Darkmantle Delve: The Setup

Decades ago, Darkmantle Mine was a flourishing operation, providing ores and minerals to nearby towns. That is until it was suddenly and mysteriously abandoned...

Welcome to the Darkmantle Delve...

...a solo actual play using D&D 5e, many homebrew additions, and the Mythic GME (2nd edition).

I started this adventure to playtest a dungeon emulator I've been developing in Google Sheets using a combination of random tables and Open AI's API. But, this post is not about that.

The Setup

I'll be starting with a 3rd level party of four characters. And they're all going to be fighters—yip, only fighters. I've been wanting to try it for ages.

I'll be rolling for stats, re-rolling any combination that is 10% higher or lower than the standard array.

The characters will have fixed HP (taking the average when levels are gained).

Rather than gaining starting equipment, they will start with a few items from their background and a nice heap of coins (325 GP) to buy starting equipment.

I usually play with Gritty Realism, but since this adventure will be a dungeon crawl, I'm going with regular resting rules.

The Homebrew

Over the years I've added a lot of homebrew to 5e: I like crunch and tactical combat, and all my additions contribute to that goal. I've also adopted a lot from other great homebrewers. I've mashed it all together into a bit of a monster, but it's a monster I thoroughly enjoy.

Here's an overview of the variations and modifications I'll be making to Mythic and 5e for this game:

Mythic Variations

The second edition of Mythic introduces a lot of variations that have appeared in the magazine over the years. I'm using two of them:

1. The Mid-Chaos Fate Chart
   • This chart reduces the influence the Chaos Factor has on the outcome of Oracle questions but doesn't remove it entirely.
2. Revert Toward The Mean
   • "The default rule for the Chaos Factor is to increase it when a Scene wasn’t under Player Character control and decrease it when it was. This gives the CF a snowball effect, where crisis begets more crisis and calm begets more calm until something happens to switch things up." (Mythic)
   • This variant reverses the default (e.g., increasing CF when the scene is in control). This has the effect of not letting CF snowball and nudging it back towards 5 when it gets really out of hand. I find it creates more natural ebbs and flows in longer games.

Finally, I ignore the "Close A Thread" result when random events are generated. I want to decide when a thread is closed.

5e Homebrew

There's a lot to read in this section. If you want to read less, you can select the following handy button:

Let's start with the homebrew I've adopted from other creators:

• Laser Llama's Alternate Fighter (v3.1) and Alternate Fighter Expanded (v3.1)

  Laser Llama has the best class alternatives out there; they're packed to the brim with options and are balanced incredibly well.

  Given my party are all fighters, having the kind of options provided in these alternatives is great for flavour. I've been quite surprised at how different the characters feel in gameplay.

• Kibbles' Crafting System

  Kibbles' approach to crafting is simple and comprehensive at the same time. The full version is still in preorder as of Oct 2023, but hopefully coming soon.

  I've made some minor alterations to the system that aren't worth mentioning.

And then on to my own homebrew rules:

• A modified core dice roll for skill checks

  I like the probability bell curve that 4d6-4 makes, and since I play using Roll20, the actual dice are meaningless. You can read about why I use a modified roll in this post.

• Wilderness exploration rules, based heavily on the work of Justin Alexander

  Justin's system is based around hexes, mine removes hexes and is based on regions, cardinal direction and distance. I don't anticipate I'll be doing much wilderness exploration, but if it should come to it, I have it ready.

• A rewards system that abstracts loot and XP into Treasure Points

  This system allows me to reward anything my characters succeed in doing. They can then later redeem those rewards when it is narratively appropriate. You can read more about the system here.

  I've also abstracted Looting and Harvesting from Kibbles' Crafting system into the Treasure Point system.

  Finally, I stock the "shops" in the world with Trivial and Common crafting ingredients from Kibbles' system, though I limit the quantities based on how many Treasure Points the party has earned.

• Alternate rules for resurrection and an alternative to death saving throws called Desperation.

• More realistic fall damage, based on the work of u/kigosai

• +2 to attacks when flanking

• Options for running away, because in RAW fleeing combat is a guaranteed TPK

• Custom races Human, Feyling (an elf variant), Kender, Demikin (A giant/orc hybrid)

• Custom feats, based heavily on the WotC's OneD&D Unearthed Arcana Character Origins

• Custom backgrounds that have no Background Feature, but rather provide two skills, a tool proficiency, a language, and a feat.

• Characters need to spend downtime to level up.

• And various changes to spell mechanics

  I've made some changes to some specific spells (most notably True Strike). I've also changed how readying a spell works and how copying or casting a spell scroll works.

That's it for the details. In the next post, I'll introduce the characters themselves.