Alba Con Monsters for DCC

Alba Con Monsters for DCC was written by Daniel J. Bishop. The publisher is Crowking Press.

This was another virtual swag item, in this case created for Scotland's Alba Con 2020, which I was lucky enough to be invited to participate in. All the proceeds from Alba Con 2020 went to to It’s Good 2 Give, a Scottish charity which provides incredible support to young cancer patients and their families. If you find this virtual swag useful at all, please consider making a small donation!

This item contains statistics for the Am Fear Liath Mòr (the Big Gray Man of the Cairngorms), the Loch Ness Monster, the Blue Men of the Minch, the Aos Sí, the Cat Sìth, the Oilliphéist (a horrible giant water worm), and the Nuckelavee. Games not taking place in Scotland (or a reasonable simulacrum thereof) can file off the serial numbers and make these beasties their own!

Here is some free swag for your DCC game! Yes, this is a guy in Canada writing up beings familiar to denizens dwelling in Scotland and the surrounding waters....If you find any of these to be the worst rendition of these creatures ever, feel free to ignore them!

Permission is granted to include these monsters in anything published for DCC, provided that the original author is acknowledged. Knock yourselves out!

Oh, and these specific monsters were chosen for a reason.

It's free!

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Michuval, Angel of War

Michuval, Angel of War was written by Daniel J. Bishop. Art is by Gustave Doré. The publisher is Crowking Press.

Disclaimer: I am the writer and publisher.

This is a bit of "virtual swag" that I produced for Bride of Cyclops Con. This is a patron write-up for an angelic being, containing everything except full patron spells. 

Great Michuval, the Angel of War, appears as a tall, muscular man, with dark hair flowing in an inky mane. He wields a flaming sword in two of his four arms, and his four great wings are feathered with bronze. His skin, as supple as silk, nonetheless gleams as though made of metal. Michuval is a Champion on the Celestial Realms, and Knight Commander of a cohort of angels. He is a slayer of demons, dragons, and giants. He expects those who would seek him as a patron to exhibit valour in battle and cunning in the art of war.

This is absolutely free, and there is no reason you should not pick it up.

Get It Here.

2 WORM 2 FURIOUS

2 WORM 2 FURIOUS is a 0-level funnel written by Sean Richer. Art is by Scrap Princess, Sean Richer (cover), Glynn Seal (cartography), Tharamust (cover), and Tomasz Grabowiecki (cover). The publisher is Orbital Intelligence LLC.

Disclaimer: I backed the successful Kickstarter for this product.

Yes, this is a 0-level funnel adventure. Or, in a way, a toolkit for creating such an adventure, because the judge will be rolling on many tables to determine just what happens. I am not surprised to learn that Doug Kovacs was a playtester, because this certainly reminds me of Country Crawl Classics and Inferno Road. An adventure that passes through the Kovacs test first is going to be interesting. That is not a criticism!

This is not just a 0-level adventure, though. It is described as being usable at any level, and is given a more specific description as being challenging to PCs of up to 5th level. Having read this adventure, I agree with the assessment...and sorrow that I didn't get a chance to be a player before reading it.

If you are a fan of Jack Vance, you know how he could draw a textured society through the creation of a few well-chosen details? Sean Richer has that same gift. And he is able to use it to infuse random tables with enough meat to give players and judges a good understanding of what is going on. At the same time, as with Vance, enough is left unspoken that the reader/judge/players are forced to color in the details themselves. The setting is intriguing enough that exploring it after (or before) the adventure is worthwhile. The participants will have to do some extrapolation and world-building, but the result is potentially spectacular.

Mechanically, the adventure used the dice chain in an interesting way, enabling the judge to openly track how large and how furious the Worm has become. One die tracks its growth, another tracks its rage, and a third tracks how successful attempts to calm it are. The size of these dice affect various rolls, including random events that can happen (in the same way that larger crit dice can result in more dire outcomes). This is a neat mechanic that should work to help ramp up tension at the table. Luckily there are plenty of new peasants to help bolster the legions of the dead....

This adventure also includes a complete patron, the Doombringer Moth, which is also given a full deity write-up (including Canticles).

Thematically, the product could also be tied into The Vile Worm, The Weird Worm-Ways of Saturn, The Vault of Ash, Fate's Fell Hand, Peril on the Purple Planet, The Undulating Corruption, Prison of the Mad Gods, and Temple of the Locust Lord. With a little bit of work, you could have an entire campaign centered around worms of various types!

A deadly funnel (Level 0+) adventure and mini-setting, for 4-6 players, revolving around an ever mutating and evolving moth grub. THE grub has escaped and you have been charged by the God-Queen to bring it back to the hatchery, but this is a funnel after all… so stuff will inevitably go wrong and will likely be fatal.

It’s a tiny worm, that grows and grows and grows, and rampages, and bursts into a colossal Doombringer Moth that’s a Patron, a Deity, and a raging behemoth. It grows and grows, its growth unlocks new abilities and reactions. It rarely acts the same way, and eventually it will rule. WORSHIP IT OR RUN FROM IT, IT DOESN’T MATTER!

A God-Queen, her throne-maidens, the legions of Sky-Knights (on their Worm-Hawks), Stilt-Walkers, and Knights that strike with the fury of a thousand hammers. In addition there’s a couple important NPCs stirring things up and causing problems. Ranging from a veteran sky-knight to turned bartender, to a Jester that loiters in the streets spreading whispers to those that live below.

What Else?

New Locations, Encounters, Celebrations, Adventure Hooks, Complications, World Changing Effects, Level 0 Occupations, Bestiary Entries (including Worm-Hawks, Stilt-Walkers, and Knightly Orders), Some fancy villagers, A new Deity (or is it a Patron?), Portens, Rune Effects, A map of the Kingdom, Forms to track destruction of the Worm, and a Worm Tracker (for tracking it’s growth, and the Die Chain)

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Akashic Titan

Akashic Titan Volume 1: Starnheim & Related Locales was written and illustrated by Leighton Connor. The publisher is Spandangle Press.

Disclaimer: I supported the successful Kickstarter for this product.

Imagine magical steampunk mecha. Now imagine that they are used for travel, not across a single world, but from world to world through a rainbow of Bands that extends beyond the colors we know (and may not even include them), and which may in fact be inimical to life as we know it. Now imagine that this travel occurs far enough below the radar that the discerning judge can use it to transplant characters from Punjar to Lankhmar to Drongo to the Fallen Empire to Transylvania. Now imagine that, among all the other influences listed, the author includes Italo Calvino and Miguel de Cervantes.

Is it any wonder that I am in love?

Let's look inside!

Part 1: Journey to Starnheim: This section lays out some hooks that the judge may use to get the PCs interested in Starnheim, and some of the places they might encounter on the way there. Basically, this sets a scene that may be replayed, with countless variations on an infinity of worlds. You hear of a magnificent market - but what you find just leads you on farther. The PCs might be imagining that finding the "market town" is the adventure, but this is just the prelude.

Part 2: The Town of Starnheim: Describes the hidden market town of Starnheim in general terms. It is entirely possible that the PCs discover Starheim early in their careers, as a place to sell excess loot or buy rare goods. There are factions for the PCs to clash with or become involved with. Eventually, the PCs learn about the "Other Side" and the mysterious Gateway leading there.

Part 3: Mount Starnheim: Unless the players have peeked, this is a moment where their world is going to be turned upside down. Literally and metaphorically. The PCs have now found the port where the Akashic Titans dock, and it is not at all the same as the place they have left behind. Not only that, but there is an implication that such places exist in all worlds. 

Part 4: The Akashic Titans: If you are going to run a game with gigantic magical steampunk mecha, you will need rules for them. That is what this part supplies. Luckily, the writer realizes that this is not a one-player show, and when your akashic titan gets into combat everyone has things to do and ways to contribute.The rules are not at all convoluted, but there is serious chance of mishap (as there should be in Dungeon Crawl Classics. A sample titan is provided, but rules for statting up your own titans are fairly non-existent.

Part 5: The Bands: Imagine that the Bifrost was actually the phlogiston, and then imagine that the Bifrost extended beyond colors we know, to bands of dolm, ulfire, and jale...and perhaps farther. Now imagine that this is actually the akashic medium, and the color of the Band you are in affects what you might encounter and the rules of the universe around you. Not every Band is conducive to the living. Some Bands may be actively trying to kill you.

No one can tell you what is beyond the Jale Band. No information is given about passing from the Dolm Band away from the Ulfire Band back towards Blue. This is not really a problem. There are always things to worry about out there:

"Akashic titans are not alive, so it stands to reason that they could never be undead. Unfortunately, that is the best description of the akashic husk. Broken down akashic titans, usually with huge holes ripped in their hulls, their crews dead, yet their eyes still glowing, they are animated by some hideous force, and lurch their way through the Bands in search of functional akashic titans to destroy."

Part 6: The Elaborate Crystal Palace: This describes an interesting place in the Jale Band that the PCs are likely to come back to repeatedly. Chambers are randomly generated. There is more going on, and more for the PCs to get involved with, than this makes it sound like.

Appendix 1: Spells: Band Bubble is a 1st level wizard spell that "creates a mystical bubble that holds in oxygen and protects from the Bands’ toxic atmosphere and radiation." Don't leave home without it. Titan Bond is a 2nd level wizard spell that "enables the user to connect spiritually with an akashic titan, to feel what it is feeling, and to sense what is going on inside and out." Access Akashic Library is a 3rd level wizard spell that "enables the user to access the Akashic Library, a record of every sapient being’s every thought, word, and action." Compare with Walk the Akashic Record, a patron spell in The Revelation of Mulmo: Tentacled Edition and Angels, Daemons & Beings Between: Extended Otherworldly Edition.

Appendix 2: New Character Class: This describes the Akashic Pilot class. If travel through the Akashic Bands is the centerpiece of your campaign, this will make you a master of it. Of course, you will also be mutated.

Ellie O'Clock sits in her pilot's chair and gazes through the heavy glass, watching the aether of the Ulfire Band fizz and pop. Suddenly a nearby patch of void squirms, twists, and rips open, vomiting forth an obscene tentacled horror. A Stellar Squid! Ellie has no time to think--she grabs a lever, twists, and pulls. Instantaneously the metal behemoth she pilots reacts, swinging a giant metal fist . . .  

The akashic titans are giant, magically-powered metal constructs that soar across the endless Bands in their journey from world to world. Akashic Titan gives you the tools you need to incorporate these magical behemoths into Dungeon Crawl Classics games. In addition to giving an overview of the akashic titans and the Bands, this zine provides two settings: Starnheim, a port city for the titans that can be dropped into any fantasy world, and the Elaborate Crystal Palace of the Jale Band.

Also included are new monsters (such as the Stellar Squid, the Stowaway, and the Living Constellation), spells, NPCs, the Akashic Pilot character class, and random tables.

Get It Here!

Shadow of the Beakmen

DCC Day #1: Shadow of the Beakmen is a level 1 adventure by Harley Stroh. Art is by Stefan Poag (including cover and cartography), Chris Arneson, Doug Kovacs, William McAusland, Bradley McDevitt, and Chad Sergesketter. The publisher is Goodman Games.

Saturday, 16 May 2020 was the first ever DCC Day, marked with a generous outpouring of swag and stuff from Goodman Games. Like Free RPG Day, DCC Day was intended to generate interest in the hobby - and in this case, our little niche thereof. Then there was a pandemic, and things went a bit strange. 

The goal of this adventure was to provide something that could be played with minimum prep for the judge, and which could allow new players to experience the awesomeness that is Dungeon Crawl Classics. It does this very well, but, as written, it is extremely linear. It would easily be run in a 3- to 4-hour convention slot. 

As with all Harley Stroh adventures, the right details are present. The final encounter is very flavorful, but misses both enough context for the players to discover who the Master is, and misses the kind of truly cataclysmic ending that some DCC adventures do so well - what happens to the obelisk once the Master is destroyed?

If you intend on incorporating this module into an ongoing campaign, consider the following:

• Instead of having the village be some nameless place on the road from A to B, make it a place that the PCs have a connection to. Perhaps it is their home village, or a place where they recovered from a previous adventure? In either case, this should be a place the players regard kindly...not the hive of scum and villainy that sold them fake healing potions!

• The use of greenstones in the adventure suggests a connection to the Purple Planet. Strongly consider exploiting that connection as the campaign progresses.

• When the Master is destroyed, what happens to the obelisk? Roll 1d6: (1) The obelisk sinks back into the lake; (2) The obelisk falls over, slowly at first, but it builds up speed as it topples; (3) The obelisk returns to its plane of origin; (4) The obelisk begins to vibrate, and then shatters; (5) The obelisk simply fades out of existence; or (6) The obelisk remains, a mute but permanent testimony to its Master. How long it takes for these effects to occur, and what they mean for the PCs, are up to the judge to determine.

• If the obelisk remains, a rival Master may come looking for it one day. Likewise, as part of another adventure, the PCs may discover the shattered remains of a previous obelisk.

Towering obelisks stab the sky. Monstrous knights with blazing lances prowl the night. Huts burn, and entire villages are taken as slaves to be fed darksome pits. The cries of terror and panic give the horrors a name: the Beakmen have come.

But you are no mere peasant or serf, cowering the in the dark. You and your companions are reavers, with bloodied blades and spells wrenched from the dreams of demons. You stride through chaos while others flee, turning your steps towards the great stone obelisk, the source of the beakmen and their alien magics. 

Whether for the cause of justice or merely to acquire these strange blazing weapons for you own, tonight there shall be an accounting: a blazing brand thrust into The Shadow of the Beakmen.

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Get the VTT and Token Pack here!