Rules

The campaign require a dungeon master and a number of adventurers. The Squishy Eggs is ideally played with 3 adventurers, but can be played with as much as 4 and as little as 1. Though adventurers are ideally played by younger players, they can certainly be played by older players as well.

To play, each adventurer will need:

• 3 types of dice: a 4-sided, 6-sided, and a 20-sided dice. Though adventurers can share dice, typically kids like to have their own that they bring to ever session.

• Lots of imagination!

The dungeon master would need to download files for the given chapter. Chapter downloads are on the individual pages for each chapter. These files contain a Google Share link to all the required files. The Squishy Eggs is a campaign where one chapter leads into the next one, so ensure you download the correct chapter. To make things simple for younger players, the dungeon master will need to keep track of:

• Party gold. In The Squishy Eggs, all adventurers share gold. As monsters get eliminated (or faint), the adventurers get gold. For heroic and other acts, adventurers get gold. When adventurers spend gold at the store, gold is subtracted. At age 6, kids should have elementary knowledge of math, and adult can guide them through simple concepts like asking them if they have enough gold or not. However, it is up to the dungeon master to handle all of these transactions.

• Adventurer inventory. Each adventurer has their own inventory which the dungeon master keeps track of what is in the inventory and what is not. The adventurers will always get to see what's in their inventory, but management of it is the responsibility of the dungeon master. For instance if an adventures wants to use a minor healing potion, they might ask for the dungeon master at what is in their inventory and use the potion if they have one. There are many ways to track this inventory -- you can either print and copy all the different items in the chapters, or have a digital copy which you can display.

• Adventurer abilities and stats. It is up to the dungeon master to show the adventurers exactly what they can do. Please see next section for character creation. After characters are created and skills are assigned, every time an adventurer has their turn, show them their character sheet before having them do any action to remind them on what they can do.

• Items. Get familiar with all the possible items in the game.

• Bestiary. Get familiar with all the enemies in the game.

The Squishy Eggs can either be played remotely in an online meeting or printed out and played physically. In the time of it's creation, this game was meant to be played online -- therefore, for deluxe versions of the game, we'll also provide sprites for each chapter. If you are playing physically, prior to playing, you will need to print out and cut out the characters, enemies and items.

To start, have your adventurers fill out the following work sheet with:

• The name of their character

• A drawing of their character. It doesn't matter if they aren't experts at art, even scribbly drawings are fine! Encourage your adventurers to use their creativity and also come up with a back story to their character.

In The Squishy Eggs, there are 3 classes to choose from: the Warrior, the Rogue, and the Wizard. The general attributes are:

• Warrior: High health, high melee attack damage, and slower movement.

• Rogue: Normal health, Normal ranged attack damage, and faster movement.

• Wizard: Low health, Normal area damage, and normal movement.

Ask your adventurers the character class they wish to play as,

Don't have them fill out anything else, as the dungeon master, you'll be filling all this out for them.

Below is the template for character creation. Template can be downloaded here.

After the adventurer has named and drawn their character, came up with a backstory, selected a class. Assign the following initial attributes and items to the character class of their choosing:

• Warrior

  • Movement: 4

  • Health: 13

  • Weapon:

    • Rusty Sword: Range 1, Damage 8

• Rogue

  • Movement: 6

  • Health: 8

  • Weapon:

    • Wooden Crossbow: Range 4, Damage: 5

• Wizard

  • Movement: 5

  • Health: 6

  • Weapon:

    • Old Mace: Range 1, Damage: 3

  • Magic:

    • Ring of Fire: Range 3, Damage: 3 to all creatures 1 or 2 spaces from target

An example of a newly created Wizard is below

During a turn, an adventurer may perform two actions. Monsters also have two actions, however, aside from special rules, they can only attack once per turn.

There are many times within a given chapter that adventurers will just be asked the not so simple question of ,"What do you do?" Sometimes the adventurers will perform actions, and other times action points are not deducted. As the dungeon master, you can decide when actions cost points and when they don't. For instance, many times, there will be interaction with other characters which are not adventurers (also called Non-Player Characters, NPCs).

Talking to NPCs are essential for a good role-playing game because it provides the adventurers with much more details about the lore, atmosphere, and what they are trying to do. Talking to NPCs should be a conversation (the dungeon master will have to improvise on a lot of stuff), and they should not count as an action. At times, adventurers will ask many questions or try to converse too much -- it is up to the dungeon master to determine how much is too much.

Other things that the adventurers do, such as going to the store to buy items are also not counted as actions, since typically, for younger players, if they see one person buying something, they will immediately want to buy that as well.

The following actions may be either of the following (adventurers may perform the same action twice in a given turn).

Move - An adventurer may move up to their movement amount per action. They make also take an action between movement. For instance, if an adventurer has 5 movement, they can move 2 spaces, then attack a creature, then move the rest of their 3 spaces. Movement can either be horizonal, vertical, or diagonal -- but not through creatures or objects (they cannot climb over rocks on the landscape).

Attack - An adventurer may attack as an action. Each attack is either a ranged attack (with range greater than 1) or melee (range is 1). Ranged attacks are attacks which can hit the enemy from afar and melee attacks require the creature to be 1 movement space away from the adventurer. All attacking requires the adventurer to first declare with what weapon or magic and to what creature or location.

There are some loose rules for ranged attacks:

• All ranged attacked must be done within a straight line -- if you can draw a direct line from your character to the creature (doesn't have to go inside all grids), then the ranged attack can be made.

• Ranged attacks cannot be done through objects, creatures, or other adventurers. There is some leeway here, so use your judgement.

Area attacks can also be ranged and hits all enemies within a given distance from the spot to which the adventurer wants to hit -- even if this spot does not have an enemy.

For all attacks, a D20 must be rolled to determine whether the attack is a hit or a miss. Adventurers only roll once to test success regardless of how many enemies are targeted. More rules on this and attacking in the "Monster Information and Attacking Them" section below.

Perform Test - This wouldn't be a role playing game without attribute tests! Multiple times in a chapter, the dungeon master will ask the adventurers to perform attribute tests. These attribute tests basically ask adventurers to roll a dice and the dungeon master will come up with an outcome (in the deluxe version of the chapter, outcomes will be written out for the dungeon master).

A sample test would be ,"The adventurers find a rock shoved in between two sliding metal doors. What do you do?" Depending on the type of test (in this case, the adventurers may want to use brute force to open the door), adventurers will be asked to either roll a D4 or D6, depending on how good their character are at the given test. The example test is clearly a test for strength, which the warrior will excel at. In general (again, more will be talked about in the chapter guide), users are asked to roll dice and the outcome of the test is determined on what the adventurer rolls. For instance, for the above, the warrior would be asked to roll a D6 and the following would be the results:

• If a 6 is rolled: Critical Success! You shimmy your arm in between the doors and flex, the doors burst open dropping the rock. As the rock hits the ground, it also reveals 100 gold pieces!

• If a 3-5 is rolled: Success! You use your strength to shove open the door, the door is still closed, but at least the rock is free for the taking.

• If a 2 is rolled: Failed. You use all your strength to shove open the door, but the door does not budge one inch. The rock didn't seem to budge either.

• If a 1 is rolled: Critical Failure. You shimmy your arm in between the door and flex, the door opens quickly, but then shuts even quicker. Your arm gets caught, but you're able to pull your arm out. You lose 2 health, and what's possibly worst, the rock has still not moved.

Important things to note:

• In certain tests, only certain character classes can get the Critical Success (because other classes will only be asked to roll a D4 on something that is not their expertise). All characters get get a critical failure.

• Some tests will require all characters to test, other tests will allow for the adventurers to chose amongst their party.

• For certain scenarios, tests may be performed multiple times.

Using Items - During a given chapter, adventurers will use many items in their inventory. Details about item specifics is talked about at length in the items section of this campaign. TODO Add page and add link.

Revive a Fallen Adventurer - If an adventurer lost all their health, another adventurer can use two of their actions to revive another adventurer. This action requires the reviving adventurer to roll a D4, and whatever the number will be the health of the fallen adventurer. If you find that adventurers are having a rough time, make this action do more healing.

Prior to attacking, the adventurer will tell the dungeon master with what weapon or magic they wish to attack with. The dungeon master needs to be acquainted with all the monster sheet of a given monster. Simple monsters do not have much abilities like the one below.

There are 4 basic statistics that all monsters have. They are:

Defense: At the beginning of every attack, the adventurer will be asked to roll a D20. This roll must be greater than the defense value of the monster. If it is not, then the attack misses. If the attack succeeds, the weapon damage is subtracted from the monster's health.

Health: The health of the monster. It is up to the dungeon master to keep track of all health for the monsters. When monsters are dealt damage, the damage from the attacking weapon or magic is subtracted from the monster's health. If the monster's health is 0 (or less), then the monster is defeated and the adventurer gains the rewards in the rewards section. These rewards can be gold and / or items. In the above, if you defeat a frog monster, you get a frog skin. The adventurer who lands the final blow gets the item, while gold is shared amongst the part.

Attack: Unlike adventurers, to make it simple, the monsters do not roll any dice. They just deal damage to the adventurer. The damage from this monster is dealt to the adventurer. If the adventurer's health is at or below 0, they are fallen. Note that there is no set rules as to which adventurer the monster should attack. When the chapter guidelines do not tell you specifically how to attack, then just attack the closet adventurer.

Movement: The movement amount for the monster. Treat the same as adventurer movement.

Every once in a while (like bosses, mini bosses, or just tougher monster in later parts of the campaign), monster pages will contain more information. Deciding which attack or action to take is purely random or situational and depends entirely on the dungeon master or the chapter guidelines. The below robot sentry is an example of this. It has two types of attacks to which the chapter guide tells the dungeon master if there are adventurers all lined up, then the robot sentry should be using the laser beam and not the jam attack.

There are other complexities as well, such as monster summoning other monsters or outputting things like goo that slow the adventurers down, but all these will be described in detail in the chapter guidelines!

It is up to the dungeon master to keep track of all adventurer statistics and inventory. This requires:

• Adding gold when adventurers kill monsters or when special events happen.

• Subtracting gold when items are bought at the store.

• Adding items when monsters are killed.

• Removing items when they are used.

• Adding health when adventurers are healed through an event or when they use an item.

• Removing health when adventurers are hurt.

This can all be done physically, but keeping track of inventory is more difficult to be done. I typically just keep a digital version which I copy and paste items, health, and gold as below.

During a given phase, enemies and adventurers alternate turns with all the adventurers going first, then all the creatures. There may be special rules which break this normal flow, but this would be described in each chapter guide.

Each chapter comes with a quest guide for that describes the quest in detail to the dungeon master, allowing the dungeon master to do a quick read through and already have much material to run the chapter. However, not everything is spelled out. Kids will ask the wildest questions and try to do the wildest things if you let them. In this case, it is up to the dungeon master to control the atmosphere and to use improvisation to make the story flow and to make the story fun.

Each chapter comes with given section / hint areas to which would help the dungeon master at running the game. These areas are:

• Read. This section just tells the dungeon master to read the section. The section can be used as-is, or adapted to the interest of the group.

• What do you do? "What do you do?" is a common question in role playing games. This question allows the adventurers time to think, recollect, and decide on an action. These actions can range from fighting enemies, or going to the stream to get water. It is important not to let the game run itself, meaning not to let adventurers go from one part of the chapter to the next just fighting monsters. Allow time to recollect and for adventurers to get absorbed in the game. These sections remind the dungeon master to query the adventurers.
  
  More often than not, this section wouldn't contain much text and just is a reminder to the dungeon master to ask the adventurers to be part of shaping how the game will turn out.

• Dungeon Master Guide. These guide areas are places in the chapter guide which gives the dungeon master more detail about what is happening. This allows for the dungeon master to be prepared to answer certain types of questions and/or prepare the dungeon master for what might be coming up in the next chapter.

• Test. Tests will be performed often. These indicators will inform the dungeon master to ask the adventurers to perform a test. There are many different types of tests. The basic ones are:

  • Awareness: Test for awareness of surroundings. All classes roll a D6.

  • Intelligence: Test for book smartness. Tests like these favor the Wizard class. All classes will roll a D4, while Wizards roll a D6.

  • Dexterity: Test for quick movements. Tests like these favor the Ranger class. All classes will roll a D4, while Rangers roll a D6.

  • Strength. Test for physical strength. Tests like these favor the Warrior class. All classes will roll a D4, while Warriors roll a D6.

Each chapter folder that is shared with you on Google Drive (if you do not have access, please request access) contains 3 Microsoft PowerPoint files. If you do not have a licensed version of Microsoft PowerPoint, you may use free utilities such as Google Slides.

Dungeon Map (example filename : ADungeonStory_SquishyEggs_Chapter1_Map.pptx)

This is the presentation which shows all the maps / sections in the board to which your adventurers will navigate. The name of the section (in the orange box) corresponds to the section name in the Dungeon Master Guide for each chapter.

Prior to play, read over the instructions on the presentation and make changes to the presentation.

Board Copy (example filename : ADungeonStory_SquishyEggs_Chapter1_BoardCopy.pptx)

This presentation file is simply a quick way for you to copy and paste sprites onto the dungeon map when playing. For instance, if your adventurers light something on fire, grab the fire sprite and copy and paste it onto the dungeon map mentioned above.

Chapter Store (example filename : ADungeonStory_SquishyEggs_Chapter1_StoreFronts.pptx)

This is the general store. This shows prices as well as all the items for this particular chapter.