Goodman Games

The dungeon is no cakewalk - which is fine by me - but some of the difficulty numbers (DCs) for saves and skill checks seem awfully high to me. The walls of a pit, for instance, require a DC 23 climb check which is practically impossible (unless a character burns Luck or is a thief). I wonder if the module was originally written for 3e.

The backstory is reminiscent of Beowulf as a terrible hound preys on the population of the village of Hirot night after night. It cannot be slain (at least not permanently) by normal means which makes it a fantastical monster in the truest sense. Well done!

larsdangly wrote:I was really pissed when I saw this tucked into a copy of the game at the local store but they wouldn't let me buy it separately. It feels like I'm being punished for having purchased my copy of the book directly from Goodman Games! Anyway, any chance we could buy it directly from goodman games? How about if you have already purchased the core book?

Harley Stroh wrote:I wouldn't argue that the skill DCs are fair. In fact, mine are often deliberately unfair. If a non-thief PC reaches the point where he has to make a skill check, he's likely already down the wrong road, having missed the chance to solve the challenge via roleplaying.

[...]

Fair? No. Just as not every fight is winnable, not every skill check is make-able. PC / player discretion is key. Fortunately there is the other way out of the passage. Or, hopefully, someone brought rope.

larsdangly wrote:I was really pissed when I saw this tucked into a copy of the game at the local store but they wouldn't let me buy it separately. It feels like I'm being punished for having purchased my copy of the book directly from Goodman Games! Anyway, any chance we could buy it directly from goodman games? How about if you have already purchased the core book?

So whither the skill check requiring either skilled climber or a nat 20 + 18 Dex? I wrote it with visions of a sheer pit, slick with muck. Literally impossible for all but an insanely talented (or skilled)

viruswithshoes wrote:

So whither the skill check requiring either skilled climber or a nat 20 + 18 Dex? I wrote it with visions of a sheer pit, slick with muck. Literally impossible for all but an insanely talented (or skilled)

Am I right in assuming the only way to make a DC23 check for climbing is if the PC is a Thief, 18 AGI (+3 modifier) AND Rolls a 20? Otherwise, if the PC is not a thief he would not be trained in climbing and would have to roll d10 for the check right?

Harley Stroh wrote:Or a rope. We'd settle for a rope.

//H

Harley Stroh wrote:I wrote it with visions of a sheer pit, slick with muck. Literally impossible for all but an insanely talented (or skilled) climber to free climb without tools.

Fair? No. Just as not every fight is winnable, not every skill check is make-able.

goodmangames wrote:

larsdangly wrote:I was really pissed when I saw this tucked into a copy of the game at the local store but they wouldn't let me buy it separately. It feels like I'm being punished for having purchased my copy of the book directly from Goodman Games! Anyway, any chance we could buy it directly from goodman games? How about if you have already purchased the core book?

The free module was included with preorders from both consumers and retailers, do there are some copies on retailer shelves out there. The front cover of the module is printed with a price - "free with purchase of DCC RPG, $9.99 otherwise." It is still their inventory to do with as they deem, but you may find a store willing to sell it separately.

Johann wrote:I ran Doom of the Savage Kings yesterday and we had a blast. Five players ran four 0-level characters each. Time was short, so I started them off right in front of the dungeon.* They lost 18 out of 20 characters and slew the hound. Great times!

Harley Stroh wrote:18 of 20 .... yikes ... They drowned the beast in the blood of their fallen comrades!

"Out for Blood," indeed! Well played, sir.

//H

Johann wrote:At the end, only three characters were left: One fled, one died (the original "Let's confront the hound ourselves!" guy) and one slew the hound. As luck would have it, the triumphant player was a friend's twelve-year-old son who occasionally plays with us.

I didn't pull any punches and rolled everything in the open. He didn't run away and he saved the day. Great times!

The risk of character death - the real risk, that is - makes victory that much sweeter!

MrHemlocks wrote:This was the first, besides the zero level adventure in rule book, DCC adventure I ran. It was a blast! My players made Hirot their home base and continue to use it, within my Blackmarsh campaign setting, after 2 years of play

I just wish GG would expand on Hirot and make a mini campaign setting around it. So much potential there

DCC has been released over two years now and still no campaign setting has been made or even hinted at...sad

DCC needs a campaign setting to call its own.

MrHemlocks wrote:DCC has been released over two years now and still no campaign setting has been made or even hinted at...sad

DCC needs a campaign setting to call its own.

It has come to pass that The Chained Coffin may be destined for greater things that a simple 32 pp. adventure. If the fans desire it, The Chained Coffin could become a mini-campaign boxed set, one that includes a large 11”x17” regional map, a gazetteer describing the Shudder Mountains, and, in addition to The Chained Coffin adventure, a pair of secondary adventures designed to begin play in the region as zero-level PCs and to encounter later in their adventuring careers.

Needless to say, if this “campaign in a box” idea becomes a reality and is well-received by the fans, it may begin a new trend with DCC RPG. People have been clamoring for an official DCC RPG campaign world (whether a new one or a revised version of Aereth, Goodman’s original campaign world for the 3E DCC adventures) and this could be the first of several steps to make that happen.

DCC RPG encourages judges to abandon the notion that the campaign world needs to be a vast, sprawling expanse filled with countless cities and diverse ecospheres. Instead, DCC RPG suggests taking a smaller approach and limiting the campaign to a compact region, like a duchy, a minor stretch of wilderness, or even a single valley. The Shudder Mountains are precisely this style of world design: a finite area filled with enough adventuring ideas, unusual locals, and unique critters to meet the needs of long-term play.

A series of “campaign boxes” would allow judges to pick and choose what they want to include in their campaign worlds, rather than be given the full world treatment common to most pre-packaged fantasy campaigns. To continue with an Appalachian-themed metaphor, you’d get the patches to make the quilt rather than the whole blanket, and could assemble them using only the squares of color that catch your interest. Not into Egyptian-themed adventuring regions? Then there’s no need to spend the buy that campaign module (although if I wrote that one, I hope you would anyway). Love the idea of sword-and-planet type adventures? Pick up the hypothetical “Perils of the Purple Planet” themed set. And so on down the line.

This way, the folks who want a sense of a shared campaign world could have one—if they so desired—while the maniacal homebrewed campaign designer could pick and choose, utilizing material from the sets that captured their interest whole cloth or just the portions they liked. It’s an interesting concept and I believe it would be useful to game masters of not just DCC RPG, but other fantasy games as well.