"HAWKS Dungeon Crawl at Fall-In" Topic

I got a chance to wander through the HAWKS room and watch a bit of Noah Guilbault's Dungeon Crawl (mod) game.

It looked great -- Quite well set up, running smoothly and quickly, everybody having fun!

Is Noah online here? Or does anybody know which particular set of Dungeon Crawl rules he modified? A quick look over on BGG shows several games by that title.

Each player controlled a party of 5 adventurers (Fighter, Mage, Cleric, Thief, Archer), and the player beside them controlled any monsters fighting that party.

Being in the middle of painting up bunches of Super Dungeon Explore figures, and having just bought buckets more chibi dungeon types through the Impact Miniatures kickstarter, I'm definitely on the prowl for a good large multi-player convention game to run. (SDE is fun for a few players, but bogs down in larger games).

Here's some pix from the Fall-In game:

The dungeon/caverns. Looks like 2' x 2' modules set up in a 6' x 8' configuration or so. White skulls in each chamber are monster blips; monster card drawn and revealed when a party gets line of sight to a skull.

Party control board. Each stat is rated at D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, then +'s onto D12. A magic item can upgrade specific stats to the next level. Very simple mechanic and very D&D feel ^,^

Laminated item cards can be marked who they are given to, as well as changing the stats on the party's white board.

Doesn't seem very historical. I think they should be forbidden from ever running a game.

I KID! Looks fantastic! I love me a dungeon crawl.

I too would like to know what rules

Hi all,

I painted up some of the figures for the Dungeon Crawl and helped Noah out a bit during the running of it. From what I recall, the rules were a streamlined version of the "Dungeon Crawl" rules. I'll let him know you all are interested in getting copies of his files.

-Greg

Thank you Greg, that would be most appreciated! And also, which "Dungeon Crawl" rules are involved? There appear to be several with that title…

miniMo,

I'll shoot Noah an email tomorrow and ask for a clarification on that. I can probably get him here on the board in person too once he hears about your interest in the game.

Stay tuned! :)

-Greg

Please do! I'd also like to hear more!

I just ordered a copy of Savage Worlds for research on doing this sort of thing. Looks somewhat similar in approach.

It is a good looking game. The character sheet with stats going up by die type seems like something I've seen before, but I can't think of a specific game.

As a bonus, Noah's game won best kid game for the period. I was one of the judges and though it was not historical, the game looked great, had the players (mostly kids) really engaged as was well managed by the GM. Congratulations to Noah and the Hawks team. Oh and I loved the old school D&D statue in the center from Architects of War. It brought back memories of the old manuals and part of my wasted youth.

That was so an historical game!

Classic D&D is quite historical.
I remember playing that all through the final quarter of the preevious century ~,~

Noah here.

Glad you liked the game! It was a lot of fun to put together (literally and figuratively) and I was thrilled that everyone liked it. The whole concept originated around the statue -- I too have spent many years with the 1st edition Players Hand Book. This was my first attempt at a con game and I was completely surprised about the award -- even this thread is a bit surreal.

The rule set I used was a very slimmed down and streamlined version of a rule set called Dungeon Crawl by Steven Daggs.

link

The rules were reasonable(ish) but played way too slow. Modifications were focused on simplification and game speed with a "less is more / KISS" approach. This effectively distilled the original 50+ pages to about 5. I've also had the pleasure of playing in some fantastic gaming groups and with some great DMs. I've tried to pickup some of their habits. Mostly this means I'm not overly afraid to play it fast and loose at times -- sometimes this means making it up as I go.

Mostly I tried to make sure I had all the basic mechanics and building blocks in place (monsters, traps, treasure) and adjusted the gameplay as we went. Sometimes this meant taking more of an active "Dungeon Master" role in the game. I'm in the process of assembling the important bits together and will provide them to anyone who is interested.

THe link to the rules on Board Game Geek appears to be dead.

Hi Noah,

Welcome to TMP, and the wonderful world of running con games!

Sadly the pdf link through BGG is dead, and google-fu not turning up other links.

Yes, I'm quite interested in whatever bits you put together, please!

The basic dice mechanics of skill ratings = D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, and then D12+x's sounds straight out of Savage Worlds. My copy of that just shipped from Amazon today:
link

The idol is a brilliant piece and I hadn't come across it before, I may have to get one of those. Putting that on the shopping list for Cold Wars. Even though it is from that new fangled AD&D cover art ^,^

Cheers,
Mo

Just found more pictures of the game:

This one isn't from Fall-In, but has the best view of the demon statue:

A view of the full table pre-game at Fall-In:

The "cast":

A better shot of the fieldstone areas (from a playtest, not Fall-in):

Zombie swarm!!

Beholder on the loose:

Enjoy!

-Greg

Thanks for posting all the pictures Greg!

I do have the rules from BGG but am trying to contact the author before providing them to anyone.

I'm not really familiar with the Savage Worlds but I'm pretty familiar with the mechanic -- I briefly toyed with converting the odds to pure d6 but liked the D&D feel of all the different dice.

New fangled eh? I hear you -- It's no chainmail but all the kids are playing it these days.

Here is a link to the demon idol -- it is by Otherworld Miniatures.
link

While looking up the previous link I found this (and subsequently purchased it) --
link

Someone over on the Impact Miniatures forum fired up the Wayback Machine and found them:
PDF link

Noah can u tell us how u made the terrain? Looks most impressive.
John

@ARMY Strong, the outer caverns look like pink foam cut with a hot wire -- I've made canyons of Tatooine for podracing that look quite similar.

@Noah, have you had a chance to begin assembling the important bits by any chance?

I've been enjoying reading through Savage Worlds, and definitely want to adapt a more streamlined version, but keeping more flair for distinguishing different player characters. Next step will be comparing these rules to the Dungeon Crawl ones.

It will be some time before I'm ready to start running large games though. Many chibi figures to paint, and dungeons to build!

Got to read through Dungeon Crawl tonight. Nicely written and breezy, so the 50 page length is deceptive. The writing style definitely helps convey the gaming style quite well and is much more readable than many a shorter rulebook!

It's not a direct compression of Savage Worlds. But the shared escalating dice size mechanic will make it easy to cross-fertilise the two.

So miniMo, which way are you leaning, SW or Dungeon Crawl? Or a mashup of the 2 systems together?

Just wondering, Xin

Either SW or mash-up. With the great wealth of chibi adventurers present and in the works, I want a lot more individual flavour for the heroes than is present in Dungeon Crawl. SW definitely provides that without much complexity. It will still take some digesting and comparing to see if SW will play fast enough straight up, or if Dungeon Crawl has any greater simplicities that might be worth mashing in.

This is on slow simmer. I'm also starting design work on dungeon building. The last few weeks have seen a steady stream of 50% coupons for the craft stores, so I've been steadily stocking up on a pile of artist's cradle boards from Michaels (A.C.Moore doesn't have these, so that's been slowing the acquisitions process since I can't hit up both stores). These provide lovely frames for dungeon modules. I've got a stack of 2" deep ones, 12" x 12" and 8" x 10"; and a big 20" x 16" x 1" for a central chamber.

Working on conceptualising modularosity and where I want to cut door holes in the sidewalls of various cradle boards.

And also still working on painted the figures from a couple of sets of Super Dungeon Explore. The Roxor expansion is on it's way soon too. And sometime next year I'll be getting a couple of buckets of chibis from the Impact Kickstarter. Hope to be caught up on the SDE painting before the Impact ones arrive!

MiniMo when you start your project take some shots would like to your progress.

Will do. Just got back from A.C. Moore right now -- I did find a very similar product in their wood section, not over in fine arts. So I'm pretty well stocked on supplies now. Next step, finalising the patterns of where I want to cut door ways into the side walls.

Coming right up -- a cup of tea and some sheets of graph paper to cut up. This is just going to be quicker and easier to plan the old fashioned way with scale pieces of graph paper to arrange and re-arrange. Much quicker to manipulate than fiddling with computer images.

MiniMo, The wayback isn't working anymore for Dungeon Crawl.

Anyone else have a site for this?

I get the 'Bummer' message now too, but if you click on the "Would you like to try the previous date?" link, the rules come up.

Thank you.
-Patrick

Here is a link to the Dungeon Crawl. I've gathered everything up and will post it at the same link once I get back home (TDY right now). The password is coldwars2012

truck.it/p/GUD2mypCu4

As noted I made the caverns with 2" pink foam board and a hot wire cutter. I used 1/4 inch MDF as a base 24" square with two 3" entrances on each side spaced 6" from the sides and each other.

I covered the foam with drywall plaster and used Elmer's glue and sand to provide some texture -- baseboards for the caverns. I painted it with the hirstarts technique -- with some minor adjustments to taste.

The dungeon sections used hirstarts fieldstone molds and the same 1/4 MDF base. Painting was using the hirstarts grey painting scheme.

Thanks for info great work will give it a go myself.

Thanks Noah! I just went poking at the Dump Truck site and saw all the files have been recently added. (For anyone else who wants to download these, I don't think Dump Truck has any option for a mass download, you have to do each file one at a time -- I popped in a movie I'd seen before and clicked away)

Will you be running this at Cold Wars by any chance?

Noah or any other experience foam cutter. To get the 2" high cavern walls you need to glue 2 pink foam boards together I can't find anybody local that sells 2" only 1" or less. So is it better to glue first then cut or cut first them try and match the second cut and then glue. I wasn't sure if a foam cutter could go through glue?
Thanks John

miniMo,

Noah won't be at Cold Wars, but I will be running one session of the game and another HAWK will do a second game with it.

-Greg

That's good too know. I should be able to slip away from the DBA ghetto to go play in one of those!

--Mo

Noah any chance of getting a copy of these item cards you used it's a lot of work strying to dig something like this up clip art and all. Thanks

Unfortunately I won't be able to join the game, or Cold Wars, this year, too many big budget hits this past month. And too much job uncertainity in the family with the sequestration shenanigans.

Cold wars game looked like a lot of fun. Von G you said you could add the character sheets to Dump Truck? Any chance?

Gregory,
Checking to see if you can get the character sheets added to Dump Truck would be a great help in advancing my project and why re-invent the wheel.
John

Hi ARMY Strong,

Sorry for the delay, still recovering from the "Plague" I picked up at Cold Wars. I'll shoot Noah an email and see if he can get those files uploaded ASAP!

-Greg

Thanks Greg!

Greg I had a question about card deck the monster deck is for when you come up on a skull how does the event card work when you come up on a treasure you must draw event card first then if unlocked or defeated creature you then draw a treasure card? Not sure what the blue hexagon with numbers are for? Also the event card with number in top right corner? Sorry for all the questions we hope to try it this weekend.

Will this be at H'con?

@ARMY Strong: Originally, Noah had a "spinner" to determine if a chest, door, etc was trapped or not. But just come up with some way that leaves around a 20% chance of it being a dud. The blue hexagon numbers are the number the Thief or Wizard, etc has to beat in order to disarm the trap harmlessly.

@foxfoxfox: I won't be going to H'con this year, but Noah will be there and will probably run the game again.

I hope this helps!
-Greg

Greg we tried dungeon crawl last night, Noah never downloaded player sheets so we used the ones in the rules not sure if u changed stats for characters like he did for monsters but we had many questions about the cards. Monster cards had different stats then rules attack seemed weaker. AV numbers where 12sided dice. Event cards had these numbers in the top right corner not sure the purpose. When do you draw event card When thief doesn't disarm? Sorry for questions we just got confused ended up using monsters in rules. Will have to give it a go next time. We all had fun through. You can see pics on our yahoo group "southern Maryland wargaming club".

Sorry, I havn't checked this page for a while and didn't see a few emails requesting character sheets. I've uploaded the character sheet to the dump truck site and it should be available. I'm looking for my abrevidated player rules and will upload them as well. That might be a bit longer as I've switched computers and will have to relocate everything…

Awesome that you've put together and played a game. I'll post back in a bit about the monster and trap cards -- or any other questions I can deduce.

Noah

Thanks Noah look forward to the abrevidated rules.

Whoa -- just noticed my typing fail… I guess I know what the title will be…

Noah don't worry about spelling the abbreviated rules is your quest! Need to run this game again as we had fun but got confused with the monster cards and event cards and how thief picking teasure locks work.

WHAT!? DUNGEONS!? THIEFS? CLERICS? Oh my stars! I have to sit down. Wait, I am sitting down. MOMMA!

Noah any luck on getting the rules?

Noah touching base again hoping to get your rules