Name Your Own Price: One-page RPG Delvers in Dark Places

Delvers in Dark Places is a one-page RPG from Priestess of Spiders.

I was told to check out a free RPG, and so the first thing I noticed was that Delvers in Dark Places isn’t actually free. It’s a Name Your Own Price download, so I took the prompt from Itch and paid $1. That’s excellent value, and I’d have paid more.

Delvers in Dark Places offers up one page of rules for players and one page for GMs or referees.

There’s no setting, but it’s fantasy, and the system is a guideline but still pretty straightforward. Roll a d6 if there’s a danger of failure or just danger, and you’re probably aiming for 4 or more. The ref can change that. If you have a skill that helps, add one. If you’re hindered, remove one.

Magic is a skill, and using it costs health, and the spell might not work.

Characters, I think, will die. My playtest group certainly did. All the time. It’s a reasonably deadly system, and we went for a grimdark setting, which pretty much ensured we’d end up with a litany of graves behind us.

The referee support from the author begins by acknowledging that you might have a tougher gig and then goes on to monster making rules. It suggests some meta construction for locations, magical items, and how to convert adventures from a system to this one.

Weirdly, I think it’s Delvers in Dark Places ability to be a system you convert other fantasy adventures to, which is the rules-lite RPG’s success and failure.

On the negative, there’s no real reason to play Delvers in Dark Places. You already have a game that does everything this does, and if you don’t, then don’t start here.

On the positive side, if you’ve invested in a pre-written adventure and just want it prepped, any group of people who wind up in your flat can dive in and play it, then convert it to Delvers in Dark Places. Games like Delvers in Dark Places make me wonder why I pay big bucks for larger games.

Who should buy Delvers in Dark Places?

If you’re an experienced GM and looking for a convention system, a freshers fayre system, a “stop squabbling over the details of the rules” replacement system, then Delvers in Dark Places is for you.