Guild of Dungeoneering

This is a guild of dungeoneering.. Says the song when the game begins. You're a guildmaster who will guide adventurers in to the dungeons.. what are partly build by you! It is as simple as it sounds but game is great to play when you do not want thick plots and great roleplay.

The story begins.

The first dungeon is waiting.

The guild is small in the beginning.

At first there is simple guildhouse where remains only few rooms. You begin with a basic adventurer who goes to explore dungeons. In the dungeons you're playing a dungeonmaster who adds the new rooms, monsters and treasures.  A good hint is to remember that adveturer always runs towards treasures if he has chance to do so. On every round you have five cards  and you can play up to three cards from those. Dungeoncards can be monsters to defeat, treasures or new rooms what to explore. If you defeat monsters you will gain new equipment what will help you further. Depending on a dungeon you will have special quest what has to be done before dungeon is finished. So always it isn't best option trying to build a large dungeon.

The adventurer has finished the dungeon and gains some profit.

Oops.. The poor little soul died.

The treasure will tempt the adventurer but one can always add a monster to protect the gem.

But as you can notice dungeons are dangerous place and always it isn't good for the adventurers health. So most likely the graveyard will be very massive in the guild. At least I was good to fill that place with my heros and heroines. When you explore the dungeons you gain money and with money you can buy new places into your guildhouse and also pick new eager adventurers who has special abilities to use. That also helps to survive from the dungeons. Also if your adveturer remains alive, he/she will gain some battlescars what  might benefit or give disadvantage for further adventures. The battlescars are the only thing what will follow to further adventures. All the treasure and gears what the adventurer finds from a dungeon will be sold after the adventure. So the adventurer begins with empty hands when heads into new dungeon.

Time to build dungeon with card and defeat medusa.

First dungeons are finished and new adventures awaits.

The guildhouse becomes larger when you buy new rooms.

Idea of the game is simple but it works. One aventure do not take much time so it also fits for a game when you do have that 30 minutes time to play. Especially when you have been working whole day and simply want to relax with a fun game, this can be the thing. Even I admit that sometimes it begins to take time when you keep dying and want to pass a dungeon. Then 30 minutes might not be enough but that's just me. But if you prefer light game what definetely is good old dungeon crawling, this is game to try.

Ropecon 2016

Ropecon is the largest non-commercial role-playing convention in Europe and it was held this weekend in Messukeskus, Helsinki. I took part to Ropecon once again and weekend was full of fun. There were several possibilities to play role-playing games and try various systems. This year participating to pen and paper role-playing games was way more uncertain since you were not able to sign up beforehand. Still I got lucky and was able to take part into four different games during weekend. Some of the systems were so interesting that I will tell a little about them and maybe write even more after I have tried my own role-playing games using those systems.

When one game usually lasts 3-4 hours in Ropecon, it is wise usually use some simple system. I tried game which used rules from Cyberpunk and at times it felt a bit heavy. There are so many lists and rolls than often it was only rollen all the time for being able to do something. And when the playing groupd was big (seven players + GM) you can imagine how long rolling took time. So from experience I always give a big hand simpler systems without endless rolling and giving room for storytelling.

But one of the best systems I tried this weekend was definetely Dread. It is simple role-playing system where players plays Jenga instead of rolling dices. If the tower falls, tha player will be deleted from a game. So it is a perfect way to bring some excitments to one-shots. Or you can deny to play Jenga when GM demands that and only accept that you will fail on that what you were trying to do. Sounds simple it worked well. And there wasn't either any character sheets with huge amount of numbers. There were questions what we answered from our characters and made the roles that way. Once again it sounded simple, but worked perfectly. I am so fascinated about this Dread that I will study more about it and keep at least one game using it. My plan is to write more how it worked then as a GM. 

But Ropecon was  totally worth of visiting and planning to go there next year again. If you want to read more about it, here is direct link what will tell more in English: https://2016.ropecon.fi/en/frontpage-ropecon-2016/. If you're any kind of gamer, this is a good convention to visit then!