dNoPE: 1x03 B - DELVE Actual Play (Audio Only)

Did you enjoy Olivia's review of Delve a couple of episodes back and want to know more about this solo TTRPG? Then listen on. We captured the turn-by-turn action as Olivia dug deep underground, exploring, building and defending her Hold. 

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Transcript

This is an audio-only version of the dNope actual play for Delve. For ease of listening all long silences and long pauses have been removed. If you would like to watch along as I draw the dungeon, heck out our YouTube video instead. For a review and a preview of this actual play, check out dNope: Episode 3 - Delve. Hope you enjoy listening. 

Delve is a map drawing game about building a Dwarven hold and exploring a vast world beneath the ground. You are the overseer of one such hold. Your goal is to find the Void Crystal. A mysterious gemstone that the Under King has tasked you with retrieving. If you manage to find it, your Hold will be granted riches beyond compare. And tales of your exploits will be told across the realm. Delve is intended to be a relaxing experience and you are the arbiter of its rules. You can draw your Hold how ever you like. If anything in this book makes you uncomfortable, or doesn’t fit your vision - like using grid paper. Don’t be afraid to change it out.

Today, I will be using an iPad with a grid paper overlay because I feel that will free up my ability to do a lot of things and also, as a bonus. There will be a screen recording of me drawing. I have briefly played this game, although I’m pretty sure the first time I played this game. I didn’t play it entirely correctly. So I’ve done a re-read of the rules and gone through and kinda figured out some things I did wrong last time. I’ll be giving those tips at the end of this actual play. And you can hear more about my thoughts and reviews of both Delve and Rise, and even maybe bra. I haven’t decided yet whether or not I’m going to do bra as part of this series but they are all from the same creator. So you can find them on Itch.IO and they are really affordable, and really cheap. It’s a great way to solo TTRPG stuff. 

So let’s get started. 

How to play.

So all you need to play is a pencil, an eraser, one inch grid paper, a notepad, a deck of playing cards and a bunch of tokens. Now, by using an iPad, all I need is a deck of cards, a D2 and a D4. So I have this really cool Yennefer dice set and that’s what I’m going to be using for my my D2 and D4 today. And I have just a standard deck of playing cards, with this cool checkerboard pattern. 

So as part of set-up, we’re going to draw a stairwell at the center of the top row of my grid paper. So in order to do that I should probably see how many grids, spaces there are. 

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three.Twenty-three, OK, so I’m going to use three of those, or two of those for like, kinda counting my resources. So that’s twenty-one, so ten on either side of one. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. 

OK, I’m going to draw a little stairwell, make sure I’m using black

And oh crap. No, let’s count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, stairwell is gonna be here. So we’ll just we’ll leave a little, leave a little line at the top. My pen’s a little thicker, there we go. There we go this is the entrance to the Hold and let’s do, let’s do a little little fun, fun coloring here. This, well, the entrance blurred out. Let’s see, there we go entrance to the hold.

Make it look a little fun, like it’s daylighty. Okay, throw in, throw in something there.

Okay, so this is the entrance of the Hold. This is what we are protecting.

Now I need to create a section on my map over here for keeping track of my resources. I put them all the way 

over to the left hand side. Just to kind of keep them out of the way. Those are going to be our hearts and diamond,s so resources and trade goods. And I know we start off with 20 of each.

Hmm, let’s see, I want to make these a little bit bigger. I think I’m going to change up my pencil. There’s a really nice one in here, line art, that’s the one I want.

Heart, diamonds, 20 of each.

Okay, now I am gonna have I’m gonna have five soldiers here at the entrance. I’m going to create a new layer for that, just to keep track, and I’m gonna say five soldiers.

Okay now we go back to our dungeon layer. We’re going to remove the Jokers from the deck of playing cards and put them aside.

Until we get to depth five, so we should note that. I’m going to put the entrance just, technically this is going to be the entrance, but this will be row one. I’ll just put little notes because it matters where on the grid things are. We’ll just go down 10. I don’t think I’m going to get that far, but who knows? Who knows? 

Okay, next we’re gonna shuffle the deck of cards and get going. So one thing I did last time, was I shuffled the decks, I shuffled the deck of cards after every time I drew, and that really slowed down the game. Especially if you’re not a very good shuffler. If you’re using like an online card draw I think that that might be a great way to do things. But for now I’m gonna, I’m not gonna shuffle as frequently. I’m gonna shuffle maybe every five or six turns, as opposed to at every turn. Okay.

So the first thing we have to do, to do is decide where we’re gonna explore. One thing I think I did a little bit too quickly last time, was I delved too deep, too quickly. Just like the Dwarves in Lord of the Rings, and it made the game very short. So if you only want like a a short sort of dungeon. Then I would say feel free to go, go big or go home, and go deep and go fast.

But I’m going to spread out a little bit more in this, in this run. And so the first thing that I I’m going to do is, I’m going to choose an adjacent grid space that has not yet been explored and draw a card. So when it says adjacent it means anywhere in your Hold. So right now our Hold only exists in this one square. I’m going to start by going right. So this is the square I’m going to explore. Which means that we have here and in that space. Okay so it’s a seven of Spades, seven of Spades. We don’t, we don’t, if I remember correctly. We don’t do Spades until, like, the we don’t do it until, like the second, second second row.

Yeah, so if I’m exploring depth one and I draw a spade, ignore that card and draw you again, draw again. Okay, two of hearts so that means that I have discovered resources. So you do two plus the depth so this is depth one, and depth one, whoops, depth one means that we get three hearts and that’s going to be an empty space. Now I can build a room and something that I think I want to do first, first off in terms of rooms is I want to get a barrack built. So that costs eight hearts so 23 minus 8 is going to be 15. And I am going to put the barracks right here. I’m going to make it a Soldier’s barracks.

So Soldiers and Gunners are two types, two main types of Dwarves that you can have in your Hold, but they can’t share barracks and each Barrack holds ten, ten units. So I’m going to write Soldiers, that’s kind of a thick, thick pen, make it a little smaller. So that’s the first thing that I’m going to do and then I’m going to purchase some. I’m going to hire not purchase, these are, this is voluntary positions. I’m going to hire some units. It costs five diamonds for soldiers. I am going to, I’m just gonna use all of my diamonds. Honestly right now I’m gonna, I’m gonna put that at zero and I’m gonna hire four soldiers. so I’m gonna note, I’m gonna just use tally marks. There are four soldiers in the barracks. 

All right that means that currently my hold strength is whatever five plus four is nine, nine times five is forty-five. So I’m just going to keep an overall note of how strong my Hold is. Okay, the next thing to do in my turn is draw the room making sure it’s connected to at least one adjacent explored space and then I think. Oh I can trade which I’m not going to need do right now. Okay so I build a room, yes. 

So okay I think I am now going to start my next turn. So we are still exploring the first level. Oh I, see this is the thing that I kept doing last time is, I need to decide what space I’m going to explore, I think, so I’m going to be exploring mostly to the right. So exploring to the right, we drew another Spade, we’re going to ignore that. Eight of Diamonds, so that means we get nine diamonds because it’s the, is it nine? Hold on how to play. It’s is it the depth? It’s the depth plus current depth. Yeah, so it’s the number plus the depth so we get nine Diamonds. And now we can choose to trade, which I think I’m fine for now. And then build a room. So I have currently 15 Hearts.

Rooms that I can build. I can build a forge which will allow me to build traps, that will kind of wipe out my resources. I could build another barracks with, for Gunners. I could build a kennel which can hold up to five pounds or a single creature. It allows you to tame creatures 

I think I’m going to build a kennel and I’m going to build it right next to the barracks, and then I think I’m gonna hire out. Do we want to hire a hound? I think I might hold off. I think I might save some of my resources. I can’t write an ‘E’’ today.

See make sure everything is squared away and continue. So we are still on turn two, so I’m gonna keep drawing. Queen of. Oh this is the next room exploring. Queen of Clubs that means, something, that means a natural formation. What sort of natural formation is the Queen of Clubs? It is the, an environment suitable for a large creature with 40 strength. It had, takes up four grid spaces. A creature will not leave here unless attacked but will attack anything entering its lair. So let’s see, we explored this space last time it’s going to take up four. I think it’s gonna go down. If it’s suitable to house a large creature, then I think it’s going to go down to the second, second level. And let’s roll a D4 to determine what kind of large creature is in this space.

I’m going to take my D4, it’s a two. Ooh it’s going to be a Basilisk. So let’s see let’s draw a little, little snake, well a Basilisk in this in this space right here and draw its little sleeping, sleeping, sleeping form. It’s a pretty decent I feel like that’s a pretty decent. I don’t like that, oh it’s because my opacity is down so low. Let’s see it’s gonna be the sleeping Basilisk. I should probably center its eyes. There we go. That’s going to be our large creature hold. So you can tell I’m a little bit fussy about, I mean the drawing part is half the fun, right it’s a map drawing game. So let’s see make sure, make sure it is to my liking. There we go. So something, every, for every level of depth you add five strength. So this is actually going to be a 45 strength creature and I’m just gonna note that right right here. It’s considered a, just an environment. Maybe we’ll add a couple stalactites, that feels very Basilisky.

Now, now we have this if I want to keep, keep exploring, that means that I’m gonna have to cross through. So instead I’m going to go to the left of the Kennels. Oh sweet! King of Diamonds, that is awesome because Kings count as, I believe 13, which means that I will actually get 14. Which is very exciting, 13 so 14 diamonds which means I now have 23. This is going to be an empty cavern and now I might want to trade, because I think the next room I want to build. Oh I guess I maybe don’t need to. 

The next room I want to build is, I think a laboratory, maybe. No, I want to build a library. So after I build a library, which costs 15 hearts, which I have exactly enough of. I can draw a card and consult the Good Magic Table. So this is gonna be the library. I’m actually I think I’m gonna do the library below the barracks. I think I’m gonna go down one level, which is I know a little bit, a little bit dangerous. But what can I say. I like to live my life on the edge. Throw some books in here, maybe put a little diagonal book there.

I’m pretty proud of this Library honestly even if the shelves are a little bit crooked. Stack those those books, maybe this one there’s some like more horizontal books. This one has a couple big tones in it, and then this one has some crooked, crooked books and this one’s 

just lots of little ones. And we’ll do a couple more. There we go. That’s looks like a pretty decent Library. Maybe stack a couple books on top every, every library has a couple extra, extra looks lying around. Maybe, they’re Dwarves, so maybe there’s a little, there’s a little ladder. We will denote that as a Library. 

So that is gonna clean out my Hearts, which I feel like I should note. Know what they are instead of, so these are going to be resource, these are trade goods. I feel like that’ll be better to keep track of.

Okay, now I’m going to, since I’m going to be drawing from the Good Magic Table. I will be shuffling the cards because it’s about time to shuffle anyway. Based on I’m on about turn five. So we’re gonna get a nice good shuffle. And then we are going to consult Good Magic. I’m excited. So once we do that we go to here and we’ve drawn an eight. So it’s only based on numbers. It’s not based on the types of things.

Siren Song, a magical instrument that draws enemies into it. Choose a room to place the siren song in enemies will try to reach this room instead of your entrance. If an enemy reaches the room the Siren Song is destroyed. So I don’t have very many rooms yet but if I have them to the library, I feel like that will that will give me just a little bit of extra time. So I’m going to put a little music note, and I’m going to put I think a cool red circle around it. That it is the Siren Song. Actually why don’t I draw the notes in red? I feel like that’s more fun. There we go siren song.

And now we go again, I believe that, oh I can, I’ve built a room and now go back to the beginning. 

Okay, King of Clubs. It’s another natural formation. The King of Clubs. Oh we have to decide where it is. I think I’m I think I’m gonna go 

down one. I think I’m gonna go here. I think I’m gonna go next to the, next to the Basilisk. Interesting Burrowing Beast, so digs a tunnel straight up from this space. When it reaches one of my rooms, combat starts and it moves normally towards the entrance. It can be tamed and it does not burrow. So we have to decide what the burrowing Beast is. So in order to do that I’m going to roll a D4.

I’ve rolled a three. Ooh an Undead Owl, I like it! So it goes straight upward and it goes it’s moving towards the entrance. I have soldiers that will be able to get there first. So combat wise, so let’s see the little, little Owl is going to go straight up. So well, we’ll erase this line, and it’s on two. So it has the, adding five for each level of depth, so this is a, instead of having 20 strength that will have 25 strength. 

So this is one of the reasons why having the Hold strength here is helpful, because what you do, is you just so combat. I think you just subtract. The discovery that triggered combat gives you the strength it progresses in rounds. Each round every Unit and Troop will move one grid space and then attack. All enemies move first. I choose the order in which Units and Troops will move, but I have to resolve both the move and attack for each before moving to the next. Enemies will unless otherwise stated move one grid space per round taking the shortest possible route. If have a unit, or enemies move would cause it to enter the same grid space as an opponent, it triggers an attack. Both deal their strength damage at the same time. Weakening or defeating each other at the end of the round.

So, I choose, so basically, I’m going to have the little Owl, it has 25, it will clean out these soldiers. But will be defeated because I have these four soldiers too. So I’m going to reduce, but I also have an empty kennel which means that I can tame it. So creatures that have just been defeated can be revived in an empty kennel. They have their full strength and are under my control. So my Hold strength, so I no longer have this troop of soldiers. Hmm but I do now have an Undead Owl, which is pretty cool I think.

So we’re gonna put, see how do I draw an Owl? Let’s see, let’s give it a little perch. I feel like that’s that’s a good perch, draw a little body, and the head. I don’t know how I feel about how I feel about the the wings. Here we go, how do I how do I make it look undead? Just maybe big black eyes and smaller beak? Maybe anyway, I feel like that can be an Undead Owl. Maybe, maybe I’ll draw just like a little a little floating skull buddy for it. Maybe I feel like I’m gonna give it, I feel like that looks like a little bit like a parrot. Maybe if I give him some, some wings, maybe a little highlight in his eyes. He can have little anger marks. There we go, that’s my little Undead Owl, who has 25 strength. 

So my hold strength I guess is still 45. Now I can choose to build a room and trade. I don’t have any more Hearts but I think I’m going to use my trade goods to hire four more soldiers because I’ve just wiped, wiped some out. So I’m gonna put those four soldiers back.

[Music]

Oh no my alarm’s going off. How do I turn that off on my? There we go. Now I have to adjust make sure, my recording stopped. I’ll have to make sure to fix that up. There we go. I have a little alarms I set randomly throughout the day.

Yeah, I’m gonna hire four more, four more soldiers to come back come back over here. So one, oh that’s so big. One, two, three, four which increases my Hold strength. Oh is that on the, it’s on the wrong layer. I’m gonna put it back, put it back on this layer to 85 off. That wipes out, wipes out a lot of my resources. So I can still build a room, so one of the things that I’m going to do is I think I’m going to build a staircase between the Barracks and the Library. It’s kind of just flavor text but I think I’m gonna,maybe I’ll do it between the kennels, maybe I’ll add like a little, little staircase right here. Just a little one, again this is mostly just like flavor text.

Oh that was, I guess I don’t really need this line right here do I? There we go now we have a little, little staircase there connecting it. I kind of like the idea of this Library kind of being under the Barracks

Now we’re going to keep exploring. I’m going to keep exploring left. Another Clubs, another natural formation, maybe I need to shuffle again.

A gas-filled chamber. Oh no! What kind of gas is this? It is, ah, it is Blinding Gas which blocks ranged attacks. Let me check how gas and things work. 

[Music] 

Quick reference, gas spreads to the nearest two open grid spaces before stopping. So this is where the gas was, so the two grid spaces. So it gets to the Kennels and additional rules about gases. Gas flows to the near, and then it always spreads regardless of how you discover it, 

I think it just blocks ranged liquids and gases. Units and rooms affected by liquid or gas are immediately defeated. So did it just kill my did it just kill my super cool Undead Owl? I’m not entirely sure. It’s a blinding gas. Oh so flammable gas and poison gas defeats units but blinding gas does not. Okay cool, and I think it dissipates the next turn, which is solid.

I don’t really have any resources to trade right now so I’m going to keep exploring. Maybe I’ll build, maybe I’ll build a little staircase here. That’s kind of fun, because I can build,I can build staircases for free. So I’m I’m going to, oops let’s see just, oh my little corner there. Oh there we go it’s kind of fun, throw up a little little container walls for those Barracks. Just to remember that they’re there and now we keep going. 

Queen of Hearts. Oh thank God. Okay, so that’s gonna be, oh as predictable we’re going left, to keep going, to go keep going left. I don’t feel like my Hold is very strong right now, so we’re not we’re still we’re not going down yet. That is going to be 13 I think, because Jack is 11. Queen is two, plus one that’s going to be 13 resources. And there’s something kind of cool, rooms wise, that I’m wondering if I can.

I think I want to build a hospital, a hospital is the next thing I want to do, which means that I need to get more trade goods because it costs 10 Hearts. So 10 resources and 10 trade goods that’s my that’s my goal. So I’m going to, I’m going to do that. I’m 

going to draw the next one, King of Spades. I am still on the first level. I’m going to continue going this way, that doesn’t do anything ten of 

Diamonds, hell yes! That’s gonna be eleven which means that I have enough to build the hospital.

So I’m gonna erase that I think I’m gonna just build the hospital in that empty space. I think that feels like a smart thing to do. So let’s see I want to do that pretty crooked lines there. This is going to be the hospital. Now the hospital is cool because it means that a troop of my choice, defeated while on the same row as the hospital is revived at full strength after combat. So it does mean that if I get some more soldiers I can maybe go in and defeat this Basilisk. Revive my troop and keep going left, which I’m kind of interested in. It’s put like, looks like a good, it’s a good like Hospital thing? Maybe just like a little little row of beds? I feel like maybe there should be spaces between those beds, social distancing and all that. Actually I don’t like that at all. Let’s see, let’s do it like this, little, little hospital bed. I want to get like four in there. I feel like that’ll be, I feel like that’s good. The perspective of this dungeon is kind of all over the place, and do like a little, little Hospital cross.

Okay now, I can’t really do anything more, I’m gonna keep exploring because I want to hire I want to hire two more soldiers before I go, go to that Basilisk. Yes, do I have to? Five, six, seven, eight, eight times five is forty. Yeah, I do because that’s 45. So we’re gonna keep going past the Hospital. 

What is past the hospital? Another natural formation! 

[Music] 

Seven, what’s seven? Magma flow. Draw the river all the way to the closest page edge. Liquid, oh no, oh no, additional rules. Liquids, it spills out and flows. If you explore left to the right, it goes up to two grid spaces from its source and as far down as it can reach. And I know magma is not good.Let’s, what does magma do? Natural Formations, so an underground river you draw the river all the way to the closest page edge. It is liquid, same as the underground river above but most likely doesn’t have fish, also liquid. The closest page edge is going to be here. So it also, I think destroys my hospital that I just built, but I think I can repair it for half the cost.

Let me, let me do a little little search to see what Magma does. It flows like liquid but any rooms it floods are damaged and cost 20, 20 natural resources to drain. Cool so we’re gonna we’re gonna make a little, little magma, magma flow, that’s lovely. So closest page edge, this is this is the Magma River now. So how do I want to do a river? Let’s see, let’s just, why don’t I, I should do that on a separate layer? Because if I drain it, then it will disappear at least from the room. So this is the, it’s the Magma River and this is the, the side that’s on the hospital, hospital beds and keep those slightly separate.

Go back to my old layer and pop in the, we know that from then on it’s the, we’ll call it the Lazy Lava River. Alrighty, so fun.

Now, so Magma I know. So we have to drain the room and then after it’s damaged it can be repaired for half the cost. That’s so unfortunate.

Let’s draw again, Seven of Hearts. Oh I have to decide what square we’re going to do. I should have done that before but I’ve been just going left. I didn’t think I’d have to. So that does mean if we’re on the second space that’s nine hearts. So it’s nine resources which means that we now have 12. I guess I’ll use my use my room building to build a little, little corridor, corridor here. It’s not technically room building, but build a little Corridor there.

 [Music]

This is probably where we’re gonna have to be exploring next so I might as well erase that line. Not much to do. I can’t, I can’t yet drain the hospital or repair it. I don’t have enough trade goods to hire more soldiers. And now I don’t have the hospital I am hesitant to attack the Basilisk. So we’re gonna keep going. We’re gonna go to the next space and get eight trade goods. What’s up? That puts us up to 12. 12 and 12.

Now, what do I do now? Let’s go to the right of, no, let’s go to the left of where we found the little, our little Undead Owl. Sweet that’s gonna be, eight, nine, ten. We’ve got 22 resources, we are getting places people. I think that means that I can build another room. I think I’m gonna build another room. I think I’m gonna build, I think I’m gonna build something small. I think, I think I’m gonna be cheeky and build another Library maybe. I don’t know how much does it cost to recruit like a mage? Oh seven, that’s not, that’s not great. Why is everything so expensive?

Okay rooms, what kind of rooms can we can we do? Let’s do an overseer’s office, maybe? Nah. Oh I’m so indecisive.

Interesting, I could build a drawbridge or I could do tracks. Let’s start building tracks. Tracks instantly move Units along the lengths of the tracks, and they can be placed through other rooms. So why don’t we subtract five, which brings us down to 17 and let’s build tracks.

From barracks. I think we have to spend five each time. So we’re gonna start there. We’re gonna, we’re gonna build, we’re gonna build two more and now we’ve explored this room. So I’m gonna erase that little, that little, one and let’s keep going. Let’s go right there.

Ah six. What is the six natural formation? Tell me it’s good. It is! It is! It’s a Crystal Cavern. A Crystal Cavern is one D2 grid spaces in size. Let’s flip our D2. We’re going to say Heads is one and Tails is two.Tails is two. Crystal Cavern well, let’s do the Crystal Cavern into this empty Cavern that we’ve already done. See let’s do like little I’m feeling like little purple, little purple crystals. That’s not how you draw crystals Olivia, that’s more how you draw crystals. Right a little, little random lines, a little, those are those are some pretty fun crystals, I think.

See, think just like, we’ll call those some some pretty crystals. Drawing some Crystal Caves, Crystal Caves filled with magic and loveliness. There we go, almost done, have to add those last little ones. Make sure that the cave is all the way across. There we go, look at that pretty Crystal Cave. 

At the start of each turn I get to draw a card before exploring and I gain resources equal to its value plus the Cavern’s depth. If the Ace of

Diamonds is drawn, the Cavern is destroyed. Ot cannot be built in but it can be passed.

So I’m going to spend another five to build some more tracks.I’m gonna make sure I go back to black, Well wait, yeah two. And we’re gonna build more tracks, should connect those up properly. There we go.

Now, I think it’s about time to shuffle stuff back in. Oops.

Now, before I explore each time, I get to draw a card and gain trade goods equal to the value of that card. Unless it is the Ace of Diamonds. Seven of Diamonds but so seven. Oh I’m exploring this way, by the way. So I get nine which will bring me up to 21, and then the actual thing is, ew three of. So this is what’s called a Remnant. So the Two of Spades, two, Three of Spades. The Three of Spades is a Wishing Well. Once per turn I may roll, I may pay 10 trade goods to roll a D2 and draw a card. On a one I will consult Good Magic and on a two I consult Bad Magic. That is pretty cool. So we’ll draw a little draw, a little Wishing Well thing, with the rope and bucket. That’s not how you draw a bucket. Well I feel, oh wait, that’s right. It has, buckets have little handles on them. Go in and just just fix that up a little bit.There we go that’s our little, it’s our little Wishing Well. That handle just, just a little bit, a little bit more like a like a handle. There we go.

Okie dokie, now let’s keep going left. So this is going to be for our Diamonds. We’re going to get five. Oh I’ve also chosen not to do tracks because I want to have these resources, and I’m going to use 20 of them to drain this this Lake. I’m gonna do this automatic. There we go and I, I’m gonna be real honest. I don’t know how to delete this job so I just cut. I just cut ,cut it away, but it’s still it’s still still damaged. So in order to repair it, in order to repair it, we need to pay half of its cost, which I don’t think I’d get to do yet. Actually I definitely, yeah. That’s something I I’m supposed to do after I explore, I think, oops. Well we’re exploring here and it is five Hearts, which is actually seven. But I’m only going to add two because that’s I’m going to be using the 5 to repair. So this is going to be four, this is going to be one. And the hospital is working again.

Alrighty let’s go under the Hospital. So the first thing we do is we gain trade goods. We get 10. That’s so nice, and then we explore. And when we explore we draw a Four of Clubs, another natural formation.

It’s an Underground River. So it’s the same thing, in like the same space, but this time it doesn’t destroy a room and it is instead a River. So let’s throw that little baby on there. And yeah, there we, there we go. Get back down to this layer, draw across this line. Make it a nice, nice clean line. Let’s make a little, a little thicker, make it, make it nice and straight. I’m so sorry I keep bumping my microphone. Here we go, there we go.

All righty, Let’s use some of our resources to hire two more soldiers. Make that a bit bigger, which means now that our hospital is up and running. We can use our soldiers to attack the Basilisk. They move to attack the Basilisk, they defeat the Basilisk and the troop is revived due to the Hospital, and the Basilisk is dead. I think we should, I think they leave it skeleton there just to scare off enemies. So we’ll just make it a dead Basilisk and use five resources to bring the tracks over. Let’s make it just a little bit a little bit fun. Let’s see, what if we, oh we can make it do like a really cool arc, hold on.

And now, we keep going. So I can now, now the Basilisk is defeated I’m going to keep exploring this first level to the right. We get 11 trade goods, and in this room that doesn’t count. It’s the Ace of Clubs. If depth one through four, we cut, we can cut down for a free room because 

it’s an underground forest. Or we can keep it for two hearts per turn. I like that we’re gonna have a fucking Underground Forest. What kind of, kind of trees are they going to be? They’re going to be these kind of trees, all different sizes. No, I want this one to have to like a sturdy trunk. Throw some more in there, really tall, really tall trees. Actually wait I have an even better idea, because I’m on an iPad. So I and do this really cool thing , were I do another layer and I can just drop draw some of these trees in the background. Also how cool would an Underground Forest be? Like I want to see an Underground Forest, and I’ll change the green a little bit and we’ll do some more. Maybe make a dark green tree, change it too, it’s like this color tree. Just throw some of these down here, maybe there’s a couple up there and then obviously we need to have some brown, which is. Underground Forest, hell yeah! And we’ll make a little, make a little note and get two hearts per turn, sweet.

So now, next turn we’re gonna keep going through the Underground Forest, past it. First level still because I’m much more cautious this time.

An ace is gonna be I think one. So we get two trade goods and then we get wo resources because we have this dope Underground Forest. How many? So 14 and 11.

Now, I’m going to build. I’m gonna, I’m actually, I’m gonna consider this the, the last one. So I’m not going to do that really, really cool thing. I’m just gonna have it connect, can I? Obviously not very good at drawing straight lines how I want to. There we go, do it like that, and let’s add like a little, little thing right there. There we go. This can be a little fun, little fun, little tunnel, I guess. Maybe, what if we moved these

step, this, this little track? What if we moved it up? Well if we moved it like, like that? I, I like that. I like that a lot better I think. There we go, that’s kind of fun. And then maybe we can do like a little, because these can go through rooms. Maybe we’ll do some rooms in there. Fancy, fancy. Alrighty, we’ve gone through here. We have not yet discovered what is in there because this was our, this was our, oops. This was our trade goods.

So this is five, six. Okay oh we’re up to 20. 20 trade goods. Alrighty, we can actually start doing some cool stuff now. So now for rooms, what can I do that’s fun? I can hire things. Ooh if I build a Storehouse. So I can maybe use some of my trade goods and trade them into resources. If I do that I could build a Storehouse, and rooms built on that floor cost half hearts. So they cost half the resources. I’m going to do that. So it is two trade goods equal. No two, one trade goods equals two resources, and two resources equal one trade good. That’s, I hated how that was written because it’s because it looks like a 10.

Let’s do it like this, that’s helpful. So I have 20. If I want to get, I need to just trade down two. So that’s 18, and then I will have 15 Hearts. And that is enough to build a Storehouse. Let’s build the Storehouse next to the Hospital. Let’s make it like, like this, this is gonna be a big fireplace and there’s it’s going to be shelves. Actually, maybe, maybe we’ll just make it like this weird perspective of a room.Kind of like that, there we go. Awesome.

Okay, now I think it’s time to shuffle back in. This is going a lot better than the last time I played this game. It’s also a little bit more fun now it feels like I know what I’m doing. And one of the things that I, I think really helps is, like, knowing more about stuff. And knowing that you should spend a little bit more time on the first level, than you than you really think you should. I it’s really tempting to get lower but I think the game is over a lot quicker that way. I also wish I’d thought about the Storehouse earlier, that would have that would have helped a lot. 

Okay, so that’s going to be our three trade goods, which means that we have 21 now and we get two resources from our Underground Forest.

And then, oh this is the room we’re going in. This is not the room this is where we’re exploring. Spades, Jack of Clubs, natural formation.

It is a Cavern housing a small tameable creature, 10 strength. It attacks the nearest room and then retreats back to its home Cavern. Ending 

combat unless you wish to follow and attack. Okay, so this is a Cavern. What is the small creature gonna be? If we go to here, the small creature is going to be an Angry Cave Goat. Oh I definitely gonna tame that. So let’s see how do I draw a goat? Goats, they have little, little horns. He’s angry, he’s got he’s got a beard. I feel like they have tufts of hair. That looks that doesn’t look like a Cave Goat! What do, what do goats look like? Goats have little, I know they have little tails. Ooh that looks kind of like a goat neck that’s his little, it’s his little beard those are his little, little horns. It’s my angry Cave Goat but why can’t I, oh! I was trying to figure out what looks what was wrong. He doesn’t have little, little ears, there we go. Oh that was too big of, a too big of an eraser. There we go it’s the Angry Cave Goat. 

He attacks the nearest room, which is the Barracks. The goat, the Angry Cave Goat dies, and they’re on the same level as, as the the Hospital. So unfortunately, fortunately the the Cave Goat does. Oh well, and I don’t have a spare kennels. So that was that was fun and interesting.

Okay, next, next, next room. We’re gonna, we’re gonna keep going. I’m gonna keep going left and here we go. I’m gonna add two to our 

resources, brings us to four. We’re going to add 3 to our trade goods, brings us to 23 and then in that room is, is empty. But we’ve got the Queen of Hearts which is going to be 12 plus 1, which is 13 which brings us to 17 resources and I’m going to build a room.

In this room, I’m going to build, what’s something fun again. Oh I have to remember too that everything costs, costs less. Now on this,I feel like I should buy a Forge. So a forge costs only Seven Hearts and Seven Diamonds now.

So I’m gonna do that, because it reduces the resource cost, So it still costs seven, seven trade goods. Was that, that was 16 is where how many I have left. And the Forge is going to, be it’s gonna be here. Oops, that’s that’s not quite what I wanted to do. There we go and throw a little bit of, a little bit of flame in there. How do I build Secret Passageways? I forget how to do that.

Secret Passages cost 50. Okay. 50, 50 Secret Passageways. Okay I want to start, doing, start saving up some some trade goods. So I can do some Secret Passageways. Alrighty, we’re gonna keep going left. Oops.

We’re going to add two resources. We’re going to add three trade goods. And that room is going to be 10 more trade goods, which will be 29.

See, in see what was the next room I want to build? The next room I would like to build is a Mason which now only costs 10 resources. And it means that I can build barricades. so with a Forge I can build traps and with a Mason I can build barricades. So I’m gonna just make this like grey because I feel like that’s what that’s what a Mason, a Masonry would look like.

I also feel like I feel like this should it should be black. There we go, and filled with filled with orange. Maybe that should be, there we go. Adding a little, a little more color to the to the to the map. There we go, maybe make those like a dark grey. Just for a bit more flavor, flavor text. Don’t know why I said flavor text, it’s flavor, flavor art. A little more, a little more visual interest. How’s that? There we go.

Okay, next room to explore. Let’s keep going, let’s actually, yeah let’s keep going, let’s go another another left. I think this is the last left I’m gonna go. So first we add two to our resources for our Underground Forest. We add five to our trade goods, that’s right, correct? Yeah. And then in that room oh we get 11 more resources.

So, I’m going to trade I’m going to use, what’s the thing that I can do to, there’s rooms that I can do to expand 

my ability to so I can hold more stuff. A Stockpile. So it increases my resources supply by 50. I don’t know I need that yet but trade goods, that’s the Treasury. Yeah I don’t know, I don’t know I need that yet. 

I do think I might put a Drawbridge in. Hmm. Do I need to put a drawbridge in? Maybe not.

Hmm. Maybe I’ll do a Damage Trap. Any trap that does strength damage falls under this category. Deal 10 strength damage per level and it can be up to a maxim of three. So why don’t we put a Damage Trap.Oh wait no, Traps can’t be crossed by my, there’s something. Yeah, any room with a Level Three Trap becomes but, yeah. Okay so in order to get Secret Passages, I’m probably going to need to build the thing that lets me have more trade resources, trade goods and that is the Treasury. 

So that’s going to cost 10 and I’m going to put the Treasury right next to those Crystal Caves. I think that, that’s a fun, fun place to put it. So let’s draw well a little safe here, use that to make a little, little safe. That’s what safes look like, right? And that is the room that I have built, the Treasury costs ten. What I’m going to do is actually, yeah, so I’m going to do that. And I’m going to shuffle the cards again.

Here we go. So we’re going to add two. We’re going to add, oh I’m going down this point. I’m going to add one, three. Oh wait I have to remember to do that, seven, and then add three to my trade goods. And this room is a natural formation. It is a cavern 1 d4 grid spaces in size. One, it’s just one, So we’ll just put, that is definitely not what I wanted to do there. Have to make sure that is closed off and then we will see you, actually.

Okay, okay. Do I want to build anything? We could build some stairs down to the Treasury, just for for a little flavor.

Oops, or if we make the stairs go, can turn this. There we go, that that that feels like it could be something. I don’t like that so much anymore though. Yeah, there we go. A little ladder there

Alrighty, let’s go back this way. First we add two, make that nine. Then we add 12 plus 2 which is 14. Plus 37 is 51. We can now build a Secret Passageway. So a Secret Passageway is a special barricade that allows my Dwarves to pass through the Hold, while keeping the enemy’s options limited. So I’m going to build a Secret Passage here. I’m going to keep exploring but hopefully what this means is it will keep the options limited for the enemies to get through. 

Okay, now I’m gonna go down. Actually, wait, no. I have to make sure I do the cost. I’m going to go here so I’m going to Level Three. First I add two to my resources, then we’re going to add 3, 4 to my trade goods and six, Natural Formation. It’s another Crystal Cavern, that’s exciting. So this time I’m going to gain Diamonds equal to the value plus the Cavern’s depth. So I get to draw 2 at the start and it’s going to be how many grid spaces in size? oh D2. 2. 

So, let’s make it this way but this is going to be an actual barrier. So I’m gonna make that very, very thick barrier and we did purple crystals. Let’s make these like this like bright blue. There we go.

So now, the start of each turn I get to do, oh that was two. I was, I have not been giving myself enough trade goods. Oh well. So I get to do one card plus two and one card plus three. Awesome. Okay.

So, I’m going to actually use what trade goods I have, now I can’t do. Actually, yes I can, because the entrance can hold five soldiers. So I’m going to put a troop a single soldier there which bumps my hold strength to 90. 

And here we go. I’m going to go this way. So this is my first one plus two, ten plus two is going to be 12. King is 13 plus 3 is 16. So 12 plus 16 is going to be 28 trade goods. Holy shit. Getting up in the world. Plus I add 2 to my resources to go there.

Okay, I’m going to build another Barracks and I’m going to build a Gunner Barracks. And I’m going to build that here. I’m just gonna make a note. Right, now. Gunner Barracks costs me eight but it actually only cost me four because it is still on the same thing as the Storehouse. So that’s only going to bring that down to nine. Awesome, Okay. Let’s keep going

First card, nine plus two is eleven. Queen is going to be 12 plus 3 is 15. So that’s going to be 26 plus 28. That’s gonna be what? 53? 28, 38, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55. Wait 28, 39, 49, 54. So much math in this game.

Now I’m going to recruit some, what can Mages do? Is there anything special that Mages can do? I mean they’re ranged. Oh I guess they 

have one more strength than a Gunner. How do you get Clerics again? Clerics, I think you have to have a special room. To get a cleric you need, I think a Shrine, ooh or a Temple and it costs two, oh. I think I want to do a Temple soon so I’m going to hire five Gunners, which brings this down to 29. Gunners have a strength of three, so that’s 15, but they have their ranged. I’m not keeping track of this very well at all. So I’m just gonna erase that. 

Okay, now we need to know what’s in this room. It’s going to be 10, 10 trade goods. Right okay I think I might be able to, I’m gonna trade some of these. So I’m gonna do nine which is going to make this, I can do nine trade goods to here, which reduces this to 30. And brings this up to 27. And then I can use 10 of those, because I haven’t built a room yet this turn, and 20 of those to build the Temple here.

So I’m gonna put the, I’m gonna put it back here. Why isn’t that working? Did my pen die? Oh no I think my Apple Pencil might have died! No it didn’t. What happened, why aren’t you working? Oh it’s the opacity, there we go.We’ll just make it look like cool and weird. And then be like, okay. Oh you know what, it should probably be like mountains right because they’re delving deep into the mountains. And I’m going to do a Temple of Protection, which allows me to pay five trade goods and put a shield with 20 strength on a Unit or Troop.

There we go. Now shuffle some of these back in. Okay so we’re going to add two to our resources. We’re going to add three, 10. We’re going to add 13 to our trade goods.

I think, I think I’m gonna, no, I’m not yet, I’m going to, I want to build a Stockpile, that’s gonna cost me 20. So I’m going to use three of these to give me six. That brings that down to 30, that brings this up to 5, because I’m going to use 20 of those to create a Stockpile. And I’m going to put the Stockpile over here. And it costs the full amount because I am not building it on the same as the Storehouse.

And then I’m going to pay, am I going to pay anything? No, I’m going to keep going. We’re gonna go here. Oh wait, that’s where we’re going, that’s already where we are. Five of clubs, another natural formation. It’s a Cavern, another Cavern. How many grid spaces in size? Two. Let’s, let’s make the Cavern come up. I’m gonna do this, because the way the Cavern is going to be, this is still going to hold up.

So, that’s how I’m gonna do this. I’m gonna to just a little notation here. There we go. I don’t think I’m going to ex, I think I’m going to make an executive decision not to explore here. So I’m just going to fill that in with black. There we go. 

So this is the Cavern that’s two spaces and then we’re gonna go to here. So the first card, we’re gonna get 14. Second card is going to be eight. So we’re gonna get 22 which brings that to 55, and then I’m gonna get seven. I’m going to trade five of those to get that many more resources, and what’s in the next room? Seven more. I’m actually going to immediately transform those into resources. So that’s going to be 7 times 2 is 14. 14 plus 17. is going to be 31, I think. 14 plus 17, yeah I think that’s 31.

Alrighty. Next is going to be this room. So we’re going to do two added here, three. Oh I never finished writing this. It’s going to be three plus 15, is 18, 68. No, I’m losing battery. We might have to pick this one back up.

The first thing, the thing I want to do, to make sure that I remember, before I take a pause. Is I want to make sure I build a Laboratory. Laboratory is going to cost me, or sorry an Inventor’s Lab, an Inventor’s Lab is going to, it requires a Forge, a Library and a Stockpile. All of which I have, but it’s going to cost a hundred resources and 50 trade goods.

So I’m gonna, I’m gonna give it a shot. So we’re gonna, we’re gonna keep going. What is going to be in this room? A Six of Clubs. Another Crystal Cavern, holy shit! Okay, how many how many spaces is it? Oh wait D2, D2. It’s just one this time, and let’s make pink crystals. These are going to be a little bit, a little bit smaller. We’re gonna have some like stalactite like crystals. These are going to be a little bit more irregular. Whoops, made that way too big.There we go.

Okay, let’s go again. I’m really trying to build up these resources. Okay, so maybe I’ll do 30, which would be 60, which brings that to 90. And we’re going to go down. The further we go down, the danger, the more dangerous it gets. Okay, our first Crystal Cave is going to give us 

10. Our second Crystal Cave is going to give us 5 so that’s 15 and our third Crystal Cave is going to give us 13. Do that’s going to be 28 in total. 28 plus 38 is going to be 66. 

Okay, I’m gonna trade 10 to bring that up to. Wait I can’t. So, oh wait, no, yes I can ,because that that means because I’ve added 50. So

can I? 50 plus. I’m just going to say that I built another Stockpile because I forgot how math works. And then I’m well that would have cost me 10 on that level. So oops. Okay, so wait, come back. Okay, so we’re gonna, we’re gonna bring that down to 83. This would have been the last turn when I didn’t build anything. We’re gonna put a stockpile here.

We’re gonna add. Okay, I’m going to use two resources, or four resources to bring this. No, how do I? Can I trade? Did I? Okay so 83, 93, would be five and then, to get seven I would have to do three and a half. So I’m gonna do three and a half, 40. Oh wait, no I upped it. So I can go over. So I’m gonna do 20, 46, 103.

And then this next room, and we didn’t even do what that room is yet. That room is gonna be more Diamonds. Okay. King of Diamonds is 13. Plus we’re on Level Four. So that’s 17, 46 plus 17, is going to be 63. Oh my gosh, there’s so much math.

And then I can build a room and the room I want to build is, in fact, an Inventors Lab. The inventors Lab is going to be over here, under the Library. What else do you have in a lab? We should have like, well little shelves with things on them. Merlin Meyer flask, right? Maybe some, some books, because you need a library to build this. That is going to wipe out a lot of resources and quite a few trade goods.

And you know what just for fun. I’m going to spend 10. I’m going to do a D2 and to end out this little session. We’re going 

to see some Good magic or Bad Magic. That was a, go away, the Wishing Well, I said that Heads was one and Tails was two. So we got a Heads, that means we consult Good Magic, and a Jack. Valkyria, Ethereal Dwarves wander the halls of your Hold, attending to the sick and dying. Hospital rooms no longer need adjacency but are still limited to one Trooper combat. So that’s really cool. It means that the hospital it doesn’t matter what, what level they’re on. A hospital will still mean that I can heal one Trooper combat. So I’m gonna note up here, that we have Valkyria. That’s fun.

This is already a lot more interesting of a cave than my last one was. I definitely think giving it a go the first time, just to kind of figure out the rules is a great way to start. But the second time you play is going to be a lot more fun. It’s going to be, you’re gonna understand the game a little better. You’re gonna know kind of what to do. For example the not shuffling every turn does kind of really help keep the game flowing, and I’m really excited to see where this map continues to go.