A Role Playing Games Blog
Dungeonslayers
Old-school renaissance
21March 10, 2009
There has been a renaissance of old-school games recently. Just think of all the retro-clones like OSRIC, Labyrinth Lord, Basic Fantasy Role Playing Game, which try to emulate legacy D&D. Some games like Mutant Future or Dungeonslayers don’t try to copy a certain game but are old-school games that stand on their own. Some even say that D&D 4th Edition is much more “old-school” than it’s predecessor.
So, why is old-school so popular at the moment? And what is old-school? I have to admit I can’t really answer these questions. Recently I have been enjoying running Dungeonslayers and I even developed some homebrew rules for it. For me it’s the simplicity of the system and the almost zero prep time. If there’s no proper rule for something I just make one up. I don’t have to browse through several hundreds of pages to find the rule I need. And my players enjoy their dungeon crawls and the bashing in of doors and the slaying of monsters.
But is this what old-school is? And can’t we just do the same with a new and fancy new-school game? And what is new-school? Savage Worlds? FATE? Shadowrun? I have to admit, I have no idea. What are your thoughts on that matter? And I have to admit that I am totally lost when it comes to these old D&D boxes everyone is talking about. Red box, white box, blue box… it’s all greek to me.
Firearms for Dungeonslayers
3March 5, 2009
While the Dungeonslayers translation entered the edit and layout phase I worked on a second project for the free, old-fashioned roleplaying game: firearms! I started with a few stats for simple flintlock pistols and muskets and ended up with a complete supplement called “Feuerwerk” (Fireworks) including several new weapons and a complete spellcaster variant, the arcane pistoleer. I haven’t started on a complete translation yet, but I think it won’t hurt, when I share some basic rules with you.
Firearms are handled much like the other ranged weapons (bows, crossbows, etc.) but there are a few extra rules you have to consider.
Reloading
In Dungeonslayers you normally don’t track your ammo, it is assumed that you always have enough ammo. This is the case with firearms, too, but in order to balance firearms a bit, I decided a reroll check (MIN+DX) is in order to reload your weapon after each shot. You also have to reload whenever your gun gets wet. Reloading is an action (see combat rules).
Pistols
Pistols are one-handed firearms that can be used in combination with a shield. It is also possible to dual-wield pistols but you get a -6 modifier on all ranged attack checks and you have no defense until your next round when you shoot with both pistols. Pistols have a maximum range of 20 meters.
It is also allowed to wield a pistol in one hand and a one-handed melee weapon in the other without any penalties but you can either use the one or the other, not both at the same time.
Multiple barrels/Revolver
Firearms with multiple barrels or with a revolver can be fired several times until a reload check is necessary. A multi-barreled firearm (not a revolver) can also fire all barrels at once. Only one check is made, but the WB is doubled.
For example:
A double-barreled rifle has a weapon bonus of 4. When a character fires both barrels of his double-barreled rifle at once the effective weapon bonus for this shot is 4×2=8. After the shot both barrels have to be reloaded.
| Name (Type) | WB | Notes | Cost |
| Flintlock pistol (1h pistol) | +3 | Enemy’s defense -4 | 20 gold |
| Double-barreled flintlock pistol (1h pistol) | +3 | Enemy’s defense -4; Multi-barreled (2) | 30 gold |
| Revolver | +3 | Enemy’s defense -4; Revolver (6) | 120 gold |
| Musket rifle | +4 | Enemy’s defense -5 | 40 gold |
This is of course only a sneak peek of the complete “Fireworks” supplement. But I hope it is enough to whet your appetite! Stay tuned for more.
Dungeonslayers: The deed is done!
2March 4, 2009
Today the english edition of Dungeonslayers was finally released!
Only 22 days ago, a small party of fearless adventurers including Michael “Stargazer” Wolf, Fabian “Sir Slayalot” Maruschat and Moritz “Glngnfz” Mehlem started out on a long and dangerous quest to bring Dungeonslayers to the world! Especially in the end they received precious advice and help from fellow adventurer Greyharp. Today they returned victorious to present the english edition of Dungeonslayers to you.
This marvellous tome is based on the 3rd Edition of the original German Dungeonslayers rulebook and already includes the latest errata. The PDF document which can be downloaded for free contains all the rules you need to play Dungeonslayers including the introductory adventure “Lord of the rats”!
The english edition of Dungeonslayers is dedicated to the memory of Gary Gygax, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, who passed away one year ago.
“One more thing: don’t spend too much time merely reading. The best part of this work is the play, so play and enjoy!” – Gary Gygax
So, what are you waiting for? If you are into old-fashioned dungeon crawls you should check out Dungeonslayers ASAP!
Dungeonslayers.com
1February 27, 2009
The english edition of Dungeonslayers is nearing completion and today Dungeonslayers.com, the english version of the official DS website went online.
If you want to learn more about Dungeonslayers check out the site and join the discussions in the official forums!
Sneak peek: Dungeonslayers character sheet
0February 25, 2009
The translation of the free, old-fashioned roleplaying game Dungeonslayers is finally nearing completion. I’ve finished translating the rules yesterday and the editing and layout process will probably done this week. An english site and forum are also in the works, so that players from all around the world can discuss about DS, the rules, their campaign and everything roleplaying-related there. As a first sneak peek, I present to you the fully-translated character sheet. Stay tuned for more.
You can download the complete DS sheet as PDF document here.
What’s new with Dungeonslayers?
0February 19, 2009
Some time ago I introduced Dungeonslayers to you, a free and easy beer-and-pretzels roleplaying game.
I have finished the translation of the everything but the introductory adventure and the character creation section has already been layouted. If anything works according to plan, the english version of Dungeonslayers will be available soon. Christian Kennig, author of DS, is already working on an english version of the website.
In the meantime the work on the german version continues. Christian Kenning has posted another short adventure for DS and a couple of handy sheets where the GM can track the groups stats or map out his dungeons with style. I also had some time to work on the campaign setting that I am writing especially for DS (see my last post). This setting will not only feature a whole world for you to play in, but also rules for firearms, two new races and a couple of new monsters.
So, please stay tuned!
Map for my Dungeonslayers campaign
4February 9, 2009
Since my group wants to continue playing Dungeonslayers, I’ve decided to create a small campaign world to play in. It’s nothing fancy of course but it’s just enough information to use as a nice backdrop for a dungeon delving campaign. And since we want to keep up a light-hearted approach to roleplaying, I’ve added a few eastereggs, made sure the names were at least a bit cheesy and even included hommages to Gary Gygax, the creator of DS, Christian Kennig, and D&D. Check out the map I created this morning with the simple map creation tool that came with the AD&D Core Rules CD-ROM. Although this tool is quite old and lacks a lot of features it’s still the best way to create simple campaign maps.
The map shows the kingdom of Sturmfeste (Stormhold). The town Belseburg is the place where my group fought those rats and destroyed the altar of the rat king. You will probably remember that from my last post. The world itself is of my creation but I will probably rip-off a few elements from my favorite MMO World of Warcraft. So expect some gun-wielding dwarves, tech-tinkering goblins and an army of orcs coming through some wierd portal…
You have a question about an existing or upcoming Stargazer Games product? Ask away! You want to know what we think about a recent development in the RPG industry? Send in your questions. You always wanted to know what we think about game X? Send us an email.
