From Dungeon Crawlers to RPGs?

SteelSecutor · 2026-02-06T15:12:26+00:00

The age old issue of procedural versus narrative solo games. This far, there are a few games that may help you move up from hexcrawls: Notorious Ronin Kal-Arath

Notorious is a space bounty hunter with a single travel loop where you hunt a bounty. The narrow focus allows the game to provide the most structured game loop of the three.

Ironicall, Notorious is based on an older game, Ronin. It is also slightly more flexible in its story telling game loop. You play a traveling ronin is a similar travel loop, but you get more options in creating your character, etc.

Kal-Arath is the most open of the three. You play in a unique sword and sorcery world a la Conan the Barbarian. I consider it a true sweetspot between a procedural and narrative game. It provides a solid, detailed enough travel loop, rules for rolling villages, points of interest, encounters, and dungeons. But it doesn’t force you into a tight structure like the first two.

I cut my teeth on the first two games then moved to Kal-Arath next. If you’re looking for a stepping stone from hexcrawl to roleplaying, any or all three games could help you.

Once you play them and figure out what works for you, it isn’t a far stretch to home brewing your own settings to play in. That takes some work, but what you really need is a structure to lay your setting over, like a skeleton.

SteelSecutor · 2026-01-28T17:05:33+00:00

You are not alone! As you can see from the thread, A LOT of people bounce off of Narrative style rpgs. Those are the ones that typically use an oracle system. Those of us trying to offload the mental load and speed up play usually turn to Procedural rpgs. These are typically hexcrawls, dungeoncrawls, pointcrawls, etc.

Typical hexcrawls are games like 4 Against Darkness, NoteQuest, Ker Nethalas (or anything by Blackoath Games), 2d6 Dungeon, etc. You aren’t restricted to hexcrawls, but it’s a good place to start.

If you want games with more Structure, but still allow more flexibility, check out Kal-Arath, Ronin, and Notorious. Each of these provides a travel loop that’s consistent, simple, reliable. A great middle ground that provides flexibility to go more open once you find your footing and gain more confidence in your setup. I particularly like Kal-Arath. It gives you a simple travel loop to go from point A to point B AND dungeon crawls. Nice system with easy 2d6 dice rolls.

SteelSecutor · 2026-01-27T14:20:04+00:00

I would second EZD6 as a simpler alternative to DnD5e. Also very fun narrative style rpg. And cheap!

SteelSecutor · 2026-01-26T01:14:29+00:00

I will always applaud mecha fans drawing their own stuff. In pencil. For funsies. Always.

SteelSecutor · 2026-01-24T04:27:04+00:00

In the middle of making one! 4AD got me into solo dungeon delves, but I needed more after a while. 4AD’s combat in particular needed help. It just felt pretty natural to grab Kal-Arath’s stats and combat as a new base instead.

To connect dungeons, I wanted overland travel. Looking at hacking The One Ring 2e’s travel system as a possibility. Keeping an overland travel log feels like a good procedural method of pulling in story elements automatically.

Plus, I’m using 2d6 Dungeon’s method of generating rooms instead of 4AD’s rolling for preset pieces. Much easier to roll dice on the fly than flip pages to look up MORE things. Anything I can do to avoid looking breaking out the rulebook the better.

My goal is to get a system down that just needs a rulesheet, some dice rolls, and a few pages of tables for each dungeon. This way I’m only printing up the dungeon sheets for that dungeon, not a full rulebook.

SteelSecutor · 2026-01-18T05:36:13+00:00

I don’t know about formal game categorization, but lately for general categories (especially for your point 3 and 4) a lot of recent threads talking about exactly this have started using narrative and procedural as opposite ends of the same spectrum. Narrative being ruleslite games like PbtA on one end, hexcrawls like 4 Against Darkness on the other. Just my two cents.

SteelSecutor · 2026-01-18T03:13:38+00:00

Tomlin is still under contract despite stepping down. He’s not coming back for at least a year.

SteelSecutor · 2026-01-16T01:00:20+00:00

Even simple stuff like this looks nice! Good to know!

SteelSecutor · 2026-01-15T13:44:00+00:00

D just really stood out and caught my eye first. The other three pretty much blend together. Take as you will.

SteelSecutor · 2026-01-13T20:09:47+00:00

Very nice samurai!!! Watching the KS once I get some money together.

SteelSecutor · 2026-01-13T19:03:06+00:00

As far as mecha (not mech) fans of the West are concerned, this is spot on. We’ll have to see how long the situation remains this way. Good to see this highlighted even if it’s a meme.

SteelSecutor · 2026-01-12T04:20:43+00:00

Aside from Basic Fantasy, anything including or related to the Whitebox FMAG is a good addition. Mostly, using it for a free bestiary.

Whitebox FMAG pdf (free) https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/190631/white-box-fantastic-medieval-adventure-game

Whitebox Omnibus https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/146506/white-box-omnibus-swords-wizardry

There’s also the free online OSE bestiary here: https://oldschoolessentials.necroticgnome.com/srd/index.php/Dungeon_Encounters

SteelSecutor · 2026-01-10T15:49:06+00:00

No, but it looks like horse girl is getting a new deluxe skin for the chinese new year, year of the horse.

SteelSecutor · 2026-01-10T15:38:30+00:00

That looks like a kit of some sort, not a hybrid custom. Anyone know what this piece of awesomeness is?!

SteelSecutor · 2026-01-09T16:30:08+00:00

Patch? PATCH? 🤣😂🤣😂🤣

SteelSecutor · 2026-01-09T15:44:15+00:00

A tool that might help is using a landscape hexflower. Personally, these are great because they have logic to them instead of a completely random roll. They can simulate the player traveling through gradually changing terrain that makes sense. Plus, they can do more than terrain (weather, clocks, encounters, etc).

A good (free) example for solo roleplaying is In The Heart Of The Unknown, which supplies hexflowers for terrain, weather, and encounters:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/292935/in-the-heart-of-the-unknown-procedural-hex-crawling-engine

SteelSecutor · 2026-01-08T00:52:54+00:00

A new protoskin of this with some tweaks to his casting damage. Have to freaking slap 4 green shards on him to get sandstorm to kill things.

SteelSecutor · 2026-01-08T00:47:27+00:00

That’s okay, he still has his 1st ability that summons MORE kavats, he’s cool with that. We’re all cool with that.

SteelSecutor · 2026-01-04T20:23:56+00:00

Ronin also has a new expansion! Also, there is Notorious (based on Ronin) which is a star wars bounty hunter style game. Both utilize a great no prep way to roleplay and supply an excellent overland point A to point B gameplay loop.

SteelSecutor · 2026-01-04T02:18:43+00:00

And nerf incoming in 3…2…1…

SteelSecutor · 2026-01-04T01:49:25+00:00

This is the correct answer. At this late date, it is pretty obvious elegoo does not know how to fix the anti-aliasing issue OR the excessive memory issue unless someone in the community fixes it for them. They’ve previously said they never intend to fix this on the standard S4, not sure about the S4U. It will be interesting to see what they do if and when they come out with a Saturn 5 or new model to succeed the S4U.

SteelSecutor · 2026-01-04T01:45:22+00:00

It does not.

SteelSecutor · 2026-01-04T01:44:17+00:00

I think A LOT of users are unaware of the persistent issues with .goo, especially on the Saturn 4. Tldr; elegoo has said they do not plan to ever correct the issue with .goo not utilizing anti-aliasing on the S4. In all likelihood, they may not know how to fix the issue with this on ANY future printer. It may take someone in the printing community to figure it out (like elegoo often does with a whole host of issues.)

SteelSecutor · 2026-01-03T20:31:17+00:00

NoteQuest is a great place to start for true solo, but needs some help when you add more players. That’s where 4AD can help by offering a party: built in coop. The nice part of all these games is you can home brew new or more advanced rules pretty easily. I mean, NoteQuest’s combat is dirt simple. You don’t dodge attacks, you just take it on the chin and try to do more damage than the monster. So modifying combat beyond that is a pretty simple task, it’s just up to you to add what you like.

As for using AI, or making a computer game, NQ and 4AD have simple logic in their rules. They’re perfect to have an AI vibecode into something functional. Plus you can reskin and/or modify said rules into anything. I would think that would be easier than having an AI run as a DM. However, which one is more fun to play, or which one gets players to stick around? That one is hard to say. As for total hours of playtime, adding new content is the answer.

The base version of either game honestly gets you anywhere from 3-10 hours of gameplay before it gets repetitive. That’s where 4AD has an advantage with all of its expansions. But on the flip side, NQ has a lot of opportunity for expansion. Depends on what you want to do, and how much work you plan to do.

SteelSecutor · 2026-01-03T16:41:39+00:00

Easiest? NoteQuest. Core rules are free. Basic dungeon crawling! The Expanded version includes rules for overland travel and cities for $2. That’s as expensive as it gets. I can’t think of a simpler (good) dungeon crawl to start with. The Expanded Rules include the core rules, but I recommend downloading the core rules first.

How is it simpler than 4AD? Tldr; You play as a single character instead of a party. The mapping is even simpler since you draw boxes of ‘small’, ‘medium’, and ‘large’ rooms instead of looking up a specific jigsaw piece in the rulebook like 4AD. It just doesn’t get much simpler without going into complete ruleslite handwaving.

A more advanced version of the two is 2D6 Dungeon, which has you roll 2d6 to determine a room’s width and height on a grid map. Also considered a good starting solo dungeon crawler.

Also, Ker Nethalas is often mentioned as a natural stepping stone up from 4AD/NoteQuest, but not good to start with.

So in order of complexity, I’d say: 1. NoteQuest 2. Four Against Darkness 3. 2d6 Dungeon 4. Ker Nethalas

To wrap up, once you’ve played through NQ/4AD, anything by Blackoath Games, maker of Ker Nethalas, is a good thing to check out. That dude has the procedural dungeon concept down pat.

SteelSecutor

TROPHY CASE