Dungeonmans, A Classic Turn-Based RPG
By Charlotte “Charlie” Humphries
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For those of you with time to spare, step closer, here, towards my lair. I have a short story to tell, one of monsters, spells and heroes who fell. Dungeonmans is here to stay; grab your weapons and prepare to play.
This turn-based RPG is all at once a sexy, complicated and – even though still in an early access stage – a game to keep a beady eye on.
You begin as the very first DungeonMan (or Lady!) to graduate from the academy, but how you managed this is anybody’s guess: the library is little better than firewood, the alchemy lab is an expensive glass emporium, and please don’t start on the artefact safe.
The liberating spin to Dungeonmans is that you can do whatever takes your fancy. If you want to set out on a noble quest to reclaim books, artefacts and other pieces of equipment for the academy then go for it. Or if proving you’re the biggest, most awesome Dungeon-Person in the realm is your thing, get out there and destroy all those champions! There isn’t a story line per se, but that’s alright – you’ll just have to carve one out for yourself.
Like a handful of RPGs on the market, your actions will affect the surrounding towns (especially when it comes to the goods available for purchase) and even the academy. For example, if you did find a volume of “True Things About Punks Vol 1” and handed it in at the academy, the buffs and knowledge will be handed down to your subsequent characters – because dying does happen.
And when you die, a little piece of your character’s spirit will remain in the dungeon that your executioner calls home. You can pick up this spirit piece and get a nice buff from it, as and when you’re confident enough to go back.
You’ll know which rat-like thing it is because it’ll glow red and explode in a spectacular fashion when you eventually do kill it. And it’ll drop some sweet loot.
Dungeonmans has also decided that your character won’t know what every scroll, potion or enchanted item will do as soon as they pick them up. You can either head back to the academy headmaster and ask nicely to have them explained – useful if you have loads of stuff in your inventory – or you can jump in and use it to see what happens.
The charm of this game comes in buckets, topped with excellent tongue-in-cheek dialogue that will raise a smile to your lips. You are free to sit and read through all the descriptions and stats, balancing your character carefully or you can run head first into the world and see what happens. The battles are turn-based but the system is so smooth you won’t notice, and there are no cut scenes before and after battles so you can just keep moving, keep accumulating experience points, and making a name for yourself in your realm.
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[author image=”http://cliqist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/charlotte.jpg”] Some say that Charlotte can smell incorrect spelling from three miles away. It is actually four and a half, but let’s not split hairs. When she isn’t proof-reading or playing games, Charlotte spends her days at community events cosplaying as Deadpool, or cat herding. Her favourite video game character is Patricia Tannis. If you want to read more of her ramblings, head over to http://www.humphriesck.wordpress.com.[/author]
