New Campaign- Castle Xyntillan/Operation Unfathomable/Hubris

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Evard's Small Tentacle

*eyeroll*
I am starting a new campaign online with my current group, "using" DCC lightly and the following adventures within the Hubris setting:
- Castle X
-Operation U
-???
What else would you all like me to add to it? Any other adventures you want to see play tested? I likely have 80% percent of the "best of" list. I will post play summaries here, and happy to test out anything else anyone might want to include. Adventure 1 is going to be a funnel. Feel free to ask any questions
 
These three I've considered (including the ones you've already mentioned):
- Hole in the Oak
- The Red Prophet Rises
- The Hoard of Delusion
 
Evard's Small Tentacle said:
Added...I don't have hoard...is it any good? I've always meant to run Red Prophet.
Click to expand...
I like the extended preview, and I put it on Bryce's ToDo list. Haven't bought it yet and was hoping someone would vouch for it.
It was put together by quite a few of the Knight & Knaves folks including EOTB. I am hopeful, although I already know Byrce will pounce on some of the descriptive text.

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com www.drivethrurpg.com
 
I'd love your honest opinion/experience about Red Prophet Rises.

In a month or so, if I can whip Prince into work on the last tidbits, I'll be putting Palace of Unquiet Repose on your list.
 
For the love of all that is holy, publishers, please use bookmarks for your PDFs. Otherwise, no matter how good your work is, these products become insanely cumbersome for those of us that use laptops/ipads etc. to GM. In fact, linked references and cross references can be a huge advantage and makes some products 10x easier to use (and likelier to be run). Being old school does not mean not taking advantage of technology.

i'll add Palace Malrex...just one quick point on Red Prophet...in reading and prepping:

- good flavor and interractivity
- does get long in places with not so pertinent information at times- maybe using formatting to highlight things that pop immediately upon interraction?
- good use of bullet points
- everything is in "movement" that's great
 
Evard's Small Tentacle said:
For the love of all that is holy, publishers, please use bookmarks for your PDFs. Otherwise, no matter how good your work is, these products become insanely cumbersome for those of us that use laptops/ipads etc. to GM. In fact, linked references and cross references can be a huge advantage and makes some products 10x easier to use (and likelier to be run). Being old school does not mean not taking advantage of technology.

i'll add Palace Malrex...just one quick point on Red Prophet...in reading and prepping:

- good flavor and interractivity
- does get long in places with not so pertinent information at times- maybe using formatting to highlight things that pop immediately upon interraction?
- good use of bullet points
- everything is in "movement" that's great
Click to expand...

Thanks Evard! Bullet points are good, but I think in some rooms (just in general when I use them) they lose their usability because like you said, things get too long. Had that problem in a room or 2 in Trollback Keep.

I need to sit down and learn how to bookmark and link stuff in a pdf. It's just been 'one more thing' on my list of to do's. My pdf program doesn't have those options or its too weird for me to figure out, as Ive dabbled in it.
However, my remote access to the office now...hmm...may be a possibility as that program is more user friendly. Maybe Ill mess with it on RPR.
When do you plan to run it? maybe I can practice on it and get it linked up.
I definitely need to learn it for Vermilion or the pdf of that would be a nightmare to use.
 
EOTB said:
My part was small - recreating some 10 year-old digital maps lost when a computer fried a long time ago. That said, having read through the text in order to make the maps I think it's a fun sandbox romp. It's not trying to be highbrow, zany, or weird. It's centered entirely on play and not on setting a concept-table the DM must flesh out mechanically in order to use it. It's ready to plop down and roll dice.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I couldn't get through the preview- my ADD addled mind couldn't take all the shit load of useless background history and pages of background history and NPCs with more page loads of background history about why somesuch broke their heart when they were 5 years old. No way I can ever run this without getting drunk and then randomly reading out text hoping it makes sense (or spending days of homework that could lead to an alcohol problem).
 
As I am currently running a group trough Red Prophet Rises on roll20 I can heartily recommend it ;)

Another good one is Mines, Claws and Princesses by Oswald.

Automata Run Amok is nicely organized and a funny little adventure you can plug into a city of your choice.

And of course I can't let the opportunity pass to offer my own meager contribution to the hobby: The cistern of the three-eyed dwarves
(Even if you don't play it, tell me what you think ;) )
 
Grützi said:
As I am currently running a group trough Red Prophet Rises on roll20 I can heartily recommend it ;)

Another good one is Mines, Claws and Princesses by Oswald.

Automata Run Amok is nicely organized and a funny little adventure you can plug into a city of your choice.

And of course I can't let the opportunity pass to offer my own meager contribution to the hobby: The cistern of the three-eyed dwarves
(Even if you don't play it, tell me what you think ;) )
Click to expand...
I am thinking of mashing up Mines (which I love) with Red Prophet, or adding them in a hex crawl. Are they too similar? Or maybe the similarities can be linked. Ran the level zero funnel, and it was loads of fun (I will post a play summary here, though more focused on the adventure from the GMs perspective and focused on what could make my life easier).

next up...A thousand dead babies/gnomes of Levnec mashup. Follow that up with red prophet and maybe mines if I get the chance evaluating both together and linking the two.
 
Evard's Small Tentacle said:
For the love of all that is holy, publishers, please use bookmarks for your PDFs. Otherwise, no matter how good your work is, these products become insanely cumbersome for those of us that use laptops/ipads etc. to GM. In fact, linked references and cross references can be a huge advantage and makes some products 10x easier to use (and likelier to be run). Being old school does not mean not taking advantage of technology.
Click to expand...

Don't ask, don't get...that's what my wife always tells me.
Anyways...updated Red Prophet Rises with bookmarks, links, and some Roll20 maps.
Will work on our others over the next few weeks, starting with Willowmere Vagabonds since it was requested first.
 
I'll have to look at Bryce's list and think of things to add, but of the ones you've mentioned I'm dying to see some AP reports on Castle Xyntillan.
 
I like the twin alphabetic appellations:

Castle X / Operation U​

Great intro to a campaign. "Death and mayhem await you in...Castle X / Operation U!"
Sounds like a blast.

I'll admit my ignorance of the "Hubris" settings. Would someone please enlighten me?
 
I have to say, the shear gonzo/punk/metal creativity of that Hubris document puts all my paltry home-brewed stuff to shame. I'm not sure I'd even call it a campaign settings: almost a whole new game.
 
Session 1 Write-up:

DM Prep Comments:

- Session 0s are always fun, especially in DCC. Primary ask was to find a decent funnel adventure...harder than i thought, primarily due to a lot of adventures not ending in enough of an open ended way (in running a few of these, the best in what I have run is Sailors on a Starless Sea; most others pale by comparison).

- Settled on It Came From...Outerspace, an adventure in Hubris- main reasons in choice- simple to run, minimal prep, pretty interactive and lots of ways to get killed. Note: Damage is way too high for all creatures in this adventure and need to be adjusted down, otherwise it will be TPKs on every encounter.

-Hubris is a fun setting, but can "extreme settings" last long term in a campaign?

- Random encounters in modules need to be more meaningful

- I am very lazy, and toss adventures aside for the most part when I hit a wall of text or walls where it feels like homework (yeah i hated homework and always put it off till the minutes before it was due)

Session 1-intro:

The Party are the sole survivors in the village of No Hope, after a meteor strike wiped out most of the village: a few honorable mentions among the survivors. Podrick and Rodrick, Squires who are rather on the righteous side w minimal experience, Max and Maria halfling husband and wife chicken farmers, very much in love. Kellen, a very smart turnip farmer and his goat Betsy, and Vitaly a dwarven guard out to make a buck, and Horace the Noble who owns a fancy longsword and has a bit of gold.
 
Ooo...I like hearing about these odd DCC/Hubris modules. I'm going to check out Sailors on a Starless Sea right now.

Thanks.
 
Session 1-continued:

Wondering why they were spared the ill fate of their families, friends and others, the group set off to the local fields that the local farmers work so hard to tend were withered and strange thick thorny vines with a crimson crown have begun to grow. Several bloated and melted cows were scattered around the field, dead. Gathered around the meteorite are three humanoid forms. Once the torchlight hits their melted, horrific visage the party realized with a pang of horror it is farmer Joe, his wife Emma, and their daughter Sally, who of course tried to eat them.

The noble hung back, and watched as one of the hobos got eaten, and quickly tossed a few coins to hire on the brother's Prodrick and Rodrick and Vitaly the dwarf to cover his ass. They decided to go into the meteor once they realized that the melded cows around them seemed to be mooing.

The inside of the comet turned out to be some sort of a spaceship, where our gang of village idiots found lots of things to poke and prod, including one death by ooze infection with an oozing bursting out from the inside, an accidental surgical procedure through which vitaly got his eyes replaced and now has mechanical eyes black and white darkvision 24/7, Horace the noble sat on a chair and got his brain wiped and went insane with his brain exploding, and half the party got wiped by a swinging pendulum in the arena.

The remainder of the party put the ray gun they found to good use to destroy the alien overlord, who of course laughed maniacally and hit the self destruct button. The four surviving souls were able to get into pods and shoot themselves away from the blast....The survivors being:

-Prodrick, the fighter who shoved his brother out of the way to get into a pod
-Maria the halfling who wanted to stay with her dying husband until he confessed about his many affairs
- Vitaly the Dwarf who looted the noble after his lobotomy and is now very rich
- Kellen, who somehow was able to get Betsy into the pod with him

---------------------------------------------
Notes:
-Very easy to run, though linear
-Lots of things to poke, prod and to die from or gain from
- Way overpowered for DCC
-Clean format, writing, easy to find stuff (ease of use 8/10)
- Fun Factor (8/10)
- lots of unique items and stuff
- Bad things- too linear, but that's how funnels need? to be?, overpowered
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Next Session Prep:
- Is there a decent 1st level adventure out there??? (adventures considered- Dark of Hot Springs Island, The Ruined Hamlet Terror in Gloaming, Beneath Dark Elms, A Thousand Dead Babies)
 
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