DungeonLand! - My Own Creation

[Mercutio01]

Cross-posted from DragonAvenue to get some feedback from you guys here.

I’m working on making my own dungeon crawling game to both introduce my four-year-old daughter to gaming and to help teach some math and reading skills to her. I’ll be posting my initial rules builds and graphic design ideas here. The rules are pretty close to the old Dungeon! game, which I didn’t realize (and have never played) until I had finished writing out my basic ideas.

The basic idea is to incorporate very basic math equations for things like attack, defense, damage, and treasure. I’ll also be peppering cards with words to help teach reading and writing. In order to attack, I’m going to make her find the red word and try to sound it out, and then practice writing by copying the word into a journal of sorts.

It’s going to be all d6 based, and randomized modular dungeons that are also built through d6 randomization. I’m attempting to tailor it a little more widely than just for my daughter, as I intend to have it be compatible with four or five players, and to actually have it be a dungeon crawl to earn the most treasure.


COMPLETE FIRST DRAFT
DungeonLand! A game for young adventurers

2-6 players (at least one adult to be Dungeon Planner)

(INSERT TEXT ABOUT LENGTH OF GAMEPLAY—after playtesting)

OBJECT OF THE GAME
To fight monsters and collect treasure, all while learning basic math, reading, and writing, but in a fun new way. The first adventurer to collect 10 treasure tokens wins.

CHOOSING AN ADVENTURER
In this game you may choose to be a Princess, Amazon, Valkyrie, Elf, Knight, or Wizard. There are enough counters included that everyone could all play the same character type if they wanted to. Read the descriptions below before deciding which type of adventurer you want to be. After choosing one, place the counter on the Start Tile.

PRINCESSES: A Princess is smart and has the strongest magic in the game, but is slow to move and has no melee combat ability. She gets hurt easily because she doesn’t go exploring much, and always fights from far away. Each Princess is equipped with a special magic wand given to her by her Fairy Godmother. If a Princess finds herself in a close fight, she always tries to back up so that she can use her wand.

AMAZONS: An Amazon is extremely quick, but only average in melee and ranged combat. She doesn’t get hurt as easily as the Princess because she is fast, but still prefers to fight monsters from far away. Each Amazon is equipped with a bow and arrow as well as a short sword, and she spent many years training in an Amazon school to learn how to use them. If an Amazon finds herself in a close fight, she can use her short sword.

VALKYRIE: A Valkyrie is the strongest adventurer in the game, is average in speed, but has no ranged combat ability. She doesn’t get hurt easily because she goes exploring a lot, and always fights close in. Each Valkyrie is equipped with a great axe that she made herself and spent many years practicing with. If a Valkyrie finds herself in a ranged fight, she will run as fast as she can to get close to the monster so that she can whack it with her axe.

ELVES: An Elf is the fastest adventurer in the game, average in ranged combat and average in melee combat. He gets hurt easily because he doesn’t wear any armor, and usually fights from far away. Each Elf is equipped with a bow and arrow as well as a club, all of which he made himself from trees he planted as a young boy. If an Elf finds himself in a close fight, he can use his club, but he tries to back up so he can use his bow and arrow.

KNIGHTS: A Knight is the toughest adventurer in the game, is slow in speed, but has not ranged combat ability. He doesn’t get hurt easily because he wears a lot of armor, and trains to fight all the time. Each Knight is equipped with a longsword and a shield, and spent many years as a squire before he earned his title of Knight in a tournament. If a Knight finds himself in a ranged fight, he will run as fast as he can to get close to a monster.

WIZARDS: A Wizard is smart and very strong with magic, is average in speed, and has no melee combat ability. He gets hurt because he does go adventuring much, and always fights from far away. Each Wizard is equipped with a spellbook that he made after studying for many years in a magic school. If a Wizard finds himself in a melee fight, he always tries to back up so that he can cast a spell on the monster.


GAMEPLAY
1.The Dungeon Planner controls the Dungeon Tiles. He can decide how he wants to do this, but it is recommended that he not leave it up to chance.
2.As an adventurer moves off of one tile to another, the Dungeon Planner will place the next tile down in place. If the Dungeon Planner runs out of tiles to use, he may recycle unused tiles from the current Dungeon.

MOVEMENT
1.Each player rolls one die. The player with the highest roll goes first and play moves around to the left in a clockwise fashion.
2.On an adventurer’s turn, she may move up to the movement number on her Character Card. The dice are not used to determine movement.
3.Each square on a tile counts as one space when moving.
4.An adventurer can pass over other adventurers, but cannot land on the same space as another adventurer except at the Start or End of the dungeon.
5.When a room is entered for the first time, that adventurer will have to fight the monster who lives there (see COMBAT).

COMBAT
1.When an adventurer opens a room for the first time, he must draw a Monster Card from the Monster Card Pile. That card must be flipped over so all the other adventurers can read it.
2.An adventurer can fight the monster in the room or run away. If the adventurer runs away, place that Monster Card at the bottom of the Monster Card Pile.
3.On each monster card is a word in red. The adventurer who is fighting that monster will try to sound out the word, practicing his reading skills. Other adventurers or the Dungeon Planner can help him if he is struggling.
4.After sounding out the word in red, an adventurer will write that word in his notebook, practicing his writing skills.
5.Once an adventurer has completed steps 3 and 4, he may now attack the monster. If the adventurer is a Princess, Amazon, Elf, or Wizard he can attack from far away. If the adventurer is a Valkyrie or Knight, he must move close to the monster first.
6.Once an adventurer is able to attack the Monster, he rolls one die and looks at his Character Card for the Attack entry. This will be a simple mathematical equation. He solves the equation and then adds his Attack to the number on the die, practicing his math and determining his total Attack score. He will write this number in his notebook, practicing his writing skills.
7.An adventurer will next look at the Monster’s Defense score and solve the equation he finds there. He will write this number in his notebook next to his Attack score. If his Attack score is more than the Monster’s Defense score, the adventurer hits the Monster who gains a Damage Token.
8.An adventurer will solves the equation in the Monster’s Damage score and write that number in his notebook. When the Monster gains that many Damage Tokens, he will run away, leaving his treasure behind.
9.Now it is the Monster’s turn.* The Dungeon Planner will follow the same rules as the adventurer to determine the Monster’s total Attack score, the adventurer’s Defense score, the adventurer’s Damage score, and whether or not the Monster hits the adventurer. If an adventurer gains Damage Tokens equal to his damage score, he will run away.
10.Once a Monster has been defeated by an adventurer, the room the Monster lived in will be considered empty for that adventurer.
11.If an adventurer enters a room where a fight is taking place, he may choose to help fight that monster, or move to a different room.

* A variant rule would allow the adventurer himself to roll for the Monster and would not involve the Dungeon Planner at all.


TREASURE
1.If an adventurer runs away, she leaves one Treasure Token behind. This Treasure Token is considered lost and placed back in the Treasure Token bag.
2.After a Monster runs away, the adventurer who first started fighting looks at the Monster Card and solves the equation for Treasure. That’s how many Treasure Tokens she earns. Place the Monster Card at the bottom of the Monster Pile.
3.If more than one adventurer fight the same Monster, they will split the Treasure Tokens evenly. If there is an odd number of Treasure Tokens, the adventurer who started the fight earns the extra token.
4.The first adventurer to earn 10 Treasure Tokens wins!
5.Game play can be lengthened or shortened by a simple matter of changing the number of Treasure Tokens needed to win.

As a final note—this game can be easily modified to account for growing learners by increasing the complexity of the math equations.

[Mounrou]

1. You don't actually have a mechanic for "moving closer" do you? Actually I'd suggest you skip that part as a mechanic and just blend it into the tell.

2. For your purpose, different equations and word for the same monster ie. multiple cards of same.

3. Instead of a "Monster Pile", use an "Encounter Pile" of monsters, traps, and encoubter eg... "So you're in the dungeon's kitchen, and suddenly a Kobold jumps out an try to scare you. To stop yourself from running away and lose a treasure, you will have to be ___" and the answer would be "brave".

4. Trim down on the rules wordiness. (Ya'know, target audience...)



I really like this idea.

[Mercutio01]

Originally Posted by Mounrou

1. You don't actually have a mechanic for "moving closer" do you? Actually I'd suggest you skip that part as a mechanic and just blend it into the tell.

Good idea. I was thinking about that this morning and didn't have a good fix.

2. For your purpose, different equations and word for the same monster ie. multiple cards of same.

That's excellent!

3. Instead of a "Monster Pile", use an "Encounter Pile" of monsters, traps, and encoubter eg... "So you're in the dungeon's kitchen, and suddenly a Kobold jumps out an try to scare you. To stop yourself from running away and lose a treasure, you will have to be ___" and the answer would be "brave".

This is also good.

4. Trim down on the rules wordiness. (Ya'know, target audience...)

Definitely working on this. I am thinking about maybe leaving a DungeonPlanner rule book and one for a younger audience that is more conversational.

I really like this idea.

Thanks.

[Turtlewing]

the sounding out and writing down words doesn't seem to add anything to the game. it's just something else the players have to do before they can fight the monster.

maybe you could instead make the reading skills asociated with some monsters, or non-monster encounters that you don't fight. "speak the dragon's true name and he will give you his treasure", or "say the password to get to reveal the seceret stash of gold".

[Turtlewing]

On a second read through i noticed, that as written the equation for each charcter's attack and deffence doesn't change. perhaps this should instead be moved to a seperate card deck so that the players don't have to "solve" the same equation over and over again. instead they get a new one each round. This would also allow you to remove the die roll from the game if you wanted (as the deck will randomize the numbers)

You could for example have the resolution work like this:

1. Player draws an 'attack card'.
2. Player solves her attack equation.
3. Players solves monster's deffence equation (located on the monster's card)
4. if the player's attack equation beats the monster's deffence equation the monster gets a damage token.

and when the monster attacks the player, it would use it's fixed attack equation against the players randomly determined deffence equation.

If you want the different charcter arkityps to have different stats you could have them be a fixed modifier that adds to the card drawn.

[olshanski]

You might also consider googling "dungeonland", as the first thing that came to mind was the alice-in-wonderland adventure written by Gary Gygax for Dungeons and Dragons.

Perhaps this was the point and I missed it?

[devlin1]

Originally Posted by olshanski

You might also consider googling "dungeonland", as the first thing that came to mind was the alice-in-wonderland adventure written by Gary Gygax for Dungeons and Dragons.

Yeah, that was my first thought.

Perhaps this was the point and I missed it?

I'm guessing it's actually a riff on Candyland, but I could be wrong.

Anyway, neat idea. I've thought about making an RPG that teaches basic math skills, too.

[Trent]

My first thought is that if you made the adventurers singular (such that a single adventurer type can only be played by one player) you could create more specific and exciting backgrounds for the adventurers. In a game designed for children, I think you can get away with all sorts of cool/silly backgrounds that capture imaginations.

Combat rule 9: Maybe the Dungeon Planner could have more complicated things to read and write down in his notebook, things that the players could somehow gain by being able to sound them out or use English to make plural or show ownership. If a player does so, she now gets to use the goblin’s whirlwind attack, or something. It would be cool to have the kids see the results of more challenging words and then work to achieve them (somehow).

[Mercutio01]

Originally Posted by Turtlewing

the sounding out and writing down words doesn't seem to add anything to the game. it's just something else the players have to do before they can fight the monster.

maybe you could instead make the reading skills asociated with some monsters, or non-monster encounters that you don't fight. "speak the dragon's true name and he will give you his treasure", or "say the password to get to reveal the seceret stash of gold".

Thanks for the feedback. The "something else to do before fighting" was actually something I had wanted to include, but I can see your point.

Originally Posted by Turtlewing

On a second read through i noticed, that as written the equation for each charcter's attack and deffence doesn't change. perhaps this should instead be moved to a seperate card deck so that the players don't have to "solve" the same equation over and over again. instead they get a new one each round. This would also allow you to remove the die roll from the game if you wanted (as the deck will randomize the numbers)

You could for example have the resolution work like this:

1. Player draws an 'attack card'.
2. Player solves her attack equation.
3. Players solves monster's deffence equation (located on the monster's card)
4. if the player's attack equation beats the monster's deffence equation the monster gets a damage token.

and when the monster attacks the player, it would use it's fixed attack equation against the players randomly determined deffence equation.

If you want the different charcter arkityps to have different stats you could have them be a fixed modifier that adds to the card drawn.

Now that's a great idea. Thanks!

Originally Posted by olshanski

You might also consider googling "dungeonland", as the first thing that came to mind was the alice-in-wonderland adventure written by Gary Gygax for Dungeons and Dragons.

Perhaps this was the point and I missed it?

No. I'd never actually heard of it. The name is probably the most fluid aspect of the whole thing, so I'm very much open to suggestions.

Originally Posted by devlin1

Yeah, that was my first thought.


I'm guessing it's actually a riff on Candyland, but I could be wrong.

Anyway, neat idea. I've thought about making an RPG that teaches basic math skills, too.

Thanks - yeah it was a riff on Candyland.

Originally Posted by Trent

My first thought is that if you made the adventurers singular (such that a single adventurer type can only be played by one player) you could create more specific and exciting backgrounds for the adventurers. In a game designed for children, I think you can get away with all sorts of cool/silly backgrounds that capture imaginations.

Combat rule 9: Maybe the Dungeon Planner could have more complicated things to read and write down in his notebook, things that the players could somehow gain by being able to sound them out or use English to make plural or show ownership. If a player does so, she now gets to use the goblin’s whirlwind attack, or something. It would be cool to have the kids see the results of more challenging words and then work to achieve them (somehow).

These are excellent ideas. The consideration I had was thinking of 4 five-year-old girls sitting down to play and one of them "has" to play a boy or two of them want to be princesses, or even all four. Maybe I could make six different versions of each character and give them each their own background.

That Dungeon Planner add-int sounds like a great advanced rule for me to add in.

[Neku Sakuraba]

Man, I wish my dad had made me something like that. he did introduce me to DnD however, which got me into roleplaying...

anyway, i think it sounds awesome, even i would like to play it. i always wanted a fairy godmother :D