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DarklandsChallenge Games(10 posts)(10 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted October 22, 2011
More than any other RPG I've played, this game seems made for challenge/themed games because of the unique character creation process and the freedom of it's world.

Some ideas:

1) Ironman - The standard 'no reload' challenge. If a character dies you can replace them at the inn; if the party dies then it's game over. This would require a lot more care with random events and making sure you're prepared for them (stocking the right potions, etc.).

2) Young Adventurers - A party of 20-year-olds. The challenge here would be the low starting skill points, particularly because getting training often involves skill checks. Small plus: you can play a very long game without worry of age penalties! :)

3) Old Adventurers - The opposite of the above. 65 might be too old, but it's less painful than it first sounds: Your party can start with high scores in difficult skills such as alchemy, religion and virtue. A good number of saints provide strength and endurance boosts to counteract the aging penalties, and the image of four wizened old men empowered by prayer is quite a compelling one.

4) Themed Parties - Starting everyone with the same childhood, or finishing them with the same final occupation. This is more of a roleplaying choice, since it gives an idea how the characters might know each other, but you could make a challenge out of it depending what you chose.

5) Balanced Stats - Either spreading your points evenly across the board, or just avoiding 'dump stats'. Even your main fighter has to have at least 20 int before occupations, for example.

Has anyone played with rules like these, or thought of others? I'm quite tempted to try a young party, but it might get frustrating being rejected by everyone while my speaking skills are low.
Posted October 22, 2011
Lately I've been starting with something along the lines of 3 25-year-olds and 1 40-year-old. Oddly, the 40-year-old isn't my alchemist, but my experienced fighter. I don't think changing it around for the Young Adventurer challenge would be very difficult- the main thing is fighting back-alley thieves in the starting town until you get decent money and equipment to fight Robber Knights to get enough money to start some skill training in artifice, religion and alchemy.

Oh, yes, you can't even find alchemists as a 25 year old with one period as a student and one as an alchemist. You actually have to either practice alchemy enough on your own or go to a university to get enough skill to find another alchemist. Still, if you can survive the early years, you will probably end up with people hitting 99 in their relevant skills by the time they are 35 years old without too much trouble. Of course, you will probably never get good enough wood wise to avoid fighting every single set of wolves you find (Always gave it to the 40 year old), and it will take a long time to get a good virtue up for saints.
Posted October 22, 2011
"can't even find alchemists as a 25 year old"
If having too much trouble in one city, try another. iirc alchemists vary in skill like doctors do, with more skilled ones harder to find. Even a 20 year old can find them if they try different cities.

If doing a party of all 20 year olds, consider a (Nobility-> Novice Monk/Nun) because it gives 15 virtue instead of 14. That is one point of a difficult skill closer to being allowed into church law&admin centers. Tutors from there are great for those with very low skills, and will prepare you for universities.
Posted October 24, 2011
I've now tried out a 'Young' party, and it does pose some unique challenges in the early game: There are some outcomes I'd never encountered before because I always had high enough skills to avoid them. Starting with less than 30 healing was particularly tough because I sometimes found myself needing to rest for weeks after one night of fighting thugs.

If you have the patience to get past the tricky start and put up with months of training, you can easily have much stronger 25-year-old characters than you'd get by adding a second job at character creation.

The main problem is that there are some skills for which you can't buy training. Streetwise can be safely trained by sneaking out of town, Stealth can be safely trained by sneaking into the marketplace offices at night, and Speak Common can be trained by persuading your way into town (safe at night, but during the day can cost you reputation). Virtue and Woodwise really only rise from non-repeatable and/or random events, although Evil Lords can be 'exploited' for virtue gains by accusing them but not attacking.

It's been quite fun, if only for learning more about the game's mechanics and skill checks, but I've got to a point where it's not going to play any differently from a normal game so I might try something else.
Posted October 27, 2011
Out of interest how long do you 'run' a single game for? I started with a fairly standard type team(3 at 30years, 1 at 35(alchemist/healer)) and already i've aged a year and i think one of the team has lost 1 STR(but the other havent). Can you run 1 single game until you are all OAP, like 60 years old etc? I've only ever gone a few years before but i quite like the idea of seeing just how long i can keep a game going.
Posted November 16, 2011
avatar
ThorChild: Out of interest how long do you 'run' a single game for? I started with a fairly standard type team(3 at 30years, 1 at 35(alchemist/healer)) and already i've aged a year and i think one of the team has lost 1 STR(but the other havent). Can you run 1 single game until you are all OAP, like 60 years old etc? I've only ever gone a few years before but i quite like the idea of seeing just how long i can keep a game going.
The most I've gone is about 6 or 7 years, but if you've got the patience there's no reason that a 'lifetime' game wouldn't be possible: I think death from old age comes at 70, with the age penalties getting worse towards the end (they're listed in the clue book). You'd probably need to pray before every combat once you've got a team of real oldies, but you've got up to 50 years to get everyone's virtue up and teach them saints.
Posted February 01, 2012
Heh, funny, this is my first time on this forum, and I've just today started a game of Darklands with a party who are all 20, and all began as rural commoners.

Leader type with high charisma (but speak common still only in the teens) and good physical stats. Flail.

Big Guy: Strong, tough, quite agile, dumb as a brick. Mostly weapon skills (recruit career isn't good for much else). Club.

Smart Guy: High intelligence, moderate charisma and physical, practically blind. Has 9 alchemy (the highest on the team), religion and speak latini n the teens. Also the best healer at 10 skill. Short sword.

Sneaky Type: Very agile, perceptive, quite tough. Streetwise, stealth and artifice are in the low teens. Short sword and leather armour.


There's basically not much between them in terms of skills, so it all comes down to their attributes. Right now the fighter and sneaky guy are carrying the team.


Nobody has enough alchemy skill to even find an alchemist, healing is horribly slow, I can't afford to stay at the inn for more than a week, and nobody who speaks in Latin will give me the time of day.

It's quite tense. So far I've mostly just been fighting bandits, but it's really scary because I can't afford to heal everyone much before the money runs out and I have to go out fighting again.

On the plus side, the very low weapon skills have shot up to the low 20s very quickly. It's quite fun.
Posted April 12, 2012
sinisteragent You have set yourself up for a hard game there Sinister! :) You are going to have to negotiate with quite high-up's, and I worry for your speech skills! :)
Posted June 16, 2012
avatar
DaveMongoose: More than any other RPG I've played, this game seems made for challenge/themed games because of the unique character creation process and the freedom of it's world.

Some ideas:

1) Ironman - The standard 'no reload' challenge. If a character dies you can replace them at the inn; if the party dies then it's game over. This would require a lot more care with random events and making sure you're prepared for them (stocking the right potions, etc.).

2) Young Adventurers - A party of 20-year-olds. The challenge here would be the low starting skill points, particularly because getting training often involves skill checks. Small plus: you can play a very long game without worry of age penalties! :)

3) Old Adventurers - The opposite of the above. 65 might be too old, but it's less painful than it first sounds: Your party can start with high scores in difficult skills such as alchemy, religion and virtue. A good number of saints provide strength and endurance boosts to counteract the aging penalties, and the image of four wizened old men empowered by prayer is quite a compelling one.

4) Themed Parties - Starting everyone with the same childhood, or finishing them with the same final occupation. This is more of a roleplaying choice, since it gives an idea how the characters might know each other, but you could make a challenge out of it depending what you chose.

5) Balanced Stats - Either spreading your points evenly across the board, or just avoiding 'dump stats'. Even your main fighter has to have at least 20 int before occupations, for example.

Has anyone played with rules like these, or thought of others? I'm quite tempted to try a young party, but it might get frustrating being rejected by everyone while my speaking skills are low.
The reason it seems to be made for "challenge" is because it's old. A modern remake of this would still be difficult, but not nearly as unforgiving. You're confusing unforgiving-gameplay for challenge. Modern games make a distinction between unforgiving and challenging. Put another way, if something is unforgiving then it's not challenging and so it's discarded.

I'm going to get this game. Sadly, a lot of its features will not ever be used again in a future game. Things like having to eat, resting, choose your own adventure action resolution, aging, overly complicated character development and creation, excessive danger outside towns and cities, and so on. Those kinds of things will die with darklands. It's like opening an old dusty book from a hundred years ago.
Post edited June 16, 2012 by jonbee77
Posted January 01, 2013
The first time I played Darklands, way back with the original version, I started with a party of all 20 year-olds, and I loved it. I got lucky at the start, since my home town was Nurnberg. Having a university and the best armor and weapons available is good fortune! Unfortunately, this was the original version of the game. After spending around a year or so killing local thugs and getting decent armor and weapons, I ventured into the wild, made my way to a mine, and attempted the Knocker quest. For those who don't know, the original version was bugged -- when you finished the Knocker quest you were S-T-U-C-K, there was no way to continue the game! I had to wait several months before Microprose sent me the updated version after my shrieks of complaint. My next group was all 25 year olds -- big difference, eh? And I finished the main quest with them. Took about 6 or 7 game-years, IIRC.

It's been years since I played, the disks have gone missing, although I still have the map and the manual. So I started a new group of all 20 year-olds. (I must be a glutton for punishment) Started in Speyr, so it was relatively easy to stumble my way back to Nurnberg. Only problem there is that this time the armorers don't sell vChain or vPlate! I'll have to go to Nancy or Soest for decent vitals armor, I guess.

Note that the cluebook you can download here has a lot of useful information. It's especially useful if you're scratching your head wondering "what city should I visit next?"

-- Mal
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DarklandsChallenge Games(10 posts)(10 posts)
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