Delves & Drakes by

# Delves and Drakes
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The party is preparing to delve into the lair of a Drake... fame, riches, and danger await you!
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## PLAYERS, THE DELVERS

#### 1. Roll Stats
You have two stats. **DELVING** (for exploration, stealth, avoiding danger), and **DRAKE** (combat, intimidation, resisting ailments). Roll **3d6** (or take 8 & 16) and assign to each each stat.

|**Stat** |   3   |  4-7  |  5-8  |  9-11 | 12-14 | 15-17 |   18 
|:-|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|
|**Mod** | -3 | -2 | -1 | 0 | +1 | +2 | +3 |

#### 2. Choose a class for your character
At Level 1, **Hit Points** (HP) equal the max of your **Hit Die** (HD).
| d4 | Classes  | HD  | AC  |   Feature 
|:-:|-|:-:|:-:|-|-|
| 1 | Mage      | d4  | 13    | Cast a # of spells equal to level +1
| 2 | Expert    | d6  | 15    | Add level +2 to non-attack d20 rolls
| 3 | Healer    | d8  | 15    | Healing pool equal level x 10 HP
| 4 | Warrior   | d12 | 17    | Add level +1 to attack & damage rolls

#### 3. Choose a species for your character

| d6 | Species | You are ... | fallacy is |
|:-:|-|-|-|
| 1 | Dwarf    | meticulous & hardy, can see in dark   | stubborn
| 2 | Elf      | refined nature fey with keen senses   | arrogant
| 3 | Human    | social, organized & wont give up      | self-serving
| 4 | Gnome    | short & cunning, can smell magic      | aloof
| 5 | Orc      | athletic, survivalists          | fierce
| 6 | Outsider | plane touched with magic resistant | mysterious

#### 4. What motivates you?

| d8 | Motivation | | |
|:-:|-|:-:|-|
| 1 | Avenge friend or family  | 5 | Prove I am the best
| 2 | Cloistered thrill seeker | 6 | Find my family heirloom
| 3 | Seek lost knowledge      | 7 | On a bounty for my patron
| 4 | Be rich, make a fortune  | 8 | I'm from another reality

#### 5. Choose a profession

| d20 | Profession | | | | | | |
|:-:|-|:-:|-|:-:|-|:-:|-|
| 1 | Alchemist   | 6  | Gambler      | 11 | Merchant  | 16 | Ruffian
| 2 | Charlatan   | 7  | Investigator | 12 | Noble     | 17 | Soldier
| 3 | Entertainer | 8  | Knight       | 13 | Pirate    | 18 | Tinkerer
| 4 | Historian   | 9  | Linguist     | 14 | Priest    | 19 | Thief
| 5 | Hunter      | 10 | Mercenary    | 15 | Ranger    | 20 | Urchin

#### 6. Choose a name
Choose a cool name, or mysterious nickname for your hero!

#### Leveling up
After each successful delve you gain a level. Roll a **Hit Die** and add the total to your maximum HP. Will you reach epic level 10?

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### CONFLICT RESOLUTION
In conflicts characters can take **basic actions** such as ***Parlay***, ***Move***, ***Attack***, ***Cast a spell***, ***Use an item***, ***Support an ally***; or any other actions you can imagine like  *grapple*, *hide*, *play music*, *intimidate*, *tumble out of danger*, *open a door*, *light a torch*, etc...
<br>
The **conflict resolution** process is done in rounds, with phases. Characters can choose to take 1 or 2 actions, but cannot take the same action twice in a round. The phases go in the following order:

1. Any player taking a single action goes first. 
2. then any enemy taking a single action goes.
3. Any player taking two actions goes,
4. then any enemy taking two actions goes.
5. Environmental effects occur, and GM checks morale if needed.
6. Repeat from the top until the conflict is resolved.

### ROLLING THE DICE
When performing an action in which success or failure is uncertain, the Game Master (GM) will tell you to roll a **d20**. Before you roll, the GM will give you a target number to match or beat in order to succeed. Then roll the **d20** add your relevant **stat modifier**, and if the roll is something you are good at due to your ***class***, ***species***, or ***profession***, add your **level** (expert & warrior features improve on this) to the roll. If your roll and all modifiers is equal or larger to the target number you succeed. If you fail something bad happens. A roll of 1 on the d20 always fail, a 20 always succeed and the next d20 roll on the same task rolls with advantage.

| Target | Challenging | Hard or Risky | Heroic or Deadly 
|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|
| # | 10 | 15 | 20 |

#### Advantage and Disadvantage 
If you have **Advantage** (high ground, allies help, retrying, etc) while performing an action, roll two d20s and keep the higher result. If you are in **Disadvantage** (tripped, lack the tool for the job, surrounded by foes, etc) roll two d20s and keep the lower.
<br>
Additionally during a conflict or challenge, you can ask for **Advantage** to a roll aligns with the character's ***motivation***.

#### Rolling to hit, attacks
Roll against a target number equal to the target's **Armor Class (AC)**.
If you hit, roll your **Hit Die (HD)** plus your **Drake** modifier worth of damage (a weapon is only as dangerous as its wielder). On a roll of a 20 on the die, deal max damage. A character that reaches 0 HP is dying or knocked out.

#### Skill challenges
**Personal challenge** You need typically 3 to 6 successes, before 3 failures, to complete a complex challenge, like opening a lock.
<br/>
**Party challenge** Everyone in the party takes an action usually a skill or spell. If everyone succeeds its a complete success. If there is 1 failure, the party succeeds, but with complications. If half the party fails it is a complete failure, and the party suffers a setback.

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### MAGIC & SPELLS
When casting a spell roll on a target of 10 + spell level x2. If you fail the spell does not go off and you can retry next time. If this is the only action on your turn you have **Advantage** on the roll.

### OPTIONAL RULES

##### Damage riders
On a successful action that causes damage, if the result is 20 or over, you can choose to add a damage rider to the effect.

##### Encumbrance
It is assumed a delver has armor, a melee and ranged weapon, tools of their trade, as well as basic gear like rations, torches, wineskin, rope, pitons, and things they pick up exploring. If you want to track encumbrance, you can carry as many portable items as your **Delving** stat, if you go over you are at physical **Disadvantage**.

##### Quantum Gear
Make a **Delving** roll, using modifiers and target numbers as usual, to determine if someone has the right tool or item for the job.

##### Smiting with healing
Healers can blast unnatural scourge with healing. They can deal 2 HP of damage to all nearby targets, or 4 HP to a single target for each HP spent from their pool *(up to a max equal to level)*.

##### Corruption & Insanity
When rolling a 1 on a d20 for a spell, being scared, or under an unnatural effect, a character suffers a one point of corruption and spends the rest of their turn writhing. Each time one suffers corruption, roll a d20 plus their corruption points. On a result of 20 or over they are changed, and develop a long term corruption, insanity, or mutation. Corruptions have benefits and drawbacks.

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## THE DELVE & DRAKE

#### What type of Drake lurks in the Delve?

| d6 | The Drake is a ... | | |
|:-:|-|:-:|-|
| 1 | True Dragon   | 4 | Lindwurm
| 2 | Wyvern Nest   | 5 | Hydra
| 3 | Dragon Turtle | 6 | Dracolich

| d8 | And its Minions are ... | | |
|:-:|-|:-:|-|
| 1 | Doesn't need any | 5 | Swarms of goblins
| 2 | Devious Kobolds  | 6 | The Undead
| 3 | Dragon Cultists  | 7 | Half Dragons
| 4 | Ancient Golems   | 8 | Its Champion

### DELVING DUNGEONS
#### The Delve turn
A **delve turn** is around 5-20 minutes. Each turn the party can attempt something together, such as exploring a room, carefully cross a chasm, get into a fight, parlay with the locals, etc...
<br>
During a turn the party is being careful, examining their environment for threats, while trying to stay relatively quite.

#### Random Encounters
Dungeons are living places and there are several factions moving through these places. Not all encounters lead to immediate danger, and some encounters might be a boon for the party, but the longer you are in the dungeon the more risky they become. 
<br>
If the area the party is in a safe haven the GM may roll two encounter dice and take the lower result, on the contrary if the area is dangerous or the party is making a ruckus, the GM may want to roll two dice and take the worst result

#### Social Reactions
When encountering NPCs (or monsters) roll 2d6 to determine their initial reaction towards the party. Amicable NPCs roll 3d6 and take the higher two rolls, aggressive roll 3d6 and the lower two.

| 2 | 3-4 | 5-7 | 8-9 | 10-11 | 12 |
|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|
| Hostile & Violent | Hunting / Threatens | Unsure / Evaluating  | Will Negotiate | Seeking Help | Overtly Talkative

#### Morale
To see if an NPC will continue to challenge a party roll 2d6. If the result is over their morale score, they will try to withdraw. Some good moments to check morale are: ***After the side's first major loss***,
when ***half the NPCs have been incapacitated***, and ***right before total failure***.

#### Resting
Once during a delve (or every 8 hours) the party can spend a **delve turn** to **rest** to recover hit points and replenish *spells* and *healing pools*. When resting delvers roll a number of hit dice equal to their level. If the total is higher than their current hit points their HP now equal the new total; and recover one spell or 10 HP of healing pool.

---
***By KameBit's DrFugue [https://kamebit.wordpress.com/](https://kamebit.wordpress.com/)***
*Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License*

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## The Appendix: Optional rules

At the end of each delve turn the GM rolls a delve die (starting with a d4). If the GM rolls the max of the die, the delve die sizes up to the next size (d6, d8, d10, up to d12), opening up new possibilities.

| Result | Encounter | | |
|:-|:-|:-:|:-|
| 1 | Nothing                     | 7  | Faction A |
| 2 | Torch burns or item lost    | 8  | Faction B |
| 3 | Tracks of Minion or Faction | 9 | Minion and Faction |
| 4 | A lone or wounded minion    | 10 | Glint of the Drake |
| 5 | Group of Minions            | 11 | Roaming Drake |
| 6 | Group of Minions            | 12 | Roaming Drake |

| d8 | What are they doing ... | | |
|:-:|-|:-:|-|
| 1 | Sleeping or oblivious        | 5 | Looking for a target
| 2 | Resting / Eating, distracted | 6 | In conflict
| 3 | Resting / Eating, alert      | 7 | Returning to lair, wounded
| 4 | Exploring Wandering          | 8 | Returning to lair, with target

| d12 | Environmental twist... | | |
|:-:|-|:-:|-|
| 1 | Knee deep water   | 5 | Noisy or inaudible
| 2 | Cliff or pits     | 6 | Slippery or Sloped Terrain
| 3 | Unstable ground   | 7 | Lots of cover
| 4 | Falling debris    | 8 |  Vermin swarms
| 5 | Foliage or webs   | 11 | Fire & Smoke
| 6 | Poison or Stench  | 12 | Magical or Anti Magic zone

#### Who else is here, roll a d10 & d12

| dX  | Other Factions ... | | |
|:-:|-|:-:|-|
| 1 | Bandits                     | 6  | Filth Monsters
| 2 | Rival party                 | 7  | Slimy threats
| 3 | A lone survivor             | 8  | Mischievous Fey
| 4 | Mimics, or Rust Monsters!   | 9  | Mind Slavers
| 5 | Owlbear, or other predator  | 11 | A Lich or Death Knight
| 6 | Peaceful Myconids           | 12 | A Tyrant Eye

#### Monster guidelines
| HD | Type | AC | Mod | DMG | Morale 
|:-:|-|-|-|-|-|
| 1 | Commoner or beast (dog)    | 12 | +1 | d6         | 5
| 2 | Thug or pack predator      | 14 | +2 | d6+2       | 8
| 3 | Brute or large animal      | 10 | +3 | d8+2       | 7
| 5 | Lone predator              | 14 | +5 | 2d6+3      | 9
| 6 | Aberration & Lesser Drake  | 12 | +5 | 1d8+2 x 2  | 11
| 12 | True Drake                | 16 | +8 | 1d10+4 x3  | 12

#### Random complications of failure
When you need inspiration for a failure use this table. Or you can map these directly to a failed d20 roll result.
| | Complications | | |
|:-:|-|:-:|-|
| 1 | Hurt, or left an opening       | 6 | Makes a ruckus
| 2 | Damage to weapon or tool       | 7 | Causes a mess / spillage 
| 3 | Dropped weapon or tool         | 8 | Enraged / Upset
| 4 | Loss of balance, trip, or fall | 9 | Limb damaged, or Addled
| 5 | Loss of balance, trip, or fall | 10 | Limb damaged, or Addled

###  Quick NPCs

| d6 | Needs | Personality | Conflict
|:-:|-|-|-|
| 1 | Company    | Curious   |
| 2 | Something  | Dull      |
| 3 |            | Honest    |
| 4 | Protection | Impatient |
| 6 | Revenge    | Polite    |

#### Heroic Moves
Players can perform one Heroic Move during a delve. Choose when needed, or roll d12 and assign before the delve starts.

d12 | Move |
|-|-|
1. I know how this thing works** You automatically succeed at a skill check.
2. Have you tried it like this?** Allow someone else to reroll a skill check
3. I frequent this sort of place** You know something beneficial about this sort of place
3. Looks like you could you use some help?** An NPC comes out of the blue to help you
3. You mean like this one?** You have the exact tool that would help someone else right now
3. I found it!** You get a clue that helps you find the way forward.
3. This old piece of ... huh it works!** A device is inexplicably unbroken! It works now just in time.
3. That was better than I expected** It works better than expected, some parameter of choice is doubled.
3. Oops!** A Tool or Weapon in use by an enemy fails or breaks.
3. That was unexpected** A device or effect malfunctions before it can affect you.
3. Doesn't look like your lucky day, eh?** Force someone to fail a roll
3. On a silver platter.** Up to three targets are in the right position to affect them all at once
3. You left an opening.** A target left you an opening, you can automatically score a critical hit on them.

## Making a quick dungeon
1. Drop a d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20 onto a piece of paper. These represent the main sections of the dungeon.
2. If you roll a 1 on the die there is a secret area in this room.
3. If you roll the max number for the die that room leads out of the dungeon or deeper down if it is a longer delve.
4. Draw a loop that connects all dice that rolled even, and another loop for all dice that rolled even.
5. Connect the rooms in order of the dice, when there is a tie go from smaller to larger die
6. If a dice has an odd number there connection has a door

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### Supplies
Ammo
Dagger
Torches
Rations
Parchements
Caltrops
Nails or pitons
Rope, 50ft
Tool, Small (wrench, hammer, lock-pick)
Lantern Oil
2 Lantern
2 Healing kit
2 Smith kit
2 Tool, Large (shovel, pulleys)
3 Antitoxin, Antidote
3 Healing Potion
5 Poison
5 Healing Water
5 Acid
5 Alchemical Grenade

#### Rewards
Supplies
Information
Medicine
Equipment
Cargo
Key
An ally

Potion
Book/ Scroll
Armor, Shield
Clothing, Jewelery
Map, Compass
Weapon, Tool

Cursed
Dangerous
Ancient
Rusty/Filthy
Weird
Blessed
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