Alas, Poor Gimpy, We Hardly Knew Ye
The Heroes of the Dungeon Crawl Book is available a Lulu in PRINT Or FREE DOWNLOAD...
Heroes of the Dungeon Crawl is still up on Lulu. Nearly 100 copies have been downloaded for free and a couple copies have been purchased. That's not much considering how long ago the Basic Charts Edition was released, but it's not bad.
Though we never finished the main rulebook with all of the details, the Basic Charts Edition rulebook contains all of the rules needed to play this game. We're proud to have created some of the most simple rules for a Fantasy RPG that are out there today.
Our reason for that is simple. We want people to play the game, not sit around the table reading books and spending time creating characters. These days, people have to budget their time, so the quicker they can be at the table playing a game of HotDC, the better.
We're proud of the fact that one or two people have actually sat down and played a game of HotDC. Recently, we had some people put this game through it's paces with some interesting results.
There are challenges for the Hero Guide, one of them is making sure that the game balance isn't tipped too far one way or the other. This can be managed by making a note of each character's stats and adjusting your creature's stats as needed. You may have simple battles here and there and more challenging fights at the end. These stats are easily adjustable to accommodate your needs.
Because re-rolling a new character is a snap, character death isn't a big issue. A player can have a new character in a few minutes. We have thought about supplements with new character options for advanced players, but really, simple is better. There are other games that can accommodate the need for a character to have more things. On the other hand, a resourceful Hero Guide can easily incorporate house rules into HotDC that suit their needs.
For this game, we made use of the bandage option as a way to help prevent death and allowed the option of characters to start at 1st, rather than 0 Degree. Most of the players opted to start at 0, but our youngest player started at 1st degree. As a player under 10, this was done to keep him engaged. He played a Warrior named Hawk.
Our one female player opted for a Mage named Sheena. We had a Priest named Brother John and a Rogue named Gimpy. Gimpy had some rather interesting stats and was at a disadvantage, but the player chose to play him anyway.
In the town of Dragon Vale, Hawk was graduating Warrior school and the other three needed to pass one more test to graduate. The four were sent on a dual mission. The church wanted the party to retrieve some honey from a nearby hive that was rumored to have a few Giant Bees among the colony. The Priests wanted a sample of the honey to study its healing properties.
The Warrior's school wanted to put an end to a Goblin colony before it started It was rumored that a Goblin Sargent was already leading a group of Grunt Goblins into the nearby cavern to set up base. The school wanted to put an end to this.
Privately, Sheena had been informed by her instructor that the Goblins were in possession of something very valuable that could cause harm to the town of Dragon Vale. A group of Demi Dragons have been launching raids on villages, and the intel suggested that the Goblins had somehow come into possession of a Demi Dragon Egg.
The party traveled North about five miles before venturing east into the forest. About a mile into the journey, they could see bees flying around and the buzzing got louder. Gimpy ventured in further for a closer look and saw a huge hive He reported back to the group. Hawk and Gimpy ventured in with a couple jars to get some honey. The party decided that if the honey had healing properties, they should get some just in case.
On the way back to the other two, Hawk was surprised to be followed by three Giant Bees. Gimpy was far enough ahead, but Hawk was attacked. All three missed him. Gimpy armed himself with a bow and just managed to hit and kill one of them. Hawk struck down another Bee and the third one fled.
The party continued back to the path and then ventured west towards the hills. They were within a quarter mile of the caves when Gimpy ventured ahead for a closer look. At the front of the cave were two Grunt Goblins. He also noticed a pair of Pink Demi Dragons flying off in the distance. They appeared to be searching below for something.
Gimpy reported the news and Sheena revealed what the instructor had told her about the Demi Dragons. It is thought that the Goblins had stolen an egg, and the Demi Dragons are rumored be angry over the theft. The egg belonged to their queen, and if they make it to Dragon Vale, they could cause serious damage.
The party decided to venture to the cave entrance where Sheena cast Short Nap on the two guards. They tied them and gagged them and dragged them away from the opening. They ventured into the cavern . Off to the right was a passage that went downward a ways. It had a foul and rotten smell.
The party discovered bones and tattered cloth strewn about the floor and surmised that this may have been where prisoners had been dragged and killed. From the walls, it appeared as if the earth was moving. It was Earth Mytes, living pieces of earth. Sheena sustained a point of damage, but the three Earth Mytes were easily disposed of.
They ventured back to the main corridor. Off to the left was a passage that opened up into a big cavern . There was fire and the smell of something being cooked. Gimpy heard female voices. He understood Goblin and made out the fact that a dozen or so Goblins had gone out to raid a nearby camp of Kobolds. One of the female voices was complaining that Sargent Kang and his guards didn't go and never seemed to go on these raids lately.
The party had a brief discussion and decided that this might be their best chance. The went in deeper and Gimpy discovered a secret passage that led to what must have been the Goblin treasure room. There were 100 gold pieces, 300 silver and a half dozen pieces of jewelry that looked valuable.
As they were bagging the obviously stolen money that was likely intended to be used to build a better fortress, three Ratlings came into the room unnoticed, hitting Brother John for 2 Life Points. The party won the battle thanks to Hawk killing two of the three. They discovered that under the pile of rags in the west corner of the room was a hole, and they could hear more Ratlins climbing up.
The party headed out of the room. The party had Brother John eat their jar of honey, and he was healed completely. After checking out three empty caverns that looked like they could have housed at least four dozen Goblins, they came across a crudely locked door at the end of the cavern.
Gimpy went to work on the lock and picked it. The room and three more beds and another locked door at the far end of the room. A check of the furnishings revealed 25 gold pieces and a pair of standard daggers. Gimpy picked the other lock and they entered what appeared to be Kang's headquarters.
The room had cheap rugs that might be with 1 gold piece and a few other furnishings that were in better shape than anything else in the cavern, but maybe worth 1 gold piece. There was a desk with nothing of value, but a note highlighting Kang's instructions to steal a Demi Dragon egg so they could hatch it and raise it as their own. It also pointed out that reinforcements will be coming from the south upon news that the egg had been secured.
In the far east comer was a treasure chest. It was locked. Gimpy again went to work and noticed this one was trapped. He managed to disarm what would have been sleeping gas to reveal an egg wrapped up and a red gem. As he was standing over the chest, looking at the egg, a voice came from the door. It was Kang.
Kang ordered his three guards into the room and followed. Brother John cast Life Boost on Hawk, and Sheena cast Stinging Mist at the three Grunt Goblins and their leader. Gimpy fired an arrow at one of the Goblins and hit for a kill. Angered, one of the Goblins struck a lethal blow at Gimpy, dropping him on the spot.
Hawk went for Kang and struck the first blow. Brother John stood in front of Sheena and scored a hit on one of the guards. Sheena wanted to cast Short Nap, but she didn't want to put any of her party members at a risk. She threw a dagger at one of the Goblins, but she missed..
Brother John dispatched of a second Goblin guard and the remaining guard missed him. Kang struck Hawk and Hawk hit him, but both lived. Brother John hit the last guard, but he lived. Taking a chance, Sheena drew her other dagger and swang at the guard. She hit, but he lived by one Life Point. He swing at her and hit, only doing two Life Points of damage.
Hawk missed Kang, but Kang hit him. Had it not been for Brother John's Life Boost Incantation, he would have been dead. Brother John killed the final guard and Hawk killed Kang. The party tried to bandage Gimpy, but it was too late. He was dead. They gathered up everything they could take. They had foiled the Demi Dragon egg plan and killed the Goblin leader.
Back in town, they were rewarded for retrieving the jar of honey, killing the Goblin leader and retrieving the egg. The town would send a party to clean out the caves of any more Goblins. The Mage instructor and Sheena would return the Pink Demi Dragon egg to it's mother personally to maintain positive relations.
The party was rewarded with 300 GP's each and the three 0 Degree adventurers were now 1st Degree. Hawk was happy, because he could buy better equipment. He was all set to go again, but his parents were ready to go home. However, he left with a printed copy of the rules. Maybe a new HotDC player was born today. At any rate, it was nice to see the rules in action.
Alas, poor Gimpy didn't make it, but his player had a good time nonetheless. As for Gimpy, he died valiantly and will take his place among the Hall of Fallen Heroes. That's were they all go when they die.
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