Dev Diary #4 Posted - The Spirits are Restless (Dungeon 3)

[Abe Sargent]

Heya folks!

I'm working on and off on a variety of changes for the next iteration of the Dungeon. I thought it would be a lot of fun if I introduced you to a few changes that will be happening in the next installment of D3 in order to market/build momentum, and keep y'all abridged of it.

So in true Paradox Entertainment fashion, here is the first developmental diary of D3!


Enter Chaos


We will be introducing some flavors of chaos into the next version of the Dungeon. Straight from some worlds (*cough, GW's Warhammer cough*) and specifically that iteration as told by Zangband (in case you care at all) we'll be creating a new slate of mechanics for your D3 experience!


What will that look like? How will it manifest? Obviously this is early days, but....

Crunchy Bits:


Beastman Race - As a race, the beastmen have a huge connection with chaos. Each one looks very different than any others. They typically stand anywhere between 5 and 6 1/2 feet tall, have broad strong humanoid features, and usually a bestial face, often with goat or another animal's resemblance. The Beastmen are virtually the personification of chaos. As a result, they Mutate every time they gain a level into a random mutation. Additionally, they cannot take any class that requires any form of order or self-control, as that is an anathema to them. They can be almost any type of fighter class - Myrmidon, Berserkers, Chaos Warriors, and Rangers. (Not Paladins or Kensai). They can also be a special Chaos Priest. If they take Priest, they cannot Cure or use any healing spells at all, but they can cast all of the Cause spells as though they were evil. (Although they are not evil, Beastman cannot be evil or good - those concepts are not on the docket). Chaos Priests also gain the ability to, once per day, Cause Mutation in a willing party member.


Chaos Warrior Class - Just as paladins are aligned with good, this class of fighter is closely aligned with Chaos. They control it, steep in, in, and rejoice in pure and unadulterated chaos. They may use any weapon or armor, but eschew the use of a shield. They don't have the desire to learn a weapon well enough to specialize in it. All Chaos Warriors gain one mutation every other level, and whenever a Chaos Warrior Mutates, for any reason, they are given two results and can choose which they want in a PM. They are also under the effects of a constant Luck spell, which gives them an automatic 1 in 6 chance to find anything hidden without bothering to look, and they get a +1 bonus to any effect that requires a saving throw to avoid. After all, they are chaos. Only races suitable to a purely chaotic mindset can apply to be a Chaos Warrior - Beastmen, Humans, Taurians and Trow are the only ones that can be a Chaos Warrior.


Mutations - An additional mechanic being added is that of mutation. Mutations can be cause by Beastman, Chaos Warrior, the Chaos Priest's daily Cause Mutation spell, and could be the result of magical items or rooms as well. Anytime a mutation occurs, the roll will occur in the Dungeon thread, so everyone will see it. Only Chaos Warriors are different, because any mutation that happens to them can be chosen from two, and then is announced. The Mutation list will not be revealed. Sorry, but that's the point of Chaos! But I will tell you this:

Mutation Chart:

Very Good Mutation - 10%
Good Mutation - 35%
Good and Bad Mutation - 20%
Meaningless Mutation - 20%
Bad Mutation - 10%
Very Bad Mutation - 5%


I roll on that chart to find out the results, and then on a separate chart I prepared for that category.



Enjoy the first Dev Diary on D3, coming to a thread near you....eventually...!

[The Jackal]

*explodes with anticipation*

[timmae]

Originally Posted by The Jackal

*explodes with anticipation*

Ewww.... TMI.

Looks awesome!

[JAG]

(D)3 cheers for Abe.

[Abe Sargent]

Dev Diary #2 - Out Damn'd Spot!


Welcome back to the dev diary that counts down changes from the previous version of The Dungeon, and hopefully whets your appetite for things to come.

One of the most important things I do as a GM is to figure it what works and what doesn't, and then pull out the things no one is using

In the first Dungeon I gave thieves the ability to set traps, as well as to find/disarm them, and no one ever did. In the second Dungeon I gave them the ability to find and use poison instead, and again, no one did. Fine.

So instead, in D3, assassins don't have poisoning or trap setting. Those mechanics and items are gone.

In the first iteration of the Dungeon each class had a prestige item that required four separate 100 gp items that could be found and used to craft a very powerful class-only item. They were almost always red herrings save for a few occasions. In D2 I instead used recipes of existing items, that you could acquire and upgrade. And again, that wasn't the best played aspect of the game,

It's time to call it. No more recipes or prestige items. They are all gone.

Oh, and exotic weapons? Also gone. Goodbye exotics!

In the last game, characters that died were turned into PC Ghouls and gained the ghoul class and continued to explore and fight and try to kill the other players. I liked that mechanic. But there's no way I can pull it off again. Surprise was part of its charm.

The final failed mechanic that is being pulled is size. We had three sizes of players man sized, little-people sized and taurian sized. A handful of doors could only be used by that size and smaller, and since it could take you days to get around this, this made for bad games for people too large. Instead size sort of exists and there might be a few rooms where it matters, but the mechanic as it pertains to allowing people access through certain doors is now eliminated.




Understand what the people want. And give it to them!

There's no sense over-clunking a game that is already complex.




And since we are adding in 4 new classes, 5 new races, and something people have been asking about for a while, it just makes sense to yank some other stuff out too, right?



Right!

[Abe Sargent]

Apparently that didn't get your goat up. Okay. No worries.

I will give a gentle spoiler for Dev Diary #3 coming soon - I am finishing up some of the details.


Ever since the first Dungeon, people have been asking for a 3rd school of Magic...


Well guess what....



Your wish is my command.


So here's the question. What will the third realm of sorcery be?

[Abe Sargent]

Earlier today I drew and created the map for D3 and wrote up around 30 rooms.

To be fair, 20 of those rooms were the starting rooms and were easy to do. But yeah, progress!

[Abe Sargent]

Just spent a few hours tweaking items and spells and class/races

[Zinto]

I cannot wait! The addition of mutations looks pretty interesting and I will consider playing a chaos warrior to check it out

[Abe Sargent]

While we wait for me to finish polishing the final spell realm, let's do another Dev Diary, but this time on races and stuff:


Dev Diary #3: The Pan-Planar Games



What is the background of the D3?



A pan-planar Dungeon that occurs every ten years to celebrate the Dungeon and bring in contestants from a variety of places. A variety of people with a variety of backgrounds and such are coming to Thorasia for the duration of the Dungeon contest.

Due to the large number of entrants, you are simply one of many groups, the winners of wish move on the next level.


Also, because of the number of games going on, the Dungeon has been entirely reset with a brand new slate of rooms, as well as some new items and fun.

We have five new races. You've seen the Beastmen. Here are the others.


Hobbits - These small halfling creatures are extremely nice, and fun. They are able to use a missile weapon like the bow - the sling, and any Hobbits can use it for free prior to any battle beginning, no matter the class. Also, Hobbits are really nice. So they always get priority over races when purchasing items from the Djinni sale.


Draconian - These partially draconic creatures were made/perverted from the eggs of good dragons. They have wings and can fly, breathe small amounts of fire, and are always evil. Because they fly, they are immune to pit traps, and might be able to access some places in the dungeon rooms. They initiate each fight with a breathe weapon that does 1d6+ their level in damage to one creature. However, their wings prevent them from wearing any armor at all. Luckily, their skin is as tough as leather, so they don't have some protection. They can still wear magical protection of course.


Klackon - These insectoid humanoid creatures are extremely lawful, and cannot take any class that would normally have chaotic introductions. They are an extremely productive race. Their chitin is tough and they get -2 AC no matter how much armor or class they may use. They also have infravision.


Dark Elf - No race understands pure unadulterated evil like the dark elves. No race understand pure power like dark elves. It's the dichotomy of the beast. Dark elves get a lot of bonuses. They have Darkvision from living underground, and they can cast Darkness once per day as a free spell. (No matter their class). This spell will blind one person, or drop a globe of darkness to blind folks in combat (the Dark Elf can see in it). They can also cast the Wizard Spell Create Poison once/day. However, despite their absolute power, no one trusts any dark elf, ever. They cannot join a party for any reason, not even with other dark elves.



Enjoy!

[Abe Sargent]

Oh, and we have one class that's not tied to the final realm of Magic left - 5 new races, 4 new classes


Dervish - These holy desert warriors protect holy sites and keep various traditions down through the ages. They are lawfully minded, and rules and the traditions matter more than right and wrong. They get 8 hp per level, can use any weapon, any non-metallic armor (leather, wood, etc) because metal armor in the heat is just stupid. In melee combat they can whirl and spin with a Dance of Death that gives them +1 to hit and damage for the first five rounds of the battle. They gain Divine Magic like Druids. They also have an affinity for earth, sand, and rock and that element, and if they encounter any earthen enemies, will be automatically friendly with them.

[The Jackal]

I mean, you know I'm excited. If you still want help writing rooms or anything like that, shoot me a PM.

[JAG]

Good stuff. I'm actually sad to see recipes gone, but no beef with the other removals. The new races look interesting, it's going to be a tough choice.

[Abe Sargent]

Alright, here we go. This is still the Beta Version:


The Spirits are Restless



We have two classes that use the new realm of magic, Spirit Magic.


The first is a mixed class:





Shaman - These characters lead their people, communicate with dead spirits, and are not afraid to mix it up either. Shaman can cast Spirit Magic identically to how Dervish/Druid/Bard can with other realms. They get 8 hp per level, can use any armor up to and including chain mail, can use simpler weapons - gladius, mace, dagger, sword, spear, and club. Not two handed weapons or flails or anything like that. Due to their closeness with spiritual creatures, they may also, once every other day, during the morning action, have a Spirit Conversation to talk with spirits and learn, briefly, what the routes out of their current room lead to, with vary little detail. This does not require an action or spell to use, and can be done freely.


Then we have a new full caster:


Ritualist - This spell caster uses a third type of magic - Spirit Magic. They have two types of spells - they can Bind Spirits into items for various properties and they summon spirits to have various effects until destroyed or combat ends. They can also find and hold a large jar of ashes of a famous legendary person, and gain various abilities based on whose urn they have. They can only use clubs, daggers and staffs, and they get d4.





And then here is the new realm of Magic:


Spirit Magic



All Binding spells summoning and binding a spirit into a weapon. They can be cast on a weapon the Ritualist (or someone in their party) that then uses that weapon in combat and gains those benefits. No player can have more than one binding ritual on their weapon at once, nor can they benefit from multiple rituals from multiple weapons. Note that you can stack a binding spell with a magical weapon though, that works.



Spirits – All spirit summoning creatures are sessile, non-moving spirits that have various effects. Spirits attack with a target to hit of 18 with +1 for each rank.



You may have just one of each Spirit type in combat at a time, so you cannot have two Spirit sof Pain, for example, even if you had two Spirit Magic users.





Rank One –



Binding Rituals:



Blade of Warding – Cast on a weapon and a person using that weapon this combat blocks half of the attacks that would hit.

Blade of Edges – Cast on a weapon and gives that user +2 to hit in battle



Spirit of Pain – This spirit has 10 hp, attacks once/turn for 5 damage.

Spirit of Shadowsong – This spirit has 10 hp, attacks for 1 damage and blinds the target (if possible)





Rank Two -



Blade of Elements – Chose an element (Water, fire, electricity, earth) when you cast this. That weapon does 100% element damage of that type, and can often get in huge bonuses against creatures that have a weakness for a particular element.

Blade of Brutality – That weapon gets +3 to damage.



Spirit of Lightsong – This spirit has 20 hp, attacks once for 5 damage and the target lights up, and further attacks on that target by anyone will be at +2 to hit.

Spirit of Recuperation – This spirit has 20 hp. It does not attack. Instead each round it heals the party member who needs healing first – it heals 5 damage every turn.





Rank Three –



Blade of Splintering – Each time you hit a creature with that weapon, you deal an equal amount of damage to all other enemies in the room.

Blade of Festering Wounds– Every time you hit an opponent with this weapon you give them a lethal poison that will kill them in ten rounds if they are still alive.



Spirit of Union – This spirit has 30 hp, and does not attack. All attacks on the caster (or party members) deal 50% of the damage to the Spirit of Union until it dies.

Spirit of Bloodsong – This spirit has 30 hp, attacks 2 times for 10 damage each time, and you gain 5 HP back in healing from it.







Rank Four:



Blade of Emergency Protection – If the user would die, instead they are fully healed and this binding ritual ends.

Blade of Retaliation - Whenever you are hit by an opponent in melee, they take 50% of the damage they dealt to you back to them.



Spirit of Alacrity – Has 40 hp, attacks 4 times for 10 damage each attack.

Spirit of Deathsong – Has 40 hp, attacks once for 5 damage and the target has a 25% of dying if hit







Ritualists may hold Ashes in combat of a famous person if they find that item. Ashes don’t have any secondary market value (it’s dishonorable to mark ashes with a financial value). When holding them, the Spirit Magic user cannot attack, but they may still cast Spirit Magic spells. You may not do anything else though (no potions, no magic items, etc).



You do not gain any benefits from your binding spells if you are holding ashes, since you cannot wield that weapon as well.

[The Jackal]

Color me intrigued

[Abe Sargent]

Today I hacked out roughly 25 more rooms in the First Level, and also went over the old classes and races a few times, and verified some changes I made earlier. They include:

8 hp/level to scouts
Modified XP charts to make things a little easier.
Artificer can now use combat damage dealing spells
Dropped the Taurian bonus in battle since the race lost its weakness
Dvergr upgraded from Infravision to Darkvision
Stuff like that