DELVE: Reforged - Dev Log #1 - Strike The Earth

From our hale and cosy homes in the Red Mountain, we brave few got the foolish notion to uproot our lives and try to forge a new destiny for ourselves.

We would travel to a new land and strike the earth!

We would dig a stronghold to rival The Iron City. We would make a utopia for all dwarves.

It turns out that it is much easier said than done.

-- Overseer Brodwin Copperear

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Can you believe it's been more than 5 years since DELVE came out? Time has been flying in!

In case you haven't seen the announcement anywhere else, I am starting work on the sort-of-sequel to DELVE, DELVE: Reforged.

This solo - and multiplayer! - map drawing RPG is my love letter to games like Rimworld, Dungeon Keeper, Towns, and of course, Dwarf Fortress. Although I still haven't learned how to play DF I do enjoy the stories people create out of it. In particular, I love the Youtuber Kruggsmash's Dwarf Fortress stories and in a really cool twist of fate, he is the artist for this epic project! Most of the art will be licensed from his extensive gallery of dwarves and scenes but we will also be creating some new art for the book as soon as we work out what we want/ need.

So, first off, what is DELVE: Reforged? Why am I making it?

The original DELVE was my first proper commercial project -- I had released a generic RPG system called Those Who Play back in 2014/15 but let's not dwell on that -- and it was made for Kickstarter's Zinequest which had a number of limitations. It had to be single colour and it had to be a staplebound zine which meant I was stuck at 60 pages as a hard limit because of the print company I was using. And yes, limitation forces creativity and I'm pleased with how DELVE came out but I want to do more with it.

DELVE: Reforged aims to take the stronghold making fun of the original game and expand upon it in every aspect. More Rooms to build, Units to hire, Technology Trees, Magic, Diplomacy, More variety in Monsters and their tactics, more Relics, Monstrosities, Biomes. More challenge, more story, more... more.

Of course, I want to do this without making something with a learning curve like a brick wall.

So to accomplish that, DELVE: Reforged is going to have a lot of options for players and a sort of rogue-lite progression system which we'll dive into in a moment.

My goal for these Dev Logs is to show my thinking and keep you lovely lot in the loop as I bash the vast cloud of thoughts and concepts into an actual book. These early dev logs will mostly focus on the design and concepting phase. We'll talk about what I want to do and my rough ideas of how to do it.

Later dev logs we'll dive into specific mechanics and talk about why they're in the game and how they transformed as development progressed.

For now though, lets have a look at the cloud of thoughts and talk about the bits and pieces I've already been working on.

The Thought Cloud

As I said above, I love DELVE but I've been growing increasingly frustrated with it over recent years. Thanks to some issues with the layout software, I can't actually edit DELVE in any meaningful way without ripping it to pieces and starting again. Any attempt to edit text causes it to fold in on itself like a disturbed sourdough-starter.

So, if I have to start from scratch, I want to make the version of DELVE that has been growing in the back of my mind since 2020. The tabletop equivalent of Dwarf Fortress but with complexity options for those who want a full on simulation and those who just want a fun map drawing game.

To that end, my wants for DELVE: Reforged are:

• More Options

• Tutorial/ Onboarding Hold

• Progression

• Simplified Options for Mechanics

• More Detailed Holds

• Story Creation

• Greater Enemy Variation

Let's tackle the "Simplified Options" as it isn't something I've seen in other games that I can recall.

Let's take the new Digging mechanic as an example because I've got the concept down on paper already. Don't worry if you can't fully follow it. This is rambling and ugly and will be cut into shape and polished by the time you have to read it properly.

“You can’t have an underground fortress without learning how to dig. That’s why everyone says miners are the most important dwarves in the whole fort. What do you mean they don’t say that?!” – Lomni Copperthumb

As you play DELVE: Reforged you will very quickly find that you need to expand your fortress deeper into the earth in order to accommodate your dwarves and to discover the riches you seek. This expansion is done by digging out adjacent Squares on your map but hold on a second, it ain’t always that easy!

Digging is a science and it gets harder and harder the deeper you get. Thankfully the Miner’s Guild have been able to simplify all their calculations down into a simple Dig Value for each Square.

On its own, pretty meaningless, but the Miner’s Guild have also taken to recording the fortresses’ ability to break tough stone and support their excavations in the form of a numerical Dig Strength.

As long as the fortresses’ Dig Strength is higher than a Square’s Dig Value, you can open up that Square and find out what’s inside!

How do you get Dig Strength? That’s simple! At first you build a Mining Camp (pg XX) and hire some Miners (pg XX) to work in it. That’ll keep you going for quite a while. Once the Dig Values get too high for Miners alone to handle, you’ll have started to discover Mining Explosives, Geomancy, Drills, and other advancements that improve your fortresses’ Dig Strength.

How do you know a Square’s Dig Value? Another great question! The Miner’s Guild does a bunch of assessments of the rock they can see and performs some equations and brings centuries worth of knowledge and experience to determine the value but in gameplay terms, you Draw a Card for any adjacent un-explored Squares and then multiply the Card’s Value by the Depth Modifier - which is listed below.

To keep things simple, Depths 0 to 4 have a Modifier of 0 so you don’t have to worry about Dig Values until you reach the dreaded Depth 5.

Impassable Squares

There is one threat when digging that is always an issue: Impassable Squares. While Depth 0 to 4 have no real Dig Value issues, if you Draw the Ace of ♠ for a Square then it is deemed Impassable and cannot be Explored or dug out by conventional means.

Impassable Squares might get broken by certain other things like Ancient Monstrosities or Relics or even some Mining Hazards but the Miner’s Guild won’t try and tackle Impassable Squares. This could be due to the density of the stone, that it is a support for another part of the fortress, or some other reason from a list as long as my grandmother’s beard.

Impassable Squares are a problem no matter the Depth, not just for Depth 0 to 4 so remember:

Ace of ♠ for the Dig Value means You Shall Not Pass!

Digging Sequence

Let’s break the Digging process down.

1) You’ve Explored a Square and need to determine the adjacent unexplored Squares’ Dig Values

2) You Draw a Card for each adjacent Square and multiply the Card’s Value by the Depth’s Modifier.

• At Depth 0 to 4 the result will always be 0 unless it is Impassable (Ace of ♠)

• At Depth 5 to 9 the modifier is 1 so the result is the same as the Card’s Value

2b) If the Card is the Ace of ♠ then the Square is deemed Impassable and cannot be Explored

3) If you choose to Explore a Square, you must check your Dig Strength. If it is Higher than the Square’s Dig Value then you may Explore it

4) Deal with whatever you uncovered in that Square

• This may cause some of your Miners to Die/ Retire/ or otherwise leave the Hold. Each Result will tell you what happens to your Miners if they are affected. If they are not mentioned, you may assume they are safe.

5) Would you look at that, you’ve got an adjacent Square whose Dig Value you need to determine! You can leave it blank until you want to know and can determine the Dig Value of as many Squares per turn as you like. Just go back to Step 1 and follow this process again.

Simplified Digging

For those looking for a more traditional DELVE experience, you may choose to use the Simplified Digging mechanics.

To Simplify this mechanic, we drop the Dig Value and Dig Strength systems and are only really concerned with Impassable Squares and Hazards.

For Simplified Digging, all you need to do is Draw a Card for adjacent unexplored Squares and if you get a ♠ Face Card then that Square is considered Impassable.

If this would leave you with no way to progress, then ignore any ♠ Face Cards drawn until you are in a position to progress again. E.g. If all of the Squares on a Row have been deemed Impassable, the last Square in the Row cannot be deemed Impassable.

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As you can see, the two mechanics are similar but provide quite different gameplay experiences.

The main version requires you to consider your Hold's Dig Strength which is improved by building Mining Camps, hiring Miners, researching Drills and other Technology or by utilising geomancy and such.

The simplified version lets you be freer with what Squares you dig out and explore while still throwing the occassional roadblock in the way.

The goal with both is to prevent your strongholds from expanding neatly along the entirety of each Row before descending to the lower, more dangerous depths. Hopefully this mechanic will create more unusual shapes that makes Flooding even more dangerous than before.

Story

This aspect is still very much in the Thought Cloud but I have been exploring the idea in various ways.

In a general sense, I want DELVE: Reforged to give more opportunities to create the story of your Hold. More guidance and more generated events that expand beyond just what you find and fight.

One way I want to do this is by having Rooms that provide purely narrative functions like a Herald which lets you create a coat of arms for your Hold or a Clothier which prompts you to think of your dwarves' fashion.

I want to include Diplomacy with humans, elves, shirelings, kobolds, and other factions and have been toying around with the idea of providing some sort of Overworld generator or a pre-made Hex Map with different biomes giving different starting conditions. Maybe you could set up on a volcano and get more ♦ but all Liquid discoveries are now magma and enemies are usually fireproof. Sorry Flamethrower Dwarves!

I've also been considering tables of Hold Events. Little story beats that happen on certain triggers that could lead to things like an influx of new settlers, a disease outbreak, a high profile marriage, etc.

Progression

A constant criticism of DELVE was that it threw too much at the player right off the bat and I can understand that.

In this version, I'm taking inspiration from rogue-lite videogames and giving players a small selection of Rooms and Units at the start and then letting you unlock the rest through various conditions.

But rather than force you to go back to the start and re-discover everything, I want to include a way for future holds to have some if not all of the unlocked Rooms, Units, and Technologies. That way experienced players can get their favourite stuff built early while newer players don't have to worry about what to do next.

... Actually, that is another point towards an Overworld as you could populate the map with Holds that have failed or have gotten to the point that you want to split off and try something new...

Design Pillars

There is a concept in game design called "design pillars". These are the key things you design your game around. It could be "Smooth, Fast Movement", "Satisfying Gunplay", "Exploration", "Cosy Aesthetic".

Fun is not a design pillar because, assumedly, every game is meant to be fun in one sense or the other.

For DELVE: Reforged these pillars are:

Creativity and Simulation

Creativity is the most important pillar for any of the DELVE games. Over the past 5 years, I've been incredibly happy to see just how differently people take the same building blocks. With this sequel, I want to provide even more outlets for creativity by providing more building blocks for the Hold, more story opportunities about your dwarves, and more prompts to get creative with things like coats of arms, fashion, heroic tales, songs, artefacts, and even monsters!

Simulation is the other key pillar and it is an important one for me. DELVE isn't a strategy game, it isn't carefully balanced, it aims to provide a somewhat believable simulation of dwarves living underground. Some tactics are incredibly powerful in the right combination. A drawbridge over an impassable gap is bloody hard to deal with if you're a group of goblins with three spears and a loincloth between you.

In this sequel, I want to ensure that thinking ahead and utilising your environment well creates legendary defences and interesting features. However, you may find that enemies are quite a bit smarter in this new book...

Supporting Development

DELVE: Reforged is a big project. I want to do it justice and let it be as big as it needs to be and with that said, I'm already looking at 300+ pages of stuff for you to dig into. But that ain't cheap and it ain't gonna happen quickly.

I fully expect that we'll be ready to release sometime in late 2027 or early 2028.

BUT!

You don't have to wait that long.

As I said earlier, I want to create a Tutorial Hold and give players more stuff as they progress which means, once the main mechanics are in place, we can do an early access similar to how the videogame industry does it.

Patreon supporters will get access to Dev Logs and will get to vote in any polls I make and will get access to a special itch.io project where I will upload playable chunks of the game as and when they become available.

The support of patrons will help me to pay for the art, editing, and maybe even the printing of the book if we're really fortunate! So spread the word. Tell your friends and loved ones. Convince your GMs it'll be good for their world building (it will) and share this first free Dev Log wherever you can!

And let me know in the comments what you'd love to see in DELVE: Reforged!