Advice column: Spell Duels

The subject came up in one of the DCC communities. The OP was chagrined because they tried to run one in their game and it...did not go well. I felt for them. This is one of those "no amount of training will prepare you" situations. Not even the infamous Episode #11 of Spellburn will put your mind at ease on the topic, no matter how many times you replay it. But it will flow pretty smoothly in the wild, once you've done it a couple of times. 

I thought I'd share some of the tips I've gathered and turned into house/table rules. A lot of my personal preferences do not follow RAW. I know this genuinely shocks some of you. 

SPELL DUELS: quick and dirty

• The minute it's announced, keep your thumb on Table 4-5: Spell Duel Chek Comparison [that's page 100 in your DCC RPG tomes, folks]. 

• Don't bother checking the proposed list of 'this spell cancels these' on the previous page(s). That part is the most cumbersome. Just let it happen. 

• Leave the spell results for them to look up. You've got enough going on.

• Don't let anyone even bother looking up spell results until you get past the second spell duel table. (Remind players to not get attached to their rolls...)

• Skip the momentum tracking. Harley was 100% on point with that advice in Isle of Dagon. 

• I disagree with Mr. Stroh on a single bullet point: mercurial magic should absolutely take place, especially if it determines what die one player rolls for a spell check. (Admittedly, most other mercurial effects are generally atmospheric and just add to the chaos...but you can assign an uninvolved player to track that stuff for you. If there's a Phlogistonic Disturbance, it may come up.)

• Due to the ensuing cacophony at the table as everyone tries to "help" you, don't be afraid to flex some authority as judge and do this part yourself. 

• Back to page 100: the attacker [top row] is the one who instigated the spell duel...

Ignore the accompanying text. 

Stick to the table. 

You can do this. 

• Draw a line between the total spell check results of the attacker and the defender (the one who was initially casting). 
• If a die type listed in the connecting square, roll that die once and consult Table 4-6: Counterspell Power on the following page. 
• If the square says "PD", things are about to go drastically sideways for everyone and there's nothing to be done for it but to press on with some improv. Sorry. Go to Table 4-7: Phlogistonic Disturbance on page 103 and roll 1d10 (no modifier). Some of the results end the duel right then and there, while result #1 has the duel continuing until one of the casters dies - and it happens in the blink of an eye for everyone else. 
• If you roll a 1 here, and you're pressed for time, ask one of the uninvolved players to make a Luck check. If successful, bump the result to #10, determine the PC corruption (go with Major, just for the sake of keeping things rolling along), and continue the rest of the combat as normal. The caster(s) may choose to continue the spell duel, but it should continue at the same point in the next round of combat. 
• If said Luck check was failed, make the player(s) involved cast again, immediately, and roll through the table checks again in quick time to determine who is knocked to 0 hit points first.

EXTRA-SPECIAL SPELL DUELS: 3-way(+)!

• When a 3rd player chimes in - because they eventually will - instead of telling them no, or they have to wait until the first duel is reconciled, let 'em join in - but only if they haven't yet gone in this round.
• Don't allow #3 to spellburn - that's taking way too much time out of play. 
• Resolve the first contenders' results first, as above, and pull the following criteria: 
• If neither original spellcaster had a successful spell by the end of the duel round, take the lowest adjusted spell duel result (that way I don't have to remember a # from 5 minutes ago) and use that as the defender's roll on Table 4-5. 
• If both original spells succeeded after the counterspell results, use the reverse: the highest adjusted result from the first pair of spells is the defender's roll.
• #3 is now the attacker. Have them roll their spell check and resolve as above.
• If #3 crits (or critically fails) on their spell check, skip the first two tables and go directly to Table 4-7 (page 103).
• If it was a nat 20, pick one from the list that isn't too devastating, AND allow #3's spell to go off as normal. This signifies that they're just casting on the coattails of a major phlogistonic event and didn't have an ounce of control. 
• If it was a nat 1, roll on Table 4-7 while the player ALSO makes the normal corruption/misfire rules as per result 1 on the spell they cast. Yeah, I said roll this time, vs. picking a result. Please accept my personal apologies for tanking your game...or, hey, pick a result, or go as zany as you feel. Use this as an excuse to drop something you've had in your "eventually I'll do this in my game" folder onto the table. Make it your game.
• If you get any guff about these calls, remind them that 3-way(+) spell duels aren't "rules as written", either!

Off-topic, but necessary.

It has been one hell of a year already. The DCC community continues to be my touchstone to sanity, and truly is the family I look forward to seeing a couple of times a year. But 2020 has seen to it that in-person greetings are off the table, which means a lot of dark days for many of us.

Sadly, things remain in flux around the globe. Situations may yet become more dire for some of us before we're allowed to get together in person again.

In recognition of the seemingly-insurmountable odds ahead of humanity, I'd like to extend a personal invitation:

If you are facing a wall and need help -- whether it's info on a local food pantry, or a small financial boost, or just a place to vent -- please feel free to reach out to me.

Comment here. PM me on FB. Email me. DM me on Twitter. Whatever you're comfortable with. If I don't have the answer, I'll look for it. Even if I can't give physically, I can put out a word.

The Tribe has been there for me since 2013. I clung to DCC (and the G+ community) like a damn lifeline during so much turmoil. The group on FB has made me proud to be a continued member this year. I feel it's important to give back, even if it's just to listen and grant you a point or two of fleeting Luck.

Lankhmar news!

From today's KS update:

The 40'-long container full of boxed sets has landed!

That's right:

DCC Lankhmar is here.

Fulfillment will begin soon. More news to come!

~ personal note from Jen ~
I am so nervous I could puke. Yes, I've already found a couple tiny little things that could stand a bit of tweaking in the next printing - because it's what I do - but it's an AMAZING product and I cannot WAIT for y'all to get it in your little paws.
*squibble*

And though it's been an age since I've posted here ... this is nearly the culmination of the first Big Thing. So here we are.

Gary Con X

About this time, 4 years ago, I was quaking in my boots as I planned for my first excursion to Lake Geneva for Gary Con VI. "I finally get to meet these people who seem to get me!" ...followed by the dreaded, "What the hell am I going to wear in that weather?"

I ran no games. I immersed myself in it completely...and laughing at Doug's table is still, all these conventions later, in my top memorable experiences. As was the greeting I received in the bar the first night...which Bob will not let me live down.

(It also turned out to be an on-site interview, though I didn't know it at the time. Good thing, that.) 

I'm jittery as I prep/pack for Gary Con X, but the anxiety is a different flavor after a few years' exposure. Now it's, "I get to see MY PEOPLES! My FAMILY!" ...and still, "What the hell am I going to wear in that weather?"

This year I am running a paltry 4 games, 2 slots each for 2 DCC Lankhmar adventures (1 pending publication, the other... well, mine. It might be more of a sandbox, depending on the table. And that worked brilliantly at the off-book game last year.) Oh, and Rat-Snake circles are happening in the lounge this year after hours. Every night, if y'all want.

I simply cannot WAIT to see those of you who'll be there. I will dreadfully miss some who aren't able to attend, but I promise to make the most of it on your behalf.

It's almost Voting time!

In case anyone hasn't heard yet -- Spellburn made the short list of ENnie nominees this year!

We're ecstatic and humbled, and we hope we can count on you to rally the troops when the voting opens! (July 11 - 21, 2017) Winners will be announced Friday night at Gen Con!

To get you revved up into voting gear, let's do an informal set of questions -- all about DCC RPG, naturally! The link to my little quick-and-dirty, UNOFFICIAL** survey is below. Using the ENnies as a base for my inspiration, here's a sampling of the questions I'm putting out there:

Favorite Dice set

Favorite Free Product

Favorite Zine

Favorite Cover Art

Favorite Setting (from Goodman Games or third-party publishers)

Favorite Adventure you've played in

Favorite Non-DCC adventure/product to run using DCC rules

There are so many resources and products out there! Some fall off my radar. Some are extremely helpful to players (and judges) new to the game, or new to RPGs as a whole. If you don't mind taking a stab at it, I think it could prove beneficial to the DCC community. Thanks!

Here's the link: https://goo.gl/forms/JlejHXbM6nsypGqs2

Type in your favorite under each heading. (I simply do NOT have time to populate the multiple-choice lists, sorry!) It doesn't matter if you don't have the name exactly right. Try to limit your entries to one per category. And best of all, you can come back to it if your answers change over time. 

(Please comment here if you run into any errors with the link or the survey.)

DISCLAIMER: I will periodically post the answers, as a resource for players and judges alike. 

**Yes, this is an UNOFFICIAL, independent survey. It is neither prompted nor requested by any publisher. This is not to be considered corporate research data in any capacity. Any and all results, whether in part or in whole, will be revealed independently by me [on my blog, in DCC RPG communities on G+/FB, or on air via Spellburn]. I am not collecting e-mail addresses with this form, and your answers will never be released in conjunction with your identity. 

Free RPG Day: The annual holiday of our people!

Free RPG Day 2017...so many highlights in a 14-hr span!


~ Reuniting with Troy Tucker, the guy responsible for "all this",  and bringing my 1st printing #DCCRPG tome to its *6th* Free RPG Day event. I will eventually have to retire the poor thing, but yesterday was not that day.

~ Running Dieter Zimmerman's Not in Kansas Anymore for a group of not-quite beginners, including one of the FLGS owners, and player Riley stealing the show (he made the whole damn thing so enjoyable, I felt zero pressure - I officially want him in EVERY GAME I EVER RUN UNTIL THE END OF TIME... "Live your truth, man!").

~ Ran The Arwich Grinder for the first time ever. I unabashedly used different voices and inflections and made sound effects (which were probably as atrocious as my mapping skills) and a whole bunch of stuff that I usually shy away from, all because I could tell it was weirding out David and his kid (who were over from FLL). A+++, will run again, has potential to let me run something that might actually surprise/impress Bob!

~ Seeing familiar faces from folks who came out last year, and meeting new people who traveled from St. Pete, Tampa, Sarasota, and Ft. Lauderdale (2-3 hrs one way) just to come to Dungeon Games and play games.

~ After busting ass to coordinate GMs and sign-up sheets for scheduled games that some people poo-pooed, the FLGS had their highest sales day in the store's history. Yeah, I take a little pride in that. We do what we can to help those we love.

~ Handing out the first-ever print product from Sanctum Secorum...

~ Getting to surprise players with DCC RPG swag that rarely makes it into the wild! I'd been sitting on the stadium cup set from last year, so I brought one for each game and let them dice off for it. Some of the new players were as ravenous for "one of everything" as I've been in the past. Kindred spirits!

~ And, finally, the payoff that's stuck with me for the past 12 hours: My last table was a DCC Lankhmar demo, with players rolling up characters from scratch, which really helps immerse them into the literary material and showcases a few of the fundamental system changes from "regular" DCC. One of the players had been in last year's playtest campaign but the others were inexperienced and pretty rapt...until the characters continued to separate and go their own ways, despite leads and prompts to join up. At some point I stopped trying to fight it, and just gave them each 5-10 minutes of their own little "chapters", then they finally merged together for the primary story thread with about 90 minutes remaining. I embellished "Literary Lankhmar" and created a challenge with the promise of a tidy settling of debts...and the ending left me with the resolve that, while it's a great setting and I'm a little tied to both Leiber's and DCC Lankhmar, it really feels better in an ongoing capacity. (More on that pontification later.) One of the players who'd driven from Sarasota had been sitting with a nonplussed expression for the better part of 3 hours, but at the end he said, "I really wasn't sure. I was thrown off by the lack of 'party' activity...but now I realize, it's just like the books! Even Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser are rarely side-by-side for the whole thing! I'm really looking forward to this now!" Not only did I breathe a sigh of relief at not bogging things down for the player or diminishing his enjoyment of the past 4 hours...but apparently I succeeded in my translation of the material - and even better, I invoked the feel of Leiber!! I may do ya proud after all, Michael Curtis. :)

{more pics may come, just so I can keep them all in one place for archival purposes}

Get these guys some cue cards.

Recording late at night during the cooler months (y'know, when it's not ~80 degrees at 10pm) is great.

Recording late at night these days results in comments like, "Huh. I hear crickets."

Me: You bein' funny?

"No, I really hear crickets."

Me: <mute> <unmute>

"Yep, it's Jen." 

Me: What the...? <take off headphones as I move away from the computer> Huh? Oh hey waitasec... <return to desk> Yep. You're right, guys. We've got crickets tonight. At least we're storm-free...

~~~~

So, um, fair warning: while my sound editors rock, we might have crickets in the show(s). Both podcasts, even. Damn. And the more I mute, the more noticeable they'll be when I unmute. 

Asshole crickets. They're not even on cue.

And now, every single night, my awareness of the noisome nuisances has heightened exponentially. Holy hell, these crickets sound like they're lined up around my window like there's an iPhone release for insect-kind at midnight, followed by a rave giving out free Fireball. I suppose it could be worse; could be tree frogs after a good rain -- they'll keep me up at night -- or those damned whippoorwills... God bless the silent lizards who eat these things.


~~~~

**Related, but not really: Any first-hand experience with/suggestions for a standalone mic with an on-board mute button?

Not much on the DCC front. In the meantime...

This week has left me feeling ... fragile.

We rejoiced at being able to get back to our home AD&D game after the pile of deadlines. And then this...?! Sheesh. It's been two days, and I think I can finally talk about it now:

Active Cast:
Me: Roska, lvl 11 half-orc fighter
Toni: Nimue, lvl 12(?) elven ranger (polymorphed to look like a drow a year+ ago)
Neil: Bactine, lvl 14(?) gnome cleric

Roska tried to save her longtime friend, Nimue, who was fighting an invisible (to the rest of us) foe. After seeing a cleric get thrown back by some force, Roska asked Nimue if she needed help. She said yes, so Roska ran in, knowing something bad might happen, but - Nimue FRIEND! Roska tried to use Wave -- yes, THAT Wave -- to shield her. All of a sudden Wave EXPLODES and a mirror image of the drow (which only she & Nimue can see) is charging in to attack her.

Didn't expect THAT kind of bad. :(

The shock of Wave's destruction was definitely felt around the table, to a person. The Cube of Friendship shall be missed...especially by the squishy magic-users.

{At that point, I may have been heard to say something glib like, "I'd rather Roska had died, than lose Wave."}

The faux-drow kept pursuing Roska even after Nimue's body hit the ground. What kind of screwed-up betrayal is this?? The little half-orc brain couldn't process it. She ended up relenting to the mirror image of Blackrazor.

Oh, yeah, did I mention our friend was wielding Blackrazor?

Throughout all this, I don't know if having Toni at the table in person vs. via Skype would've made things better or not. If she'd been here, there probably would've been real tears and Bob would've felt even worse. It was definitely tense. (I still love you, Toni! I promise!!)

Luckily it was just a mirror image of Blackrazor, so Roska's soul wasn't irrevocably gone. In the clusterf*** we also lost our highest-level cleric in the party. Roska was brought back via "poor man's resurrection" (raise dead + animate dead) by the 9th-level cleric at the scene; Nimue was left with 1/2 her XP and NOTHING but the sword - but looks like HER again; Bactine was irrecoverable. It's gonna take quite a bit of equipment-juggling to get through the rest of the Demonweb Pits at this point, especially without Bactine and the 2 absent clerics. GRR. NO MORE ALIGNMENT SHIFTS, 'KAY PEOPLE??
....
And that's how my week went. *sigh* Starting to remember why funnels are better: no time to get attached to characters or crucial items...

The Swordfish Islands, or "The best thing I discovered at NTRPG Con"

I've been having more fun with this than I can express. I think part of it is in the order in which I started reading the material: 1) Toxic Elven Smut (NTRPG release) - loved the map, the day/night encounter tables, and some of the monsters were born of fantasy-gone-horror. The system-neutral factor is a plus, as I'd mentioned. Not sure where (or how) I'll use the introductory story plates, but they should be used. Yeah, I'm hooked. 2) I read through the first couple of chapters of the Field Guide to Hot Springs Island. Brilliant stuff. The whole premise is that the chain of islands is discovered after a cataclysmic event, an unknown period of time after it was half-submerged by water...and other stuff. I got through the letters coming from the first people to stumble across Hot Springs Island (or, at least, the first whose notes survived), some correspondence to/from universities about studies made from these notes and personal accounts, as well as a couple of "alphabets" for languages cobbled together from said explorers' notes. Given what I'd already read in TES, some things started shifting into place in my brain.

I should preface this by explaining that this volume, a good-sized trade paperback, was sold as "something suitable for the players to read." Don't make the mistake of giving away any of this info without first digesting it yourself - or at least having a copy handy for your own reference. No stats are involved anywhere, but I feel the judge should understand the conclusion of "Oh, this must be where *this* happened" before players are given the clues to make that connection. For instance, Hot Springs Island was predominantly inhabited by elves prior to the cataclysm, but there's little to lead to this at first.

**NOTE TO JACOB: NEED THE FIELD GUIDE IN PDF FORMAT. SERIOUSLY. Being able to print off a single page (or portion thereof) to hand out would be *perfection*. 3) After an unwilling hiatus, I returned to the Field Guide today and picked up where I left off: Plant life. Some very cool stuff. Some had me cross-referencing Toxic Elven Smut, making some mental connections and leaps of logic, which got me flipping through ... 4) ... the "public" version of Toxic Elven Smut [2nd printing], which elaborates on some of the monsters with motivations and gives more info on the primary powers & influences of Hot Springs Island during its heyday. It had me flipping back & forth between the TES versions and the Field Guide, putting more things together.

5) Then there's the Lapis Observatory. Absolute genius. The whole thing is consistently presented in system-neutral format (so my DCC pals can see where I'm going with this). The observatory, one of the most easily-accessible areas from the main shores of Hot Springs Island, sheds a little light on the history of the island with the critters and artifacts. As for encounters: you can either roll to determine what kind of stuff is waiting on each floor, or compile it yourself -- and remember, while special attacks/qualities are noted, you get to stat them up to fit your needs.

After an hour or two of this fevered reading, cross-referencing, and reading some more, I feel energized (I want to run this for every one of our local groups NOW) and fully satisfied, as if I've just conquered a huge Cthonic mystery set forth by one of Bob's old CoC campaigns, with the levels of research and library use that my brain just went through. Damn if I don't want to start taking notes and flagging pertinent pages...but it'll need to percolate for a bit while I tackle some real-life adventures first.

Mind you, I'm barely halfway through the Field Guide. I still haven't hit the follow-up correspondence or known monsters [save for those appearing in the zines], or any number of other goodies.

My understanding is that Hot Springs Island is but one of many to be described in the upcoming compendium (likely a KS) for the Swordfish Islands. And I can't friggin' wait.

I miss my FLGS.

Just stopped into a comics & game shop in the area by our hotel.

Good points:
...Such a store exists!
...Shop Guy was more knowledgeable about RPGs than comics (the lady behind the counter was the comic guru - also a nice change.
...Shop Guy had nothing bad to say about Goodman, save for not having core books available for long stretches.

But then he went and said DCC was "too crunchy" ... and I may have gaped at him like a clubbed seal.

Hubby suggested helpfully that it may have been the spells. S.G. said he was the only one in his group (5E players, per previous convo) who could grasp it.

Then S.G. went on to rave about Dark Eye, and how it kind of has the same type of swingy spell results.

I ... uhh...

It is so hard leaving someone with a misconception about something I have a passion for. I would've offered to run it for him tomorrow (my last full day in town) if I had the day free, but I don't...and I don't know if I could summon the patience to weave a thread of logic through that, anyway.

If any readers find themselves in southwest Nevada, I'll pass on the quasi-FLGS info so you can tag in on the proselytizing!

Rolling over the body of the blog

Oh wow. Just realized how long this poor thing has gone neglected...not by desire or design, of course, but that's how life goes sometimes. There are many things I've wanted to shout on the rooftops, but life gets in the way.

To parallel this, I've not run DCC RPG (or any other games) since Gary Con in early March due to an auto accident within a week of our return home...but I'm not here to dole out medical updates or whine for sympathy. Instead, I give you a list of seemingly disjointed thoughts:

...I noticed that Friday was a very popular day on this page. Is Wayne Con to blame?

...Gary Con was another first: I ran 4 sessions at a convention. It's nothing compared to +Brendan LaSalle's nine sessions, for a total of 36 hours... That man is a friggin' MACHINE. I avoided the brunt of the resultant con crud; he did not. I'm sensing a correlation.

...Dark Trails is something that must be experienced. (Who the hell dug this Baity guy up and brought him into the DCC community? He's top-notch.)

...I must admit deep sadness that I do not get to convert the printer's proof of the 4th printing leather cover into the Acolyte's Hymnal or Acolyte's Screen of Awesomeness.

...Gary Con currently holds my heart, but we're venturing out to NTRPG Con this year to check it out. I'll be running two slots, continuing the playtesting for one of +Harley Stroh's upcoming DCC projects, The Music of the Spheres (Is Chaos).

...The Dark Master has me editing some upcoming releases that I'm dying to run and/or put into use at my table. I'm stupidly excited to see the public response!

...I'll be running on Free RPG Day at the FLGS aka home base, Dungeon Games in Estero, FL. I haven't decided which module(s) or if I'll do a double-header or not, but tables start at 12:30pm and 6:00pm. If nobody shows up, I'll just grab one of each of the *5* (!!) covers of this year's Goodman Games release as a consolation prize. (I'm not even joking.)

  

 

...Our performing group has been confirmed by Gen Con, so we will be there! Yay! As per usual, our hotel and performance schedule have not yet been dispersed. Boo. Learning from prior years, we didn't even bother with event registration this time around, so we're banking on after-hours shenanigans. I've been toying with the idea of running Against the Atomic Overlord over a series of 3 nights...but not knowing if I'll be out of costume by 8pm makes planning difficult.

...We'll be performing in Peoria, Illinois, again this June - this time it'll be the weekend after Free RPG Day, thankfully! But I rarely travel out of state without my DCC tome, so if anyone's in the area that weekend and interested, I could perhaps be persuaded... For that matter, I may open this up to folks in the Chicago suburbs...say, Tuesday evening? I doubt we'll have the chance to swing through Cincinnati this time around (sorry, guys!) since we're looking at being home for a grand total of 9 days in the month of June. [Note to self: Revisit this. ASAP.]


To address a couple inquiries floating around the aether:

...Spellburn is not dead. It's just taking some time to recover from all the stat loss. (Remember, fellow casters: you can't recover stat points each day unless you refrain from spellburning that day.)

...Sanctum Secorum has scaled back to once a month for the foreseeable future. Prior to real life "getting in the way," we all decided it was unrealistic to continue the breakneck pace of every two weeks, considering the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to produce clean audio + a full companion PDF for every episode, after the reading assignment homework. So we're sticking with the first Friday of each month -- even if that coincides with conventions.

And last, but certainly and NEVER least ~~

Happy birfday to our very own Bacon Wizard, +David Baity!

Beyond the Black Gate did NOT go as planned.

Dear DCC RPG Community,

I never thought it would happen to me...

One of the PCs in my long-running campaign has become a patron--or at least taken the mantle (or horns) of one.

To be fair, he was simply taking the Horned King's crown. His new cohort (new PC, long-time player with us) didn't understand the mission fully, wasn't familiar with the legend of the Wild Hunt, and twisted the meaning of the word "king" and immediately killed the poor guy without consulting anyone else in the party. All this, despite my repeated warnings that they may not get the prime/desired outcome if they simply murder-hoboed their way through this one (Beyond the Black Gate).

To continue, in all fairness: It's Bob's PC. He's copacetic with retiring the dwarf as soon as this scenario [module] is wrapped up. While bittersweet, it's wholly fitting, thematically, that the "Ooh, I've never killed one of these before!" guy is now the master of the Wild Hunt. And, because this is Bob we're talking about, he's totally willing to rewrite the patron taint & invocation tables to reflect his personality, and even his current newness to the job.

My qualms... The crown was taken, no biggie. This other guy, and his actions based on misunderstanding, just screwed the rest of the party out of a few choice options, leaving them to follow Bjorn, the 6th-level murder-hobo-turned-badass-turned-nearly-NPC, to finish this chapter of the campaign.

On one hand, I'd been trying to figure a way to wrap up this particular game and its current set of characters without resorting to the "game got cancelled and we never reconvened" route, which sucks for everyone. I'd like to go about playtesting something different and have not been successful in carving out additional days/times, but I also hate loose ends.

On the flipside, this new development gives me a lot to play with...if I don't burn out on the current player/character combo at the table.

Anyone else run into such a major game-changer?

The Sanctum!

There's been new DCC happenings in the proverbial neighborhood. If you're reading this, you probably know about it already.

Part of me has been remiss over here; part of me has been waiting for the website to go mostly-fully-live. Then it was, and I was busy having my skull nommed on by life. (Really gotta stop using basting sauce as a perfume. Sorry 'bout that.) There's been a lot of prep for this thing, too. And more editing. All of this is cool, it's just a little brain-consuming.

So here she be. If you haven't already visited the hub to listen, check out the Sanctum Secorum podcast.* I adore the overall aesthetic quality; something about those woodcuts just gets me.

Hint: Explore the Dark Acquisitions to find the free show companions, free "for the community, by the community" offerings that accompany every show. And sometimes they hit the stacks independently...



*Caveats: Sanctum Secorum is neither affiliated with--nor in competition with--Spellburn, as it's all about spreading the love for the game. Nor are my loyalties divided. Et cetera. Ad nauseum.

Interludes

Between working, traveling, editing, reading up for future projects, and more working, I found myself seriously stressing about where my campaign was going (the party took a left at Albuquerque last game, ending things on an awkward note after 3 sessions of People of the Pit with a good 20% of the place untouched). There simply wasn't time for me to do the normal prep work this week, and I certainly haven't had the brain capacity to stew on it and come up with some awesome resolution. But I had an epiphany yesterday: Interludes!

When Bob's 1E sandbox campaign [please note, I'm specifically not tagging him yet] recently came to a point where he needed some time to pass in the game, he put together some "interludes," episodes in which the players were given pre-generated characters that pertained to a different part of the world. Maybe they're designed to tell some backstory, and the scene takes place in the past to give us a better understanding. In one, we played thieves who ended up thwarting an assassin's attempt on the Mayor's life. We don't know exactly when that particular scene takes place on the grand timeline, but he'll reveal the resulting mayhem to our regular characters when we resume the main story. We've also had a one-shot where we played characters that would've been NPCs or villains to be taken out in regular play. It offered a lot of insight to us as players, in regards to the underlying motives.

I've decided on the "meanwhile, in this other location" approach. They'll all be playing 2nd-level ...well, formerly NPCs, who have to deal with the aftermath of one of the party's recent raids. They'll witness a previously-dismissed enemy limping back home, and will have to shoulder the subsequent wrath of a boss for allowing the PC party to desecrate his territory. I'm willing to bet they'll also stumble into an area that's off-limits to lackeys like them, and discover how a particular plot-driving item has been manufactured.

The interludes have been really enjoyable to play, and break up the monotony a bit, so after a mere hour of work - and most of that was statting up these particular lackeys - I feel pretty good about it now.

XP is going to be awarded after the fact (in both our games) to the regular PCs for participating in these cut-scenes.

DCC RPG #68: The People of the Pit

I'll admit it; I'm one of those who didn't give this one enough credit when I first saw it. "Oh goodie, cultists summoning something with tentacles. I get enough of that in our two-year-long Call of Cthulhu campaigns..." 

NO. 

You know you've been thinking it too. "I'm sick of judging combats with tentacles!" 

Please hear me out.

I see very few people in the G+ communities talking about running this one, which leads me to believe that many others are judging books by covers and falling into the trap of viewing only the basic premise. 

Or, to be fair, it could be that it's not a new release. Or that you didn't find the cover art stunning at first glance. Or you might just not be into the "cultist" scene. 

Seriously, shed those reservations now. 

One-shot vs. Campaign?
This has a lot of meat to it. A LOT. It's not going to play nicely as a one-shot unless you condense it to a few key encounters -- which, actually, could provide for some high-quality play. I might try that for our next game day and/or mini-con.

Conversely, if you're running a campaign and you read this module ahead of time, there are tons of hint you could start dropping. Or, if you're like me and hit a wall during the campaign, you could find yourself picking this mod up, gritting your teeth against the "trite" concept, and coming up for air a couple hours later armed with pages of notes and a maniacal grin that worries anyone you live with. 

As I mentioned previously, the most often-encountered foes harken strongly to the Hollow Ones found in the core rulebook, which I ran as part of a huge, multi-session, crescendoing scene in the sandboxed village, Port of the Black Pearl (formerly the small shanty town from which Tower of the Black Pearl kicks off). The party still isn't sure if the faceless men with things spawning from their midsections were creatures that had been summoned, or if they'd been working alongside a coven of witches, so it made perfect sense to play on that bit of mysteriousness: The eyeless acolytes in the Pit are now faceless, albeit wearing robes in a different method of color-coding. [Note to self: Do not allow faceless creatures to become a crutch just because a judge doesn't want NPCs to be able to answer interrogations.]

Summary: Even if you've only skimmed it, it's worth taking a good cover-to-cover look -- or at least check out the 3rd level, and the intricacies of travel within. There are still plenty of other monsters besides cultists, and I could see reworking a good portion of this place to be run by the mineral mining critters instead of humanoids...even with no huge threat in the pit itself.

Back to it!

The open-table campaign has been through a lot of sandboxing, including a few published pieces and parts slid together to culminate in a few original sessions. Most recently, I've modified a couple adventures to fit the story.

Man, that's intensive.

Today I went back to basics: I ran a module with some scaled-up monsters and just the barest storyline adjustments to the "how & why you're here".

Much better.

It was nice to take less than 3 hours to prep the day before. It was wonderful to not stress about it for the hour-long drive to the FLGS. It was nice to feel more secure in where things were going (and yes, I had pegged the group's route). It was even nice to run with the new screen, despite my ambivalence about screens. And it was nice - if a little bittersweet - to hear the surprise in players' voices when they expressed their enjoyment after the fact.

We all have our niches, right? I've suspected I'd been running off the rails when left to my own devices, and my players have been awesomely patient with me, but I think I've confirmed my sweet spot.

Let's do this thing! Game on!

...This week's choice, by the by, was to hearken back to the early line, via People of the Pit, with tweaks to the cultists' stats to stand up to a mixed party of 0-lvl to 5th. The cultists are strikingly similar to the Hollow Men, given to us in the core book -- and those similarities correlate nicely with the sandbox.

Worth every mile.

This past weekend, we were fortunate enough to attend an experimental mini-con with approx. 15 others, hosted in Richmond, VA by the illustrious Wayne Snyder.

The locale was an art studio in a historic post-industrial structure. As summer in the southeast U.S. is underway, the result was humid and at times too warm -- just the sort of thing I generally flee for the comfort of air conditioning at home. It wasn't glamorous. It wasn't pretentious. It certainly wasn't posh.

And it was perfect.

This was the first time in over a decade in which we've been able to leave the state without a full itinerary of obligatory family visits. It was actually difficult for me to fully grasp this, and simply relax, until Sunday. But it was exactly what we needed, and far overdue.

Gaming (for me) included Swords and Magic (the Wayne & Lily production), Talisman, DCC (including a bit of a Lankhmar preview by Doug), Metamorphosis Alpha, and Thunder Road.

In between the games - the official excuse for gathering - were excited, happy discussions. So rarely are any of us able to get together in person for anything social; conventions tend to give us exchanges like, "Hey! Great to see you, now I have to run to my next game!" This was a chance to sit back with no real schedule...and get to know the people we'd all been following online and +1'ing for years, as well as some of Wayne's local friends who joined us for the festivities.

This weekend also served as a recharge to many of our creative batteries. Pooling ideas, watching others' judging styles and techniques, and sharing tales of our home games... It was the gaming equivalent of the diverse food offerings on the buffet line.

I thought about giving "notable mentions" to certain individuals who made a special impact on our experience, but there honestly wasn't a single attendee who didn't leave their mark on the event. Much love to all, and most to Wayne for his unending hospitality. {Okay, and to Taylor, David, and Doug for feeding me!} Until we all meet again...

Brady's last words (from 02.15.15 session)

[Not gonna lie: The act of posting recaps is more than difficult. Ergo, as judge, I'm hand-waving this rule.]

After exploring Brady the Merchant's shop and newly-constructed warehouse compound, and finding their own brewery was being robbed and fakes were being put out in place of the Dead Goblin Ale, they came across a wizard's workshop with a hidden portal. Using a Scale of Truloq to make the prerequisite blood sacrifice, they teleported into an unknown, who-knows-where cavern system. Shenanigans ensued (for days!) until they finally found the merchant. Despite him having been left for dead in this isolated place by forces unknown, Bjorn rattles him into raspy speech with repeated threats of death for stealing their beer. 

Here are some of the highlights:

...huh? Oh, damn dragons...

...stole the Pearl from under Quenn's nose...

...bargained with Capo Tormanu to take over imported beer shipments...but he welshed on the deal til I let his crew build the new shop. Not allowed to ask questions. No say.

 Doing okay after that. Port of Black Pearl all making money...

Had to live in the Mermaid while they rebuilt my house. Tore the whole damn thing down. Then wouldn't let me back...

Mortesh was angry. You took him. I let you leave. I let him out of my sight. So much knowledge...so much history! Worth so much...but I was weak. I couldn't keep him. Wanted him. Not for Mortesh. Not for research. Not for dragons. Mortesh is so angry...

...found workshop. Told Capo I'm out. Quiet. Then kid... Kid sold me out.

...Mortesh was so angry...

And, of course, before he can ask for quarter or assistance, he passes out -- at which point, Bjorn Berber (now a 5th-level dwarf) predictably kicks Brady's skull in.

"Newer" Appendix N Alert

During my workyworkyworky~TING~ phases, I tend to listen to audio books. I paused in the midst of Jack Vance because I'd been wanting to re-read Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora (and Red Seas Under Red Skies, the 2nd in his Gentlemen Bastards series) so that I can jump into the [relatively] newly-released 3rd book. I figured it'd be no issue to play this fluffy** one as a review while crunching on numbers...
**compared to Vance

OH MAN. The audio presentation of this is just that: a performance. 

As in, to the point that Bob's tired of listening to me gush about it.

It fantastically blurs that line of audio book and audio play. I find myself replaying chapters for enjoyment, not because I'd missed something. I almost want to replay the entire thing when I finish it, before going on to book #2.

And NOT SO FLUFFY anymore. As I mentioned, I'd read it before; twice, I believe, since I wanted to be refreshed on the storyline prior to reading the Red Skies. But the Appendix N appeal wasn't there back then...and by the Twelve Gods, this is a brilliant story about thieves set within a world previously inhabited by unknown alien entities. The Elderglass, the alchemical light balls, the gentled creatures... I'm in love with this book all over again. The audio presentation brings it to life in a way unlike any audio book I've experienced. If I had the time, I'd curl up with the book and read along!

As I'm listening, I'm also toying with the idea of starting a DCC campaign in this world, but it's a little too ... brutal, I suppose, for the local players. But it could be done...spectacularly in a convention setting, methinks.

Synopsis: Thank you, #DCCRPG, for re-opening my eyes to the possibilities of Appendix N, and things I'd missed before. And, of course, to Mr. Lynch, for material that makes me laugh, gasp, and re-read (and listen) repeatedly. Your dialogue inspires me to push my own creativity.

The One Who Watches From Below (conclusion) ~ 04.27.14

[Editorial note: Cleaning out the pending drafts and posting with bare-bones basics. This way the players can at least skim through and remember which ones their various PCs took part in.]

Cast:
Bjorn Berber: Dwarf/4
Garrett: Halfling/3
Growlen Legbinder: Thief/2
Eridan: Wizard/3 (+Pyraspite, familiar)
Valmyr: Wizard/1

So many messed-up moments here. Most entertaining were the creativity used in transporting the now-petrified familiar, and Bjorn racing through underground tunnels as fast as his little dwarfy legs could take him after getting zapped for -6 Int. Yes, he got some herp with his derp.


Credits:
The One Who Watches From Below - Jobe Bittman / Goodman Games

Post-adventure math
Bjorn: +13 XP
Garrett: +12 XP
Eridan: +12 XP
Growlen: +12 XP
Valmyr: +10 XP

PARTY LOOT: 5 silver-tipped arrows / mirror shield / Sparklefang (+1 long sword) / various "normal" equipment, resold for total value of approx. 447 GP to be split

PRE-CLAIMED LOOT: 
Bjorn: 1 dwarven helm
Eridan: blue wand (force manipulation)