"What do you want to do?"
Donjon attempts to expand on the age-old player question by adding a question of its own:
"What do you want to make happen?"
These two gaming questions may seem redundant, but Donjon takes player participation to a whole new level. Players are no longer forced to watch the GM build the dungeon in front of them - they are now able to bend space and time to create their own encounters, find their own secret doors, and otherwise manipulate the game.
Donjon is a game from the extraordinarily small-press indie game company called Anvilwerks. In fact, Anvilwerks is so small that in most cases, 'Anvilwerks' means 'Clinton R. Nixon.' Which is cool, because Nixon knows his games.
The concept behind Donjon stems from an early gaming memory, related by Nixon in the beginning of the book.In this story, Nixon is gaming with a friend. He rolls to find a secret door, and the GM arbitrarily places one when Nixon is successful. Nixon asks if that door was there before he looked, and the GM replies, "No, but you were successful, right?"
The Game
Characters in Donjon have a handful of basic attributes like Virility, Adroitness, and Virility. These attributes do not change much over the course of the game, but they do not have to, because sooner or later, characters are going to rely on their abilities.
Abilities come in two flavors - main abilities and supporting abilities. These abilities are nearly anything that the player wants, from 'thick hide that reduces blunt damage' to 'mock mercilessly.' The GM has some input into these skills, assigning limits or outright slapping down the veto.
These abilities illustrate a growing trend in gaming - freeform skills. This movement is especially prevalent in indie games such as Risus and FATE, but can even be seen in bigger games like Over the Edge. Instead of assigning skill points to predetermined skill slots, characters gain the flexibility to be good at anything they want.
Donjon takes considerable advantage of these flexible abilities. Players assign a score to each ability, just as they do with the attributes. These scores translate directly to dice rolled. Gamers who detest the 'fistful of dice' style of gaming need not apply - everyone is going to be rolling more dice than a Vegas craps table on a long night.
Those who want to play Donjon must have a considerable dice bag. Players and GMs use the same kind of die, though that die is negotiable. Nixon recommends the use of a d20, but he also points out that any die will work. The reason this works is because successes are not rolled against a difficulty - they are rolled against the GM.
When a player attempts a task, or the GM decides to hurl boulders at player characters, the two have a great big dice-off. They each roll a number of dice determined by the circumstance - base attributes, abilities, weather, lighting, and all manner of mitigating factors could add or subtract dice. Once both have rolled, the dice are compared. For each die that is higher than the opposition's highest roll, the player (or GM) scores one success.
The use of successes is the real star of Donjon. In fact, Nixon explicitly spells out the 'Rule of Successes' - each success translates to one fact or one die. Facts may be used immediately, and dice may be held for the next related action.
A couple examples may be needed to illustrate these points. First, say a player is searching down a trail for an ambush and rolls three successes. He declares that three orcs are hiding in the bushes ahead (one fact), they have all fallen asleep (second fact), and the alarm cord stretched across the road has been gnawed by squirrels (third fact).
Now let's pretend that the thief is listening at a door. He rolls two successes and announces his results. He decides to hear a skeleton shuffling around inside (one fact), and he keeps the next dice for his sneak attack on the undead bastard (one die).
Finally, we will say that a warrior is performing an active dodge to avoid a blow. He rolls two successes, and rather than use them as facts, decides to apply both as additional dice on his next combat roll.
This system continues throughout the game. Everything from dungeon combat to tavern small talk can be influenced by the players. The GM still needs a certain amount of structure, but should not be too tied to a map - he never knows when a pit trap might appear in his previously solid floor.
Magic is interesting, if a little unconventional. For each level a character has in a magic ability, he gains one magic word. These magic words are strung together when the character casts spells to create all manner of effects. The example spell ‘Hellish Fiery Cloud of Gnawing Madness’ is just one bizarre implementation of this magic system, and is quite interesting.
The GM, of course, can place limits on the game. For instance, a player who finds a secret door cannot decide to place a howitzer on the other side of it. Donjon has instructions for determining what treasure can be found per success, and finding artillery beyond a secret door would require a simply impossible number of successes.
Thankfully, Donjon contains hints for running such a nonconventional game. A GM could be easily dogpiled by overzealous and greedy players, and the tips for the GM are quite extensive and very helpful.
The Book
As PDFs go, Donjon is not much to look at. Some attempt has been made to create some visual interest, but the game is about the game, not the book. You are not going to print this out and put it on your coffee table, for example.
Each page is framed by a large graphic frame. This frame is not unattractive, but it did cause some weeping and gnashing of teeth when I printed the book. After a couple pages, I cropped the PDF to eliminate the border.
The art in Donjon is interesting, but often superfluous. There seem to be places where art was just put in for the sake of art, and it often took up whole pages that might have been better used for minimizing page count. Had the art been Erol Otus, or even Lofgren or McHugh (two of my personal favorites), I might not have minded. But the art was cartoony and silly, and I felt it made the game feel a little like a joke being played on the reader.
The layout of Donjon is also lackluster. Single-column, full-page text fills each page, with readable headers. More text would have fit in the document if columns were used, and since the PDF includes both screen and print version, I would have appreciated the shorter book. I can always read across the screen on the screen version, but I like columns in a printed game manual.
While the content of a book would usually be discussed under 'The Game,' it should be noted in this section that there are several pages of material that do not relate to the game. The first is a section on how to make and market your own RPG. The second is a list of things Nixon likes. While I appreciate that Nixon wanted to share his knowledge, I do not think that the back of a game is the place to do it. If this information were compiled separately, for download from his site, it would be of some value. But placed at the back of a game book, the information seems odd. I do not believe it was dishonest or an attempt to add filler pages - I really think Nixon was being generous. I just think this was an odd place to do it.
Support
Donjon comes with a sample adventure. This three-level adventure takes characters through a swamp to face the Mushroom King, an enemy as odd as he sounds. Nixon explicitly states that Donjon can suit any mood, from Monty Python humor to horror. However, the adventure seems to say otherwise – any dungeon crawl that ends with a showdown with a mushroom is funny where I come from.
The first Donjon supplement is also available for download. This supplement, entitled ‘Men of Steel, Beasts of Terror!’ is 45 pages of monsters and people suitable for beginning a campaign. I would have found more value in a campaign setting, or maybe a book of optional and useful rules, but this is still pretty darned cool. The clip art images throughout the book are all well-placed and helpful. I found them quite appropriate.
Summary
Donjon is not for everyone. It takes a different mindset for the average gamer to see the player manipulating the game, and it takes an adept GM to handle the changes that can come his way. However, if gamers are up to the challenge, Donjon can be a very interesting and extraordinarily fun game. It could be great for one night, or it could be expanded to years of play. At $6.75 for the PDF, and $12.95 for the print version, it is not a bad deal, either.
Style: 2 – Donjon is obviously not a big-press game. The layout is not terrible, but it is certainly not pretty, and just barely professional.
Substance: 4 – This eclectic game might not be ‘one-size-fits-all,’ but it has the potential to be loads of fun.
