Valkenburg Castle

[David Johansen]

There's an old SPI minigame about a deposed prince trying to retake the ancestral castle from the orcs and dragons who infest the dungeons beneath it. Now, this prince has been making good money in the hired sword field and has a small army with him but his budget is not unlimited. The game revolves around a three level dungeon map and counters representing numbers of troops. The breadth of a battle line is a major factor in determining casualties with open rooms becoming killing grounds. I played it solitaire a number of times and always found it challenging and interesting, which is more than I can say for some of the games in that line.

Anyhow, it was an interesting and different take on the tactical dungeon crawl. So, I was thinking about how to deal with a couple hundred retainers in Dungeon Fantasy. Sure, there's ally groups from GURPS and the cost of hiring and feeding such a crowd can be prohibitive, but assuming our heroes have amassed some ill gotten wealth and hire a mercenary company how do you keep the game interesting?

Can choke points and tight maps keep the scope of the combats playable? What are reasonable stats for a Dungeon Fantasy man at arms? Can you hire a smaller elite force or do you have to recruit and train them up to that level yourself. Will the local desert tribesmen take in your wife and son when you are dead and gone? What type of dungeon ecosystem will support two or three hundred orcs? Can Dave find and scan his copy of the map and superimpose a hex grid on it? Can he legally post it or link to it? How did Valkenburg Castle come out so interesting and City States of Arckyl come out so dull and boring? Would a Dungeon Fantasy campaign set in the City States of Arckyl be equally dull and boring?