Is it a dungeon
When people outside break through
Doors to keep them out?— A philosophical orc
Though there are curmudgeons who would deny it,
most gamers like the occasional game session – or even entire campaign – of hacking and slashing and looting with no goals beyond improving their gear and abilities in order to better undertake riskier pillaging expeditions that promise even greater rewards. That's the essence of
GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. Still, it
is true that this gets a little repetitive after a while. That's why it's important to change things up!
Pyramid #3/72: Alternate Dungeons does exactly that. The latest issue of
Pyramid alters the usual hack 'n' slash assumptions in ways that reinvent
GURPS Dungeon Fantasy and the dungeon-crawl genre in general.
- Sean Punch's Pointless Slaying and Looting does this by eliminating character points, long skill lists, and munchin-y optimization. The resulting character-creation system lets you use GURPS almost as written – almost – but with an emphasis on the dramatic deeds of archetypal heroes instead of on bookkeeping.
- Although most dungeon fantasy can be traced to tropes from early 20th-century fantasy, it's surprisingly easy to shift it over to science fiction from the same period. In Dungeons of Mars, Phil Masters shows how to adapt the "planetary romance" genre to dungeon crawls. Explore worlds like Krishna, Tschai, Urth, and the titular Mars with only your sword and wits to protect you!
- Monsters want to have fun, too! And with Matt Riggsby's help, they can explore a dungeon From the Bottom Up. Use the eight new racial templates (or are they character templates? The categories blur . . .) to create "delvers" who are native to the area. Blobs and dragons work with cave-ape barbarians and scorpiman skirmishers to defeat invading humans and battle their way up to the terrifying light of day.
- How many undead-haunted tombs and caves full of ogres can a party raid before boredom sets in? When the bad guys aren't doing it for your group any more, it's time to raid some Good Dungeons. In this month's Eidetic Memory, David Pulver describes six types of dungeons often occupied by the morally just, along with several reasons (or justifications) for breaking in and taking their stuff.
- It's easy to see digital and tabletop RPGs as competitors, but can you merge the best of both into Dungeon Fantasy Video Gaming? Christopher Rice thinks so, and provides rules for common tropes – including a "job system"-based character template for PCs who can learn to do anything, mini-maps, spawn points, essence drops, and more. Put down that controller, pick up your dice, and load your latest save file!
- And deep within the final level, behind the now-slain boss (sorry, Steven!), you find 2d6 magic items and a Random Thought Table that explores the three basic ways to modify a genre like dungeon fantasy.