Tyson HeckertIs Massive Darkness sitting sadly on your shelf, like a puppy with a paw to the window longing for your attention? Maybe you’re more of a Warhammer Quest fan, and are on the hunt for a similar experience? Darkwater just released, but at a whopping $250 and a with system that’s fun but doesn’t quite hit like the original, maybe you found it disappointing? Or maybe you’ve played neither franchise, but are curious about both? I have a treat for you.
Massive Darkness
I like Massive Darkness, and to be clear, I mean Massive Darkness 1. I like Massive Darkness 2 as well, of course, but there’s a certain charm about the first game that stands out. Perhaps it’s the more straightforward design and aesthetic when it comes to the heroes and monsters. While it’s not a perfect game, the core loop – kick in a door, bust up some mobs, and take the treasure – is solid. The systems are simple but effective, and they combine elegantly to create great fun leveling and looting to victory. The various quests that take advantage of the format are pretty good, and the optional add-on expansions bump the variety to keep interest well beyond the core content. I have a more detailed review, but that’s not the focus of this post.
What’s not good about Massive Darkness is its campaign system, lack of anything to do outside combat, and quite honestly, it’s blazing pace. The pace does work for single quests, but it doesn’t feel right in long form. The campaign feels tacked on, unbalanced, and just not fun. Plus, experienced dungeon crawl fans probably expect a little more to see outside of combat, some kind of flavor, flair, or sense of discovery. Massive Darkness lacks all of this, actually slotting in somewhere closer to a modified Zombicide than other dungeon crawls.
Warhammer Quest
What about another game, one with similarly straightforward systems but that does the long form much better? I think Warhammer Quest, and to be clear, I mean the original Warhammer Quest (1995), fits the bill. I won’t harp on it’s success and timeless design, lots has been said about that already, but it’s a staple in dungeon crawl history for a reason. To this day it’s consistently mentioned in top 10 lists, and despite its age, not much has come close to replicating it. One problem with WHQ95, however, is in fact its age. The game is very rare, and very expensive. It’s a shame more players won’t get a chance to see it.
The Best of Both Worlds
What if the better combat, class depth, and itemization of Massive Darkness combined with the long form aspects of WHQ? Things like a randomized quest list, events both in and out of the dungeon, a town phase, and steady progression across quests.
I’ve been big proponent of rule variants, mods, and full game rewrites for a long time. Like a good Skyrim overhaul, new board game rules can just as equally transform an experience while keeping the core intact. People’s creativity has never ceased to amaze me throughout my life, so in the last few years, I’ve decided to flex my creative muscle as well.
Legend of The Lightbringers
Enter Legend of The Lightbringers, an adventure rules variant that bridges the gap between two great board games.
- Journey across a series of quests, randomly chosen from a set of 11, with additional modifiers added on top, also at random.
- Explore dungeons as well as fight in them, with both tile and room exploration events.
- Find new discoveries and new items, like keys to unlock special chests found throughout.
- Use Luck points, a new mechanic to this variant, to re-roll dice and ease tough combat.
- Gain gold and a much slower rate of treasure, such that each discovery has impact.
- Use any add-ons, combinations of roaming monsters, or heroes to create curated, thematic dungeons, like a rat warren, troglodyte den, or even a zombie horde (if using Zombicide crossover)
- Go to and from town as its own adventure, with its own events. Conducting business in town offers the chance to rest, recover, spend hard earned gold on upgrades, and even has further discoveries of its own.
What will you find when you explore mysterious pits that have opened up across town? Perhaps a drunken rumor leads you to the Lair of the Mad Mage. If you survive his tower, will he be friend, or foe? When a persecuted creature of darkness wants to switch sides, it’s up to you to rescue it! Maybe not all of the creatures of darkness are so bad after all. After about ten quests, when a character reaches their apex, they can optionally take on the final challenge: a showdown with darkness.
Death
One more thing. While Massive Darkness doesn’t have character death, Legend of the Lightbringers does. Borrowing a brutal yet beloved feature from Warhammer Quest, characters can die, and not just from combat. Yet fear not, death is not the end. Using the Lifebringer mechanic from Massive Darkness, characters can always be revived to life. Yet the Lifebringer is limited, and charges are rare to find and expensive to buy. It’s entirely possible a party can wipe and players will need to start anew to hunt the Lifebringer energy necessary to revive their main characters.
Ready to take on the darkness?
Requirements: One of the best things about this variant is that you will not need to print any additional components. All you’ll need are the rules and a d6 (and probably a pencil).
BGG
Originally unveiled on Board Game Geek, see what others are saying, and share your thoughts!
BGG Link — BGG Post
