4th & Dragon : Dungeons and Dragons...and stuff

Cameron, artist or not, it looks good. I think this is perfect for the age group you are going for. Sorry to hear your program chrashed, that sucks!

This one was a little less than 6 hours.

On the reading and writing rules, you need to attach some sort of game mechanic to the practice.  As it stands it’s just a “you can’t go on until you do this” rule; a chore that the kids have to do to play.  You need to tie it into the game more so that the kids see some of the fun of the game as coming from that part of the activity.

To that end, what you might try is highlighting three or four words on each card.  Each word would be of a different difficulty, which would be indicated by the highlighting method across cards.  E.g. Easy words might be highlighted in green while hard words might be highlighted in red.  Then, when it comes time to read and then write the word, the player gets to pick which word they want to do, with the difficulty of the words getting them a bonus to their die roll (or the ability to reroll) if they can read and write the word by themselves.

Black Plauge - 06 July 2009 06:31 AM

On the reading and writing rules, you need to attach some sort of game mechanic to the practice.  As it stands it’s just a “you can’t go on until you do this” rule; a chore that the kids have to do to play.  You need to tie it into the game more so that the kids see some of the fun of the game as coming from that part of the activity.

To that end, what you might try is highlighting three or four words on each card.  Each word would be of a different difficulty, which would be indicated by the highlighting method across cards.  E.g. Easy words might be highlighted in green while hard words might be highlighted in red.  Then, when it comes time to read and then write the word, the player gets to pick which word they want to do, with the difficulty of the words getting them a bonus to their die roll (or the ability to reroll) if they can read and write the word by themselves.

Thanks.  That’s a great idea.

A knight.  My favorite one yet.

I realize that I might be getting ahead of myself, but I can’t wait to see this in it’s final stages. I was just saying the other day that I wish there was a version of D&D that fell closer in complexity to Candy Land so that it would both be more widely accepted and simpler in order to appease the masses.

Talae - 06 July 2009 01:40 PM

I realize that I might be getting ahead of myself, but I can’t wait to see this in it’s final stages. I was just saying the other day that I wish there was a version of D&D that fell closer in complexity to Candy Land so that it would both be more widely accepted and simpler in order to appease the masses.

Find an old copy of Dungeon! on e-bay.  I think that’d be perfect for what you’re looking for - unless you really want the math and reading learning for your classroom…

I’m hoping to get most of the art done in a week or two, and then the dungeon tiles.  I’m going to playtest what I have with my daughter hopefully tomorrow (hence the princess and knight cards as first done after the goblin).  Ideal is to have an alpha release by the time school starts in September.  Probably going to just release it for free under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial.

Cameron - 06 July 2009 02:00 PM

Probably going to just release it for free under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial.

Just curious, does this mean you are not going to sell this at all? I was thinking you could put this together and sell it as a PDF. It could then be printed out on cardstock. Similar to what WorldWorks does. I think it would be a shame for you to do all this work and not sell it. Or am I misunderstanding what “Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial” means.Heck if you do more power to you, just my 2 cents.

Anyway, I like the knight Cameron. You are doing some cool artwork. Is it getting a little quicker, relatively speaking?

HotHead - 06 July 2009 02:30 PM

Cameron - 06 July 2009 02:00 PM

Probably going to just release it for free under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial.

Just curious, does this mean you are not going to sell this at all? I was thinking you could put this together and sell it as a PDF. It could then be printed out on cardstock. Similar to what WorldWorks does. I think it would be a shame for you to do all this work and not sell it. Or am I misunderstanding what “Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial” means.Heck if you do more power to you, just my 2 cents.

I’m debating this.  The artwork is so obviously not professional that I hesitate to sell it.  Yeah, I’m putting a lot of work into it and would like to earn cash for my work, but we’ll see.  It’s something I’m considering, along with talking to a local print-shop to see what it would cost to print 500 or 1000 copies.  Then I might try to sell hard copies and maybe PDFs.

Anyway, I like the knight Cameron. You are doing some cool artwork. Is it getting a little quicker, relatively speaking?

Thanks.  I wish I had the same confidence.  That said, it is getting much quicker.  The knight was only 4 hours.  To be exact, it was Cinderella plus The Wild.  The wizard is almost done in less than 2 hours, but that’s because I used a few pieces from the knight - notably the face and the hands, and a modified version of the outfit from the princess.  The monsters are going to be the hardest part.

The Wizard

I like the wizard. I know you might just consider this as a friend trying to make you feel better Cameron,but I honestly think the artwork is perfect for the target age. It has bright colors, and a basic design which kids will like. Look at some of the artwork for programs aimed at kids of 4 years or so. BTW does your daughter know you are drawing these? If not you could ask her when you playtest what she thinks of the artwork.

Amazon

And a contact sheet of the four characters and one monster so far.

Great work. Although, I am not overly fond of the wizard’s robes. They look to similar to a dress. Maybe some design change via additional colors or a divide down the front? Also, the curtained bottoms seem odd too. Please don’t take this wrong. I really like what you are doing so far.

Not at all Talae.  Indeed, that’s why I’m posting them here. 

Good eyes!  That’s a good idea for the wizard.  I was having problems with him too, but I figured I could come back later to tweak him.  I’d rather chug through to get some basics for each class.  Definitely an idea with a divide in the front.  I’ll remove the scalloped bottoms and see if I can’t find another way to make it not look like a triangle. 

Incidentally, I’m making a wiki for this right now. I’m hosting it on my DropBox for now. http://files.getdropbox.com/u/883600/DungeonLand/DungeonLand.html