2012: Transylvanian Adventures & The Transylvanian Grimoire

DCC has inspired many folks to produce their own supplements and adventures for the game. This is the place for discussion of all 3PP products for DCC RPG.

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smathis
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Re: 2012: Transylvanian Adventures & The Transylvanian Grimo

Post by smathis »

Quick status update...
  • I'm trying to coordinate with layout on when to begin doing the layout of the book.
  • Work on the cover has commenced. So far, it looks fantastic. Once money changes hands I'll be happy to announce the artist.
  • I'm outlining the "Example of Play" chapter. More on that below.
Example of Play
Following Liu Jen Hao's suggestion, I've begun putting this chapter together in a "Choose Your Own Adventure" style. There will be a couple of sections following the Example of Play that hopefully clarify finer points of playing in and running a game of TATG. Right now it's in outline stage, which you could probably guess is tricky with a CYOA format. The CYOA covers Research and Investigation, Combat, Fear and some of the other rule tweaks in TATG. Overall, it's a good overview of the rule enhancements and character abilities -- although it lacks some of the crawliness of a typical TATG session. Mostly that's because it's just one character. And because a straight up dungeon crawl would almost be a book of its own in CYOA format.

I'd like to think it's an appropriately Gothic sort of tale with a bit of Hammer thrown in for good measure. The character is a 1st level Hunter.

A shout-out to Liu Jen for the suggestion. I think it was a great idea and it's been exciting putting work into it.

Work on Book Two
A big shout-out to Raven Crowking for the fantastic title of "Hanging Judge's Guide to Transylvania". Work has already started on this book. At this point I have about 1/2 to 2/3 of it drafted. Much of it will need to be significantly overhauled. I'll also include an Appendix of "Advanced Rules" that should give groups fun ways to tweak the DCC ruleset even further but aren't really necessary rules. The Hammer-themed "Cleavage Rule" is one good example here. Book Two will also include several "campaign themes" that should be fun to kickstart a game or two.

Ferris Bueller Has My Beta
I've heard some encouraging feedback around the "beta" version of TATG. Most responses are positive. But there's been a whole lot of silence from most of the group. I'm hoping that people are taking their time reviewing the book and are far too busy playing the mess out of TATG to respond. As far as a more widely available "beta", we're still discussing that around these parts. Maybe that's an avenue to explore in the not-too-distant future.

Conventions?
Well. I'm in Austin, Texas. And so there we are with that. I'm hoping to attend NTRPG in June. That's the hope. We'll see how finances and availability play out. There's also a guy in Waco that's trying to put together a convention. If that comes to fruition, I'd expect to be there with my vampire cape on.

I'm TIRED OF WAITING
Me too. ;) I'm hoping to get all this to layout sometime after the Spring semester ends. I've probably mentioned before but my wife is handling layout. Don't freak out just yet. She worked in production for a well-known company and has handled layout and design for a few bestsellers. We're in good hands and she's going to rock this. The family discount doesn't hurt. But coordinating her schedule is the chief concern. It's looking like May or June before she'll have the time to devote to laying out the book. We've already discussed much of it so, conceptually, we're solid. We've got fonts. A good deal of art from Raven Crowking and Scott Ackerman. I'll also be putting together some pieces for the book. And hopefully will get a green light to commission some more art from the cover artist.

So that's where we are and where we'll be. Please feel free to share any thoughts/concerns/feedback/updates of your own. And if you plan on being at NTRPG or can get me in with that group to run a game or two, that would be awesome.
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Re: 2012: Transylvanian Adventures & The Transylvanian Grimo

Post by smathis »

A couple updates...

Just today, I got a sketch of the cover art.

First I was like...

:shock:

Then I was like...

8)

Now, I'm like...

:twisted:

IT IS SO FREAKING AMAZING!!! I can barely contain myself. I don't want to leak any more info until the artist says it's cool. Just sharing in the most giddy and awkward way possible.

So, ladies and gentlemen, we have a cover.

Next, I have an open question for the board. Joseph sent a shout-out to us 3PPs reminding us about Free RPG Day and all. He's a cool guy like that. But I'm really drawing a blank.

What would you all like to see for Free RPG Day? For those who've been exposed to the dark, sanity-bending beauty of TATG's beta and all, is there anything in the book that you'd find releasable as a download? Or is there something else I can put together on short notice?

See? This is why I'm gloriously worthless on the Kickstarter front. Just too nose down in work, writing and rock'n'roll to wrap my head around the numbers. Which means I'll probably die a mysterious and fairly ignominious death like Edgar Allan Poe or Ambrose Bierce (assuming he ever REALLY died...) instead of getting the post-mortem deification of Steve Jobs.

But I ask myself who I'd rather have a night on the town with... yeah... Bierce all the way.
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Re: 2012: Transylvanian Adventures & The Transylvanian Grimo

Post by smathis »

Also, some huge mad props to RCK who did a write-up on TATG over at his blog.

First, you should read the write-up, if you haven't already. Kinder words were never spoken about this deformed homage to one of the most bizarrely influential film studios of all time posing as an RPG supplement. 8)

Second, you should follow RCK's blog. I do. He's always posting great stuff. Moreover, he's always linking to great stuff as well.

What are you waiting for? Raise a clamor for an updated article! He's got the beta. Now threaten to burn down his castle.

Did I mention that castles just go up in random conflagrations ALL THE TIME in Hammer Movies? It's like so weird. The evil, bad monster is killed by drowning or a random man-sized cross flung out of a catapult in Siberia and then... ending credits show a castle ablaze in the background.

One only hopes it was the residence of the evil, big bad in question. Wouldn't it suck to have the villagers show up with torches and pitchforks at the WRONG castle?

I digress. Checkout RCK's blog. It's good.
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Re: 2012: Transylvanian Adventures & The Transylvanian Grimo

Post by grald_the_hunter »

We need a QuickStart for Free RPG Day.

A short adventure, basic rules so we can play it, and a handful of pregens. 32 pgs or so.

Yeah, I don't ask for a lot :mrgreen:
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Re: 2012: Transylvanian Adventures & The Transylvanian Grimo

Post by daddystabz »

I'd like to see an adventure for Free RPG day.
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Re: 2012: Transylvanian Adventures & The Transylvanian Grimo

Post by smathis »

grald_the_hunter wrote:We need a QuickStart for Free RPG Day.

A short adventure, basic rules so we can play it, and a handful of pregens. 32 pgs or so.

Yeah, I don't ask for a lot :mrgreen:
daddystabz wrote:I'd like to see an adventure for Free RPG day.
I'll see what I can do. Can't make any promises on that front. But if I can put something together in short order, I will.
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Re: 2012: Transylvanian Adventures & The Transylvanian Grimo

Post by smathis »

So...

Info on the artist for the cover of TATG is over on the blog...

...as well as a sketch of what the cover will look like once it's finished.

Enjoy!

:twisted:
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Re: 2012: Transylvanian Adventures & The Transylvanian Grimo

Post by Doug Kovacs »

There is a link to a larger resolution image and more info in the previous post.
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DOUG KOVACS
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Re: 2012: Transylvanian Adventures & The Transylvanian Grimo

Post by smathis »

Thanks, Doug.
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Re: 2012: Transylvanian Adventures & The Transylvanian Grimo

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Here's an update...

1.
I gots published yo! It's not TATG. But it's worth noting that (a) I can navigate my way around some grammar and (b) I'm not a total noob. Just mostly a noob.

2.
I'm still working on the Solo adventure. It's going to take a while. Just a heads up.

3.
Consulting my notes from playtests and having my mind BLOWN by some of the things I've been following in the OSR demimonde have led to a SIXTH re-write of the character classes. A good thing to note is that each time the chapter is re-written things are removed and simplified. In general, the level of complexity of a TATG character class is somewhere between a DCC core class and a class from Swords & Wizardry. For those holding a beta, each class has been pared down by one class ability and the more complex class abilities have been simplified.

4.
The death mechanics have been redone as well. This is what prompted the rewrite of the character classes.

5.
The rewrite of the character classes made it a lot easier to follow up on a Quickstart adventure. I've begun outlining one and I'm hoping I can make it available as a free download for Free RPG Day. We'll see how that goes down. I'll keep you all posted. It will feature 4-5 pre-generated 1st level characters and some simplified mechanics. It will be very bare bones compared to the final book.

It will also be an absolute death trap.
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Re: 2012: Transylvanian Adventures & The Transylvanian Grimo

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smathis
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Re: 2012: Transylvanian Adventures & The Transylvanian Grimo

Post by smathis »

New logo... and another update at the blog: http://landofphantoms.blogspot.com/
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Re: 2012: Transylvanian Adventures & The Transylvanian Grimo

Post by GnomeBoy »

Digging that logo!
...
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smathis
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Re: 2012: Transylvanian Adventures & The Transylvanian Grimo

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GnomeBoy wrote:Digging that logo!
Thanks, GB. Just finished a piece of lineart for the Quickstart tonight. Going to try working on the map this weekend.
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Re: 2012: Transylvanian Adventures & The Transylvanian Grimo

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Just added an update over at the blog. It includes a preview of the map for the quickstart adventure I'm trying to get ready for Free RPG Day.
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Re: 2012: Transylvanian Adventures & The Transylvanian Grimo

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Also wanted to note that Simarillius is looking to write some adventures for TATG. He's started up a thread called Adventure Designs.

Check it out or roll Save vs. Energy Drain.
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Re: 2012: Transylvanian Adventures & The Transylvanian Grimo

Post by Colin »

This may have come up before, but I keep meaning to ask, you mentioned that the setting somewhat inspired by Van Helsing as well as the Hammer classics, and so that had me wondering if you've included some wonderful steampunkish gadgets and weapons as well, such as gas-operated automatic drum-fed crossbows, holy water grenades, etc. I'm guessing not, but curious nonetheless.

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Re: 2012: Transylvanian Adventures & The Transylvanian Grimo

Post by smathis »

Stuff like that will be appearing in the Transylvanian Grimoire. Along with (potentially) steampunk upgrades, armor and the ability to graft monster parts onto a character. Not all are givens. But that's the direction the third book is going at this time.

The first book is light on those types of things.

It does have wooden stake crossbows, gambler's draws and rules for using Holy Water against undead in a similar fashion to how Flasks of Oil are used as weapons.

There are also a few herbal extracts in the first book that can assist characters in their war against the unliving. Nothing as splashy as a steam-powered gatling gun that fires blessed wooden stakes.

But I can't put everything in the first book.

8)
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Re: 2012: Transylvanian Adventures & The Transylvanian Grimo

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For anyone who's planning on being at NTRPG con in June...

I've just signed up and will be attending this year. Looking forward to meeting a lot of you.

Mike and Doug told me I was too late to get a table of my own in the nicest way possible. I'm on a sort-of-reserve list to run DCC and TATG if there's a May rush and games fill up.

Currently, I've signed up for a few sessions and for Frank Mentzer's game on Saturday night and Michael Curtis' DCC game on Friday morning. Looking foward to it.

I'm open and available for DCC or TATG Friday evening and Saturday morning, possibly Sunday morning as well.

If anyone here is going and wants to lock down a game or two of TATG or DCC, hit me up.
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2013 Gothic-Vampire Anime Series: Jojo's Biazzare Adventure

Post by Liu Jen Hao »

For a change, rather than make a recommended THEMATIC source material, I am actually going to recommend an actual Victorian-Gothic-Vampire source, albeit with an Anime/Martial Arts Twist.

It is the First Nine Episodes of the 2012-2013 Vampire/Martial Arts Anime Jojo's Bizzare Adventure. It is an adaptation of the poular, STILL ongoing manga that started in 1986 (108 volumes and counting at this point!!) of which only the first two story-arcs have been adapted.

And if you like it after having a look, Mr Smathis, do consider listing it as an inspiration, sir!! :)

ANYONE wanting to play an 1890's "Exotic" character or a Vampire with Kung fu Abilities should watch this opening 9 Episode Arc, set in Victoria 1868-1888's London. This story arc is appropriately entitled "Phantom Blood", and is the first of a multi-generational saga that lasts over 100-years...

Jonathan Joestar is your typical good-hearted son of a British Lord/Archaeologist, who has brought a mysterious stone mask excavated from an Amazonian dig. Little did the Joestar Family know, when given blood, the mask will sprout tendrils that will dig into its wearer, turning him into a vampire...

...and by cruel conincidence the sociopathic Dio Brando, the orphaned-son of an alcoholic pickpocket to whom Jonathan's father owed his life, was adopted into the family. After learning the mask's terrible secret in his 6 years as Jonathan's brother, Dio was cornered by police gunmen when his bid to slowly-poison Lord Joestar and claim Jonathan's inheritance failed...

Donning the mask and awakening it with Lord Joestar' lifeblood, the black-hearted blonde usurper essentially becomes Lestat Delioncourt with Ice-Based Kung-Fu and WITHOUT any of the redeeming human-qualities that Anne Rice later wrote into him, and set out now to conquer the world with a growing army of zombies and mutants: But not if Jojo (as Jonathan and every man in his family is affectionately-called) has anything to say about it!!

Learning the supernatural Tibetan Martial Art of Hamon/"Ripple" from a Top-Hat wearing Italian Dandy called Master Zeppelli (yes, the author LOVES western rock music), Jojo's fists now literally harness the power of life and sunlight channeld by his life-breath, allowing him to literally beat zombies and vampires to death. Armed with the power of the Ripple, Jojo sets out to the ancient ruins of a castle in a desolate countrysie to avenge his father's death, and stop his vampiric-brother Dio's mad rise to power.

Jojo's Bizzare Adventure is called so with good-reason. It has a lack of restraint in the freakishness of it's Villains' (and often Heroes') supernatural prowess that keeps its plots and battles constantly fresh and creative. Dio's "stone mask" vampires, for example, have an absolute control over their cardiovascular system, allowing them (in addition to regenerating) to shoot high-pressure blood with the force of a gun through their eyes, or sprout tendrils of veins and boil their foes to death inside-out by injecting scalding blood into their bodeis through them. Dio himself is able to render his metabolism so low that his very touch can literally snap-freeze and shatter his foes.

The Hamon/Ripple Martial Art is equally creative/original. In addition to the usual "Harm Monsters Immune to Sunlight" and "healing touch" factor, it allows one to project his life-force in a unified stream that allows surgically-precise-control of foreign objects. Examples include; allowing one to walk on water, hitting a lifeform standing on an object but destroy the object behid it without harming said lifeform, create emmergency hand-gliders from clouds of falling leaves when falling down a ravine, climb sheer cliffs, and in the most extreme case (in the next arc, Episodes 10-26) create a cloud of razor-sharp soap bubbles that reflect sunlight with lethal precision to burn through vampires.

The first arc, Phantom Blood (Episodes 1-9), drips with rich-dark victorian flavor, from the misty thug-infested streets of 1888 London to the desolate moors of its final confrontation, richly spiced by ferociously creative supernatual Martial Arts Combat. This anime has often been affectionately described as "Castlevania/Vampire Hunter D" Meets "Fist of the North Star."

From Episode 10 to Episode 26 on (the arc entitled "Battle Tendency) the stage is set in 1938 America-and-Europe, and takes on a more Indiana Jones than Victorian feel, but is STILL a rip roaring Vampire-Hunting Kung Fu yarn, with a wisecracking New-Yorker Joseph Joestar (Jonathan's grandson) as the lead.

In other words, if you want to play an Exotic or Anime/Style Exotic Vampire Hunting Martial Artist, watch this anime now. :) It has only concluded 3 months ago and has the toe-tappingly cool song "Roundabout" by the 1970's British-Band "Yes" as its ending theme. :D

Arc 3 (Stardust Crusaders) has yet to be adapted, but the stage is then moved to 1980's, wherein Dio returns to the world in a final mad-bid to wipe out the Joestar bloodline, succeeded by Kujou Jotaro, Joseph's Japanese grandson. The Supernatural Kung Fu reaches stratospherically-insane levels this time, with Shamanic-Guardian-Spirits called "Stands" that allow their owners (amongst LESS freakish things) to astrally project, dismember foes by destroying voodoo paintings of them, switch the personalites/souls of others, and in Dio's case stop time (in addition to his already freakish vampire abilites). Natually, the MOST demanded Fighting Anime of 2013.

Dont walk, RUN to your nearest computer and see Jojo's Bizzare Adventure. You won't find a more original Vampire/Kung-Fu yarn anywhere. :)
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Re: 2012: Transylvanian Adventures & The Transylvanian Grimo

Post by smathis »

Thanks, Liu Jen Hao. I'll certainly check out that recommendation.

Not sure if you've been following but I tried the solo adventure chapter. It didn't work, however, because of too many decision points with Luck expenditure and all. So I'm going for a more traditional "Example of Play" section.

I'm due on another update. Hopefully, I can put one up sometime later this week or early next week.
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Re: 2012: Transylvanian Adventures & The Transylvanian Grimo

Post by smathis »

Sweet Bobugbubilz! Is it June already?!

I've got a new update on the blog...

Due to popular demand, the characters in the Quickstart adventure are 4th level instead of 2nd level.

Which just means they'll suffer longer...

:twisted:
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Re: 2012: Transylvanian Adventures & The Transylvanian Grimo

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Quick note...

I will be at GenCon.

Early copies of Transylvanian Adventures may be. We'll see... :twisted:
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Re: 2012: Transylvanian Adventures & The Transylvanian Grimo

Post by DCCfan »

I'll be attending gencon. I've been wanting to see this Hammer horror inspired monster ever since your first post. How much will it cost and where can you be found?
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Re: 2012: Transylvanian Adventures & The Transylvanian Grimo

Post by smathis »

DCCfan wrote:I'll be attending gencon. I've been wanting to see this Hammer horror inspired monster ever since your first post. How much will it cost and where can you be found?
I'll be at the DCC RPG booth, most likely. Still trying to figure out pricing. It won't be all that much. A free PDF intro adventure has just been approved. I have a few edits to make. I believe that will be available for download by this Saturday.

There's not much longer to wait.

At the very least, I can run TATG at GenCon if I don't have time to put together a short-term advance print run.

Scott
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