Heroes Of The Dungeon Crawl Offers A Simple Set Of Fantasy Role Playing Game Rules
Back when the Role Playing Game (RPG) Dungeons & Dragons was new, the goal was to try to get new people to play. The rules were a little bit difficult to understand, so TSR Hobbies made multiple attempts to make the rules more understandable. It also gave Gary Gygax an opportunity to expand on the rules with more options, leading to Advanced Dungeons & Dragon.
Holmes was the first one to do a rule book for Basic Dungeon & Dragons, and he did it for free. A couple years later, Tom Moldvay created a set of basic rules, referred to as the Moldvay/Cook rules as Zeb Cook had done the expert rulebook. Tom also created several very popular modules.
Frank Mentzer was the next to take a shot at the rules, and he created what was referred to as the BECMI rule set. This took it all the way from Basic to the Immortal set. It had always been hinted at that there would be a Companion rules set and a Master roles set, but Frank was the one to make it happen. He also slipped in an Immortal set, which was never planned.
One of the genius ideas that Frank had was to get people playing Dungeons & Dragons before they actually knew the rules. Hance, there was a solo adventure in the Basic rule book that had you learning the rules as you went. You met a healer named Alina, but it didn't end too well for her. You meant a villain named Bargle. So many memories, and just a brief solo adventure.
The last expression of these rules was the Rules Cyclopedia, which brought them all under one hardcover book. The rules seemed to get a little bit more complex at that point, which went away from what this was all meant to be. Eventually, the company got away from doing Basic rules at all, and you had to buy all the hard cover books to play. Let's not even talk about miniatures.
By then, I had walked away from the game. When I started looking again at the rules years later, I was disappointed to see that what they referred to as a Starter Set only had an adventure in that box. It didn't provide all the game play and simplicity of the rules I remembered You had to go buy all the hard cover books.
The beauty of the old Basic rule books was that you could play several adventures with just those rules in that that red book. With just the the red book and the blue Zeb Cook Expet rule book, could do an entire campaign. Two Boxed sets for less that $40.
My frustration level was so high that I decided I'd take a swipe at creating rules for a fantasy RPG myself, and this led to the creation of a game I call Heroes of the Dungeon Crawl (HotDC). In an effort to streamline it, I made the rules very simple. In just a minute or two, you are able to create a character, and there are a just couple of advanced options if you want them. Also, you only needed two six-sided dice .
I made is so people could just download the rule book for free online, or buy the hard copy for a little bit more. Most people have a board game at home, such as Monopoly or Sorry, so they have all they need to play the game with addition of paper and pencil. I did get a bit discouraged as I was put these rules together.
2007 was the year I fulfilled a childhood dream by going to GenCon for the first time. I met so many people, including Frank Mentzer, Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson and Pierre St Andre of Tunnels and Trolls fame. I also meant Earl Otis and Larry Elmore, two of the greats behind so much of the art in those books. It was great just being there. My rule book wasn't quite ready for debut, but I unloaded the Basic Charts Edition by the end of the year.
I sort of ended the crusade there, but the HotDC Basic Charts Edition has everything you need to play adventures from first through sixth degree (level). Monster stats were made available, character creation information, and the book even had it sample dungeon that you could use to get started. When I was hard at work, I even created the beginnings of a campaign setting.
It was all going to come together with a Basic HotDC rulebook and possibly an Expert rulebook after that. Just two rule books. I had no desire to make a bunch of books. This was along the spirit of the original Dungeons & Dragons Basic rules. Just a couple of books, an imagination and hours of play.
I haven't really promoted this game, but I feel now is a time to put it out there again. There are people who like to play the same rule set, so they are dedicating all of their time to Dungeons & Dragons or Pathfinder or whatever the game system is their choice. Others like to sample different things.
The beauty of HotDC is that you can throw a character together in a minute or two. It's easy to throw an adventure together, the combat system is easy to handle. If your character gets eliminated, a new character be can be created easily, just as it was back in the old days.
There are even rules put in place to be able to save characters for those who want to put effort into role-playing and don't want to have to create a new character multiple times in an adventure.
The rule books are available on Lulu.com
The free PDF can be downloaded here
The paperback can be ordered here
A lot of the work I put into the creation of these rules is still available on the old Heroes of the Dungeon Crawl blog, which can be viewed here.
