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!