Dungeon Games Pics

[MortiS-the-Lost]

What now seems like ages ago, I said I was thinking of run a bunch of old style dungeon crawl games making use of my 3D dungeon terrain.
In the end we settled on using the HeroQuest rules as they are elegantly simple and very fast paced. Before long everyone wanted to play and it turned into a full blown campaign of dungeon crawly goodness. Of course anyone who's played HeroQuest will know that it not the ideal rule set for a long running campaign. So we sat down and added a bunch of house-rules for character advancement and various other things needed to better link games together. We also added rules for Special Abilities, NPCs, Dungeon Events (Traps and Hazards), Special Encounters and many many other things as the games went on. To cut a long story (which I hope to be telling in another article) short we've slowly been re-writing the HeroQuest Rules to meet our own needs and at the same time I've been working on a lot of new bits to add to the dungeon layout it's self (again I'll be talking about these in a separate post).
Anyway all my ramblings aside heres are few in-game photographs and highlights of our dungeon-crawling odyssey. (Because these photographs where taken in-game and under less than ideal lighting conditions, some have come out better than others so please forgive the inconstant quality for the pictures)

Our heroes:
Brought together by fate, forced to work together for survival and then told to keep working together by an ancient and slightly creepy Wizard known only as Mentor our heroes have shared many adventures together and faced many foes. Here for the record, in no particular order other than the one I felt like telling you in, is a quick role-call of the current party


Frederick Wulfpowner, played by Axl, a Knight of Ulric hailing from Middenland, Frederick is very much the party's tank and thinks nothing of charging headlong into a room full of enemies heavily out numbered and evening out the odds using his giant 2 handed Battle Axe. Frederick has slain many beasts and monsters in his time including a Giant Wolf that's skin he now wears as a cloak.


Sliph the Dark, played by Big Cat. Sliph is beautiful and enigmatic Elven Sorceress, she never talks of her past before meeting the rest of the party, but it is suspected she is, or once was, a Dark Elf of Naggaroth but none know for sure or have yet dared to find out. Sliph uses her arcane magics to deal out damage from a far but has been known to take weaker enemies on in close combat.


Devergondee, played by Bill, a traveling Sorceress from Bretonnia of great beauty and greater magical power. Devergondee is well versed in the Lore of Elemental Magic, but prefers fire based spells above all others and particularly likes summoning Fire Elementals to fight for her in combat. As well as her Magic she often uses her 'charms' to get what she wants.


Arothorn the Ranger, played by Diddy. Arothorn used to live in a small town called Spree near the Moot, until the day he broke his Sword and found him self being constantly harassed by a group of Halflings, who claimed he was the long lost king of 'Gonad'. Arothorn bought himself a new Sword and a Cross Bow, left Spree and set out on a life of adventure to escape his Halfling pursuers.    


Raptilliana, played by Little Kat. Fast, cunning and armed with a deadly Repeater Crossbow, Raptilliana is a dangerous opponent to meet in battle, fortunately for our Heroes shes on their side. She is in fact an exiled Dark Elf now in the employ of The Wizard 'Mentor', sent to aid the party in their adventures and redeem her evil past.


Mars Grendalstone, played by Mark. A Dwarf of the Worlds Edge Mountains, grumpy and stubborn but wise in the ways of battle and armed with his trusty Dwaven Axe and Crossbow, he delights in coming up with strategies and ordering the rest of the party round, sometimes they listen too.


No one really knows the name of this crazed Zealot, played by Mutt, but the sock puppet is called Dave and is said to have a direct channel to Holy Sigmar himself. Dave's mission is to seek out and destroy all enemies of The Empire and Sigmar and bring the Old World back from the brink of destruction at the hands of Chaos, to this end he wanders randomly through dungeons collecting interesting objects.

For the first few games we played everyone chose a different character each time, but after a long 7 player extravaganza that went on until 3:30 am we decided to link the games into a campaign narrative and keep the PC line up the same.



^Bill's first character, a Barbarian investigates an old kitchen

Dave, Fredrick and Devergondee as we know them today made their first appearance in one of these early games and the 3 human misfits have been barely working together ever since


^Mutt, Axl and Bill discuss the best way to run away from a Seer Spawn (a Beholder carefully worked into the Warhammer background in the guise of a Chaos Spawn)


^the party make their way down a corridor

The early adventures for the most part consisted of random combat based encounters created by drawing Monster Cards from a deck, but occasionally I threw in an NPC like a mad old Wizard who wants to play the riddle game or a crazed Witch Hunter accusing the Heroes of working for Chaos.


^Merton Boblish the riddling wizard


^Axl's reaction to his character being given a riddle to solve






The dungeon layout is self is randomly generated as the PCs explore. 2 D4s are rolled to determine the length and width of an area (based on the MK3DD set's 2”x2” tiles) and a dice from the old SpaceCrusade game with a1, 2, 3 and a few 0's on it is used to determine the number of doors leading out of the room. The DungeonMaster/GameMaster (me!) then places enemies and dungeon dressing in the room at whim. Sections 2” wide are considered corridors and always have a door at the far end. To prevent the dungeon coming to a dead end too often the PCs are also allowed to search for secret passages which are randomly generated using another dice.


^ Devergondee's summoned Fire Elemental prepares to turn a lone Goblin guard into a pile of ashes

PCs can also search each room and item of furniture for treasure, which is again randomly generated but this time using cards, some of which are marked with wandering monsters and traps to keep the players on their toes.


^Dave is attacked by a Giant Spider while looking for treasure

All this randomness means no one (not even the GM) knows exactly whats coming next, which makes for lots of fun.


^Arothron, Devergondee and her Fire Elemental discover a room with a Demon Imp standing infront of a large altar


^Dave laughs in the face of Chaos Idol


^our Heroes loot a Wizard's study


^Dave and Fredrick take on a room full of Horrors in close combat while the rest of the party keep their distance


^Diddy, Mutt, Big Cat and Mark wonder what they might run into next

The spirit of the games harks back to the old days of D&D and encompasses a lot of classic dungeon crawling cliché and archetypes with a generous shovel of grim Warhammer style dark humor. Theres also a lot of computer RPG and film jokes thrown in from time to time too. As you might expect our games often get quite silly and become a minefield of geeky in jokes.


^This is what we place on the table when we need a toilet break 


^and this is how I some times mark out important NPCs and Items to stop the PCs immediately killing everyone they see


^(A) Search (Fable in-joke)

[MortiS-the-Lost]

and some more pics ...


^bats make for interesting wandering monsters


^Axl and Bill discuss tactics


^a Giant Spider Poisons Dave


^Dave is Attacked by another Giant Spider


^7 players round the table makes for a crowded room


^Dave takes on a Gargoyle (The WOWCCG Dice next to the Gargoyle is used to mark remaining it's body points)


^The Altar and a Pit Trap


^The Dwarf and Man furniture moving service gets to work in the dungeon


^Arothorn rescues a nobleman's daughter (he went on to put a crossbow bolt through her head later on though)


^Mark's character looses another Body Point in combat while Mutt looks on in despair


^Orcs man a barricade


^A Zombie Dragon guards the way out of the dungeon


^Fredrick bravely (or foolishly takes on the Zombie Dragon alone)


^a dungeon is not a good place to get lost in


^Rubble falls from the ceiling blocking our heroes escape


^Ghosts make for a creepy encounter


^In case you were wondering, we use the GorkaMorkA markers to mark which rooms have been searched for Secret Doors, Looted for Treasure or checked for Traps. In time we will replace them with something more dungeony


^The interesting phenomena we call 'Skeleton Conga Lines' are formed when Skeletons follow retreating Adventurers though narrow spaces like corridors



^A Skeleton sneaks up and stabs Dave while he mocks the Chaos Idol


^Fredrick and Devergondee loot a storeroom


^The Party encounters a talking Demon Door


^Dark Elves guard a pool


^Our heroes take on the forces of Nurgle


^The heroes examine an ancient statue


^chaos ensues as after several failed leap attempts most of the PCs end up in pit trap


^Dave runs into a Locked Door

More Pictures to come Later .....

[BobbieTheDamned]

Wow! Those games look amazing! I was wondering what the gorkamorka tokens were being used for, very cool. The terrain is looking good, love the nurgle temple setup, that's awesome! I really have to come play sometime. Going to get Witch Hunter Braun Von Hellsinger painted up today infact I think.

 

[MarkRG]

I never done this heavy amount of role play before and it;s awsome games.

Game on big time.

[Billiam Babble]

Amazing photos - wonderful scenery!
I now want to spend all my on proper 3D dungeon architecture and props.  Where are the walls from?

I like the idea of adopting simpler systems like HeroQuest and expanding on them.  The pick-up-and-play element really helps in getting none role-players or wargamers to play. :)

[MortiS-the-Lost]

Thanks man

The 3D dungeon terrain is based around the Mage Knight 3D Dungeon Sets (I currently use 5 sets).


^each pack contains 36 floor squares (2”x 2”) 24 walls and 8 doors (4 Metal and 4 wooden) 

sadly the MK3DD went OOP a year or so ago, which is a shame really because it was one of the few good products Wizkids made. From time to time a set will turn up on eBay, but they are very sought after (i bought my first 4 sets while they were still being made, but the 5 th one cost me £40+ not to mention the shipping from the US – still cheaper than Dwarfen Forge though)

A few of the parts of my sets have been modified or are in the process of being modified, you can probably spot the occasional grill set into the floor, but I'm currently working on modifying and re-painting the doors (some half finished doors can been in the pictures). If you can find some plastic rod the same size as the peg-hole in the floors it's pretty easy to start adding your own custom walls, portcullises and stuff like that. I've made a large solid iron door that can cut of sections of corridor and some large stone faces that slot into the door arches in place of the regular doors. Also in the works are some bared drainage arches set into the bottom of some walls and a few head-hight holes in the wall which can be used as harmless outlet pipes or the housing for traps that shoot fireballs or crossbow bolts (anyone who's played Eye of The Beholder for the PC recognize where I got the idea from). As you might imagine the dungeon is a long on-going project and I'm constantly thinking up new thing I want to add.
Some time in the not too distant future, I'll get around to taking some pictures of the individual custom pieces and writing about them.

[MarkRG]

After seeing Mortis make this stuff is amazing,  and the days he puts into a projects, but il not give away his secrets.

Game on

[Billiam Babble]

After posting asking you where the sets are from I read in another thread that they were Mage Knight 3D Dungeon sets (RIP - goddamnit cos I want some!)- so please forgive my noob-y-ness.
This sounds like some serious dedication.
As MarkRG implies, you have some talents and knowledge worthy of arcane secrecy.
(Okay, enough of my grovelling humble respects!)

[MortiS-the-Lost]

ah it's not arcane secrecy, just lazyness, some day soon I'll get round to doing a full write up of the work I'm doing on the dungeon project

[tyedyeexplorer3]

dude that was an amazing night we should all do that again and cheers again mortis for all the painting tips

[MortiS-the-Lost]

your welcome man

don't worry I'm working on geting all 8 of us round a table again some time soon and I have some epic adventures planned for when we do

[tyedyeexplorer3]

good to hear man i've come up with a name for my mordheim guy lucien nightblade

[MortiS-the-Lost]

cool, good name

[tyedyeexplorer3]

kl you think so or have ya got any other ideas?

[MortiS-the-Lost]

no it's all good you call him that

[tyedyeexplorer3]

cool man i gna start collecting fantasy now lolz and im getting my mate petes 12000 point eldar army for free its huge lolz and they're pretty much mt colours aswell

[MortiS-the-Lost]

I'm in my new house now and the new campaign has begun, in a weekend of completely mad gaming. Getting the photos of Axl later today, so look out for new dungeon-crawly goodness coming soon!

[mo123813]

Looks like a blast!
Howd ya make that npc WoW '!' counter?

[MortiS-the-Lost]

The NPC marker is made from a piece of plastic from a blister pack, I painted the ! by hand and inserted it into a card-stand like the ones used to hold the doors upright in Space Hulk 1st edition

[mo123813]

Cool
I think i'll just make mine out of card stock ;/