Starter rules edit and design was by Jim Wampler, based on original game design by Joseph Goodman. Art is by Jeff Dee, Jeff Easley, Jim Holloway, Diesel Laforce, Doug Kovacs, Brad McDevitt, Peter Mullen, Stefan Poag, Jim Roslof, and Chad Sergesketter. Cartography is by Doug Kovacs. Cartoons are by Chuck Whelon.
The Portal Under the Stars was written by Joseph Goodman. This section of the book is "Dedicated with great affection to J. Eric Holmes."
Flip the thing over and you have Gnole House, a level 1 adventure written by Michael Curtis, with art by Stefan Poag and cartography by Doug Kovacs.
Quick Start Rules & Intro Adventure
These are nicely laid out, although perforce there are a limit to the number of spells or Mercurial Magic results that can be included. The Portal Under the Stars has appeared in all printings (thus far) of the core rulebook, as well as the DCC RPG Free RPG Day Adventure Starter in 2011.
Gnole House
I ran this adventure at 401 Games on Free RPG Day 2017. You can read my summary of the event here.
Gnole House is based on two short stories by Appendix N authors. These are Lord Dunsany's How Nuth Would Practise His Art Upon the Gnoles, and Margaret St. Clair's The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles. Both stories are fairly short, easily read, and have delightful nods to them within Michael Curtis' adventure. A third story, The Hoard of the Gibbelins, is also well used. It gives me hope that a sequel to this adventure, perhaps called Gibbelin Tower, may one day appear!
Yes, the Gibbelins need their own adventure. When I read those three stories, I started writing an adventure and they, especially "The hoard", helped me come up with an in-world justification for dungeons. Monster brings treasure to a cave, treasure attracts humans, dungeon traps humans, monster and dungeon eat humans.
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