1 — Your Party of Four
Choose four heroes. No extra identity fields. Starting wealth is rolled when you begin. Level 5 start, as in the Abyss book: 100gp per hero and one roll on the core magic treasure table per hero (see Simplifications). A hero who reaches Level 5 switches to d8, exploding on 7+. Heroic start (Level 10, d10) and Legendary start (Level 15, d12) are simplifications: 250gp per hero + one Heroic magic-item roll per hero at Level 10, 500gp per hero + one Legendary magic-item roll per hero at Level 15 (see Simplifications). Epic Tier (Level 20+, d20) is in the forthcoming Epic Heroes book, due 2027, and is not playable in this version.
2 — The Dungeon Map — the map is the main focus; dice and controls sit right here with it
The first tile is a starting room. After that, each new tile is rolled on a d66 shape and a 2d6 contents table. Choose a direction, then roll the next tile. In a corridor only the front two heroes fight in melee, and at most 2 foes attack them.
3 — Combat & Actions
Only heroes roll dice. Attack: d6 (exploding on 6) + class bonus, against the foe's Level. A total at least equal to the foe's Level hits; against Minor foes, a total that is a multiple of their Level slays that many. Defense: d6 (exploding on 6) + armor/shield/class bonus, against the foe's Level — a first die of 1 always fails. Failed defense = 1 damage, unless the foe says more.
4 — Party Sheet
Hirelings & Retainers (Abyss, Expert parties)
Retainers are Level 0, roll d6, and cost gold per adventure, paid in advance. A party may have at most 2 retainers in the dungeon. They take a Morale roll (4+) when a hero falls; a failure means they flee and are lost. Hire with party gold below.
Between adventures (Abyss professionals)
Tier entry (Forsaken Depths, between adventures)
Adventure log
New Systems — Core, Abyss & Forsaken Depths (left-out systems, simplified)
Traits are optional in the book: pick 1 (halflings pick 2, or roll twice). Reaction, Doors, Secrets, Plots, Quests, Idols and dungeon variants below are the systems added after the first direct test. Anything marked simplified is stated in the Simplifications card.
What's new
Recent additions, newest first: Humming Crystals & Live Animals — player-added counters on the party sheet (start at 0, nothing auto-awarded), which now pay the verified Forsaken Depths bribes: 1 Humming Crystal to the Chaos Lionman Champion or the Agnas Bird, 2 Humming Crystals to the Cave Master Psionic, and 1 Live Animal to the Chaos Mothbeast, the Forsaken Depths Leviathan, the Chaos Mothbeast Queen (Citadel) or the Undead Leviathan. Tracked inventory — player-added Gems, Scrolls, Potions and Magic Items (party sheet, starts at 0, nothing auto-awarded), which now pay the Deep Trolls gem bribe (1 gem per troll), the Dark Elf Warlock and Pumpkinhead of the Depths scroll/magic-item bribes, the Dark Elf Witch bribe (2 Clues, 2 Scrolls, or 1 Magic Item), and the Manataur scroll/potion bribe. Print party sheet and an automatic previous-save backup with Restore. Campaign journal export and a dungeons-won counter. Multi-dungeon campaigns — “Enter next dungeon (same party)” after a win. Per-foe Reaction tables for Core, Abyss, Forsaken Depths, cavern and fungal foes (generic d6 roll remains for the few foes listed in Simplifications). Werewolf transformation as a boss encounter and vampire re-encounters via Clues. Swashbuckler as an optional 9th class, the full Forsaken Hallucination Table, and Vampirism / Dark Plague / Lycanthropy with book steps. No rule was changed by these additions; anything simplified is stated in the Simplifications card below.
Simplifications in this core version — please read
• Tile shapes: the book's tile shapes are printed as pictures and could not be extracted as text, so this game uses simplified equivalents: corridors 1 square wide, rooms 2–4 squares wide, with the same room/corridor fighting limits. • Classes: the 8 core classes plus the Swashbuckler as an optional 9th class (Core Expanded Edition, pp.61–62): Attack and Defense +half Level, 2 attacks per turn (second attack after a hit), Panache (gain 1 per foe killed, max = Level; spend 1 for +1 on the next Attack or Defense roll, max 1 per roll — the Blade Dance trait, which spends several Panache at once, is applied manually). Scroll use as a Level 1 caster and Stealth +1/2 are noted, not tracked. Panache gain on a minor-foe kill adds the number of foes slain in that blow. The Swashbuckler's Saves are as a rogue. Traits are now rolled with the Roll Traits button (optional in the book; halflings get 2); trait effects are shown on the party sheet and are otherwise applied manually where a roll is involved, as noted there. • Magic treasure: a short playable list stands in for the full magic table. • Troll regeneration is noted in the log but not fully simulated. Foe Reaction/bribery now uses per-foe d6 tables where verified: all 23 Core Dungeon foes, 28 of 30 Abyss foes, and 36 Forsaken entries (see the reaction scope paragraph below); every other foe uses the generic d6 roll (1 food/rest, 2 peaceful, 3 ignore, 4 flee, 5 bribe, 6 fight). Paying a bribe (gold, Food rations, or Clues, as the table asks) treats the foe as peaceful. A Quest reaction is treated as Peaceful; a Trial of Champions reaction keeps the foe until the Trial of Champions button resolves it; a Help reaction is treated as Peaceful. The optional Doors table (2d6) is now playable with Bash / Lock-pick / Destroy with spell / Spend Clues / Open actions; an unopened door can always be cleared so it can never stall the game. Fleeing: the book rule is one strike per foe on withdrawal; this game still uses the simplified 1 damage per living hero (2 in fungal grottoes for non-rogue, non-halfling heroes, who have -1 Defense when fleeing there), because the game does not track individual foe attacks on withdrawal. • XP: the classical system is used: 1 XP roll per 10 Minor encounters, 1 per Major foe, 1 extra for the Final Boss. An XP roll is d6: roll higher than the hero's Level, or a 6, to level up (+1 Life, +1 Level). • Tile limit: if you run out of map space, the next Major foe is treated as the Final Boss, as in the book's grid rule.
Multi-dungeon campaigns and per-foe Reactions (scope, stated): After a win, “Enter next dungeon (same party)” starts a new dungeon with the same heroes, gold, Clues, Food, skills, tracked inventory (Gems, Scrolls, Potions, Magic Items, Humming Crystals, Live Animals), plots, quests, secrets and conditions; dungeon counters, boss state, rests and the current foe reset, and living heroes recover fully between dungeons (simplification) while dead heroes stay dead until replaced. Tier entry (Heroic/Legendary) works between dungeons the same way. Reaction scope: Abyss — all foes except Shrieking Fungi (the book gives no d6 reaction roll for it: “They just stand and shriek”) and Giant Constrictor Snake (the extracted text states only rolls 1 and 4–6, so rolls 2–3 are not guessed). Forsaken — all Vermin; all Minions (Deep Trolls via the gem bribe below); Worm, Stalker, Fungal Sludge, Chaos Mothbeast, Forsaken Depths Leviathan and Agnas Bird among Weird; Armored Forsaken Depths Troll, Deep Hobgoblin Champion, Dark Elf Witch, Chaos Lionman Champion and Cave Master Psionic among Bosses; all Hordes; and Colossal Worm, Savage Stalker, Giant Fungal Sludge, Chaos Mothbeast Queen and Undead Leviathan among Citadel Weird. Now mapped with the tracked inventory (see below): the gem bribe of standard Deep Trolls (1 gem per troll, rolls 1–4, fight to the death on 5–6), the Dark Elf Witch bribe (2 Clues, 2 Scrolls, or 1 Magic Item), the Dark Elf Warlock bribe (1 Scroll or 1 Magic Item), and the Pumpkinhead of the Depths bribe (1 Scroll or 1 Magic Item). Also mapped with the tracked inventory: the humming-crystal bribes — Chaos Lionman Champion 1 crystal (rolls 2–3), Cave Master Psionic 2 crystals (rolls 1–3), Agnas Bird 1 crystal (rolls 3–4) — and the live-animal bribes — Chaos Mothbeast 1 animal (roll 3), Forsaken Depths Leviathan 1 animal (rolls 1–3), Chaos Mothbeast Queen 1 animal (roll 3), Undead Leviathan 1 animal (rolls 1–3); each is flat for the single foe, paid with Pay Bribe, and an unpaid foe fights (both Leviathans fight to the death on a roll of 6). No crystal or animal bribe is left on the generic fallback: the book's reaction tables contain exactly these 3 crystal and 4 animal bribes. Where the book offers a gold alternative, gold is used (Lizardmen 100gp, Goblins of the Deep 80gp, Horde of Deep Trolls and Armored Forsaken Depths Troll 200gp, Hordes of the same); where it offers a Clues alternative, Clues are used (Dark Elf Witch: 2 Clues). Lich bribe is 300gp flat (the book also allows 1 random magic item — not used here). The Young Chaos Dragon Blessing modifier (+/−1 to the reaction roll) is not applied. All 24 cavern foes and all 24 fungal foes now have a Reaction handling (see below for the three whose book outcomes cannot be paid from tracked resources). Where a book bribe cannot be paid from tracked resources it is simplified and stated here: Morlocks offer information, treated as Help/Peaceful, and their 15gp gold alternative is used for the bribe (the 5 Food alternative is not offered); Rat Men use the 5gp-per-foe gold alternative (ration/mushroom alternatives not offered); Cavemen use the 1 Food-per-foe alternative (gem alternative not offered); Halfling Mushroom Pickers' Offer Food and Rest is treated as Help/Peaceful and their Trade outcome is treated as Fight, because this game has no shop inventory; Caveman Champion's 50gp-gem / 2-handed-weapon bribe is treated as Fight, and Cave Dragon's 50gp-gem bribe is treated as Fight, because gems and weapon quality are not tracked; Spore Lord's 100gp bribe is flat for the group. The three formerly unmapped cavern foes are now handled explicitly, without inventing costs: Mud Centipedes ignore the party unless a water pool has been inspected in this dungeon (dipping in a pool with Dip in Water Pool sets that flag), in which case they Fight to protect their eggs; Cave Orcs offer Buy Weapons on 1–3 (they will not buy if dwarves or elves are in the party, in which case they Fight; otherwise the sale is noted manually because the game tracks no weapon-quality inventory and no gold is added automatically); Manataur asks 2 Scrolls or 2 Potions on 1–4, now deducted from the tracked inventory by Pay Bribe (no gold changes hands); if you have fewer than 2 of one kind, the foe fights.
Abyss additions (simplifications stated): Expert heroes (Level 5+) roll d8, exploding on 7+, for Attack, Defense, Saves and spellcasting; Basic heroes keep d6. Expert XP rolls use d8+2: success if the total beats the hero's Level or the natural d8 is 7–8, and the hero may level up or learn one Expert Skill instead (book rule). Abyss monster Levels are the fixed Levels printed in the Abyss tables, not HCL. Abyss XP: 1 roll per 5 Minor encounters, 2 per Boss (book rule, applied in Abyss mode). On a 12 contents roll, a dragon's lair is used only for a wide (4-square) room, otherwise a Boss is used — the book's large-room list does not map onto this game's simplified tile shapes. Minion leaders are modelled by skipping the Morale check while the leader lives (and noting the champion); multiple bosses are fought one after the other, not simultaneously. Madness: a hero whose Madness exceeds his Level (wizards +1) runs away and is lost; exiting the dungeon heals 1 Madness each. Skills whose full book effect needs a free choice are applied in the simplified form shown on the party sheet. Level 5 start: 100gp per hero and one core magic treasure roll per hero.
Forsaken Depths additions (simplifications stated): Heroic heroes (Tier 3) roll d10, exploding on 8+; Legendary heroes (Tier 4) roll d12, exploding on 9+. Tier die follows the hero's tier, not just Level: a Level 9 hero who pays the Heroic entry cost (2 XP rolls + 1000gp, between adventures) becomes Heroic while still Level 9, and a Level 14 hero who pays the Legendary entry cost (3 XP rolls + 2000gp) becomes Legendary while still Level 14. XP rolls to level up: Heroic d10+4, Legendary d12+8 (summary table; the body text on p.3 says d12+7 for Legendary — the summary table is used here). Skill-learning XP rolls: Expert d10+5 / d12+10, Heroic d10+4 / d12+9, Legendary d12+8. Success on any tier XP roll: total beats the hero's Level, or the natural die is at or above the explosion threshold. Heroic spells cost 2 slots to memorise and Legendary spells 3 slots in the book; in this game learning a spell adds it to the caster's repertoire and casting still costs 1 slot per cast (simplification). Forsaken foes use HCL (Highest Character Level) formulas from the book, not fixed Levels; Forsaken treasure uses the d10 Forsaken Treasure Table. Citadel weird monsters are used for the 4–6 half of Forsaken Weird encounters. Rivers, Citadels and Ruins are now simplified dungeon variants: Ruins sets a d6+3-tile dungeon counter, a Citadel roll sets a room count and a Citadel type flag, and a River Stretch rolls a hazard on a 1 (ambush or Ghosts of the River, logged) — all reuse the existing Forsaken tile/content code, so they are not separate map engines. Quests, the Cyclopean Idol Table, Campaign Plots, and Core/Abyss/Heroic/Legendary Secrets are now tracked/playable in the New Systems card (see there for each simplification). Vampirism, Dark Plague and Lycanthropy are now tracked with book steps, not bare flags: vampire level drain is applied on a failed Save when a vampire damages a hero (lose 1 Level and the Life point gained with it, a caster loses one spell; drained to Level 0 means resurrection is impossible unless the vampire is killed first; drain Saves are L4 magic (Minor Vampire) / L5 magic (Major Vampire), and Vampire Bats/Frogs are animals and are not drained); Dark Plague rolls d8 per room (1 = lose 1 Life) and spreads to party members who fail a Save vs L10 disease on entering a room, and is cured by a cleric Blessing (d8+L vs 10, spell wasted on failure) or elven bread, with immunity for the rest of the adventure once healed; Lycanthropy is saved vs L5 infection after a werewolf wound (halflings and elves add half Level), and cured only at a monastery (400gp per attempt, Save at +1; a roll of 1 kills by poisoning; resurrection costs 1000gp but the curse rises too; an exploding Save gives immunity). Vampire re-encounters are now playable: if a Minor/Major Vampire is left unkilled (party flees, Escape or Mass Teleport), spend 2 Clues (1 with Vampire Hunter in the party) via the New Systems button to meet it again in the next room — it has not healed, and on a 2-in-6 roll it is accompanied by minions, fought first with the vampire queued behind them. Garlic poultices (which need an alchemist in service, not a hireable in this game) and church Blessing plague-cure costs (caster Level 5, d6 5–6, cost not stated in the book extract) are not simulated — pay manually if you use them. Werewolf transformation is now automatic: an infected hero whose Madness exceeds Level turns into a werewolf (L6 boss, 5 Life, 2 attacks) and attacks the party; Sleep-saving the friend is not implemented, so defeating the werewolf slays it. The Swashbuckler class is now an optional 9th class (see Classes above; the class rules are in the supplied Core Expanded Edition, pp.61–62, so the Dark Waters note no longer blocks it, and old saves still load because class choice is only used for new parties). The full Forsaken Hallucination Table is now tracked per hero: Surrounded (attack a random ally for d3+1 turns, Blessing ends it), Worms (cannot act; ends at the end of the encounter, on damage, or with a Blessing), No Danger (next Save or Defense automatically fails, then ends), Horrors (Madness = Tier), Revelations (1 Madness + a Revelation; the Use Revelation button auto-succeeds the next Save, other Revelation benefits are manual). Cavern and Fungal Grottoes foes, traps and special/rare items are now playable environment variants in standard (non-Abyss, non-Forsaken) dungeons: foe special effects are noted in the foe's log note and applied manually where the game cannot track them, Tier+N Life uses the party's current tier, and four attack counts not stated in the extracted cavern/fungal table text are assumed and flagged in the foe notes (Cavern Werebear 2, Cavern Wraith 1, Spore Swarm 1, Hallucinogenic Horror 1). Per-foe Reaction tables are now implemented for the 24 Core Dungeon foes (6 Vermin, 6 Minions, 5 Weird + Gremlins as an event, 6 Bosses) in standard dungeons only, with bribe amounts per foe (count × amount), Flee-if-outnumbered, Blood offering (via Pay Bribe, 2 Life from the most wounded living hero), Quest treated as Peaceful, and Young Dragon Sleep (+2 on the first Attack roll). Cavern and fungal foes use the per-foe tables described in the scope paragraph above (all 24 cavern and all 24 fungal foes handled). All other foes (Abyss and Forsaken foes not in those maps) still use the generic d6 roll as a fallback. Trolls always fight to the death if a dwarf is in the party, per the book. The Forsaken tile shapes are picture-only in the book, so simplified shapes are reused. Epic Tier (Level 20+, d20, exploding on 10+) is not in this version — it belongs to Epic Heroes, due 2027.
Restart after a wipe: the Stop game & reset button (which reloads the page) is the intended restart after the whole party falls; as a safety net, starting a new party while the class selects are not on screen now falls back to the default party (warrior, barbarian, cleric, wizard — Bruggo, Mira, Thorin, Elowen) instead of failing, so a fresh campaign can always be started.
Reaction state: Reaction state (bribe asked, blood/food/clue/scroll/gem/crystal/animal/item offering, trial) now resets when a new foe appears, when combat ends, and when the party flees, so a Reaction rolled for one foe can never be carried into the next; the generic Reaction roll only sets a bribe amount on a roll of 5 (on any other roll Pay Bribe correctly refuses, saying no bribe has been asked).
Tracked inventory: Gems, Scrolls, Potions, Magic Items, Humming Crystals and Live Animals are player-added counters on the party sheet (buttons +1/−1, saved with the party, 0 for old saves via migrateSave). Nothing is auto-awarded: add one only when the book awards it in your real play. Humming Crystals and Live Animals are counted only, like the other counters: for example, a Cave Master Psionic treasure award of d6 humming crystals is added by hand with the +1 button, since nothing is auto-awarded. The boat recharge and sacrifice uses of humming crystals in the book are not automated — spend them with the −1 button and note the effect in the log. Magic Items here are counted only, not valued — the book's “worth 200+gp” condition for the Witch/Warlock bribes is therefore taken on trust (add only items you judge to qualify, or pay the Clues/Scroll alternative instead). The Horde of Deep Trolls keeps its 200gp gold bribe (its 1-gem alternative is not offered). Caveman Champion's and Cave Dragon's gem bribes still resolve as Fight, because they ask for a gem of a specific value (50gp) or a weapon, which the counters do not track.
Campaign journal: Export campaign journal downloads a plain-text summary (party, resources, this dungeon, campaign totals including dungeons won, hirelings, plot, quests, secrets, idols, conditions, and the recent log) and also shows it on the page. Dungeons won is counted in exitDungeon and carried across dungeons by the save; old saves gain the counter at 0 via migrateSave, so a campaign won before this round is not retroactively counted.
Print & backup: Print party sheet prints only the party sheet and campaign summary (the journal text), not the full game page. Every save first copies the previous saved game to an automatic backup; Restore previous save (backup) restores that backup, and it is kept after Clear saved game, so a mistaken clear can be undone. Stop game & reset to start intentionally clears both the save and its backup, as its confirmation says. Loading a slot or importing a save first backs up the save it replaces. Old saves still load via migrateSave, with new fields defaulted. On narrow screens (phones) buttons are taller and the status-bar button stacks below the status text, so no control is squeezed off screen; the map scrolls inside its own frame.