Yesterday Mike & I got together to give the ideas that I had mentioned in my Reuse & Recycle blog about using some old board games such as the 2003 Dungeons & Dragons board game as the basis for a Pulp Alley Dungeon Crawl game. We played the first scenario from the D&D campaign, ‘The Goblin Bandits’, as a 2 player (versus) style game. This worked well, but I think the big win is going to be solo gaming, using the Pulp Alley solo deck to give an ‘intelligent opponent’. I will try to give this a go at the weekend, and let you know how it goes!
Mike brought along a Dwarven League rather than using the D&D adventuring party and reimagined the scenario as a group of Dwarves attempting a heist on the vaults under Gringotts Wizarding Bank. Mike’s Dwarf models are from North Star’s Oathmark range.
The raiders started off in the top right section of the dungeon map. We decided that each square would count as an inch giving 6 square normal movement, 12 square for running, although the whole dungeon was declared as a ‘difficult area’ as it is dark and uneven flagstones, so moving over 6 squares would trigger a peril. We also decided that if a model is knocked down in a doorway, crossing that doorway was ‘perilous’ unless as an action, a character pulled it out of the way (at which point if it failed it’s recovery check it would be removed, as normal). The image below shows the rules I had devised for doors. Doors could be either Trapped, Barricaded, Locked or Unlocked determined by turning a Fortune card and consulting the story icon.
Mike’s Dwarven sidekick tried the door in the first turn, found it was trapped and set the trap off. On the second turn he opened the door and was attacked by the Goblin guarding it. It was first dice roll of the game and the Goblin rolled four successes on his 4D against zero successes for the Dwarf on his 4D8. The Goblin rolled four sixes a 1:1,296 chance! The Dwarf had the ‘Savage’ trait so elected to fight again. This turn they both caused a wound and both ‘went down’ creating a ‘perilous area’ around the door way!
The Dwarven sidekick recovers and they push on through the dungeon. The next door is barricaded, requiring a might check to batter it down (much more to the Dwarves taste than fiddling with locks!)
A pair of Dwarves were dispatched to hurry across the next room to investigate the Treasure Chests. I had made a Treasure Chest deck of 10 cards which is part of the Character Card Download. The cards include major and minor plot point cards together with traps, reposition and healing potion cards. The first treasure chest contained a minor plot point, so a Fortune card was turned as normal to determine the peril.
The next doorway was defended by the Goblin Boss (leader) and a normal Goblin. The Dwarven Leader assisted by various party members fought an epic battle that went to and fro over several turns before the Dwarves finally prevailed.
As the Dwarves had not lost any casualties and there were only three Goblin (allies) left we decided to call it a Dwarf victory at that point and chat through how the system could be further improved.
Although it looks that the D&D gameboards are small compared to the normal 3′ table that is used for Pulp Alley, as there is a long and winding path from start position to objective room it is unlikely that a party would make it in the normal 6-8 turns of a Pulp Alley game. For this first game we played without a turn limit. This meant there was no time pressure, everything could be done very cautiously meaning the attackers were most likely to eventually get to there objective. The rule we are going to try next time is that at the end of each turn the adventurers draw a challenge from the fortune deck that they can attempt with any party member. If they fail the 6 turn countdown clock is set. They’ve triggered an alarm and the pressure is on.
The second idea was to make it a little less predictable we would make an encounter deck. The Denizens would still have a normal Pulp Alley League, but a card would be placed face down in each room, turned on entry. The room could have 0, 1, 2 or 3 characters in it or maybe an additional trap peril. The exact characters in the room would be drawn at random from character cards. This would also give the option of facing more than a standard 10 point league. If additional Denizens were required they would be recycled from Denizens that had previously ‘gone down’ and been removed from play.
We will try this next time and let you know how it works!
Useful Links:
Download free introductory Pulp Alley rules including Fortune & Solo Deck
Download Character and Treasure Cards for playing Scenario
Pulp Alley store at Sally 4th for all Pulp Alley books, cards & miniatures.
Army Painter Speed Paint store at Sally 4th for quickly transforming miniatures!
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