Guidelines for Mage Knight Dungeons solo play

Background
My gaming group developed a way of playing MKD in the fashion of an old style 'dungeon bash' which
plays quite well as a solo game. Monsters are dumb but aggressive once roused. use of various rules
makes the game harder for those who want a greater challenge. rules are as standard MKD except as
noted below (or where you want to change them)

Set up

Pick out a map to represent the first level of the dungeon or construct it from tiles. Decide where the
entrance is. One or more of the remaining possible entrance\exit points will lead to a new area or lower
level. Dice as you reach each one to see if it leads elsewhere. If you reach the last one and no other exit
exists that one will be the exit
Pick a team of hero figures. Four figures with a start value of around 100 points is about reasonable but
these are only guidelines so take what you want. If playing with a small group of players a couple of
heroes each works OK. Usually one combat type and a specialist per player is good. If your party
consists of more than four heroes consider making the token mix tougher or it may not be much of a
challenge.
Do not put any 'wandering monster' tokens, chests or anything else on the map at this point. These will
generate randomly as you explore the map. Select six monster tokens to generate random monsters.
Varying the token mix will help determine how challenging the game should be. Three yellow, two blue
and one red tokens is a good start point for four or five heroes in a well balanced team. For a less
balanced or smaller team replace the red token with a blue or even a yellow. When first trying the game
or teaching it to younger players using all yellow tokens may be enough. As your heroes improve and
gain magic items you will want to make the counter mix 'tougher'.

Exploring

As you enter each 'tile' on the map the contents of each adjacent tile is determined providing a line of
sight from the hero into the tile exists. Dice rolls determine whether there are chests and monsters
present (or artefacts if you have them and want to use them)
Dice roll
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Chests
2 and roll again
2 chests
1 chests
1 chest
Nothing
Nothing
1 chest
1 chest
2 chests
3 chests
4 chests

Monsters
1 token and roll again
2 tokens
2 tokens
1 token
1 token
Nothing
1 token
1 token
2 tokens
2 tokens
3 tokens

Place the chests and monsters randomly. No need to stick to the legal placement restrictions of the rules
unless you want to but always use legal placements first.
Roll to see if any exits from the tile which have doors. Roll one die for each exit. An exit 1 square wide
has a door on a throw of 4, 5 or 6. Two squares wide has doors on a 5 or 6 and a three square space
only on a six. Wider gaps will not have doors. To determine the type of door roll one die. On a 5 or 6 it
will be an iron door otherwise wood.

If artefacts are in use there will be an artefact present on the tile a throw of 12 on two dice if on the first
level. On the second 'level' of the dungeon on 11 or twelve and deeper levels 10 - 12.

Movement
Each turn every hero may activate once and every monster present on the map at the start of the turn
will activate once.
When playing solo heroes may activate in any order. When several players are involved this may lead
to arguments about who goes first so movement should be carried out in order clockwise round the
table. The honour of 'first move can also move one place round each move. When playing with more
than one hero per player we have found it better for each player to move one figure each and then go
round again moving a second figure and so on. this reduces problems of the first player moving all his
figures and blocking the moves of other players.
Monster activations will occur so that each monster is scheduled to move during the move with
activating monsters being spread throughout the turn. Thus if there are four heroes and seven monsters
the sequence will be
Hero - 2 monsters - hero - two monsters - hero - two monsters - hero - 1 monster.
Movement rules are fairly much as the normal rules. We have changed the rules for moving through
another figure slightly. To move through an enemy or a friendly figure in base to base contact with an
enemy costs normal movement plus two points. To move through a friendly figure not in contact with
an enemy costs normal movement plus one point

Monster actions

A monster in base to base contact with a hero will normally attack the hero. If in contact with more than
one hero the target will be chosen at random. If it has sweep it will centre its arc on the chosen hero and
attack all heroes in its frontal arc. Monsters with weapon master will always use that ability.
Demoralised monsters will try to break away and escape. Monsters with regenerate may try to
regenerate. Throw a dice and on a throw of 1, 2 or 3 they will try to regenerate rather than attack.
Monsters not in contact with a hero and with a hero 'in sight' will try to engage. Those without a ranged
attack will move towards the closest hero. If they have sufficient movement left after making contact
they will attack. Those with a ranged attack will move into range and will make an attack if they have
enough movement left.
Monsters who have no hero in sight will move towards the last known position of a hero. If there is only
one route the hero could have followed from that point they will follow it until there is more than one
possible route and then stop. If the monster comes to a closed door it may lose interest and break off the
pursuit. Role one die and pursue on a modified roll of 6+. Add one to the die roll if the hero attacked it
and/or one if it wounded the hero.
If none of these apply but there is fighting on an adjacent tile they will head for the sound of battle.
If none of the above apply they will head for the nearest chest in sight and guard it. If there is no chest
in sight they will stand around looking lost until conditions change.
If a situation comes up where none of these guidelines seem to give a good result do what seems
obvious or decide possible actions and throw dice to decide which will be followed.
Healer monsters. Be very careful about assigning healers to monster parties. They can make life very
difficult unless you can catch them in the open and get rid of them quickly. Healer monsters first
priority will be to heal. if possible they will avoid contact or exposing themselves to ranged fire and will
heal the most damaged monster which they can reach. They will only go into attack mode if there are no
other monsters around.

Experience and gaining levels

Heroes gain experience in a variety of ways.

Killing monsters. Divide the points value of the monster between all the heroes who damaged
it. Round up. Note that a magic user who has magically enhanced an attack to do additional
damage counts as having damaged it.
Healing. When healers are successful and roll the dice to see how many points they heal they
score two points of experience for every point rolled. Thus if they roll a 5 they gain 10
experience. Even if their patient only had 1 click of damage they still get the full amount
Opening chests. If the chest is successfully opened the hero scores experience points equal to
twice the unmodified target number needed to open the chest. If the attempt is unsuccessful
and the trap is triggered the hero gets experience points equal to the target number. Note that if
a six is rolled when checking to see what the trap is there is no trap, no target number and no
experience.

When enough experience is gained the hero increases in level. The amount of additional experience
required to increase level is a multiple of the points value of the hero at fifth level (as printed on the top
of the dial) times the hero's current level. this is additional to the experienced learned to get to that
point. The multipliers are shown below
Current level
Additional experience
Total experience

1
1x
1x

2
2x
3x

3
3x
6x

4
4x
10x

5
5x
15x

6
6x
21x

7
7x
28x

8
8x
36x

For example if the point value is 72 a hero reaching fourth level will have 432 points and will need an
additional 288 for a total of 720 to reach fifth level. Once the hero has reached 5th level further
advances cannot be shown on the dial and a record must be kept. Additional increases do not grant
further increases in ability but allow the figure to take damage and still maintain peak performance.
If hero is killed one quarter of the additional experience needed to advance to the next level is lost. this
may cause the hero to drop a level. Additionally all magic items may be lost. If a monster activates
adjacent to the square in which the hero fell and is not adjacent to another hero the body has been
looted and all items are lost. As an alternative a marker may be used for the items and they may be
recovered from the monster. in this case the monster will try to disengage and escape with the loot.

Magic items

Magic items may be passed between figures at any time they are in base to base contact. A figure may
only use an item which it had in its possession throughout its activation. No item may be used by more
than one figure in the same turn. a figure may not wear/have available more than one item of the same
type or occupying the same location. You cannot wear two suits of armour for instance but you may
wear one ring on each hand. Bonuses to an ability are not additive. Only the highest bonus can be
applied. If a hero has five items giving him a plus one attack his bonus is still plus one. Note that only
one 'colour' ability may be in use in one turn. If a hero has a helm giving toughness and a shield giving
dodge he cannot try to dodge the attack and then claim toughness if he fails.
Optionally if a campaign is getting loaded down with magic items it may be decided that they can break
or fail. Suggestions are

At the end of the game a dice throw is made for every item which has been used. On a score of
2 on two dice the item has broken

Every time the hero scores a double one or a monster scores 12 which would result in the hero
suffering a click of damage and he has magic items in use roll a dice. A score of one means
that a randomly determined item is broken instead

Allow magic items to be repaired at a cost (find a use for that gold). You may also allow magic items to
be purchased (at an exorbitant price) and sold (for a pittance). Potions are one shot items and may be
fairly available (especially healing potions). Other items may be less available. Make up your own list
or have a Google around the MKD sites for lists people have drawn up (also helps to keep the game
interesting if you have a limited selection of chests)
You can also charge for resurrection of dead heros if you don't have a hero available to do it.