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Creative Projects / Text Fortress - A pen-and-paper dwarf fortress game
« on: February 21, 2023, 03:47:51 am »
Hello there!
I've been enjoying dwarf fortress since 2015. I spend several hours a week on train, and I wanted a small pen-and-paper game that scratch the same itch as df. Struck by a fey mood, I spent the next few weeks writing and playtesting a rulebook till I tought it could provide the same kind of experience I love to have in dwarf fortress.
So here it is: Text Fortress (https://ma8ui.itch.io/text-fortress)
It's a 36-page rulebook, but I spent time ensuring the navigation inside was easy, with lots of bookmarks, and the most useful tables being summarized at the start of the book to decrease page-flipping. It plays with just a six-sided dice, a sheet of paper, a pencil and an eraser.
The game roughly plays like so:
- Every week, roll for an event (there's about 70+ of them)
- Assign a task to each of your dwarves, that they will try to complete according to their skills.
Each turn takes about 2-5 minutes, so it's easy to put down and pick up.
Things that happened to me while playtesting:
- Stop a Forgotten Beast from sweeping my fortress, then lose half of my dwarves against goblins.
- My brewer started a fight with other dwarves, ending up in me losing half my fortress and having to manage thirsty dwarves. Incidentally, Koganusan by Simon Swerver started playing at that moment.
- Have a Necromancer visit my tavern, try to kill everyone, but die to a few punches from my bard.
- Mismanage my Food, get surprised by winter, and end up with a FUNny famine on my hands.
Any feedback or question is welcome! Also, I'm currently working on an adventurer mode that would play more like a traditionnal solo hexcrawl with dungeon crawling and nature exploration
I've been enjoying dwarf fortress since 2015. I spend several hours a week on train, and I wanted a small pen-and-paper game that scratch the same itch as df. Struck by a fey mood, I spent the next few weeks writing and playtesting a rulebook till I tought it could provide the same kind of experience I love to have in dwarf fortress.
So here it is: Text Fortress (https://ma8ui.itch.io/text-fortress)
It's a 36-page rulebook, but I spent time ensuring the navigation inside was easy, with lots of bookmarks, and the most useful tables being summarized at the start of the book to decrease page-flipping. It plays with just a six-sided dice, a sheet of paper, a pencil and an eraser.
The game roughly plays like so:
- Every week, roll for an event (there's about 70+ of them)
- Assign a task to each of your dwarves, that they will try to complete according to their skills.
Each turn takes about 2-5 minutes, so it's easy to put down and pick up.
Things that happened to me while playtesting:
- Stop a Forgotten Beast from sweeping my fortress, then lose half of my dwarves against goblins.
- My brewer started a fight with other dwarves, ending up in me losing half my fortress and having to manage thirsty dwarves. Incidentally, Koganusan by Simon Swerver started playing at that moment.
- Have a Necromancer visit my tavern, try to kill everyone, but die to a few punches from my bard.
- Mismanage my Food, get surprised by winter, and end up with a FUNny famine on my hands.
Any feedback or question is welcome! Also, I'm currently working on an adventurer mode that would play more like a traditionnal solo hexcrawl with dungeon crawling and nature exploration