# Donjon tags: #game/rpg/donjon ![[Donjon (cover).jpg]] ![[Donjon - Men of Steel-Beasts of Terror (cover).jpg]] So, you want to kick down doors, kill goblins, and take their stuff, but you also want to feel like a _storyteller_ while you do it? **Donjon** is the 2002 answer to that existential crisis. It's Clinton R. Nixon's love letter to the red-box days, but written on the letterhead of the story-game revolution. It's a game that gleefully tells you to be a murder-hobo, but a _narratively empowered_ murder-hobo. The text itself calls it a game of "old-school dungeering with an all-new bent" and "acid jam-rock," which is a fancy way of saying the GM (or "Donjon Master") doesn't have to plan much, and the players get to do the heavy lifting. ## Core Die Mechanics Forget your single d20. In **Donjon**, you roll _fistfuls_ of d20s (by default, anyway). When you want to do anything, you and the Donjon Master engage in a "Test." 1. **Build Your Pool:** You both grab a pool of dice. This is usually your relevant Attribute score (like Adroitness) plus a relevant Ability score (like "Stab 'Em Good"). 2. **Roll and Compare:** You both roll. Now, look at your _highest_ die. Did you roll higher than your opponent's highest die? If no, you lose. If yes, you win. 3. **Count Successes:** This is the key. Your opponent lost. Look at their _highest_ die (let's say it's a 12). Now, count how many of _your_ dice beat that 12. _Those_ are your "successes." 4. **The Tie-Breaker:** If you both tie on the highest die, you set those dice aside and look at the _next_ highest pair. This continues until someone finally wins, at which point the winner gets all those tied dice as successes, too. It’s a bit like dice-poker for people who find regular poker too fast-paced. The real point of the game is what you do with those successes. You enact "The Law of Successes," which states: **1 success = 1 fact or 1 die.** For every success, you can either state one "fact" about what's happening ("I find a secret door") or keep it as a bonus die for your _next_ related roll. This means you don't just "succeed on your roll to find a secret door." You succeed with 3 successes and declare, "Fact 1: I find a secret door. Fact 2: It's unlocked. Fact 3: There's a convenient, un-trapped pile of gold just inside." The GM must then take your "facts" and weave them into the narrative, probably while weeping silently. ## How Magic Works (Or: Arguing With Reality) Forget spell slots, Vancian logic, or anything resembling a balanced and predictable system. That would require effort and bookkeeping. In **Donjon**, magic is just another argument you have with the Donjon Master, but with more adjectives. Wizards (and other such meddlers) have an Ability called "Magic" and a list of "Magic Words" (like _fire_, _sleep_, or _blast_). To cast a "spell," the player doesn't consult a list; they just form a sentence using one or more of their special words. For example: "A _fire_ball _blasts_ the _goblin_!" Then, just like a rogue trying to pick a lock, the wizard makes a Test: their Cerebrality + Magic Ability against… well, whatever the Donjon Master can be bothered to roll. Maybe the monster's Discernment, maybe an arbitrary difficulty number. And what happens on a success? You guessed it. You spend your successes buying facts, just like everyone else. This isn't your grandfather's "Magic Missile deals 1d4+1 damage." This is, "I got 3 successes. Fact 1: The goblin is _on fire_. Fact 2: The fire is _green and spooky_. Fact 3: He _screams_ so loud it shatters a nearby potion bottle." It’s the same core mechanic, just reskinned with cosmic power and a thesaurus. ## Editions As for editions, there's just… this one. The 2002 PDF is the game. It's not part of a trilogy. It's not **Donjon: 5th Edition**. It's a singular artifact from a specific time in indie RPG design. It's supplemented by "Paks" like **Donjon Pak B1: Men of Steel & Beasts of Terror!**, but the core rules remain that one glorious, weirdly-fonted PDF. ## References - [Donjon on Indie Press Revolution](https://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Donjon-PDF.html) - [Game Entry - BoardGameGeek RPG Database](hhttps://rpggeek.com/rpg/597/donjon)