A contemporary dungeon crawler fueled by old school rules, flavor, and aesthetics, lovingly re-imagined and revised.
Yes, what I really needed right now was another D&D variant…
The most recent version of Dungeons & Delvers has emerged out of Kickstarter after a rather long wait. Mostly this was due to the time it took to work through the book and apply so many of their own art pieces. I backed it a long time ago. Needless to say were the Kickstarter to commence today I wouldn’t look at it , only because I’m currently running with three D20 games at the moment.
So, what do we get with this D&D, with this variant? I’m going to bullet point it out for you:
- 515 page, full letter sized hardback with no index. Digest sized two books also available.
- Full colour, but not glossy pages
- Ability Scores are just bonuses in the usual range – array or 4d6 and discard lowest on a table with other variants.
- Choose Race. Some weird ones in there including Cambions, Cthon statues, Ishim angels, Kobold gnome like people and some standard fare. Bonuses, languages, resistances further refine the character.
- Choose Class. 12 of the usual ones.
- Wound and Vitality Points. Vitality is defined by class and level and reflects near misses, bruises and minor scratches points you have more of and return quicker. In combat they are your first buffer before having to dip into your Wound points. They are more serious, you have more of them and they return slower.
- Low bonuses – warrior classes get roughly +1 to hit per 4 levels and +1 damage per 3 levels. and multi-attacks
- Willpower points to spend on powering spells with a random drain cost and more spend for more effect.
- Skill list is a bit of a blend of a few of the D20 ones and 20 in all. Skills have ‘Perks’ which specialise your skill with lots of additional effects and use cases.
- Skill point per level to buy a skill or a perk
- A short crafting system
- Armour provides a bonus to standard 10+DEX AC. Armour also provides some Damage Resistance (absorbtion)
- Critical Hit tables for different damage types
- Lots of other useful tables and lists
- Roughly 150 monsters. Morale is a thing.
- Magic Items and equipment
It looks to be a highly playable version of D&D, with lower, manageable, bonuses with lots of tweaks and carefully applied variations. And no, I don’t really know why you’d play it over 2, 3, 3.5, 3.75, or 5e. Or indeed any other version that you fancy. Though it does look nice and cute and a lot of fun.