New monsters book for Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game

[uzirath]

My favorite recently published RPG is having a kickstarter for a new monsters book and reprint of the boxed set: Powered by GURPS: Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 2 & Game Reprint. I've run a bunch of games with this system, played in a few, and have been teaching it to students in our middle school RPG club. It's been a big hit (the school bought four copies). I figured some of you may be considering jumping into the kickstarter, so I wanted to put in a plug for it. If you have any questions about the game or want to share your experiences, go for it.

In brief, it's a tightly focused GURPS variation focused on a single genre: swords and sorcery style dungeon fantasy. As such, the rules are pared down to just those needed for a bunch of heroes slaying beasts in a dungeon. It's got the elements that GURPS fans love—tactical combat, skills, advantages and disadvantages—but includes character classes in the form of templates that provide niche protection and allow you to create a balanced party of delvers rapidly. The box contains everything you need to play: I've been playing it in my adult groups for a year and a half without any need for additional supplements. I am excited, however, for a new monster book. It's easy to convert monsters from other games, but I love reading new original beasts. Plus, the cover looks awesome!

 

[pogre]

Glad you have found a group to play it with - I was initially interested, but when I mention GURPs to folks around here it quickly turns to a solid no.

Looks like I'm not alone as the Kickstarter appears to be coming up short.

 

[uzirath]

I'm always shocked to hear that sort of response. In most gaming circles I run in, the shortage of people with time to GM means that people will happily jump into any game that someone is willing to run. We had to cap our first DFRPG group because so many people were asking to join. I also often game with people who have never gamed before (beyond video games) and thus don't have any preexisting system bias. They're just excited to try it out. DFRPG is, I've found, a very easy system to introduce and I've yet to introduce it to anyone who didn't enjoy the game. In my experience, too, the system is far less important than the people you're playing with, especially the GM. Some of my favorite gaming memories were using very clunky rulesets, but everyone was all in and the GM was deft and creative.

With 13 days left on the KS, I'm still hopeful this one will cross the finish line.

 

[sd_jasper]

Yeah, GURPS still suffers from a stigma of being "overly complex". But the Dungeon Fantasy RPG takes the biggest sting out of that by using professional templates for character creation and dropping all rules/traits/etc. that are not needed for the genre. What you have left is "roll 3d6 under" system with meaningful combat choices and near infinite more character customization than 90% of the other fantasy games out there.

 

[practicalm]

GURPS is definitely complex on the character generation and world building but less so on players. 3d6 dice, targeted skill numbers, opposed rolls, and different levels of modifiers for how complex you really want to get.

 

[Matt Riggsby]

Agreed. The character templates in the DFRPG take a huge load off of the players (and to a considerable extent the GM), so everybody can get to actual play--which is remarkably easy--faster.

 

[Lord Rasputin]

Looks like I'm not alone as the Kickstarter appears to be coming up short.

It’s at 60% after 5 days of an 18 day Kickstarter. How is that doing badly?

 

[uzirath]

GURPS is definitely complex on the character generation and world building

One of the things I love about DFRPG is that it simplifies both of these things. Not only are the templates quite easy to use, but they printed a booklet of sample characters. I've used many of these in my pickup games so that we can sit down, grab a pregen, and start playing within five minutes. Even with totally new players, I find that it's easier to teach them the game by playing, so rather than explain how the character sheet works, I'll throw them into a series of basic encounters, each one featuring a particular mechanic: skill rolls, quick contests, melee combat, ranged combat, spells, etc. This not only teaches them the rules, but they also embark on their first adventure.

Many players (including the author of the game) share additional sample characters on the DFRPG forum at Steve Jackson Games; most of them are indexed in this thread.

As for world building, that's always a daunting task. GURPS can be overwhelming in that regard because of the myriad choices and genre switches (and a mind-boggling array of books and PDFs). DFRPG deprecates all of that in favor of a generic fantasy world. You don't even have to name your home base town if you don't want to. There are simple mechanics in place to manage the various outside the dungeon tasks like selling loot, digging up rumors, researching the dungeon for clues, travel, etc. Even as a dedicated world builder, I've enjoyed jumping into Ye Olde Fantasy Realm and just naming things and developing the setting as we play. It feels a bit like how the original World of Greyhawk must have developed before it was published (I always loved how within a few hexes of Greyhawk city, you had every terrain type in the world; I can imagine the GM going, hmm, let's put a swamp over here, we haven't had a swamp adventure yet.)

 

[Matt Riggsby]

It’s at 60% after 5 days of an 18 day Kickstarter. How is that doing badly?

That kind of puzzled me. I mean, it doesn't look to be a blow-the-doors-off success running through all the stretch goals, but if they've gotten to 60% of funding in about 25% of the length of the campaign, I'd be rather surprised if it didn't fund at this point.

 

[sd_jasper]

I think there is a perception (not sure how wide spread though) that if a kickstarter doesn't fund in the first days and end at some ridiculous % over the goal then it isn't doing well. This is probably due to the big hit's getting the most attention so that's what people expect all KS's to be like. And I'm also aware that some KS try to "low ball" in order to make sure they fund and try to drive up everything in the stretch goals.