Interview: Nate Whittington (Grinning Rat Productions) & Dungeoneering: Catalysts
Rules-lite dungeon crawling with only d6s
I first got in touch with Nate during the Indie Creator Summit. He told me about Dungeoneering (← 50% off link) and his project, Dungeoneering: Catalysts (launches on 2/1). This supplment adds new classes: Alchemist, the Berserker, the Harlequin, the Knight, the Necromancer, and the Sorcerer. Plus 70+ magic items, a bunch of d100 tables for generating dungeons, and a standalone adventure that can act as a prequel to the megadungeon The Nine Tombs of Athal-Kar. Here’s my interview with Nate:
Dungeoneering is quick-and-dirty ttrpg with 4-classes, 4-ability scores, and only uses d6 for dice. It got a heavy focus on being able to quickly game and quickly generate/prepare games. Did I essentially get that right?
Yep, that's exactly right. My goal with Dungeoneering was to make a game that you play when you and your players just want a fun time. All the core rules for how to create a character and what you need to play are on two pages. For the GM, really all you need is a dungeon. You can even use dungeons from other games and with 10 minutes of conversion have a fun time. It's a very lightweight system.
You're funding Dungeoneering: Catalysts on BackerKit. You've added more roles (classes) and random tables in a previous expansion, but this is going to have 6 more roles. Plus, a bunch of other things we'll get to in a moment. Among the new ones, do you have a favorite role that you love to see players bring to the table?
It's hard to choose! I really like the Alchemist because it adds this system for creating potions and poisons that is both dead simple for the player and easy to adjudicate by the GM. I'm also a fan of the Berserker, who's the biggest damage dealer in the game but has to thread the needle on how much damage they can take to get there. I think across the six roles though, there's a lot for players to enjoy and I'm hoping I've covered a little bit of everything. With all the books together, players will have twelve roles to choose from—three for each ability score—each bringing their own thing to the table. Dungeon delves can go VERY different depending on what the party makeup is!
So Catalysts also has some new d100 tables to help generate new dungeons. Do you have any random entries that you're especially proud of, or perhaps a random entry that surprised you when you brought it to the table?
The d100 tables are interesting because they're usually completely free flow when I'm writing them. Meaning I kind of just word-associate until I find something I like. I like things that tickle my brain and go against what is standard. Some of my favorite entries have been on the upcoming Strange Inhabitants table, but specifically “Aran the Slug; wants to buy your teeth” is just such a little weirdo that will absolutely throw your dungeon session for a loop. Is he an actual slug? Why does he want teeth? Why, specifically, your teeth? If I can give something a GM reads and thinks "that's weird as hell and I would never think to do that" then I think I've done my job.
And last but not least, there's also a full adventure in here called The Starlit Spire. This adventure serves as a prologue to your megadungeon (The Nine Tombs of Athal-Kar) though? Tell me about this adventure and tell me about the megadungeon?
So in 2021 I wrote NToAK as a part of the original Kickstarter's stretch goals. I ended up getting a little over my head so the end result wasn't as strong as I wanted it to be, so I "remastered" it in 2022. At least that was the goal, I ended up just rewriting the entire thing and keeping pretty much only Athal-Kar himself. He's essentially this quasi-godlich who ruined everything for everyone, creating the setting called the Barren Lands. He himself inhabits the Underworld and the megadungeon largely explores that, but I wanted to do a bit of writing for stuff on the surface. What came out of it was TSS, which has to do with the remnants of a cult trying to untangle the mess they made by accidentally unleashing some horrible monster from space. The dungeon also has a few other factions in the form of corrupted giant ants and a crew of metal men trying to fix their spaceship to skip all this madness and just leave. It should be fun!
It looks like you've previously done 2 Kickstarter campaigns, but are trying out BackerKit for this crowdfunding effort. For the creators reading this, what should they know about that change?
Honestly, I just wanted to see how it went. I haven’t had any bad experiences with Kickstarter, but having your crowdfunding, marketing, pledge management, and fulfillment all funneling through one platform is definitely a time saver. I do really like the community features they’ve been introducing in BackerKit—it feels like it’ll work better for keeping backers engaged and will allow for some really cool mid-launch activities like polls and contests that will be reflected in the books themselves.
Thanks for sharing so much! Anything that I didn't ask that you wish I did? Please share if there's something you gotta tell folks!
I don’t have a huge social media presence so I’ll just say that if you look up Grinning Rat Publications you’ll probably my Instagram and website. But I’ve been doing a lot more writing on Substack lately (grinningrat.substack.com) not just about Dungeoneering but about TTRPGS in general. By the time this interview goes live, I should probably have 4-5 articles there and I would highly recommend checking out the one about sourcing stock art. I did a lot of research on how to find excellent free art to help your project stand out. Of course you can check out the other articles as well and, hopefully, subscribe to get the weekly newsletter directly in your inbox. That’s about it from me. Thanks for having me on, Stefan! I really appreciate it and it was fun answering these questions.
For those interested in Dungeoneering, click here to arrive at the itch.io store with a 50% code for all purchases.
Next week we’ll start with a series of interviews about new DCC project, but what did y’all think of Dungeoneering? I know I really want to check out that megadungeon!
What else is going on?
Murder Hobo Con 4 (Feb 10th, online)
I’m running the only DCC game on the schedule. Seats are still open!
The Elixir of Kosomodes
Interview coming next week!
Joseph Goodman on Rules As Written
Check it out on YouTube!