Tony Vasinda of Plus One Exp has a new RPG crowdfunding, this one on GameFound. Entitled Down We Go, this rules lite old school RPG combines easy to understand rules with hexcrawls. I’m a fan of Tony’s work and he was nice enough to provide a quote for one of my projects, so I wanted to learn more about his project.
EGG EMBRY (EGG): In our other interview, I asked you this question, but it’s important to get the pitch for your project before discussing the rest, what is Down We Go about?
TONY VASINDA (TONY): It’s a dark fantasy dungeon crawler made in the old school style with modern rules lite sensibilities. Players dive into all kinds of dungeons, but can also go on urban or hexcrawls between dives.
EGG: The “class, skill, and stats” of the characters are fused into “4 distinct archetypes”. What are the archetypes?
TONY: Sneaky, Mystical, Holy, and Bloodthirsty.
- Sneaky covers dexterous or stealthy actions. Classic thief and rogue territory.
- Mystical is your magical or psychic abilities, but also covers logic and willpower.
- Holy are your cleric or paladin vibes with poise and charm mixed in.
- Bloodthirsty is all about dealing and soaking damage as a fighter or tank.
Also these archetypes can be mixed and matched during the leveling process creating great customization.
EGG: Do you feel that blending class, skills, and stats into four archetypes will feel limiting to players used to the variety of D&D and other RPGs?
TONY: The only two questions we got asked consistently during playtests were:
- “Can my character do X?” when people wanted to know about skills and,
- “How do I get more HP?” because folks didn’t want to die (and who does).
But we never had to explain these more than once and updated the short rules text to answer them more completely. Players actually loved the freedom of having general skills and being able to fill the rest out narratively.
EGG: This game requires a d20 and a d6. Players likely assume the d20 is attacks and tests. What does the d6 represent?
TONY: LUCK! The external and eternal force of chance. In old school systems it’s not uncommon to see that something has a “X in 6” chance of happening. In Down We Go this could be random encounters, quality of loot, a trap going off, or any other numbers of chance encounters. Usually, the lower the worse. So if you have a 2 in 6 chance to trigger a trap it happens on a roll of 1-2 on a D6.
EGG: Nice. This is a dungeon crawl with multiple one-page dungeons to choose from. What are some of your favorites?
TONY: Honestly, I am excited to see what folks come up with who are not part of the design team, but from those in the book it’s actually an unannounced one.
“THE SEWERS” by Jorgen Bengtsson which comes with a random pathway generator for sewer crawling. Jorgen is a member of the Swedish West Coast OSR movement and was one of the first folks to play Down We Go! I love seeing the small procedural or iterative pieces folks add to the core process and Jorgen did a great job.
EGG: The campaign page does not mention spells or a bestiary. Is there magic in this game? What kinds of monsters will the players encounter?
TONY: Yes! All Mystic and many Holy abilities are spells and players with skills in these areas can also work with the GM to do narrative rituals (at least when I am running it). We will also see expanded procedures around potions, scrolls and rituals in the final print.
Actually, there are bestiaries aplenty and more to come! Each dungeon has a small one, Infinopolis has one, and we are currently (at the time or writing) working to unlock an expanded one which will let BJ Recio of Buko Juice Games add two more pages of monsters. That may not sound like a lot, but each monster is written in a minimalist format that takes up 1 line of text. So that’s around 36 more monsters we are adding.
EGG: You’re working with an international team of creators. How did you connect with them?
TONY: Markus and I connected in the “Minimalist RPG” group on Facebook, he had already worked with Simone, our lead artist, on a previous project. Johnny and I work together on everything. That put us in four countries already. I asked Markus to make a list of folks he wanted to work with and they were all over, but I knew a lot of them from covering their games on our channel and so we reached out. The other major avenue was The Brain Trust. It’s a discord community I am a part of and love. There are talented folks from all over the world supporting each other there.
Lastly, I really wanted to include RPGSEA voices in the project directly. There are a ton of amazing South East Asian designers and so I just asked on Twitter tagged #RPGSEA. Momatoes and other helped me identify a great list to add and a number of them were also part of the groups above. We have five continental groupings and eleven countries that are represented in the project team.
EGG: Since it’s an international team, are there any plans for localizations of Down We Go?
TONY: I’d love that. We had someone reach out about French localization, but that’s still early on. I would love to make a Portuguese one for our friends in Brazil and have reached out about that. Honestly, we would love to see translations in any language that we can find a partner for.
EGG: The hardcover version of this project will have two bonus pages that, I’m assuming, the PDF and softcover will not. What can fans expect on those bonus pages?
TONY: ARCANE SECRETS! Both literally and figuratively. We will have a number of tables on those pages of loot, items, graffiti, and other items to help populate the world and dungeons. It will all be gameable and add to play, but nothing essential. I just can’t leave a page blank when we have the option to fill it.
EGG: That’s cool. I appreciate you talking to me about this project. Where can fans learn more about it and your work?
TONY: The best place to check out the game is at [GameFound] or to follow us @plusoneexp on any social media platform.
End Date: 9/24/2021, 9:00:00 PM
Note: This crowdfunding campaign is hosted on GameFound
“Down We Go captures the heart of Old School tabletop RPG flavor with simple core rules. This globally-developed game includes procedures, adventures, hexcrawls, and a new core setting. Venture to Infinopolis a twisting city that hungers for gold, jewels, and blood to keep it running. So grab a torch, grab a blade, and seek your fortune, as Down We Go!”
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