Daniel (@dungeondive) unboxes a Kickstarter delivery: You Meet in a Tavern, You Die in a Dungeon, a comedic tabletop RPG in three zines (Dungeon Manual, Dungeoneer’s Handbook, Dungeon Keeper’s Guide) available on itch.io and easily home-bound from the PDFs. The premise is the title. Heroes meet in a tavern, hear of a quest whose goal and boon are pure MacGuffins, and point-crawl room by room through a dungeon until each one dies, having been dealt a “destined death” tag at the outset. Characters have three stats: skill and luck (2d6 each, roll under on a d12) and Destiny, effectively hit points, starting at 10. Five classes deal fixed or dice damage to different hazard tags, and creatively using one of three pack items earns a helpful minus one. Rooms come from a standard deck keyed to the Dungeon Manual, each with suggested tags, hazards and loot rolls; loot has real mechanical effects and a Destiny cost, which Daniel appreciates. The Keeper’s Guide appendix is stuffed with d12 charts for taverns, NPCs, party connections and dungeon locations that he thinks would serve any solo game. He bought it to play solo and concludes it is soloable but really wants a table: a convention one-shot, a palate cleanser between heavier games, adult beverages, and players competing to narrate the most glorious death, ideally a Rube Goldberg chain of them.
Would you play a game where the campaign’s end is fixed and only the manner of death is up for grabs, or does knowing the outcome drain the fun?