A downloadable RPG

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For the Dungeon! is a comedy role-playing game where you get to play as the hapless minions instead of the heroes. Experience the rush of unquestioning loyalty to a darker power and charging into danger with reckless abandon! Raid villages, scout ancient ruins for artifacts, and protect the dungeon from homicidal adventurers.

Instead of a well established world, the game uses principles taken from Powered by the Apocalypse style games and improv comedy to create the setting. For the Dungeon! relies heavily on player created prompts that are interpreted by the Game Master to reveal the details of the world.

The game is designed to be fast-paced, with a focus on creating memorable moments. Because the game is light and has a greater focus on the story, anybody can pick up and play with minimal effort. The fun is created more through the unexpected scenarios the players get themselves into than by studying rules.


So how do you play? Characters are represented by a set of short descriptions called traits. They cover a character's skills, equipment, and motivations. Traits provide an easy way to know both who your character is and what they're good at.

Something inherent to being a minion is their penchant for chaos. Critical failures are a core part of what makes the game unique and fun. Whenever the characters critically fail the player provides a prompt that the Game Master uses as inspiration for whatever hilariously unexpected misfortune befalls them.

With failure comes experience. When a minion rolls a critical failure they write down what they learned from the experience instead of tracking experience points. These experiences can be used just like traits, but only as long as you continue to succeed.

In addition to playing as a minion, all players get to influence what is going on in the dungeon. During downtime, players choose from a handful of dungeon actions that alter the world to naturally create interesting story hooks to pursue.


StatusReleased
CategoryPhysical game
Rating
Rated 4.9 out of 5 stars
(97 total ratings)
AuthorJordan Palmer
TagsComedy, Fantasy, improv, Kickstarter, PbtA, role-play, Tabletop role-playing game

Purchase

Buy Now$19.00 USD or more

In order to download this RPG you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $19 USD. You will get access to the following files:

For the Dungeon 45 MB
Character Sheet 206 kB
Moves Handout 826 kB
Dungeon Actions Map 14 MB
Prompt Cards 1 MB

RPG

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Community Copies

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Development log

Comments

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Was reading through the rules and I mostly understand everything, but I was wondering what the advantage to having the Breaker and Slippery perks is. Can you not break things or slip away without them? Or do they just make it easier? If you can break things without Breaker, would it be through Cunning Ploy or Get Violent?

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This game is wonderful. I made a group of undead serving a weird Lord Acererak and we had fun for hours. Possibly starting an open campaign. XD

It’s brilliant: it really shows how PbtA related games can be far less restrictive and the addition of FitD like mechanics and cycles makes it a funny and well thought experiment! 

Will physical copies ever be available again through DriveThruRPG print-on-demand, Lulu, etc.?

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A frenetic, fast and gloriously silly game with a wonderful comic perspective with a serious emphasis on improvisation and having a fun time!

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My friend and I played "For the Dungeon!" on our podcast "1 hour 1 shot ttrpg" and had a real good time with it.  We played it as 1 moderator and 1 player.

If you want to hear some game play, please check it out here:

 https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/FGbPUfEz6vb

This looks lovely! Is it possible to play this as solo play?

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I got to try this out at Breakout in Toronto this weekend and it was an absolute hoot! The mechanics and prompts lead to a lot of shenanigans. It makes for great one-shot, or could easily be inserted into an ongoing fantasy campaign  game as a fun interlude.

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Is it possible to buy a physical copy? I can't see an option on this site.

Great game concept! Can't wait to play it with my friends and foes!

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Hello, Mr. Palmer. I am an RPG player from China and very interested in your rulebook, for the dungeon. I would like to translate this rulebook into Chinese so it could be introduced to the RPG players who are not English users but can understand Chinese. Will I be able to obtain your permission to do this?

When posting the Chinese translation, I will include the original author and a link to purchase it, or anything you would like me to add. Also, I will send you the translated Chinese version before I post it.

Or, if you don't want me to post the translation in the Chinese RPG forum, I can send you the Chinese translation file, then you could add it to your download list in https://tabletop.itch.io/for-the-dungeon.

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It's rare that I see someone doing the same thing as me

而不是直接丟去果園

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I have two questions. 


First one is that I want order a physical book at some point, but I can't see where to do it, so could you point me in the right direction?

And second, I just made an interactive version of the character sheet for the game, since my friends and I play everything over Discord, and I was wondering if you'd like a copy to add to your downloadable files.

Hi, I'm about to buy this and I would appreciate if you could send me the interactive character sheet if you don't mind!

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I don't mind at all! This link should take you to the interactive PDF, but let me know if it doesn't.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pEYtHo-ac395bdO6k6nfdnnqZhm4dOl-/view?usp=sharing

Thanks!

No problem!

Hi.

What is the license?

Can it be used to create a Foundry VTT module?   How much from the book can be added to this module?

Thank you.

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Hey! I know you already messaged me and got the answer, but I'm replying in case anyone else has questions.

Feel totally free to make whatever you want for this, so long as you aren't duplicating the exact text of anything in the book it's totally cool. You can use exact text of any of the extras though, having the moves in front of you is very helpful.

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Hi! I purchased a physical copy of FtD, but have not heard anything about it being shipped. I have updated my address here on Itch.io, and have followed the advice given to Randomninja (who had a similar problem) to email Jordan, but haven't received a response to that email.

Could someone please tell me what is going on with the delivery of my book, please?

Hey, sorry that I'm only just now seeing this. Itch doesn't give notifications when people comment. I'll try and dig through the list to find your address and ship it out Monday.

No, it's cool. I got it already.

Very glad to hear!

I purchased a physical copy a while back, but I didn’t realize my address wasn’t on here, so I haven’t received it. I updated my address on this site, but I don’t know if you received that information. 

it unfortunately doesn' notifiy me when new addresses are entered, if you want to email your address to geekypalmer@gmail.com I'll make sure you send your copy your direction when I get back home.

thank you!

I sent my address to the email. I still haven’t received my physical copy.  I know a lot has been going on, I was just wondering if you had received it. I can send the address again if I need to. 

Can't seem to find it, go ahead and send it my way again if you can. I'll also throw in a few of the other games I've got because it's been a long wait. I've still got some of the Arcana Academy misprints and the Our God Is Dead zine I'll send your way as an apology for the hassle.

just sent the email. Thanks!

I ordered a physical copy but I wasn't asked to put in an address or confirm a mailing location or anything. Is that normal? How will I know if it's being sent to me?

It should have asked you to enter your address. If it isn't showing up you can email me your address directly to jordan@makerpgs.com

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Is it alright if I email my friend's address instead? This is meant as a Christmas gift for him.

Edit: I just sent the email with the address. Not sure why I asked here when I could've just explained in the email. xD

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For The Dungeon is a short, high-energy, light-hearted rpg about minions defending a dungeon from adventurers. It's multiplayer, easy to learn, and maybe the perfect intro to indie games if you're used to DnD and want to try something different for a one-shot.

The PDF is 47 pages, all pretty short and easy to read, and it's got great layout and illustrations---although in a few places they feel a little formatted for print, and pictures fall partly off of one page and onto another.

The core mechanics are simple---you roll d6s and try to hit at least one 4 or higher---and complications are one of the most common results, giving the game a sort of balance towards chaos.

Character creation is nice and crunchy, though, and gives you lots of options to manipulate the dice results through your Perks. Anything from boosting the dice on a specific type of Move (basically, what would be a skill in D20) to flipping a critical failure into a critical success once per session is available for players to pick up.

There's also a nice downtime system, for getting benefits and recovering resources between adventures.

There is no bestiary, which I think would have been a nice touch, but monster creation is *really* easy for GMs, and there's both plenty of solid GMing advice and all the toolkit you need for throwing together monsters included in the book.

Overall, if you're looking for a zany one-shot or slightly more serious dungeonpunk campaign, and if you like great art and a light-but-chaotic atmosphere, get this.

How soon can one expect the physical copy to be sent to them? Really looking forward to reading this.

I try to make at least one trip to the post office each week. Most people receive there's within 1-2 weeks.

Thanks a lot

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My friends and I are livestreaming an ongoing game of this, and it's been a blast!
We're taking the world building rules and running them right off the rails.  :)  Our slacker Aboleth, neat freak slime person and professional Grimtooth impersonator are trying to navigate an ongoing blood feud between the smurfs and the sea monkies while staging a fake alien invasion using kids from the dragon daycare.  All to put together the itty bitty gems collection so we can complete our artifact room and stop Cheryl, our boss, from eating us.

Ahhh! You gotta send me a link so I can check it out!

https://www.twitch.tv/rpglory/videos

Warning, we swear and giggle a bunch.  :)

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Me and a friend got this in the bundle a few months ago, and holy crap is this the most fun we've had playing a TTRPG. We have a group of 5 and even got a friend that never played any to join us. I think we've finished our 6th session the other day. It's been amazing watching our characters evolve from little minions with nothing but the clothes on their backs and their stuff to the dungeon's sub-commanders.

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Got this through the bundle, this seems like so much fun! We've added it to one of the things my group wants to run on our Actual Play Podcast, will definitely let you know how it goes. :)

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That's awesome! Which actual play do you do?

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Im the producer for https://dungeonsandpop.podbean.com/ and DM for the dnd segments we have out so far! We're still trying to figure out whose DMing the segment but when it shows up it’ll be under Evil Is For Everyone. :)

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Just got this in the bundle. Apparently I bought a shirt with the Kobold from this game on it a long time ago cause I looked liked the art. Time to play the game!

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That's honestly hilarious that you'd bought the shirt before you got the game 😂 I hope you enjoy it!

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Very good as an introduction to pen and paper RPGs. With a very clear focus on the narrative rather than a complicated ruleset telling game this is ideal for a more story telling focused group. A simple enough ruleset that rewards player engagement and imagination, making it highly shapeable into anything that comes to mind. Still retaining a very good system of dice that allows for it to be challenging and both punishing and rewarding, keeping the players on edge yet without a massive system of rules. Easily skinned into any setting and open to anything the players will do. Can be adapted to any group of any age.

Update: So far has been a success on every group I played it with, some friends have purchased it afterwards.

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Using it with my 11-16 gaming club students as an intro to role-playing.  Far more forgiving and less involved than other RPG's, it nevertheless inspires entertaining and in depth encounters.  The students are really engaged and the quick character creation means some Paranoia level shenanigans.

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This game is fun and easy to set up. You will be laughing at all of the things that can happen along the way

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I'll be honest, comedy rpgs can be a bit hit or miss for me, so I tried to manage my expectations (unsuccessfully) based on the hype I felt from the premise alone.
I'm happy to report that the hype was correct, this is an incredibly entertaining game and extremely simple to pick up and play.
Gone are overwrought, tragic heroes on a quest to the save the world when I need a one-shot. In their place are sort of competent minions trying to do their best in a world which is arrayed against them.

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Reading through the book now. Super happy I backed this project. My group is really looking forward to playing a game from the other side of the table!

This is an amazingly fun game that is very easy to set up and play. My group has had an enormous amount of fun getting to act in a role that they had not hereto been able to. Playing as the mooks in a dungeon is a very fun and creative experience. The game is overall amazingly fun and easy to pick up. I highly recommend that you get a copy and start playing today!

This has been a very fun game! It's great for quick one shot sessions between campaigns, Holiday specials, or for the inevitable "villains campaign" all groups want to try. It's quick to pick up, easy to run, and fun to play. I highly recommend.

I brought this game up with my dnd group and they liked the sound of it so we ran an off session for it.

when it came time for a hero to show up I would describe one of their actual characters from our campaign, it was alot of fun and i highly recommend it.

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I love playing this with my friends. The first time we did it, we thought we would only play for an hour or two. Six hours later, and they kept asking for more. The game mechanics are easy to grasp, and the character creation was easy for my friends to use, as they sometimes have a hard time wrapping their head around the more advanced rpgs. As a GM, the ability to improvise on the fly is extremely helpful. It’s a bucket of laughs to be sure.

I ran a play test of this game for my wife and son. They had a blast, and found the creation rules and basic mechanics easy to follow. It requires a bit of improvisational skills on the part of the GM, but a creative and open mind is really all you need. It's a lighthearted, comical take on a fantasy RPG.

When I found this project, I backed it immediately!  At the first opportunity, play tested it with friends and we all had a blast!  It is both familiar while being a unique and novel approach to fantasy rp.  The play mechanics are easily understandable and accessible to all levels of players. 

I have long awaited a game that finally gives voice to the minions who toil thanklessly in the darkness.  We are not just waiting to be slaughtered by “heros” who lay waste to our homes and workplaces.  Thank you for this game!