EPSILON GAMING FOR GEEKS
RULES OF DUCKGEON
INTRO-DUCK-TION
There are optional rules, which are listed in the handy-to-find section More Rules. If you have never chosen a Duckventurer, you now have a sense of what they are capable of, and can start that now. If you want to find out how to murder-death-kill Beasties (found in the Beastie-ary) in he Duckgeon, there's a whole section, Duckwars Combat. If you want to dive headlong into LOOT AND STUFF AND BITZ, then you need the Funkards section. If you are ready to enter the Duckgeon, you are going to need to find out how Quests work. Good luck and duckspeed ...
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Hear ye, Duckenturers! Are you ready to embark on a very dangerous board game of dungeons? The game starts off as your character standing at the start of the Duckgeon, looking out into the darkness. Then, a giant spider jumps out! What do you do? And how are you going to make your character fight? That’s where the rules of the game come in.
Duckwars Duckgeon is a cooperative dungeon-bash miniatures game for 1+ players, part of the Duckwars family of games. Duckwars Duckgeon takes about 45 minutes to play a basic game, and can be cracked open for some beer-and-skittles fun or developed into an Awe-Inspiring-Westeros-Shaming-War for the future of the Duckingdom, with all the Hijinks and Forbidden Waterfowl-Love that entails (Please note: the Westeros version may take longer than 45 minutes and be R17-Rated. If pain persists, please, see your doctor).
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Each player takes on the role of a Duckventurer hunting for loot and fame in the creepy Duckgeon, while also Questing to stop Duckthulhu from killing good King Goscock, whom he has kidnapped. The goal of the basic game is to defeat the dread Duckthulhu, insane God of the Duckgeon, who only grows in power as the game goes on.
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The game has been designed by Sam (8) and Daddy (old). All illustrations and fluff brought to you by Sam, as well as the initial concept of the game and all the Duckventurer classes. Plus most of the Funkards. Sam did a lot of this game, Daddy just went along for the ride.
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The Dread Duckthulhu
"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Duckthulhu ta Duckgeon wgah'nagl fhtagn. Ai! Ai!"
SETTING UP THE DUCKGEON
All of the stuff presented here is to play the basic game, questing in the Duckgeon. Everything is about SIXES in the Duckingdom, because SIX is the Ducks' favorite number. This is because of an ancient folk song, sung by generations of fearsome Duck warriors and handed down proudly from parent to duckling. The 6 simple steps are -
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Grab yourself at least 6 Rooms of at least 8x8 spaces size. The bigger the better. You can add your own furniture to the Rooms, but don't overstock them, as the Duckventurers need room to make ever-lovin' war against the fell Beasties.
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Connect your rooms with corridors, which can be any width or length, but the longer the corridors, the more chance of Strolling Beasties!
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Nominate the Rooms as 1-6, and place a counter (see Playing Bitz, right) in each Room to indicate its number. 1 is the Entry Room and 6 is the Boss Room so 6 should be as far away from 1 as possible, unless you want a VERY short and messy game.
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Get all the Playing Bitz out. This has some sub-steps, but they are pretty self-explanatory to anyone who has ever played a miniatures game. First, shuffle the Funkards and place them next to the board. Whip out the Quest you are going to play. Also stack up the miniatures, playing bitz and organize the big pile-o'-dice on the nifty Organizer. Don't put the Duckventurers in the Entry Room YET, they haven't arrived or looked around, and there will definitely be a welcoming committee. Place the Duckthulhu miniature on his Booster-Wooster.
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Each player should have their own Duckventurer Scroll with appropriate Funkards and counters on it, ready to go.
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Sort the Funkard deck ... below ...
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Funkards (Items, Zappies, Feats), Omens and Snares are all formatted the same way on the card for ease of use, although they are all used slightly differently in the game. How to read a Funkard, Omen or Snare can be found here. In putting together a deck, the Easy-Peasy Game contains 50 Items, 50 Zappies and 50 Feats. As Duckwars grows to take over the universe, further expansions will be available to expand the decks.
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To setup the deck in the Easy-Peasy Game -
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All Funkards are all shuffled together to form the basic deck.
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Omens are shuffled in with the Funkards if you want some CRAZY RANDOMNESS mixed in with your Loot-hauling, or are instructed to by the Quest. The first few Easy-Peasy Quests leave Omens as optional.
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Snares are Traps, and can come up randomly, when a sneaky snare goes off and catches an unwitting Duckventurer. This is the reason Snares are formatted the same as the other cards.
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 Loot Counter |
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 Duckventurer Scroll |
 Duckthulhu Booster Wooster |
 Duckgeon Quest 1 |
 DuckDice Sorter |
 Sample Funkards |
 Dizzy Duck Token |
 Room Token |
 Dice. These are dice. |
DUCKGEON PLAYING BITZ
This is all the essential stuff needed to play Duckwars.
THE FUNKARD DECK
 Hordling |
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 Blue Guardian |
 Blind Terror Snake |
 Crazy Raptor Bear |
 Cobalt Blaze Sheep |
 Mad Warp Rhino |
BEASTIE MINIATURES
 Lair of Duckthulhu, Gateway to the Feather Realm |
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 Doctor Fantabulous's Zoootoropian Emporium |
 Tomb of the Unknown Duck |
 Council of Evil |
 EEK! Vermin |
SAMPLE DUCKGEON TILES
These have been developed especially for Duckwars and are used in Duckgeon Quest 1.
Duckwars Duckgeon can be played using any gridded or un-gridded roleplaying map. A million of them can be found online. Normally the map represents the Duckventurers hacking their way through the Duckgeon, but could be a battle over a city in the Duckingdom, a magnificent aerial Duckship, a Dastardly Duck pirate boat, wherever your story takes you! Different quests are provided for different types of terrain, with all the Beasties and Snares that are associated with them.
As most games are played on gridded maps, where the diameter of a single space is roughly one inch (the size of a standard miniature), we will refer to movement lengths in the game in terms of 'spaces.' Each standard-sized (25mm) miniature normally occupies one space, although some longer Beasties occupy 2, and giant terrifying awe-inspiring DEAR-DUCK-WE'RE-ALL-DEAD Beasties occupy more.
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The board can be any size, but a 3 foot by 4 foot playing space is fine.
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If you are using un-gridded maps, simply exchange '1 space' for '1 inch' or 2.5 centimeters, in those backward corners of the Duckingdom where Imperial Duck measurements still apply. If fighting massed battles of rampaging family Anatidae in DuckVDuck, it is easier to use fluid measurements and a tape.
PLAYING THE GAME
STATS
Oh no, STATS! Every game needs STATS, and we have tried to keep the STATS to a minimum, because ducks have brains the size of a peanut. Each Duckventurer has three STATS - Fatty (F), Quack (Q) and Peanut Brain (P). They also have a School, a Class, and a Rank, which can be found in the section about Duckventurers.
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Fatty (F) is like armour, the fattier the Duckventurer, the more resilient she is to damage.
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Quack (Q) is how angry a little cutie duck can get, and so how effectively they fight.
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Peanut Brain (P) is how a Duckventurer can cast spells and think about important stuff. They really do have brains the size of peanuts!
Beasties have the same STATS. Although not all Beasties actually physically quack, some gnaw, gnash and make slobbering sounds as they heedlessly slaughter Duckventurers, it's just easier to call the stat the same thing, because stats are numbers and simplicity is key.
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The most important rule to remember with STATS is they can't go over maximum level naturally. What does that mean? That means, if your Ducknight is wielding a Plain 'Ol Sword that gives him +1 Quack in Choppy Combat, you add the +1Q when in Choppy Combat, or a Choppy Combat Resist Roll, when he USES THE SWORD, and that is all. No other time. When keeping track of modifiers, maybe put a token on the Funkard listing the bonus on the Duckventurer Scroll, as opposed to just adding it to the core STAT, because that way lies madness. Ranks - and some especially overpowered Funkards - are the only way to increase your MAX STATS.
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This point is especially relevant to Fatty (F), because it yo-yos up and down as Duckventurers get wounded and heal themselves. If a Duckventurer has a max Fatty of 8, is currently on 7, and eats a Delicious Small Amphibian Dinner (+4F), he only goes back up to 8, and the rest is wasted.
 Drakagorn |
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 Duckidin |
 Duckwiz |
 Flapper |
 Bouncer |
 Quacker |
 Boomer |
 Bonker |
DUCKVENTURER MINIATURES
THE DUCKDICE
GOOD KING GOSCOCK
Captured and held in the Duckgeon by the evil Duckthulhu. Help him, he is so cute!
These are dice.
Each turn, a Duckventurer is able to make a number of Actions. Every Duckventurer resolves their Actions before the Beasties get a go (with some exceptions).
We will make the turn sequence official later, because there's other exploration non-combat stuff that also happens, but shortly, Duckventurers get to use THE DUCKDICE (massive trumpet fanfare) to blast away and chop madly, then the Beasties whale on them.
​To perform an Action, a Duckventurer must use the appropriate DuckDice, which are kept in a pool and split up among the party of Duckventurers. You choose SIX dice at the start of each turn, SIX! (drink), and have to share them out among all the Duckventurers, so choose wisely! One Duckventurer could use up all the DuckDice, or you could split them up as needed. Duckgeon is a cooperative game so this will require negotiation and teamwork between the Duckventurers.
​This means that if only a single lone-wolf Duckventurer is questing, they will be running about heroically, getting up to crazy things. If 12 Duckventurers are questing, it's going to get kinda crowded, and not everyone will get to use DuckDice every turn. They can make the popcorn and get the Mountain Dew.
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When a Duckventurer is nominated to use a DuckDice, each DuckDice is resolved. Have I said 'duck' enough yet?
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OOOH IMPORTANT!
You can't stack DuckDice - add the result of one die to another - except using the DuckDuckGoose! DuckDice.
Each Action using a DuckDice is resolved before the next one is thought about.
DuckDice explode, which means if you roll a 6 (drink), you get to roll the DuckDice again and add the result. This could go on and on, you could roll 6 6's in a row and just flail Duckthulhu back to the Featherealm. This is kinda stacking but it's assumed it's only one DuckDice exploding over and over, in a weird quantum loop.
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The DuckDice are (drum-roll, or is that dice-roll? Ha ha, geddit? Quack!) -
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DuckWalk (white)
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DuckFighter (red)
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Duck! (blue)
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LootCounter (yellow, orange or gold, like all the loot ... tee hee hee)
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FunkyDuck (pink, multicolored, gem dice, something FUNKY. Dance, cha-cha-cha.)
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DuckDuckGoose (black)
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DuckWalk
DuckWalk moves your Duckventurer along the dungeon the number of spaces rolled on the DuckDice - up, down, left, right, and diagonally. It's that simple. And you can do the DuckWalk dance while you are rolling the dice! Spaces can be measured horizontally, vertically or diagonally, whatever the shortest length between your fearsome Duckventurer and Beastie happens to be.
You cannot walk through closed doors without stopping to interact with (open) them, and some objects block movement.
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DuckFighter
Will the Duckventurer smite mightily with his enchanted feather? The die is red because of all the blood and guts involved. Ewwwwww ...
The type of combat being resolved is nominated when the die is rolled, which can be either Shooty (S) or Choppy (C). One DuckDice equals one attack. See the appropriate sections for how the types of combat work.
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Duck!Dice
The result of the roll of the Duck!Dice (ho ho) is deducted from from any damage taken by the Duckventurer during the turn, as the duck ... ducks.
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LootCounter
The LootCounter roll determines how much Loot is received every time the Duckventurers clear a Room. Loot can be exchanged for products and services, or in our case, Funkards.
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Loot is built up as enemies die, but only if the Duckventurers search for it! Any LootCounter DuckDice that are allocated in a specific turn are kept in a Loot Counter Pool until the Room is cleared (all enemies are dead or gone).
Each casualty during that turn counts 1 LootCounter. Which means, if at any point in the turn a Beastie dies, 1 LootCounter is added to the Room's Loot Pool.
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1 Beastie RIP = 1 LootCounter to the Pool
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There is a nifty Loot Pool card (right), or you can put them in a big golden hoard, or in your mother's centuries-old-crown, as long as you keep track. If there are more LootCounters in the turn's pool than casualties occur in a given turn, any excess is lost, although unused dice can be cashed as normal (see below).
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To maximize loot, LootCounters must be selected in each turn's DuckDice pool with great care.
When the Room is Cleared ...
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... and by Cleared, we mean every Beastie dead, every Snare gone, any and everything that could hurt a Duckventurer totally ELIMINATED in a little puff of dust.
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When the Room is Cleared, Nominate a Duckventurer to roll that giant fistful of LootCounter dice. Add up the total.
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Allocate a number of Loot to each Duckventurer. This does not have to be equivalent to die rolls, just a proportion of the total. For instance, if you have 3 LootCounter dice that rolled a 5, a 1 and a 6, for a total of 12, you could allocate 4 to one Duckventurer and 8 to another. NO 4's were rolled! You don't have to be fair and equal, and not every Duckventurer will always get Loot out of a Room. It's up to where each Duckventurer is when it comes to Ranks, who needs to draw Funkards, and who drank all the Mountain Dew.
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That's it. Check out Duckventurers to find out how you progress Ranks, and what how to loot a Cleared Room in Quests.
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FunkyDuck
Oooh yeah, do do do the FunkyDuck! Get down and boogie! If I ever manage to Kickstart this insane venture, this would be the perfect die to award for your SUPER-BONUS-ONE-OF-A-KIND-JUST-GIVE-ME-MONEY-ONLY-GOLD-PATRONS specialty DuckDice.
This die allows Duckventurers to activate their Funkards. To use a Feat or Zappy, the following steps are performed (you may need to check the Funkard section to see what Funkards look like - although there is an example to the right). The cost of the Funkard is the opal gemstone on the bottom right of the card.
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IMPORTANT: FUNKARDS THAT ARE ACTIVATED MUST SPEND A FUNKYDUCK, EVEN IF IT DOESN'T HAVE A COST. TRIGGERED AND PASSIVE FUNKARDS DO NOT NEED TO SPEND THE FUNKYDUCK. YOU DON'T NEED TO ROLL THE FUNKYDUCK, JUST DISCARD IT.
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The Duckventurer using the Feat, Item or casting the Zappy rolls a FunkyDuck and adds it to their Peanut Brain. If the result is higher than the cost, the Feat, Item or Zappy is activated successfully.
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The roll of the snazzy FunkyDuck die is added to the Quack/Cost of the Funkard. This is the score that a target's Resist Roll (see below) must match or pass for the target to Resist the effects of the Funkard. Resist Rolls are also used in Combat, but in this instance the Resist Roll is to protect against the scintillating duckergy of a Zappy, the daring agility of a Feat, or whatever the Item does. This section is duplicated from the Combat section, because we can do that on the Interwebs and not cut down any trees -
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RESIST ROLLS
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Whenever a Duckventurer or Beastie tries to boil an enemy in cascading fountains of hot hot magma spewing forth from their wingtips, the target has a chance to Resist. This is automatic and has nothing to do with DuckDice, so don't confuse them! YEAH, YOU! IN THE HAT! Nice hat, by the way, where can I get a hat like that?
<ahem> Maybe use a different colour die for Resist Rolls so you don't muck up your dice pools. So, the rule is -
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If a character is being targeted by a Zappy, its Resist Roll is added to its Peanut Brain (P). Which means that smarter characters have more chance to throw off, or avoid, the effects of a Zappy.
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If a character is being targeted by a Feat, its Resist Roll is added to its Quack (Q). Which means that heftier, more physical characters have more chance to throw off, or avoid, the effects of a Feat.
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If a character is being targeted by an Item, its Resist Roll will be specified on the Funkard. 'Cos Items are just rando.
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Other modifiers from Funkards may be added to the end result, to give a total for a character to Resist an assault. Some Funkards deny a Resist Roll, which is broken and really powerful, like the Zappy we are using as an example (right). This is what Funkards tend to do to the game, so get lots of them. Characters who are unconscious also do not get a Resist Roll, for obvious reasons.
If a character does not get a Resist Roll for whatever reason, they simply count their flat current STAT, whichever is relevant. Duckventurers may choose not to make Resist Rolls, which means the Funkard automatically affects them.
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Clear as mud?
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If the Funkard requires a STAT, like Quack or Peanut Brain, the total number rolled, including the FunkyDuck, is the total STAT that assails the enemy.
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DuckDuckGoose
The dreaded and all-powerful DuckDuckGoose die is the most powerful dice in the game, and has a variety of functions, which allow the Duckventurers to break all the rules. That's why it is powerful. There's a moral there.
The die can -
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Be allocated as you roll on the Room Table each time you enter a Room in the Duckgeon. The Room Table determines which Beasties are waiting for the Duckventurers in the Room, based on the Quest you are playing. The die is removed from the DuckDice pool for your first turn if you use a DuckDuckGoose this way, which means you will only get 5 DuckDice in the first turn if you allocated a DuckDuckGoose to the Room Table. The result rolled on the DuckDuckGoose is either added to, or subtracted from, the Room Table roll.
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Force a re-roll of another DuckDice. This must be played immediately the first DuckDice is rolled.
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Add to, or subtract from, the value of another DuckDice, (dice stacking). This must be played immediately the first DuckDice is rolled.
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Redraw a set of Funkards.
Tough, hey? So what is stopping the Duckventurers throwing these dice in fistfuls, then backing up a truck of them and rolling more? Here's the rub ...
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Each time a DuckDuckGoose die is rolled, Duckthulhu senses a disturbance in the Farce and progresses one step on his Duckthulhu Booster-Wooster. This strengthens Duckthulhu for the final confrontation. Duckthulhu does not progress if the die is cashed, only if it is rolled. So use with care ...​
LootCounter Example
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Two LootCounters are added to the pool of DuckDice for the turn. Plumpy Ducksword strides forward and slaughters a Furry Ghost Mouse, one LootCounter is automatically added to the Loot Counter pool, which is a snazzy chest.
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Pantsy McFrogeater the Duckwiz blasts a Presky Rat-Head with his Frost-O Zappy but the little pest successfully Resists. The turn ends and the second LootCounter is not added to the Loot Counter Pool. Sheepishly, Pantsy stores the die in his Nest of Holding Item for use (maybe) in the future.
Zappy Resist Roll Example
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It's the next turn, and Pantsy McFrogeater the Duckwiz blasts the same infernal Pesky Rat-Head with his Gotcha! Zappy. Ironically, this particular Zappy removes the ability for the Beastie to Resist if the Zappy takes effect.
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Pantsy has a P of 4 and rolls a FunkyDuck for a result of 3, giving a total of 4+3=7. Titchy Chompy Rats aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer, with a P of 3, it rolls its Resist Roll and rolls a 3. 3+3=6 which is not enough to Resist the Zappy. If teh Rat-Head had rolled 4+ he would have Resisted. The Rat-Head has been seized by green fusemist and is now open to Zappies and Feats from the rest of the Duckventurers.
No DuckDice? No Problem ...
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Duckventurers who do ​not gain a DuckDice during a turn may still act, performing ONE of the following FREE Actions, ONCE per turn. Duckventurers CANNOT perform their free Action if they are targeted during the turn, even if they Resist -
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Look - "Hmmm ... that's interesting. I wonder what all those fangs do? Nice kitty ..." Some Quests involve observation to look for clues. The observation can be when the Duckventurer is in base contact with the observable object, or from across the room as long as they have LOS (Line of Sight).
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Interact - like Looking, some Quests involve Duckventurers interacting with an object. For example, opening a door is an interaction. To interact, a Duckventurer must be in base contact, and may result in making some form of test. Disarming a Snare is also an interaction.
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Prepare - some Feats or Zappies require preparation, especially if they are elaborate rituals, require time to prepare. Nominate if a preparation is taking place, the Preparation fails if the Duckventurer is attacked during the Preparation.
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First Aid - if a Duckventurer is immediately adjacent to another Duckventurer, they may administer First Aid, removing any Conditions from the Duckventurer. This is very powerful and useful, because most Conditions suck ass.
Cashing Unused DuckDice
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Some DuckDice may go unused at the end of a turn, and these can be cashed in certain circumstances -
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Funkards with the Gobbly special effect can store DuckDice, which retain their type when stored, and can be added to the DuckDice pool (even taking the total dice over 6) in a subsequent turn.
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You can cash DuckDice to Boost the power of a particular Funkard with the Boosty special effect. These DuckDice become energy powering the Funkard, and are discarded.
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WHERE TO NOW?
There are more rules, which are listed in the handy-to-find section More Rules. If you have never chosen a Duckventurer, you now have a sense of what they are capable of, and can start that now. If you want to find out how to murder-death-kill Beasties (found in the Beastie-ary) in the Duckgeon, there's a whole section, Duckwars Combat. If you want to dive headlong into LOOT AND STUFF AND BITZ, then you need the Funkards section.
If you are ready to enter the Duckgeon, you are going to need to find out how Quests work. There are also mean and nasty Snares which can trap unwary Duckventurers. If you are obsessed by the vibrant history and culture of the Duckingdom (!), check out the Fluffy Duck and Campaigns. Good luck and duck-speed ...
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