any adventure / leveling /never ending games?

It sort of feels lika the game Claustrophobia, but there you do not level up. It is stand alone quests, also the game requires a DM. But a quest is easaly played in under 1 hour, and I would say it is easaly one of the best dungencrawler game out there. And maby with an expansion or house rules it will play with level ups.

Its the best game to fitt the bill I know of. And yet miss the bill on some points... =S

By the way there is somthing like 9 quests in the game manual and several extra on the web for easy download.

Try Dungeon Crawl, it is listed on BGG but can be found here also

http://dungeoncrawl.oldscratch.com/

Not really is the best answer, but I haven't played all of them. IF you eliminate the hour time frame then Magic Realm fits to some extent. It's all about how far down the rabbit hole you want to go.... more complexity equals = longer time and you are better off just getting a GM and playing the RPG. And if you get a GM and have that kind of time, you could play Descent with the one expansion that allows campaign play.

Magic Realm is the closest to D&D in my experience and has a lot of strategic play... but it is a bear to learn. You can play the online free version to get the hang of it, but it's still a bear. Once you know what you are doing, it could handle an hour's play and feel compelling, but the set up and tear down time makes for better play online.

If there were a board game that played much like a computer Rpg, like Diablo, where you can explore, quest, fight, etc.... the usual. But there were no caps on leveling, and if you wanted to play for an hour, each player could put their stuff in envelopes or whatever, and continue from there the next day, keeping levels, cards etc. I'm not sure how to make the badies continue to get stronger, but maybe something like:

Each enemy card has several level stats on it, (1,5,10)(yellow, blue, red) and there would be an event/time line that as the game goes one, determines which level the enemies play on, or even when the players reach a certain level.

Expansions could add more weapons, quests, and of course enemies. But the idea would be to be able to play a endless game with the BASE game.

Just an idea. Does it sound like too much and people would rather play Diablo or something?

I'm actually developing a game along this line. It's a cooperative game where you explore a planet and set up a colony in preparation for colonists to come. Each character has a hero type character that gains experience through actions and at the end of a game you can buy equipment to enhance your character. It's like a mash between Hero Quest, Settlers of Catan, and the PC game Civilization: Colonization.

(Also looking for a team for this project as well)

My game (planning stage) is called "Path of Shadow" (working title) and is based on you being a Ninja.
AS a Ninja you can choose which school you prefer, each one having something more unique based on individual playstyle.

The cards you would purchase are "mission packs" and are always somethign different.
The game is played on hex boards that connect based on the mission pack itself.
Your Ninja can gather gear and develop and learn new techniques to accomplish each mission.

All of this is Card based primarilly and the coolest part is that Im trying to design it as single player and up with no GM of course. All cards dictate enemies, boss stats, mission info, gear, your abilities and so forth.

I apologize for being in the planning stage here only, however it DID fit the description of a type of game you are looking for.

(Let me now if you want more info)

Ninja game, so cool! There is so few ninja games out there and I like ninjas so much.

I have a couple of ninja game in my design list. The main problem is that the nature of the ninja makes it hard to implement in a board game. In a competitive game, that probably means that the ninja needs to be hidden from other players. In cooperative game, it means that there must be a good AI to manage the bad guys.

In your case, the ninja missions are actually abstracted. So there is no need to know the details of the mission. You only want to know the type of missions and if you succeed. So it might be easier to implement. this way.

I've designed an RPG/adventure type board game that might fit what you're looking for, however, it does require a Game Master. The game can be played without limit; the rules are highly modifiable. I've played this game to some extent with my friends. It still might have some flaws that need to be worked out, but the rules are pretty much complete. I have written down several quests, and the GM can simply invent quests on the spot if necessary. This game incorporates ideas from many well-known RPGs, including D&D. I suppose it would be theoretically possible to play without a GM, but some rules would have to be added to moderate gameplay. If not, however, the GM can still play the game, and another player can be sort of a Vice GM and call the shots for the main GM, who wouldn't be able to do so for himself. This game does utilize an XP/leveling system.

Hope this helps!

What if the character advancement was not experience based, but luck based. I am making the assumption that abilities are not improved by level, but by usage. the more advanced the skill the harder it is to improve.

E.g. you explore dungeon x and and use your skill, after finishing the dungeon you make a test to see if your ability increases. A simple mechanic might be roll 2d6, if the value is higher than your skill then increase your skill 1 level.

I would be happy to work with somebody on this, I do have an idea for something like this already (as side from my dungeon crawl game).