Last night we played Donjon again, set in the DarkSun setting published in the 1990s for AD&D.

One of the things we all set out to do was to play a game of Donjon that was serious in tone. So far, I think we're doing really well and we're having a good time with. The game is done at irc.magicstar.net on channel "#indie-rpgs" every Wednesday. Lurkers are more than welcome - and so are players who want to join, by the way.

Last night we saw Raven lose a pretty sure spell contest to close up an entrance to a cave, his 8 dice to my measly 1... and my single fact for him to narrate was a cave in! Despite a series of atrocicous luck for the players, everyone still didn't feel too bad after being screwed again and again.

We're still struggling with what kind of facts are ok to use after getting victories - but I think we're doping much better in handling the mechanics for the tests and how many dice to use.

I'm still working on not sliiping into the "gotta make sure event X happens" or "must force this outcome at encounter Y" routine that I've been trained to use for years and years. It's been a blast letting so much of the game be defined and shaped by the players. For instance, the Big Bad has been changed in gender and her human/humanoid underlings are now into 2 factions that are ready to murder each other. This is great!

Even though IRC is slower than face-to-face, I think we're getting into a rhythm of commuication. We havent gotten to the point were we have eliminated the need to prompt during long pauses (because people are typing).

I have noticed that were getting faster and clearer about anouncing intentions and calling for tests, and being polite about not trying to jam the console with a flurry of requests. It's like were learning to talk again without trying to outshout each other.

I'll post the session logs to the files section of IndieNetGaming later on today.

I have to say this. Donjon...effin' rocks. It's not even that I can actually make a plan, in that I can create the facts that make it happen, which rocks all by itself, but I can both plan something and openly tell that plan to the GM before its culmination, without worrying about the GM trying to use that information to sabotage the whole thing by pre-emptively changing the hidden settings on his dials. In fact, we can both watch my deviousness unfold and enjoy it...and yet, do so knowing that it still may not turn out as I envisioned! That rocks.

Second, some questions about magic words that hopefully some long-time Dunjoneer can answer. We've been playing it fairly fast and loose with the magic words. Frex, I have "Mind" as one of my words, and I've been using it to sense the presence of other minds nearby, and to listen in on other minds.

My question is, since I have this range of stuff I can do with just Mind, without using any other words, am I doing it wrong? Shouldn't I have Sense and Read as other magic words, or have to spend MORE dice to use extra words I don't have, rather than not having to spend any dice at all for my free use of one magic word?

Second, since I don't know the size of the group before I attempt to sense it, how should we handle number of dice for persons affected? At the moment, we've been counting it as a free -- one individual, because the explanation is that the spell target is me.

Also, there is no Range chart, and I've wondered about that, since my scan power is mechanically unlimited in that aspect. Has anyone made a "range" chart (possibly replacing one of the other charts)?

You don't need extra magic words unless you're making extra effects.  As I recall, this isn't spelled out in the rules but the examples suggest how it works.