Earlier this week I bought a neat little solo drawing rpg called DELVE, and I got to try it finally the other day.
The idea is pretty simple: you are the overseer of a group of dwarves that is searching for a magic crystal underground.
The game is pretty easy to get the hang of and requires very little for materials. All you need is some paper (blank or 1 inch grids each work equally well), a deck of cards, and a pencil. I would recommend grabbing something to act as a token too for representing your units and enemies, but thats optional.
Game play is broken into a pretty streamlined system, that I found really easy to pick up. Basically you:
1: draw a card from your deck. Each suit and each value has a different corresponding result. You check the book to see what happened and then you draw it in the grid you were exploring.
1b: if combat is a result of your draw, resolve your combat.
2: build any buildings you want and have money for. Buildings unlock other mechanics and unit types.
3: buy any units you can afford.
And then, start the cycle again!
Because I am getting my time with the game in tiny chunks while kids are napping, I haven't yet finished a map, so this blog is basically my First Impressions about the game. As you can see, I grabbed a small notebook too, as I wanted to track my turns and my available resources. I think it will also be super handy to have little notes for when my first combat happens.
Now, I'm not much of an artist, please forgive the quality of the drawings. I'm mostly trying to get a feel for the game so I'm not putting much time into drawing each cell at this point and I'm still trying to figure out how best to represent things I build and uncover.
It IS super fun though. It's a really relaxing way to spend a little bit of time, and it does play into some light worldbuilding and get the creative juices flowing. I know it's weird - but I'm kind of excited for this first DELVE game to be a loss - as I can then take my failed Dwarven stronghold created here, and do some light touch-ups before turning it into a proper dungeon setting for my TTRPG game! I always need more ideas for ruins haha.
I ended my first session with a completed first row. Oh, which reminds me - they don't mention it in the rules but, I found it super useful to give my grid values. If you give this game a shot, you might find that you don't need grid values, but I sure have liked mine.
My last two pulls were a Wishing Well and an Abandoned Mine. The Well is something I can spend goods on and will give me either a Good Magic effect or a Bad Magic effect. Bad Magic can be VERY bad, and since I am pretty early in the game, I haven't opted to roll on that table yet. The abandoned mine was just a ton of trade goods that I can spend on units.
I intend to finish this first game up, and then go back and ink the map that results from it. At that time, I'll do a full and proper review of the game once I'm armored with knowledge of how the game plays at each stage.
For now though, my first impression is that this is a really fun and relaxing way to spend a little bit of time, and I highly endorse it. If you're interested in snagging a copy for a paltry 7 dollars, you can get it on blackwellwriter's itch.io page here.
Until next time, happy gaming my friends!
