Darkfast Dungeons questions?

[PieterVreeburg]

Hi everybody, I recently bought the Darkfast Dungeons basic set from DTRPG and have a few questions regarding the rules, does anybody have a suggestion regarding the best place for rules queries?

Regards,

Pieter Vreeburg

[mproteau (Paper Realms)]

Certainly this isn't a bad place to post your questions. Another place to consider is okumartsgames.proboards.com/ -- specifically this thread:

okumartsgames.proboards.com/thread/80/darkfast-dungeons-tabletop-rules-clarification

[okumarts]

Hey, sorry I didn't see this sooner! I'm on a road trip. Let me know what you need to know!

[PieterVreeburg]

Thank for the replies and no worries about the speediness, I am in no hurry :-)

My current questions:

* Page 6 mentions the ‘opponent deck’ but I can’t find a section in the rules on how this deck should be constructed. Should regular opponents and bosses be mixed? Should I mix 1 randomly drawn boss with the regular opponents? (as the included tables seem to imply).
* How does does the ‘hide’ action work? There are several passages about how to deal with hidden characters, but I haven’t been able to find how to hide your character (I guess with some kind of ability check?)
* (Not a rules question per se) How does the game scale for more players? Encountering a lone goblin is dangerous when you’re on your own, but when you are traveling with 5 fellow adventurers the same goblin is much less intimidating. I haven’t been able to find out how the game deals with this.

Note I read the 2014 version of the rules included in there DTRPG package (once, so I may have overlooked something). If there is an update available with clarifications I haven’t found it yet.

Many thanks & regards,

Pieter Vreeburg

[okumarts]

Pieter,
these are all really great questions. I'll try to address them one by one:

* Page 6 mentions the ‘opponent deck’ but I can’t find a section in the rules on how this deck should be constructed. Should regular opponents and bosses be mixed? Should I mix 1 randomly drawn boss with the regular opponents? (as the included tables seem to imply).
-Simply mix the bosses in with the regular opponents. If it says Opponents on the card, it's the Opponent Deck. Now I have 'edited' the deck to have a theme or leave out a particularly nasty monster for new players, that sort of thing.

* How does does the ‘hide’ action work? There are several passages about how to deal with hidden characters, but I haven’t been able to find how to hide your character (I guess with some kind of ability check?)
-Hide is an Ability Check. The Sneaky Talent adds +1 to an Ability +1d6 roll. The result is the number needed to spot you. Monsters with Awareness get a +1 to spot hidden.

* (Not a rules question per se) How does the game scale for more players? Encountering a lone goblin is dangerous when you’re on your own, but when you are traveling with 5 fellow adventurers the same goblin is much less intimidating. I haven’t been able to find out how the game deals with this.
- Playing with one adventurer is really dangerous. If I am solo playing I will often have 2-3 characters. I've played the game up to 6 players and found it to be as enjoyable and challenging as with 2-3. I think the ideal number is 3-4. The Activation Point rolls tend to balance play.

[okumarts]

One MAJOR clarification or change is that in the original rules Favourite Attack (one weapon) only gave a +1 bonus. It now gives a +2 bonus and Combat Mastery is chosen as HtH or Ranged and only gives +1, but to all weapons of that nature.

[PieterVreeburg]

Thanks for the detailed answers David. I will give the rulebook another read through with your answers in mind. Now I have to start building (and I also just started a Saxon and Viking army using Peter Dennis’s 1066 paper soldiers book, busy times ahead :-)

Regards,

Pieter

[okumarts]

The best part is that you can just use cards for minis you have and leave out other ones until you build them, building the Opponent and Character decks as you build.

[Parduz]

Well, as this thread exist, may i join in?
It may be my poor english, or i may have skipped something, but i have some questions:

1) Ability Checks: are they passed if the roll result (with ability and modifiers added) is equal to the target number, or only if i roll more than it? 'cause on a d6 is a big difference.

2) I'm really missing the whole encumbrance rules. I understand that there difference between what the character wore and what the character carry, so there's a concept of Weight and "Volume" (just to say), but then i miss entirely how the items are stacked up to compute the total Weight and "Volume". I'd like to quote the relevant rulebook parts but i don't know if i'm allowed to, so could you please rephrase the "GEAR" chapter?

3)

Aug 30, 2018 14:19:21 GMT -9 okumarts said:

If I am solo playing I will often have 2-3 characters. I've played the game up to 6 players and found it to be as enjoyable and challenging as with 2-3. I think the ideal number is 3-4. The Activation Point rolls tend to balance play.

By reading your answer, seems that two players should have at least two characters each; so when a player manage more than one character does he made one Activation Roll for each character, or it is still a single Activation per player as said in the rulebook?

[okumarts]

Parduz, these are good questions.
1) With Ability Checks you need to roll the TARGET number. With combat, if you match the defensive Ability Check then you hit, but do no damage (no Health Points are lost) unless you have a Talent or Gear that increases your damage.
2) Encumbrance is essentially an attempt to encourage cooperative play. A number of items can be carried equal to Ability x 4. So, a 2 Ability Fighter can carry 8 "things" without them "getting in the way" of what they want to do. It is considered that these items are attached to a belt, contained in a bag, or tucked under an arm, or held by an off hand, etc.
When you exceed this number there is a -1 penalty to Activation Rolls (Min 1) and -1 to Ability Checks, Attacks, etc.
It's an abstract concept so, carrying a chair is the same as a sword. This will be explored with more detail and nuance in the role playing game, but for the tabletop dungeon crawl game I wanted a simple system that would penalize greedy folks and encourage cooperation.
3) If multiple characters are used by players I usually make them only roll one Activation Roll for the characters they have. A single Activation per player, not character.

I hope that helps.
David

[Parduz]

Thanks!
But I still have questions (sorry ) (tell me if i have to remove the rules quotes, but it is hard to explain myself otherwise)

Sept 12, 2018 2:52:01 GMT -9 okumarts said:

A number of items can be carried equal to Ability x 4. So, a 2 Ability Fighter can carry 8 "things" without them "getting in the way" of what they want to do. [...] When you exceed this number there is a -1 penalty to Activation Rolls (Min 1) and -1 to Ability Checks, Attacks, etc.

Ok...

the rulebook said:

For the purposes of calculating how much Gear a figure can wear or carry consider that four small items add up to one medium item.

... so, following your example, our 2 Ability Fighter (let me call he "Abe") can carry up to 32 small items (as 4 small items = 1 "thing"), right?

the rulebook said:

Small items do not encumber the wearer. Medium items count as one item. Large items count as two items as both hands are usually needed to carry them.

So, a Large items count as two "things", and Abe can carry up to 4 of them.

But what Small items do not encumber the wearer means? Does it mean that i count "1 Thing" only when small item are 4? If yes, then Abe can carry the equivalent of 8 "Things" plus 3 small items, and only when he grab a fourth small item then he need to drop the equivalent of 1 "Thing". Is this right?

But then:

the rulebook said:

When factoring how much worn Gear can be carried consider that four medium items add up to one large item.

as 4 Medium items are 4 "Things", how does this works if a Large item worth 2 "Things"? Really confused.

And after this all, there's this paragraph:

the rulebook said:

Characters may carry a number of items equal to their Ability without penalty. Each item above their Ability adds a -1 penalty to all rolls (Ablity Checks, Attacks, Defensive Rolls, etc.). If a figure is carrying twice the regular amount of gear then they are also slower and act at a -1 to their activation roll (minimum result of 1).

This is why i thought you were separating "weight" and "volume" (or "worn" and "carried"): i thought that the carrying Weight was "Abilityx4" and carrying Volume was "Abilty".

OR:
Am I reading an old, outdated rulebook (DEC 2004)?

[okumarts]

Hmm.. I guess it is all in the definition of "things". A snooker ball is a small item.

An Ability 2 fighter could carry 4x their Ability in Medium items. There are 4 small items to a
"thing" or medium item. That means a Fighter could carry 8 medium items. A large item (like a 2 handed sword or a treasure chest) counts as 2 of those items.
Yeah, there is a discrepancy there from an earlier rule set that meant a large item was 4 regular items, but I switched that up during playtesting. The penalty comes from carrying the items (also meaning worn) as the bulkiness of all the stuff and the weight gets in the way of success (-1 activation roll and penalty to all rolls).

I am in the process of finishing up the Role Playing version of this and I guess an edited version of the core tabletop game is necessary to keep everything in line and consistent.

Thank you for pointing this stuff out. I will be honest, it's never really been a major issue in any of the games I have played, but I can see how as the game expands it could become an issue.

[Parduz]

Ok, I'll keep your post as the official rule