Fighters of Thaarl Updated

Back in October, I shared my plan for playing some GURPS Dungeon Fantasy using some randomly generated characters – I called this my Fighters of Thaarl game. Since that time, the game has taken off and I have trialled two alternative approaches to generating characters for adventurers in the Dungeons of Thaarl.

This article presents both of those approaches and outlines how I plan to use them to run Thaarl as an ongoing, multi-group fantasy game using the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game (powered by GURPS).

Going Old School With DFRPG

Firstly, I want to state that I have no problem with folk who enjoy the Dungeon Fantasy RPG as written – it’s a fine game and a product worthy of anyone’s attention, if only to see how to make a classy boxed game. That said, I would prefer NOT to play with 250-point character templates which emulate (roughly) 5th-8th level D&D characters. I like things much lower-powered.

Partly, this is about teaching it to new GURPS players: low points is easier to get your head around. Admittedly, this is also about my predeliction for the classic old school dungeoncrawl with very vulnerable characters.

To use these notes, I recommend buying a copy of the DFRPG boxed set. If you can’t get (or afford) the boxed game, you can grab what you need from Warehouse 23 in .PDF format. Use the link above and select the $40 .PDF version. You will want access to the Adventurers, Exploits, and Monsters books. The rest is optional – at least until you add Spells. Be careful not to confuse this with the GURPS Dungeon Fantasy range.

The Dungeons of Thaarl

The premise of the Dungeons of Thaarl is that characters are enslaved by the Masters of Thaarl – a city built near the ruins of another ancient city of the same name, destroyed by a magical cataclysm.

Players are trying to survive the dungeons, earning their freedom which costs 10,000 Gold Coins per character. They are given basic gear and charged 20% of the value of the treasure they bring back after each expedition in return for healing and access to various markets and services.

Once created, players take their characters across the blasted desert near Thaarl and enter the dungeons via a stairway underground, which is usually kept locked under a huge iron grate (itself secured by four huge padlocks). The guards will wait until dusk before sealing you in and leaving. Thus, characters must return to the surface by the end of each session or risk death inside – I have a nasty random table for this.

Oh, and each party of adventurers is given a single Ring of Return – a 12″ diameter golden ring engraved with a magic word. When activated, whomever is holding the ring (up to 6 people) will be teleported to the location of the matching Ring of Return. This second ring begins play in the hands of the guards outside the main entrance to the dungeons. Once used, the Ring of Return must be recharged… for a price, of course.

As it stands, there are multiple groups playing and their actions affect the same dungeon, meaning that each session affects the condition of the dungeon for the next session – even if that session is played by a different group of players and characters.

Option A: Super-Basic Characters

To play in the style of the Friday Night Gamers, and experimenting with the Naked GURPS approach I am working on with Frank T, try building characters like this:

1. Give the players 60 points to spend on the four basic Attributes: ST, DX, IQ, HT. Allow them to drop scores to 8 if they desire, but no lower.
2. Ask the players to name an adventuring profession and make this into a Wildcard Skill, e.g. Fighter!, Thief!, Scout!, Knight! (this is a rule from GURPS proper, not the DFRPG). They get this at either DX or IQ.
3. Make it clear that anything attempted outside of the professional expertise suggested by the Wildcard Skill will be tested with a -5 penalty.
4. Allow the players to roll one Advantage and one Disadvantage on the random tables (later in this article).
5. Give them two weapons (a shield counts as a weapon), either Cloth or Leather armour, and one of the three Quick Dungeon Equipment Packs (also later in this article).
6. Calculate the Secondary Attributes, note the Encumbrance level, and note down all the weapon / armour stats.
7. Get playing!

Option B: Low-Points Characters

This is my personal preference for teaching DFRPG. It adds back in the Skills from the game and doesn’t require on the fly decisions about what a character can or can’t do in play. Here’s the outline:

1. Give the players 60 points to spend on the four basic Attributes: ST, DX, IQ, HT. Allow them to drop scores to 8 if they desire, but no lower.
2. Ask the players to roll 2D6 for how many Skills they get, and then 3D6 on the Random Skills Table.
3. Allow the players to roll one Advantage and one Disadvantage on the Random Advantage / Disadvantage Tables.
4. Give them two weapons (a shield counts as a weapon), either Cloth or Leather armour, and one of the three Quick Dungeon Equipment Packs. Any weapons they choose also net them the Skill required.
5. Calculate the Secondary Attributes, note the Encumbrance level, and note down all the weapon / armour stats.
6. Get playing!

The Random Skills Table has been updated to use Dungeon Fantasy RPG:

The players can choose one of the three Skills on each row based on the 3D roll they make. For example, rolling a 9 gives a choice of Crossbow, Thrown Weapon (any), or First Aid. The skills all begin at the lowest 1-point relative level, depending on whether they are Easy, Average, Hard, or Very Hard skills. Any time you choose a skill you already own, that skill moves up one level – to the 2-point, 4-point, or 8-point levels as needed.

The Random Advantage / Disadvantage Tables have also been updated to fit with DFRPG. They look like this:

I think they are fairly self-explanatory. I am toying with the idea of making the “3” entry shift you to another secondary table with even more unlikely options, but this might be a bit fiddley.

For weapons, the players can choose two items – and a shield counts as one, as does a two-handed weapon.

• The Melee Weapons on offer are the Axe, Broadsword, Large Knife, Quarterstaff, Mace, Shortsword, or Spear.
• They can choose either a Small or Medium Shield.
• The Ranged Weapons include a Throwing Axe, Crossbow, Large Knife, Longbow, Shortbow, or Spear.
• For the Crossbow and Bows, they also get 1D bolts/arrows to begin with.

The three Quick Dungeon Equipment Packs look like this:

I think I’ve added up the weights correctly, having discovered the earlier version was totally wrong. Maths was never my strong suit.

There you have it – how I am delving deeper with the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game. Comments welcome (especially if they are positive and encouraging!) – game on!