Occultist - A Class for Adventurers of the Lost World

Sorcery is a definetly a important part of the DCC RPG and it should be present in the Adventurers of the Lost World setting. The atlanteans are masters of sorcery. They are alien beings without the mortal soul and mortal limitations that us humans have. Thus, sorcery was not meant for the mortal mind and body. DCC RPG already makes the use of magic a dangerous bargain, but I wanted to emphasize this hard bargain with a class that makes it clear that theses are forces no one in their right mind should be meddling with. So it's born the Occultist.

Occultist

You discovered that the reality that surrounds us is not really what it seems. The rigid laws of physics are not that rigid. They are malleable, like clay. Seeking occult knowledge, ancient tomes, forgotten entities with forbidden secrets, occultists are capable of transforming the universe around them using ancient formulas and sinister sorcery. The Lost World, to them, is a treasure trove of knowledge and power, ripe for the taking.

What has changed since the last time we were here? d30 Table!

I have a bunch of tables and generators, but it's all in Portuguese on my Brazilian blog Pontos de Experiência. I am mainly working on my Adventurers of the Lost World setting book, but I will eventually translate some of my stuff in English to post here, which is exactly what this post is about today.

When running my games I always want to give the feeling of a world in constant motion and change. The characters can start in a settlement, go on an adventure and when they come back, something must have happened. The world continues without them, and they have to notice it somehow. This will give them the impression that the campaign world is real, even when they are not around!

To aid me in this task, I came up with this simple d30 table. It gives you a general idea you can interpret and create more elaborate events in pretty much any kind of settlement. So, whenever you feel like enough time has passed and some sort of change should happen to a place in your campaign world, roll on the table below and adjust the result to the settlement in question!

Gadgeteer - A Class for Adventurers of the Lost World

We're back with another draft for the special character classes that will be published in the Adventurers of the Lost World book for DCC RPG, a 1930s fantasy pulp version of our world with dinosaurs, atlanteans, nazis, aliens and much more! In this setting, science and magic gets intermingled, specially because of the lost atlantean technology and a scientist with the guts to try the most outrageos theories can develop gadgets capable of the most incredible effects. This Gadgeteer class below represent this kind of individuals.

Gadgeteer

You see the rules that govern our world not as limitations and boundaries, but as tools to achieve great feats. Science has gone a long way since the beginning of civilization, but you believe it still has a long way to go. And you intend to get it there. With the courage to challenge common belief, your inventions are capable of amazing effects that seem magical to the common people but it's nothing more than very advanced technology being tested. Science is your greatest power.

Atlantean - A Class for Adventurers of the Lost World

There are still other classes from Our World that I need to present to you guys here, but since I am working on the classes from the Lost World, I thought about showing how is it going with them. One of the classes is going to be the Atlantean, obviously. These characters will be the last remaining atlanteans in the Lost World. Heirs to a crumbling empire of lost secrets and forgotten ruins. Essentially, they are very similar to the elves of the DCC RPG core rulebook, but have some small changes and a completely different story to fit the Lost World setting.

Atlantean

Your race dominated the world for thousand of years, wielding powerful sorcery and advanced technology still to be achieved by the human race. But that time is far gone. Now, you are one of the few surviving atlanteans, fighting to preserve the few scattered remains of your once mighty empire. You seek the lost knowledge of your race through the ruins that dot the Lost World, dreaming of, one day, restore your lineage to greatness.

Atlanteans are a ancient race of sorcerous beings. Sorcery comes naturally to them, and their ancient religions ensure the assistance of supernatural and alien entities that teach them forgotten secrets. The life in the Lost World is not an easy one now, and they all had to learn to defend themselves from all the creatures that were their subjects in the past. Atlanteans are character class with magical capabilities more reliable (but less extensive and powerful) than the occultists and some martial training, making them very useful to any group in the Lost World.

Road Crew Games at Gen Con 2016 - Part I

It's time for more Road Crew games reports! This time it will be a compilation of 5 Road Crew games reports that happened at Gen Con through August 4th to August 7th! It has been a couple of weeks and I was kinda of sleep deprived during the whole time, so some details might be a little fuzy. But bear with me because we had some pretty awesome time!

Mystic - A Class for Adventurers of the Lost World

Now that GenCon is over us (and I have lots of stuff to tell about this great gathering of gamers), I can continue posting some of the stuff I've already written for my Adventurers of the Lost World setting / toolbox for DCC RPG. This week I bring you the draft of the Mystic class, a kind of character similar to the traditional Monk of our beloved fantasy roleplaying game. These are individuals that seek balance between body, mind and soul through exercise, meditation and learning.

Mystic 

You've hones your body and your mind as a single, unified entity. Your thoughts empower your fists. In far away monasteries you trained for years to achieve a state of equilibrium most mortal men don't even dream about. But that is not enough. Not for you. You seek the perfect balance between mind, body and soul, and the only way this can be found is in the Lost World.

Mystics are mysterious warriors who have developed their bodies and minds to a point where they are almost at perfect equilibrium. This gives them special powers that makes them go beyond the normal limits of mortal men. Although most of them seek inner peace and the equilibrium of body, mind and soul, their training makes them extraordinary warriors, with their fists as deadly as any weapon. Any group can benefit from having a mystic among them, since they make great defenders and have a special sense connecting them to the mystical powers of the Lost World.

Explorer - A Class for Adventurers of the Lost World

Things continue to be developed for the upcoming Adventurers of the Lost World setting for DCC RPG. I am almost done with the Our World classes (just need to finish the Gadgeteer and the Mentalist) and soon will start to work on the Lost World "Race as Class" classes. Today I am bringing the Explorer class, a character specialized in survival and exploration of the wild areas of the Lost World.

As usual, this is not the final version of the text and changes can happen based on the feedback and playtest.

Explorer

You may not have been born in the wild places of earth, but you made them your home. You know what paths to follow. You know what natives and beasts live in the wilderness. Shelter, food and water are just a few steps away when you are around. Your knowledge on the ways of the wild is a valuable resource for any group of adventurers traveling around the world, including expeditions to the Lost World, since much of it is untamed and savage.

Road Crew Game #6 - The Captain's Table - Metamorphosis Alpha 1st Edition

This last Saturday I went to another public gaming event in a local public library here in Rio de Janeiro. This time I took Metamorphosis Alpha first edition for a spin and presented it to local players who, mostly, had never heard of it (we never had it released in Brazil, so that's expected).

I began by presenting the game and it's historical roots, as the first science fiction RPG and the first RPG to refer itself as one. I told how James Ward suggested Gary the creation of a Sci-Fi version of D&D and how Gygax said to him: "why don't you give it a try?". Even though one of the great things about the gameplay is not knowing the players are in a spaceship, I explained them the premise of the setting, and they thought it to be pretty interesting, specially when I talked about the adventure, The Captain's Table and the belief system it implies. The original crew, the Captain, the Engineer, the Geneticist and all others are now the Gods of the their people.

When we started the game, I had 3 players, so I asked them to pick up two characters each, one mutant and one human. Along the game, two more players joined in, so I ended up with a party of 10 characters (so I had plenty of targets to kill along the way). Some of the players were more familiar with modern games and find it strange to play with more than one character at the same time, so I explained them it allows for group splits, more freedom, and the chance to continue playing even if one of their character dies. Since this game was particular deadly, this would be very useful, I assured them.

Specialist - A Class for Adventurers of the Lost World

Things are moving along behind the curtains, but as GENCON approaches, my writings are getting spared between planning and preparations for the 5 games I am running and the listing of all the magnificent stuff I want to buy there!

Today I present another class variation: the specialist. This class is a variation of the Thief class, adapted to the fictional 1930s world of Adventurers of the Lost World with it's own tweaks and perks. It's a class used to represent assassins, spies and international thieves as in classic pulp stories.

Soldier - A Class for Adventurers of the Lost World

Today we continue with the Adventurers of the Lost World previews with the presentation of the draft for a new class. The Soldier would be the equivalent to the Warrior in the fantastic version of the 1930s of Our World in this setting. As always, the final text and mechanics that are going to be in the Adventurers of the Lost World sourcebook may be different than what is presented here.

Soldier

You served the military, maybe even went to war a few years ago. Or maybe you were part o paramilitary group, created to overthrown an authoritarian regime. Fact is you know how to act in combat. You know the armaments. You know the tactics. Your presence in the battlefield can mean the difference between victory and death.

Soldiers are one of the toughest classes in the game, trained to use the most effective and heavy weapons, including war vehicles and equipment. Their military knowledge helps them serve a leading role in combat also, making them valuable individuals to any adventuring party.

The Lost World on the Adventurers of the Lost World - Part II

This is the second part of the description of the characteristics of the Lost World setting in the Adventurers of the Lost World. You can read the first part here.

10 Characteristics of the Lost World

When setting your game in the Lost World, whatever it might be, some characteristics should be remembered in order to capture the right feel of pulp adventure and fantasy exploration that comes from the stories which inspires Adventurers of the Lost World.

A World of Extremes

This is a land where everything is turned to maximum capacity. The mountains are higher, the jungles thicker and warmer, rivers are larger and wilder. Animals in the Lost World grow larger, stronger and more savage than their counterparts on Our World, and that makes the gigantic dinosaurs a greater threat than they already were going to be. The judge can emphasize this aspect by making sure to describe how much bigger things are in the Lost World. Statues are gigantic, raw diamonds are the size of giants head, the trees are as tall as buildings and the tyrannosaurus chasing them could swallow the titanic!

A World Out of Time

Not only time has its own flow in the Lost World but time itself seems to have forgotten this land. Creatures that should not be alive anymore are, like dinosaurs, mammoths, saber tooth tigers, and other extinct animals and beasts. Civilizations long gone from the face of the earth linger in the Lost Land as if no time has passed. This characteristic can be reinforced by the introduction of these ancient people with which the characters can interact and by putting these prehistoric and thought to be extinct creatures in the adventurers path. Being chased by gigantic blood thirsty reptiles is always fun!

A World of Magic

In the Lost World magic is real as science is in Our World. The natives of that land believe in it and either admire or more commonly fear the ones who use it. Shamans, druids, priest and sorcerers harness the energies provided by sinister powers to bend the reality according to their whim. The most learned occultists from Our World speak about dreaded and powerful rituals forgotten on the walls of ancient tombs of the lost civilizations, just waiting to be rediscovered. Most of them want to recover those writings to use it for their own goals, but the most rational of them comprehend that these need to be destroyed least it gets to the wrong hands. This is probably the easiest element to portray in a game since the use of magic is part of the rules. However a common pulp trope is to have evil sorcerers planning sacrifices to summon higher powers to do their bidding, as well as savage priests, shamans and druids that can control the elements to protect their tribes. In the Lost World where Atlanteans ruins and artifacts are scattered, magic can be part of every adventure.

A World of Mysteries

Not everything in the Lost World has a clear explanation. Mysterious things happen in this land that wouldn't happen anywhere else, and this is one of the reasons some people relentless seek the Lost World. Tales speak of miracles such as people walking again when they couldn't in Our World, terminal diseases that strangely vanished after drinking the pure water of a holy fountain, and blind people recovering their sight once they bathed in the pools of a isolated monastery inhabited spiritualist apes. Monuments, statues and buildings that no human hands could have constructed dot the landscapes of this land. Some of them have runes and sigils not present in any mortal language. Be it from the past or present. The judge can portray this characteristic in his game by putting things that are inexplicable in front of the characters, even if they are not directly linked to the main plot. Statues with the faces of alien creatures mode of solid stones that seem almost alive, a great sphere of obsidian that floats just above a crater inscribed with runes and symbols no one yet can decipher, a pyramid constructed upside down and that does not topple. It's quite possible that the adventurers maybe hired to investigate these affects or even make them happen to their patrons.

A World of Strange Creatures

Even though the Lost World is populated with all sorts of animals, other strange creatures also call it home. Most would call these creature monsters, demons or somethings else, but the natives have their own names for them. Creatures that are half man half beasts. Fungal beings that are sapient and have a huge city underground. Amorphous things with thousands eyes and uncountable tentacles that speaks with the voices of hundreds of people. A game inspired by the pulp literature will surely have this element of the Lost World well represented. The Mythos set by Lovecraft and other influential authors are a great source of inspiration to use. In Adventurers of the Lost World, however, the encounter with these creatures and entities does not have to be so fatalistic. This is an adventure game after all.

A World of Legends

Legends and myths entertain the imagination of most people in Our World. But in the Lost World they are real. The fountain of youth, the river styx, the caverns of time and many more legendary places and objects could very well exist in your Lost World. An entirely adventure or even campaign can be centered around these legends and the quest to find them. Legendarily civilizations also exist in the Lost World. In fact, the Atlanteans are an integral part of this land and are included as a character class that can be used by players if the judge allows. The ruins of their once great civilizations are scattered all around, and inside them the marvelous artifacts created by their ancestors. The judge can introduce this characteristic in his game researching real legends and setting them in their Lost World.

A World of Abundance

Jungles full with rare herbs. A city made of pure gold. Mines encrusted with the most precious gems. The Lost World has an abundance of resources that Out World considers valuable and many seek it to explore them. This puts the powers from outside of it in direct conflict with the natives of this land. Not to mention between themselves. The classic struggle of the protagonist hired to explore the resources of this new land who falls in love in love with a native and now is torn between two worlds is very powerful and can be used by clever judges. A game where the characters are natives themselves, or allied with them, and in which they have to battle evil forces trying to extract all the resources from the land no matter what the consequences might be could be interesting. At the same time, a campaign doing the exact opposite is not impossible either.

A World of Savagery

Although various civilizations inhabit the Lost World, this is still a savage land. Barbarian tribes thrive between the few settlements. Savages hide in the jungles, awaiting the unwary. Cannibals lurk in the shadowy swamps. Beastmen and other creatures fight for survival and dominance, attacking anyone who invade their territories. The civilized men from Our World are out of place there. To emphasize this aspect in your game you will need to present contrasting characteristics from civilization and savagery. Angry cannibals chasing the adventurers through the jungle because they trespassed their holy ground is a staple of the pulp genre and can be used ind adventurers quite often.

A World in Danger

The Lost World is not static. Things happen all the time in there and something dangerous is always just around the corner. Volcanos are always about to erupt. Earthquakes shake the ground beneath out feet announcing greater cataclysm to come. Dead pharaohs awaken from their centuries long slumbers to conquest their empires again. A great warrior unites the savage tribes of beastmen to bring the end of men once and for all. Judges need to remember to portray a live and dynamic world with its own actors and events, independently of player characters actions. While the adventurers are trying to find the legendary idol of the Thousand Eyed Frog, a war among the frogmen tribes might be going on, presenting opportunities for allegiances and social conflicts in addition to exploration.

A World in Dispute

If that wasn't enough, the arrival of inhabitants of Out World changes everything in the Lost World. Powerful countries, organizations and even secret societies vie for power and dominance. The wondrous artifacts of the Atlanteans, the abundant resources and the legendary objects that can be found are all for the taking and violent confrontations will certainly arise. As the animosity between the nations of Our World grows, the possibility of a war erupting in the Lost World and changing it forever goes stronger and stronger. Whole adventurers and campaigns could be centered around the race to conquest territories and relics for the main powers and stopping the nazis or some evil secret society to acquire an ancient and destructive Atlantean artifact.

Our World Addendun - Other "Isms" for Adventurers of the Lost World

While posting about Adventurers of the Lost World over the DCC RPG Google + community, +Anne Hunter (whose profile I cannot find now), suggested the creation or mention of other philosophies inspired by the weird and unknown aspects of the fictional 1930s world of the setting in contrast to capitalism, socialis, comunism and fascism. The result is the little piece of text I present below. More about this will appear under the resources chapter (probably in the Lost World Alphabet part).

Sidebar: Other "Isms"

In the fictional setting of Adventurers of the Lost World, where magic is real, people can control others with the power of their mind and science can do wondrous things, other philosophies and ideas will eventually emerge, even with these amazing accomplishments being unknown by most of the population.

The Lost World on the Adventurers of the Lost World - Part I

What follows is the draft for the description of the Lost World I've written in the upcoming Adventurers of the Lost World Setting for DCC RPG. The goal is to be evocative but to leave blanks and details to be filled by individual judges. The book will contain genetal ideas for the Lost World and a lot of resources to help the judges to run games in there. Below is he first part of the general description of this unknown land.

The Lost World 

The Lost World is a land forgotten by time and memory. A land far away from Our World, that does not appear in any map men can remember. Here prehistorical animals that vanish from our world still roam the land and the civilizations long gone still thrive as if not a single day has passed. In this land the laws of reality are not absolute and strange things happen for mysterious reasons. Here, men can find its salvation or its doom.

DCC World Tour Report - Game 5 - The Walking Death

This past Saturday I went to micro-con event here in Rio de Janeiro called RPG na BPE. It's a weekly event in a Public Library where tabletop gamers (specially tabletop RPG players) go to play games, met new people, and get to know new games, be it one from the 1970s or one that was just released. I, as usual, went there to spread the word of our Dark Master, and prepared an special DCC RPG adventure using the Crawling Under a Broken Moon zine from +Reid San Filippo

The idea I had for the adventure was mainly based on an illustration I had recently done for the upcoming issue of CUaBM zine and one of my favorite DCC adventures, Doom of Savage Kings, by +Harley Stroh . The party was a group of adventurers and survivors fleeing venturing to the north in search of a ancient military base, supposedly with still functioning weapons and preserved rations. Basically, I changed the Hound of Hirot for a Cyber-Mutant T-Rex with Lasers and made the sorcerer aiding the Jarl the one behind it and controlling the creature, that most people called the Walking Death. The village witch, however, had been banished by the new Technomances aiding the Jarl and the adventurers would have to explore the Hypnotic Snakes Swamp to find her. So basically the group could deal with the Walking Death in 3 different ways. Finding the lost military base and get a weapon capable of destroying it, seeking the old tecnowitch in the swamp for help draining its powers, or finding out about the technomancer controlling it and stopping him.

Lost World Occupations for Adventurers of the Lost World (DCC RPG)

In a previous post, I talked about zero level characters occupations in the Adventurers of the Lost World mainly from the point of view of individuals coming from Our World (the fictional 1930s fantasy pulp version or our world at least). Now it's time to talk a little bit about the zero level occupations for characters hailing from the Lost World itself! In addition, we provide a little information on the usage of zero level trade goods. As usual, this is a draft text and the final version of it might be slightly different.

Lost World Occupations

Lost World characters originate from the various cultures and races that call that savage land home. Many human civilizations still survive in this land. As well as many more non human ones. As before, The judge can allow a player to choose his own occupation or make him roll on the following table. Each of them represent the role the character had in his society before heading out on his adventures.

Our World on the Adventurers of the Lost World - Part II (And News)

This is the second part post about the 1930s fantasy pulp version of our world in the upcoming Adventurers of the Lost World setting. You can read the fist part here.

The Unknown  

Although the 1930s of Adventurers of the Lost World is very similar to our own, this is a fantasy pulp adventure setting and this means things are not what the seems on the surface. So far as the majority of the world population know, the world is just as we remember from our history books. The laws of physics work the same way as always, there is no such things as monsters and all those legends about fantastic people and places are all, well, legends. But the truth is that reality can be much stranger than fiction.

Our World on the Adventurers of the Lost World - Part I

There are two completely different scenarios for the adventures of this game to take place: Our World and the Lost World. There are almost opposites, with characteristics from each one contrasting with the characteristics of the other.

By Our World, we are referring to the world we know in our normal lives. The world as it was by the 1930s, with the same countries, maps and people they had back them. Well, maybe with some differences since magic is real, some people have psionic powers and super-science is a thing, even though all of this is rare and almost unknown by pretty much everyone.

As for the Lost World, we are referring to an isolated land, unknown by all, where the laws of our common reality don't quite work the same, where civilizations long gone still thrive, and where legends are real. Dinosaurs and other prehistorical creatures still roam the place and the coming of people from Our World may change everything.

What is Adventurers of the Lost World?

A land forgotten by time, not present in any map you ever saw, where prehistorical creatures roam primeval jungles while ancient ruins hide the lost technological marvels of bygone civilizations. A land with riches beyond our imaginations, with secrets our mortal minds is incapable of fully comprehending and with dangers we will learn to fear. This is the Lost World. 

What is Adventurers of the Lost World? 

Adventurers of the Lost World is a sourcebook for Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game set in a fantastic 1930s version of our world. Superficially, the world seem just like ours in the 1930s, but sorcery is real (although very rare, dangerous and thought to be superstition by most people), some people do have psionic abilities, science can do wondrous, almost magical, things and there is a land beyond the reach of almost everyone where dinosaurs roam, ancient civilizations still live, and strange creatures battle for survival. It's inspired by the pulp adventure stories of such authors as Edgar Rice Burroughs, Lin Carter, de L. Sprague Camp, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and many others. 

This book contains setting information for the judge to create his own Lost World setting, be it a new continent, a forgotten island, the hollow interior of our world or even another planet! Also, there are rules for new character classes, rules for psionic powers, inventions, new monsters and a several resources for players and judges to help them adventure in this Lost World

Our World Occupations for Adventurers of the Lost World (DCC RPG)

Characters in Adventurers of the Lost word can came from both Our World or from the Lost world and their adventures begin when these two meet.

The character creation process is just as presented in the DCC RPG rulebook with just a few adjustments. Zero level occupations are determined using one of the two tables that will feature in the supplement. If the characters hail from Our World, they use the first table. But if they are native to the Lost World, they will use the specific table for that place.

The character classes presented in the character chapter are also divided in two groups. Our World Classes are for character that come from Our World and have more modern like roles. Characters that hail from the Lost World can, at the judges approval, use those classes, or normal DCC classes (since they are more primitive) and the racial classes presented on the Lost World. As usual, zero level characters with non human races have to take the corresponding non human character class.

Classes for Adventurers of the Lost World - 1930s Fantasy Pulp Game of DCC

The Lost Wold (1925)

Last post I talked about creating an adaptation of a 1930s fantasy pulp setting for the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG and some ideas I had for that, including adapting the core classics presented in the DCC RPG rulebook to this scenario and creating some other type of characters. I don't think they would need too much change (well, except of the cleric class, which wouldn't be present and would be substituted by the Mentalist and the Gadgeteer classes, but those would be treated in their own full blown description), but some adjustments would certainly be welcome, as well as some cosmetic change to the demihuman classes.

Inspired by the amazing stories of such authors as Edgar Rice Burroughs, Lin Carter, de Camp, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and many others, I came up with a list of character archetypes that would work as character classes. Seven of them would be for human characters and 5 more for non human characters.

My Games at GENCON 2016 and some thoughts on 1930s Fantasy Pulp DCC!

Peter Mullen's artwork showing a
convention of extraplanar monsters

I live in far of Brazil, in a land almost without gaming conventions. GENCON to me, when I went in 2014, was something completely out of my world. I went crazy last year when I couldn't be there. This year I decided to go again and have my shots at judging some tables with the Goodman Games crew. I signed up for 5 games! 4 of those are Dungeon Crawl Classics games, half with published modules adventures, and half of them with adventures of my own making. The last game is going to be a Jim Wampler's adventure for Metamorphosis alpha.

Below you will find the link to the specific events on GENCON website and a brief description of each game.

DCC RPG – The Ball of Lost Souls - Thursday from 9am to 1pm.
This is a level 2 Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG adventure for 5 – 7 characters set in a sword and sorcery setting written by me and that is in the process of being published (well, that's what I hope). The idea is that a group of adventures end up in the ruins of an  old palace, where a people of sorcerers lived, in search of treasure and other valuable things. However, what they find inside the ruins will affect their own existence. The blurb for GENCON is this one:

In search for lost treasures and knowledge rumored to be buried beneath the ruins of an ancient mansion in the Old City, a group of adventures find themselves sent back in time to the very night hell broke lose on earth and demons captured the souls of hundreds of mortals. Will the PCs share the same fate as those in the mansion centuries ago? Or will they find a way to stop the madness and escape their fates?  

Complications for DCC RPG Characters

Image from Judge's Guild City State
of the Invencible Overlord

It's not uncommon for characters in sword and sorcery stories to have complicated lives, with enemies interfering with their adventures, crime bosses trying to catch them for some debt they owe, cults attacking them for some unforeseen reason they saw in a prophecy. This all the while they are trying to achieve their goals to find a lost treasure, to stop a dark ritual to awaken a sleeping old god and all sort of other quests.

One way to simulate that in our games could be with a simple mechanic like a random encounter linked to each character. Every player could have a complication for his character and once per session the GM could roll a chance for those complications to arise during the game. This would insert more tension in the game and would make the adventures more chaotic, with unexpected events in their way. Since this could potentially screw up all their plans, when the complications show up, the gods could send a favor to the PC in the form of a Luck point to even the odds. That way, a player would have a reason to accept a complication.

Why are my Zero Levels going on an Adventure?

Have you ever got yourself questioning why the heck do your level zero characters are going on this crazy adventure with monsters, planar travel, awakening old gods and cursed places? Most of the time, we do not spend more than a few minutes (or seconds) thinking about it and just jump with both feet on the awesome journey in front of us.

Howerver, it might be interesting to consider their reasons, and it might help deciding how they act and what class they follow if they survive the funnel. The following table was created with that in mind but can also be used to determine the motivations of other NPCs encountered by the party while they are adventuring. With a little effort, this could be used as a general motivation table for NPCs in almost any situation. Why is the Thieve's Guild Leader doing this? Roll on the table and interpret the result accordingly!

Review and World Tour Report - Escape from the Purple Planet

Not only of elves, dwarves, dragons and orcs lives the fantasy RPGs! Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG is a perfect example of that, since it explicitly draws inspiration from various literary sources of the Appendix N of the first edition AD&D DMG (and even other fantasy authors not listed there). In the Purple Planet series of adventures, we can explore a Science Fantasy style of campaign in a decadent dying planet. The influence of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom Series and Robert E. Howard's Almuric is tangible, and very appreciated.

This particular review is about a supplementary module that comes with the Peril on the Purple Planet Boxed Set called Escape from the Purple Planet. This is a zero level funnel adventure written by Harley Stroh where the players take part as prisoners from all around the cosmos that wake up chained together in a dirty and dark cell, with only one key in their reach and a bunch of weapons in the floor. The goal is to escape whatever terrible fate awaits them and in their path. In their path they will face bestial and savage aliens, lost technology, a weird and horrifying monster and a crazy homicidal alien that can actually help them.

Using WhiteHack Vocations with DCC RPG

One of the best things about the OSR is the easiness to steal things from different games and insert them in your current one without much fuss. Whitehack, for example, has a great simple mechanic that lets you put more color into your character, at the same time it let's you contribute to the world creation and his abilities. Vocations can also be easily inserted in other games, like my favorite one, the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG.

In Whitehack, every character gets to chose some words (called groups) that associates it with some element of the game, be it a career (like barbarian, pirate, desert raider, astrologer), an organization (Order of the Chroniclers, The Seven Stars Society, The Purple Hats), a race or culture (Shadow Elves, Atlantean, Cimmerean, Diamond Dwarf) and other things. This lets the players link their characters to some aspect of the game world and gives them some identifiable characteristics (not to mention the possibility of creating campaign elements by themselves doing that). The other thing that it does is allow the player to roll and ability check relevant to this element twice and keep the better result.

The Coming of the Zero Level Blog... And How Can you Learn Magic Missiles!

KNOW, oh dice tossers, that between the years when the little brown books and the gleaming weird dice appeared, and the years of the rise of the "story first" gamers, there was an Age undreamed of.... An age of Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG and other OSR games!

And this is a blog to talk about this great age, and these great games! Specially the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG (DCC RPG) and it's related systems (MCC and whatever more it's going to be released). DCC RPG has made me rediscover fantasy gaming and its literature roots, making me feel like I am playing RPGs for the first time all over again. Everything is new, fresh and surprising again. And not only that, it provides us the tools, resources and techniques to keep it that way for a long time!