Dungeon Hero: Fortress of the Frost Giant Jarl

 Hi!

I thought I'd get things going with some solo gaming in the form of Dungeon Hero from LONE SPELUNKER.

Its a free mini adventure that comes in a zine format with the first volume coming with the core rules and two mini adventures. 

While it's not a 'proper' RPG, it is a really neat little guided adventure system that I happened across on Youtube and having watched a couple of play throughs and reviews decided to have a bash using my Somewhere on the Border character Fael the Barbarian and her sidekick, Modwen the goat.

Dungeon Hero requires you to assign dice to eight traits which represent your characters gear, characteristics and whatnot so I ended up with Modwen being a piece of equipment but the rules are pretty simple and with a few more bits and bobs that tie in with Fael's character I was ready to begin!

I began with the Fortress of the Frost Giant Jarl which saw Fael battling through a fierce snowstorm to a barbarian camp and being told that she could stay the winter with the tribe but only on the proviso that she dealt with a Frost Giant Jarl who had been raiding the settlement.

Accompanied by seven warriors she set out to fight her way through the frozen northern lands and infiltrate the fortress of the Jarl.

It was a surprisingly engaging quest that involved a lot of careful thought on which of my abilities to use at any one time that was thematically fitting with my character and the event and having looted the Jarl's store rooms and killed quite a few of his guards, we met the man himself in battle.

It was an epic confrontation which claimed the lives of all my barbarians but the Jarl proved just too powerful and Fael was knocked unconscious and Modwen was forced to run for the barbarian settlement as his mistress was captured.

Oof! It's a pretty difficult game but really satisfying and I almost immediately played out a second run through with Arud the Golem heading out to rescue Fael. The second run was very different in feel to the first with Arud facing more weather based challenges and sneaking than Fael's attempt which he wasn't really suited for but he blasted his way through with a combination of explosives and robotic cunning and eventually rescued Fael and slew the Jarl before running for it with his wounded companion.

I've got seven more of these mini Zine's to work through and can't wait to have a bash as they're really enjoyable and can be played in about 30-40 minutes.

I've also been rummaging out my assorted RPG gubbins so will post an update on the state of play in the coming week but until then, All the best!