A superb delve into a well designed system. A familiar simplicity that made old school d&d fun and timeless, but not a tired rehash like alot of products are. Slays inferior games

I realy like this rule set. it combines old school sensibilities with a new school rules base. The features i like most are the very low vertical progression. characters do not constantly gain numerical bonuses, instead progressing horizontally by selecting talents. I also think the magic system is very cool. it isnt vancian magic, spells are selected simiar to talents (that are visually represented in the book by cool looking hermetic sigil illustrations), and utilize a simple system of randomized energy drain (that can even injure your wizard if you dont have enough power to pay the cost). If your looking for a simple & lower power alternative to 5th edition, or a more modern ruleset for OSR style games I highly recommend checking this game out.

I received a complimentary PDF in exchange for writing a review. My review is based on a quick read-through.

While this isn't the setting I would create for myself (needs more tentacles), this has a lot to offer. It's "normal" enough to fit in with a wide variety of campaign wants and needs while adding some things that are definitely off the beaten path. Such as, slightly weird playable races like the Ishim and Kytheran. Could have used some extra flavor, though (i.e. typical customs, backgrounds, history, etc.)

Those who see the world mechanically first and bits and pieces of story second will enjoy this approach. The crunch is there for those who play D&D, Pathfinder, and various OSR systems. For instance, I know how much mithril costs, the crafting time, its weight, initiative properties, and dexterity limitations, but I don't really know how it looks, how it feels, if it smells different than other metal, why there's so much of it buried within the cryogenically frozen snake-men tombs (I made that last part up)?

My only other minor criticism would be the choice of describing various things and locations from the perspective and in the words / writing style of named fantasy characters who I don't know from Adam. Some sound like the author himself (or herself, I'm not sure which entries were written by which authors). And others sound like if dwarves were living in H.P. Lovecraft's 1920's New England. But that's totally subjective and I'm sure many appreciate the variance.

The PDF looks great. The pages have a cool parchment appearance and the art is distinctive, awesome, and fairly plentiful. You won't mistake David Guyll's artwork for anyone else's!

So, if you're looking for a different kind of setting (but not too different) that puts mechanics first - although, without bloating everything out to a ridiculous level like some D&D/Pathfinder offereings - I highly recommend Dungeons & Delvers - Black Book. You get a lot of bang for your buck!

Dungeons & Delvers is a really good alternative if you want to play something close to ealier edition of Dungeons & Dragons, but with simplicity and internal consistency. Each class had his own flavor, in form of Talent (a mix between D&D 3.5's Feats and D&D 4th's Powers) who can be choose level be level, letting you personalise your character in a easy and friendly way.

Caster uses a system close to Spell Points instead of be Vancian-based, and each class comes with an alternative ways to recharges it. Cleric can pray and make sacrifices, while Wizard need take short rest to recharge.

In 141 pages, the books comes with 4 races (Human, Elf, Dwarf and Kodold, the last one are nice variant of the older Halflings and Gnomes) and classes (Cleric, Fighter, Rogue and Wizard), who is this book are limited to 5 levels. A pretty complete Equipment section, rules for Crafting (pretty close for the ones of Witcher), a GM section AND a little Bestiary. And let's not forget about Traps & Treasures.

Pretty robust book if you ask me.

In the Appendix, there is three more classes (Monk, Ranger and Warlock) and two more races (Cambion, Sin-Flavored Tiefling, and Tarchon, rage-filled Dragonborns), and a variant Wizard (The Vancermancer, more close to old Vancian-style Wizard, but it his own twist) and more monsters, and talents options.

In other words, waiting you wait for?

Really nice,love the layout-pleasure to read.Art , tables and stat blocks are fantastic.

Dungeon & Delvers is a fascinating take on the Dungeons & Dragons. Awful Good Games has combined elements from earlier iterations of D&D, creating a system that is: flexible, internally consistent, and user friendly. The rulebook is organized and attractive looking, the art has a stylized art look reminiscent of the Hellboy comics.

There are several major departures from it's predecessors. Vancian magic has been replaced by two new new systems: arcane casters use a mana system, divine casters use divine favors. The mechanics support the flavor of Arcane casters powering their spells from within, and Divine casters calling on a external power to aid them. The typical range of attributes has been changed to just the derived modifier. Hit points are fixed per level and divided into two kinds: one representing fatigue and superficial injuries, the other more serious ones. Armor adds to the characters defense and gives damage reduction. Each of the classes has a list of customized talents that evens the playing field a bit between martial and arcane/ divine casters.

The system has lots of modification potential. I can see elements from FATE melding quite nicely with Dungeons & Delvers. The few things I was not a fan of can be house rules with a minimum of fuss.

This is a great book. It is a very well laid-out book coming in at 141 pages, with colour pictures throughout. At first I thought it might be a D&D retro-clone/OSR but I'd say it borrows many elements from 3.5e and 5e, yet keeping the simplicity of earlier versions.

It has 4 basic races; the human, elf, and dwarf you might expect, however the kobold rounds out the list, which may be an odd departure from the usual halfling race. Apart from that, the racial modifiers/abilities are pretty much what you'd expect.

The game has the basic 4 classes; Cleric, Fighter, Rogue and Wizard. The details for each class are based upon choosing talents (akin to feats in other versions). Even the wizard and cleric's spells are listed as talents (instead of a list of spells). This is very much like Dungeon World. While the list is limited (around 8-10 options for the Fighter or Rogue, and around 15-20 for the cleric and wizard), it definately gives you the customization you'd expect in later versions of D&D.

The game is limted to level-5 characters, and I'm really interested to see more options if later additions come out for this game.

The game has a detailed skill list (but not too large) and rules for crafting. It has a fair selection of equipment, and a streamlined set of combat rules you'd expect (there are no rules for Attacks of Opportunity, disengaging the enemy, etc, so it can easily be played in the Theater of your mind). Combat is slightly different in that it uses Armor for both the target number to hit (e.g. AC) as well as damage reduction (DR). Characters have both Wound Points (e.g. HPs) and Vitality Points (VP) which seems to be a way of recovering a portion of health between combats (which I like better than later D&D's version's "healing surges").

There is a small DM section, as well as a well put together list of monsters (about 25 of them), and magic items.

Overall this is an excellent value for your money. I'm really looking forward to seeing what they do next (levels 6+).