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| source: RPGGeek.com |
Today we start an extended tour of the Tiny d6 system with Tiny Dungeon. I’ll be working from the second edition (and not clear on how that differs from the first) for this character, and I already have a little experience with Tiny d6 in its Wild West iteration Tiny Gunslingers. In general character generation for Tiny d6 is pretty quick; it mostly involves selecting Traits, which exist in a space not unlike D&D Feats insofar as they allow your character a specific exception to a general rule of the game.
In Tiny Dungeon the process involves five steps, six if you decide to come up with a concept first. The first step is to choose or devise a Heritage, which is what was until recently known in the dungeon-fantasy genre as "race." The game provides eight options that include old favorites (human, dwarf, and the elf-alike "fey"), more recently popular concepts (lizardfolk, goblins, bear-people, ents), and the salamander-inspired "salimar," which I'm choosing for this character. Salimar average about four and a half feet in height (mostly due to short legs) have mottled, smooth skins and thick tails. They tend to live near rivers or ports and are stereotyped as hard-nosed but fair traders who appreciate culture and refinement.*
Salimar start the game with 5 hit points (which work basically like D&D hit points, but damage expressions tend to be much smaller so those five will last longer than they would in even a TSR-era D&D game). They have an inborn Trait that allows them to heal when exposed to thermal damage; you choose heat or cold as the relevant source during creation, and I'll go with Pyrothermic Healing, which lets me take heat damage as healing in the same amount.
The second step is to personalize your character with three unique Traits. Tiny Dungeon isn't a class-based system, but you can emulate character classes through your choice of Traits, and there are no abillity scores to push you into whatever confers the best bonuses. I want to create a spellcaster, since last time I did this challenge I kept shorting magic systems in the interest of avoiding complexity.
Tiny Dungeon tries to keep spellcasting as simple as the rest of the game, and only a few Traits confer any kind of magical powers. These include Alchemist (making potions), Beastspeaker (talking to animals), Familiar (having a spirit helper), Healer (which may but does not need to be construed as a magical effect), Spell Reader (working with spell scrolls), and Spell-Touched (generating minor magical effects). I like the academic angle, so I'm going to start with Spell Reader as the first Trait. I'll add Educated, which gives me advantage on knowledge checks, and close out with Alchemist as a suitable skill for an academic magician.
Scrolls are supposed to be pretty rare and expensive, so I'll need other ways to defend myself until I get hold of some. This is where my weapon proficiency comes in; I can be proficent with one group of weapons and specialize in a particular member of that group. The three weapon groups are light melee (one-handed weapons), heavy melee (two-handed weapons that have reach), and ranged (which in addition to their range also require two hands to operate). I'll need my hands to manage scrolls (eventually, anyhow), so I opt for light melee and choose the wizardy Staff as my specialty. All light melee weapons inflict a base damage of 1 point when they hit, and as a magicky guy I've foregone the opportunity to squeeze more damage out of my weapon.
Gear selection is kind of handwavey; the game provides price ranges for weapons of the various groups (1-5 gold pieces for light melee, 6-10 for heavy melee, 1-15 for ranged) but doesn't correlate those prices to any advantages in performance. Armor (of non-magical types) is purely cosmetic, so there's no defense penalty for wearing whatever you think looks cool and suits the character. I'm already committed to the clothy aesthetic, and Salimar are supposed to be snappy dressers, so fancy robes it is.
The game doesn't provide a thorough gear list, but does give each character an adventuring kit with the following contents: bedroll, flint and steel, belt pouch, rucksack, lantern, waterskin (empty), a container of oil, a fifty-foot length of rope, rations (size of supply to be determined, I guess), one torch, and a cloak. I'll add writing supplies: paper, ink, a couple of quills and a penknife. Scrolls are non-standard items and their cost and effects are left up to the GM to determine, so I'll assume he doesn't start with any and must obtain them in play.
Logistics is handled through a concept termed "depletion:" each non-magical item in your inventory has six depletion points, and every time you use an item or weapon there is a one-in-six chance it will lose a depletion point at the end of the scene or combat encounter. When the counter is reduced to zero, the item breaks or is used up.
Anyhow, once you've determined your loadout you can develop your backstory. The next step is to determine your Family Trade, which provides some background context. An educated fellow such as this character could easily come from an academic or academic-adjacent family, and I'd kind of prefer not to indulge the merchant stereotype, so I'll make my wizard's folks librarians, which would facilitate his access to the kind of learning his Traits encompass.
The last step is to devise a simple statement of what's most important to the character; this is termed their Belief. Our wizard left the ivory tower of the library behind for a reason, and that's where we'll find his Belief. I could go with a heroic motive, such as "the best use of knowledge is to make the world a better place," or I could focus on hunger for experience, such as "there's so much more to the world than what you can find in books." But I really want to tie this to his magical skills, so I'll settle on this: Bring magic out of the cloister so it can help people.
Now we just need a name (and a campaign to play our guy in, but we're not getting that today). I dub thee Newton Efter, Reader of Spells. And here are his vitals:
Name: Newton Efter
Heritage: Salimar
Family Trade: Librarian
Belief: Bring magic out of the cloister so it can help people.
Traits:
Pyrothermic Healing (heritage): heat damage registers as healing
Spell Reader: Can cast spells from scrolls
Educated: Advantage on Tests regarding knowledge
Alchemist: can create potions, elixirs, poisons, etc., with access to the proper ingredients. Also has Advantage on Tests to identify liquids.
Proficient Weapons: Light Melee
Mastered Weapons: Staff
Gear: Staff, robe, adventurer's kit, paper, ink, and quills
Next on my to-do list is Tiny Cthulhu, so watch this URL tomorrow for a new character!
*If you're detecting roots in Jewish stereotypes here, you are not the only one. It may not be as obnoxious as Rowling's goblins, but I'm seeing it too.
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