DUNGEON DEGENERATES: THE EXPANSIONING

THE RULESMONGER WRITES - PART TWO: GOBLIN MODE
5 months ago – Sun, Aug 11, 2024 at 12:38:04 PM

Goblins are harbingers of discord, disease & filth. The Goblins are a purely parasitic creature - a malignant disease that would destroy the people. They must be destroyed. The elimination of the Goblins is essential to the purification & ultimate salvation of the Würstreich.
- Wolfgang Zieg, State philosopher of the Würstreich.

In this edition of “The Rulesmonger Writes”, we’ll look at Goblin Mode.  As mentioned before, Goblin Mode acts as a Sequel to Hand of Doom, taking place in the aftermath of the Necromancers defeat. 

With a teetering Würstreich, the Goblins are poised to make a power play, but their plans are hindered by the current Goblin King’s wayward heir, Colin! There are other Warlords available for the top job, but what kind of Goblin wants to put their own neck on the chopping block? 
Goblin Mode needs to achieve a few things – firstly, we are adding playable Goblins!  These need to work within the new campaign as protagonists, as well as working retroactively with the Hand of Doom campaign.  Goblins weren’t a Class back then, but we’ll be adding some flavorful Weaknesses and Skills to ensure that you get a proper Goblin welcome should you try your luck with them against the Necromancer!  

Goblin Mode also needs to accommodate your existing Degenerates, bruised by their battle with the Necromancer, but ready to tackle the next menace. Or maybe you’ll mix and match? Our goal is to allow you every option! 

So far, previous Missions provided by Mean Streets, Lore Books, the Missions books, Sean’s Patreon etc. have added to the Hand of Doom campaign, creating an ever more complex web of paths your adventurers can take.  This time, by popular demand, the Goblin Mode missions will form their own distinct campaign.  

Without the ticking Doom track provided by the machinations of the Necromancer, the game needs a whole new threat – how about a wave of Goblins sweeping across the Borderlands & imminent all out war?  Whether you play as Goblins or your favorite Degenerates, you’ll need to complete your missions before the whole powder keg goes off & the Würstreich becomes more hostile than ever! 

The growing Goblin Threat will be managed by a couple of simple mechanics – there will be a Goblin Level to track how aggressive the Goblin King is feeling & a swarm of Goblin counters to show how far they have spread as they spill inexorably across the map.  These Goblins will mingle or clash with the Empire based on the Goblin Level, how much destruction has already befallen the beleaguered Borderlands & how quickly the Empire moves to counteract them. 

A deck of War! cards replaces the Doom cards, throwing spanners into the works of both sides in the growing conflict, escalating the situation or swinging the balance of power in ways you’ll have to adapt to quickly if you want to complete your objectives before everything goes to hell. 

For all this talk of War, the campaign itself will center on one individual. Colin is a Goblin who wants nothing more than to make his own destiny far from the Goblin Crowd (That's Colin on the front of the box). Sadly (for him!), that suits no-one. Track him down & deliver him to the Goblin King, or wrench him from their goblin grasp, the fate of the Würstreich will ultimately lie in his fragranced hands! 

- Leigh Shepherd, Rulesmonger, Sutton Coldfield, England
 

ART DIRECTION
5 months ago – Fri, Aug 09, 2024 at 05:52:59 PM

I lost the ability to draw like I used to almost six years ago when I suffered a massive stroke. I had been working towards operating as a studio with assistants before that but I hadn't actually pulled the trigger on it. Mostly because I didn't have to, plus it was a lot easier to just do the exact drawings for myself & not have to communicate these ideas to someone else. The stroke forced me to do a bunch of things, advancing the ball on this studio approach is just one of them. I thought of it initially like Ed "Big Daddy" Roth or Walt Disney, but the studio method is the standard for most manga artists, especially my favorites like Osamu Tezuka (Astroboy etc) & Akira Toriyama (Dragonball, but I love Dr. Slump). So I'm working with Alex Hagen (he did all the loot for the Malingerers) & Mustafa Bekir to have them draw all the new art for the game, but I'm very carefully art directing them. I had Mustafa tackle a couple designs I did back in 1996 that seemed perfect for Moon Madness. Here are Mustafa's versions with me coloring.

Here are originals, I used acrylic inks to paint them because that's what I read John Blanche used!

Anyhow, it's different, I'm getting used to it, it'll take the artists a bit to know more intuitively what I'm after as well. But this approach is also going to allow GOBLINKO to produce that much more work. So get ready.

x SEAN

p.s. We're looking for an accomplished American miniatures painter who wants to paint miniatures for us using the iconoclastic DUNGEON DEGENERATES style, please email me examples of your work - [email protected] 

EXPANDING THE WÜRSTREICH
5 months ago – Tue, Aug 06, 2024 at 06:25:31 PM

Just as in this Earthly existence we all share, the Würstreich gets more detailed the further in you look. Things keep making themselves apparent as a once innocent drop of water proves to be host to countless squirming, nightmarish micro-organisms. I could have left the Würstreich be, but more interesting details keep making themselves apparent to me & I feel the need to share them. Turning over more rocks & letting the spasmodic centipedes & squirming salamanders that have colonized the dark & damp area run wild. The Würstreich keeps on expanding & getting clearer & more coherent, not just more complicated with more details to memorize letting it feel like ignorable schoolwork.

It is in that spirit that I am going into these new expansion boxes, they seem necessary, there is so much for me to share & you to explore. The various allegiances & rivalries & illegal errands criminals do, the whole distinct lives of the Goblins & their power squabbles & the mysteries of the Moon & its cultists are just the start. These boxes will undoubtedly disturb some ignored corner, covered in rotting debris, letting some curious concept shake off the dust & reveal itself.

x SEAN

MINIATURES
5 months ago – Mon, Aug 05, 2024 at 06:10:11 PM

A bunch of people have asked about miniatures for this campaign. There are 12 new adventurers & some potential monsters! But we decided to do an all miniatures campaign next, in the Fall. This is the first kind of Kickstarter we've done like this. Part of our goal for this is to have Jaycee Fairclough (who has been doing our sculpts since the beginning) redo the original conventional sculpts digitally so we can offer them all as STL files. Doing these minis as STL files allows our fans to get the miniatures without having to pay shipping. But we also plan on getting these cast in metal for those desirous of the hard & heavy old school feeling.

We're also talking about a new Hand of Doom, some locations from the map, like this Brüttelburg & more. Because I can't do anything without setting the groundwork for something else, we're also talking about doing a DUNGEON DEGENERATES skirmish game.

Also as a reminder there's a new miniature alternating with a new mission every month on my Patreon.

What would you want to see from a miniatures Kickstarter?

x SEAN

THE RULESMONGER WRITES - PART ONE: DIRTY DEEDS
5 months ago – Sun, Aug 04, 2024 at 01:18:51 PM

In this first installment of “The Rulesmonger Writes”, we’ll look at Dirty Deeds. While Moon Madness acts as a prequel to Hand of Doom, with Goblin Mode a Sequel, Dirty Deeds on the other hand will introduce simple new mechanics that you can pour over the whole experience!

The chief inspiration for Dirty Deeds is Sean’s desire to explore the denizens of the Würstreich in more detail & add a living relationship between the adventurers & the world. If you live in the grime of the Borderlands, you are going to have to make friends as quickly as you make enemies!  If you have read the Lore books, you’ll know that there’s a lot of detail that the Base game only skims the surface of. 

A second inspiration was players’ calls for a sandbox mode (shout out to Daniel Davis at the 
Dungeon Dive!) that allows you to play without having to make your way through the missions. 

The problem with playing Dungeon Degenerates sandbox style is that without the objectives & rewards provided by the missions, adventurers might wander aimlessly. What you need is a simple driving target to keep you on the move – or maybe targets....

In such loamy soil were the concepts of Factions & Deeds planted!  

Deeds are bite sized missions with shorter & simpler objectives that you can choose to take on, giving you purpose & direction for your travels without the need for following a Mission Path.

To make the Deeds flavorful, each is aligned to a Faction. In Dirty Deeds, we focus mainly on the Bandit gangs of the Borderlands, each of which have their own alliances & enmities. Work for the River Rats gang & the rival Blue Thumbs gang will snub you.  Work for the Blue Thumbs & you’ll get an in with the Council of the Guildsmen or even the Goblins of the Badlands!

 

Smashing these two concepts together opens up whole new ways to play. Completing Deeds will gain you increased perks from the Factions you have aided (while walling off 
opportunities to work for other Factions, so choose your friends wisely!).

In the sandbox mode, the threat of the Hand of Doom will still be bubbling away in the background, but you will be aiming to increase your influence as far as possible until you rise up through the ranks to the top of your chosen Factions. In this mode, the Necromancer is just a (pretty sizable!) roadblock along your path to top dog!
 
In addition, you can add these mechanics to a normal game of Hand of Doom, fitting in the Deeds around the main missions for the extra benefits they grant you. The rules for taking on the Deeds will remain the same for both game modes, minimizing the need to learn new rules when switching between modes.

The last thing Sean or myself are looking to do is add rules for rules sake or complicate matters when perfectly good mechanics already exist. Deeds should be a simple enough concept to anyone who has undertaken a Mission or two, using the same terminology & layout. Factions work like themed Triumphs, with better benefits accumulating the further you prove your worth.   

While Dirty Deeds gives us access to the criminal underworld, the system allows for future expansions  - The Hauses of the Würstreich, the various Cults, Goblins & other threats are all brewing their own schemes in the background!  But before we get to that, we have Goblins to see/be & a Moon to visit…

- Leigh Shepherd, Rulesmonger, Sutton Coldfield, England