Downcrawl 2E - Roleplaying in a Weird, Wondrous Underworld

Downcrawl Worlds: A Worldbuilding Card Game
over 1 year ago – Tue, Nov 12, 2024 at 11:31:33 AM

We're in the final week of the Downcrawl campaign! I wanted to cross-post a fun update from the Downcrawl Digest blog about Downcrawl Worlds, the standalone worldbuilding game you can play with the Downcrawl Deck cards. A couple quick updates before we get there:

• The campaign ends this Friday! If you haven't backed yet, don't miss your chance to reserve a copy of Downcrawl 2E.
  
  (The final moment is in theory Friday at 5:00pm PT, but I've turned on a BackerKit thing called "Overtime Mode" which will keep the campaign open as long as new pledges keep coming in at a steady clip. A stress amplification machine? Clever marketing technique? Swiftly-ending exercise in humiliation? We'll find out.)
  
  
• I appeared on "How Books Are Made" (a podcast about the art and science of making books) to talk about what it takes to crowdfund, market, and self-publish an indie book. We had a lovely conversation about what I've learned running five crowdfunding campaigns, including for my prior books 50 Years of Text Games and Subcutanean, as well as a bit about Downcrawl 2E... definitely worth a listen if you're interested in how this kind of thing all comes together!
  
  
• Thanks to feedback from some lovely backers, I've released some updates over the past few weeks to the early rules draft available to anyone who backs the project. These are mostly typo fixes and broken links, but there have been a few rules clarifications and minor tweaks to systems as a result of this feedback (which is much appreciated!)

Thanks for following the project, and read on for a sneak peak at Downcrawl Worlds, which will be a great game to bust out on a game night where not everyone can make it or you want something a bit less crunchy than usual!

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Today I wanted to talk about Downcrawl Worlds, which is a whole second game you can play with your Downcrawl Deck cards.

Worlds emerged after I had good test proofs of the card deck, but was having trouble finding a satisfying way to quickly playtest with it at conventions. The idea finally struck me: what if there was a whole separate game you could play with just the cards, without the whole Downcrawl 2E rulebook?

What emerged was a fast-paced worldbuilding game about inventing strange, inspired ideas together. A game you could use to generate a campaign world for Downcrawl, or as a fun standalone evening of creativity. A game where you could invent something called the Godslime and explore how it survived through the Age of Sacred Shadows…



In Downcrawl Worlds, you take turns proposing new elements of a weird, wondrous underworld you’re inventing from scratch. The current player chooses a turn type and plays one prompt word from their hand. For instance, if you’re playing the Create A Legend turn, which asks you to play an Idea, you might say “I think there should be legendary scorpions in this world,” and put down the scorpions card.



In response, each other player will propose a possible modifier to your idea (again, guided by the current turn type). For Create a Legend the response category is Quality. One player might propose crimson: “I think these scorpions are huge and made of red gemstones. It sounds like a tinkling chandelier when they’re approaching.” Others might respond with:

• elegant: “The scorpions are sort of angelic, graceful. Even a glance of them brings a tear to your eye.”
• wind-up: “They’re mechanical scorpions created by some mad inventor long ago to patrol the lands. Legends say one day they will wind down and their reign of terror will end.”
• riddle: “The Riddle Scorpions hide where you least expect them and paralyze you with quick strikes. If you can answer their riddle, they’ll let you go, but otherwise…”

The current player (who proposed scorpions) then says the phrase: “These are all great stories, but the truth is…” and picks one of these proposals. “The truth is they are wind-up scorpions. Great beasts of metal that are slow, but ruthless in their pursuit of any who try to wander freely. They seem to regard nearly any sentient creatures as enemies.” They take the card they selected and align it with their own:



Finally, they choose a turn type for the player on their left to play. “Elena, let’s Find a New Volume next…” thus beginning the next turn.

As you play, you record each idea on an Index (an index card). Some turn types propose new ideas, others continue to develop existing ideas (“let’s find out more about those wind-up scorpions…”) letting you add more info to an existing Index. You can reposition Indexes at will, picking them up to refresh your memory or clustering related elements together.

When you’ve built up and developed enough Indexes of the right types, you unlock Story Turns, which let you use these elements to tell different kinds of stories. For instance, in the Historic Summit story turn, you’ll discover what happens when two Folk (the peoples of your Down) come together. Other story turns explore strange goings-on in a particular Volume (a location in your Down), or create a hero and send them on an epic quest to confront the Legend of the Age.



I’ve been playtesting Downcrawl Worlds extensively over the last few months (I’m on Draft 11 of the rules!), and can objectively say it’s always a ton of fun. (And has helped me iterate on the card design much more quickly.) It’s a great way to spend a couple of hours with a table of creative friends, or even friends who might just need a bit of prodding from the card prompts to bring their latent creativity out. Last weekend I ran a few games at the KublaCon Fall convention in San Jose, California, with players including young teenagers, hardcore D&D purists, and an elderly boardgamer all enjoying themselves immensely.

Downcrawl Worlds is a standalone game, but intersects with core Downcrawl in a couple fun ways:

• You can use Worlds to build a Deep, Deep Down for your main Downcrawl game: Indexes become the main game’s Map and Folk Decks, and everything you create aligns nicely with what you’ll need for campaign play.
• Like the main game, you can play Worlds with a group (up to 6 players) or solo (with variant rules for a 2-player game).
• Also like the main game, Worlds can work with any combination of Downcrawl Decks: if you have the Even Deeper Deck (with slightly stranger prompts), you can use it alone, shuffle it together with the main deck, even remove cards with prompts you don’t like: the game will play just fine with any combination of cards.

You’ll get a PDF of the Downcrawl Worlds rules for free if you back the crowdfunding campaign at any level that includes a Downcrawl card deck! I didn’t foresee this fun little game existing during the initial design of 2E, but I’m so glad it’s come into being… it’s another lovely way to bring the magic of creating a curious underworld together to your table.

That's it for now! You'll probably hear from me a couple more times this week as I beat the drum for the final days of the campaign. I'll keep folks posted with regular updates once the campaign ends as we move forward towards the fulfillment stage, which I'm planning for early next year. Thanks for everything and take care,

--Aaron

Week 2: Blogs, Big Bad, Beta (feed)Back
over 1 year ago – Wed, Oct 23, 2024 at 02:12:34 PM

It's Week 2 of the Downcrawl 2E crowdfunding campaign, and we've passed $50K and 520 lovely backers! This is the traditional plodding middle period of crowdfunding (most excitement and pledges come in the first few and last few days) but it's still exciting to see new pledges come in each day, and new friends join our expedition to the Deep, Deep Down.

While we're sailing through these doldrums, I'd love it if you could continue spreading the word about the game to your friends and communities. There's a press kit with hi-res images available, and if you've got an audience of TTRPG fans, I'd love to chat with you for a blog interview, podcast appearance, or anything else that might help get the game in front of more would-be delvers.



A couple quick updates this week:

• As a reminder, shipping is not included as part of your campaign pledge. As is becoming more standard for crowdfunding, shipping fees will be calculated more precisely and charged separately once the project is about to fulfill orders and ship items to you. This keeps project creators from needing to guess what shipping rates will be far in advance of delivery, and lets us keep the costs to you as close to the actual shipping rate as possible.
  
  After the campaign ends, you'll get a survey from BackerKit which will allow you to enter your shipping address, adjust your add-ons, and pay for shipping. Please keep an eye out for this survey email, as it's the only way I have to reach you to get your pledge rewards to you! I'll keep folks abreast in these backer updates about when to expect the survey.
  
  You can review my current best estimates about what shipping rates will be to different countries and for different pledge tiers on the Shipping section of the Story page. If you need to cancel or adjust your pledge in light of this info, I totally get it, and no hard feelings! (And it incurs less unrecoverable fees for me if this happens before the campaign ends.)
  
  
• I've posted a new article over on the Downcrawl Digest with more details about the standalone engine that comes with Downcrawl 2E. While you can continue to use Downcrawl to enhance a campaign with an existing ruleset (i.e. a D&D game), there's now a standalone engine called Sliver of Fate in the rulebook for out-of-the-box adventures.
  
  
• I'll be at Big Bad Con in the San Francisco Bay area this weekend, running a few games of Downcrawl Worlds. The sessions are unfortunately full, but if you'll be at the con, look for the geek with "Aaron Reed" on his name badge and say hi! I'll also be running Downcrawl Worlds at KublaCon Fall in the San Jose area two weekends from now.
  
  
  • (What is Downcrawl Worlds? It's a standalone worldbuilding game that uses the cards from the Downcrawl Deck for a fast-paced and fun couple hours of inventing weird places and creatures. As an added bonus, you can use the world you create with it as the setting for a Downcrawl campaign! You get the Downcrawl Worlds rules for free if you're backing at any level that includes a Downcrawl Deck.)
    
    

• The next episode of my ongoing Solo Downcrawl campaign is this Thursday at 5pm PT. Last week, our wooden hero:
  • got lost and arrived at the wrong place, which turned out to be a Watchtower eternally guarding a red-hot pyramid in which an ancient magmamancer was imprisoned
  • made friends with a stone giant named Topaz who triggered an existential crisis
  • stole secrets from the Watchtower Council right out of their chambers by making an incredible roll (4d6 drop two highest, but I got 6-6-6-5)

• Finally, thanks to the folks who've sent in feedback on the early draft of the Downcrawl rules available to backers. I appreciate every typo, unclear rule wording, broken mechanic, or suggested improvement offered! I've refreshed the uploaded version of the rules with the latest tweaks. A reminder, backers get free access to the early rules draft: details at the link above.

What a Launch!
over 1 year ago – Thu, Oct 17, 2024 at 08:39:06 AM

• The dice and coin pouch mentioned in the Patron tier is now also available as an add-on. If you're backing at a level that includes some of the smaller extra items, this is a good storage solution. The pouch is large enough to contain any dice, coins, decks, or templates included in (or added to) your pledge... basically all the non-book items!
  
  
• I've added a tier for game stores or other retailers interested in buying multiple copies of the game. I'll contact folks who pledge at this level after the campaign ends to talk about how many copies you'd like for your store and give you bulk pricing. 

The Downcrawl Digest

I've been blogging about how the new Downcrawl 2E works for the last couple months, and have put out posts on the Downcrawl Deck, on Fungal Foraging, and the new story-focused Danger system. It's a great resource to check out if you're curious for more deep dives into specific parts of Downcrawl 2E!

Also, I did a Q&A on Monday with the Randomworlds TTRPG Discord, where we also got into the weeds about more particulars of the game.

Solo Play Stream

For the last few weeks, I've been streaming a brand new campaign of the Solo edition of Downcrawl on Twitch. In the first episode, we created a new underworld entirely from scratch, and rolled up a character named Ghost, a living puppet hunting down the cruel witches who use his people for kindling (as one does), who has since had a serious of misadventures trying to track down a witch named Esmer.

I'm streaming every Thursday, meaning the next stream is tonight at 5PM PT! On stream I explain how the mechanics of Downcrawl work as we go along (most of which apply to non-solo play too), take suggestions from chat about what to do next, and generally have a fun, cozy time. I'd love to have you join us for tonight's stream! (And if you can't make it, a video replay will be posted later on.) There are also some highlight videos on the Twitch page showing specific mechanics in action (here's one where I create a new Folk for my world).



Finally, in the days and weeks ahead, I'd love it if you'd help me to spread the word about Downcrawl 2E to your TTRPG communities and friends. And if you happen to write for a relevant publication, there's a press kit with hi-res images available, and I'd love to chat with you about an interview, podcast appearance, or anything else that might help get the game in front of more would-be delvers.

Word of mouth is the ultimate currency in our oversaturated media landscape, so thanks in advance for any recommendations you make, from the deepest chasms of my wandering heart.

That's all for now! Thanks and take care,

--Aaron

Download the Current Rules Draft Now!
over 1 year ago – Tue, Oct 15, 2024 at 08:00:50 AM

Once you back the Downcrawl campaign at any pledge level, you'll immediately unlock access to the current draft of the rules. This early release is preliminary and work-in-progress, without final art or layout and with rules still subject to change. But it's 95% complete, and has everything you need to start playing Downcrawl 2E today!