In August 2019 we presented the Darkfast Dungeons Bundle, featuring .PDFs of designer-artist David Okum‘s fast-playing dungeon-crawl boardgame Darkfast Dungeons, its compatible Save the Day superhero RPG, and tons of print-and-cut paper miniatures from Okumarts Games.
Darkfast Dungeons provides a fun and varied Old-School dungeon-crawl experience in a couple of hours. Because you need no gamemaster or preparation, Darkfast Dungeons is kid-friendly and also great for experienced players with limited time. A typical game lasts 2-3 hours, and you can play solo. With its hundreds of printable full-color miniature figures, the Darkfast Dungeons line is an affordable alternative to those big dungeon-crawler boxes full of plastic miniatures — games like DungeonQuest, Clank!, Descent, and Warhammer Quest — and you can store all your minis in a three-ring binder. (The Okumarts Games YouTube channel has Actual Play videos and crafting tips.)
In play you move miniatures representing a party of player figures (Fighter, Cleric, etc.) across a sequence of connected tiles. The stripped-down character stats (Ability, Health, Class Talent, a few modifiers) fit on a small card. The object is to move through a number of tiles dictated by the Mission chosen at the start of play (Crawl, Stop the Dread Event, Treasure Quest, Rescue). When a figure moves onto a tile, consult various Tile Activation Charts to see what happens. You might find Gear, Treasure, or a Trap, or spawn an Opponent. The simple, fast-playing combat system has attacker and defender roll 1d6, add their Ability, and the loser suffers a Health loss equal to the difference (modified by weapon and armor scores). The system encompasses hand-to-hand and ranged combat, counterattacks, knockback, armor piercing, crits and fumbles, wizard spells and clerical Miracles, and lots of character Talents. Your character must follow special orders, “Dark Secrets,” to earn full Victory Points. Track statuses (torchbearer, stunned, entangled) with a dozen different condition markers. The last tile you encounter automatically has a Boss-level opponent.
Save the Day translates and expands the Darkfast system for Silver Age comic-book action and actual roleplaying, with a gamemaster and everything. Choose your hero’s Origin (package deal), Shtick (overall theme or gimmick), two “Panel Powers” you can use all the time, and two special “Issue Powers” that work once per session. The Basic Rules have dozens of pregenerated heroes, villains, minions, and normals, each with (of course!) an accompany paper mini. The Advanced Rules add point-based character customization, equipment design rules, and theater-of-the-mind gaming without miniatures.
This all-new collection presented DRM-free .PDFs of all the rulebooks and adventures for both Darkfast Dungeons and Save the Day, along with more than two dozen .PDFs of paper miniatures. There were no less than fifteen titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $60):
- The complete Darkfast Dungeons Basic rulebook, along with five Darkfast Paper Minis sets: New Heroes, Dungeon Monsters Set 1 and Set 2, and Mice & Rats Set 1 and Set 2
- Both Save the Day rulebooks — the Basic Rules and the Advanced Rulebook — plus four sets of minis: Heroes & Villains Set 1, Set 2, Set 3, Set 4
- Three Eldritch Mythos Paper Minis sets: Monsters, Innsmouth, and the always-useful Loathsome Fishmen
Those who paid more than the threshold (average) price also got our entire Bonus Collection with fourteen more titles worth an additional $66:
- Five Darkfast Dungeons rules expansions, supplements, and adventures: Realm of Shades, Steam & Sword, Dragons & Dwarf Mecha, the adventure The Ghost Woods, and the gazetteer The Kingdom of Richard
- Two rogues’ gallery supplements for Save the Day: Vile Villains One and Two, plus all four Vile Villains Paper Minis sets: Set 1, Set 2, Set 3, Set 4
- The northerly Save the Day adventure Team Canada
- Two Darkfast Dungeons Props Sets of papercraft props, walls, and doorways: Forgotten Tombs and Lost Treasures. These sets nicely complement our past offers of Fat Dragon Games papercraft models (August 2016, May 2017) and Elven Papercraft (January 2017).
Ten percent of each payment (after gateway fees) went to this offer’s designated charity, Ocean Conservancy.
