A Role Playing Games Blog
Dungeonslayers
Dungeonslayers: First sneak peek at the 4th Edition
1February 1, 2012
Reports that the English version of Dungeonslayers 4 is vaporware are highly exaggerated. DS 4 is alive and well and Christian Kennig has released the updated character creation as a teaser today!
The 10-paged PDF contains the character creation rules, hints at the new hero classes that you can pick after reaching level 10 and gives you the opportunity to check out the artwork and layout of the upcoming book.
By the way, the German version of the game is available in a very cool boxed set, or as a free PDF version. So if you can speak German, why not check it out now?
Updated Dungeonslayers website
1August 1, 2011
It seems the English version of the 4th edition of the old-fashioned role-playing game Dungeonslayers is finally nearing completion and to properly celebrate this, Christian Kennig has updated the DS website accordingly:
If you haven’t done so yet, you should definitely give DS a try. Although its name might be a bit weird, it’s a really interesting fantasy roleplaying game with an old-school charm.
[Dungeonslayers] Caera map created with CC3
3March 9, 2011
It’s always amazing what talented people can do with tools like Campaign Cartographer 3. And undoubtedly ProFantasy’s Ralf Schemmann is no amateur when it comes to map making. He recently created this beautiful map for the game Dungeonslayers.
If you own Campaign Cartographer 3 and the recently released Cartographer’s Annual 2011, you can download the original CC3 files here. Please note that the location names and descriptions on the map are in German, but I hope Ralf can be convinced to create a translated version of this map as soon as Dungeonslayers 4 has been translated.
While I have been dabbling with map-making in both CC3 and Photoshop I am definitely not that good. But as soon as I have some time to spare I’ll work on a couple of maps for my various games.
Hellgate
12November 15, 2010
If you are into computer and video games you might remember the action RPG Hellgate: London. It has been released 2007 by Flagship Studios. Alas the game was much too ambitious and the game was plagued by technical and design issues. In 2009 the Hellgate: London servers were shut down and Flagship Studios closed its doors.
But there was still a lot to love about this game. The setting was pretty cool and in my opinion would make a great background for a pen & paper roleplaying game. In Hellgate: London demons have invaded Earth and the few survivors now hide underground mostly in subway tunnels. There are three factions who use their distinctive skills to fight the demon threat. The templars is an order of divine warriors who are excellent melee fighters. The image above depicts two templars. The cabalists are seekers of knowledge who use magic to fight the Great Dark. The third faction are the Hunters, highly trained ex-military operatives who use ranged weaponry and advanced technology. While the three classes cooperate to fight the demons, there’s also some rivalry and mistrust.
Since humanity is waging a constant war against the Great Dark, a Hellgate: London campaign is probably pretty combat-heavy. But there are a lot of opportunities for roleplaying especially when the different factions interact with each other. The setting also allows for pretty intense horror elements. While I am not sure if you can use it as inspiration for a long campaign, it should provide enough background for at least a couple of adventures. The mixture of the supernatural and high tech equipment may also hold a certain appeal to some.
While playing Hellgate: London this weekend I thought it might work to create a Warrior, Rogue & Mage variant set into the Hellgate:London universe. Using the three factions as attributes (Templar, Hunter & Cabalist) might actually work quite well, especially if you don’t mind allowing the player characters a bit more versatility than in the computer game. Alternatively I believe there are quite a few rules-light games you could use to run a campaign inspired by this computer game. Savage Worlds’ fast and furious game style might be a good fit, and the Open D6 system (especially MiniSix) might be another alternative. Heck, I think even a modified Dungeonslayers might work. If I didn’t work on too many projects already, working on a Hellgate:London campaign might be a fun thing to do.
What do you guys think? Does the Hellgate:London world have enough depth to turn it into a pen & paper RPG campaign? Please post your comments below!
Dungeonslayers in the pub
4October 20, 2010
Yesterday I had the opportunity to run a session of the upcoming 4th edition of Dungeonslayers at our regular RPG pub meeting. We actually had two groups with four and three players respectively. The second group was run by my friend Mirko.
While I have run DS before, it was Mirko’s first time. But I have to admit he put a bit more effort into it. He had prepared a couple of pregenerated characters and even brought some miniatures and his own homebrew adventure. I decided I don’t need any minis and ran “Lord of the Rats”, the introductory adventure which was already part of Dungeonslayers 3.0.
While Mirko’s group was already playing we were still creating characters. I thought about bringing pregenerated characters, too, but in the end I decided against it for two reasons: a) I think the best way to learn a new game is by starting with character creation and b) I was lazy. The players decided it was best to cover all classes and races, so they came up with a dwarven fighter, a human healer and an elven scout.
The first fights were pretty easy. Normal rats don’t pose that much threat. Things changed when the characters fought a couple of nasty Giant Rats which brought at least two of the characters close to death. In these fights Dungeonslayers showed one its great advantages: it’s fast and fun.
For some weird reason the characters took the direct way to an altar room ignoring all the other opportunities for experience and loot where they fought a couple of giant rats again. When they tried to deface a statue of the evil rat god they found out that the statue was actually a golem. Alas I messed up at that point and instead of taking the stats of the clay golem (as written in the adventure description) I used the stats of the stone golem which is at least twice as difficult to fight! After the dwarven fighter was almost killed in one stroke by the golem, I realized my mistake and allowed the characters to retreat.
After tending to their wounds they were ready to explore the rest of the dungeon. After a few more rooms, a couple of in-game jokes and some minor fights it was already 10 pm and we decided to call it a day. We all had a lot of fun playing Dungeonslayers and decided to continue the game on our next pub meeting. It’s quite possible that this game might turn into a regular campaign!
Preview: Dungeonslayers 4th Edition
12September 8, 2010
Today Christian Kennig and the German Uhrwerk Verlag (which is the German licensee for Space 1889, Deadlands and L5R) announced that the latest edition of Dungeonslayers will be released in print later this year at the SPIEL 2010 in Essen. If you enjoyed the so-called “old-fashioned” roleplaying game so far, you’ll be in for a treat.
While the 4th edition of Dungeonslayers will be over 160 pages long, the core rules aren’t that much longer than in its predecessor, but it’s still 99% compatible to the older editions. Nevertheless DS4 has been improved in all aspects.
The book is now fully illustrated, contains a table of contents and a detailed index, new and optimized rules, an improved game mastering section, new equipment, three fully-fleshed out adventures and a setting! The games appendices contain treasure tables, rules for miniature gaming, a toolbox for creating your own player races and a condensed version of my firearms rules.
One of the new features of DS4 will be the hero classes like paladin, druid, archmage or assassin. These classes will grant access to new talents and abilities and allow to individualize your characters even further.
Christian also managed to make combats in DS4 more tactical and fun without making the rules more complex by adding Slayerpoints. You earn those points by hurting your enemies and they can be used to activate special moves, ignore some minor damage, or temporarily increase your stats.
In my opinion DS4 makes a good game even better and I can’t wait to get my hands on a print copy with will be available in October.
Here are some pictures from the upcoming old-fashioned roleplaying game:
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These teasers have to suffice for now. I’ll post some more info on DS4 over the next few weeks. So stay tuned!
As far as I know, the Dungeonslayers translation team is already eager to start working on a English translation, but given the size of the latest edition, this may take a while. In the meantime I will try to keep you updated. If there are any questions about DS4 and the print release, please feel free to ask. Any questions, I can’t answer myself, I will relay to the game’s designer Christian Kennig.
Signs of things to come
5September 6, 2010
In the coming days there will be some great news regarding an old-fashioned roleplaying game. I can’t give you any details right now, but you won’t be disappointed!
Stay tuned! And how do you like my new t-shirt?
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