Welcome to Dagger Falls

If you're reading this, it's because you've followed the link to the Dagger Fall's event for the Circle of Swords convention or some other related link. D&D Deathmatch in Dagger Falls is going to be a chance for miniature gamers to try some small scale combat in a pretty realistic tabletop setting and it's a great opportunity for D&D players to test drive some races, classes, feats and spells in dangerous combat with fellow gamers.

If you've played online deathmatches where different characters of different abilities try to climb to the top of the points list, this event will be similar, but using full 3.5 D&D rules. In many online forums or gaming groups, there are discussions as to which class is the most dangerous or survivable. Let's give them a test drive.

Characters will be level eight. I'll be pre-building about 20 characters to be as effective as possible. The exceptions are spells that allow the PCs to fly above or leave the gaming area or become invisible indefinitely. Each character, just by the nature of D&D, is going to have certain weaknesses that several other characters can exploit with good tactics and intelligent manuevering.

There will be some NPC creatures lurking in some of the buildings, so grabbing a sniper spot may be more dangerous than just the threat of getting cornered in a room by a Barbarian.

If a PC dies, they will miss one round of action, then restart fresh on a random starting point (determined by dice roll). There is no chance that you'll die in the first round and miss out on 3.5 more hours of action.

Point System:

  1. Finishing off another active PC gives you 30 points.
  2. Finishing off a PC that is completely helpless gives you 15 points.
  3. Rendering a PC helpless (via Hold Person or similar) gives you 15 points if that PC is eliminated while helpless.
  4. Killing an NPC Creature is worth 20 points.
  5. Entering each building on the map is worth 45 points.
  6. Reaching the Bridge between the two Mage Towers, or any building's flat roof surface is 10 points one time only.
  7. If your player makes a successful ranged attack or ranged spell in a given round it's worth 5 points. (max 5/round)
  8. If your player makes a successful melee attack that deals damage in a round it's worth 5 points PER ATTACK.
  9. If your player dies, you take a penalty of -10 points and lose your next round of actions.
  10. This is every player for themselves. PCs may be ganged up on, but only the final attack gets the points. Actively teaming with another player will result in warnings, penalties, or the rest of the table joining forces against the violators. Get into the spirit of the match and see how your PC fends for himself.

You've probably looked at those rules and said to yourself, "The rules are encouraging active movement and combat throughout the town."

You'd be 100% correct.

A lot of times, at conventions, you may not know what games to play or when. This is the type of game you can play between morning and evening events, to start or finish your Saturday, or play all day to test drive 3 different types of PC.

You should come out of this game with an improved understanding of some elements of D&D combat such as grappling, tripping, disarming, various spells, balancing, bullrushing, climbing, flatfootedness, improved feinting, and so forth. Hopefully, the PCs inspire ideas for new campaign PCs and inspire fighting styles as well as illustrating class roles in D&D.

Coming into the game, it helps if a player has at least a basic understanding of the D&D 3.5 rules as you'll simply survive longer and be less frustrated. Some of the characters will be simpler to play than others though, so I can work with players to give them a PC that's in their skill range to use well.

Above and below are some photographs of the Dagger Falls tabletop custom built with Hirst Art molds and dental plaster.