Adventure!? First Edition

Torches flicker as the small party makes their way down a twisting stone corridor, stale air wafting past their heads from the yawning depths before them. The foremost member, a dwarf with deep red skin and glowing amber eyes grunts.

"I could do without the light you know; dwarves can see passing well in dark tunnels such as these." His complaint fell on deaf ears as the elf carrying the torch sighed.

"The rest of us cannot Bagrad. Magic is dangerous enough as it is, I doubt you would enjoy it if I mistook your head for a creature or something" she readjusted the grip on her massive tome of spell craft and magical theory. Bagrad scowled, not that the other party members could see it. Down they went, further and further until a sound froze the hearts of all four adventurers. Someone had rolled a one.

Adventure!? is a game meant to emulate the old school style of play and game design. Players are less powerful than in popular games like Dungeons and Dragons, and the environment always looms as an enemy just as real as the ones conjured by the GM. Adventure!? exists as an extension of the desire to tell stories of awesome deeds done in the name of camaraderie, honor, or cold hard cash (or perhaps all three). From a very long and complicated hack of Ben Milton's excellent game Maze Rats comes this six-page tribute to sitting hunched over a pair of dice and a few sheets of paper, groaning and celebrating to the clack of small plastic cubes.