Review: The Falcate Idol

Posted on July 9, 2013 by Jeffrey Tadlock

Author: Daniel J. Bishop
Publisher: Purple Duck Games
Art: Luigi Castellani
Price: PDF $3.25 – at RPGNow / at d20pfsrd.com / Paizo.com
Pages: 15 (incl. cover)

Campaign Elements

The Falcate Idol is a new product line from Purple Duck Games for the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG called Campaign Elements. The line is designed to help a DCC RPG judge create a persistent campaign world and provide patron quests, divine quests, or any number of quests to help fill the “quest for it” vibe of DCC RPG.

What is the “quest for it” vibe? It is an underlying facet of the DCC RPG game in that many things are possible. But to obtain these things such as ability score increases, great magic weapons, or any number of afflictions, the character must “quest for it”. It is not a simple matter of going to the magic shop to buy a magic item, but rather it is ancient story that tells of a location, pool, or any other source of ability to provide the character with what they desire.

In addition, the Campaign Elements releases are designed to be short adventures that can also act as something to drop in if you have some missing players on your gamenight. Typically playable in a single session, they are easy for a judge to pickup and run on a night where some folks are going to miss the game.

The Falcate Idol

This first release, The Falcate Idol, is a short adventure area detailing a cult’s sanctuary of a little worshipped patron. Within this sanctuary is the Egg of Creation with untold powers.

The PDF comes in at 15 pages including the cover. A map of the encounter area is also included, along with random treasure tables tailored to the sanctuary. In addition to the encounter area descriptions there is a short section on expanding the adventure or getting more from the adventure in the course of a broader campaign. There are of course new monsters as well.

The adventure actually has two items of interest in the same location. One is a spider idol with a gem told to be as large as a pigeon’s egg. Hidden within this same sanctuary is the Egg of Creation which is said to have great power in and of itself.

The Review

This adventure flowed quite well on a read-through and presented several hooks for a judge to use in their campaign. A creative judge is sure to find many, many more ways to use this adventure. I immediately thought of several ways to use it in my own campaign with only a few tweaks to get it to fit just right.

The length of the adventure should fit in most people’s single sessions. This is handy in a couple of ways – one, letting you more easily drop it in as something to run when short some players, and two, allowing you to use it with a “quest for it” adventure without derailing the whole campaign. The adventure can drop into an existing campaign world with minimal reconfiguration, if any.

The map is easy to follow and differs from some of Purple Duck releases other maps in their DCC RPG products. The map is simple, but I like the look of this one. It features an interesting layout without being cumbersome.

As noted earlier there are random tables included for treasure, unique items, and a spell effect chart. I liked the tables and several items on there could easily be borrowed by a judge even if an item was not found or used in the adventure.

The new monsters in the adventure are interesting and have some special qualities to help add to their mystery. The monsters can also be added to a judge’s bag of tricks for other adventures in their campaign as well.

I was very pleased with this adventure and this new product line. I think it fills a need in the DCC RPG market by providing areas a judge can use for “quest for it” type tasks. I think all judges are good intentioned, but sometimes time impacts their ability to come up with quests between major adventures to handle patron requests or desires of the characters.

This initial adventure looks to deliver on many of those fronts. I was easily able to insert it in my own campaign to take care of some recent requests and questions from the PCs in my game. It also is short enough to run without taking us too far away from the campaign as a whole.

This adventure is well worth picking up if you want to have a short adventure on hand or start having the PCs quest for some of the things they have been asking for. I look forward to the future releases in this line and hope they hit the mark as well as this one did.

Injecting A Little Horror Into Your Game

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Iron Tavern Guest Blogger

I have always been a fan of horror in my games. In fact the games that I remember the most have been those that I have centred around a horror fantasy concept. But not just any horror. If you are after a horror game that will make the players sweat bullets and jump at your every word then you are trying to create a setting that is the hardest to pull off. It is a prize I have tried for many times and failed each time. But if you want to run a game which will leave the players at the end with open mouths because of the horror story that has just been told read on.

A horror game that leaves an impression needs to be a story game on the whole. Every horror story that has been successful for me has had at its heart a tale of tragedy. Every single game that I recall was based on an innocent situation gone wrong. If you look to popular culture for examples of horror you will find a broader range of possibilities available to you but some of those are really precluded by the style of game we play. For example, the slasher flicks like Halloween or Friday the 13th are not really recreatable in Fantasy Horror as everyone has Combat abilities so the only way this style can deliver horror to the players is through the NPC’s they kill in gruesome ways. If that happens it becomes a story game rather than a gore fest. Movies like Jaws could be created but rely on a lot of suspense. Having a creature that lives in an environment like the shadow/astral plane that attacks from surprise may be an option but how long you could sustain that suspense may be limited. I must admit I have never really tried that style of game and I will put it on my to do list.

The horror that really leaves me and my players in love with an adventure are those that detail tragic circumstances leading to a horrific manifestation of evil. In my games this tends to gravitate to ghost stories but in reality it can be any style, vampire, zombie, ghoul, werecreature etc. that involves transformation from a normal innocent being into a creature of malevolence. I use ghosts a lot because I am a fan of them, especially Japanese spirits who are rich in story detail. Not to mention there are a massive amount of Japanese spirits out there to draw information on. So many you could create an entire campaign around the theme. For some idea check out http://hyakumonogatari.com which translates traditional Japanese spirit stories into English.

Once you have chosen the style of threat you want you need to weave a story around it. To be fully effective the story should be one of terrible corruption and circumstance. I will give you a few ideas for you to work with.

A girl married in secret to her love murdered by her own mother (who did not know she was married) who caught her in the act of consummating the marriage
A husband finds a box filled with letters to his wife from an admirer. Not realising they had never been opened (and therefore it is a love not returned) the man kills his wife and then commits suicide
A child born with an affliction (mental impairment or physical deformity) is kept in a sealed room until their death to save shame on the family
A vicious werewolf attack barely scrapes a baby in the wound as the mother is killed. The baby transforms into a horrid thing come the full moon…
A demon possesses the body of an innocent girl who is then convicted of witchcraft and burnt at the stake

This gives you a few basic ideas that you can turn into your own games or you can build your own from these ideas. At the heart of them all is one concept and that is innocent corrupted. If you want to look at a great (and cheap) module that follows this style designed for Pathfinder look at the recent release Haiku of Horror for inspiration!

Why is this corruption necessary? Well it may not be but in every game that I have run that seemed to get the best reaction it was at the point that the players put together the story. They find the journal that details the neglect, they find the box of letters and realise three quarters of them are still unopened etc. It is these twists in the tale where the players realise that the horror was built out of misunderstanding or prejudice that really hammer home that horror. These adventures make great side track adventures and tend to bring out a lot of roleplaying in a group if you can get them interested in the story to begin with which may be a challenge.

So how do you get them interested? Well, the easiest way is a reward. The town mayor wants to know why all his townfolk are turning into werewolves. A young couple have moved into the previous home of the murder/suicide and the parents seek the help of the players to find out what is behind their increasingly unusual behaviour. Reward is good, but then the players are not overly concerned if it goes poorly and they just don’t get the reward. Try to get them personally interested as characters (and players)! If you are playing Pathfinder, grab the Gamemaster Guide or go the the reference document and read up on haunts. You can use haunts subtly or overtly to drag the players into a game. The walls of the basement begin to ooze blood, the player gets distracted by a sound, looks back blood gone. Or something as simple as the innkeeper warning them not to wander around the Inn at night. No reason, just “Stay in your room under all circumstances!” Players love to break rules.

To keep the interest in the story really requires good pacing. String out a series of events that alternate between storytelling and supernatural activity. The players need to get a sense that there is a story to be had before they pursue it. Make the first visitation of a spirit enticing and the players will be seeking information from NPC’s everywhere. Have every NPC have a variation of a story, and throw in a couple of red herrings too. Watch them try to chase down the truth. Prepare artifacts (props) for the players to handle (the box with the letters or an old toy etc.) that will increase the interest in the story. If you feel that your players will not buy into the story without some fights make them mean something. Have the players rewarded after the battle by a bit of the story, e.g. a diary or a map that shows a secret basement level of the house.

The climax of an adventure should not be a battle with the spirit or creature. It certainly should happen though. What needs to happen is the players have to finish what they have started or the problem continues. With a spirit, they just continue to show up! You have to bring to light the circumstances that lead to the malevolent spirit coming into being. Remove the body from the hidden basement and have the parents arrested (Lawful Good) or seal them into the same room (Neutral!) should do it. One way or another the players need to continue to pursue the story until its end. It is when they put all the pieces together that you will get the response you are after. That wow factor from them as they complete their investigation and they marvel at the evil that can be done to even the most innocent amongst us.

I strongly suggest you give this style of game a go once you have run some regular games and are looking for a challenge to your GMing. To run one of these games well takes a good amount of skill and they do not always work, but when they do they have a lasting effect on your game. The players will get a boost out of solving a story based option and may reach for a roleplaying situation first. Or they may just talk about the game a lot. Both are satisfying for a GM either way!

Mark Knights is 39 year old guy living in a small rural town called Elliott in Tasmania, Australia. I have been role playing since I was 11 years old playing the original versions of Dungeons and Dragons, MERP, Elric, Dragon Warriors and the like amongst other genre games. I played D&D 2nd Edition through the 90′s but I ran Earthdawn for my fantasy setting and loved it as a GM. When 3rd Edition came out for D&D I tried it but found it too heavy on rules. I ignored the 3.5 edition of DnD in favour of Earthdawn (big mistake) as I thought it was just a money spinner. When 4th Edition DnD came on my players and I gave it a red hot go but hated what it had dumbed the game down to be. On a trip to Melbourne to buy some 4E stuff from a hobby store an old mate of mine pointed me at Pathfinder and in a Fantasy setting I have never looked back.

Geologic Time

Posted on July 5, 2013 by Iron Tavern Guest Blogger

photo by meckimac from commons.wikimedia.org

As GMs and players we have an odd obsession with time. When it comes to combat, we track it down to rounds of a few seconds, making sure we know who acts when to keep order at the table. We track it as our characters cross expanses of wilderness, caves, or dungeons to gauge when random encounters may occur, when magical effects expire, and when daylight appears or disappears…

But time for world designers is a different beast. Was an area always forest? At what point did the seas form or boil away? How long did a particular type of creature or organization rule unopposed over the landscape?

When this type of question appears, I try to look at time from a different perspective.

If it’s a question involving individuals or small groups of people (families, organizations, and so on), it happens on a much smaller scale. Months, years, decades, or centuries usually. These events occur in the span of mortal lifetimes.

If it’s a question involving civilization, I look at things in terms of decades, centuries, or millennia. This is more of a generational time frame, where organizations can pass knowledge and prejudices over a longer span of time. I also keep in mind the effects of the “telephone game.” Time, like space or any other context, can change how a message is interpreted down the line.

If it’s a question involving nature, I use the same scale but expand it to multiple millennia or even millions or billions of years. Look at how the jungles of many parts of the world have hidden the ruins of fallen civilizations effectively for hundreds or thousands of years. Or how rising waters have swallowed entire portions of continents. The landscape of the dinosaurs was far different than what we see today.

If it’s a question involving geology, it gets expanded to the wide end of the time spectrum as well unless the world is technologically adept at terraforming. Tectonic plates can shift. Mountains rise. Land falls into the sea. Rivers carve canyons. Glaciers advance and recede creating valleys.

As GMs we are in a great position to use time as another tool in the box. Do we want a culture to be in decline after ruling the world for thousands of years? Figure out where they were at the height of their empire and then determine how that has been whittled away year by year, decade by decade, century by century.

Or imagine a world in the throes of great geologic change where land bridges form and dissolve, allowing civilizations and animal populations a way to shift and become isolated over time, changing from what they were in the beginning.

Brian “Fitz” Fitzpatrick is a Software Engineer who manages (or is that mangles) Game Knight Reviews and tinkers with writing game materials via his Moebius Adventures imprint. When he’s not writing about gaming, he’s actually gaming or at least thinking about gaming in some capacity. During the non-writing, non-gaming time he’s likely trying to keep up with his wife and two daughters or wrangling code for a living!

Review: Masks

Posted on July 3, 2013 by Iron Tavern Guest Blogger

One of the things I have a lot of in my RPG book collection is generic books that help with setting. I like books on NPCs, businesses, countries, cities, or just odd encounters I can borrow and use. A good friend of mine who was one of the ENnie Judges in 2012 bought this for me for Christmas. It was in his opinion one of the best and most useful RPG books he saw that year and as an ENnie Judge he saw a lot. It also won the Gold medal for Best Aid and Accessory so a few other people agreed with his judgment. It is not an adventure but it is one of the more useful books I’ve found. The book is called Masks by Engine Publishing and written by the guys at Gnome Stew. It is a collection of one thousand NPCs and has been used each session of my current campaign.

Masks is an over three hundred page book of a thousand NPCs. The NPCs are written up without stats or attempts at stats. Sometimes a system less book tries to give combat ratings or make up their own stats that don’t correlate to any game. They don’t do that here and that makes me happy. The book is simply divided into modern, fantasy, and science fiction sections. Each of those sections is then divided into villains, neutrals, and allies. I have found though that I can search for a useful NPC outside of the genre I’m playing. The current campaign is a modern game but I’ve found NPCs in this book from the Fantasy and science fictions sections that work and work well.

The most useful aspect of the book are the indexes. They make it easy to keep track of the NPCs one uses. Each NPC is numbered one to one thousand. They each have a list of traits on them and in one of the indexes all the traits are listed with page number of an NPC that has that trait. So, if you need a mysterious NPC it is easy to find them. There is also an index of all the NPCs in alphabetic order. The index I found most useful though is one that collects NPCs into different groups. If one needs a crime lord and his minions they list the NPCs that would work for that. I would have liked if they would have done more of that.

With a thousand NPCs they are not all winners but there are plenty there to be easily used. This is the only book I have used for each game session and taken with me to each session. The main rule book we use doesn’t even get used as much as this book. One of the biggest uses for me is just names. I used to use a book called Everyone Everywhere that was a great name generator. Now we have the internet and names can be found much easier. Many times just the smallest spark is all that is needed to really get an NPC moving and this book defiantly provides that.

Chris Gath. I’ve been gaming since 1980 playing all kinds of games since then. In the past year I’ve run Pathfinder, Dungeon Crawl Classic, Paranoia, and Mini d6. My current campaign is mini d6 and we are using that for a modern supernatural conspiracy investigative game. On some forums I’m known as Crothian and I’ve written a few hundred reviews though I took a sabbatical from reviewing for a few years as it burnt me out. I was also an judge for the Gen Con awards (ENnies) six times. Jeff, the owner of this blog, is one of my players and a good friend.

DCC RPG: Tables, Tables, and Tables

Posted on July 2, 2013 by Jeffrey Tadlock

Over the weekend Erik Tenkar posted about why he liked Dungeon Crawl Classics and noted it certainly wasn’t the neverending spell tables. This spurred another post from Wayne Rossi on his blog about DCC RPG, tables, and the Pareto principle. Both good posts which led to two different conclusions – one person finding magic in the game and the other turned off by the tables.

Tables

Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG does have a lot of tables. Tables for spells, tables for critical hits, tables for fumbles, tables for mercurial magic, tables for disapproval, and so on and so on. Tables are an integral part to DCC RPG. Tables bring the randomness. Tables occasionally bring the “over the top” results. Tables are what help keep DCC RPG players on their toes.

When I first heard about DCC RPG and all the tables I was pretty skeptical too. In fact, I ended up with the DCC RPG rulebook because I kept hearing great things about the art in it. I initially bought it for the art, but then after reading it thought the game sounded like a lot of fun. After playing in a one-shot online, I was hooked.

The focus of Wayne’s articles is on the spells and accompanying tables. From where I sit I am less concerned with applying Pareto principles and more interested in whether the spell tables add fun to the game for me.

Closer Look at Spell Tables

For sake of discussion I am going to limit my post to the spell tables, but a lot of my comments will likely be applicable to many of the tables in DCC RPG. But let’s take a look the spell tables.

I think the tables are *where* DCC RPG gets it magic from. The spell tables lead to the unpredictability of the game. This unpredictability creates the feeling of the unknown. This unknown is what sparks the magic for some of us who have been playing RPGs for a long time.

Let’s take the magic missile spell. Depending on edition of D&D, we all know magic missile is going to automatically hit and do 1d4+1 points of damage. As the caster’s level goes up, the more missiles the caster unleashes. That is how the spell works today, it is how it works tomorrow, and how it will work the day after that.

When we were new to the game, that in and of itself was enough to be new and treading that line on the edge of the known. As decades have gone by, magic missile gets a little stale. Our wizards have cast it hundreds of times with the same results.

Enter DCC RPG. Now magic missile has a unique table covering the possible results. Now my wizard casts magic missile. I roll a quick 1d20+caster level+intelligence modifier and I step into the unknown again! Now my magic missile could do anywhere from 1 point of damage to 4d12+ caster level of damage to multiple missiles causing 1d10+ caster level of damage. The result changes each time! Magic missile suddenly has become fun again due to this unpredictability.

Each spell has its own table, because each spell is unique in its results. Trying to apply a single table to every spell would ultimately end up being too generic in the long run and steal from the power of specific spell tables.

Each spell table in DCC RPG is interesting. Actual play in my groups indicates that rolling random results on spell tables has everyone at the table anxiously awaiting the result. Will the spell fizzle? Will it do some trivial amount of damage? Or will it be a battle changer and finally swing the tide the party’s way? These are questions asked each time a spell is cast. I think this recurring unknown is what gives DCC RPG its magic.

Tables With Purpose

A table for the sake of having a table is not a good thing. But the tables in DCC RPG are there with a purpose. A purpose of adding randomness into the game. Randomness that adds to the unknown. Unknown that aims (and succeeds in my opinion) to rekindle that magic we saw in the game so many years ago.

Using Published Modules In A Home Campaign

Posted on July 1, 2013 by Iron Tavern Guest Blogger

When building your own campaign it can be taxing coming up with adventures on a schedule that matches your games. Sometimes you just want to pick up the module you have been reading and play that for a few sessions. That way most of the work is done. Isn’t it?

Well, it may surprise you that it can actually be just as much work building a module into a running campaign as it is to create one of your own. Especially with modern styled adventures, that tend to be styled toward sequential play. So what should you be looking at doing to run a module in your existing campaign?

The first thing that you have to do like you would if you were just running a store bought module is read it. Make sure you know your material and the flow of the module. Get familiar with the major characters and NPC’s and the background to the module. While you are doing this make sure you work out what parts of the story are going to be apparent to the players openly or through investigation. There is always material in modules that is given for GM understanding that the players never get to see but some of the information may come out in play.

Once you have a working knowledge of the module you would normally be ready to play it. But as you are adapting the module to your campaign you will now have a bit of work to do before it is playable in your campaign. First of all, tackle the easier things like how to incorporate the geography into the game. Each module will likely contain a pile of maps that show the surrounding area as well as where the action happens. You need to consider this material. Normally modules start in a town or somewhere similar. Do you have a settlement that closely matches the descriptions provided in the module? Can you slip it directly into the campaign unaltered or do you need to adjust the material in some way as the players may have already visited the settlement and expect something else. Do you need to add it all in somewhere else on the map or expand the map for this to occur?

The next step is looking at the story of the module. Many modules of today’s gaming systems are part of a larger narrative with more modules that make up a whole story. To do this the writers of the modules will consider the series as a whole and implement certain themes as well as links to other modules in recurring characters or items. It is your job to go through the module now and find those bits and pieces and adjust them if need be. If part of the module is set up building a desire in the players to tackle the next module you have to pull them out (unless you want to move on to the next module).

From a story perspective what works with the theme of your campaign and what does not. Eliminate those things that will confuse the players with their inclusion. If you are running a campaign in a world full of undead and the module is about a visit of fey inspired creatures it may jar the players from the overall campaign that you are working with. You may need to alter the creatures or the overall theme of the module to allow the narrative arc of your campaign to survive the modules length.

Alter the module so that it now includes items your players you will find useful and use the NPC’s to involve strands of your own campaign you want them to follow on with. Think of how you can turn this module even further into an adventure that the players would not know the difference between your regular campaign and the module. Alter the look and feel of things. Alter read aloud text (if you use it) to a style that is consistent with your own. Turn the dungeon into a tomb. Turn the mountain that dominates the adventure into the statue that exists in your major city. Swap all the monsters out for creatures of a different kind and drop your own NPC’s in. Modules are so called because they are modular and meant to be used in this manner.

Once all this is done take one last look at what you have done. Is all this work still going to have the module achieve what you want? If you say yes then you are ready to run. But if you are still asking questions about something you may still have some work to do. Go back through what you have done with a fine tooth comb and make sure it is at the point you are happy with before running the game.

I am always amused at the snobbery that goes on between some GM’s when you do not make your own adventures or you introduce a module into a campaign. I actually find altering a module to suit my group play time consuming when I am running an adventure path. When you integrate a module into an existing campaign it is even more work! Using modules is not the act of a GM with no imagination, sometimes you read a module that inspires you so use it! But if you are running your own campaign you will likely find slotting a module in to be a lot of work.

Keep your eye on modules that come out, especially if they are one shots! They can be really useful tools when you need a bit of a break. The more you use them too the easier it will get but it still requires work to get a seamless feel to the adventure. Every now and then you will read a module that just suits your style of play and it would be a shame not to use them! Keep on rolling.

Family Ties

Posted on June 28, 2013 by Iron Tavern Guest Blogger

Character histories seem to be one of those things that players seem to love or hate. But they help put our characters into a bit of context in the world they live in.

Our characters live in terms we can all identify with… They are born, live a while, then die. In between, they live in terms of all those delineations we’ve come to accept – from seconds to days, months to years, decades and even centuries. Not many of us may live to the century mark in the real world, but our family memories can stretch far beyond a single life into the lives of whole generations. So why don’t we use the generational view to help define our characters a bit better?

When we construct character histories, we often ask things like:

How old are they?
Do they have any siblings?
Are their parents still alive? Grandparents?
What do they know?
Who do they know? Friends or enemies?
What do they do?

But sometimes it can be fun to ask some questions on a more macro level:

How far back can you trace their family tree?
Who were the heroes and villains in their family history?
What major historical events did their family participate in?
Where did their family start?
Is the family known for anything in particular?
Is the family name recognized beyond the confines of their particular neighborhood, town, city, nation, etc?

Obviously when we delve deeper like this we need our GMs to buy into the process, but basically we’re seeking ways to clarify how the character fits into the greater scheme of things. And asking questions about one family can raise points about other families that they may have crossed paths with along the way. Are there any family rivalries? Feuds? Rifts? It can become a much larger thing than one single character.

Yes, I understand that every bit of information you come up with for your characters can potentially become a hook for your GM to tug on mercilessly during a campaign, but isn’t that the goal? Each hook means that the character is that much more an actual part of the world they inhabit. It becomes that much easier to find ways to motivate your character and the characters around them to do heroic (or dastardly) things if you can put events into a perspective that they understand.

Plus, this broadens the conversation that you can have with your GM or DM to learn more about the history of the world and how your character is woven into it. That way even if your character should die in the telling of a particular story, perhaps they become part of the larger narrative even in death that you, the GM, or other players could then build upon.

Obviously this is just one avenue to explore when building a character. What other avenues have you explored as players or GMs to help the world seem more alive to PCs and NPCs?

Interview: Zach Glazar of Lesser Gnome

Posted on June 27, 2013 by Jeffrey Tadlock

Over on the Kickstarter site there is a particularly interesting project coming into the final stretch. The project is Whisper & Venom from Lesser Gnome. Whisper & Venom is an RPG Adventure boxed set, complete with 28mm metal miniatures. The boxed set will contain a guide to Whisper Vale, an adventure sourcebook, a full color hand-drawn, two-sided poster map by Alyssa Faden, a set of polyhedral dice, more and more minis nearly everyday – all in a 12”x9” box! The boxed set will also include cover art from Jeff Dee and interior art from Lloyd Metcalf.

Whisper & Venom has well exceeded its initial funding goal of $5000 and many new miniatures have been added. The most recent update to the project talks about more stretch goals and if funding surpasses $20,000 support for Pathfinder proper!

Earlier this week The Iron Tavern caught up with Zach Glazar, the head gnome behind Lesser Gnome. He graciously took the time to answer several questions to tell The Iron Tavern a little more about the Whisper & Venom project and where they are headed in the final week of the Kickstarter.

Interview With Zach Glazar

Questions from The Iron Tavern are bolded and prefaced with IT and Zach’s responses are prefaced with ZG. The art used with this post are all examples from the boxed set and used with Zach’s permission. Enjoy!

IT: Obviously the big thing on your plate right now is the Lesser Gnome Kickstarter for Whisper & Venom. Can you tell us a little more about that?

ZG: Of course I can and I am delighted to do so.

Whisper & Venom is my attempt to bring a truly deluxe adventure boxed-set to the small press market that is written in tribute to the ones I was so obsessed over in my, now long ago, youth. I had always wanted an adventure module that came with everything. Every extra that I could never find, let alone afford, all in one box that had amazing art, poster maps with stunning cartography and all the unique figurines included in the text.

I was never able to understand why such an obviously flawless idea wasn’t the standard way every module came. As an adult fascinated by economics I understand completely why, but I still wanted it.

Well with 11 days to go I am pretty close. The cover of the box (and main booklet) is a commissioned acrylic painting by Jeff Dee, the vast majority of interior illustrations were done by Lloyd MetCalf in pen and ink, the poster map is nearly completed by Alyssa Faden and four different and well-known sculptors are working on (and have largely completed) a small army of adversaries for the box…some of which have been selected by backers of the project via a surveys.

It took a great deal of effort to get to this point but it also took a great deal of money. Having brought all these elements at this state of completion during the funding period would, of course, have been impossible without significant investment. I wanted the best people available to me to be involved in Whisper & Venom and it was my number one priority that they be paid in full the instant I received an invoice.

Oddly, I now find that having taken that level of risk has added value to the project beyond the value of simply having top artists. It is very much an indicator of how serious I am in delivery which has become a major concern for a majority of the backers I interact with on Kickstarter.

Your question stated that the Kickstarter for Whisper & Venom was the big thing on my plate. I will start by saying that you are almost correct. The truth is it is the only thing on my plate and has been for at least 3 months and will not end until at least December. This whole experience has been one of the best of my life, which is a good thing, because it is also been my whole life.

Long planning and financial investment has gone into Whisper & Venom and it is my top priority. I am a very lucky gnome in that personal flexibility with career and family choices has allowed this focus. Anyone who reads this that has done a big Kickstarter project while having full-time family and occupational responsibilities is elevated to near superhuman status in my eyes.

IT: I have seen you describe Whisper & Venom a boutique adventure boxed set. Tell me more about that description for this product.

ZG: Well I enjoyed the early development of Whisper & Venom a great deal and wanted to be able to do the whole process over again. I certainly did not think I would make any money out of it (I still don’t, though defraying my costs would be a plus). I just wanted to make a product that others might want to buy. At the time ‘others’ consisted of literally dozens of potential customers (this was before Kickstarter).

Small press publishing for any hobby market is already hard to maintain as a going concern. The barrier to entry is pretty low and there are some great products available for free. So with so many products (some really great, others were great by virtue of being free) it was hard to imagine having anyone even noticing a product in a such a crowded space. This is doubly true when price sensitivity is such that a 20 page supplement might look great and be priced $1 and still be considered too expensive.

The other option was to stand out with quality (meaning first class accessories and artwork in print). I love the feel of a new book or boxed game and sometimes just being in a box or in hardback makes willing me take the chance on something that, had it been identical in every way but offered only as a PDF, I would not have looked twice.

I consider myself to be a good writer, but I am a slow writer who pores over every sentence. This is hardly the ideal path to producing anything in volume on a regular basis. Rather than put myself in a position in I was not ideally suited, I made an early decision to produce high-end retail quality products and take the time to do so. It would be available when it was done and it would not be designed to compete purely in a price sensitive market.

Just like a boutique.

So rather than write around 2000 words per night I would instead invest heavily in time (it turned out heavily in money as well) researching all the little details that are necessary to have a game that you could only pick up off the top-shelf, so to speak.

It helped a great deal that, as anyone who knows me or has interacted with me at a con can verify, I am an uber-consumer of small press RPG products and what is being produced now is exactly what I would buy without question.

Go with what you know I guess :).

IT: The metal miniatures seem to be the focus for the stretch goals for the Kickstarter. More minis are awesome! But what about for those of us more interested in the adventure and the regional setting? Anything lined up in the coming days as you close into the home stretch?

ZG: I am glad you asked and you have not been the only one ask that question.

Well the quick answer is no they are not. Circumstances have made it appear that way but early this week that will change significantly.

I just got good numbers on different sizes of larger prints of the poster map as one example. The upcoming backer survey will tell me which way backers want to see the map improved, but the map upgrade is the not the first non-mini related stretch goal since the $7000 mark.The numbers worked out that at that point so that I could add mid-range dice (vs. what I will charitably call “Dice”) In addition to the map there will be a side quest adventure designed to be completed in one session that shares the setting but not the focus of the main storyline. There is a reason I am careful about adding content stretch goals and it is cost. If it has text and is included in Whisper & Venom then it will be available in a high-quality printed version. I know many people use PDF files, but I do not (I buy them though, many times out of solidarity with the author).

Other non-miniature stretch goals that I have done the legwork on already but cannot move forward with yet require a higher level of funding (or higher number of backers at specific levels) before I can commit to them. These include: Laser etched polyhedral d10 dice (I am close on these), monster cards that include new art (once again I am close here as well), a stapled book of the art depicting individual locations in the adventure (like the Tomb of Horrors from 1E) and possibly a map booklet of the adventure locations.

Why so many miniatures when I had all that great stuff? There is a solid reason that is not directly financial. Miniatures, in my mind, are important to have visible early for two reasons. First, the ones I have commissioned are really cool. Not having enough miniatures locked in early is a deal breaker for a large swath of backers. Second, a large percentage of the ones you have seen, even if only teased, are already sculpted or in process. The ones that are unlocked are, with a single exception, finished.

Second the written estimates that guaranteed a certain price point were slower in coming than I expected. No amount of civilized emails or phone calls could make them appear (two of the most important ones took literally daily phone calls for a over a week to even get a response). I know better now, but back around Christmas I never thought three months would not be enough time for a final estimate and guaranteed production dates on everything.

Forced to overestimate some basic costs I had to use what I was able quantify. Although this project is not about profit, for me at least, I have a responsibility to not go broke either. The largest expense in making custom miniatures is the sculpting and that had already been paid for and the remaining production costs of those are well-known enough by me to maintain financial integrity while guaranteeing on-time delivery.

As it stands I have a meeting with a supplier Tuesday and a backer survey is being sent out no later than Monday which both give me a final answer on what is possible and then lock in everything so I can plan accordingly.

So more of both types are on the way with the bonus of being able to combine some of the ones I had to delay with the already announced minis. Even better for the project, things have shown a consistent positive daily funding rate, gaining either backers or increased pledges while losing very few existing backers, with no signs of changing. Projects do better at the end, especially when they have realistic AND quality stretch goals, which I feel we do.

I do want to say something regarding the survey that I put out to backers. I am completely serious about letting people who have pledged money having a real say what goes into the final product. I do not investigate (or care) what pledge level backers are at when the survey gets sent out for a vote. So if anyone is even thinking of backing, I encourage them to do so now even if only for $1. Just a buck gets you the link to the feedback and voting that ultimately decides the rewards.

IT: Kickstarter projects have had some large success, large failures, and everything in between. A lot of people are getting more nervous of backing things due to delays on delivery. Why is your project different?

ZG: Easy. It is already paid for by me. Except for actual production expenses everything is that is directly related to the text (art is a big part of this) or to pre-production (Sculpts on the minis for example) has a receipt. In two cases I have funds in the bank explicitly to pay the balance on in process components.

As to fulfillment I have the same answer, if it could be done before I hit the launch button on the project, it was done. If the project ended today it would ship early. Judging by everything I know right now it will wind up in the funding range I expected by next Friday. If that is how it goes the rewards will arrive complete and on time. Barring Felicia Day tweeting every nerd on the internet with a twitter account and begging them to back Whisper & Venom, I am confident I have the ability to ensure on-time delivery. (Felicia, I know you read the Iron Tavern so please tweet away and I will figure something out 🙂 ).

Some things are not possible to plan (health problems for example) but I am willing to assume as much of the risk on this that I can. Simply stated, if you have not received anything at all from me by mail at the end of January of 2014 I will give you a refund. I am asking for a lot from backers simply on faith I can do this. I feel that I owe them at least a commitment to get you what I said I would and a public admission of what will happen should I not follow-through.

I can’t guarantee you will like the product (though my confidence is high in that regard) but you will get something from Lesser Gnome by then. Even if I have to mail a second packages at my expense, you will get at least one significant parcel on time.

I have backed a lot of projects. When I do back them I always select a reward that is shipped. Of the nearly 70 I have backed- two are famously late but I know they are coming, 37 are (or were) a couple of months late and three were out and out fraudulent with one more on the brink of being number four.

I am not going to allow my project to be like any of those, I value my reputation more than I value the level of money we are talking about here.

If anyone is considering backing and they would like to ask me any specific questions I encourage you message me through Kickstarter. I always have time to answer these kinds of questions.

Also, If you have been burned by a Kickstarter project recently but find Whisper & Venom interesting, once again feel free to contact me so you can get a better feel for my judgement and planning.

IT: You have Alyssa Faden working with you on this project. From the previews of the regional map the work looks great. How has it been seeing your world brought to life with her maps?

ZG: It does look great. It will look even better at 42″ x 30″ on a table, or in my case, in a frame.

Exciting, yet also a little humbling. Which is the case with all my visual professionals- Jeff, Lloyd and Alyssa have taken my imagination and made it unbelievably vivid and unquestioningly better.

Alyssa’s contribution is a special case for me on a personal level. Fantasy cartography has always been my personal obsession since my first copy of Darlene’s World of Greyhawk Map. As a kid, I loved knowing just enough of a story to have a foundation in a setting and then using that foundation as a basis for imagination. I would spend hours staring at large maps imagining events in the far off corners. Quests, wars, pestilence and much worse would go through my mind as I imagined complete histories and cultures in my head for hours on end.

To put it another way, places only alluded to in games or novels have always seemed the most interesting. Couple that with a stunning representation of such a places on a map and I still think about those elements 20 years later.

Thus, the poster maps and module gatefold maps are two of the most viscerally nostalgia inducing items for me. I knew what I saw in my mind and thought it was interesting enough visually to justify hiring a professional to get it made. After Alyssa graciously accepted a commission from me, I was nervous giving her anything that would convey what I was thinking in a manner that she could use.

I should never have worried. It was all there in her first draft map I saw. All there but better in both logic and form than what I started with in my own mind. Alyssa made the Whisper Vale very real and very beautiful. If anyone ever needs a map I am confident that you could not get a better piece of art than what get from her.

She has the added virtue of being super cool as well 🙂

IT: Whisper & Venom appears designed for the old-school gamers at its heart, though compatible with any fantasy system. Will the setting be truly systemless or will their be a default system used for stats in the product?

ZG: That has turned out to be a subject where I was surprised a bit by a few gamers with very strong opinions. The answer is long, but I want potential backers to know exactly where I am coming from. Before you read my answer I think it is fair to point out that I like almost every role-playing game I have ever sat in on, so my opinion on the merits of any single system reflect that i.e. I am elastic about some things and not wedded to any single system.

Whisper & Venom is truly a tribute to the feel of older rule-sets and during the early drafts I did indeed use the rules I was most familiar with while preparing the most basic elements of its design. Very early on I intentionally switched gears and wrote it to be rules light- trusting the GM to use whichever mechanics they think is best for their game.

I believe we have one of the smartest, most literate and fastest thinking pool of devotees of any hobby that doesn’t involve differential equations or building robots. Couple that fanbase with the fact that fantasy role-playing has been around longer than I have (which feels like a very long time nowadays 🙂 ) and the result is a pool of game masters that share some pretty robust skills.

Whisper & Venom is compatible with any system in the sense that it has a series of interesting locales, non-player characters, story possibilities, and new opponents that have been depicted by professional artists. The hard part of running a game, in my mind as a GM, is completed already for you in Whisper & Venom. I haven’t meet a GM yet that could honestly say they could not improvise anything into something useful with a modicum of effort. They may prefer not to for a variety of valid reasons, but to make any scenario playable is completely within their abilities.

Whisper & Venom is not something I would feel comfortable recommending for any tournament style play or for use in a role-playing association. There is no final reward, single-solution puzzle or best way to accomplish anything laid out in its pages. Additionally, as it has its own regional setting, it would not have important recognizable elements that make those kinds of things a shared experience.

The adventure portion was designed with older systems in mind simply because those are the style with which I am most familiar. I am confident it will work just as well using any system with minimal adjustments. Even stripped of any rule mechanics it still provides maps, figurines, setting information and non-player characters with short written histories.

The vast majority of you truly do not NEED system specific rule guidelines in any adventure product- I really believe that. I did, however, intentionally design it as a low to mid-level adventure to minimize the complications involved with high level spells or feats.

That being said, while I did the bulk of the writing I wrote it using modern simulacrum rules- specifically Labyrinth Lord and OSRIC. The playtest sessions used the same. Combat tests were done with 3e and DCC as well.

When I lock in the final stats in July after backer content is evaluated and included; the numbers I will include and reference will be for Labyrinth Lord. I do this simply because I know the rules can be downloaded for free.

A conversion section, at the very least, will be included. If I am at a slightly higher total funding level a week from today than Kicktraq is showing I can expect, I do more than just Conversion tables. I am 100% prepared to invest a significant amount of money to hire an experienced, published freelance professional to do a total overhaul of all the encounters in Whisper & Venom for Pathfinder.

IT: Tell us a little about your gaming history? How did you get your start in gaming? What games are you playing today?

ZG: My age put me dead center in the peak years of TSR’s pop-culture popularity.

My Mom bought me the Moldvay Basic D&D Box Set from a Sears catalog. Followed by a great deal of games and accessories from that era. I didn’t own too many different rule sets, especially after I settled into 1st Edition AD&D, but amongst my friends we had a huge number of classic RPGs. One of my true highlights was when I got a week of detention in grade school for carrying a copy of Eldritch Wizardry on the playground; I was incredulous about it but it was during the time when D&D was dangerous. Right-thinking moms in our town tried to curtail us from playing but we played all the time.

By the time I was in 7th grade we had moved to a smaller town and there were fewer players. Which was bad, but the worst was having no game store. So my rate of acquisitions was slowed considerably. What I did have though was time and all the core rule books which I read like novels. I am a Tolkien fanatic though and we did play a great deal of MERP.

In High School we branched out to other game genres. Traveller was popular for awhile, as was Twilight: 2000. War games were a fascination of mine, but nobody would even try to play those with me. Even now at conventions specifically meant for games from that era I never see Star Fleet Battles at a table. The closest I got in that regard back then was Battletech.

From there it was PC games pretty exclusively. No FPS games; instead it was games like Bungie’s Myth or X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter. Not finishing Planescape: Torment is a black mark on my otherwise solid nerd resume.

I tried to play Games Workshop games but I was too poor. Everyone who was playing was ten years younger and could field armies worth as much as my car. So I quit and haven’t been much of a fan of their stuff since (except Blood Bowl).

Then I got a career in politics and lost my mojo during the whole d20 era. I bought the 3e books and played a few times but the nature of my job isolated from like-minded nerds. The only game my co-workers played was golf and the attribute that mattered to them was charisma.

Then WoW was released and I thought “I have a couple of free hours a week maybe that would be fun”… 3 years later I logged off.

Now I mostly play RPGs at conventions but I make a point to try everything offered that I hadn’t played before. My wife thinks its funny but people do ask me very pointed questions about ruleset preferences. The answer is that if I was to choose now from the actual older rule-sets I would lean toward the Moldvay/Cook BX Sets or the amazing BECMI sets by Frank Mentzer.

I have played a ton of newer simulacrum varieties and updated FRPG sets at conventions or one off get togethers including: Labyrinth Lord; OSRIC; Adventurer, Conqueror, King; Dungeon Crawl Classics; Astonishing Swordsman & Sorcerers of Hyperborea; Swords & Wizardry and others I am sure I have forgotten. Dungeon Crawl Classics is my current favorite of these types of games but it is also the last one I played. When I play another round of AS&SH I will probably decide that one is my favorite until I move on.

I have played but I am no expert with: Pathfinder, HackMaster and the newest editions of the worlds most popular fantasy role-playing game. I like them very much and I own them all but have yet to give them their due. Of those systems, I am the most interested in Pathfinder.

My most recent gaming achievement was becoming the Circus Maximus champion at the North Texas Role-Playing Game Convention a few weeks ago. The trophy just arrived and sits where my wedding pictures used to.

So yeah, I like games.

IT: Gnomes, gnomes, gnomes. Why gnomes and why Thopas?

ZG: I will turn the tables on you on this question.

Cars, Cars, Cars. Why cars and why Ferrari? 🙂

Honestly, it because of my life long good friend John Hammerle. He is the other gnome in Lesser Gnome (he finally found a use for graduate school literature classes and has edited most every sentence of Whisper & Venom). As kids he started playing a gnome illusionist. As this is a family friendly website I will simply say he played that illusionist in a style unbefitting a civilized person. Foul, greedy, secretive and incredibly lusty- he was John’s complete opposite.

He was also a party favorite that became an NPC who popped up in all kinds of games. Finally he had a second career in World of Warcraft that to this day seems surreal. It was so bizarre seeing other people’s reaction to him. He would get the most unusual private messages that ran the gamut from sexual to sinister, all while being played by a guy who doesn’t even swear. The same guy who hates telephones, has no use for twitter, prefers books to people and only goes to social functions when his wife makes him.

So when I started writing Whisper & Venom, as a way to pass some downtime in the hospital, I wanted to add an NPC that would be memorable. However, I did not want one who was central to the story or whose actions were necessary for any part of its enjoyment. Most importantly I did not want an NPC that had a role as a moral compass or benevolent sage that nudged players in certain directions.

The only moral Thopas has is amoral.

Go with what you know 🙂

Wrap Up

The Iron Tavern wants to thank Zach for taking the time for this interview. If the Whisper & Venom project looks interesting to you, stop by their Kickstarter and check out their various patronage levels. There is still eight days left as of this post!

Zombies!

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Iron Tavern Guest Blogger

World War Z opened this weekend, the Walking Dead series seems to still be going strong, and more and more zombie related fiction seems to be coming out in increasing numbers. I thought Zombies might have reached saturation with the less than stellar Marvel Zombie series but the craze seemed to survive that. I admit I enjoy the Zombie craze. I even watch those bad SyFy movies about zombies along with reading many different Zombie novels (almost 90 at this point). Most of them are not worth talking about but even in the bad ones comes the occasionally cool or clever idea. I doubt I’ll ever get to run a Zombie Apocalypse game but as most gamers know the next best thing to running on is planning one.

A number of questions need addressed in planning a zombie apocalypse game. In many of the RPGs that follow this theme they answer them for the reader but don’t really address the questions well. All Flesh Must Be Eaten is the one RPG I recommend for this as it is more of a toolbox then a firm setting like the others I’ve seen.

I think the first thing needing done is defining the setting. The assumption is usually modern day but I’ve read some cool settings that deal with near future a few decades or a century after the Zombies first appear. There have been some cool super heroes zombie settings but I’d advise staying away from Rotten Capes RPG. Even setting it back ten or twenty years can severely impact the game as communication has really become a lot easier in that time.

While in many cases the cause is not revealed I believe a GM needs to have an idea for it to help the game. It is very possible that the PCs will eventually take the game from just survival to something more and discovering the cause is a likely mystery to attempt to deal with. Now that doesn’t mean it has to be possible for the PCs to ever learn the cause. And as a GM I would include call kinds of rumors from alien spores to natural pandemic and everything in between. Knowing the cause can help define how it is transferred, if there is a cure, and other likely characteristics of whatever is causing the Zombie Plague.

The big question though is fast or slow zombies. On the big screen the zombies have become faster and faster because it looks better on the big screen that way. It is more difficult to make people feel threatened all the time by slow zombies, but they should be no less scary. I think World War Z the book did a great job of showing how they can be frightening. I like a good mix though. In one series I read slow zombies were actually herded by the faster zombies who used them as distractions. It was cool to see pack tactics being used by zombies. I also like the settings showing reasons for the different kinds. Fast zombies might be charged by radiation from nuclear bombs that failed to kill them. Or they just might be bodies that are less decayed or damaged.

GMs can spring the apocalypse on the PCs or give them time to prepare. Some good novels have shown that the outbreak starts on one nearby city and gives the characters a day or so along with everyone else to prepare or panic. Also, a GM can take the PCs through the start of the chaos or just spring them in the middle like Walking Dead does. I almost feel it would be a good bait and switch scenario allowing the players to think it is one type of campaign and then surprise them with the walking dead showing up. That can help so all the PCs are not ex-military survivalist. Showcasing more normal characters and how they deal with the onslaught is one of better aspects of the games then just making it well armed militia men ready for the end.

One of the bigger complaints I see is that in the books and movies there has to be tension between characters. Some of these actually seem more like soap operas with zombies and I think it comes from writers not fully embracing the conflicts that can happen. There doesn’t need to be infighting to create drama. It can be challenging enough just trying to find food and shelter and stay safe. Sure it is good to have rival gangs of people or even other groups that are not evil but don’t agree with the PCs. But too often it seems aside from the main characters most of the humans they run into are worse than the Zombies. It just happens way too often that it becomes boring and predictable.

The most important aspect that I think many of the novels and movies lack but I feel is more important for an RPG is hope. If the game seems hopeless and there is no chance for improvement I think players get bored and frustrated. It’s not fun anymore even if it might be completely realistic. I would allow the PCs to build a community or gather in a caravan. That is why I would give hints of a cause and a possible cure. It allows the PCs to work towards something.

Review: The Revelation of Mulmo

Posted on June 25, 2013 by Jeffrey Tadlock

Author: Daniel J. Bishop
Publisher: Dragon’s Hoard Publishing
Art: David Fisher
Price: PDF $5.00 – at RPGNow
Pages: 76 (incl. cover)

The Revelation of Mulmo was released several weeks ago from Dragon’s Hoard Publishing. The module is written by Daniel Bishop and comes in at 76 pages, including the covers. The adventure includes descriptions of 60 locations which consume the first portion of the book. The book’s appendix has a large section on patrons, including invoke patron checks, patron taint, spellburn and more. The module is intended for 3-8 4th level Dungeon Crawl Classics characters.

The Revelation of Mulmo is a site-based adventure location making it possible to drop into an already existing campaign world. The adventure also has the potential to return a fallen party member back from the dead. This can be a handy hook for a DCC RPG campaign where death typically isn’t resolved in a quick raise dead or resurrection spell.

The adventure takes place in a fallen elf-hill from battles decades past. Due to temporal oddities some lingering denizens of the hill still think this conflict is in progress. This temporal effect is sure to toy with the characters passing into the elf-hill as well!

The module includes one good, strong hook to get characters vested in the adventure. A creative judge can surely come up with some other hooks to get characters involved. Patrons can make the most unusual of requests sometimes in exchange for their favors!

The elf-hill itself is a rather large expanse of rooms and encounter areas to be explored. The module includes many new creatures fitting in with the DCC RPG mantra of creatures should be mysterious. A few new magical weapons are sprinkled in as well.

A magical sword called Alemourn in the module is a particular favorite. Without revealing too many details, it is another example of how I think magical weapons in DCC RPG should be. Magical weapons in DCC RPG should be something more than just a +1 weapon. The sword grows in power under a some unusual conditions. A fine example of how I think magical weapons should work in this game.

As noted above the appendix includes new patrons for DCC RPG. The patron write-ups do include invoke patron check results, patron taint options, patron spells, and spellburn examples. The patron spells do need written by the judge for their game, but the titles should help get the creative mind moving.

Several maps are included in the module showing the various levels, including very helpful exterior and interior side views. I always find these useful, as while some layouts are quite clear in the designer’s mind, that does not always translate well to the reader without illustration.

The Review

This thing is big and chock full of bits! 60 room descriptions, patrons, magic items, new and twisted creatures, and spells; there is a lot of information here. Compared to many other DCC RPG adventures I have read and reviewed this module is much longer in length and with a lot more material within.

I like this brings another option to the table for returning a fallen character back to the living. While DCC RPG does not have the “easy button” for bringing a character back from the dead, it does encourage question, planar travel, and any other number of Appendix N oriented quests to do just that. Sometimes a judge does not have the time to write their own quest to allow a player to bring a character back. Having another option added to adventures allowing such a thing is a good thing for time starved judges.

The adventure itself is interesting and sure to keep characters on their toes as they make their way through the elf-hill and the encounters within. The toying with time and temporal shifting is interesting and adds an element to the adventure to keep things uncertain and mysterious.

This is not the first adventure by Daniel Bishop that I have reviewed at The Iron Tavern. One thing I can count on in his adventures is the use of a mechanic in a fun and interesting way. An example from this module is the use of spellburn to power a certain effect or ability of an object. I do not want to reveal too much, lest spoil the adventure, but I like how he takes DCC mechanics and works them into an adventure in a way not first thought of.

While this module contains a lot of material for the DCC judge, I fear it may also be its downside. The trend in DCC RPG modules has been short and sweet. Even in my shorter two hour sessions over a VTT (Roll20 and G+ Hangouts), we can make our way through a typical DCC RPG adventure in three or four sessions. I suspect this one would take several sessions longer.

Perhaps it is just the trend already set that biases me towards the shorter modules, but I do have some concern my players would start to become a little weary of the adventure as we carried across many sessions. That isn’t to say any part of the module is “slow” or “boring”. Just I have found attention spans for longer modules is shorter in my DCC RPG games. I think DCC players might expect “bite-sized” adventuring.

I admit, my review is based only on a read through and not an actual play through of the adventure. So the length of adventure comments should be taken with the grain of salt. Sometimes the play through reveals things not expected!

Regardless, there are plenty of items to work with in this adventure. Whether tweaking it to run a little shorter, stealing certain gems from the module (hello 24 random skulls!), patrons, spells, or even just some of the new and unusual creatures. So even if I end up not running this module in its entirety, there are numerous pieces I can use from this adventure that I feel it still has value.

The artwork within the module was done by David Fisher. There are a lot of interesting art pieces inside the module. The color cover of the module with red eyes looking over the party from behind is certainly enough to draw one in!

The Revelation of Mulmo is another impressive module from Daniel Bishop. I continue to enjoy the material he produces for Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG as he explores various reaches of the DCC RPG essence and system!

What do you think?

So what do you think about long modules versus short modules for Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG? Do you want to see more longer modules like The Revelation of Mulmo or would you rather see some shorter ones?