Dungeons of Dread – a rant about a game that doesn’t exist (yet)

Posted by MortiS-the-Lost on Oct 09, 2011; 9:04pm
URL: http://the-lost-and-the-damned.71.s1.nabble.com/Dungeons-of-Dread-a-rant-about-a-game-that-doesn-t-exist-yet-tp6875207.html

This is speculation based on patterns of behaviour, a look at what might be - you might call it a prediction, but I'd argue that you can't predict the future so much as exaggerate the present – so maybe you should think of it as that    

Ok lets say GW in the future did another limited release game – and since they've done Dread Fleet which would supposedly appeal to those who like Man-O-War and before they did SpaceHulk to appeal to people who like well … SpaceHulk – the next game would have to some how relate to a classic from GW's past (you know when they were still respectable). Warhammer Quest seems a good candidate, copies sell for huge amounts on eBay these days and all who have played it have great nostalgic memories of their times spent playing … it.

Right so SpaceHulk 3rd  2009, DreadFleet 2011, so we are perhaps talking about the not too distant future of 2013, probably around September to co-inside with Gamesday.

The game will of course be limited release and have no continuing support – so it can't be a proper 2nd edition version of Warhammer Quest because that would require on going support. It probably won't contain the same rule set and thus they can't call it Warhammer Quest.
So lets for the sake of argument call it 'Dungeons of Dread' (Hmm - Good name, maybe I should copyright it before the subject of this hypothetical rant becomes a reality!)

and also following the pattern – the price: Space Hulk £60, DreadFleet £70, which gives us a price of £80 for Dungeons of Dread

So what's in the box?

Plastic clip-together models of course!

A Hero of each race/class (Barbarian, Elf, Dwarf, Wizard and maybe a Cleric or Thief too) all extravagantly modelled with lots of dungeoneering paraphernalia (lanterns, nap sacks, ect) and ornate weapons  

Monsters, most likely some Orcs and Goblins, maybe some Chaos Warriors and Undead types too. Each modelled clinging onto a pillar, door or some other fixed dungeon feature that will look kinda strange moving along with them as they make their way toward the Heroes. Of course each mini is unique with in the set, but is clearly re-sculpted from an existing Warhammer mini, re-posed to be more 'dynamic' ect – since Skaven have quite a few interesting troop types and creatures in their armies and they live underground there is a strong possibility all the monsters will be a Skaven Hoard  

1 or 2 Big monsters, maybe a nice Plastic Troll (vastly better than the shitty Skull Pass one) and Demon Prince Chaos players will want to use in their armies (que some horrible Chaos Spacemarine Demon conversions) or maybe a Lich Lord or Dragon or something – if the Skaven Hoard possibility is played out the big monster may be a giant mutant rat-ogre or similar and the Boss will be a Grey Seer or Warlord (maybe Thanquol – in which case the big monster would be Bone Ripper and the game might be called Thanquol's Doom and vaguely follow the plot of the book)

note that at least some of the monsters will probably bare a strong resemblance to models made by other companies (probably Mantic, WotC or Privateer Press)

Doors, probably fixed and not designed to open, but they are still nicely detailed with brick work around the edges, skulls on the base and things nailed to the doors themselves

Furniture, a throne (probably with a skeleton attached sitting on it), Book cases (again detailed with skulls and dynamically posed rats all over it), a desk (strewn with papers and skulls and quills), probably a tomb too (modelled to be partly cracked open, more dynamic rats, skulls ect), Torture Rack (with Dwarf prisoner modelled on)  and probably an Altar or Chaos Shrine too – no tables though, far too boring - all of the furniture items would be the objectives for one Quest or another

Then of course floor plans – art work maybe – or maybe photo-shopp'd together pictures of bits of miniatures like the Space Hulk 3rd ones – extra thick card of course, embossed details ect


Right rules! Well as mentioned before they won't be Warhammer Quest rules – also it's likely the game will be based around 2 players (one being the Heroes, the other the monsters) and not like a traditional Dungeon Crawler where each player has a character and they all take on the Dungeon Master (not competitive enough for the likes of GW game designers these days). A points based action system might be tempting but they don't want it to be too much like Mantic's Dwarf King's Hold (or do they?)

There will a book of hmm lets say 12 quests each involving one of the pieces of  furniture as mentioned above and will follow a set campaign story – the last quest being a ridiculous boss fight with the demon prince model which you probably don't get to use in the other scenarios.

The story will of course ignore and contradict various long established parts of the Warhammer back ground in an attempt to justify each scenario


 - all in all it wouldn't be a bad game, some people will complain about the rules, most will think the miniatures are the best thing ever, but ultimately at lot of people will be put off by the price tag  and those who aren’t will buy multiple copies to sell on eBay to those who must have it and will pay anything for a game GW could have done a lot better with long term if they'd not made it a limited release, supported it and given it a more reasonable price.

In part I write this in the hope that it will never happen