Quantum Dungeons Preview 1

Omer Golan-Joel of Stellagama Publishing sent me a draft of his new project, Quantum Dungeons, which uses the Quantum Engine for dungeon crawling. Quantum Dungeons uses only six-sided dice but aims to remain compatible with OSR and Classic D&D dungeons.

Rules

The Quantum Engine

To determine the success or failure of an action, players and the Referee throw two six-sided dice (2d6), add any modifiers, and try to meet or exceed a Target Number determined by the situation. Quantum Dungeons introduces Advantage and Disadvantage dice: throw 3d6 and total the highest two if the player has Advantage, or the lower two if the player has Disadvantage. Advantage and Disadvantage cancel each other out.¹

As in other Quantum Engine games, characters in QD consist primarily of Skills and Talents. A beginning character can distribute three points among six skills: Combat, Craft, Lore, Physical, Social, and Stealth. Human characters can choose two Talents from among 50 or so; a Dwarf, Elf, or Lizard-Kin character can choose only one Talent, but those species possess innate talents like an Elf’s night vision or a Dwarf’s knowledge of stonework.

With those chosen, the player determines their character’s Stamina by rolling 1d6 and adding the character’s Physical skill to the result. Physical damage comes off Stamina; when a character is out of Stamina the character is Wounded and typically out of the fight. After the battle, all Wounded characters roll on the Triage table to determine how Wounded, they are, from “just a flesh wound” to dead.

Players next pick their character’s starting equipment, which includes a random amount of gold to buy it with. Characters can carry only so many items, as determined by equipment slots; each character has only (10 + 2 × Physical skill) equipment slots. Equipment, in turn, determines Armor Class, Damage Dice, and Parry Dice.

Each player has two Hero Points, in addition to a shared pool of Hero Points equal to the number of players. Players can spend a Hero Point to reroll any die roll, ask the Referee to reroll any die roll, or activate certain talents.

The Dungeon Game Parts

Levels

So far, Quantum Dungeons reads a lot like Barbaric!, another Quantum Engine fantasy game. Unlike that game, however, QD characters have levels. Gaining a level gives a character 1d6 of additional Stamina. Every even level gives the character another skill point; every odd level after the first allows the character to take another Talent. At 9th level a character is a lord; at 10th, they hit their peak and retire.

Characters advance in level by accumulating experience points (XP). How do characters gain XP? By acquiring treasure and slaying monsters.

Armor Class

Armor has an “Armor Class”, scaled to 2d6. An unarmored person is AC 7; Leather is AC 8, Chain (mail) is AC 9, Plate is AC 10. Unlike in other Quantum Engine games armor makes the wearer harder to hit. Shields do not increase AC; they add a Parry Die.

Magic

Characters with the Sorcerer talent know two First Circle spells. Those who take the talent multiple times know higher circle spells, up to Fifth Circle. Casting a spell requires a throw against a Target Number proportional to the Circle of a spell. If the player rolls a natural 2 (“snake eyes”) or a total of 4 or less, not only does the spell fail, the sorcerer suffers a randomly rolled Spellcasting Mishap.

Characters with the Priest talent gain a supernatural Patron who answers their prayers and gives them special abilities.

Monsters

Finally, the Referee section includes a set of tables to translate OSR and Classic D&D monster statistics – Hit Dice and ascending or descending Armor Class – to their Quantum Dungeons equivalent: Stamina Dice / Points, Combat Skill, and QD Armor Class. There’s also a table that helps the Referee determine XP based on the Monster’s Hit Dice and how many special abilities they have.

The Unique Bits

Damage Dice

Instead of d4s, d8s, etc., damage dice use Advantage and Disadvantage as well. “1d6A” means throw two dice and use the higher die; “1d6D” means throw two dice and use the lower die. Since none of my posts is complete without a probability chart, the probabilities look like this:

The average for Disadvantage and Advantage are very close to the averages for a d4 and a d8, respectively.

Parry Dice

Characters can parry incoming attacks. Each round, a character can expend a maximum of their Combat skill in Parry Dice, plus 1 if they carry a shield. Each parry can expend one, two, or three dice. The defending character rolls one, two, or two dice with advantage, respectively, and adds their Combat skill; if the total is equal to or greater than the attacker’s attack throw, the blow is Parried and does no damage.

If the defender has a parry die left over after a successful parry, they can Riposte and launch a free attack against their attacker. (Which may itself be subject to a Riposte.) This has the potential to slow down combat, but it may also keep low level characters from getting knocked out of the fight if the enemy gets a lucky hit.

Patrons

The Priest Talent reads thus:

You worship a Patron – and the Patron answers your prayers! The Patron may be a deity, nature spirit, or even a demon. See the Patrons chapter for details.

Frustratingly, the Patrons chapter is yet to be written. The author did drop the following hints, though:

• Patron benefits are based on level, but are not spells.
• Benefits differ by Patron. To use the author’s example, a God of War grants different benefits than an Archdemon.
• A character can be both a Priest and a Sorcerer.

Character Creation

Ragnar, 1st Level

Let us first create a Quantum Dungeons delver named Ragnar Ragnarsson. Ragnar is a burly barbarian warrior from the Northern Lands. Of his three skill points, two go into Combat and one into Physical. He is human, so he chooses two Talents, Armor Training (armor occupies one less equipment slot than normal) and Heavy Hitter (once per combat can do maximum damage.)

Next we roll Ragnar’s Stamina, which at Level 1 is 1d6 + Physical. We roll a 3, so Ragnar has 4 Stamina.

Ragnar starts with food and water for 3 days, a backpack, a waterskin, a knife, and 110 (3d6×10) gold coins of equipment. He can carry 12 (10+Physical×2) equipment slots worth of gear. We will allocate his money and equipment slots as follows.

Ragnar, 3rd Level

Let’s now assume Ragnar survives to third level. He gains the following benefits:

• 2d6 more Stamina; I rolled 8.
• +1 skill point, which we’ll add to Combat
• one more Talent, for which we’ll choose Endurance; it allows him to ignore pain, fatigue, and the effects of Wounds in combat.

He also upgrades his armor to Plate (AC 10).

Ragnar’s Crew

By third level Ragnar attracted a group of adventurers, who call themselves Ragnar’s Crew. There are six of them, including Ragnar. We will omit the full character generation walk-through and just summarize the results.

Mithrius’s Spells: Respite, Sleep

Playtest 1: The Keep on the Borderlands, Cave B

The Keep on the Borderlands by somebody named Gary Gygax is subtitled “Introductory Module for Character Levels 1-3”. I decided to skip over the bits about being a Dungeon Master, the rules of D&D, and interacting with the Keep’s denizens and decided to jump straight to the Caves of Chaos, specifically entrance B, the Orc Lair. It’s just orcs; how bad can it be?

Today we’re taking a deep dive into what is perhaps the deadliest encounter in an official D&D product aside from that tilting floor in the original Tomb of Horrors […] Cave B, the Orc Lair, that has proven to be a death trap […]

– “Professor DM”, Dungeon Craft

The Orcs

(Map redrawn by Joe Nuttall)

These orcs I converted from the descriptions in The Keep on the Borderlands.

1 HD monsters get 2 points in other skills, so I’ll give the orcs Physical 1 and Stealth 1.

The text says orc females and young “do not fight”. With apologies to (checks name) Mr. Gygax it’s hard to imagine orcs not putting up some defense if threatened. Thus I gave them half a hit die and knives.

The Orc Leader was hardest to interpret. The adventure gives him a +2 to damage for “strength and skill”, which I downgraded to 1d6A. Likewise I interpreted a “+1” magic shield as granting an extra Parry Die.

Entering Cave B

Our Intrepid Dungeon Delvers enter Cave B. A 20’ (6m) passage opens onto a T junction running east to west.

To quote the text:

Upon entering, the party will see that the wall 30’ to the north is decorated with heads and skulls (human, elven, dwarven) in various states of decay. These cheerful greetings are placed in niches which checker about 100 square feet of the surface of the wall. […] Sounds of activity can be heard to the west, but all is quiet to the east.

Just west (left) of this wall another passage opens up.

Duri inspects the niches critically, with a Dwarf’s practiced eye. (He rolls an 11, which with his Craft skill is well above the 6+ he needed.) “That’s not stone”, he murmurs to Ragnar, gesturing behind one of the heads. All six members of the party stare intently at it.

The orc guard, who had been poking his head through a painted canvas tarp and pretending to be a severed head, pulls his head out and blows a horn. Four guards rush from the east, four more from the north passage. There is a distant commotion from the west as if a dozen more orcs were donning armor and grabbing spears.

Orcs Attack!

“Like we practiced, boys,” Ragnar says. The party backs up through the entrance, planning to use the cave mouth to limit the number of orcs that can come at them at once. Ragnar, Berthold, and Duri take the front. Aelfred and Giles take the next rank; Aelfred has an arrow nocked, and Giles has a throwing knife ready. At the back stands Mithrius, ready to cast Sleep on the orcs … or Respite on a downed party member.

Initiative

All characters roll 2d6 and add their Combat score; highest goes first, then next highest, and so on. Ragnar rolls a total of 5, Berthold rolls 7, Duri 12, Mithrius 9, Giles 5, and Aelfred 10. I’m going to roll for all the orcs at once; they’re at 10. I’ll resolve ties by who has the higher Combat score.

So the order is:

1. Duri
2. Aelfred
3. all eight orc guards
4. Mithrius
5. Berthold
6. Ragnar
7. Giles

Round 1

• Duri delays until the orcs come within range of his axe.
• Aelfred lets an arrow fly at the first orc he sees. He rolls an 11, which beats the first orc’s AC of 8. He uses a Hero Point to activate his Marksman talent so that it does maximum damage (6). The first orc falls.
• Each orc carries two spears; one to throw, one for melee afterward. Six spears fly at the lead fighters (Berthold, Duri, Ragnar). The seventh comes at Aelfred.
  • One spear clangs off Ragnar’s armor; the other hits, doing 6 damage.
  • Duri takes two spears, taking a total of 5 points of damage.
  • Berthold takes two spears, which combined do 9 points of damage. Berthold falls.
  • The last spear glances off Aelfred’s armor.
• Mithrius reaches forward and casts Respite on Berthold. He needs a total of 6 or more; with his high Lore, he makes that easily. This restores all Berthold’s Stamina, although he retains a Wound from dropping to 0. Berthold rallies just in time for his turn.
• Berthold grows impatient and strides forth, lashing out with his two warhammers. The first attack strikes an orc for one point of damage; the second (because Berthold is Two-Fisted and Ambidextrous) does three points of damage, which is enough to fell the orc.
• Duri now takes his turn, also striding out and laying into an orc. Duri rolls an 8, just enough to beat the orc’s AC. Duri does three points of damage; the orc is still up.
• Ragnar curses at his men for moving out of position, but decides to back Duri up. Ragnar rolls a total of 9, which beats the orc’s AC. The orc falls.
• Giles stays where he is and throws a knife at an orc. He rolls an 8. The orc takes 5 damage and falls.

Round 2

Only five orc guards remain against the six adventurers. However, since Berthold, Duri, and Ragnar moved out of position they can now target Giles, Aelfred, and Mithrius (who also had to move out of position.

• Duri strikes another orc and hits with a total of 12 for a whole one point of damage. He uses a Hero Point to reroll that, getting 6 damage. Only four orcs left.
• Aelfred fires what could be his last arrow with a 9. It does 5 points of damage. Only three orcs left.
• The three orcs (unwisely) split their attacks among Duri, Ragnar, and Berthold. Armor stops the attack on Ragnar, and Berthold’s attacker misses completely, but Duri’s attacker connects with an 8. Duri rolls his Parry Dice and also rolls an 8, parrying by the skin of his teeth.
• Mithrius casts Sleep on the three remaining guards. He rolls an 11, easily making his target number. Unfortunately, the three guards make their Physical saving throws, so none are affected.
• Berthold attacks one orc and connects, doing only two points of damage. He uses a Hero Point to reroll that, doing four points of damage, felling an orc. His second attack also connects, doing five points of damage, felling another orc.
• Ragnar attacks the last orc with a total of 9, doing 5 points of damage. It falls.

With combat effectively over, Giles moves forward to loot the bodies and put any survivors out of his misery. It is then that Berthold, Duri, Giles, and Ragnar glimpse a dozen orcs heading their way.

Ragnar decides to retreat: they’ve taken relatively light damage from eight orcs, but they’ve been lucky so far. Twelve orcs could do some or all of them in.

Triage

Despite Berthold regaining all Stamina from the Respite spell, he did go below 0 Stamina and so suffered a Wound. He therefore must roll on the Triage table … with Advantage, because Mithrius is a Healer. Nevertheless he only manages a 7, which means Berthold took a severe injury which will take one (1d6) week to heal, under Mithrius’s care.

As for the eight orc guards, I rolled a 4, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 9, and 10. So one is dead, three lost limbs, two took severe injuries like Berthold, and two need only a few days of rest. The Orc Leader drafts four male orcs as the new guards and vows revenge …

Experience

The party gains 25 XP for each orc defeated, or 200 total. That’s 33 XP per party member. Maybe they should have stayed to face the dozen orcs, and the as yet unseen Orc Leader.

Commentary

One can argue that I ran the adventurers too smart. (As if they knew what was coming, even.)

Meanwhile the “fake head” orc arguably shouldn’t have called for help early; he should have waited until the adventurers wandered further in to get caught in a pincer attack. I figured he thought the adventurers would realize he was a fake and bash his head in.

Also, the orcs probably should have gone for Mithrius or Aelfred, but I rolled randomly to see who they would attack and the front liners came up.

Finally, I will admit the adventurers rolled well, with Hero Points to back them up when they didn’t.

Initial Comments

1. The use of “Armor Class” in Quantum Dungeons makes talking about Classic D&D / OSR AC and Quantum Dungeons AC in the same paragraph a little confusing. D&D AC is on a 9 to 0 or 10 to 20+ scale and involves a twenty-sided die; QD AC is on a 7 to 12+ scale and is rolled on 2d6. Unlike Hit Dice, D&D AC and QD AC do not translate directly. It might be less confusing if Quantum Dungeons used something else like “Defense” (DEF).

2. The section on translating monsters mentions damage, but has no table for translating OSR/CD&D damage ranges or dice to QD damage. The intent, I think, is to translate all “classic” monsters in the D&D SRD to Quantum Dungeons, but the manuscript I have didn’t even get through the A’s.

3. Generally Quantum Dungeons levels aren’t D&D levels. Players get potentially higher combat bonuses and Talents and Hero Points. A level 1 QD character seems comparable to a level 2 or 3 OD&D of BD&D multi-classed fighter/thief, with possibly some magic-user (or cleric) thrown in.

4. Berthold’s two attacks per turn seem overpowered, at least by D&D/OSR standards. Granted, if the combat had continued he may have been in trouble; he had one Wound already. Nevertheless two attacks per round (and his lucky 7 Stamina) makes him unusually powerful for a 1st-level character, even by Quantum Dungeons standards.

5. If a character has only one Parry Die and their AC is 7 (no armor), they only have a 1 in 6 chance of parrying an incoming attack. If they wear armor, they have no chance. Thus a single Parry Die, whether from a low Combat skill or having parried blows already, is better used to Riposte if possible.

Next Time

In my next Quantum Dungeons post I’ll run Ragnar’s Crew through either a Shadowdark or Old School Essentials full adventure. I’m looking at adventures for 3rd level or higher, since QD characters seem so competent.