Rusty Dagger

 A cheap solo game I discovered through YouTube, Rusty Dagger is a magazine sized digital ruleset.

Made to be miniature agnostic, it is a mix between rpg and combat actions, made for solo gaming on small square sized maps.

 

The core rule set costs a measly 2.00 dollars on DriveThru RPG, and it has three additional adventures that are free to download.   Now, the game plays on a 10x6 square grid, and my idea for getting around that and have something thicker then just the paper print out is ordering a 2x2 battlemat in neoprene, with grids added on to it.

 

The rulebook, the hero creation book and the scenario books are all 1 page big... but there is a caveat.  You need to fold (and do a cut) it into 8, so you can imagine it are tiny booklets, and I definitly need my glasses to read it. 

But, once the 6 tiny and cute booklets are folded, we can have a look at the core rules, consisting of the Core Rules booklet and the Hero Rules booklet.  I will look at the Hero Rules here, but the actual character creation will be featured when I play the first scenario, Spire of the Golem, which also comes in the initial set that you buy.

 

The game uses two 6-sided dice for all the required rolls, a set of polyhedral dice (you know, those DnD sets of D4 to D20 you can buy everywhere), some scatter terrain and tokens (for which I bought those coloured gemstones near the end of 2024), of which you will need 2 sets of 6 tokens each in a different colour.

 

The text of the adventure will say when you can gain an advantage, meaning an additional token in the bag, or a disadvantage, where an extra enemy token goes in.  The gameplay itself revolves around two types of challenges, the narrative and the combat challenge.

 

 

 

In a Narrative challenge, you take a decision based on a skill roll against the challenge rating, and successes will grant bonusses.  For Combat Challenges you set up a combat tile terrain, which measures 6" by 10" with numbers to determine the deployment of models.  Obstacles (aka scatter terrain) occupy a set number of spaces and grand some LOS defence.  And sometimes, there can be hindering ground on the tiles, like a swamp.

Combat is resolved by first drawing tokens and activate the relevant side.  A hero or companion can then take two actions, being selected from Move, Attack, Use Item or Ability, but can only take one named action per activation.  Attacks are made by rolling 2D6 + the relevant skill modifier vs the necessary action dice + relevant modifiers for the defender.  Note attack and defence use different skills, more on that below.  Note that monsters always use a different size of dice, and when they attack the rolls switch around of course.  The core rules end out with the chart for the action sequence the monsters makes, and that is it for basic rules.

The Hero Rules booklet allows you to create a hero for your adventures, aka "you".  To do this, you get a Stat Point Array of 5 values, which you divide over the main characteristics.  The scores you assign are then split up into two further stats, which grant modifiers for your model's action.

Health represents your wounds, with subtraits for Brawn and Agility, which are defence stats for melee and shooting actually.  Combat is well, that, with Swordmanship being for melee and Archery for shooting.  The Knowledge skill makes your character understand magic and the likes, with Arcane and Survival being it's substats.  Judgment influences your descisions and finding treasure with Wisdom and Luck, while finally we have Personality and it's stats Candor and Guile, which influences potential bonuses with NPC's.

Once you decided on your stats, you get Wealth, always starting with 15, which can be used to buy your starting equipment.  You need to assign a title to your character first though, as that enables access to the abilities of the class, being Mercenary (melee), Necromancer (use dark magic in combat), Grafter (more agile) or Crusader (the tank of the game).  Itemwise, your model can carry 5 items, though items of the same name count only as a single entry.

You also start with a basic melee weapon, and don't count towards possessions but you can carry only three.  During your adventures, you will get chances to get a better weapon.

You can also obtain Companions, who are premade characters you encounter on your adventures, and who might actually stick around into new stories.  

Your hero will level up during the game, even being able to unlock a second title / class once level 8 is reached.  The levelling happens by gaining Stat Points whom can be issued to your stats as a reward and improving your hero.  

Making a Camp is also a thing between adventures, which allows to trade items, revive companions (or yourself) at a serious cost of your wealth.  And then we round out with the item list, and your hero is ready to go adventuring.

So, that are the core rules for Rusty Dagger in short, and you get an idea of how the game works.  Pretty soon I will be playing the first story, Spire of the Golem, and I will of course post the battle report here!

So see you back then and see how well the adventures of Rach'Mal the Bull will be go...