Idle Cartulary
-
Rules Sketch: Surprise
If you’re walking in on the middle of the Advanced Fantasy Dungeon series, there’s an index here. Surprise and ambush are simple in second edition, so general principles: If either anyone encounters someone else unexpectedly, they roll for surprise. The surprised group has disadvantage on defence. The unsurprised group has advantage on fleeing and attacks,… Continue reading
-
Rules Sketch: Vision
If you’re walking in on the middle of the advanced fantasy dungeon series, there’s an index here. Vision gets a lot of time in second edition: Visibility by size and distance in optimal conditions outdoors Visibility by weather condition Visibility while moving Light source radius, direction and speed of exhaustion Fighting with mirrors Light reducing… Continue reading
-
Rules Sketch: Timekeeping and Random Encounters
If you’re walking in on the middle of the Advanced Fantasy Dungeon series, there’s an index here. Timekeeping basics in second edition are quite straightforward and iconic, although it’s obscured in intent compared to earlier editions. Combat rounds of 1 minute, and dungeon turns of 10 minutes, with encounters every hour. Days measure overland travel,… Continue reading
-
Rules Sketch: Encumbrance
If you’re walking in on the middle of the advanced fantasy dungeon series, there’s an index here. Second edition really believes in verisimilitude of equipment. How much can you carry, punishments if you carry more, weights in pounds and ounces, preparation and resource management. It feels like a major legacy from earlier, primarily dungeon-crawling versions… Continue reading
-
Rules Sketch: Experience
If you’re walking in on the middle of the Advanced Fantasy Dungeon series, there’s an index here. Experience, oh how have I been dreading you! The reason being that there are challenges, between the variable progression tables, and the varying monster experience awards, that I’m not keen to tackle. Let’s begin with some assumptions: XP… Continue reading
-
Rules Sketch: Ethos
If you’re walking in on the middle of this series, there’s an index here. As discussed in the Player’s Handbook Read-through, alignment is problematic in its word choices and not particularly useful as a guide for decision-making or role-playing. It’s at once too specific and too general, but second edition comes with a separate system… Continue reading
-
Rule Sketch: Ageing
If you’re walking in on the middle of this series, there’s an index here. The main subsystem I didn’t interacted with in the last post on Heritage is ageing, which in second edition is poorly designed and weirdly ageist. It wasn’t my plan. I’m going to detour here, as I’m not sure it’s a value… Continue reading
-
Rules Sketch: Heritage
If you’re walking in on the middle of this series, there’s an index here. There is nothing in second edition’s conception or implementation of race that isn’t grounded in systemic racism and heavily loaded. But, race in second edition more broadly and especially as they developed in subsequent editions is fertile ground for self-expression. This… Continue reading
-
Advanced Fantasy Dungeons: Inspirations and Influences
I’ve been writing down everything that has influenced my thoughts in the development of Advanced Fantasy Dungeons as I went so as to avoid missing anything. These are the things within the Dungeons and Dragons line I’ve referred to and been inspired by, most able to be bought on the DM’s Guild if you’re so… Continue reading
-
Rules Sketch: Classes
If you’re walking in on the middle of this series, there’s an index here. This is a big task and one that I won’t fully flesh out in this post, but rather scratch out the principles. Just like proficiencies, I’ll get to the actual lists later. I’ll start with commonalities: No hit dice increase after… Continue reading

Want to support Playful Void or Bathtub Reviews? Donate to or join my Ko-fi!
I use affiliate links where I can, to keep reviewing sustainable! Please click them if you’re considering buying something I’ve reviewed! Want to know more?
Have a module, adventure or supplement you’d like me to review? Read my review policy here, and then email me at idle dot cartulary at gmail dot com, or direct message me on Discord!
Recent Posts
- Bathtub Review: More of Me
- Bathtub Review: The Waking of Willoughby Hall
- Bathtub Review: Roach Motel
- Bathtub Review: Cursed Cave of a Billion Bats
- Taking the Highest Die (Make Dice Work For You #4)
Categories
- Appendix Nova
- Bathtub Reviews
- Content
- Critique Navidad!
- Design
- I Read A Game
- Intentional Reviews
- Make Dice Work For You
- Reveries
- Session Reports
- Techniques
- Theory
- Uncategorized
- Zungeon Zundays
