ToA Episode 1 Recap

The first episode of our actual play live stream of Tomb of Annihilation on Twitch went live Thursday, September 21st at 7pm. Still might need to tweak the audio a bit, but overall it was a success! A big thank you to everyone who tuned in and gave us a follow as we try to find our way through the world of streaming D&D.

A "death curse" is afflicting anyone who has ever been resurrected, sapping them of strength and spirit with every passing day, and anyone who succumbs to death is unable to be brought back by magical means. The players were tasked with embarking on a journey to the jungle peninsula Chult, with full knowledge that we are playing under the oppressive "meat grinder" rules - setting the DC for death saving throws at 15 as opposed to the normal 10.

Lets introduce the expendables...

The Adventuring Party

Billebrick Puddlecake - Forest gnome rogue

• Originally from Yellyark located on Chult.

Sindri - Dwarf cleric

• Archaeologist who is seeking lost artifacts related to Dwarven lore. 

Reginald "Reggie" Itsame - Human paladin

• An earnest and naive follower of Torm, in service to the Order of the Gauntlet.

Klaus Kringle - Half-elf fighter

• Indentured servant who works for Syndra Silvane. A sleep spell slowed his aging and has a weakness for intoxicants.

The Story Begins...

The party was summoned to the residence of a retired adventurer and merchant named Syndra Silvane in Baldur's Gate. She organized them on an expedition to Chult, a land of hot jungle and dangers including undead, pirates and dinosaurs (oh my!). Her contacts with the Harpers shared that a device called the Soulmonger was believed to be somewhere on Chult and that it was related to the death curse, of which she is currently afflicted.

The party agreed to go with her to Port Nyanzaru, the only city on the peninsula. Given the choice of a nice, calm and quiet place to lay their heads for the evening and a raucous place known for trouble, the PCs of course chose the latter. It wasn't long before they attempted to engage in negotiations with a drunk foreigner who wouldn't let them forget his name ("Voltan! OHHH YEAH!").

• Sindri attempted to intervene, armed only with his "words." This was ineffective against the very intoxicated man.
• Klaus, armed with his great axes sauntered up like John Wayne and stared the man straight into the eyes and caused him to soak his pants and flee the bar.
• The entire tavern was thankful and bought the party rounds upon rounds of tej, a fermented honey liquor. Sindri and Reggie quickly succumbed to intoxication while Billebrick and Klaus learned from the locals about ancient cities, snake people, and gossip related to a Merchant Prince named Jobal who put a moratorium on guides going into the jungles due to the undead threat.

Twenty Sides to the Politics

In the morning, the PCs required much bacon to help deal with hangovers and shame. They decided to meet one of the seven Merchant Princes, Wakanga O'tamu; a friend of Syndra Silvane's. He treated them to an exotic feast and discussed their prospects of going into the jungles. He confirmed that they would need a guide to go into the jungle and would need to get permission from Jobal.

• Sindri ate some dancing monkey fruit which caused him to summon forth some highland dancing skills he didn't know he had.
• Wakanga shared with the party a map where he believes a shield guardian (a magical construct) could be found. He was hoping to get the PCs to get it for him, and tried to take back the quest after he suspected they might try to keep it for themselves. Unfortunately, the cat was already out of the bag.
• Wakanga agreed to try and help them meet Jobal, but suggested they might have more luck if they went to Goldenthrone to happen upon him incidentally.

The heroes went to Goldenthrone as Wakanga suggested and requested from the guards that eyed them suspiciously for a meeting with the merchant prince, Jobal. They were asked to wait and were left on the street for three hours. Poor Sindri was feeling a little sick from the foreign cuisine, and still under the effects of the dancing monkey fruit, was forced to try and conceal a "number two" in a back alley. The stealth check for doing his business failed, and in an unfortunately mix of defecation and dancing became the talk of the town and Chultan people began throwing coins in his direction.

Soon the party was summoned before a different prince: a grandmotherly figure who introduced herself as Zhanthi. After hearing their need for a guide, she suggested she could get them an immediate audience with Jobal and pay them 50gp for the delivery of a coin. She gave them a silver coin with a triceratops molded into it and told them to come by later while she was having a meeting with yet another merchant prince, named Ifan Talro'a. Her mission required discretion and she assured them that no harm would come of them.

They dutifully did as asked and found that Ifan quickly began threatening them with "sanctions." Zhanthi tried to communicate through innuendo to the party, but no one was able to pick up her message. Zhanthi suggested that the coin came from Kwayothe, another merchant prince who she accused of conspiring with the Flaming Fists of Baldur's Gate. Ifan tasked them with finding evidence of collusion. Klaus suggested they be given some type of a flying dinosaur for their trouble, to which he agreed. The party required no more motivation than that.

Cloak and Dagger

The PCs decided to try and break in to Kwayothe's residence late at night when a supposed meeting was occurring between her and Liara Portier, an agent of the Flaming Fists. 

• Billebrick Puddlecake scaled the wall of the garden with a boost from Klaus. He snuck inside and overheard a strange conversation between Liara and Zhanthi. The negotiation of a deal to bring Flaming Fist mercenaries into town to replace the current town guard went a little too smoothly. A contract was signed and Billebrick was forced to retreat from eavesdropping. He was able to recover the contract from its hiding place in the library.
• Meanwhile, as the rest of the party waited outside they were discovered by a familiar face...VOLTAN! He was backed up with thugs from the pirate ship where he is the first mate. The battle which ensued brought the PCs down to 0 hp through the use of non-lethal damage.

Overall

Only two hours into the game and we have our first split party scenario! Why did Voltan and his crew not kill Klaus, Sindri and Reggie? What will Billebrick do when he discovers his comrades missing? Join us Thursday, October 5th at 7pm to find out!

Review: Intrigue at the Court of Chaos (DCC RPG)

Intrigue at the Court of Chaos is a level 1 adventure published by Goodman Games written by +Michael Curtis. The premise is that the heroes are summoned against their will to answer the call of the five members of the Court of Chaos. These five beings are alien horrors bent on getting their hands on the Yokeless Egg, a spark of primal chaos that could be used as a boon to help sway the everlasting conflict between chaos and law in their favor. They need the PCs to go after it because they themselves would rendered helpless on the Plane of Law where it is kept.

Cover art by Doug Kovacs

One of the things I love about DCC is the cosmic weirdness of the adventures. A group of level 1 characters, who all probably just survived by the skin of their teeth through a funnel, are being asked to traipse through the planes and deal with the forces of chaos and law? That's something I haven't seen modules written for level 20 characters take on. I suspect the reason for this is that it is an incredibly difficult undertaking to pull off in a satisfying way.

The introduction to the Court is quite fun, as each of the Chaos Lords has a very unique look and the GM is given some illustrative player handouts to help make them come to life. Goodman Games always does a great job with the handouts they include in their adventures. For this one they include printouts of each member of the Court of Chaos. One half of the page has an illustration of the character and the other has important information about them for the judge's eyes only. I printed mine out on cardstock and laid them all out as they are arranged in the chamber.

A great feature of this adventure is the inter-party conflict that it intentionally breeds. Each member of the court has ulterior motives and will try to make deals with PC characters individually to deliver the Yokeless Egg to them personally. As players are being pulled out of the room to receive their individual summons, everyone starts to get a little paranoid about who might actually betray the party in favor of fantastical powers and legendary artifacts.

Any judge looking to run this adventure will probably want to know the preferences of the party beforehand. Inter-party shenanigans is welcomed and enjoyed at my table, but I could see some people getting upset with the intentional wedge being driven into the party. It makes for good storytelling with the right folks, but might make others pull their hair out. To each their own.

The main adventure takes place on the Plane of Law where the PCs must infiltrate the Cataphract; a floating diamond like structure that holds the Yokeless Egg. The dungeon itself is a well-balanced mix of puzzles and combat encounters. All of the chambers must be explored as passing their trials is essential to accessing the final level where the Egg can be found. This is quite satisfying since there are many modules where your players will only see a fraction of what is inside due to the many routes they may take to get to the conclusion.

The trials in the Cataphract are great breeding grounds for roleplaying. Each one follows a theme: creation, construction, enlightenment, judgment and sacrifice. When I ran this module, something significant happened in each of the rooms that illustrated a quirk of a character or helped the players add details to their personality. This is the display of good design in a roleplaying game.

Once again, you get the awesomely illustrated map by Doug Kovacs that does a superb job of helping to communicate the feel and personality of the location. I often find myself just looking at the map to describe what is going on inside rather than the block text. I can never say enough good things about this style of map design.

The final encounter is a very interesting and carries a high risk of defeat. The module seems to acknowledge this as it creates an alternative to death if the PCs fail their objective; anyone who has read my How to Defeat Your Party (Without Killing Them) posts know how I feel about party wipes ending the game. In fact, this situation happened with the crew I ran it with and now they are diligently trying to earn their freedom from the Scions of Law by thwarting plots concocted by the agents of Chaos against the Known Realms.

Barring this scenario, the return to the Court of Chaos is sure to be a high tension affair. Everyone will be wondering who might try to betray the party and go into business for themselves. The module lays out multiple endings that may transpire depending on the choices of the party. It seems safe to say no two tables will have exactly the same experience with this adventure.

Conclusion

This module is a perfect balance of roleplay, puzzles and combat encounters. The interactive setup to this module gives the players plenty of opportunities to ask questions, consult with one another about the course of action they should take and, of course, be propositioned by the Court of Chaos. The paranoia set in the first act breeds exactly the kind of unpredictability the Court of Chaos would delight in. Inter-party conflict is a tough thing to integrate into an adventure intentionally, but the way it is handled in Intrigue at the Court of Chaos is quite clever. Given that many of the Goodman Games DCC line of adventures deal in themes of chaos and law, this adventure is a perfect starting point to set up a longer term campaign with a common theme.

That being said, make sure you know the people at the table prior to running this module. I could foresee significant problems if you tried to run it at a game day at your FLGS with people who are unacquainted with each other. Everyone needs to buy-in to the conceit of the adventure to make it fun.

You can order the softcover book from Goodman Games for $9.99 or get the pdf for $6.99.

Tomb of Annihilation Accessories Unboxing

The early release of the new Dungeons & Dragons hardcover campaign Tomb of Annihilation had an early release date of September 8th for brick and mortar stores. I headed down to our local gamestore Adventure Games and Hobby where I not only picked up the hardcover, but the Tomb and Traps Set, a brick of the Icon of the Realms: Tomb of Annihilation miniatures, the revised Dungeon Master Screen and the Tomb of Annihilation dice. Let me take you through this unboxing and share some of my thoughts on the haul I pulled in.

Tomb and Traps Set

The Tomb and Traps set is intended to be an incentive for those that purchase a brick of miniatures. It cost $49.99 + the purchase of the brick of miniatures. A quick check on eBay seems to suggest that people are flipping this starting at around $70. The notable contents are the iconic demon faced statue from Tomb of Horrors, a swirling portal archway that also seems iconic to Tomb of Horrors, a sarcophagus, Acererak's demilich skull, 4 fire jet tiles, 4 blade trap tiles, 4 magic glyph trap tiles, 4 pit trap tiles, 4 boulder piles, a sword, a shield, 4 piles of gold, 4 potions, and 4 scrolls.

Most of what we get here is novelty. I can't really imagine pulling out the trap tiles and using them as a prop in game often as they would really just clash with any of the other dungeon terrain items that I have. A lot of good looking stuff that will be perfect for behind a display case.

The iconic demon-head statue from Tomb of Horrors is the crown jewel of the set. It is a very well done mold. The perfect detail on the eyes really makes it stand out as a horrifying marker that the corridors beyond are full of traps designed by a sadomasochist.

This one triggers minor PTSD symptoms for me. This mini looks very similar to a certain portal from Tomb of Horrors. After my character passed through this wispy gate at Gary Con, I lasted about another 2 minutes before I met an unfortunate fate. The purple translucence does a great job creating the misty haze and the rune carvings on the outside look great.

I am pretty happy with the sarcophagus as well. Any good dungeon delve will typically turn up a buried tomb full of treasure and/or undead, so I suspect this will get some practical use on more than an occasion.

The tiles that are included in the set are kind of weak in my opinion. The fire trap is a single little column of fire in the center of the piece. The blade trap looks to be about dagger sized where I would have preferred something more akin to spears set into the floor. The color scheme on the pit trap falls flat and doesn't really convey the idea of depth. The color scheme on the rubble piles are too similar to the floor tile to really distinguish. Definitely my least favorite thing that came with this set.

The treasure pieces are super tiny and definitely destined for vacuum cleaner purgatory if they are to be used as an in-game prop. The gold piles are really just mono-color piles of gold. Sparkling some other currency into the color scheme or gems would have made it a more visually interesting piece. The rest of the lot is cool, but really tiny. Picking up the potions and getting them to stand upright takes a successful DC 15 Dexterity skill check to accomplish.

Icon of the Realms: Tomb of Annihilation Miniatures

Seeing as the new adventure is taking us into the jungle island of Chult, it seemed fair that I would need to update my miniature collection to make sure I had representations for the many exotic creatures that could be encountered. As I was ripping off the shrink wrap on the boxes, I had a prayer in my heart that I would find for myself an Acererak (the lich villain of Tomb of Annihilation) figure in the mix.

Its a juggernaut! I'm really hoping there is an actual use for this in the campaign. The detail on the carvings is awesome. Even the steamrolling apparatus on the front wheels has demonic skulls imprinted upon them.

Within the wild jungles of Chult, one might encounter this houseplant known as the Mantrap. I can only assume that a party of all female or gender ambiguous characters will be safe from this monstrosity.

Crab people. Crab people. Look like crabs. Talk like people. Well, I guess they are more like lobsters and they are called Aldani. But they are still going to try to turn the party into metrosexuals.

A druid and a vegepygmy. There is actually an NPC druid in Tomb of Annihilation that has a vegepygmy friend, so I was pretty happy to find this pairing in my haul. Unfortunately, my players will certainly find a way to avoid ever meeting them.

Ah. Both a visible and an invisible version of the legendary warrior Minsc and his miniature giant space hamster, Boo. I'm sure I will probably use this figure all the time.

Onto NPC figures of characters that will actually get used. Both of these are fairly important characters in the Tomb of Annihilation book. I am pretty happy with the version of the guy on the right. I have seen pictures of some where his arrow is no where close to being lined up with his bow.

Chultan goblins. I appreciate that they have different versions of what is essentially the same mold. I think they started doing this with the Storm King's Thunder minis. Gives some visual variety to the baddies to help them stand out a bit.

I don't know what the hell a 'Zorbo' is, but it looks like a little crazy teddy bear and I want one. I'm sure its entirely safe and easily domesticated.

Take a look at the rest of the haul. Overall I am quite pleased, even though Acererak was nowhere to be found. I think the quality on these official miniatures has really improved over time. The little details that have been put into many of them are pretty impressive. I'll definitely be picking up more with time.

Tomb of Annihilation Dice

The Tomb of Annihilation Dice come in a pretty wicked tin that has the Tomb of Horrors demon statue face on it. The dice themselves are a dark olive green. You get 4 d6's, 1 d4, 1 d8, 1d10, 1d12, 1 d20 and a percentile die (a full set). The dice are nice enough, but there isn't anything altogether spectacular about them. The collector novelty of this item is probably the primary motivation to pick it up.

The Reincarnated Dungeon Master's Screen

The art on the front side of the screen depicts a red dragon soaring across the sky with evidence of its presence at the burning city behind it. In its right claw one can see it has collected a hostage. I like the contrast of hues of the red over the blue sea and clear sky. This scene is a lot less busy than the original, and I think I prefer this scene overall.

The new DM screen takes the some material from the original base DM screen, but removes some of the useless tables like the NPC name generator and the "something happens" table that no one ever used in favor of some more relevant info. One thing I don't care for is that they replaced one of the panels with an overview of actions in combat. This isn't information I ever have a need to refer to, and I would have much preferred they had included tables for generating weather or other travel related material (especially given their relevance in Chult). 

The other inclusions are indeed useful, and they include object hit points and AC, encounter distance, prices for services and food, drink and lodging. I am very thankful that they have included the rules for short jumping, long jumping, and suffocating. Every once in a while these things come up but they aren't used enough that I have them memorized. They included the rules on concentration, which isn't one I figure many DM's are going to need. 

The conditions panels are still here, unchanged. Would have been nice if they found a way to make this information more compact to fit some other information in, but these are the most utilized panels for me to reference so I am thankful that they retained this information.

Overall, its an improvement. If you are a DM I would definitely recommend picking it up.

How to Defeat Your Party (Without Killing Them) - Part 2: Conversion

Roleplaying games are meant to be fun. Party wipes that involve killing the characters are not fun and end the adventure. This series is about presenting ideas for party defeat that include setbacks and consequences that progress the story.

For those that missed part 1:

• How to Defeat Your Party (Without Killing Them) - Part 1: Blackmail

Conversion

Sometimes the enemies that defeat the party are not motivated to destroy them, but rather to convert them to their side. They don't see the PCs as intractable enemies and believe that if only the party heard their side of the story perhaps they'd recognize they were fighting for the wrong side. In this instance the PCs were simply mislead by the originator of their quest and just need new perspective to help them make a more informed decision about whom to help.

As a storytelling element this can be quite compelling. After all, the PCs may recognize that their opponents had the opportunity to kill them but instead chose a more merciful route. If this goes against something they had previously learned about their enemy they may begin to question the authenticity of what they know. And if their captors have compelling reasons or evidence for why they were taking part in actions that were previously deemed as vile they might be swayed to switch sides (or at least be given a chance to "fake it" until they can escape their captors).

A less subtle way of setting up this idea would be to cast the story as the heroes as unwittingly working for the villain. Now captive, they are educated on how they were duped and redirected toward a new quest. The forces of good have suffered a setback, however, as they are dealing with the aftermath of the PCs' actions.

Of course, the enemies are not going to take it on faith that the PCs see their side of the conflict. They will expect them to perform a task or undergo a trial that tests their newfound worldview. The party might even be split upon how they see the current circumstance - perhaps some truly do have a change of heart and wish to aid their former enemies, while some maybe pay lip service to this new idea to escape captivity. These types of conflicts create great inner-party dynamics that can promote character development and make for great sessions.

In our previous Dungeon Crawl Classics game, the heroes were summoned against their will to serve the Court of Chaos, a group of vile overlords bent and spreading discord through the multiverse, to stealing a previous artifact from the Plane of Law. Though there was little choice they had on embarking on the quest, they were also offered great reward for accomplishing it...something that helped disquiet any protest that otherwise would have been verbalized. Their attempt failed, and they were defeated by agents of Law and brought into custody.

The deities governing the Plane see mortals as flawed creatures of their creation; easily corrupted by their benign counterparts. Brought before avatars of the Lawful Deities, they ask for the PCs to confess and repent for their crimes. Needing mortal agents of their own, they decide to give the heroes their chance to atone for their sins and prove their usefulness as agents for the gods' own design.

This idea doesn't take away a character's ability to be duplicitous and deceive their captors. They can still choose to remain with the original side in the conflict they were on, or simply strike a path that they are on no one's side but their own. But it does give them an option to escape their predicament via an alternative to death, and presents an opportunity for the GM to add something new to the story. In my situation, I get to play out a scenario for the players to either choose to beg for mercy, simply repent and accept their punishment, or vehemently lash out at the gods for being so heavy-handed in their approach. I'm certainly looking forward to how this version of player defeat will shape the characters in this particular game.

Review: Hole in the Sky (DCC RPG)

A long-running campaign session set for the weekend was cancelled, so once again it was Dungeon Crawl Classics to the rescue. I had purchased the module Hole in the Sky a number of weeks ago and read through it for just this moment. For the uninitiated, Dungeon Crawl Classics is a tabletop roleplaying game designed in the OSR (old school revival) tradition, intended to evoke the feeling of tabletop gaming as it was in its origin back in the 1970s.

Hole in the Sky is a level-0 funnel. What this means is the players roll up between 16 to 24 level-0 characters, farmers and commonfolk, who are called to action in an attempt to earn fame and fortune. Chance of success is minimal and the death toll is high.

The adventure starts as the players receive messages in their dreams from an entity known as the Lady in Blue. She summons them to a feast she has prepared for them overlooking the ocean. Not the most appealing patron, as she holds a number of severed heads which do the talking for her and her welcome dinner appears to be maggot-ridden and spoiled. Her request of the players is to rescue an ally of hers from its extradimensional prison, and in doing so she will grant the commonfolk a chance to "change their stars" by spinning the Wheel of Destiny (it would definitely be appropriate to have one of the severed heads be Pat Sajak).

The introduction is very box-text heavy, which normally I would not be a fan of but for the purposes of this adventure it is fine. Level-0 funnels require some suspension of disbelief for the players to buy-in to its conceit, and the intro sort helps facilitate that there is no alternative. This lady clearly isn't right, and the characters should recognize pretty quickly that if they don't do as she says they might find themselves added to the decapitated head bouquet. One suggestion to any GMs looking to run this adventure would be to perhaps have the Lady in Blue to foreshadow some of the threats that the players might face (such as Cur Maxima). Little tips or hints from the Lady in Blue may provide reassurance that she can be trusted since the welcome dinner doesn't exactly inspire such confidence.

"Peter Pumpkinhead came to town..."

To get to the extradimensional prison, the players must cross an invisible bridge that spans over the ocean. I think it is a very interesting element included as the players must begin this adventure by electing someone to be the one to check the Blue Lady's sincerity about the existence of an invisible road. Since there's already an expectation of a heavy death toll, everyone is anticipating that there is a catch. After discovering how to get onto the bridge, they must make a three day journey over the sea. Also of entertainment value are all of the dangers that the players came up with that I, as a GM, had not even considered. With no landmarks to assist with navigation, how can they be assured which way is straight? How will they find their way back after the adventure is over? Such is the power of the players to add details to the narrative.

Once they reach the end of the bridge, they find the hole in the sky which takes them to the prison. The entire prison-lair is absolutely linear. Unlike the Portal Under the Stars, there is not a mini-dungeon of multiple paths to take, so it basically ends up as an adventure on the rails. The positive of this is that it helps the GM to regulate the death-count a bit more predictably so that there is a good chance of survivors at the end. For instance, if the players suffer a lot of casualties on the way to the prison its easy enough to remove some of the threats along the way to keep the adventure alive. The addition of a homicidal pumpkin-monster named Cur Maxima also assists with the alternative problem of potentially not enough challenge (who am I kidding? That NEVER happens!). The negative of all of this is it may create a feeling for the players that the whole thing is kind of contrived and that they don't have enough choices to create a conclusion of their own making.

One of the tough things about the funnel adventures for me has been that I rarely have more than four players, and its a bit unwieldy to have them control 24 characters at a time. In this case it becomes a balance of trying to bring replacement characters into the adventure to replace the fallen without it being too contrived. The players need to have enough characters in play to ensure they can confront challenges, but you also don't want them to possess too many that it is overwhelming or unmanageable. Fortunately, the module is built under the premise that the Lady in Blue has sent many would-be adventurers to the prison in the past, so it is very easy to have a new level-0 character pop up during the course of the adventure to replace the fallen. This worked quite nicely in our play through, and in the end everyone had a single character that survived.

One of my favorite things about the DCC modules is the visually evocative maps they include. Many roleplaying game modules have scenarios or locations that go a little over-the-top with their method of written description, which can be frustrating for players and GMs alike. The inclusion of these maps helps the GM to feel confidence in the accuracy of the descriptions they are communicating to players.

These maps stand on their own as art in the zany DCC-style.

When the heroes achieve their objective and return to the Lady in Blue, they are indeed rewarded with a chance to change their stars. They are presented with the Wheel of Destiny and are able to roll to potentially change aspects of their character. This could be ability score changes, new birth signs, new race, new profession, etc. - an exciting end to a level-0 funnel where the characters were generated by completely random means. It is especially welcomed with excitement from the character that realizes they survived with a dwarf who has a strength score of 4. As the heroes begin to understand that actions they took during the adventure modify their spin on the wheel, it helps to lessen the feeling that their choices didn't matter and ends the adventure on a positive note.

Final Thoughts

The pacing of the adventure is very well-done and there is not a dull moment. They get the hook right up-front, go on a multi-day journey and find themselves crawling through a linear dungeon towards their end goal with a huge reward at the end. The incentive at the conclusion will likely make this a level-0 funnel I will go to often for new players. It is easily run in less than 4 hours. For players who have never experienced DCC before, Hole in the Sky is going to be a memorable trip to an exotic environment and quirky opponents that are both terrifying and humorous. If you want to get your players to beg for more DCC, Hole in the Sky is a great way to lay the bread crumbs to make that happen.

Feel free to check out our actual play on YouTube HERE!

Beyond the Funnel - Intrigue at the Court of Chaos

Heroes of the Lady in Blue

After running the module A Hole in the Sky by Michael Curtis three times, I had become both desensitized to player death and eager to upgrade the intensity of my bloodlust from level-0 characters to a full fledged level 1 party. The funnels are great fun and a unique, simplified introduction to Dungeon Crawl Classics. But the time had come to move on to the full-game with its blood magic and corrupting influence, warriors capable of great feats of strength and combat prowess, and clerics whose channeling of the divine would test the patience of their deities.

How Does the Game Change from Level-0 to 1?

Here are just a few of the prominent features that stuck out for me that were different:

Spellcasting

This is the first time the players have had access to magic. In DCC, there are no spellslots for either wizards or elves. They gain access to a number of spells equal to that allowed by their class plus a number equal to their intelligence modifier. Spells are selected at random, as is the case for most things in DCC. 

In addition to the spells that they pick up, they automatically have access to Patron Bond and Invoke Patron. The Patron Bond spell is a week long ritual that forms a pact between the character and their deity or another otherworldly being. Depending on if its successful or not, the character will then open up the option to cast Invoke Patron to attempt to ask its deity for aid. This is a great spell that allows for all sorts of potential scenarios to play out. The kicker to asking for aid from a deity is that it will call in the debt at some point, creating endless opportunities for future adventures.

When casting a spell, a player makes a spell check. This is a d20 roll modified by their intelligence modifier and level which is then paired up against a table in the book that explains the result. There are over 180 pages of the core book dedicated to spellcasting. Each spell has countless possibilities from its base effect, description of how it manifests, and the inclusion of effects that are specific to the individual who cast it.

Spellcasting is a dangerous business in DCC. Wizards can sacrifice their physical being to empower their spells via a mechanic known as spellburn. Just like burning luck, the player can elect to reduce any number of strength, agility or constitution points to add a modifier to their spellcheck. If they sacrifice a full 20 points, they get an automatic critical!

The cost of failure can be extreme. When a spellcheck fails, the caster will lose the use of the spell until they spellburn 1 point per the lost spell's level to regain it or they wait a day for it to recharge. If the spellcheck comes up with a natural 1, the spell may misfire and the caster may start to see their physical being warp and corrupt. Because of this, wizards and elves who live long enough are likely to give others an Emperor Palpatine vibe.

What an uggo.

Mighty Deeds of Arms

These are maneuvers that Dwarves and warriors can attempt that go beyond simply trying to swing a weapon to wound an opponent. They include called shots to the eyes or limbs, attempting to disarm or trip an opponent, and even calls to rally and inspire allies. The mechanic is that the warrior or dwarf rolls their normal attack roll and rolls a deed die to determine if a special attack of their declaration succeeds or not. These are fun and give the warrior classes a little bit more creative edge to their characters rather than being big bags of hp that hit things. The book even encourages players to work with their gamemasters to develop their own signature Mighty Deeds of Arms.

Character Death

The funnels were wrought with character death. Every five minutes, another one would bite the dust. It isn't so different with level-1 characters and beyond, but they do have a little bit more survivability. After dropping to 0 hp, the character has a number of rounds equal to their level to be healed. If they are healed in this way, they gain a gnarly scar or some other permanent reminder of their near-death experience. If no one gets to them in time, there is an option to allow the character a luck roll and the ability to burn luck to survive. If this works, they come back with 1hp and a -4 penalty to all rolls for the next hour and a pemenant -1 to either strength, agility or stamina. Jeepers. Maybe the player will wish they had died after all of that.

Intrigue at the Court of Chaos

The Characters

Samuel the Elf: Samuel had survived the Hole in the Sky and taken the Lady in Blue as his patron. He went back to his village where he operated as a shipping captain; however he recently began smuggling people across the sea and has been proselytizing to immigrants about the benefits of converting to his chaotic patron.

Raton the Dwarf: A professional ratcatcher who survived the Hole in the Sky with Samuel. He has since devoted his time to developing a rat amusement park in town and is training his pets for sinister purposes.

Zander the Elf: Zander began working for the local courthouse transcribing old documents that served as the foundation of the laws for the kingdom. He has become frustrated with the law of man and wishes for a return to nature.

Stan Putsky the Warrior: Stan became a business associate of Samuel's and worked with him to ship exotic animals that he had captured to far away places for profit.

Oz the Wizard: A local fortuneteller who is known to be something of a fraud. Though his fortunetelling skills are false, he is very good at investigating the backgrounds of those that he would con and thus can typically spin a good enough tale to fool the naive.

The Adventure Highlights

• The adventure officially begins after the players witness a puppet show on a city street and are summoned to the Court of Chaos. Once there, the players are asked by five monstrous hosts who ask the players to venture to the Plane of Law to capture an item called the Yokeless Egg. Its purpose is left ambiguous, though it is communicated to the characters that it will be used to erode Law's influence in the multiverse.

• Before the heroes embark on the quest, they are each visited by a different horrifying member of the court. Each tries to entice the character to obtain the egg and deliver it to them individually rather than to the court as a whole. They are offered power and magic items that are quite incredible. Seemingly, each of my players had no problem with this as they all accepted and no one protested (except Samuel who had a pretty epic breakdown and begged for his life when they first arrived).

• Once the characters were ready they were armed with special chaos weapons that will work on the Plane of Law. They were then sent to their destination: a land of perfection with every blade of grass the perfect hue and aligned straight without blemish. No clouds were present in the sky and everyone found the temperature just to their liking. In the distance they could see a giant floating diamond shaped structure which seemed to be where the Yokeless Egg could be found.

• The first obstacle was a giant ox who served as the guardian to the structure. He had an Eeyore quality to him, declaring white might have been a mighty declaration of reprisal if it wasn't for how bored he sounded. The characters caught sight of something written upon his horns. As the Ox stirred and readied to protect his charge, the players were eager for battle. After defeating the hapless creature he simply sighed as he passed on: "At least someone noticed me." Sad. Afterward the party looked upon his horns: the phrase to relieve the Ox from his sacred duties and avoid the confrontation.

• Once inside, it became clear to the party that five trials would need to be passed. The first trial involved the players sculpting a piece of clay that remained from the gods' creation. They were charged with displaying what they would create from this fragment. We got out some playdough, which is essentially the same thing as the divine spark of the Creators.

• Once inside, it became clear to the party that five trials would need to be passed. The first trial involved the players sculpting a piece of clay that remained from the gods' creation. They were charged with displaying what they would create from this fragment. We got out some playdough, which is essentially the same thing as the divine spark of the Creators.

• Inside the Enlightenment trial, the PCs encountered a room with eight pillars that were lit up by sconces. A voice charged them with finding and fixing the imperfection within the room. As they set to work, several pairs of beautiful dancers appeared. As they swayed and moved, their actions became more erratic and they began colliding with the characters and causing damage. The heroes soon noticed that there were no shadows being produced from blocking the light. As they set out to put the flames out and relight them with new light that would cast shadows, several of the party members tried to distract and calm the dancers. Raton began instructing them how to do the YMCA, Samuel pulled off the worm, Zander got everyone into the chicken dance and Oz channeled his inner Chubby Checker said "Come on everybody, lets do the twist!" 

• In a room labeled Construction, the PCs encountered a room with a bottomless chasm that divided the room some 100 ft. A door could be seen on the otherside. Close to the characters' position were six different colored vials: tangerine, crimson, azure, gold, emerald, and plum. The solution is to drink the vials in the color of the rainbow starting with the reddish liquid. Drinking them out of order causes strange results. Raton had a crate of his rats with him, and he decided that it would be a good opportunity to test the results of the liquid upon them. Some effects were visible, and some seemed to do nothing. After feeding one of the rats the emerald potion, the rat grew to be 12' tall and began attacking the party. One of the potions caused a rat to get very depressed and it flung itself into the chasm, committing rat-suicide. One of the rights began to glow like a lightbulb. After all of the experimentation was done, the players tried everything from trying to dump the contents out  to mixing them all together. It always seemed the vials would refill, with the exception of the red one when consumed. Eventually, Stan Putsky stepped forward and just started guzzling the strange brews in the correct order, and a mist appeared over the chasm and seemed to offer a way across.

• The final confrontation brings the party to the chamber where the Egg is defended by reflections of the PCs. Each reflection is an idealized representation of themselves with better looks, brawnier muscles and seemingly more confident. The party went to battle with them and despite the conjuration of more than a few lions from Oz and a badass flaming hands spell from Samuel, the rolls were not with the party and we saw our first DCC party wipe. 

• They suffered defeat and now are prisoners of the Scions of Law who will now put the PCs on trial for colluding with the forces of chaos. They will give them a chance to plead their case and in the end will render a judgment they feel is suitable for their crimes.

In our DCC games, Justicia, Goddess of justice and mercy, is represented by her avatar, Jessica Biel.

Conclusion

Our first session was a huge learning curve for me as a "judge" (the term for dungeon masters in DCC). I made a lot of bad calls and fumbled through how the spellcasting system works, but it was a good first attempt at learning how to make a DCC game work. There were other miscellaneous things my players were trying to do based on a 5th edition mindset that proved challenging. For example, one of the players wanted to use their action to focus on evading the enemy (they were looking for a boost to their AC). How do I handle this? Agility is already factored into AC, and there doesn't seem to be a specific action included. 

I noticed that my first-time players are very nervous to burn luck or "go big" on spellburn. Going conservative in DCC is in my estimation a huge mistake. The game rewards risk-taking, and if you aren't willing to take those risks then you might not be successful. The player psychology of trying to conserve resources for the future is a fine idea for other games, but it won't produce the exciting moments that make DCC shine. When one of the players at the very end of the session finally started to take notice of this, the tempo started to change. He started burning four points each round and I found myself feeling excited for the player and hoping for a good result. 

Overall, I am happy that I am starting to get people on board with playing DCC games. There is still a lot to learn in order to make games run smoothly, but this session was a good first step. My mission going forward is to help my players to understand the system, and then to get them back to roleplaying. It can be difficult to learn a system and do an effective job developing your character and getting yourself into the story at the same time. With regular play, I am confident we will all be feeling comfortable with the system and I am certain the players will be the ones teaching me the rules before too long.