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Thanks Chuck,

You’re right about the aesthetic feeling a bit too clean.
I’ve been experimenting with ways to give the UI more age, texture, and depth without sacrificing readability, but nothing has quite landed yet,
I pushed a lot of those experiments back so I could keep the game moving, but this kind of feedback helps confirm that it’s worth revisiting.

I’m also weighing whether the next step is to keep pushing the current framework or move the project into a proper graphics engine where I can build the kind of layered, storied look the game should be leaning towards,
Your perspective as someone outside this genre attempting to play this type of game actually helps a lot , as you are seeing it the way many new players will, and that’s exactly the kind of feedback that I am after.

Thanks again for the thoughtful feedback. It really does help shape where this goes next and where it ends up in the long term.

Thank you for taking the time to feedback and this is great to hear,

Player feedback led to the implementation of that feature, So I'm happy its landing.

Dungeons & Dynasties is a free, browser-based management sim: think Football Manager, but you run an adventuring guild instead of a football club. 

You recruit heroes from the tavern, develop them in the training yard, set their combat tactics, and climb a six-tier league from the Backwater to the Mythic Circle, building a dynasty of heroes across the years. Permadeath is real, and every season is recorded as your guild's own story.

It's made by one person, runs in the browser (no download, saves to your browser), and a full first session takes about 15-20 minutes.

Dungeons & Dynasties by Bretticus82

What I'd love feedback on specifically:

1. The first 10 minutes. Did the onboarding make the core loop clear (advance time → face a Trial → develop your heroes between them)? Where did you feel lost?
2. Difficulty feel. The early divisions, too punishing, too easy, or about right? Did any dungeon feel unfair?
3. Combat. You don't click attacks, you set "gambit" rules and watch it play out. Does that feel engaging, or too hands-off?
4. Do you care about your heroes? Did any hero's story, a rivalry, a death, a comeback, actually land for you?
5. Anything confusing or hard to read in the UI.

Brutal honesty very welcome, I'd rather hear what didn't click than what did.

Thank you for playing.

Hey,

This is genuinely one of the best pieces of feedback I've had, thank you. You clearly gave it real time and thought, and that kind of detail is worth its weight in gold to me because I can't see any of this from my side.
You've made the game better with a single message, so honestly, thank you.

The good news first: I went through every one of your points in the code, and almost nothing is actually broken, but you found a lot of places where the game just wasn't telling you how it worked.
That's on me, and it's exactly the sort of thing I'd never notice myself. Here's where each one landed, all fixed in the next update (1.6):

Stress & fatigue (1)
Both work, but slowly on purpose. Fatigue especially is the stubborn one, so a single day barely moves it and it looks stuck.
"Recover" does speed it up a lot (a badly frayed hero is fresh again in about two weeks), and the Infirmary speeds it for everyone.
I've added a proper explainer so it no longer looks broken.

Hero stats, development, potential vs ability (2, 3, 4)
These were the big gap, and your questions were spot on.
Short version: Ability is how good a hero is now, Potential is their ceiling.
Train pushes toward the ceiling, Hone sharpens their key skills even at the top.
And your best question, "if everyone's maxed, how do I beat stronger enemies?", the honest answer is you don't out-grind, you out-recruit: bring in and raise heroes with higher ceilings, and promote your youth.
A dynasty climbs on fresh blood. I've written all of this into a new "Growing a Hero" section.

Gambits and the ability that never fired (5, 6)
These are the same system, and you basically diagnosed it yourself. Heroes fight on a priority list of rules, read top to bottom.
The lightning bolt shows "ready" when it's off cooldown, but a rule still has to call it, and if an "attack" rule with an "always" condition sits above it, the hero attacks every turn and the ability never gets a look-in. Almost certainly what you saw once you started reordering.
The new "Gambits & Abilities" section explains it, keep the ability rule near the top and it'll fire.

It's actually got me thinking. Right now every rule shares one list, which is simple but it's also why you can accidentally bury an ability under an "always attack". I've been toying with splitting a hero's rules into what they do by default versus how they react (like a healer always dropping everything to save someone who's dying), so the important reactions can never get starved by a lower rule. I held back originally because there's already a fair bit to take in, but I'm a fan of that kind of depth myself, so if that sounds useful rather than fiddly, I'd genuinely like to know. It's 100% something I can build.

And point 7, the one you were completely right about.
Being forced into a grave-peril Trial with only reserves and made to watch them get torn apart is genuinely bad, and there was no out. So I built one: you can now Withdraw from a Trial before it starts. You forfeit the fixture, take the loss and a small knock to your name, but not one hero sets foot in the dungeon. Nobody dies. Protecting the guild is now a real choice against chasing the points, which is exactly how it should be.

As for "is it Tzeentch's will", ha, no, the D&D version is probably closer in this instance to a DM giving the players the lore but none of the worldbuilding that helps make it make sense, and that's what most of this was. Purely my fault for coding the intent and forgetting to tell the player.

All three explainers live in a new in-game Compendium (Growing a Hero, Rest & Recovery, Gambits & Abilities), so when 1.6 lands you'll be able to read exactly where your feedback went. Thank you again, seriously, this is the kind of message that makes the whole thing better, and it means a lot that you cared enough to write it out like this.
1.6 is being tested now in a developer server so I just need to see that everything is working as expected across all the system, But I should be able to drop that update in the next couple of days, I've made some changes to combat to try to make it not always as brutal as it can be due to how some of the procedural generation works for delves.

Very much appreciated!

Hey esiecia,

Right now the How to Play guide on the dashboard is all there is, but you've prompted me to do something better. Rather than a wiki (which would go out of date the moment I patch anything), I'm building a proper in-game Archive: a reference section that reads straight from the game's own data, so it's always accurate. Races, classes, what each of the 30 attributes actually does, traits, party synergies, dungeon conditions, and so on. There's a decent chance a Bestiary ends up in there too, filling itself in as you meet new monsters.

To make sure I build the useful bits first rather than guessing, could I pick your brain?

1. What were you actually trying to find out when you went looking for a wiki?
Even "I was staring at a hero's stats and had no idea what half of them meant" is really useful.

2. Which of these feel murky? (just list the numbers if you want)

1. The 30 hero attributes, what each one actually does
2. Traits, and whether they matter mechanically
3. Party synergies, how you form them
4. Gambits / combat tactics
5. Dungeon danger levels and conditions
6. The league, promotion, relegation, how points work
7. Recruiting and poaching from rival guilds
8. Patrons and their mandates
9. Something else entirely

3. Was there anything you expected the game to explain, and it just... didn't? Those are the ones I most want to hear about.

Whatever you flag I'll look at first and it'll land in the live build rather than sitting on a wiki somewhere.
Cheers for the ask here, this is exactly the sort of thing I'd never spot from the inside.

Hi esiecia,

Good news, I just pushed an update that makes this easy. Here's how to carry your guild across:

On the original PC: open ⚙ Settings → "Back up save". It downloads a small save file. Copy that file to your other PC.

On your other PC: open the game and, on the opening screen (the closed ledger), click "Continue from a backup file" at the bottom, then pick the save file you copied over. Your dynasty will load right up. 

Just make sure both are running the latest version. One heads-up: saves live in the browser on each device, so it's always worth keeping a backup file, that's your insurance if a browser cache ever gets cleared. Enjoy, and thanks for playing!

If I ever port this to Steam ( A very long term plan then Cloud support would be a given) for Itch if this ends up having a lot more players I'd set up a small server but currently I'm still trying to build this out and see if I can get an active player base so hopefully the solution above helps you in the here and now.

Thanks for the report!

Since I'm able to play the browser version myself and there have been other successful plays today, it doesn't look like the upload is missing on my end.

Could you let me know:

• The URL you're visiting
• If possible, a screenshot of the page showing the "No game uploaded" message

Also, could you try opening the page in a private/incognito window or a different browser to see if the issue persists?

With that information I'll see if I can reproduce the problem.

Awesome Little game!
Love the vibrancy!

Fantastic Game and story beats!
Old School in the best possible way

I’ve just released Dungeon & Dynasties, a fantasy management sim where you take on the role of a guildmaster competing in a seasonal league of dungeon delves. Instead of controlling heroes directly, you build a roster, develop talent, manage staff, navigate patron demands, and guide your guild through years of triumphs and tragedies.

The game blends elements of Football Manager, XCOM‑style risk, and classic fantasy adventuring. Delves act as “fixtures” in a league structure, and every season brings new challenges, rival guilds, injuries, retirements, and the chance to build a dynasty that lasts generations.

If you enjoy long‑form progression, emergent storytelling, and the feeling of running an organisation rather than a single hero, this might be up your alley.

Link to the game: https://bretticus82.itch.io/dungeons-and-dynasties 
I’d love to hear what kind of guilds people end up building, and what stories emerge from your seasons. Thanks for taking the time to read.