Evard's Small Tentacle
*eyeroll*
DCC modules, especially from Harley Stroh are always pretty good. The challenge with them is in linking them to anything cohesive.
New Campaign- Castle Xyntillan/Operation Unfathomable/Hubris
- Thread starter Evard's Small Tentacle
- Start date
Evard's Small Tentacle
*eyeroll*
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
----------------------------------------------
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)
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
----------------------------------------------
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)
squeen
8, 8, I forget what is for
I'd like to add Hyqueous Vaults to the play-test list. (FREE!)
Evard's Small Tentacle
*eyeroll*
Will do
Evard's Small Tentacle
*eyeroll*
The Adventures of the Company of the GOAT
-Prodrick, the Squire, now questing to a knight, somewhere
-Maria the Halfling, Bitter and caustic, especially towards men
- Vitaly the Priest...of Cthulu, nuff said
- Kellen, the priest of some goddess of nature, overly obsessed with his goat, Betsy, who some of the other party members want to eat
Session 2-Out of the Pod (Adventure used- The Ruined Hamlet, Terror in Gloaming )
After an hour or so of flight in pods, where our erstwhile villagers contemplated the very strange turn their lives had taken, including making deals with entities of unknown origins, or gods as they are known, the group found themselves in a very normalish forest. After some debate on what to eat, including poor little Betsy, Maria decided to share some slightly stale chicken. The night passed without incident, and an early morning climb up a tree pointed to some open fields, and a lone building not too far away.
Their trip towards the building took an unexpected turn as the grunting noise, that the group mistook for nocturnal activities, turned out to be a rather large and blonde bear which decided to snack on the group. Choosing flight as the better form of bravery, our erstwhile miscreants reached the building which turned out to be a tomb...in the middle of no where.
Deciding that breaking and entering would be the better option than bear food, the group entered the tomb, which was rather pleasant inside, other than the silver chained and pad locked door. I mean who wouldn't want to open that? As the lock was opened, the noise of a rather large casket lid shattering. Our heroes yet again decided to run away bravely through an old passage they had discovered that ended inside an abandoned church. Exploration of the church revealed a hidden latch in the Altar, and a finely crafted longsword with ravens wings and an opal in it's pommel.
Kellen grabbed the weapon with glee, ignoring the ominous signs of the sky going dark and all the ravens in the world cackling away.
An exploration of the nearby area denoted what appeared to be an abandoned village with a bandit hideout, as well as several wolves who had taken up residence in some of the buildings nearby. After scouting out the bandit hideout once they had left, and all the buildings, our erstwhile heroes decided to set a small trap, including poisonous berries mixed in with some of the food they had found. The bandits were routed in a quick and onesided battle, aided by the onset of explosive vomiting and diarrhea.
Gaspard, one of the smarter bandits immediately surrendered and swore loyalty to the group, and also informed them of a lovely little undead hobgoblin troll up the road who also has a lovely magical mace. They also found a map, clearly drawn by an uneducated and not so precise bandit that gave the layout of the nearby area, including of the nearby town called ToursandSavvy, some fur traders, a mage, some cave, and an x pointing to a tomb with some great eeevile...yeah they had been there.
------------------------------------------------------
Notes:
- The module has something very good going for it- interconnectivity, and a certain groundedness? The interractivity and player agency and letting them fuck shit up (the gloaming refers to releasing the BBE, which the party did within 30 mins of playing) and consequences
- Not a big fan of lots of unnamed NPCs all over the damn place (trader 1, bandit 1 etc.) and the flavorful stuff is buried deep within paragraphs and paragraphs of unnecessary information. Better use of bulletpoints and formatting would have done wonders.
-Got rid of the outpost, which is a bit of a shame, because i would have had to rewrite it down in a notebook with succinct notes. I am too fucking lazy for that.
- Next session- fun in ToursandSavvy, Why did the ghost of an actor show up as a clown? and how to not sell poison at an inn.
-Prodrick, the Squire, now questing to a knight, somewhere
-Maria the Halfling, Bitter and caustic, especially towards men
- Vitaly the Priest...of Cthulu, nuff said
- Kellen, the priest of some goddess of nature, overly obsessed with his goat, Betsy, who some of the other party members want to eat
Session 2-Out of the Pod (Adventure used- The Ruined Hamlet, Terror in Gloaming )
After an hour or so of flight in pods, where our erstwhile villagers contemplated the very strange turn their lives had taken, including making deals with entities of unknown origins, or gods as they are known, the group found themselves in a very normalish forest. After some debate on what to eat, including poor little Betsy, Maria decided to share some slightly stale chicken. The night passed without incident, and an early morning climb up a tree pointed to some open fields, and a lone building not too far away.
Their trip towards the building took an unexpected turn as the grunting noise, that the group mistook for nocturnal activities, turned out to be a rather large and blonde bear which decided to snack on the group. Choosing flight as the better form of bravery, our erstwhile miscreants reached the building which turned out to be a tomb...in the middle of no where.
Deciding that breaking and entering would be the better option than bear food, the group entered the tomb, which was rather pleasant inside, other than the silver chained and pad locked door. I mean who wouldn't want to open that? As the lock was opened, the noise of a rather large casket lid shattering. Our heroes yet again decided to run away bravely through an old passage they had discovered that ended inside an abandoned church. Exploration of the church revealed a hidden latch in the Altar, and a finely crafted longsword with ravens wings and an opal in it's pommel.
Kellen grabbed the weapon with glee, ignoring the ominous signs of the sky going dark and all the ravens in the world cackling away.
An exploration of the nearby area denoted what appeared to be an abandoned village with a bandit hideout, as well as several wolves who had taken up residence in some of the buildings nearby. After scouting out the bandit hideout once they had left, and all the buildings, our erstwhile heroes decided to set a small trap, including poisonous berries mixed in with some of the food they had found. The bandits were routed in a quick and onesided battle, aided by the onset of explosive vomiting and diarrhea.
Gaspard, one of the smarter bandits immediately surrendered and swore loyalty to the group, and also informed them of a lovely little undead hobgoblin troll up the road who also has a lovely magical mace. They also found a map, clearly drawn by an uneducated and not so precise bandit that gave the layout of the nearby area, including of the nearby town called ToursandSavvy, some fur traders, a mage, some cave, and an x pointing to a tomb with some great eeevile...yeah they had been there.
------------------------------------------------------
Notes:
- The module has something very good going for it- interconnectivity, and a certain groundedness? The interractivity and player agency and letting them fuck shit up (the gloaming refers to releasing the BBE, which the party did within 30 mins of playing) and consequences
- Not a big fan of lots of unnamed NPCs all over the damn place (trader 1, bandit 1 etc.) and the flavorful stuff is buried deep within paragraphs and paragraphs of unnecessary information. Better use of bulletpoints and formatting would have done wonders.
-Got rid of the outpost, which is a bit of a shame, because i would have had to rewrite it down in a notebook with succinct notes. I am too fucking lazy for that.
- Next session- fun in ToursandSavvy, Why did the ghost of an actor show up as a clown? and how to not sell poison at an inn.
Evard's Small Tentacle
*eyeroll*
Wanted to give a quick update. Getting deeper into the Castle, super fun and interactive including the players making a deal w a certain Dutchess to procure entertainment, now walking around with a Brain and a homoculus in a jar.
Evard's Small Tentacle
*eyeroll*
Correct. I will post more summaries this weekend.
Evard's Small Tentacle
*eyeroll*
The Adventures of the Company of the GOAT
-Prodrick, the Squire, now questing to a knight, somewhere
-Maria the Halfling, Bitter and caustic, especially towards men
- Vitaly the Priest...of Cthulu, nuff said
- Kellen, the priest of some goddess of nature, overly obsessed with his goat, Betsy, who some of the other party members want to eat
Session 3-4 Castle X- Random Bargains
The company of the GOAT, after some dilly dalying with fur traders (all soon to be turned into wights, because of certain actions from prior sessions) where they sold hacked up wolf pelts, made their way to Tours-N-Savoy, a rather french and civilized place where our more traditional english peasants felt a bit out of place. Regardless, they forged on, arguing with the bar maid about why anyone would charge a gold piece for snails, as she not so subtly tried to sell them poison, since they looked like the type that would likely use them.
After some settling down, shopping, and stabling Betsy the Goat, the group set off to the infamous Castle X, and the Malevol family that they had heard so much about. The vastness of the castle was lost on them until they approached the damn place and realized that it was bigger than a small city. The company headed to the courtyard, and through the judicious use of a ten foot pole, some henchemen, and scouting, made it through the kitchen, and environs where they picked up Edward, a Brain in a Jar who seemed to know a bit about the place, and served as their guide. They continued on, some of the looting and combat in a library, where Maria read a book being held by the statue of the grim reaper, and ended up fighting such said being alone, and through the use of many luck points burned, suceeded in besting the creature and thus gaining 3 additional deaths (is this a good thing?), drawing the attention of a certain garlic loving Countess, who along with their retinue, clearly took one look at the party and decided that they were too ugly for seduction and much better as fresh meat.
The party, much to their credit, realizing that these pseudo french might like the arts, made a plethora of offers, finally settling on bring her one bardic/musical type to be played with to alleviate her boredom per month, in return for her sparing their lives. Further exploration of the library made the party realize there was something/someone hidden behind a panel, which upon further exploration, revealed a hidden file room and another Malevol, who seemed perfectly normal and gentleman like and helpful, until Vitaly told him to calm down, and everything is alright, which seemed to trigger the homicidal maniac- though he was out homicidaled by Maria, who was becoming increasingly unhinghed by what considered to be condescending and male patriarchal assholes stealing her credit/thinking they were better.
observations:
-Definitely very funhouse, lots to play with, push, pull and get yourself killed on. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it.
-Smart parties can definitely make out, if they play their cards right.
-At times the maps aren't really clear with where stairs lead, and with multiple levels, I made up shit on the fly which upon further evaluation was wrong per the map, but wasn't very clear (i.e., multi level rooms). Also, stairs should more clearly indicate what level it leads to.
-This product definitely needs book marks- otherwise I would say that one needs to print out multiple copies and annotate the NPCs to the specific sections and rooms they link to. I think I had 5 different PDFs of the same document to run this thing at times. Nestled links between the rooms, and the NPCs and vice versa would also be super helpful if gaming electronically.
-Each of the Malevols could use with at least one more sentence on their nature- might be helpful for more novice DMs as you'll still need to wing about 20% of stuff as you are running it due to the random encounter generation and the vast number of NPCs.
- Additional connectivity between the town and the Castle might also need to be explored a bit more- it clearly creates a more dynamic economy and environment between the town and the castle; i'd say it's likely one of the main sources of wealth for the town and would have evolved certain aspects based on this (need to think on this a bit more)
-Next sessions: continued exploration of the castle provides even more fun, a bevy of magical weapons, a GM misreading that hands out an artifact,more strange alliances, the birth of the Wolf Knight, and more fun with jars and brains (i think Melan likes stuff in jars).
-Prodrick, the Squire, now questing to a knight, somewhere
-Maria the Halfling, Bitter and caustic, especially towards men
- Vitaly the Priest...of Cthulu, nuff said
- Kellen, the priest of some goddess of nature, overly obsessed with his goat, Betsy, who some of the other party members want to eat
Session 3-4 Castle X- Random Bargains
The company of the GOAT, after some dilly dalying with fur traders (all soon to be turned into wights, because of certain actions from prior sessions) where they sold hacked up wolf pelts, made their way to Tours-N-Savoy, a rather french and civilized place where our more traditional english peasants felt a bit out of place. Regardless, they forged on, arguing with the bar maid about why anyone would charge a gold piece for snails, as she not so subtly tried to sell them poison, since they looked like the type that would likely use them.
After some settling down, shopping, and stabling Betsy the Goat, the group set off to the infamous Castle X, and the Malevol family that they had heard so much about. The vastness of the castle was lost on them until they approached the damn place and realized that it was bigger than a small city. The company headed to the courtyard, and through the judicious use of a ten foot pole, some henchemen, and scouting, made it through the kitchen, and environs where they picked up Edward, a Brain in a Jar who seemed to know a bit about the place, and served as their guide. They continued on, some of the looting and combat in a library, where Maria read a book being held by the statue of the grim reaper, and ended up fighting such said being alone, and through the use of many luck points burned, suceeded in besting the creature and thus gaining 3 additional deaths (is this a good thing?), drawing the attention of a certain garlic loving Countess, who along with their retinue, clearly took one look at the party and decided that they were too ugly for seduction and much better as fresh meat.
The party, much to their credit, realizing that these pseudo french might like the arts, made a plethora of offers, finally settling on bring her one bardic/musical type to be played with to alleviate her boredom per month, in return for her sparing their lives. Further exploration of the library made the party realize there was something/someone hidden behind a panel, which upon further exploration, revealed a hidden file room and another Malevol, who seemed perfectly normal and gentleman like and helpful, until Vitaly told him to calm down, and everything is alright, which seemed to trigger the homicidal maniac- though he was out homicidaled by Maria, who was becoming increasingly unhinghed by what considered to be condescending and male patriarchal assholes stealing her credit/thinking they were better.
observations:
-Definitely very funhouse, lots to play with, push, pull and get yourself killed on. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it.
-Smart parties can definitely make out, if they play their cards right.
-At times the maps aren't really clear with where stairs lead, and with multiple levels, I made up shit on the fly which upon further evaluation was wrong per the map, but wasn't very clear (i.e., multi level rooms). Also, stairs should more clearly indicate what level it leads to.
-This product definitely needs book marks- otherwise I would say that one needs to print out multiple copies and annotate the NPCs to the specific sections and rooms they link to. I think I had 5 different PDFs of the same document to run this thing at times. Nestled links between the rooms, and the NPCs and vice versa would also be super helpful if gaming electronically.
-Each of the Malevols could use with at least one more sentence on their nature- might be helpful for more novice DMs as you'll still need to wing about 20% of stuff as you are running it due to the random encounter generation and the vast number of NPCs.
- Additional connectivity between the town and the Castle might also need to be explored a bit more- it clearly creates a more dynamic economy and environment between the town and the castle; i'd say it's likely one of the main sources of wealth for the town and would have evolved certain aspects based on this (need to think on this a bit more)
-Next sessions: continued exploration of the castle provides even more fun, a bevy of magical weapons, a GM misreading that hands out an artifact,more strange alliances, the birth of the Wolf Knight, and more fun with jars and brains (i think Melan likes stuff in jars).
Evard's Small Tentacle
*eyeroll*
The structural stuff is as written, all the RP elements are all me as far as encounters and interaction, I.e., the duchess was rolled as a random encounter and could easily cause a TPK with an “attack” mindset. There is not much at all in the way of RP hardcoded in, which is great for an advanced DM, much less so for a novice DM. I think the castle would have ended in a TPK within 20 minutes if I ran it 20 years ago.
HELLO
We went Tomb of the Iron God boom mic drop
Rescue Homlets mayor's daughter and escape
(Feedback was good Vanilla a bit too vanilla)
Then PStews Petty God was in Homlet had a hole in his backyard and wanted help. That was Operation Unfathomable.
The radioheads captured the PC and drugged them. That was the dream sequence titan from Silent Titans (starts in a mental ward)
That scared the AF out of them and got a bit gonzo. They escaped into Homlets library. That lead to the Stygian Library.
Seemed like it was explored enough and was scared to take spell books and piss off the librarians.
Regretful Librarian/ MU pops in and says the trust fund baby Azimech needs help, little critters are burning.
Feeling good about it.
P.S.
This aint R/ and I wanted to say system does not matter. Just do fun stuff with whatever rules and game stuff you want. This is DIY bb, its an ethos not a system
OSR - its all the same - if I see another r/post on how to convert or what system should I use with x module - I will loose my mind - do what works
5e - Double OSR HD and DMG dice
3.5 Pathfinder - Double 5e HD and DMG dice
Confused? Call for a DC 16 check or roll under a stat and shut it maggot
With that said...
Started with S@W Whitebox - still use the monsters
PC said why cant I use plate and a halberd?
I said you know what, your right
Went to Knave and feels good
Added the Hazard Dice from necropraxis for encounters and Init
Usage Dice for torches and rations and such
Its 1 on 1 cause 2020
Crawfords Scarlet Heroes works well for duets and slots in with little to no mind space pain
Use the tables from Maze Rats with Finches daytime city encounters and Gabors Noctural
We went Tomb of the Iron God boom mic drop
Rescue Homlets mayor's daughter and escape
(Feedback was good Vanilla a bit too vanilla)
Then PStews Petty God was in Homlet had a hole in his backyard and wanted help. That was Operation Unfathomable.
The radioheads captured the PC and drugged them. That was the dream sequence titan from Silent Titans (starts in a mental ward)
That scared the AF out of them and got a bit gonzo. They escaped into Homlets library. That lead to the Stygian Library.
Seemed like it was explored enough and was scared to take spell books and piss off the librarians.
Regretful Librarian/ MU pops in and says the trust fund baby Azimech needs help, little critters are burning.
Feeling good about it.
P.S.
This aint R/ and I wanted to say system does not matter. Just do fun stuff with whatever rules and game stuff you want. This is DIY bb, its an ethos not a system
OSR - its all the same - if I see another r/post on how to convert or what system should I use with x module - I will loose my mind - do what works
5e - Double OSR HD and DMG dice
3.5 Pathfinder - Double 5e HD and DMG dice
Confused? Call for a DC 16 check or roll under a stat and shut it maggot
With that said...
Started with S@W Whitebox - still use the monsters
PC said why cant I use plate and a halberd?
I said you know what, your right
Went to Knave and feels good
Added the Hazard Dice from necropraxis for encounters and Init
Usage Dice for torches and rations and such
Its 1 on 1 cause 2020
Crawfords Scarlet Heroes works well for duets and slots in with little to no mind space pain
Use the tables from Maze Rats with Finches daytime city encounters and Gabors Noctural
Last edited:
Grützi
Should be playing D&D instead
The1True
8, 8, I forget what is for
Kill it! Kill it with fire!