Trigger Warning: Everything

Very soon, we’ll be running “Inferno Road” at this year’s Mace West convention here in lovely Asheville, North Carolina. Both Kevin and Scott got a chance to play it at this year’s GenCon, but I wasn’t able to as it coincided with games I was running. It’s an insane DCCRPG death metal tournament in a nightmarish hellscape cranked up to 11 and beyond. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll are just the beginning. The index says “Trigger Warning: Everything” and the pages following live up to that fact. Not for kids, not for the faint of heart and not for everyone. We’ve said more than once we could be asked to never return, but it will definitely be worth it.

Inferno Road binders for the Judges… we may need to burn these when done to be safe.

Here’s the basics:

INFERNO ROAD @ MACE WEST 2018
Saturday, March 10th
Asheville, North Carolina

Slaved to the overlords of Hell… you begin as a soulless grub in a sea of grubs, endlessly writhing in the burning pits of the inferno. Your eternity is suffering with the gnawing hunger for a soul… any soul… ALL souls. Plucked from obscurity and forced on board a Hellwagon in service to a Duke of Hell, you and your ‘companions’ race to overtake Satan’s Wives, pregnant with fresh souls for the Prince of Darkness. With every soul you devour your power will grow, perhaps enough to take on the the Devil himself?

RATED M FOR MATURE
Trigger Warning: EVERYTHING

Giant 4′ x 6′ banner which we’ll have hanging behind the tables, calling those seeking ruination and destruction to join in the insanity that is “Inferno Road”

We’re planning on two tables battling head to head and as such have had to make some adjustments to the mechanics and the storyline, but the core remains the same. There will be prizes galore and a trophy for the winner.

On top of that, the Asheville DCCRPG Road Crew gang will be running a few games, notably “Blades Against Death” by Harley Stroh which Kevin will be handling and I’m scheduled to run “Blessing of the Vile Brotherhood” also by Harley Stroh. More MCC and DCC will be played after hours and on the schedule. There’s also plenty of other games for many systems, and it’s always a great weekend here in Asheville.

Soul tokens. Catch a soul, devour it, power up and kick ass.

Postcard sized character sheets. We plan on going through dozens of these!

You can register for Mace West at THIS LINK. Come play with us… forever… and ever… and ever…

Creature Feature: Seff Guardian

This month’s creature feature is the horrific Seff Guardian. Like the Xalot last month, I feel this can be used for either DCC or MCC, and if you you would like to try your luck fighting against one (or more?) of these, you may want to check out “Where The Drowned God Dwells” an MCC adventure I will be running (twice!) at this year’s GenCon.

Art by Jacob Blackmon

Seff Guardian: Init +0 on land, +4 in water; Atk tentaclaw (1d8+1) or bite (1d5+1); AC 14; HD 2d8+2; hp 12; MV 20’ land, 90’ swim; Act 2d20; SP: amphibious, infravision, camouflage, hypnotic spray, poison bite; SV Fort +2­, Ref +2­, Will +2­; AL C.

The Seff are an enigmatic race of chaotic aquatic roughly bipedal cephalopods who delight in taking slaves for nefarious purposes in their undersea dens.

The juvenile Seff Guardians are the most commonly encountered, but larger (and deadlier) Seff Overseers are known to exist and rumors persist of ancient Seff Wardens who rule over undersea empires.

When encountered in the wild, Seff Guardians will attack from stealth whenever possible. Their natural camouflage ability (which gives +10 to stealth when underwater and +5 when on land) helps keep them hidden and their hypnotic spray is a quick way to incapacitate a victim to drag back to their lair. The hypnotic spray is a jet of noxious liquid that can blind and stun. Treat as Color Spray (DCCRPG page 135) with an automatic effect of 18 (but lower the two saves to just DC 12) and a range of 20’ affecting just one creature.

Seff Guardians have six (or more) 4’ to 6’ long tentacles it uses for both locomotion and another four 8’ to 10’ tentacles on it’s upper body used for offensive attacks. Normally retracted, their sharp claws can extend to rend flesh or grip to aid in climbing or moving on land. The mouth of a Seff Guardian is filled with rows of razor sharp teeth, and their bite injects a soporific poison which causes paralysis unless a DC 10 Fortitude save is passed.

Creature Feature: The Xalot

Today’s creature feature is the mild-mannered Xalot. Can be used for either DCC or MCC, and if you are intrigued by this little dude here, please check out “Where The Drowned God Dwells” an MCC adventure I will be running (twice!) at this year’s GenCon.

Xalot: (4-5 if foraging party; 30 to 40 adults plus one Elder and juveniles in tribal village); Init +1 on land, +3 in water; Atk Staff +1 melee (1d6) and/or net +2 ranged (entangle); AC 12; HD 1d8+1; hp 6; MV 30’ land, 60’ swim; Act 1d20; SP: amphibious, infravision (underwater only); SV Fort +1­, Ref +1­, Will +0­; AL N.

The Xalot people are generally peaceful and form medium-sized colonies of 40 to 50 adults with a single Elder and many younglings at any given time, depending on the season. Short in stature, they stand roughly the size of a halfling and have cool, moist skin in a variety of colors and patterns. Xalots also have a limited ability to alter their color to provide better camouflage while out hunting or foraging.

Elders are slightly larger than the typical xalot and possess a passive telepathic empathy with which they can communicate danger or strong feelings with their own people and outsiders. Elders are also rumored to have some small ability with magic as well.

Most xalot are inquisitive and fearless, which makes them easy prey for predators. They are natural explorers, however, especially of the deep seas as they forage for food. Although they do make their own crude items for everyday life, skilled craftsmen and artisans they are not. They also willingly trade goods they find on their explorations with nearby peoples who treat them well. They have their own language, a sibilant tongue that incorporates the flaring of the gill stalks which sprout from the sides of their heads, and most also speak the dominant language of whatever region they find themselves in.

Typically nomadic, a Xalot colony will migrate every few years to an abandoned coastal area to perform their mating rituals and lay copious amounts of eggs before moving on. The first egg, thereafter called the Elder, hatches and quickly matures much more rapidly than the first wave, acting as a lookout and guarding over the second wave, until the final wave hatches… thereby forming a new colony within the space of a year or two.

Xalot Elder: Init +1 on land, +3 in water; Atk Staff +2 melee (1d6+1) and/or net +3 ranged (entangle); AC 14; HD 1d8+3; hp 8; MV 30’ land, 60’ swim; Act 1d20; SP: amphibious, infravision (underwater only), telepathic empathy (120′), spells: water breathing and mending, others as desired (d20+4); SV Fort +1­, Ref +1­, Will +2; AL N.

Creature Feature: The Staguar

Starting today, we’re going to showcase a monthly “Creature Feature” the last Friday of every month for use in Dungeon Crawl Classics / Mutant Crawl Classics or any OSR-type game. First up: The fearsome Staguar!

Staguar (1, rarely travels in pack of 2-4 adults plus 3 to 4 juveniles): Init +3; Atk gore +6 melee (1d6+2) or claw +4 melee (1d4) or bite +4 melee (1d6); AC 16; HD 3d8+2; MV 50’, climb 20’; Act 2d20; SP stealth, bugle; SV Fort +1, Ref +3, Will +7 AL C.

Is this another mad design of noted teratologist Xultich? Only the most learned of sages could say with any certainty. What is known is that the staguar is a fierce predator, stalking and killing their prey to take back to their lairs.

The shape of the typical staguar male is that of a great stag with a mighty rack of horns it uses to gore it’s opponents. Instead of hooves, the long legs end in claws and it’s face has the feline predatory mien of it’s jaguar ancestors. The female staguar have less pronounced horns and juveniles almost none at all, with a corresponding dice chain reduction for that attack. Their coloration is typically spotted, but rumors persist of a more tawny colored “Stuma” in mountainous regions or the larger and more ferocious “Stiger” deep in the jungles.

A fearsome hunter equally at home in plains and forests, the staguar is an implacable predator able to leap from hiding to bring down creatures many times it’s size due to it’s strong jaws and raking claws. Staguars are quite good at stalking their prey. They receive a +8 bonus to sneaking silently and hiding in shadows.

The potentially sorcerous origin of the staguar has manifested in a peculiar way. The combination of jaguar’s roar and stag’s bugle has given the staguar the ability to strike fear into anyone who hears it. When threatened, the staguar can let loose a cacophonous bugling that scares off an attacker or rival. This is treated as the Scare spell cast at +8 on a d16 (see page 191 of the DCCRPG Rulebook). This ability is only present in the male of the species and during the rut season (usually the late autumn) the calls and challenges of adolescent males can make an area almost uninhabitable or gain the reputation for being haunted.

Crawling Through “The Vertical Halls”

Coming back from NTRPG Con loaded with goodies, I started going through things I hadn’t read yet and putting stuff in order. Glad I looked, because I discovered a lost treasure! When I was putting stuff into the zine boxes, I found a great level 2 adventure for DCC RPG called “The Vertical Halls” from Phlogiston Books and written by Gabriel García-Soto that for some stupid reason I never got around to reading before this weekend.

Spoiler Alert: It’s pretty damn epic. I loved it from beginning to end. The interior art by Francisco Tebár and Valentí Posa is especially great.

I don’t want to spoil anything too much, but there is a lot to work with here. The adventure can literally fit into any kind of scenario. For your ‘typical’ fantasy campaign, you can place it as is into any mountainous region. It could really work well in a Shudder Mountain campaign for sure. You could crank up the weirdness factor and put it into something like the Purple Planet, too! Make the town a ruin an go Crawling Under A Broken Moon. It could fit almost any setting if you do just a little adjusting, I’m sure.

It starts out simple enough: your adventuring group enters the town of Shadypass where, like they do, the villagers are all acting a little odd. Some investigation leads you to the main event and I’ve yet to see a creepier or more disturbing setting. Excellent throwbacks to some Lovecraftian goodness and the best part is that the author has taken some ‘typical’ monsters and put their own spin onto them. Great stuff! I can’t wait to get a party inside and make them squirm!

The PDF and Softcover combo are available on RPG Now. Definitely one to pick up and I am anxiously awaiting the next product this studio will be releasing!

May the Fourth Be With You

 

A few weeks back, I was roped into trying my hand at running a session of the Fantasy Flight RPG Star Wars “Edge of Empire” at the local Bounty Hunter’s Guild at The Wyvern’s Tale in Asheville, North Carolina. It’s a weekly (or semi-weekly) “drop in” game that Kevin has posted about before, and since I had played several games figured I would step up and try my hand at GMing.

It was a complete blast!

I am normally a person who preps like crazy. As noted before, I have a penchant for making detailed binders for trips and for campaigns. The story-telling nature of the typical Star Wars game, however, doesn’t lend itself to my normal GM style. Stepping way outside of my comfort zone, I came up with a basic premise with three “scenes” to make the entire game. First up, an alien xeno-archaeologist (with a bounty on his head) discovers a hidden temple and needs rescue; there’s unique environmental effects which cause havoc (and preclude the use of the bounty hunter’s overpowered normal transport) and causes their ship to crash to the planet’s surface; and at last a big scary beast to scare the bounty hunters off.

For the first part, I decided to make the alien a Brizzit and that he would have a protocol droid translator who was demolished. The temple he was hiding out in was dedicated to the Sith, and there would be a Sith or Sith-spirit present. The second part would be the planet itself: heavy electrical storms in the high altitude meant that any vehicle without specialty shielding would almost certainly crash (luckily the Bounty Hunter’s patron had just such a ship); and finally, for the third scene I’d have to create a creature loosely based on the Krayt dragon, but capable of flying for the final battle, followed by rescue from another ship.

I tried to play it fast and loose. I figured the first scene would be a combo: quick RP interaction with the Hutt boss and outline of the mission followed by a piloting / mechanics check scenario as they try to navigate the horrific lightning storm. Right from the get-go that didn’t go according to plan. With a double-Triumph and setback dies removed from the check due to some crazy co-pilot talents, the ship sailed down with minor damage, enough that I ruled there was a hull breach and they’d need to set down for repairs.

The second scene was originally supposed to be interaction with the alien (who did not speak Basic) and repairs to the protocol droid, and that went as planned for the most part. We didn’t have a real ‘face’ character so without too much misunderstanding the repairs were effected and the Brizzit convinced the group to take cover from the approaching storm in the temple itself.

This is the point at which having tried to plan on every contingency would have been a very bad mistake. The original idea was to very cinematically have the Sith Master drop in front of the hole made by blasting through the wall, threatening the PCs and then being swallowed (fancy red lightsaber and all) by the humongous “dragon” and the smaller ones (still quite dangerous) leaping in to attack.

Of course, two of the PCs got first attack and one of them rolled a Triumph (again!) to shoot the lightsaber out of his hands and the other one did some crazy maneuvering to roll around and grab it. At this point, things are very much off the rails. A Chadra-fan mechanic skill monkey with a lightsaber can just about ruin any campaign, so I had to think fast. Additional fire from the high-powered assassin droid and several rounds of crits from the Bounty Hunters rocked the Sith back on his heels and it was only a matter of time before he fell.

Now I felt it was time to panic. I knew I’d have to get that away from them somehow, and then it hit me: this was the “treasure” the Brizzit and his no-good protocol droid were after the whole time! I played up the fact that the storm wouldn’t be abating for several hours and they were in for a long repair session, but afterwards they’d be good to go. With a few nudges about how exhausted they were, everyone played right into my hands by putting the assassin droid as “guard” while the rest of the crew napped. One restraining bolt later and the “xeno-archaeologist” steals the lightsaber off the sleepy Chadra-fan and runs out into the storm to “escape” while the droid fought everyone who was waking up.

Cue the music and it’s the other bad guy who gets scooped up by the big “dragon”(along with that saber)… and everything from there continued more or less as planned. They killed the big thing (again thanks to a lot of crits), got the ship up and out of the storm and away back to home base. They had to explain why their bounty was dead and the ship had a hole and they really had nothing to offer beyond the location of an old Sith temple. The Hutt (and by extension me) took some pity on them, swore them to secrecy saying he may have a buyer for that sort of information (and a potential plot hook for another game).

All in all, I had a great time with a low-prep way of running and everyone seemed to have a good time. The game lends itself to a different style of GMing than I am used to and I really enjoyed it when all is said and done. Kevin pointed out that only I could make a Star Wars game with space wizards and thunder dragons. Rightly so.

With it being May the Fourth today would be a good day to write down some ideas of your own for your Star Wars campaign. Just look out for those untrustworthy droids…

Fun with the Three Fates in DCCRPG

A few months ago we ran some fourth level pregens through the awesome Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure “The 13th Skull” while taking a week off from our regularly scheduled D&D game. Someone had to be the cleric and so I pulled a Neutral priestess and using just the Core book as inspiration chose “The Three Fates” as her patron. Thus was born the legend of Sister Aramella…

Her background occupation was fortune-teller and she had a tarot deck as one of her pieces of equipment. We had a printed copy of the Deck of Many Things, so I grabbed that and whenever someone questioned Sister Aramella or wanted me to cast a spell, I pulled a card and wove that into my role-play.

We faced an enemy: I pulled a card – “Death” – and said “Well this does not look good…” It was a great hook and the spell Second Sight got the most use out of any previous DCC game because I’d pass the deck to the GM and he’d arrange for me to pull a card and let me interpret it as I saw fit. “Oh you’d like healing?” Pull out the Skull and “Sorry, the Fates decree that you might not survive the day. We’ll see.” Botched a spell? Pull out the Idiot card and cry that my actions have upset the Triplicate Goddess.

One of the things I would like to add more of to my own DCC games are additional patrons, and additional spells or effects like I described. The 2015 Gongfarmer’s Almanac (available at the Google+ DCC community for free and now in an omnibus addition) has a whole slew of new patrons and even a great chart for additional daily effects expanding upon the birth augur in the core rulebook.

What sort of props have you added in to your DCC games? What kind of patrons or additional effects would you like to see? Comments are open!

Dungeon Lord!

The most amazing thing about Dungeon Crawl Classics is it’s community… and two years in, that community has only grown. It seems like every couple months a new zine is being published or a new third-party adventure is being announced or released. My wallet may not love it, but my games do.

One the newest is “Dungeon Lord” and it really hearkens back to the old days when zines were printed by hand, the art and layout were raw and there wasn’t the polished look of a magazine with every publication.

The second issue has just been released and I am anxiously awaiting it’s arrival. In the meantime, they have the first issue still available… re-released as a reprint of the original one which premiered at the Alberquerque Zine Fest… now geared up for play with DCCRPG.

The biggest chunk of this zine, which weighs in at a respectable 24 pages is a level 1-2 DCCRPG dungeon crawl titled “The Caves of the Sacred Seven” and it’s awesome. If you like cavemen, lizard men, mirror dragons and primordial slime, then this adventure is for you. You could plop this down on the Purple Planet, deep in the Shudder Mountains or right up wherever you were “Frozen in Time” and not blink an eye.

It’s also chock-full of awesome in other, little ways: a random elevation table, a blank map you can use and fill-in on the fly, ash spirits, spine rats, mirror dragons, slime yeti’s… there is literally, something for everyone. Also included is another full dungeon titled “The Tomb of Zarfulgar the Lost” which takes the barebones approach and describes the rooms and let’s the GM fill in the blanks.

24 pages of DCC-style goodness for $6? Yes, please!

QUICK REMINDER: If you are new to DCC or have not heard, Goodman Games has a great Kickstarter that is reprinting their one and only rulebook that is ending soon! Check it out today!

Patron-Age: Time with Two Ladies – Myassari and Urhatta

I have said this before and will no doubt say this again: but one of the very best things about the Dungeon Crawl Classics community, something I see in absolutely no other game system, is the creativity of the fans and player base. As a whole and as individuals, the members of the community have created some amazing add-ons to the basic game.

One of my few issues with the DCC Core Rulebook is that the patrons section is very light. There’s full write-ups for three patrons, a few that are a little more fleshed out and some only have very basic information. This was a great opportunity for the community to step up and pitch in with some additional patrons to fill any perceived voids in your games.

Two of my favorites are Myassari, The Patron of Birth and Decay and Urhatta the Worldwalker.

Myassari is a harpy-countenanced being with a penchant for the passage of time and the secrets of the flame. One of the best spells I’ve seen is a patron spell from Myassari called “Healing Womb” — with a high enough roll, your target can be enveloped in a “fleshy amniotic sack” in which your targets can be healed… with some side effects, of course. Who wouldn’t want that? Written by Clinty Bohaty and Julian Bernick with art by Trevor Hartman from Order of the Quill, the PDF is available for download at RPG Now.

Urhatta was written by Eric Hoffman at Stormlord Publishing, and is currently available as a free download direct from their site. A “time-traveling, space-warping, energy breathing patron” — Urhatta is described as an ancient and powerful djinn who exists in several dimensions and timelines simultaneously. All of the patron spells are great, but the Invoke Patron results are really spectacular. I would have loved some artwork to go along with the great patron write-up. Maybe we could get that an option in a future Kickstarter?

Both of these patrons have concerns with time and with space and with energy… but they couldn’t be more different. While both would fit in any DCC (or MCC?) scenario or campaign: I can definitely see Urhatta striding the space lanes as the patron of a futuristic broken world crawler or of mutated wizard-warrior in a forgotten city, whereas I see Myassari more as the secret patron of an old blind witch deep in the Shudder Mountains or of a trio of flame-haired hags.

Check them both out for yourself and let us know in the comments what you think. Have some more patrons we haven’t seen yet? Let us know that as well. I have plenty of space left in my Zine Vaults!

Happy Gary Gygax Day!

Today is Gary Gygax Day, celebrating the life and legacy of the “Father of Role-Playing Games” Gary Gygax. He was born on this day in 1938 and passed on March 4, 2008 (a different holiday altogether: GM’s Day).

Anyone reading this blog who plays almost any kind of game with their friends around a table (even if that table is on the internet) where they pretend, even for a moment, that they are someone else owes the ability to do that to Mr. Gygax.

Earlier this year, I got to attend GaryCon and meet many of his family members and sit around some amazing tables with his friends, co-workers and other fellow devotees like myself. It’s probably no surprise that tickets for next year’s GaryCon go on sale in the next couple days. It’s also probably no surprise that his son, E. Gary Gygax, will be launching a Kickstarter for a truly “old school” project today as well: The Hobby Shop Dungeon.

Thanks, Gary, your imagination lives on!