Indie RPG Book Club Meeting – Donjon by Clinton Nixon [07/07/2026]

For this book club meeting, the Indie RPG Club is going over Donjon by Clintin Nixon! Check out a bit about Donjon below.

Donjon is an indie RPG from Clinton R Nixon that reimagines old-school dungeon crawling with a focus on player creativity and collaborative storytelling.

Rather than relying on pre-defined lists of spells, skills, and equipment, players define their character’s abilities on the fly—from “Fight With Sword” to “Breathing Fire” and can establish facts about the world through successful rolls. The core mechanic uses pools of d20s in opposed rolls, where the highest die wins and each success lets the player either add a fact to the story or boost a future roll.

There are no spell lists; magic users decide effects based on “magic words” they possess, and item management is abstracted through Wealth and Provisions scores. Combat is resolved in “flurries” with a detailed initiative system, but death only occurs when a player character is purposefully finished off. The game’s humor and eccentric attribute names (like Virility and Cerebrality) give it a distinctive and fun character.