Caving by Michael Prescott

Hello friends!

Recently, Luke and I have been discussing the Dungeoneer skill. The skill is great, but our feeling is that we’ve overburdened it. Right now it governs both climbing and trap disarming—two things adventurers are likely to get up to a lot in dungeons.

At the same time, there’s one thing that gets short-shrift in Torchbearer’s skills: digging. It’s covered by the Laborer skill, but there’s not much in the way of diversity of obstacles. Our players are probably unusual in that they absolutely adore digging—a hold-over from our Burning THAC0 days when we had a Burning Wheel dungeon delving campaign. In those days, there was nothing that could earn you MVP faster than coming up with a clever way to use the Ditch Digging skill (in our early, impoverished days we once scraped together enough cash to cover a lifestyle maintenance test by retrenching latrines…). The dwarf, with his magical Excavation skill, was like unto a god.

This is all a roundabout way of saying that we’re toying with adding a new skill to Torchbearer: Sapper.

Sapper

Life underground has its own rules. Sapper are experts in the unpredictable dynamics of digging and defending in the darkness below.

Sappers dig tunnels, collapse them and set traps for the unwary.

Beginner’s Luck: Will

Help: Alchemist, Laborer

Supplies: Sulphur, lumber, grease

Tunneling Factors

Tunnel Type +Length +Material Crawlway (1) Short (1) Earth (0) Shaft (2) Long (2) Clay (1) Tunnel (3)

Stone (2)



Sand (3)

Tunnel Traps Factors

Setting Trap Type Disarming Traps Pit (1) + Material factors Tripwire and open pit (1) Tripwire alarm (2) False floor (2) Deadfall (3) Pressure plate (3) Spear or crossbow mechanism (4) Complex and multipart mechanisms (4) Gas and smoke mechanisms (5) Explosives (5) Explosives (6) Sigils or runes (6)

What do you think? I know there’s been a fair bit of conversation about disarming traps on the forums and the Mordite Press blog, but do your players ever set traps? Do they tunnel? Let’s talk about it!

Start your digging.