Best sources for adding equipment/magic items and monsters

[RabidWookie]

I love DCC, but the core book is woefully light on equipment, magic items, and monsters. What are the best compatible sources for adding these in as the DCC book recommends? I've got the 2E monster manual but I'm not sure how compatible that is with DCC, or the 1e and 2e DMGs for that matter. I've also got ACK but the scale seems a bit off.

[GnomeBoy]

It's fairly easy to convert things from 3e, 2nd Edition, 1st Edition, Basic D&D, or OD&D. You have to convert AC for creatures, but from most other editions, you're just taking the amount it's down from 9 and adding that to 10 for DCC AC (except for 3e, where it's the same scale more or less). Equipment can just 'port over, right?

Are there particular pieces you want to carry over but you're not sure how? Why not post 'em and the crowd can then give you specific examples on how they'd do it.

And as you get more familiar with what DDC requires the conversion will get easier.

[jozxyqk]

For me, one of the best, if not the best, aspects of DCC RPG has been the adjuration that every monster, and every magic item should be unique. I played in part of a more traditional D&D game for a few weeks recently and it was remarkable how boring it was to uncover an uptick in (yawn) goblin activity at first and second level which led us to an amassing army of (yawn) drow at higher levels and so on. Along the way we ransacked a wizard's tower and found a treasure cache *bursting* with generic magical weapons. A flaming sword should be amazing, but when it is found in a literal pile of other magic sh*t you've seen a million times before it is boring as hell. +2 chain, wand of magic missiles, brooch of healing. Ugh.

Compare this to the last DCC RPG adventure I ran (Court of Chaos) where *first* level PCs were summoned before the titanic host of Chaos. [MILD SPOILERS]. They used night black chaos blades (whose only functional difference from normal weapons was that they could hurt lawful creatures) and fought a gigantic talking ox with runes on its horns, and silver law lions with golden manes and paralyzing roars, and prismatic crystaline warriors through whom light refracted and sparkled.

So that doesn't answer your question directly, but maybe it explains why the core book is "light" on lists of these things. Listing things tends to make them generic and boring.

That said, the DiTerlizzi art in the 2E MM is fantastic. Some great memories there.

[Zargon]

For me the book I have had the most fun with for supplementing the fantasy menagerie in the core rule book is Creatures, Critters, and Denizens by Jeff Rhodes-Gloor. http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/jeff-rho ... 34809.html The amount of detail, creativity and illustration that went into this book makes it well worth owning.

In that same vein of wonder there is Goodman Games' own, 'Random Esoteric Creature Generator' by James Edward Raggi IV right after you read this you should check out the link and buy it. http://www.goodman-games.com/4375preview.html You'll never think about monsters the same way again.

In regards to the rest of your question, I'm aware that the same desginer who brought us the Creatures, Critters, and Denizens, is also working on a new book called the Liber Arcanum which looks to be very exploratory in the realms of magic. Here is Jeff's most recent description of the contents;

Amongst other things, the book contains :
* 2 expanded and fully illustrated rune sets (Mortal and Fey) as well as some new uses for runes.
* Blank rune art so you can make your own rune sets.
* an expansion on the 5 element theory introduced in the CCD, which includes maps of a celestial geometry of the 5-element system as well as randomized table s for plane hopping. (color versions of these maps and an excerpt from Liber Arcanum on this subject are available at my 10/19/13 blog post on http://myaereth.blogspot.com/ )
* 6 patrons; based on the general concepts of battle, exploration, and the 4 basic elements
* Appendix I. This is a short tag-on that contains: a magic weapon record sheet, 9 new powers of types 1 to 3, 6 new banes and bane creatures, and the rules to support an expand version of table 8-1 of the Sword Magic section of the core rules to include all melee weapons as well as ranged weapons and ammunition. It also contains 40 pre-generated magic weapons set up in randomized tables by power:
twenty +1 weapons, eight +2 weapons, seven +3 weapons, and five +4 weapons for those occasions when the players find treasure you didn't see or wasn't defined in the module write up
* several new critters and supporting equipment
* This book will hopefully be up on the EBM printing network, so folks in other countries can have a hard-copy printed on demand so as to avoid international shipping rates and much, more...
Found on this thread: Here.

And that's about as much as I can recommend for now. Nothing special comes to mind for sources on extra equipment, but thankfully of all the things your asking about, equipment is the easiest to adapt from similar fantasy role playing games, or just create from nothing. I hope that helps.

[cjoepar]

I have found that, by far, the best source for these things has been my own imagination. Once you break free of the concept that you have to use something someone else created it can be quite liberating. Having said that, I know sometimes you really do need some external inspiration and there are some very nice sources out there. Once you run a few adventures, you'll get a feel for how the game plays and you should find it much easier to convert creatures and item from almost any other source out there, to be honest.

For me the book I have had the most fun with for supplementing the fantasy menagerie in the core rule book is Creatures, Critters, and Denizens by Jeff Rhodes-Gloor. http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/jeff-rho ... 34809.html The amount of detail, creativity and illustration that went into this book makes it well worth owning.

Amen, Brother. A great source, and a great deal for the price, if you ask me.

In regards to the rest of your question, I'm aware that the same desginer who brought us the Creatures, Critters, and Denizens, is also working on a new book called the Liber Arcanum which looks to be very exploratory in the realms of magic. Here is Jeff's most recent description of the contents;

Amongst other things, the book contains :
* 2 expanded and fully illustrated rune sets (Mortal and Fey) as well as some new uses for runes.
* Blank rune art so you can make your own rune sets.
* an expansion on the 5 element theory introduced in the CCD, which includes maps of a celestial geometry of the 5-element system as well as randomized table s for plane hopping. (color versions of these maps and an excerpt from Liber Arcanum on this subject are available at my 10/19/13 blog post on http://myaereth.blogspot.com/ )
* 6 patrons; based on the general concepts of battle, exploration, and the 4 basic elements
* Appendix I. This is a short tag-on that contains: a magic weapon record sheet, 9 new powers of types 1 to 3, 6 new banes and bane creatures, and the rules to support an expand version of table 8-1 of the Sword Magic section of the core rules to include all melee weapons as well as ranged weapons and ammunition. It also contains 40 pre-generated magic weapons set up in randomized tables by power:
twenty +1 weapons, eight +2 weapons, seven +3 weapons, and five +4 weapons for those occasions when the players find treasure you didn't see or wasn't defined in the module write up
* several new critters and supporting equipment
* This book will hopefully be up on the EBM printing network, so folks in other countries can have a hard-copy printed on demand so as to avoid international shipping rates and much, more...
Found on this thread: Here.

This is another great project from Jeff. Trust me.