A weekend with Dark Venture

Spent most of the weekend venturing into darkness and uncertainty amongst the ruins of progress.

Dead the Fierce

Set off on my first Dark Venture with Dead the Fierce, a tempestuous warlock in good standing.

Quickly stumbled upon the watery den of the fearsome Grathorn pit beast.

Persuaded an overly enthusiastic wayfarer to seek his fortune in the sink hole. He found the toothy grin of the Grathorn.

The well fed Grathorn was no match for a few sneaky arrows and steel blade to the gut. Thence onto the laboratory.

A cursory search of the lab uncovered a runny eggman who fled to the waterfall pit, soon to join a growing corpse pile.

Dead finished up at the desolate crossroads slaying a Sarkag Wolf for its soft furs – a heroic gift for the (not so fair) princess of this realm. And cooking up wolf-steaks to finagle a last minute side quest to keep healthy.

Ilvost the Warlock

Ilvost met Falkid the Ageless wandering aimlessly at the crossroads. When you have a face filled with rocks, its hard to pass up any casual acquaintance, even the undead.

The King himself has tasked us with culling the growing ovoid menace.

The first Eggman fled in terror. Wizardry was invoked to teleport nearby and dissolve his cracked shell with acid; a sulphurous affair.

Beyond the Gaping Maw a fortified enclave was found, full as a goog with minions of the Egg Empire. We assaulted the castle where the bright-eyed Drakkin was held captive. Eggs were cracked and Drakkin left to rot. The Darkgrange does not reward failure.

With the ovoid menace suppressed, Ilvost reached the Meridian with his honour intact.

11 Likes

This game looks so good on the table! Great photos!

3 Likes

So sinister. “Mama, when is the Eggman comin’?”

2 Likes

Those egg men are nasty!

2 Likes

These photos are wonderful!

2 Likes

I immediately threw in the two small expansions (Beasts & Monsters and The Alderkang), but I’ve been reluctant to mix it up with the larger expansions. I’m gearing up for another playthrough.

Should I be looking to play larger expansions individually or just biting the bullet and throwing it all together into a single content pool? What is everyone else doing with respect to Dark Venture expansions?

I am reluctant to throw in the larger expansions as well. But I think both VI and Khrag added a layer of complexity to an already quite fiddly game. But the full exploration mode in Crawl looks like just Classic Dark Venture + no time limit so I would say start with Crawl!

2 Likes

The designer has said that you can add in characters, items, and locations from all the new expansions without adding in any of the new rulesets if you want. (With a caveat for Vile Invaders.)

I did a print-and-play build of 1E when it was out of print, and decided to stick with pnp for 2E, so I have been stuck with little to do but admire the art and pore over the rulebooks while I slowly assemble components :D But when I do get to sit down with it I have likewise been debating about how to proceed. Since I don’t want to over-familiarize myself with one bit of content before adding in another, I will likely try to fold in everything except CRAWL, have a go at that for a while, then try one of the new CRAWL game modes.

1 Like

A splendid writeup and beautiful photos. Thank you @modius! :heart:

2 Likes