Author:  Daniel J. Bishop
Publisher:  Purple Duck Games
Art: Michael Scotta, Gary Dupuis
Price: PDF $3.00 – at RPGNow / at d20pfsrd.com / Paizo.com
Pages: 13 (incl. cover)

The Seven Deadly Skills of Sir Amoral the Misbegotten is the fourth release in the Campaign Elements series from Purple Duck Games. The Campaign Elements series helps fulfill the ‘Quest for It’ element of the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. The products in this series are perfect for use as divine quests, patron quests, or simply when you as a judge have a DCC RPG character that needs or wants to accomplish some task.

This fourth release is written by Daniel Bishop, just as the previous three releases were. The cover illustration was done by Michael Scotta and interior art was done by Michael and Gary Dupuis. The PDF is 13 pages long including the cover and page of OGL information on the last page. An area map is included, as well as encounter descriptions for each location of the ruined Gryffon Keep. Numerous new monsters are included, either to be used for this adventure, or “borrowed” by creative judges for other areas of their campaign. Several ways to introduce this area and Sir Amoral himself are also in the adventure, along with the ‘Squeezing it Dry’ section for getting the absolute most from this scenario.

The primary component to this adventure is the ghost of a once powerful warrior. This warrior knew many fighting techniques that could prove advantageous to other warriors or those interested in pursuing a special fighting technique. In life Sir Amoral was stingy with this knowledge, but in the afterlife he seeks to pass this on to others – if they are worthy.

Sir Amoral knows seven special fighting techniques that one can learn. To be worthy one must pass one of his seven deadly tests. Even succeeding at that means the one seeking to be taught this technique must accept a quest on Sir Amoral’s behalf.

The scenario includes the mechanics for these seven bits of knowledge and seven new creatures Sir Amoral can summon to determine if one is worthy of instruction.

The Review

The scenario rests in a specific area, the ruined Gryffon Keep. Most likely the characters will seek the place out in search of Sir Amoral to teach them new weapon techniques. A creative judge can come up with any number of ways to learn of Sir Amoral, but the most attractive appears to be the characters having met someone who had received training on their adventures. This person could be an ally or rival depending on which fits your DCC campaign the best.

There are some additional hooks noted for drawing characters to the area. And several opportunities exist to expand the adventure site to further work the area into an ongoing campaign.

The seven techniques provide mechanics to do things like increase initiative, increase armor class, introduce a form of attacks of opportunity, and similar mechanics. There is a sidebar that states the seven deadly skills are not supposed to analogous to feats. I still have a hard time shaking the feeling that they feel a little like feats to me.

They are certainly much harder to obtain than a feat in d20 systems and it does come with a price to learn them. But as I read them I feel like they will get recorded on my character sheet in a very similar manner as feats. My initial reaction is lukewarm to these mechanics.

I think when I use this scenario in play I would still have the seven deadly skills, but possibly swap in something of my own creation. I think. We will see what happens when the time comes though. In either case – a neat scenario and idea and certainly workable even if I tweak it from how originally written.

The scenario does include 7+ new monsters. Many of these are for use with the seven trials, but a judge could easily “borrow” some of these for use anywhere in a campaign.

The location itself is also interesting and has at least one area that just calls for a judge to expand on it a bit and really work it into their campaign.

Once again this release in the Campaign Elements series has lots of useful parts in it and ideas to “borrow” for an established DCC RPG campaign. Used in whole or in part this is another strong release from Purple Duck Games and Daniel Bishop. It is a welcome addition to my collection.