The Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game is on Kickstarter now, and the campaign ends soon: September 30! The game has funded, and we’re now focused on unlocking stretch goals for extra content and cheaper shipping. To give players an idea why they should start with the Dungeon Fantasy RPG boxed set, SJ Games contributor Peter V. Dell’Orto explains some of the benefits of this new introductory set, and why you should check it out.

“What books do I need for GURPS Dungeon Fantasy?”

I’ve gotten that question often. I’ve had a GURPS Dungeon Fantasy game going for five years, with a mix of GURPS veterans and players new to the system. The veterans want to know what rules we’re using, and if this or that rule is in play. The newer players just want to know what to get and read to come up to speed.

The problem has been that so much of what we need is scattered across multiple books – the GURPS Basic Set, GURPS Magic, the GURPS Dungeon Fantasy series, and more. There isn’t a single location where you can get everything you need at once. And that’s just for people joining a running game. What if you want to get started with Dungeon Fantasy but not have to collect a series of GURPS books to do so?

Not only that, but the Dungeon Fantasy series has a particular flavor that just doesn’t quite match the normal GURPS rules. Spells aren’t always the same as their GURPS Magic counterparts. Traits don’t always act exactly like they do in other genres of play. And not every skill and trait even fits.

The answer to that question now? “Just get the Dungeon Fantasy RPG.”

This boxed set is a standalone, Powered by GURPS release. It’s fully compatible with the existing books. But it’s also all you need to play the game – from the rules right down to dice and Cardboard Heroes.

The boxed set has five books: Adventurers, Exploits, Spells, Monsters, and a Dungeon. They’re written for people new to GURPS and new to gaming alike, yet are still accessible and useable for experienced gamers and veteran GURPS players. Adventurers handles everything you need for character creation – starting from the basics of how to make a character. Exploits contains the rules of play and GM advice. Spells includes all the rules for magic. And Monsters is full of monsters originally found in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 2: Dungeons and the first two GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Monsters books. The Dungeon is a basic adventure appropriate for a group of starting delvers.

This setup is very helpful – the players can read Adventurers to get started, Exploits to understand the game more deeply, and Spells if they use magic. The GM can add Monsters and Dungeons on top of that – no worrying about the players peeking into the wrong section of the book.

The rules are GURPS, but stripped down to just the elements needed to run a monster-stomping, dungeon-delving, and loot-gathering game. Some of the rules – such as those for character size, slam attacks, and magic – have been simplified and refined for the dungeon-delving genre. A few of those changes are so good they’re immediately going to change how I run them in my game – they’re just flat-out better than what we’ve had until now.

So when I’m asked, the answer to, “What do I need?” will be, “Get the Dungeon Fantasy RPG.”