OSR Commentary On The Gamefound Project 'Down We Go'

 

Tony Vasinda contacted me about promoting 'Down We Go' a really simple not so much a retroclone as a one rule set of rules. Very simplistic & self contained; 

"Down We Go captures the heart of Old School tabletop RPG flavor with simple core rules. This globally-developed game includes procedures, adventures, hexcrawls, and a new core setting. Venture to Infinopolis a twisting city that hungers for gold, jewels, and blood to keep it running. So grab a torch, grab a blade, and seek your fortune, as Down We Go."
Looks interesting Tony but what system is this game? Well according to Tony; "OSR D20+Role" "Roles fuse stats, class, and skill into 4 archetypes that you can specialize in as you level up and mix and match. All the core rules fit on 1 a5 page in the playtest materials"

The artwork looks very good and the concepts are certainly OSR. This is a game that straddles the fanzine game line. And I do like a lot of the concepts here. The fact that its completely independant is very hot at the moment. Can the game be funded is the real question here. Everything here screams simplistic, easy to use, & beer with pretezels. A sorta of Mork Bork rpg vibe. But will it be enough to sustain the game to funding?! 

The premise certainly sound very well done. The dungeon crawling & infinite aspect works. And with the OSR scene right now hot this might be some folks ticket for an evening's entertainment or possibly as a sustainable campaign. And that's the question I've got. Is the fanzine scene going to keep going?!

A dastardly set of dungeons to get the DM started right out of the gate does sound appealing. 
'But will this be a set of rules that draws & keeps the players coming back to the table? With 'Down We Go ' the replay value might be there. The fighter, thief, cleric, are all 'old school' sterotypes but are they sterotypes that people will want to play in other venues besides Dungeons & Dragons?! There are lots of questions that I've got as a reviewer. The project looks excellent but we'll hold judgement until I've got a review pdf. That being said some of the core concepts of 'Down We Go'seem really solid to the minimuist OSR rules crowd. 
The faction rules, rumors, etc. all smacks of hexcrawls & dungeon exploration so 'Down We Go' seems like a good project to fund for many OSR gamers. 
Decide for yourself, take a look, & get on board with the 'Down We Go' game found project here.