks.  

Dry Times in Arindier


The Place:  Arindier, capital of the Republic.  A city state rulled by a dymanic of Old Families, Senate, Home Guard, The Curches, The Guilds (wizard, bravo, and thief), and the Trader's Council.  An anchient city, risen from its own ashes a thousand times after being burned, invaded, smote by the gods, flooded, plagued, infested, and sunken.  The city overlies a labreinthine warren of caves, tombs, tunnels, dungeons, and monster lairs.  A place where a quick sword, a subtle spell, or a clever wit can win a fortune... or cost you your life.  

The People:  Thurdin and Whitecrow.  A pair of mercenary adventurers looking to take Arindier for all its worth.  They are in for a world of trouble, and it will take all of Thurdin's barbarian might and Whitecrow's devious sorcery to keep them alive.  

The Action:  Arindier is suffering from the hotest summer in living memory.  The city is frying under the relentless sun, and tempers are wearing thin.  To make matters worse, the Aquaducts are in need of rapair, and thre wells are running dry (or worse, filling up with goblins form the undercity).  Add to this volitile coctail Arindier's senatorial elections, and you have a city ready to explode...  

How it Went Down:  They players took a page from the scripts of Fist Full of Dollars and Yojimbo- they were hired by one side in the election to disrupt the campaign of the other... and then hired out with the other side to play both sides agianst the middle.  Whitecrow used scrying magic (he had "eye" as a word) to view distant locations and describe them.  He also used "Knows this City like the back of my hand" to describe shops, streets, and places of intrest.  Thurdin has all those great sharp Barbarian Senses to describe stuff in the immediate environment, and he also has "I Know this Guy" when he needed to find a contact.  I staretd with a loose idea for the city and its layout, and the players filled in the balnks.  

I never got to finish the run (it ran over for a oneshot) but the players had a blast, and played the part of mercenary bastards to the hilt.  It was great.


Donjon can work GREAT for serious or gritty setitngs, especially if you alter the standard play structure to make it more open-ended.  

-Ben

[John Harper]

I plan to start Donjon Buffy in March. My current Buffy game is using the Eden Unisystem, which I have no problems with. In fact, I think the Buffy RPG is without a doubt the best licensed game product ever.

However, I am currenly in love with Donjon and I must, must, must use the system RIGHT NOW. My Buffy players are all new to roleplaying (they're Buffy TV show fanatics) and they are constantly itching to take over the narative in various ways (which I almost always let them get away with). They don't have a lot of preconceptions about how an RPG session should go, and where the line between GM and players falls. They're practically playing Donjon-style already, so I figure why not go all the way?

I just finished making the Donjon/Buffy character sheet and will be writing up a few rules tweaks soon. I'll start a new thread for that when the time comes.

Oh, and Bailywolf: Your game sounds AMAZING. I really want to play in that game.

[Jason L Blair]

Dude, you can't just drop an awesome bomb like "I made a Buffy sheet for Donjon!" and *not* give us a look at the sheet!

[lumpley]

No kidding!

-Vincent

[John Harper]

I'm dropping awesome bombs. I love that.

Okay, the sheet is here:
http://www.shootingiron.com/feng/btvs/btvs_donjon.zip

I used the very cool-looking Eden Buffy sheet graphics, and replaced the game info with Donjon-relevant stuff.

"Resistances" replace saving throws in Donjon Buffy, and they are sometimes different for different characters. "Special Qualities" include extras like Slayer or Occult Library. They are handled pretty much like regular Donjon abilities, but they are not actual character abilities, per se, and won't often be rolled at all.

(By the way, "Slayer" might be rolled if the inate "slayerness" of a character came into play. It's not rolled for staking vampires or feeling sorry for one's self... those would be abilities, as normal.)

"Drawbacks" give the GM dice to roll against the character in certain situations, though they can sometimes be used by the player in creative ways (Faith's "Cruel" drawback might be used as bonus dice to torture someone, for example).

"Magic Stuff" is where you write down the Names and Words for spellcasting characters, and any rituals they know. Buffy magic usually involves the invocation of magical beings or gods, so spellcasters know magic Names in addition to the magic Words system from Donjon. Most Buffy spells are one-time only. The exact same spell cannot be cast twice, unless the character learns the spell as a ritual (Willow's now-common "locator spell" is a ritual, as is Amy's ratification spell).

Um, yeah. I think everything else is self-explanatory.

[Bailywolf]

More detail please!

The sheet looks frickin amazing.  AMAZING.  

Eden's Buffy (a true top-shelf production) diferentiates 'hero' class characters from 'zeppo' characters... will you be doing likewise.

How will Drama Dice work?  Perhaps by allowing players to "bank" dice from successful rolls rather than immediatly rolling them into another roll or into effect?  Hero's get more dice to build a character with, Zeppo and supporting cast types can bank more Drama dice to save their asses in emergencies... and to boost the checks of their more heroic counterparts ( I can see Zander diving onto the demon's back, rolling his own successes over to Buffy and spending some of his banked Drama dice to giver her a few more on her damage test...).

I can see things like Occult Library being very useful, and working like Town in Donjon.  You make Research checks (and then roll the dice over into combat), but the level of the Library determins the max you can get out of it.  

How about some more details on how you are implementing buffy magic?  How do Names work in play?  Do they boost the power of the magic when used?  Add effects?  Reduce the difficulty?  Also, what do you mean by learning rituals?  How will this work?  Also, what about some of Willow's more recent tricks- the instant thickened air thing, or the more or less at will Telekinesis (bought as Abilities perhaps?).  

Love to see more.

-Ben

[John Harper]

I don't want to hijack this thread, so I'm gonna start a Donjon Buffy thread to answer these questions.

[anonymouse]

I'm currently setting up to run a Juuni Kokki game; JK's a series of Japanese novels, also serialised into a fairly lengthy anime (two batches of 14-15 episodes so far, another two batches of 14-15 planned), based on in a land that's sort of alongside Earth (people from Hourai, or Japan, occasionally wind up in the 12 Kingdoms). Based pretty solidly in Chinese mythology, themes of authority, responsibility, duty, so on. Almost a candidate for Paladin with ideas that like, but I'd have to start inventing stuff to make use of the Anima.

And.. been mucking with a moderately serious setting off and on for the past six or seven months that I'd been working towards for an OGL game. I noticed the sort of "open invitation" Mr. Nixon placed in the Bestiary, though, and think I may take him up on the offer. =)