So I’ve been working on a Demesne, a Forged in the Dark game inspired by Dungeon Keeper / War for the Overworld where you play a group of monsters who are building a dungeon, recruiting minions, slaying adventurers, and raiding the overworld.
Here’s the current WIP doc:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PK0x7q-V-zY087KAWwdYo767qb_F8m8O6hDZOQN3GJ8/edit?usp=sharing
It’d be great if I could have people look over it and off a bit of feedback. It has a long way to go, but I feel like I need to get it in front of a few people at this point to hear what people think.
Some particular spots I’d like to have you look at:
– How do you feel about the Actions?
– What do you think about the magic systems?
– How do the mechanics for the dungeon look? This is the biggest departure from typical Blades and could even be thought of as a bit boardgamey, though this is by design. It would have been fairly easy just making the dungeon mimic how crews work, but it’s not really the game I was wanting to make. The explicit nature of drawing out things goes against a lot of Blades design, though. I kind of expect quite a bit of people not liking this.
A basic character sheet can be seen here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15cCLTR0dLaLBJPC1zjOx93TIH8FkNWaO/view
Thanks!
Sounds like fun and good looking, too 🙂
Looks very cool. A quick impression of the char sheet is that Scan sounds less archaic/timeless than the other Actions.
This looks great. I wouldn’t worry about the departure. I think some players will really enjoy the dungeon building and defense part of the game. Personally, I’d like to see an option for some sort of an engagement or fortune roll to get to a climax faster when a dungeon is invaded. Or, an approach that leads to a more active defense that is less dependent on the GM path.
To add to my previous comment — My opinion, others may view the game very differently — My first read of this is that it would be an absolute blast for a short campaign or story arc. However, the current draft of the rules require a long campaign to develop a dungeon of any size. Perhaps the starting raid(s) could be a bit longer to take over a larger starting dungeon. Or, start the campaign at the climax of the raid. Then, as character development, start the next couple of sessions by having a player or two reminisce about something awesome they did during the raid prior to the climax. You can also use opening stories like this to allow players to invent existing structure (with some limitations) to their dungeon to make it feel like an old dungeon that they can then make their own.
Next, I really do like the flexibility you provide by giving a base race and archetype and then lots of freedom to select a special ability. I’d suggest that you also provide at least part of a playbook — create a variety of starting playbooks that have at least some of the equipment and a choice of 2-3 themed special abilities to pick from. It makes character generation much faster and lets you get to the action faster.
I’d love to play a short campaign — It is perfect to really allow players to go over the top with absurd roleplaying and action!