Delve
A downloadable game
Well, my wife was taking a shower and I was bored and wanted to do a dungeon crawling session of a ttrpg, but well, you know, scheduling.
So I made this, a solo RPG that uses a standard deck of cards and this simple card (the basic rules are shown on the right, the back side and dungeon occurrences are in the download!) The summary is this: you lay out a dungeon looking path of face down cards, pick a class, then begin the crawl by flipping over various foes to defeat, witches to confound, puzzles to complete, all trying to gather enough loot to level up! It's fun for a little bit for solo times when your wife can be in the shower and whatnot and you don't want to play solitaire. Or at least I think its fun!
I hope you like it :)
I have released an update with some changes and clarifications to:
- Level 3 Fighter Ability
- That damn lever puzzle
- Options to lose loot to escape rooms after losing in combat
- Clarification that J,Q,K correspond to 11, 12, 13
- Clarification of reshuffling the draw pile
- Clarification that jokers are not used
Cover Art & Itch background is by Bill Willingham - some stellar slightly cheesy but sick old school dungeon crawling art.
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Mechanics Update!Mar 12, 2021
Comments
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It is a really good game
had an amazing time hacking this game to play multiplayer with my siblings. basically just tracked hp on paper, and took turns building out our dungeons how we pleased. common sense also when deciding who has to defy danger and when, like for instance only one person needing to pry a path when a tunnel caves in, but everyone needing to make sure they dont get stuck in the trap. i also ended up adding a few rules to increase the difficulty at level 3, for instance black queens and kings being even more powerful witches and dragons to defeat, with three hp as opposed to just one.
That's awesome! Sounds like some good hacks :)
couldnt have done it without this awesome game. thanks for sharing!!
Played this a bit this afternoon. It seems like a really solid start, and I think, if it was refined a bit, you could maybe commission art for what each encounter is and sell it as a hand the size of a deck. It would be like if One Deck Dungeon had an OSR version, lol.
A few thoughts.
Sorry this was so long. You're probably done thinking about this game, anyways.
Might try the alternative lever room higher/lower game :)
Thanks for this. Giving it a go now.
Just did a play-through, thanks for the fun! A couple of notes:
1. I just ended up keeping track of my loot on the scoresheet instead of the pile, made it easier. Because I wasn't able to put my -4 from the lever into my loot pile
2. The lever could feel a bit less random by playing "higher or lower" game. After putting down the first card, you have to guess "lower or higher" for the next of the 5 cards.
3. I ended my first round with 3 loot, feels like it'll be a lot of dungeons to get to lvl 2
Most fun parts were setting up the cards in a dungeon format, and grabbing potions. I had a few questions about the instructions that took me a bit of time to figure out (Thief: do I have an option to run away? Everyone has 3HP, even the monsters?), but another playtest or two should sort those out :D
Cheers!
yeah that's what i've found - the level puzzle is kinda trash hahah! I do like that higher or lower thing. Very black-jack like and I'm into that. Honestly I think I might look at implementing something like that instead.
I will say, the pile of loot is fairly important because you have lets say 3 loot cards. When you flip the loot cards over the total added value is the amount of loot you get. Which perhaps I didn't make that clear enough. During my initial playtesting I was getting around 25 - 40 gold most games.
Glad to hear those parts were fun, I will try to find a way to accentuate those! Yes, the thief level 1 ability is to escape 1 room per dungeon and continue on! The monsters do not have any HP, you just beat them with your draws.
Ahh I see, then I didn't play the loot mechanic correctly. Will try it again the next round!
This is really cool! I like the simple rules and solitaire design. I had a few rules questions though.
Hey! Thanks for playing and asking some questions, it really helps me think about what i need to clarify in my next edit:
1. Face cards go above 10. A jack is a 11, Queen an 12, King a 13.
2. You just finish out the dungeon by completing the last room with wherever you decided you wanted the end of it to be beforehand.
3. yes! This is a big clarification I need to edit: you just reshuffle it.
4. of course. Your HP pile will be the 3 other Ace cards (if you're level 1, or Twos if you're lvl 2, etc.) The draw pile will just be the remaining cards. Your loot pile is empty, you just add to it as you pick up loot. And the Discard pile begins empty as well, you add to it as you discard cards that you draw.
Thanks! That all makes sense.
So, you designate one specific card as the dungeon exit prior to delving into each dungeon?
Yes! And you make it the minimum of cards away from the designated beginning point according to your level!
Why do you use 2's at level 2 instead of just keep using the aces?
Hey! The main reason is because you add the value of your level to your flips when you "Defy Danger" - think of it as a modifier!