Log 11 (Patreon)

Lord of Games is a series i created to give me time to work on my fav games.
Concept is simple, when i finish a campaign or a game, i make a resume here, and after, i propose a vote based on the resume

This time it's an RPG, First i'll describe it a bit, the mechanics and the universe, then i'll tell my tale (with lots of grammar mistakes). So if you plan to play it, i suggest you to stop reading before i start my resume 

The game is Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The amulet of Chaos

The game:

The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk is a RPG tactic. Mean all fight are made by using your character on a map, on a turn based combat system. A Bit like X-com. You characters can shoot if they got a distance weapon, hit at close combat, pary and get into "overwatch" mode, when they shoot whatever pass in their sight.
At this you must add the specificity of each class. At first, most character only got one or two skills, and share more or less the same weaknesses. You're lvl 1 after all, but the more you lvl up the more powerfull you get, and the more specific to a gamepley the character become. The dwarf becoming a fucking tank, able to hold 8 or 9 ennemies at once, the barbarian the best dps, the troll does Huge dammage but got less chance to hit, etc etc.
In a funny way, the beginning is the hardest part of the game. Later there's a bunch of boss that clearly don't allow mistakes.
But when you start you're lvl 1, with pathetic equipment, you can barely survive a hit or two. Over time your characters toughen up, and get more skills, and some are really powerfull at high levels. Wich is great, you clearly feel your character going from Zero to heroes, and it's a pleasure to feel like you become the menace in the end of the adventure.
Between combat you're free to roam around the Dungeons, and it's a big one. The adventure in total took me 40h in Hard difficulty. I won't lie, some of the fight are a real pain in the ass, even more at the begining, but when you start to pick some key technique, it smoothen up and the fun start.

The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk:

Before it was a game, the Dungeon was a sort of Radio drama. Released more than 15 years ago, it was a tale of many mp3 episodes, following a crew of adventurers, first in a Dungeon, then in the rest of their adventures.
In The begining of the net, it was a real phenomenon for the geek and Tabletop RPG player back then. It was popular, funny, and right on it time.
At the same moment at TV, Kaamelott started, a sort of parody/adaptation of King Arthur's stories. The writter, Alexandre Astier became quite known and is still now one of the favorite director of the French peoples. And he is a tabletop RPG player and a huge warhammer fan btw. All to say, his show spread the liking for medieval fantasy that Lord of the Ring had already  started to light some years ago. And it kinda helped the Dungeon to spread even more to the young peoples.
Back then i used to play some Warhammer and Mordheim wargames, and it's clearly the Dungeon that gave me envy to start TTRPG. For a time, it was like a rally point for all the geek and Nerd. You just randomly said "Tagazok" somewhere, and if someone answered "So this is the Dwarf Paradise?" you knew you had a fellow geek around. Even now, time to time, people quotes them when we play a game.
After the MP3 series ended, the author produced many books, and as a musician of formation, he created a Band, supposed to be a Bard band from the universe of Naheulband, making funny bard songs, they released many albums and singles. Comics, Tabletop games, figurines, a tv pilot etc etc, and now a game.
So for a French guy like me, the Dungeon isn't a new  RPG, it's just going back and restarting the first adventure he ever had.
Note also that in the current game, many important peoples in French geek culture participated for the voices, and it's really delightfull to participate to those adventures with them.

The group Naheulband, the guy with the Black Guitar is the Original creator

The adventure 

The characters:

(note, i played in French so many of the name i knoww are in French, and sincerely, don't want to spend an hour just to go fetch who is what in english, so i'll just use the name of the French version ^^)

All begin when the group enter the Dungeon of Naheulbeuk.
A Ranger, former wickerworker specialist in chair reparation, most experimented adventurer of the group as he already solved a quest: find the Chickens of his grandfather that escaped in the village. He is the leader of the group, it's true, he said it first, and clearly the most interested in becoming a Hero

The Thief, constantly afraid, ad he know his kind don't get a lot of HP and are more or less glasscanon, sacrified into the traps encountered in any Dungeons. He is quite interested to get rich, but feel like no one ever care about him. He is right tough, no one care about his feeling or what he got to say.. well.. at least it gave him an excuse to sneak away, we care so less of him i won't even seek an image

The Ogre is a Gourmet. He also got the group backpack, as he is the stronger of all. He love music, and can play the tune quite good enough.  He seems to be quite efficient to hang walpapers. He is a good friend despite his monstruous appareance, the type of Bro that don't like when the group is clashing. Only problem, if he understand our language, is malus in Int make him unable to speak it

That is the Job of the Magician. Redhair, bibliophile, she can speak Ogre, and his the Ogre best friend. Her companion think she suck at spellcasting.. they're not wrong, but she's only lvl1, meaning she got like 2 or 3 spells, then to use her staff to break heads. She is clearly the more intelligent of the whole crew... Wich isn't really hard to be honnest.  Despite this, like the Ranger, she is the one that kinda get along everyone quite nicely, even if she sometimes got some problem with..

The elf: She isn't the most clever of all.... to be fair, let's say she put a lot of point in charism instead of Int.. As elves women get boobs 1 size bigger for each Charism bonus, let's say the rest of the male crew don't really complaign. The problem is that for elves, an adventure is finding a pony to braid it mane, or speaking with Squirrels. So she often end crying or not understand all of this violence. As all the elves she love to get naked to dance with friends, as someone oint her body with honey or oil for a good massage.... Some tradition in this magic world are really wonderfull isn't it? 

The Dwarf is the only one to not Simp for the elf!.... Well.. he must admit that those lil elven string are quite.... interesting, but despite of this he spend his time insulting and harrasing her. Dwarves are bullies.... in the  same time, how would you feel if you had to spend 15h a day in full plate armor while mining rocks, a bit grumpy too i guess. Also when they gain a lvl, Dwarves expand the number of race they can insult with bonuses. Wich make them great tanks.. as they insta aggro everyone around when they start speaking of the peoples mothers...

The Barbarian is the last but not the least. Big, Strong, Muscular, and quite... simple we ll say. he like to hit peoples and to feel powerfull. He hope to die in battle and be able to go party with Crom. In the meantime he love to drink, party, brawl, fight, hit monsters, hit peoples, fight and brawl. If you find some repetition it's normal. His strong arms are his main weapons, his feet odor is the second, and the group made a petition to force him to never ever take them off again in a Dungeon.

The (short because we spent enough time already on the rest) Resume of the adventure:

The group start at the Dungeon entrance, quickly, they chat a bit, learn to know each others, and already the first dramas start. The barbarian find the Sorceress worthless cause magic are for the weak, the Ogre go take a shit, the Dwarf and the elves start to yell at each others and the Thief try to sneak away.
Activating a trapped door, the group is soon sprayed on all the dungeon first level. The Ranger quickly find the elf, locked into the first floor toilet, then the Thief. The 4 others were already grouped and fighting when they joined them, and  it's together that they started to explore the rest of the floor, this time with extra care for the traps....

This is at this moment they encountered an abomination... a half Goblin... Abomination cause, who would want to breed a goblin? (well we all know who around here =D ). The creature was able to talk, and offered them toplay a game. Spin the wheel of chance and get some loot!
Sadly the said loot was the AMULET OF CHAOS. A demonic arthefact. Vanishing the goblin forced them to explore further and reach the first floor... the tavern.
Here, no monster, only the regular clients, adventurers and drunktard. The perfect place to heal and sleep, and to find proper wine and beer too.
There they learned that the Dungeon was led by a sort of communist party, that used a strong administration to get the place working. Several  side quest later, including finding some chicken lost into the floor, and stopping a cult of Dlul, god of sleep, in the invocation of the bedsheet of madness, that would make the whole dungeon sleep for eternity. The group reached the level -1, mission : find the sword of a magician, and if they could also bring back a box of wine for the tavern that would be cool thanks you.
Reaching the place, they discovered the Dungeons shop, quickly knock out the poor girl seller, torn her clothes... to be sure she didn't hide any key or gold, and loot the whole place.
Now with a good (free) equipment, they were strong enough to reach the upper levels.

First problem, the second floor was forbidden because of a curse, so direct to the third one. Second problem, the amulet seems to be cursed (no joke). And they quickly discovered it's the prison of Mankdebol, a trickster demon of luck and cheat. The adventurers were trapped into a time loop. Each time they die, they start again lvl 1, all memory wipe out, and they start again their journey.
To escape they ll have to break the amulet... for that find a way to do so.. and the meaning for it.. and it means also releasing a fucking demon... a lot of adventures for sure!
And most answer might be answered by a Gholbarg, a demon trapped in the 4th floor... problem, the 4th floor is under a spell.. the ORC-ToBEAR-Feast full of alcohol, barbecue and dancing music... an horror.

The group crash the party (litteraly). As they got to murder the DARK MAIDENS OF DOOM, (song is quite cool) a group of Dark elves, with 2 female singer/guitar a male elf bassist and a Troll drummer. And then kill the guy who hired them.. the lil Half Goblin monster.
That done, and after further work for the Gholbarg, the group learned they needed a magic Anvil to break the amulet for good. They searched the rest of the dungeons, even accessing the roof (and killing some peacefull Goblin that lived their). But no chance... they were then trapped forever... exept, that they met a Dwarf in the dungeon jail... a CHAOS Dwarf. he explained that his people were hidding in the mine behind the Dungeons, and that they had a magic Anvil, a gift from their dark gods.
Shoving the prisoner into the Ogre bag (not even joking, he become the new quest item for a part of the adventure) The group reached the level -2, then the mine network below. it took them hours just to get down the stairs, and there, they noticed a real civil war between the dwarf.
They fight for the king in place, till they decided to side for the other camp, cause he proposed better loot, and once the revolt dead (with the former king) they could access the Anvil level.
That level was full of enigmal to solve, puzzle to complete and spiders to slay, but in the end, they could reach the anvil, steal and loot the sacred arthefact of the ancient dwarves kings (never trust adventurers) and took the decision to BREAK the amulet (you can choose not too, quite curious to know what it change)

Doing so, they released the demon, but the curse wasn't lifted yet, they had to destroy him before! Once and for all! The fight was hard, as fighting a time traveling demon that can literally force you to make critical failure isn't so easy. But finally it was done, with might, intelligence, and force beating by the Ogre and Barbarian....
But strangely, it didn't changed anything... still we were trapped in the curse... because the true master of the Dungeon, Zangdar wasn't back.
He had been cursed by the demon too, and him missing the dungeon staff had created this Communist administration. Seeking him, the adventurers asked a group of powerfull wizards about were he was... and the group was surprised to learn he was on the roof... trapped.... in a chicken body... and guarded by many Chicken of chaos...
After a quick, and not really surprising, easy fight against tons of volatile. The curse was finaly lifted, Zangdar back at his post, the communist administration leaders tortured, and the group on it way to finish the dungeon.

Before that, solving the last Dungeon quest, they get back to the Gholbarg, and after a hard fight, defeated him! Getting some nice epic loot in the process.

Now lvl10, equiped in many magic and legendary items, the group reached Zangdar for the final fight... It wasn't that hard, as they had tortured many of his follower before they reach him, to get all of his weakness... mostly that he hated music and couldn't concentrated on a spell if someone dared sing around him.
So for the last fight, new mechanic, if your characters are close together, they improvise a chorus to dispell Zangdar's magic...

Finally they killed him, sadly, as they reached the statue they were paid to get in it display case, the thief get hit by a powerfull trap, get a critical failure, and died ... Sad, really. But worse! A Responsible of the Dungeon corp, the company that oversees the adventurers had discovered the whole time loop adventures.. and for them, no mistake, a time loop dungeons is a game exploit to lvl faster, so the adventure ended with our pathetic group of heroes, back to lvl 2 , stripped naked of all their epic loot and magic object, kicked out of the dungeons...
But don't cry fellows.. cause even if it suck, believe me, it's only the first chapter of the  adventures of the weakest group of suckers the world ever saw  

here is for my resume.

I hope your eyes don't bleed much

And that you enjoyed reading it.

i'll host the vote for the 3$+ members in a minute!