Appendix N your DCC #28
Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 7:29 am
So by now a few PCs have made it through the funnel, you’ve played through all the Free RPG Day material, and you’re wondering where to get your Appendix N adventure fix while we wait for the core book.
Fear not, hearty adventurer! In this thread we’ll delve into that stack of “obsolete” 3/3.5/4e DCCs and see what steps can be taken to bring them, stats and soul, into alignment with Appendix N.
This is more an art than science, so everyone should feel free to chime in with their vision of Appendix N, conversions and anything else that might crop up. It goes without saying that any errors are due to yours truly. Finally, props to Jedi for suggesting the conversions.
So, ‘ware of spoilers and let’s begin!
DCC #28: Into the Wilds
Wilds seems like a good place to start because it is low level, has some issues (addressed here) but has also inspired some really cool fan material (seen here). Also, it has an exploration / sandbox flair, giving PCs and players a chance to plot and plan their next expedition. The adventure owes a lot to Keep on the Borderlands, but our version will hopefully hew closer to REH’s “Beyond the Black River.”
In the original Wilds, the chief antagonists are a band of bat-riding goblins, a clan of savage raiders, and a small troop of human rebels, all set among the Foehammer Spires, an ancient dwarven citadel that has long since fallen into ruin.
The original backstory tells of two dwarven heirs that cause the fall of the citadel due to their own backstabbing and infighting. It isn’t a terrible stretch to change these dwarves to a dying race of primitive humans. Fallen from their former glory, the last of the race’s pure blooded nobility descend to infighting and regicide. The survivors abandon their accursed citadel, settling into clan warfare that stretches down the centuries, even as constant inbreeding causes both clans to devolve into subhuman monsters.
One clan (formerly goblins) are now a smaller, nimble race, that still retains some knowledge of metalworking. Fleeing their stronger brothers, they have taken up residence atop the high spires, where they learn to tame the fanged, winged lizards native to the rocky ledges and craggy peaks.
For visual inspiration I've gone here and here.
Statistically, we’re looking at something along these lines:
Sons of Sodoutym: Init +1; Atk +0 falx (dmg 1d4+1) or barbed javelin +1(dmg 1d4+1); AC 14; HD 2d6+1; HP 8; MV 20’; Act 1d20; SV Fort +0, Ref +2, Will -1; AL CE; XP XXX.
Possessions: Barbed javelins (2), leather armor, falx, riding harness.
Winged Terror: Init +1; Atk +0 bite (dmg 1d6) or claws +1 (dmg 1d4); AC 13; HD 2d8 HP 12; MV 50’; Act 1d20; SV Fort -1, Ref +1, Will -2; AL CE; XP XXX.
The second clan has adapted to life on the forest floor, becoming hulking, lumbering monstrosities, akin to Frazetta’s Neanderthals, here. Though they have lost nearly all of their former knowledge of metallurgy and science, the pure-blooded descendants of the noble line still retain a racial memory of magic.
Subhuman Raiders: Init +0; Atk +2 club (dmg 1d6+2); AC 13; HD 2d8+1; HP 10; MV 30’; Act 1d20; SV Fort +3, Ref +0, Will -2; AL CE; XP XXX.
Possessions: Club, flint knife, hide armor, wooden shield.
Working a little further into the adventure the glaring exception to Appendix N is obviously the Goblin Moonshine Still, Area 1-10b.
Though fun in D&D, the goblin-run still is definitely not a fit for Appendix N. But that’s all right. We can muck with the encounter and it will give us an out for Azubal (see below).
Rather than trying to maintain an explosive still, the subhumans are furiously at work worshipping a small dark shrine to Sodoutym, keeping it constantly swabbed with fresh blood, lest the idol become angered. The crusty accumulation of centuries of dripping blood coats the floor of the chamber, like dribblings from a thousand crimson candles.
Weird superstition? Or are the degenerate subhumans forestalling something far more worse? Only one way for the PCs to find out …
If the blood is permitted to dry, the small idol explodes in a blast of arcane flame. Worse, it releases the spirit of Azubal – divine handservant to the foul Sodoutym – from area 1-11.
Though weakened from centuries of imprisonment, Azubal can prove a deadly foe to low level PCs. Rather than a vampiric goblin armed with an elf-slaying flail, Azubal is now a blood-sucking spider demon, with a barbed tongue that lashes out at will, raking foe’s skin and lapping at their wounds.
Azubal: Init +4; Atk +2 barbed tongue (dmg 1d6+4); AC 20; HD 2d8+1; HP 11; MV 40’, climb 25’; Act 1d20+1d16; SQ Regenerate 1d4 hp/round, gaseous form, immune to turn unholy, unable to enter direct daylight; SV Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +6; AL CE; XP XXX.
That's about does for the first third of the adventure. In the next post we can tackle the dungeon proper.
//H
MARV EDIT: Changed the title of the thread slightly. Seems like it would be nice to have a new thread for each DCC module that Harley updates!
Fear not, hearty adventurer! In this thread we’ll delve into that stack of “obsolete” 3/3.5/4e DCCs and see what steps can be taken to bring them, stats and soul, into alignment with Appendix N.
This is more an art than science, so everyone should feel free to chime in with their vision of Appendix N, conversions and anything else that might crop up. It goes without saying that any errors are due to yours truly. Finally, props to Jedi for suggesting the conversions.
So, ‘ware of spoilers and let’s begin!
DCC #28: Into the Wilds
Wilds seems like a good place to start because it is low level, has some issues (addressed here) but has also inspired some really cool fan material (seen here). Also, it has an exploration / sandbox flair, giving PCs and players a chance to plot and plan their next expedition. The adventure owes a lot to Keep on the Borderlands, but our version will hopefully hew closer to REH’s “Beyond the Black River.”
In the original Wilds, the chief antagonists are a band of bat-riding goblins, a clan of savage raiders, and a small troop of human rebels, all set among the Foehammer Spires, an ancient dwarven citadel that has long since fallen into ruin.
The original backstory tells of two dwarven heirs that cause the fall of the citadel due to their own backstabbing and infighting. It isn’t a terrible stretch to change these dwarves to a dying race of primitive humans. Fallen from their former glory, the last of the race’s pure blooded nobility descend to infighting and regicide. The survivors abandon their accursed citadel, settling into clan warfare that stretches down the centuries, even as constant inbreeding causes both clans to devolve into subhuman monsters.
One clan (formerly goblins) are now a smaller, nimble race, that still retains some knowledge of metalworking. Fleeing their stronger brothers, they have taken up residence atop the high spires, where they learn to tame the fanged, winged lizards native to the rocky ledges and craggy peaks.
For visual inspiration I've gone here and here.
Statistically, we’re looking at something along these lines:
Sons of Sodoutym: Init +1; Atk +0 falx (dmg 1d4+1) or barbed javelin +1(dmg 1d4+1); AC 14; HD 2d6+1; HP 8; MV 20’; Act 1d20; SV Fort +0, Ref +2, Will -1; AL CE; XP XXX.
Possessions: Barbed javelins (2), leather armor, falx, riding harness.
Winged Terror: Init +1; Atk +0 bite (dmg 1d6) or claws +1 (dmg 1d4); AC 13; HD 2d8 HP 12; MV 50’; Act 1d20; SV Fort -1, Ref +1, Will -2; AL CE; XP XXX.
The second clan has adapted to life on the forest floor, becoming hulking, lumbering monstrosities, akin to Frazetta’s Neanderthals, here. Though they have lost nearly all of their former knowledge of metallurgy and science, the pure-blooded descendants of the noble line still retain a racial memory of magic.
Subhuman Raiders: Init +0; Atk +2 club (dmg 1d6+2); AC 13; HD 2d8+1; HP 10; MV 30’; Act 1d20; SV Fort +3, Ref +0, Will -2; AL CE; XP XXX.
Possessions: Club, flint knife, hide armor, wooden shield.
Working a little further into the adventure the glaring exception to Appendix N is obviously the Goblin Moonshine Still, Area 1-10b.
Though fun in D&D, the goblin-run still is definitely not a fit for Appendix N. But that’s all right. We can muck with the encounter and it will give us an out for Azubal (see below).
Rather than trying to maintain an explosive still, the subhumans are furiously at work worshipping a small dark shrine to Sodoutym, keeping it constantly swabbed with fresh blood, lest the idol become angered. The crusty accumulation of centuries of dripping blood coats the floor of the chamber, like dribblings from a thousand crimson candles.
Weird superstition? Or are the degenerate subhumans forestalling something far more worse? Only one way for the PCs to find out …
If the blood is permitted to dry, the small idol explodes in a blast of arcane flame. Worse, it releases the spirit of Azubal – divine handservant to the foul Sodoutym – from area 1-11.
Though weakened from centuries of imprisonment, Azubal can prove a deadly foe to low level PCs. Rather than a vampiric goblin armed with an elf-slaying flail, Azubal is now a blood-sucking spider demon, with a barbed tongue that lashes out at will, raking foe’s skin and lapping at their wounds.
Azubal: Init +4; Atk +2 barbed tongue (dmg 1d6+4); AC 20; HD 2d8+1; HP 11; MV 40’, climb 25’; Act 1d20+1d16; SQ Regenerate 1d4 hp/round, gaseous form, immune to turn unholy, unable to enter direct daylight; SV Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +6; AL CE; XP XXX.
That's about does for the first third of the adventure. In the next post we can tackle the dungeon proper.
//H
MARV EDIT: Changed the title of the thread slightly. Seems like it would be nice to have a new thread for each DCC module that Harley updates!
