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I'm not affiliated with this Kickstarter at all. I'm just a backer and I thought I'd share with Dakka as there may be some interested parties here!

League of Dungeoneers (formerly just Dungeoneers) is a revised/replacement retroclone (man, I'm not even sure I'm using all these terms right) of Warhammer Quest '95. The original Warhammer Quest is my favorite thing Games Workshop ever put out, and despite having a full collection, I've been looking for a modern revision with more freedom on the character creation side. I went ahead and picked up a POD of the older edition based on what I was seeing from the pre-Kickstarter hype and, well, it looks like the WHQ with more generic fantasy bestiary and race/class based character creation that I always wanted.

The Kickstarter version will contain printed cardstock tiles and revised rules with stronger proofreading (a weakness of the original edition I have.) No miniatures, though there is an add-on for cardstock standees.

I'll just post a link to the campaign, now, and let the page sell itself!

League of Dungeoneers Kickstarter

Oh, yes, at the time of this posting, there's less than 24 hours remaining on the early birds.

I also bought the print and play version, and thought it was pretty good (proof reading aside).

There are some nice additions to the legacy WHQ rules, including carry limit, weapon degradation, creating magic items/potions, mercenaries and a more flexible upgrade process for character evolution. There's also a suspense mechanic like the Darkness tracker in Shadows of Brimstone that ramps things up over time as you fight or make noise.

Oh, the getting stressed/going mad mechanic is interesting too... leading to disturbed characters potentially attracting more enemies with all the screaming (as it would!).

I believe he has trimmed down the bestiary a bit to allow ratmen to be an expansion at some point in the future. Same with some of the other WHQ equivalents, but it's still got plenty to be getting on with. I think there was a full list of the included creatures in one of the newsletters on BGG

 endtransmission wrote:
I also bought the print and play version, and thought it was pretty good (proof reading aside).

There are some nice additions to the legacy WHQ rules, including carry limit, weapon degradation, creating magic items/potions, mercenaries and a more flexible upgrade process for character evolution. There's also a suspense mechanic like the Darkness tracker in Shadows of Brimstone that ramps things up over time as you fight or make noise.

Oh, the getting stressed/going mad mechanic is interesting too... leading to disturbed characters potentially attracting more enemies with all the screaming (as it would!).

I believe he has trimmed down the bestiary a bit to allow ratmen to be an expansion at some point in the future. Same with some of the other WHQ equivalents, but it's still got plenty to be getting on with. I think there was a full list of the included creatures in one of the newsletters on BGG

There was a full list, and he is actually expanding the bestiary. Ratmen are being held back, but Dark Elves get their own faction list and Reptillians (lizardmen) are added in, as well as an expanded faction of unaligned monsters.

I found the list, if anyone else is interested: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2787026/10th-league-dungeoneers-newsletter

I've got the PnP version based off the GamingGeek review. Had some reservations with the KS, but the creator has been pretty transparent about what he's doing and who he's working through (Gameland) to get it produced. I'm still pretty concerned because he's operating so close to cost there isn't much margin for error. He's clearly done a lot of research and is very passionate about getting it out, but at the same time he's a first time creator that's not involved in games production, so he's relying completely on 2ndhand info regarding production.

I backed at the base game + the 3D doors level, but I consider it a risky KS and advise people to pledge accordingly. I'm not saying don't pledge, just saying know it's a risky one that could go south or could be completely fine . But also, this is the sort of project Kickstarter was designed for: small boutique passion project that would otherwise never move beyond a DrivethroughRPG PDF.

Plus, I'm a sucker for dungeoncrawls

That actually looks very well done. Tempting!

As a lazy person I demand pictures to make my judgements! How can I decide on words alone?



Not bad.

I like that the creator is very upfront about the risks.

Risks and challenges
English is not my first language.
The print and play version had a fair share of grammar issues and well as spelling mistakes. To remidy this, the rules and cards will be sent for professional editing, twice.

Delays in production - one man team.
The is as HUGE game. There are lots of components to fix. However, by the time of KS launch, 100% of the base game is done. Stretchgoals and some of the add-ons are planned out and drafted but not completed. 3D models are complete. Work will continue with these during the campaing month and I will be done with addons by the end of the campaign, which means test prints can be initiated straight after campaign. I will also have support writers for the for the add-ons and a any stretchgoals that require writing.

Delays in shipment
This is by far the biggest risk and one that is hard to control as a desigener. With the shipping situation in the world, there is a risk that shipments will be delayed. What I'll do to minimize the risk here is that I will work close together with the experienced fulfilment company ShipQuest to make sure shipping goes as smooth as possible.

(The fact that his first obstacle is language and that the section has at least 3 spelling errors is... ironic )

And I like that they are doing 2d standees rather than miniatures. A project that is only paper is a lot easier to fulfil then something with paper. resin, plastic, MDF etc.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Kalamadea wrote:


I backed at the base game + the 3D doors level, but I consider it a risky KS and advise people to pledge accordingly. I'm not saying don't pledge, just saying know it's a risky one that could go south or could be completely fine . But also, this is the sort of project Kickstarter was designed for: small boutique passion project that would otherwise never move beyond a DrivethroughRPG PDF.

He does have to be careful how he advertises this. Making your own game, learning from games that came before is totally legal, but an unauthorized update to a game you do not own is not.

Calling it a dungeon crawl inspired by games such as Warhammer Quest is fine. (I'd recommend listing other games as well, several other games).

It's called an update to WHQ early on but he's quoting a reviewer.

And of course Kickstarter is not a court of law, if they get a complaint and it seems legit they decide killing a project is cheaper than fighting in court.

So yeah, overall impressed and I hope it goes well.

The feel is very WHQ with the random dungeon generator, but everything else is very much his own thing especially as a lot has shifted to either percentile or D20. You can see where inspiration has come from, but it's not a blatant ripoff

Oooo, backed. My WHQ games are getting repetetive and this looks intriguing.

I thought it looks promising, but after seeing a video of a playthrough, the mechanics just seem like way too much work.

The other thing that put me off is having double sided tiles, with the same art on both sides. What is the point of that? If he halved the number of tiles that would probably reduce the cost and especially the shipping cost dramatically.

reducing the number of tiles will dramatically reduce the size/complexity of the dungeons you can create,

i suspect the reason they're double sided is it's not going the increase the cost that much and in doing so adds flexiblily as you could have 2 libraries (or whatever) in one dungeon etc

But you couldn't have two libraries, because they're on opposite sides of the same tile. Then again, having something different on the other side is only helpful if you DON'T ever need to use both in the same dungeon. But that should at least be true of the objective rooms. And maybe some could be inside on one side and outside on the other, so you'd never need them both at the same time. I don't know. But having the same image on both sides doesn't seem to have any value.

Maybe you could have two slightly different versions of the rooms, with different searchable elements or something since that matter in the rules. Then you just use one or the other randomly.

Originally it was two different rooms on one tile, but it was upgraded via one of the stretch goals so that all the rooms are on separate tiles. Rather than have blank backs it is now the same on both sides for longevity so that if one side is damaged, the other side might be ok. It wasn't going to cost any extra as they didn't need any new artwork creating and the backs would have to be printed with something, even if it was just plain black.

The stretch goal that unlocked that says it also unlocked 8 more tiles due to the space available on the print run... so... you're actually getting more than double the number of rooms for the same price you were at the start of the campaign.

 Albino Squirrel wrote:
But you couldn't have two libraries, because they're on opposite sides of the same tile. Then again, having something different on the other side is only helpful if you DON'T ever need to use both in the same dungeon. But that should at least be true of the objective rooms. And maybe some could be inside on one side and outside on the other, so you'd never need them both at the same time. I don't know. But having the same image on both sides doesn't seem to have any value.

Maybe you could have two slightly different versions of the rooms, with different searchable elements or something since that matter in the rules. Then you just use one or the other randomly.

your right there on the 2 libraries thing, my brain must have melted then, as you say having slightly different versions on both sides makes more sense

This looks amazing, and God knows I have enough minis already. I'm very excited for this, as WHQ is a very special game, and its modern official reimaginings are just pale imposters with terrible mechanics.