Dungeon Survivor—The First Steps

Dungeon Survivor started in response to wandering monsters. In OD&D, they are a break on characters spending time resting, looking for traps, and otherwise being in the dungeon. Of course, most of D&D and its cousins are about spending time in the dungeon, at least in principle. What if there was a way to balance the risk of spending time (wandering monsters)? Well, the classic reward is XP. XP for time in dungeon to encourage more, rather than less, time in the place the GM spent all their prep time.
That thought stayed with me for a while. I liked it, but didn’t feel like adding XP for time in dungeon meant a new game was needed—it could be a small house rule. But I kept feeling there was something more. That something is the idea of pushing one’s luck. If you stay in the dungeon long enough, eventually the GM’s going to roll 00 on the random table and your party is going to get burned alive, teleported to another plane, and turned into dust. Or whatever. I spent a weekend playing war games with some friends, one of whom is also working on a game (Broken Lances, which is going to be awesome!). After we’d sent cowboys, mechas, and dinosaurs to their doom over the course of a few days, we sat down to talk games and gaming. This is when the idea of using resource dice really sunk in. Dice that can disappear. For everything. The next couple weeks were a whirl of writing. First some base mechanics, then just enough parts and pieces to have a feasibility test.