As I talked about last week I finally received my Tiny Dungeon 2E rulebook from their recent Kickstarter and I wanted to take a little bit of time to talk about my impressions of the game and some of the design decisions that they took. As I stated, I’m not necessarily always a fan of RPGs that classify themselves as “minimalist.” And while my days of being able to spend hours and hours on games like Pathfinder are well behind me, I am still a fan of some level of crunch in my games, especially if I am going to play them for anything beyond a one shot.
This is where your standard “minimalist” RPG leaves me high and dry – I have found that they oftentimes aren’t created in a way that supports campaign play, either through lack of character advancement options entirely, or by doing so in ways that advance the character’s narrative without necessarily making them feel any different mechanically. I need to feel that sense of accomplishment, that my character is getting better at something as they grow through the adventures they are having.
Tiny Dungeon does not feel like it has that problem at all. And while I don’t know that I could see it being used for sweeping and epic campaigns that last years (at least for myself), there is enough “stuff” within the system that could easily keep a game going for a dozen or so sessions.
At its core, Tiny Dungeon uses the TinyD6 engine. When you need to make a test, you roll 2d6 and if either of those dice come up as a 5 or 6 you have succeeded. You can gain advantage on a roll which gives you 3d6 to roll, or disadvantage on a roll which only allows you to roll 1d6. Test resolution is fast and slightly weighted towards character success while still allowing ample opportunity for drama to be generated from a test failing. Tests are usually active things, with the characters attempting to overcome an obstacle, but there are times when you will need to make a Save Test in reaction to an obstacle like a trap or unexpected danger.
That brings us to combat – combat is turn-based with Initiative being determined by the total number on a 2d6 roll and proceeding from highest to lowest. During your turn, you have two actions which you can use to move, attack, or perform some other quick action such as drawing a weapon, using an item, or opening or closing a door. Movement can be a little more concrete, with characters able to move 25 feet with an action. There are three classifications of weapons – Light Melee, Heavy Melee, and Ranged which all have various benefits and drawbacks. Light Melee weapons such as daggers, short swords, or hand axes can only be used against opponents within 5 feet but can be wielded one-handed. Heavy Melee weapons such as broadswords, battle axes, or mauls require you to use both hands to wield them but can strike at opponents out to 10 feet. Ranged weapons like bows, crossbows, and slings can be used at any distance on the battlefield, require two hands to use, and require the wielder to spend an action to load the weapon before they can fire it.
Alternatively, the book includes a more abstract “zone” method of determining movement and positioning. Within this system there are three distinct zones – close, near, and far. Light Melee weapons can only strike against targets at close range, Heavy Melee weapons can strike targets at either close or near, and Ranged weapons can strike targets at near or far. In this more abstract movement system, the characters can spend one action to move from one zone to the next (close to near, or near to far). In this system, the enemies do not move, staying stationary while the characters move about the battlefield. This is obviously not the case within the narrative, but as far as the rules are concerned for this system, they do not need to move, they are the centerpieces.
If you are within range, attacking a target is resolved as a simple test. Skill with a weapon or unfamiliarity with another weapon resolves itself as either advantage or disadvantage to the attack roll. If you hit, you deal one point of damage to the target, regardless of the weapon you choose to use. Hit Points themselves are therefore rather low, with heroes typically only having a handful of them. Monsters on the other hand will have anywhere from 1 Hit Point (for the nameless minions) to 15+ (representing the truly powerful threats like dragons and such).
Character generation and advancement are likewise simple. When creating your character, you choose a heritage, which determines your hit point total as well as one of your character traits. You then choose three more traits from a small list to further flesh out your character’s abilities. These traits include abilities that grant you advantage in certain situations, allow you to take hits meant for allies, and work magic. The list isn’t small, so you’re never overwhelmed, but widely varied. It allows you to create really any character you wish without feeling starved for options. In fact, as I noted last week, I had to make decisions regarding which traits I wanted to start with. Then you choose one group of weapons to be proficient with. From that group, you choose one weapon to have mastered, which grants you advantage on attacks made with that specific weapon. Next, you choose a certain skill your character learned in their past, such as smithing, weaving, or ale-making, either from your family or other mentor. You gain advantage on tests where you can put this knowledge to use. And finally, you choose a belief, a simple statement that is your character’s guiding principle during play.
Your character begins play with a single weapon, and a small selection of other standard adventuring gear. Armor provides no mechanical benefit in this system, so you are free to decide what your character is wearing. The book provides a couple of options for character advancement. The minimalist advancement simply states that each character should gain new trait every three sessions up to a maximum of seven. They also provide a system for earning and spending experience points which can be spent to increase your hit points, gain new proficiencies or mastered weapons, or earn new traits. The book provides additional optional rules for “Prestige Traits” which are more powerful character options as well as optional rules for handling weapon damage, introducing armor, or rules for vehicles and mounts.
Only the first 40 pages of the book or so focus on the rules and character creation. The rest of the book is full of advice for how to create and run effective adventures, a generator to give you seed ideas to create your own adventures and covers 20* different “micro-settings” to inspire you in the various ways that you can use the system to run your own games. These are obviously going to be hit or miss for each individual GM, but they all have value as ways that other writers have used the system for their own ends.
All in all, this book is absolutely worth the money you will spend on it. You can get the PDF currently for $19.99. At this point I am not sure if the physical book is available for retail yet, but it appears it should retail for around $35.00.
*Currently it is 18. There was a printing mistake where two of the micro-settings were not included. This is currently being corrected.
Ben Erickson
