2HDC - Test Setup

As I am running through this myself, thought I'd be as well to echo my test party generation process here as well for any curious gamers. These steps are in the "Stop" sections of the rule book as you work through it, but sometimes it's handy to have an example the process all together to get the idea. No matter how many THW rules I pick up the random game generation of a new game always seems hard work at the start.



Like most THW games, you play the "Star" and the other characters are "Grunts".

For the dungeon party I can have party size up to the Star's REP. The Standard Star REP is 5, so I can have 4 grunts. For the sake of simplicity I am only going to take 2.

I've decided to be Human, which means that I can recruit Humans, Dwarves or Elves [Pg.7;13.1] . There is no table (shockingly enough) to randomise the race of grunt for these choices, but I rolled a couple of d3 and ended up with a Human and an Elf.

I randomised all 3 character professions. So off to the relative race recruitment tables I ended up with myself as a Warrior, a human thief [Pg.30;table 7.0.8] and an Elf Bowman [Pg.29;table 7.0.4]. (in actual fact I really rolled a shooter for my human grunt but didn't have the figure so rolled again!). As instructed I rolled 1d6 for each grunt to see if they were of higher or lower REP than normal. I rolled a 6 for the Thief so his REP could have been increased to 5 but as ,Capthugeca correctly mentioned in the comments below, a grunt must have a lower REP that the Star. A 3 for the Elf means his REP stayed the same. These tables also contain the attribute inherent to each race (something all you Pencil & Paper RPGers out there will recognise!)

The profession of each character also gives an extra attribute. [Pg31:tables 9.0.1-7].

This is now my small adventuring party.

	REP	Armour	Weapon	Special Rules
Human Warrior	5	2 (+1 to Impact when hit) Shield (+1d6 melee)	Sword	Min 1 success in Melee [Human:Resolute] +2 Success in Test for Charge [Warrior]
Human Thief	4	2 (+1 to Impact when hit)	Sword	Min 1 success in Melee [Human:Resolute] Roll 3d6 instead of 2d6 for Trap\Room Searches [Thief]
Elf Shooter	4	2 (+1 to Impact when hit)	Bow	No penalty for ranged attack [Shooter] -1 to Impact when hit [Elf:Slippery]

Now for the "Big Bad", or in other words the Boss of the Dungeon...

I roll an 8 on the "Big  Bad" table [pg.38:table35.1] - an Orc. I've upped his REP to match my Star's REP (he is the Dungeon Boss after all!). Then off to the Orc Racial Table [pg30;table 7.0.10] to find his class and stats. Again he'll have a few attributes for race and profession.

Now as an NPC there is a chance he'll have a magical item [pg19;30.3], so I roll a d6 and score a success (1,2or3, in this case a 2) so he had a magical item. Rolling on the NPC magic item table [pg37;table30.3] I roll an 8: weapon and on the magic weapon table [pg38;table 30.1.4] I roll and find he has "True Arrows" on him. Fortunately he has a sword, so hopefully my Elf will loot them later...

	REP	Armour	Weapon	Special Rules
Orc Warrior	4	4 Shield (+1d6 melee)	Sword True Arrows	+1 Success in Test for Charge [Orc:Rage] +2 Success in Test for Charge [Warrior]

Now for the Mission and Dungeon.

I've rolled on the "Reason Why" table [Pg.38; table 35.3] and been given a Rescue mission. There will be a single NPC in the "treasure room" to escape with.

And now for the Dungeon,

Although sometimes I may want to just make up a Dungeon I want to test the random mechanics here, so off I trot to the Dungeon Generation Table [pg39;table 39.0]. The Big Bad REP is 4, the rules recommend having a dungeon of around 4 times the Big Bad REP, so about 16 tiles in this case. The dungeon could be generated as the party move through it, but as I am using resin peices I want my dungeon pre-laid out.

A few minutes of fun rolling later I have a rough map: I've used 20 tiles. Due to the amount of corridors I rolled I haven't put separate exits in my rooms, as dictated by the rules [pg23]. but there is a pleasing logic to this layout. The final tile to be placed is the "Treasure Room".

Pulling out my Pendraken dungeon pieces the map has roughly translated into this setup. One of the challenges with going from paper to "real" is that paper is a lot more flexible, but I think if I can keep the spirit of the paper layout  (or at least use itfor guiding inspiration that'll work fine.

(oh, and I need to get the rest of my doors painted up!)