Pipes, Pints, and Polyhedrons

Earlier today, I ran across a post on my FB Fantasy Trip group. They were showing off one of the adventures they recently picked up from Dark City Games, titled, The Thing in the Lake (which I think personally, is a pretty cool ass title). Aside from a copy of the printed adventure, it also comes with the map and chits for monsters. All of the stuff DCG puts out is compatible with Melee and Wizard (the rule sets for TFT) but even if you're not familiar with or you don't own the rules for TFT, Dark City Games has their own downloadable rule sets for all of their various adventure lines, for free. I appreciate small companies like this who keep old-school tabletop games alive, I'd never heard of Dark City Games prior, but I'm glad I ran across it and will probably pick up one or two adventures to try out.

Link to the DCG website: HERE

Dark City Games was created in 2005 to revive tabletop roleplaying games of Metagaming's "MicroQuest" genre. I loved these games when I was a kid, and when my son was old enough to enjoy the games, we dusty off old copies and put them into action. We played all the MicroQuests and even an adventure that my brother Warren had written in 1980 for submission to Metagaming, who never replied to him and soon went out of business.

However, we ran out of adventures, so we began writing our own. By then we had feedback from others who requested hard copies of our adventures. In late 2005 we began selling our games so that we could improve the quality of the components and help defray the costs of development and production.

When we hear that other people are playing and liking them, it makes everything worthwhile. To me, this is a hobby that I really enjoy, and when I can share it with others, so much the better!

Separately, we are always trying to improve our games. Your comments are extremely valueable, and we will work to incorporate suggestions into what we produce.

Thank you very much,

George Dew

Checking out their website, the company offers not only fantasy adventures, in their Ancient World line, but also rules and adventures for other genres, Combat Boots (warfare), Time and Space (sci-f), and Untamed West (western). They even have several solo adventures you can download and play for free.

Below are some of the pics that were posted in the group for The Thing in the Lake.


Playing with miniatures, instead of chits.

That looks pretty cool, man! I like the binder of material in the background. Normally I'm a book kinda guy but since I've recently started dabbling with HarnMaster, whose publications are 3-hole punched for use with binders, I've developed a new appreciation for the format.

The binder in the background got cropped when I resized the image, but from what I could make out, it was a collection of stuff for The Fantasy Trip. Good stuff, I may even try running a session or two of TFT at Garycon just to change things up a bit. Simplistic system, but can be brutal, characters die easily.

I ordered in two adventures from Dark City Games, I'll see how they play out when they come in.

Upon the Wind
Beneath you, rather than solid ground, there is only a lightning-charged sea of mist. Arcing energy from the clouds below tells you that you are no longer in familiar skies. Recalling the tales of sky mariners you have encountered, you understand with mounting panic that the raging storm must have concealed a gateway-a gateway through which you unknowingly passed. You surmise that you have been transported to none other than the fabled Ships Graveyard, the place where the wrecks of ships lost in the air are said to go...


Shadows in the Dark
At the rim of the explored world lies a volatile land known as The Frontier. Horrific beasts born of nightmare appear out of thin air, devouring any living thing in their path. The weather and landscape too, are capricious and unpredictable. A scalding day may be replaced in a matter of moments by a raging blizzard. Where there was a verdant forest a day ago, now may be a vast desert. Now you are tasked to recover a stolen idol, a trinket, seemingly of minimum value. But Saleeb, the merchant prince, wants it back and is willing to pay a hefty fee. The only problem is that the trail of the idol goes deep into the uncharted regions of the Frontier.

Got in my two adventures this week. For $13 each, I can't complain, you get the adventure, a combat map and the chits for critters/encounters. Each one is kept in an individual baggie. Essentially what you have is a nice "choose-your-own-adventure" type game. From what I can see, this is as near perfect to a solo RPG as you can get. Dark City Games offers some great stuff, I can see picking up several more modules/adventures. When I get over my cold/sinus bug, I may try and take time to work up a short play-through video.