Road Crew Games

I will be running Harley Stroh's excellent Sailors on the Starless Sea on 9 June 2013 at The Wizard's Cache, starting at 1 pm.

This is a 0-level funnel for Dungeon Crawl Classics, and a great introduction for new players.  All necessary materials will be provided.

This will be the first of several events, wherein surviving characters can continue to grow and prosper (or die horribly).  

333 Bloor Street West, phone 647-748-3433.  

Future games will include a mixture of new material, converted material, DCC modules, and material wherein participants can gain playtest credits!

Wizard's Cache has just negotiated a serious expansion at its current location, so this is also a "Grand Reopening" of the store!

I will be running The Imperishable Sorceress sponsored by Hairy Tarantula North on Free RPG Day, June 15th 2013.  

This is a 1st level module for Dungeon Crawl Classics; all necessary materials will be provided.

Location of this event is TBA, and may be either at the store location (6979 Yonge Street, phone 647-430-1263) or at a gaming event at George Brown University.  I will update this post as soon as a final decision has been reached by the game store.

The Well of the Worm

The Well of the Worm by Harley Stroh (DCC conversion by yours truly) has now been solicited at the Goodman Games website, and is available for a limited time through the Goodman Games webstore.

Why should you consider this one?

First off, because anything by Harley Stroh rocks.  Second off, because all of the DCC products Joseph Goodman has put out rock.  Thirdly, because I had a lot of fun working on the conversion, and I can say that this adventure rocks.

It is always fun to see an adventure for a different system through a DCC lens.  I have converted Gamma World, 1st Edition AD&D, 3.x Dungeons & Dragons, Labyrinth Lord, and other "compatible" materials for my home game.

It was really cool to get the opportunity to do an official conversion!

Thank you, Harley Stroh, for writing such a cool adventure in the first place.

Thank you, Joseph Goodman, for giving me the chance to do this conversion.

Thank you, all of you, who purchase and play it.

Bullshit Alert

Did you know that immersion doesn't exist?  Because people might use the word to mean different things?  Because it might have a very personal meaning?

(Which differs not at all from, say, "role-playing game" or "D&D", which apparently are also lies, if one follows that "logic".)

What does that have to do with playing with people who are your friends?  Nothing!  But, hey, no one can argue with that, so let's toss that in there to confuse the issue.

Let's say that you accept the argument that "the game was in the description! Of course it is!"  Then, does it actually follow that when you are dealing with that description, it is somehow "shutting everything down"?  Or, would it make sense that, if you accepted that the game was in the description, that "stopping play to force someone to describe the action of the game" cannot be "disruptive to play" because that description of action is, in fact, a major component of the game?

Or, let us imagine that taking the role of your character negotiating with a goblin (portrayed by the GM) is only immersive "if you wanted to be immersed in the player persuading the Dungeon Master, not the character persuading the goblin", 'cause, you know, when you are rolling for it, that's the character, not the player. 

"[D]ishonest and worse, counterproductive and not useful from a design standpoint" pretty much covers it.  Yet another post suggesting that you are only playing the game when you are rolling the dice, or working the widgets, from someone who just doesn't seem to understand that the widgets are there to support the fictive milieu and action, not the other way around.

There may be "many. . . unintentional misunderstandings of things" certain people say, or it may just be that bullshit has an unmistakable odour.  I leave it the reader to decide.

ADDENDUM ('cause I just can't leave well enough alone).  If you would be so kind, take a gander at this post.  

How come it's ok to use 'skill checks' for combat, and not for something like talking to opponents? 

Because at the table, I can't use my personal skill to swing an axe, but I can use my personal skill to convince a crocodile to let me pass.

(Actually, seriously, read the comments too!)

Now, go back and read the first linked post, and follow the links here.  And, if you want, you can find my response to that here.

Riddle me this, Batman:  How is it that -C in 2011 knows why combat is handled differently than talking, but two years later this has become a mystery?

Perhaps -C's answer in 2011 is the best one:  "This, is of course another strawman - a misrepresentation of the actual process of play."

ADDENDUM to the ADDENDUM:  Ah, hell.  You should read this one too.  In it, -C postulates, "Combat/feat build uses aside, there is certainly some room for a 'social conflict' system in D&D, but a simple D20 comparison check is a really really boring way to handle it!" so the seeds were sown by 2011.

Actually, there have been several systems in the D20 System written to handle "social combat", the best of which was probably Dynasties & Demagogues, which, if you ignore or are unsatisfied with "Because at the table, I can't use my personal skill to swing an axe, but I can use my personal skill to convince a crocodile to let me pass.", will allow you to consistently make all kinds of social interactions into a mini-game.  

If that's your bag, man, then this is a book that comes highly recommended.

Mulmo Preview - Spoilers Sweetie

If you intend to play through this module, do not read the following.  This is a very minor encounter area, an homage to Robert E. Howard, to give some idea of the flavour of the text.







First Review!




1-12 Storage Chamber: This chamber, roughly 50 feet in diameter, is filled with barrels, crates, and bundles, which have been hacked, with some of their contents strewn around the chamber in a welter of spoiled foodstuffs and broken glass.

These goods were gained through a mixture of trade, tribute, and theft. Most were foodstuffs, although there was cloth, glassware, and ceramics as well.  Nothing of value remains whole, and there are clear signs of animals large and small having been here.

A large urn decorated with a serpent motif and sealed with a heavy lead plug remains unopened. It will only be located if the characters spend at least 30 minutes searching through the debris. Runes on the lid declare it the property of the cult of an evil snake god. Although both elves and trow were wise enough to leave it alone, the PCs may not be – within is coiled a demonic serpent which appears as a 10 foot long crimson cobra with almost human facial features.

The demonic serpent’s bite is poisonous; any who is struck must make a Fort save (DC 14) or be paralyzed instantly, dying in 1d4+2 rounds unless the poison is somehow countered. The serpent can spit a line of venom up to 20’. In this case, the victim must make a Reflex save (DC 12) or suffer poisoning. If the Reflex save is a natural “1”, the victim is struck in the eyes, and must make an additional Fort save (DC 16) or be permanently blinded even if the venom is countered.

Demonic serpent: Init +6; Atk bite +6 melee (1d3 plus poison); AC 18; HD 6d12; hp 50; MV 40’; Act 2d20; SP poison, spit poison, demon traits (type II: speech, read minds, infravision, darkness [+8 spell check], immune to non-magical weapons or natural attacks from creatures of 3HD or less, half damage [fire, acid, cold, electricity, and gas], can teleport back to home plane at will, crit threat range 19-20); SV Fort +6, Ref +10, Will +6; AL C.

Playtesters

I am looking to send materials to 2-3 judges who would run Dungeon Crawl Classics playtests for me. If you can run a playtest with about a week's to two week's turnaround on a regular basis, please let me know. Sorry that I won't be able to take everyone who wants in (someone must be left to buy the materials), but if you want playtest credits, here's your chance!

Shoot me an email at ravencrowking at hotmail dot com.

The Revelation of Mulmo

Is now live!

At RPG Now and Drive Thru.

Get it, before it gets you!

From Mercury to Yuggoth, and All Points Between

There came a point, when I was soaking myself in the delightful text that is the Dungeon Crawl Classics role-playing game, that I decided to go back and read the Appendix N fiction.  I mean, I had read quite a few authors and novels on the list, but there were also many that I did not know, and works of fiction that had passed me by.  If you don’t understand what I mean by soaking myself in the DCC core rulebook, you either have not read it, or your appreciation for the genre is very different from mine.  Because you are reading this blog, I am going to assume that you know what I mean.

Eventually, there came a point where I was not just reading the list; I was studying it.  Whenever I worked on a new DCC project, it became integral to my thinking that no fewer than three homages to Appendix N sources should be intentionally included.  I have tried to do this as consistently as I can…although I admit that I allow for a greater breadth in Appendix N sources than some others might.  For instance, I do not stop at the Mars and Venus books of Edgar Rice Burroughs…nor do I even stop at Tarzan, The Moon Maid, and other adventure fiction.  Works like The Oakdale Affair and The Efficiency Expert are fair game in my books.

Within the 1^st Edition AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide, Gary Gygax mentions setting adventures on Jack Vance’s Tschai and Burroughs’ Barsoom.  Conversion notes are given for Boot Hill, indicating that perhaps the westerns of E.R. Burroughs and the weird westerns of Robert E. Howard might also have fit into Gygax’s vision of Appendix N.  What is very clear, though, is that a lot of stories in Appendix N fiction take place on other worlds.

And why not?  Who would not wish to adventure on the Mars of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Michael Moorcock, or C.L. Moore?  Who would not want to quest across the solar system as envisioned by Leigh Brackett, or travelled to far worlds like Skaith and Tschai?  Who would not want to be equal to – or even surpass! – Eric John Stark, John Carter, or Northwest Smith?  The canopy is vast, and the characters loom enormously over the landscape of their worlds and of our dreams.

The pulp magazines were full of stories like these.  John Carter could not adventure across Barsoom alone - he must also investigate one of its moons, and then travel as far as Jupiter.  Seeking out strange new worlds is a driving passion of many of the Appendix N authors.  These sort of stories even outnumber "lost world" stories, like those of the Pellucidar series, various survivals in Robert E. Howard stories, and the Caspak series that begins with The Land That Time Forgot.  Alien princesses and Low Canal Dwellers outnumber even the dinosaurs.

Likewise, Manly Wade Welman was not content to merely write about Hok the Mighty - he also wrote of aliens coming to take over that primitive world.

One of the first adventures I converted to the Dungeon Crawl Classics system was from Gamma World, as part of a funnel adventure.  I am actually playing this same conversion online, at Unseen Servant.  Fun, as far as it goes, but it does not go nearly as far as it should.

It has been suggested that the structure of the planes in AD&D was lifted from the works of Michael Moorcock.  Reading through Appendix N, I do not believe that this is completely accurate.  Moorcock’s work was influential, yes, but he was neither the first nor the best at using multiple planes of existence.  I tend to think that works like The Carnelian Cube and The Fallible Fiend, the Silver John stories of Manly Wade Wellman, and the writing of Philip Jose Farmer, Andre Norton, and Lord Dunsany, at the very least, were equally or more important. 

In the DCC core rulebook, Joseph Goodman suggests using other worlds as destinations for adventures, exactly in the same way as various heavens, hells, and elemental planes are used in many fantasy role-playing games.  I find this good advice, and I think that Dungeon Crawl Classics is admirably suited for such play.  Sure, you need stats for laser guns, blasters, or similar weapons – possibly specific critical and fumble charts as well – and unique classes for the alien races you might meet.  But those things are actually little more than local colour…the same sort of local colour, perhaps, that any fantasy world should be given.  The system remains intact. 

I am beginning to think that, running parallel to my regular DCC campaign, I should devise a setting that intersects, which is pure science fantasy of the type epitomized by certain Appendix N authors.  Not just a single world, such as Barsoom, Venus, or Ganymede, but an interconnected system of worlds.  Something that would make C.L. Moore or Leigh Brackett feel right at home. 

What do you think?  Is this an idea anyone else would be interested in hearing more about?

Bundles & Deals

Purple Duck Games and Mystic Bull Games have bundled their latest products.  If you haven't picked up AL 4: The Waystation, AL 5: Stars in the Darkness, or In the Prison of the Squid Sorcerer now is the time to act and save 25%.

The Revelation of Mulmo

At the time of this writing, The Revelation of Mulmo has just been approved by Joseph Goodman, and should be available soon at the usual locations, such as rpgnow and drivethru.  

This pdf is 76 pages long.  Even including maps, a one-page advertisement, and covers, that is a lot of pages of adventure, with 60 described areas, a new spell, and three new patrons.  

(These are incomplete write-ups - no patron spells! - but I think you will find them useful.)  

Important information is reproduced from Angels, Daemons, & Beings Between for judges lacking that reference work.

If you backed Angels, Daemons, & Beings Between, well, this was the last piece in the puzzle.  Lead developer Sean Conners will be up late tonight sending emails and moving the project to a close. So good news there.

In addition to using the same terms as Angels, Daemons, & Beings Between and Tomb of Curses, allowing other writers and publishers to use the included patrons in their own approved DCC work, The Revelation of Mulmo adds several monsters to the OGC, allowing them to be used by anyone and any time and with any game system.

Why?  Because we love the Open Gaming License, and we think that you will want to use some of these monsters in your own work. Like the fellow to the right.

Art is by David Fisher, and I think it is quite good.  I have included a couple of samples in this blog post to whet your appetite.

While every monster is not added to the OGC, the monsters added follow a particular theme, and I truly hope that someone will pick it up and run with it.

Did I mention that the new spell (Scrying) is also added to the OGC?

In terms of price point, the prospective judge should find enough material between the covers to get a lot of reuse out of this adventure...if not by reusing the location itself, then by reusing some of the patrons, characters, creatures, and items within.  

From the back cover text:

Death comes to us all…But what price are you willing to pay to bring back one you have lost?

In The Revelation of Mulmo, brave adventures risk magic, monsters, and the passage of time itself to bring a fallen comrade back from the dead.

This module describes a fallen elf hill, with descriptions of 60 locations, additional patron information, and a new spell. It makes use of patron information from the DCC rulebook and Angels, Daemons, & Beings Between by Dragon's Hoard Press.

If you are wondering how to make patrons more active in your campaign, this is the adventure for you!

If you are tired of elves being treated as goodie-goodies who live in the forest being nice to each other and to everyone else, this is also a module for you.  The elves in The Revelation of Mulmo take their essence from all of the depictions of elves in Appendix N fiction, including some which go by different names.

Taken together with this author's Stars in the Darkness (published by Purple Duck Games), you are given strong tools to completely rethink elves - making them less what they are in Lord of the Rings rip-offs, and a hell of a lot more Dungeon Crawl Classics!

Or, at least, that was my intention.  Hope you enjoy.