DCC Dying Earth Bundle of Holding

There is a DCC Dying Earth Bundle of Holding for sale. I went in on the basic level of this, because $17.95 (or more if you prefer) is a great deal on a $40 PDF.

Also, I don't play DCC, but the DCC version of Lankhmar is very true to the source material, so I want to see the DCC view of Dying Earth.

Click HERE if you're interested in seeing the offer page.

DCC #100 arrived!

I just got a shipping notice today . . . not terribly long before I got a delivery notice from the USPS. This will climb to the top of my reading list as of this weekend, when I should have time to open it up.

It was pricey once the shipping kicked in . . . so I better run it to make it worth it!

Looks good so far!

DCC Lankhmar Bundle of Holding

I purchased and enjoyed the DCC Lankhmar boxed set. I really need to review it. But it's now available in PDF form in a Bundle of Holding:


DCC Lanhkmar Bundle of Holding


I'm going to pass because I don't need the supplements - I simply won't use them for lack of time to do so - but they are a nice package if you want to jump into DCC-versioned Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser adventures in one fell swoop.

There is also a "Thieves" collection up, but it doesn't seem like quite as good of a deal to me.

DCC Bundle of Holding

So, for about $50, a bit less really, you can get 50 DCC modules on a Bundle of Holding:

50 Dungeons

The earlier you jump in, the less the total needs to be - but of course, you can always err on the upside and donate some extra funds.

DCC Dice experience?

I pledged to the DCC 100 Kickstarter.

I may choose to plunk in another $30 for the starter kit.

Part of the attraction of paying up another $30 is getting another DCC rulebook, an adventure, and some DCC dice.

Does anyone have any experience with those oddball DCC dice?

I've never owned anything other than the platonic solids - D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, D20 - and a D30. Do D7, etc. really work out? Are they worth investing in, just in case I play in person? Is the quality okay?

I just want some input before I put money down.

DCC #100 - Last 48 hours

Only about 48 hours to go in this - I'm hoping for a big push to $200K so I can get something else tossed into the boxed set. Here's hoping!

DCC #100 Kickstarter revisited

I ended up backing the DCC #100 Kickstarter after all. I decided that the price wasn't within impulse buy range, really, but I do have some gaming funds to spend . . . and I really like the idea of a spinning wheel dungeon. I've seen one before, but I lack the skill to make one.

Here is that one I'd seen:

The Rotating Labyrinth

That said and seen, I decided to go in on it for a print copy + PDF. I got in for $55 as part of the first 48 hours.



I'm especially tempted by the $30 + $0 shipping package for people new to DCC. You get a pack of DCC dice, a DCC rulebook, a DCC adventure of their choice, and a GM screen. That's not a bad add-on. I may need to do that, and probably pass on the copy of the DCC rulebook (I have one) to one of my gamers. I'm not sure, yet, but it's such a nice package to put together.

Cool stuff. I think I'll be happier with it than without it.

DCC #100 Kickstarter

So, color me curious. This should go live soon . . . a boxed set for DCC, with a puzzle dungeon.

I'm not sure I'll pledge - it'll probably be more money than I like to spend on stuff I won't use . . . but I like the idea enough to take a look. Here is the pre-launch page:

DCC Lankhmar Poster Map

This is the Lankhmar wall map I always wanted:




So when this comes out, I may have to see about getting a copy of that map somehow. I don't need a cloth one, really, paper will do.

Mail Call: DCC & Yawning Portal

These two books came in the mail yesterday:



I'd been meaning to get a reference copy of DCC for a while, and I found an inexpensive softcover version. It's still got all I like (crazy magic, amusing setting, interesting mechanics to read up on) and what I don't (contradictory statements, no treasure system.) I'd forgotten just how big it is. It takes up nearly as much space as two D&D 5th edition books and it's the same size across as the GURPS Basic Set hardbacks! Good stuff, though, and it deserves a spot on the shelf if only for its unique twist as a retro-derived system.

Yawming Portal is a fun read so far. Yes, I read White Plume Mountain first. It's a well-done conversion as far as I can tell. And of course Blackrazor, Whelm, and Wave are three of the four example sentient weapons in the 5th edition DMG. Heh.

I'm looking forward to reading the other ways, and it makes me very curious about the Dungeons of Dread version of WPM and the original versions of the other adventures I'm less familiar with. And I think I already see some stuff I can use in my GURPS DF game. Hurrah!

Lankhmar and Planescape: Torment news

There is a Lankhmar boxed set on Kickstarter for DCC. I'm tempted to jump in, even though I already have the AD&D version from TSR. The DCC magic system really does seem to fit with Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser - magic is dangerous to be on the giving or receiving end of, no one really wants magical items, and it's all about the adventuring now than building up a domain or retiring to own a tavern.



Because of that, all three of the DCC Lankhmar items on RPG Now are on sale for $2 each - roughly 75% off. I'm thinking of getting one just to see how they are for me as a non-DCC player, but I'm not sure which. Honestly if I was going to play a game set in this world, I'd use GURPS, but DCC adventures are generally pretty entertaining. Any recommendations of which one I should get to try them out?

DCC Lankhmar: Through Ningauble's Cave

DCC Lankhmar: Patrons of Lankhmar

DCC Lankhmar: Masks of Lankhmar

I'm tempted by the boxed set, although I'm not sure I need anything - not even the AD&D Lankhmar book - to run a game set there.

There is also an enhanced version of Planescape: Torment coming out, for $19.99. I've played it through, er, three times? I can't see playing it a fourth (I think the third time I managed to do everything that I didn't do the first two times.) But if you haven't, take a look. It's a great game that really pulls you into the story.

Review: DCC #73: Emirikol Was Framed!

I like to review gaming materials I enjoyed, or found useful. This is one I enjoyed reading, and I expect I'll use chunks of it in my own games.

For my consolidated list of reviews, please see my reviews page.



by Michael Curtis
20 pages
GMG5074 Goodman Games 2012
$6.99 PDF

Emirikol Was Framed is an adventure for 4th-level Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG characters. The back cover text pretty much has this covered:

"The mad wizard Emirikol is terrifying the city! Striking without reason and sending his winged apes to slaughter the populace, the famous archmage has gone too far. Now a coffer of jewels is offered to those who would dare defeat him. The ever-changing walls of his Shifting Tower are guarded by a host of diabolical traps, fiendish guardians, and unimaginable terror. Will your adventurers come out victorious…or lose their very souls in the attempt?"

I had two initial negative reactions to this adventure.

#1: It's based an iconic piece of D&D art by David A. Trampier in the DMG . . . but it goes ahead and changes that art. It's not Emirikol the Chaotic rampaging through town for some unknown reason, it's Emirikol the Chaotic rampaging through town accompanied by a bunch of crossbow-toting winged apes. So it's putting the adventure to a changed piece of art. It felt like changing the Mona Lisa smile to a fanged smirk and basing an adventure on that. No matter how good the adventure, you're trying to play off the imagery of an existing piece of art and the weight it brings to the table . . . it'll be tough to live up to at best.

#2: The title is a dead giveaway for the adventure. It doesn't spell out the plot word for word, but it may as well. Even knowing I own an adventure called "Emirikol Was Framed," or that one exists, if I introduce Emirikol as the target of some adventure, you should be looking for a frame-up. Had it been "Against Emirikol" or something like that, well, a frame-up would at least be a surprise.

After reading it, these both still hold. I'd need a name change and a partial re-skin to run this with any hope of surprise. All of that said, is a very good adventure.

The adventure starts in town, and quickly moves to the tower of Emirikol. The tower is a dangerous place to get in to, and to get around. It's an ever-changing tower outside and a dimension-ignoring mess of rooms inside. So Room A and B might connect, and B to C, but they don't always connect up and down, or fit side-to-side, or any of that. It's basically a pointcrawl, which is probably the best way to run a non-Euclidean dungeon.

The map is attractive but I had some trouble following it at first - I'd recommend printing it out and color-coding it. Mine is a hardcopy, so I'd copy mine first. But it needs some reinforcement to make it visually pop out as useful information. Clear labels of where portals go are already on the map, though, so it's not that the map is poor, just that color will make it more easily useful.

The plot is interesting, and its potential ultimate resolution(s) are also interesting. It's a good chance for adventurers to be adventurers, but also for smart players to find their own solution. There is even a well-done load-bearing monster in the adventure, so you have to be a bit careful just rampaging around if you don't like fleeing as the wizard's lair collapses behind you Hollywood style. It even has a nice setup for using several characters in a recurring fashion, if you so wish.

The magical treasures includes a very interesting magical sword. It's one of those weapons you will love to have as a player but your PC might regret having, much like the weapons of White Plume Mountain.

The art is also quite good - at worst interesting and useful, at best evocative and great as player handouts. "THIS happens to you!" kind of art. Several of the more difficult-to-easily describe or better seen than heard encounters have illustrations, which helps immensely.

The adventure also has a new spell (which takes a whole page, DCC-style) and a 1/2 page table and associated rules for dealing with a fight when the PCs are spectators. Several unique-to-Emirikol's-tower monsters also exist, which could be useful elsewhere or after the adventure is played.

How is it for GURPS?

It would probably work well for GURPS. The fights generally aren't against masses of fodder, which work better in DnD clones than in GURPS. Enough detail is given to assign out stats to everything you need, and even a cursory knowledge of DnD-based systems would let you turn the various monsters and the titular wizard into GURPS stats.

Overall: As much I wish the name wasn't Plot McGivaway, and my gut reaction to the cover art vs. my own imagery of the original piece, this is good stuff. It's tight, it's fun without being purely funhouse, and the PCs have real opportunities and real danger to face. And like the DCC line in general, it's atmospheric as can be.