This pamphlet tries to provide a reasonable way to get random hexmaps, but in five wordy pages it fails to achieve the realism or sensability that the first edition Dungeon Master's Guide did in half of a single page (appendix B, pg 173) forty years ago. RoleMaster Campaign Law took fewer pages but was far more sensible about large contiguous landforms. There's a worked example, but to me it more shows up the product's shortcomings than inspires me to use it.

With a product description like "subtly support an existing biome but still give the chance for something surprising to happen" I was expecting a lot more from this.

Dungeon Crossing by Matthew Jarmak (@aryxymaraki)

“Welcome to Dungeon Crossing! Have you ever wanted your TTRPG character to just settle down, maybe on a nice little farm, and relax? Have you ever wanted to play a solo version of relaxation and farming games that takes place entirely in your mind? You might like Dungeon Crossing, then.

Dungeon Crossing is a combination system-neutral supplement and standalone game.”

This is a genuinely fascinating and adorable supplement that absolutely succeeds in its goal of porting Animal Crossing into Dungeons and Dragons!

I’m going to admit to being someone who has never played Animal Crossing and those kinds of video games have never really appealed to me. I just wanted to be open about that. I’m not sure what it is, but I also know if I ever did get into it, I would lose myself entirely. So, it doesn’t seem a wise avenue for me to explore. This on the other hand is something else entirely, while taking so much inspiration from what is at the core of AC – passing time in a creative, fun and relaxing way.

This both ports many beloved elements of the game and expands on the way down and leisure time can be spent as a solo endeavour or part of an ongoing game. In this there is still a heck of a lot in it for someone like myself to enjoy and benefit from.

Introduction

“There is no combat in Dungeon Crossing. There is no stress. Time passes like water in a river.”

The introduction is written so beautifully and makes the core concepts of creativity and imagination, and how the elements from AC will work with D&D, with explanation of the terms for dice rolls, simple.

“In the end, Dungeon Crossing is as much a way for you to explore your imagination as it is anything else. We can tell you what the home you build with it has in it, and what it’s made of. We can give it a body. But only you can tell us what it looks like, and what it feels like. Only you can give it a soul. We hope you enjoy finding the soul in the homes that you build with Dungeon Crossing.”

How to Play

There are four tiers of play for Dungeon Crossing, just as there are with regular D&D, each of these come with their assumed “starting package”, which consist of the dwelling with a number and type of rooms, plot/s and starting gold to provide what you need to begin your DC experience.

For example:

“Starting At Tier 1: A character who begins their journey at tier 1 begins play with a dwelling that has three poplar rooms and one tier 1 plot, along with 200 gold pieces to spend.”

Pick a tier if you’re playing solo or work out with your group and DM about the tiers and starting packages if you’re working this into an ongoing game.

The basics of DC are the players spending time performing activities in units of time beginning with a seven-day week broken up into the number of activities that can be performed in that unit. Once per week an NPC, Jon Look (he/him) or his cousins Jane Cook (she/her) and Bain Rook (they/them), will visit for an inspection. This inspection is an examination and evaluation of progress, which I’ll get into in the Appendix.

Activities

The available activities are:

Decorating is sprucing up and placing items around your home to affect your Decoration Rating.

Shopping is the buying and selling of items, as well as checking the Pear Price and, buying and selling pears. The Pear Price is generated once a day with a specific roll and provided table.

Farming allows the purchasing and planting of crops “for fun and profit”. Crops have a Purchase Price, a Farming Time, and a Sale Price, which are provided in tables by tiers.

Gathering is foraging for materials using specific tools with rolls and tables provided for material types, tiers and amounts.

Fishing allows you to catch fish using specific fishing poles and tiered tables provided with variable sizes.

Monster Husbandry is the taming and rearing of monsters “for fun and profit”. These come with tiered tables containing the monsters, the product monsters produce, the purchase price and the variable product value. “It must be specified that no monsters are harmed as part of this activity.”

Building and Decorating

“Activities may be the primary source of money in Dungeon Crossing, but how do you spend money? You spend it by building and decorating things.”

When shopping, rooms, plots and Objects can be purchases for your house, and when taking the decorating activity, you place, arrange and rearrange your goodies.

Objects are broken down my size into Major, Minor and Trivial Objects with a limited variety of the larger Objects fitting into a room with more of the increasingly smaller Objects fitting in a room in greater amount. Rooms Types are denoted by either the Major Objects or the combination of Objects, such as a bed for a bedroom or a pan and stove for a kitchen.

The various materials and combinations of Objects in a room effect the Decoration Rating during inspections. The various tiers of materials and the prices for the various Object types are laid out on tables, as are examples of Objects and their type by room.

Clothing and Decorations

Decorations come in the wall and floor variety, such as tapestries and rugs, and add to the Decoration Value of a Room.

Tiered tables of materials are supplied for use in both clothing and decoration.

When it comes to clothes and accessories there’s all manner of things that can be created with many suggestions for the head, upper and lower body areas, as well as rules for accommodating clothing that covers two areas. Accessories can also be made of both building and clothing materials.

Simple rules for purchasing dyes are also included.

Expanding your Dwelling

More Rooms and Plots can be obtained with pricing relative to materials and available tiers.

Plots are needed for Farms, which make farming available, Gardens add to the Decoration Rating and can be tended to, Barns are required for Mobster Husbandry, Lawns are “an empty area of grass cultivated for no purpose other than to show off”, Groves allow for the planting of trees and harvesting Fruit Bounty (not just coconuts), Sheds house Objects when not in Rooms, and Quarries, which allow the extraction of a Metal or Stone Bounty.

Calculating Decoration Rating of Rooms and Dwelling

A simple questionnaire gives you the Decoration Rating per room, which are added together to get your Decoration Rating for your Dwelling.

A table of ratings with a Look family member’s comments and rewards are provided from “You’re just starting out, keep at it!” to “Truly astounding! I almost can’t believe my eyes!”. Based on the rewards, it can definitely put the profit in “for fun and profit!”

Appendix: What Are All These Things?

“Dungeon Crossing includes a significant number of fantastic items that don’t actually exist, alongside a variety that do exist”, so the appendix gives a little explanation of all the things throughout the supplement.

It should be addressed that this supplement itself, while bristling with potential, is a number of systems, tables and explanations because it is an engine for creation that needs imagination to fuel it. I only mention this to clear up that this isn’t an Animal Cross inspired adventure.

This is a genuinely fascinating and adorable supplement that absolutely succeeds in its goal of porting Animal Crossing into Dungeons and Dragons! In doing so it has created a solo game that doesn’t need a console or cartridge, as well as bringing in an expansive, but not overwhelming, crafting and hobby system that will really add some lovely projects, collaborations and competitions between adventures, as the characters and parties build, craft and pass the time creatively “for fun and profit”.

Credits

Dungeon Crossing copyright 2020 Matthew Jarmak. This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material contained herein is prohibited without the written permission of the copyright owners.

This product is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual people, places, events, or organizations is purely coincidental.

Use of art in this product does not constitute an endorsement by the original artists.

Cover art by Eon Cire, available at https://opengameart.org/content/concept-art-studies-bundle-1. Released to the public domain under the terms of CC0. Publisher’s Choice Quality Stock Art © Rick Hershey / Fat Goblin Games. http://www.fatgoblingames.com.

Some artwork copyright by Roselysium – https://twitter.com/roselysium - used with permission.

Some artwork © 2015 Dean Spencer, used with permission. All rights reserved.

Some art used under the terms of Creative Commons BY 3.0, license located at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Pease Scene by Sourav Dhar, https://opengameart.org/content/peace-scene http://souravdhar.foliohd.com, Special thanks to Markeus B. Used under the terms of CC-BY 3.0.

Fantasy Tomb Scene by zonked on opengameart.org, available at https://opengameart.org/content/fantasy-tomb-scene. Released to the public domain under the terms of CC0.

Hidden Canyon by Glondo on opengameart.org, available at https://opengameart.org/content/hidden-canyon. Used under the terms of CC-BY 3.0.

My affiliate link: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/331085/Dungeon-Crossing-Dragon-Home-Designer?affiliate_id=1507682

This is an excellent book, written by someone with a clear understanding of ACKS, that brings psionic powers into the ACKS game. It is an interesting blend of 2nd Edition and 3rd Edition psionic abilities. The classes are well done in the ACKS vein, and I am espeically fond of the soulknife class (an old favorite). Extensive rules provide psionicists with all the tools they will need to participate in the research hijinks of spell casters at high level.

The only real downside to this is legacy problems from the source material that was converted. 2nd Edition psionic powers were brutal in how short they lasted. While a psionic character might have 10 PSPs a level, a combat power might cost 8 to manifest and 4 to maintain it per round, allowing a first level character only a single round of use, or a 2nd level character 2 at best before they are spent. Granted, they do recover points through the day (unlike casters) but they will definitely fall into the 'low level wizard trap' of using an ability and then having to rely on weapons. I really wish the author had changed this somehow as it has always been one of my biggest complaints about 2nd Ed psionics. Along with this problem is that many of the powers that do damage don't do much for their cost (but then, several others do do decent damage, so it's not entirely problematic).

This also rears its ugly head in psionic combat, where attacks and defenses would easily see the character spent in a handful of rounds. From a resource managment aspect, this makes psionic characters extremely delicate...useful for a burst or two of activity, but then forced to the back of the party for several hours (or worse, acting as an excuse for the party to retreat until the psionic is good again). That being said, there are plenty of optional systems in the back to tweak things like psionic combat so basically you have 4 variations of the system, something that is pretty cool.

There are rules for creating psionic items, but no examples. Items seem to mostly be things like wands that store and duplicate a power. I would have liked to see more of 3rd edition psionics in this area, with their plethora of psionic items.

I would definitely use this system, though I might tinker with durations. Maybe instead of rounds I would let them last Turns? Not certain.