It’s the start of a new year. Is it time to try a new RPG? That’s the premise behind DriveThruRPG’s New Year, New Game! sale. It’s not just a good idea; it’s a commercial idea. There are large discounts on the world’s most popular RPGs and this year there’s the double whammy of discounted bundles.
One of the interesting bundles in New Year, NewGame is Gallant Knight Games’ Tiny Dungeon. This is an indie publisher, with an RPG up to second edition and a near perfect 4.5/5 review rating (at the time of writing) at DriveThruRPG.
If the idea of running an indie dungeon gives you some concern then these 5 tips from Tiny Dungeon’s creator Alan Bahr should be useful.
5 tips on running Tiny Dungeon 2e
- Keep it fast! The minimalist approach removes the need for multiple rolls and tests to resolve issues, so keep things moving. After a Test is rolled, get moving into the next stage of the adventure!
- Be Descriptive! Load your scenes with lots of great descriptors. With a minimalist system, there’s no crunch or detailed rules to fall back on, so it’s up to you as the GM to keep the players engaged in the scene as you’re laying it out.
- Be Creative! Remind your players to be creative. Traits are a broad tool, designed to cover a variety of situations. Allow the players to use their traits in new and creative ways, by saying Yes and rewarding clever play!
- Dynamic Combat Stages are your friend! In a game where almost all PC attacks do 1 damage, it can feel stagnant and combat and feel like it drags on. Use the environment (and creative monster abilities) to force the players to choose how they want to spend their actions. Focus and Evade should be useful, and a dynamic stage for the fight really helps!
- Have fun! In a minimalist game, there’s not a framework for everything or every action. Have fun, but when in doubt, just roll some dice, make a judgement and move on. Fun matters more than rules!
Tiny Dungeon preview
Wish you could get a better look at Gallant Knight Games’ Tiny Dungeon before you paid up the US$17.99 PDF cost for the 200+ paged RPG? Fear not; we have got a preview here for you to enjoy.
In a review Halflings Luck by James M Spahn said;
This is a game that runs at lightning speed, yet somehow manages not to sacrifice much in the way of character depth and breadth of concept availability. Character creation is simple. You choose a Heritage, three Traits, a Weapon Group, a Family Trade, and a Belief.
