Planet Thirteen Games.
Welcome to Planet Thirteen Games, the home of the games of Tony Dowler.
How to Host a Dungeon
For the Love of Dungeons
Sexy Deadly
Alpha Destructicus
Principia: Secret Wars of the Renaissance RPG(under development)
Sea of Stars(past projects)
Attacks of Opportunity Blog
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Dark Elf Tutorial
Dark Elf Tutorial
I get more questions about the Dark Elves than any other thing in How to Host a Dungeon. Their weird little civilization seems to spiral into cascading slave revolts very quickly. This isn't actually a bad thing, but it can be annoying. If you're one of the annoyed, just skip to the variant rule at the bottom of this post. I highly recommend it.
The Dark Elves are the most unstable of all the civilizations, and making a slightly different interpretation of the rules can make a radical change in how they behave.
Here's a pretty generic Dark Elf development schedule. If you interpret the rules a bit differently, that's OK, you might just get a faster revolution.
- First year starts, the Dark Elf city has 3 nobles (N) and 3 slaves (S)
Spring: a new colony is founded
- City: 2N, 2S
- Colony 1: 1n, 1s
However, if there are no colony sites, the city adds 1S instead.
- Summer: the colon mines and grows
- City: 2N, 2S
- Colony 1: 2n, 2s
If there's nothing to mine, every Dark Elf site adds slaves instead, and you're on the fast track to a massive slave revolt
- Fall: Build stuff
Winter: city adds 1 slave
- City: 2N, 3S
- Colony: 2n, 2s
Finally, the city gathers new slaves if there are any around, which can also help trigger an early revolt.
For a longer-lasting, more stable Dark Elf civilization, simply don't add the extra slave to the city in the winter. Your Dark Elves are then much more likely to last to the end of their complete civilization cycle.
Labels: how to host a dungeon, tutorial
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New Google Group for How to Host a Dungeon fans
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How to Host a Dungeon on YouTube
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How to Host a Dungeon: Revised Edition!
The revised edition of How to Host a Dungeon is now available! This edition features some rules clarifications (especially for the Dark Elf civilization), as well as new rules for aquatic and lava-inhabiting monsters, floods, and strange new worlds such like coastal regions, mountain ranges, and the Hollow Earth.
http://planet-thirteen.com/Dungeon.aspxAlso, if you're going to be at Gen Con this year, stop by the Forge Booth and visit me!
Labels: how to host a dungeon
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HtHaD at the Chatty DM
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Curufea Does it Right!
I just had to post
this dungeon by Curufea. He's posted the history along with progressive screenshots showing the evolution of the dungeon. He's also got a custom monster group he created, the Kesh, a group of monster insectoids. It's cool!
Labels: actual play, how to host a dungeon
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Dungeon Time Lapse
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Simulationist Play and Hosting a Dungeon
I've never been a theory hound. In Forge Terminology 101, I always get a C+. But lately I've been investigating what's called simulationist play, and I ran across this great quotation in
Ron Edwards' essay on simulation:
Another derivation of the Purist for System approach brings the Setting creation process directly into play itself. The System-driven elements of the Setting are as "active" as any particular character might be, during play as well as during preparation. Basically, the setting is played, even created, as a part of regular play.
Boink! I just realized that the original Traveller, or at least one way to play it, represents an example of this approach. Star system and planet creation are written right into the process of play, such that adventures and missions become not only a means of enjoying and improving characters, but also a means of enjoying and basically mapping the game-space.
That's a wonderful summary of what I was thinking behind How to Host a Dungeon. It's a sorely neglected kind of play, IMHO, at best relegated to a "preparation phase" before the "serious play" starts, at worst ignored.
Labels: how to host a dungeon, theory
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Maps are Palimpsests
In case it wasn't obvious. I'm a huge map geek. This post about
Eastern European electoral politics caught my eye. Apparently Polish voters still fall into regional categories according to borders of the old German Empire. That's pretty wild. It's as though a map of old Europe were still lurking down there under the current one. It bears a similarity to a certain dungeon game I'm fond of.
Labels: how to host a dungeon, maps
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HTHAD on Board Game Geek
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How to Host a Dungeon Linkfest
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How to Host a Dungeon Now on Sale
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The Return
I'm back from Gen Con and way to tired to write anything substantive now. Suffice to say that How to Host a Dungeon sold well. This was my first printed game at my first Gen Con and I'l overjoyed with the results. Thanks everyone who bought, demo'ed, or spread the word about the game!
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Back from Print!
How to Host a Dungeon came back from the printers today (and not a second too soon). The layout is gorgeous, but some of the graphics are more pixellated than I'd like. Fortunately, some friends talked me down from scrapping the whole run.
So How to Host a Dungeon customers, if you buy the game and find the graphics are too pixellated for your liking, I'll replace your copy from the second printing free of charge.
Update: And here's how to find it! Come to the Forge Booth at Gen Con. I'll be there much of the day giving demos of the game as well.
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Printing!
I've got a serious case of the pre Gen Con jiters.
How to Host a Dungeon is at the printers. I'm cutting it very close for Gen Con, I know, but editing and layout just ran longer than expected. I'm very pleased with how the artwork turned out. I hope to have some preveiws up when I get a minute. The game is going to be packaged in some slick hard plastic reusable envelopes. I went this route because I'm printing the game as a series of reference cards rather than a book. I think that will be more useful. Also, each envelope includes three sheets of tracing paper. That's free tracing paper, folks! Plus the print edition includes the Demon Civilization and the Alpha Predators, which are lacking from the current pdf version.
Gen Con, here I come!
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Megadungeon Stocking
I'm still working away at the Gen Con edition of How to Host a Dungeon. We (that is my layout guy, Ben Lehman and I) are talking about laminated cards with each card being a different monster group/villain/civilization. I've also got about half the artwork done (including an homage to Erol Otus that I'm rather happy with).
In the meantime, here's an awesome thread on Dragonsfoot that I just discovered:
Megadungeon Stocking.
Labels: how to host a dungeon, megadungeon
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How to Host a Dungeon 1.4
A new version of How to Host a Dungeon has been posted on
The Dungeon Page. I've been playtesting and revising a lot. This version still has a few rough spos, but it's a lot clearer and runs more smoothly.
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Principia and Dungeon Updates
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More HTHAD Updates
More How to Host a Dungeon updates! I have corrected numerous inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and errors in the rules to make them ever so slightly clearer.
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More How to Host a Dungeon Updates
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Ziggurat of the Dwarf Lords
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New Dungeon Pictures
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