Dungeon Reavers
A downloadable game
Dungeon Reavers is a ruleset for dungeon-crawling adventures heavily inspired by Knave and the Black Hack. Created for the One-Page RPG Jam, this mini-zine has all the rules you need to play dungeon games on a sheet of paper!
Some of the features include:
- A 3D6 core mechanic with partial success
- A D6-based Usage Dice mechanic modified to roll above
- No AC, use your armor and shield UD to negate damage
- Anything can be an improvised weapon if it makes sense
- Freeform sorcery, cast whatever you want with a cost
- No levels, no class, develop your character diegetically
UPDATE 1: Versão traduzida em PTBR já disponível para download!
UPDATE 2: A PDF in pamphlet format in both English and Portuguese.
UPDATE 3: EXTRA CONTENT! By paying 6$ you get access to the Cardcrawl and the Treasure & Magic mini-zines! These two complements can be used to create dungeons and treasures on the fly, making it ideal for GMless and solo play!
Obs.: Esses dois mine-zines ainda estão sendo testados, então a tradução em PT-BR será feita só após a versão final.
The core ruleset is available for free in the demo section down below! 👇👇👇
UPDATE 4: Dungeon Reavers has a Carrd! Now you can easily consult the core ruleset without the pdf: https://dungeonreavers.carrd.co
UPDATE 5: Reaver generators!! Roll your reaver on this perchance generator [https://perchance.org/dungeonreavers] or download the HTML on the demo section and roll up to 3 Reavers at the same time!
Status | In development |
Category | Physical game |
Rating | Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars (46 total ratings) |
Author | Gnarled Monster |
Genre | Adventure |
Tags | blackhack, dnd, knave, Minimalist, minizine, nsr, ruleset, sworddream, Tabletop role-playing game |
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $6 USD. You will get access to the following files:
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Brasileiros que tiverem problemas com o paypal podem me enviar um PIX através do QRcode abaixo, depois é só falar comigo no twitter que eu mando uma chave de acesso! (30R$)
Download demo
Development log
- Reavers Site & Reaver Generators!Apr 29, 2023
- New complements & summer sale!Jun 25, 2022
- New character sheet!Apr 22, 2022
- Update 1: Corrections & Tradução PT-BR!Jul 26, 2021
Comments
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if an NPC bandit B surprise attacks armored PC A (UD3 shield), then A must roll UD to check for armor degrade on fail. is that 1d6+6>UD or 3d6>15(surprise) and count the complications? either way, A takes no damage because a player only takes damage if they roll poorly on attack, right? if PC A (12 Str) attacks NPC bandit B (2HD), then A must get 10 or more on a gambling roll ([3d6=1+3+6]+12>19+2) to do any damage. would A have rolled with advantage if they were a warrior who considered swords a tool? because of the complication, A would roll 1d6+6 to test UD of their tool, the sword, right?
i would love to see a few combat examples!
In my personal rulings, you can't use armor UD to negate damage from surprise attacks. The only way of avoiding damage would be the character rolling 3D6+DEX or WIS above a 25DL (damage = 25 - roll - stat). The complications could add more damage or receiving a narrative disadvantage, like a broken leg or losing your weapon etc
Yeah, you can use your background as advantage in your combat rolls, it depends on how you rationalize the fiction at play. To me, a veteran warrior has advantage against people with less experience, but not against other veterans.
And yes, rolling a complication in your attack triggers a UD weapon roll, if you are defending you roll the armor UD.
I'll add more detailed exemples in the final version of the book!
hi there!
I’m interested in playing dungeon reavers solo, but at the moment the website isn’t allowing me to purchase the rules for treasure, magic, and card crawl. It says I can’t purchase it from the US to BR. Is there another place I can find the rules and buy them? Thanks!
Hey there, big fan of the game! But I 'm wondering about the rule for Forgotten Slots. Specifically the part that mentions "common items' of 2UD. Does that include proper weapons? Are player able to obtain proper weapons before the start of the game? I know there are some in the background equipment but say a player wants a crossbow or a spear?
The forgotten slots is for mundane tools, but you can buy weapons at the start the game if the GM allows.
is there any way to order this in print? I think this would be a great introduction for my friends!
Not right now, I'll let you know when it's in print!
If damage is 3d6 + stat - DL and the PCs take damage when they roll under the opponent DL, but the monster don't have stats other than their HD, DL and morale, does that mean that is posible to take no damage at all?
For example if I roll under DL 20 (because is a 1HD monster) and the 3d6 damage result is 15, I would be taking 0 damage because 20 - 15 = 0?
It's possible to take 0 damage if you roll equal to your opponent's DL. Players always have to roll higher than the opponent's DL (adding the appropriate ability score), so if you roll under the opponent's DL, you take the damage (the difference of the roll + stat - DL). In the example you gave me, your character would receive 5 damage.
I think I get it, thank you. Now just to be sure, during combat the only ones who take turns are the players, right? Monsters don't actively move or attack the players since they (the players) don't have a DL, right?
Monsters move and attack but only players roll. In that case they would roll to defend themselves.
I paid $5 to get access before. Is there a way to pay just $1 more dollar to have paid a total of $6 to get access to the Cardcrawl and the Treasure and Magic?
Unfortunately I don't know :/
I can send you the files via email if that doesn't work!
I changed the access to the files, check if you can get the other two mini-zines now!
Wow, I can. That is super helpful of you!
Also, I loved your Beyond the Borderlands series and can't wait for #3
Howdy! Really impressed with what you've done here. I really like how everything interlocks so that coin value, usage dice, DL, and everything all scales in unison. I did a little solo adventure and was super pleased with the balance you've struck here.
Thought on "forgotten" slots. I considered upping the cost to 15 coin (or even 20) because 10 is the average cost of a 2UD item. This way a player is rewarded for choosing items in advance rather just having a bunch of forgotten slots. Then again, I hate shopping so... I dunno.
Second, I did a little math to try and calculate probabilities and it seems that the DLs of 15, 20, and 25 seem like they might be a little extreme. If you have 11, an average stat, then your chance of success on a 25 is 9% (which actually feels pretty good, 1 in 10) while the chance of failure on a 15 is like 1% (which feels crazy easy.) Have you considered interim DL? A spread of 15, 17, 20, 23, 25 would mean you had some middle ground. If you had an 11 a DL of 17 would mean a 10% chance of failure and a DL of 23 would have a 26% chance of success.
Third, I thought about creating some supplementary material or fan content. What are your thoughts about releasing this as Creative Commons so others can build on the foundation? If I wanted to build my own magic supplement or such, would it be acceptable to do so? What if I wanted to sell such a supplement?
Hello! Thank you very much for your enthusiasm!
Yeah, I liked increasing the cost for the forgotten slots, I'll probably add it in the final version.
The DL rate is just a reference, I expect the GM to adjust it to their taste, but I think it works well if you use it together with Partials & Criticals so that a super difficult task might fail but still achieve something and a super-easy task succeeds but still give some bad consequences.
I'm very welcome to fan content, please go ahead and make it! I only ask you to wait on the magic supplement stuff until I release mine first (it's already in the works!), but if you make adventures for it please don't hesitate to publish and sell it!
Here is my quick maths on the probability of success/failure assuming an attribute of 11 and a roll greater than DL. The "Prob" column contains the probability of rolling at least that value. So you can see a 50% chance of success/failure with a stat of 11 comes in at DL 21. So I will probably end up using a range of 17, 19, 21, 23, 25+ as that sets the middle at 50% and the upper/lower bounds at about 10%![](https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzg5MTY4MTYuanBn/original/alxCQX.jpg)
Regarding fan content: Thank you! I'll start working on some stuff and run it past you when it's in a good place.
Edit: more math! I wrote a little python script to brute force the expected number of uses you can get out of UD. These numbers are in average after 10k iterations.
6: infinity
5: 14
4: 8
3: 5
2: 3
1: 1
0: 0
How do UD reduce damage? Do they just negate it and then you roll to see if they are reduced? or do you roll that many dice to reduce damage?
What is a TD? It appears under sorcery but no where else and is not explained?
What happens mechanically when you reach 0HPs?
You roll armor UD to ignore all income damage. The UD roll is just to see if the armor is reduced or not, but if you want to make it more deadly, you can make characters take damage when the UD roll fails.
The TD is the former acronym to target difficulty, which is now difficulty level (DL). I forgot to correct that one, gonna make an update correction today. (Thanks for asking!)
The lack of information to what happens when you reach 0HP is intentional so that GM and players decide. It makes you vulnerable to deadly wounds, so next hit you might die or become severely injured needing rescue. It also depends on the intention of the opponent, maybe they want to capture you alive so the next hit makes you unconscious. I'll make a expanded version of these rules later to cover this circumstances!
cool! That makes sense to me. I love these small games that just let you lay without reading 300 pages. I look forward to more!
Simple, consistent and elegant👍🏻
Thank you!
Love the idea of the "Forgotten Slot"
Thanks!
This is probably one of the most solid OSR systems I've come accross recently.
I have a little question about death, tho. The zine doesn't seem to mention under what circumstances a character dies. The advancement section mentions that you increase your HP and one of your stats when you reach 0hp and survive, which means that simply reaching 0hp isn't enough to kill you, but it doesn't specify what circumstances would cause you to not survive after reaching 0hp.
For now I'm just going to assume that reaching 0hp doesn't kill you but you die if your hp goes into the negatives.
Thanks, I'm glad you liked! ❤️
The lack of space forced me to check priorities so I decided to leave death out of it, for now it's up to the GM when a character dies.
But I like to give one last chance to survive when they reach 0hp. They are now vulnerable to a deadly blow but if they manage to escape or the group works together to rescue them and tend to their wounds, they survive.
Do you autorize the using of your ruleset in free video games published on the web ?
Sure, as long as you credit the ruleset it's cool for me! And send me the link to play please
Can you explain how to fold it into a pamphlet after printing?
It's a mini-zine, you fold like this, if your printer doesn't print the whole surface of the sheet you need to cut the edges before folding:![](https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzY1ODk5NDAucG5n/original/i6HbD8.png)
Also the format I'm using is A4, not letter
Thanks for all the tips!