Lately I’ve been playing a nifty little dungeon-crawling game called Four Against Darkness. Some might call it a board game instead of an RPG, but whatever it is, it’s a solo game designed for one player to delve into a randomly-generated, old-school style dungeon — using only a pencil, paper, and a few d6 dice. I’ve been enjoying it, but I won’t get into the details here (stay tuned for an actual play / review post). Instead, I just wanted to share the 4AD Game Board I’ve created for use with Four Against Darkness — in both 20×28 and 30×42 sized grid-flavors!

4AD Game Board

As I went to start up my first play session, I found myself juggling three different pocketmods (mini-booklets, which come with the rules download) for character sheets, room generators, and other reference tables, in addition to my pad of graph paper, mechanical pencil, and eraser (you’re definitely going to need a dedicated eraser!), so I thought I could consolidate the recommended 20×28 grid size along with my character sheets, and still have room for jotting down the encounters as well. I sketched it out on my graph paper and played my first game that way.

I called it a success, mocked it up in PhotoShop and shared it out on the LoneWolf G+ Group for feedback. The main request was a larger grid size, so I rolled up a 30×42 (same aspect ratio) grid, and squeezed it onto the layout. Whichever flavor you prefer, check them out in the pics, and grab the download below. It’s laid out for 8.5″ x 11″, Letter-size paper with a half inch margin, so you may be able to scale it up for more room if your printer allows smaller margins or borderless printing. I haven’t tried A4 size paper, so let me know if you have any issues with that format.

4AD Game Board — In 20×28 or 30×42 flavor!

Here’s an overview of what you get. There’s also 10 experience point “bubbles” in the grid, if you prefer to use those for encounter tracking.

Here’s a close-up of the character sheet layout.

I hope you enjoy, and I look forward to improving upon it with your suggestions! I’ve asked the publisher for permission The publisher has given me permission to place it up on DriveThruRPG, so stay tuned for that as well grab it there as a PWYW product, if you prefer (reviews and feedback appreciated). Here’s the downloads — happy dungeon delving!

Download the 20×28 4AD Game Board Download the 30×42 4AD Game Board

Change Log:

• v1.0 – 2017.11.22: Initial release
• v1.1 – 2017.12.02: Added xp bubbles to track Minions slain and Boss/Weird monsters encountered.

4AD Game Board, ready to go — What adventure will unfold on this empty canvas?!