|
If the average person knows anything about Steve Jackson Games, it’s that we’re “the Munchkin people.” Most gamers know we also publish GURPS, a generic RPG that has accumulated so much material since 1986 that a typical gaming-table conversation goes something like this: Player: “I slash the bad guy on the left across the face with my sword and shoot the one on the right in the foot with my pistol – all while running backward, ducking their counterattacks.” GM: “No problem. The rules have you covered.” But covering everything means GURPS isn’t a rules-light game. If I claimed we had reworked it with Munchkin’s “kill monsters, grab treasure, and run” attitude in mind – a decent description of the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game, by the way – the typical gamer would react as though my name were Frankenstein! What Is This “Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game”?
The Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game is a “rules medium” version of GURPS, optimized for hack ‘n’ slash fantasy. But what does that even mean? The lightest version of GURPS – cleverly titled GURPS Lite – is a 32-page freebie that runs to about 30,000 words. It doesn’t include a magic system, rules for superpowers, vehicle stats, or any of thousands of other elements you need to delve deeply into specific genres. It’s playable but a little rudimentary. At the heavy end of the spectrum is the GURPS core, the GURPS Basic Set. Its two thick tomes total 576-pages, filled with more than 400,000 words. It touches on almost every kind of game: fantasy, historical, horror, post-apocalyptic, space opera, super-heroes . . . The back covers shout “Anything You Want” and “Any World You Can Imagine,” and that’s no lie! If you want more detail in some area, there are nearly 300 supplements for the current (fourth) edition. Content for older editions pushes the count past 500. The Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game comes down the middle. It’s a boxed set consisting of a two-book core (Adventurers and Exploits, totaling 240-pages and about 150,000 words), spell and monster collections (creatively titled Spells and Monsters), a starter adventure (“I Smell a Rat”), maps, heavy cardstock figures with bases, and dice. The writing weighs in at around 250,000 words in all. The game is complete out of the box – no supplements needed. And unlike the Basic Set, it’s pure hack ‘n’ slash fantasy, not a generic system. So, It’s GURPS?
The Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game loots its engine from GURPS, but gets rid of anything you don’t need if all you want to do is handle bands of fantasy warriors, rogues, and magic-users who visit dungeons, kill monsters, and cart off treasure. For instance, you won’t find rules for firearms, spaceships, or real-world economics. The real world takes a back seat in general – gamers often opine that GURPS puts realism first, but the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game puts fantasy at the forefront. The title hints at this, too. It’s taken from a lengthy series of GURPS supplements called GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. That series adjusts or replaces much of the GURPS Basic Set to better fit hack ‘n’ slash fantasy – and during the process of adapting GURPS to the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game, we consistently favored that interpretation. In addition to making the game genre-specific, we streamlined. We cut back on the math (GURPS isn’t 49.938±0.003% as math-heavy as its reputation suggests, but still…). We removed wordy special cases. We reduced lookups. We simplified or outright cut rules that slowed game play. We went beyond rules, too – we presented stats in easier-to-use formats. What’s All This About a Box? Unlike GURPS, the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game isn’t a “some assembly required” rules set. It’s a ready-to-play game (in a box) containing rulebooks, an adventure, maps, figures, and dice. All you need to do is print out character sheets and provide the pencils (GURPS dates to 1986, but we no longer live in the age of stuffing boxes with pads and pencils!).
So, you don’t need to buy stacks of supplements to play. While there’s a Dungeon Fantasy GM Screen that includes two booklets aimed at speeding up game play, this introduces no additional rules; it just makes the existing ones easier to use. We think it’s an incredibly useful game aid – so useful that gamers might see it as a must-have – but ultimately, it’s optional. The Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game also launches with three supplements useful to gamers who plan to run ongoing campaigns rather than one-offs. Against the Rat-Men continues the introductory adventure in the box, while Magic Items and Traps provide ready-to-use content for GM-written adventures. All three started life as PDF rewards for backers who crowdfunded the game, but the content will be compiled in print and sold as the Dungeon Fantasy Companion. That might be seen as “core,” too, but it’s intended only as a time-saver – any GM could dream up new dungeons, magic items, and traps. The point is, there will be support, but we’re not looking at a whole new product line. The Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game is finite and self-contained – an entry-level game you can leap into, sword in hand, right away. And, by removing doubts about what optional rules are in effect or what supplements are allowed, it’s also well-suited to convention and pick-up play. When and Where?
The Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game and Dungeon Fantasy GM Screen are at the printer. The Dungeon Fantasy Companion is written, edited, and laid out. Current plans have everything shipping in autumn 2017. Keep your eyes open for it – and check sjgames.com often for news and updates!
|
