Spells and Magic
Magic is an integral part of almost any fantasy genre game, and Eternal Dungeon is no exception. Several different character types in Eternal Dungeon will have access to spells, which allow them to perform a variety of feats.
The base spell casting mechanism is quite simple. Each character will begin the game with a fixed number of spells, each of which is represented by a spell card. The spell card notes the spell type (each magic-using character uses a different type of spell), the spell name, and the effect.
Players with spell-casting characters keep all of their spell cards laid out in front of them during player. All uncast spell cards are laid face up. Spell cards which have already been cast are flipped face down, and may not be used again for the rest of the adventure.
During a player's turn, the player may opt to cast a spell instead of attacking or searching. When a spell is cast, the player reads the spell name, the effect, and denotes the target of the spell. Once the results are determined, the spell card is flipped face down.
The actual spells a player starts the adventure with can vary. Each character has a set of available spells, but can only have a limited number of spells per game session; usually three to five. The player must pick which spells he wishes to bring before play begins.
That is all there is the actual spell casting mechanics. Most of the rules come by way of the actual spell effects.
Each spell has a target, which may be a room/tile or a specific ally or enemy. Some spells may be limited by line of sight while others can target any spot on the currently revealed dungeon. These different targeting rules are one of the primary differentiators between different character types. The Bard character type has spells which affect all allies or all enemies on the same dungeon tile as the character, for example. The Wizard's spells are able to affect any spot on the revealed game board. Other character types will usually be limited to line of sight spells, but there will be exceptions.
The actual effect is always something simple which can be described in a few sentences on the spell card. Examples would be basic damage spells (which mimic attacking with a weapon), healing spells, turn altering spells (like allowing a comrade to take an extra turn, or making a foe lose a turn), and combat modifiers. There will be no spell effects which span multiple turns.
That sums up all of spell casting. I'll detail more of the actual spell effects in the articles describing the individual character types.
Basic Combat
Perhaps the core gameplay element of any adventure game like Eternal Dungeon is the combat between the heroic players and the dungeon's vile monsters. Today we'll provide a basic overview of the Eternal Dungeon combat mechanics.
The dungeon map is laid out as a series of 1" squares. Each square represents a position that can be occupied by either a player or a monster.
A weapon or attack has one of three attack types: short, medium, long, or far. A short attack is only able to reach enemies that are on squares adjacent to the attacker, but not diagonally.
A medium attack is capable of attacking enemies in adjacent squares and can also attack diagonally.
A long attack can attack diagonally and can also reach any enemy that is two squares away in any of the non-diagonal directions, so long as a wall is not in the way. A long attack cannot attack enemies in non-diagonal adjacent squares.
A far attack is made using bows, crossbows, or throwing daggers, and can be used against any enemy within line of sight. A far attack cannot be used if any enemy's are adjacent to the attacker. An enemy is in line of sight if a straight line can be drawn from the center of the attacker's square to the center of the enemy's square without crossing any walls.
Worry not, the actual instruction manual will include diagrams making all of that a good deal clearer.
Each player and monster has three vital numbers used for combat: his life, his defense, and his attack. Each of these are determined by the character type of the player; some characters have more attack but less life, while others have more defense but less attack, and so on. Attack and defense are also modified by any equipment the player has equipped.
The attacker rolls a number of dice equal to his attack number. Each die roll is compared to the enemy's defense number. For each die roll that is equal to or greater than the enemy's defense number, the enemy loses one life point. If the enemy is reduced to zero or less life points, he is dead and is removed from the game board.
And that is about all there is to combat mechanics in Eternal Dungeon. Short, sweet, and simple, as one would expect of an adventure game.
In general, players will have 4 to 12 life points, while monsters will usually have 1 to 3 life points. Players will also have, on average, several more points of defense than monsters. Super strong monsters are not the norm in the Eternal Dungeon, but small war bands are quite common. Players will be pitted against many times their number in the average game session, so the odds of survival in any particular combat are in the players' favor.
There is some room for advanced rules, especially in regards to special types of monsters or items. For example, a player may have a weapon called Orc Bane, which has an additional attack point when used to attack orcs. Likewise, monsters like ghosts might have an extra 4 defense against all non-magical attacks.
Next update: spells and magic.
Dungeon Tiles
One of the most important pieces of the Eternal Dungeon is the dungeon itself. The dungeon is comprised of a set of tiles. Each tile is a square piece of game board with a part of a dungeon or other area drawn on it, with a 1" movement grid laid out on top. The tiles are then laid out to build a complete a dungeon. Each tile is named, and some tiles might have special rules listed in the rulebook regarding any special features of the tile.
The initial prototype tiles I've been working on are 11"x11", with a 1/2" border, making for a 10x10 movement grid. The movement grid can be modified based on the terrain of the tiles; for example, in one tile with pools of water, characters will not be able to move over the water. Some of the tiles I've sketched out so far include a chasm, a room with water pits, a few hallways, an arena, a throne room, and jail cell.
The middle two grid locations on each side of a tile are marked as potential door locations. The idea is that a pre-written adventure can lay out the dungeon tiles in whatever pattern is desired, and place doors only along some adjacent edges.
One of the biggest features of Eternal Dungeon is the ability to randomly generate complete dungeons. A dungeon size is determined by the players based on desired play time; the usual size will be 3x4, and the maximum supported size is likely to be either 4x4 or 4x5, depending on how many tiles we can include in the box. The players randomly pick a tile and lay it down on an edge, and that is the first room of the dungeon. For each dungeon room, the Dungeon Master rolls dice to determine which sides of the room have doors, and also rolls to determine the contents of the room, such as monsters and so on. When a door is opened, a new tile is placed and its contents are rolled for. This continues until the last tile is placed - this is the "boss room" that contains the dungeon's boss monster.
The specific mechanics of the random generation are still in drafting phase. The biggest problem is overcoming the "short dungeon" situation. With bad luck on the dice rolls, it might be possible to end up with a 4x3 dungeon that in reality only has several tiles placed before no more tiles can be placed due to where doors are randomly placed.