Deep Delve

The Downfall of a Dwarven Mine

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Excerpt from ‘The Song of Stone and Steel’:  

         Through caverns wide, through tunnels long,
         We carve the way with might and song.
         The pick, the forge, the sweat, the strain,
         We work the stone, we bear the pain.

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Deep beneath the mountains, a dwarven mine takes shape—its halls echo with the sounds of digging, its walls whisper of forgotten secrets. In this diceless, GM-less, cooperative map-drawing game, you and your friends will chart the rise (and fall) of a great dwarven hold. Together, you will expand its halls, fortify its defenses, uncover buried mysteries, and face the dangers lurking in the dark. 

Designed for 3-5 players and taking roughly 3 hours to play, this game is your chance to forge new dwarven lore. You’ll play as dwarven clans across many eras, from founding the mine and establishing its first great hall to carving ever-deeper tunnels and halls—until fate takes its course. 

The A5 booklet is easy to print, and I’ve kept the rules condensed for quick and easy play—after all, this is about digging a mine, not reading a tome. I created it as a prologue to The One Ring 2e RPG, setting the stage for future tales and immersing my friends early in a gritty, yet thrilling world. 

Will your mine flourish or fall to ruin under the weight of greed and shadow? The tale is yours to tell—yours and the other clans. So dig deep and stay safe. May your deeds be sung about for ages to come.

Licensing: This game is my own work and released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.

Change Log: v2.0, now with incentive to go deeper, easier influence rules and typo corrections. 

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Note: After completing this game and checking its searchability, I discovered Delve by Anna Blackwell—a solo map-drawing game with a similar theme. I wasn’t aware of it during development (but clearly, great minds think alike!), and my game came about independently, sparked by some joking around in my weekly TTRPG group. I haven’t played or read Delve myself, but it looks like a fantastic experience in its own right, complete with a combat system and beautiful artwork. If you enjoy games like this, Delve is probably well worth checking out! I know I definitly will.