Goodman Games

Obviously, this post is full of spoilers for the adventure.

Me and my group played the first half of Assault on the Sky-High Tower last evening.

I used the Purple Sorcerer thingie to make up the PCs and dealt 5 to each player (there were four of us at the table), I made them name all the characters.

They made it through the Tube Thing without too much issue, although one character found the dazer pistol and it blew up in his face, killing him instantly and another died because they didn't sit down. Unfortunately, it was the players "favorite" at the time.

The first PSH to try a recognition roll on Wee-DN made it, and so had had it as an ally. I used a Dalek voice for the robot, so that was fun. They asked if it had any tools that could help them, and so it gave them the torch, grav clamps, and rope. I was nice and had the robot explain how they work. I also had the robot use defoliant in the gutter that the PCs use to access the tower...and ad-libbed a 10% chance of a mutation (which 2 got).

Later, one PC had a catastrophic artifact roll on the moving platform causing the whole thing to explode and fall on the PCs below it. I gave them a DC 15 reflex save to avoid 1d6 of damage. That wiped out half of them, including one player's entire party. He rolled up three more for next week, and I will have them appear from the tube in C-4 having survived thus far on their own tribe's Rite of Passage in the radioactive ruins).

The Roach-people attack went...as you'd expect. The PCs had a fusion torch and I allowed it as a weapon using just a natural roll. I don't own DCC and don't know how a touch attack would work. (As an aside, I have played DCC once about 5-ish years ago and so just made stuff up if I didn't know how it would work. I also have decades of D&D experience, so I can fake it til I make it) Anyhoo, the PCs defeated the roaches, having lost a few more PCs in the process.

Before using one of their two fusion torches on the doors, they decided to rest and heal and eat the food amongst the filth. The stunning conclusion shall be next week.

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Co-Host of 2 GMs, 1 Mic.

Sounds great! Looking forward to the conclusion.

Using another tribe for the refills is a great idea and gives you the option to build out from the starting village to a wider (weirder) world.

We are probably gonna play a campaign of MCC after this adventure. I had the subway car conk out and lose power in the station, so I am thinking the campaign will be a far ranging journey home.

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Co-Host of 2 GMs, 1 Mic.

I've also run the first part of Assault, stopping just before the croachlings. We mostly had a lot of fun so far, first time with either MCC or DCC.

I was a bit unprepared how difficult and punishing artifact checks would be for 0-level characters though. My players ended up ruining two government badges...

Which leads me to the biggest frustration with the adventure, the "blockers". I.e. skill-checks or similar you have to pass to progress the adventure. Without the government badges, my players really struggled with the grates that required DC 30(!) checks to open. We managed to have some fun with the first one, with the players having to improvise various ways of improving their odds, but the second grate was just annoying. When the players also managed to blow up the control-console for the treadmill, it felt about time to call it a night...

We might have gotten something wrong, but it seems optimistic for the adventure to presume 0-level characters will be able to succeed any artifact check, especially a combat check. Even with a group of above intelligent characters cooperate, the odds at 0-level won't be that great. This is even more frustrating when failing will likely ruin the artifact as well... One of my first house-rules will probably be that only a result of 1 will ruin an artifact.

Just finished playing Assault on the Sky-High Tower.
Was a fun adventure and a fun way to learn the basics of the game.


When we played the Sub-Shuttle area, the players nearly killed themselves just rolling Artifact checks. The dozer pistol was destroyed and nearly killed a guy, They had to repair the anti-grav luggage, then it was destroyed and nearly killed a guy. They almost destroyed the badge that ran the shuttle, except I ruled that it could only be destroyed on a 1.
So after that they became very squeamish about trying to figure out how artifacts work.



Players were extremely lucky with A.I. checks. They “befriended” both WEE-DN and Po-Z. And with Po-Z’s help they befriended N-Ree. WEE-DN taught them how to use the tools he was carrying. Po-Z taught them how to use all the kitchen gadgets, plus the pneumatic tube and the rejuv chambers, She gave them basic descriptions on how the music player, lab kit, and office workstation works. But they would still have to roll Artifact checks on those items if they wanted to use them. They decided not to. They took the music player and the lab kit with them. And didn’t try using the workstation. N-Ree showed them the basics of operating the bubble car. He opened the garage doors and gave them his sonic spanner after showing them how to use it. They wisely avoided the power plant. Had they not successfully befriended the AI/robots, I doubt any would have survived the adventure.

They didn’t want to use up their fusion torch so the left without facing El-Ron. He’s still there playing his games.

I added a roof to the tower; a transparent, reinforced plastic dome. Covered in vines and dead leaves, it nearly blocks out all sunlight. There are two 6-foot diameter holes in the dome; one above the kitchen and one above the Croach Motel. Vines hang down from these holes into these areas allowing characters to climb onto the domed roof. After surprising them in their den, the players faced off against the croachlings in an epic roof-top battle.

We started with 12 characters. 4 characters were killed climbing the tower and getting past the auto-curb. Bonnie the house plant killed 1 more. And the croachlings killed 3 others.
4 escaped the tower laden with artifacts. Including three talking robot heads that they successfully grappled and a gallon jug of stim-drink.

So I ran the AotSHT and divided it in 2 sessions as well. MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD








The sub shuttle station was really fun and only one death. Lesson learned as 3 characters were in the path of entering shuttle but 2 made DC15 reflex to jump back onto platform. The control panel was "broken" on artifact check but still had shuttle appear. Using the combadge they found on skeleton helped them board before it departed. The dazer pistol was destroyed, almost killing AC user. This was the start of many, many artifact check rolls that destroyed or killed the players. Of note, 1 player decided her 3 characters would not get into the ancient ones death trap so they were left behind. Eventually I decided they found a hidden storage room with a travel tube like in the sky high tower. It whisked them away to a random room (which just happened to be where the others had just entered the SHT.


The arrival to the exit sub station was good and the encounter with WEED-N was fun. The AI recognition roll was bad so they ran from it. Getting to the courtyard was simple they just used the Badge. The climb up the tower was surprisingly death free and the walkabout tried to kill them but amazing reflex rolls and ingenuity lead to turning it off. They entered the croachling room one at a time but only 1 death occurred which at the time I thought was that there would be more. Again, artifact checks tries were pitiful and no one could figure out the fusion torch and 1 player almost died usings a lot of luck to just get to broken can be repaired. That was were session ended.


The next session started by me telling them that I didn't realize others could help with AC roll. So only one character could help at least I gave him 1 luck point back he burned. Another player decided to try his luck with the torch with the other 2 giving her a +2 and barely made a 12 (burning a 2 luck points). So got through the door and proceeded to explore the rest of the tower. The first room was the kitchen and not having a house badge yet could not enter. No way a DC 30 strength check could be made by whole group. The fusion torch user decided to try and play with the strange panel next to door. She made the AC and the door opened! The leader decided to brave the room and encountered PO-Z and after a successful AI roll started a conversation with her. She asked them if they were hungry and of course they said yes. PO-Z then used the food maker and made a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. The characters all then ask for one and it was a fun encounter.


The rest of the tower was fun they found the com badge in Bonnie (same player made another successful AC on office door but was killed by Bonnie) and getting into the other room was a breeze. The master bedroom was fun and the "lady of the house" was a interesting encounter. The rejuve chambers was beyond their TL level. The kids room they didn't really do anything but the headband in daughters room made for a fun time. The player had to roll every round and kept hearing the bad song in her head. They rested in croachling room soon after the robot storage room. Almost killed a player with the rolling robot torso and they ran off. During all of this 5 of the 10 characters left were down to 4 or less luck and the ones that could even try a artifact check were at 3 or 2 luck and didn't want to risk the death rolls. LOL So trying to figure out how to get into last room (Den where EL_RON was at) without trying to get torch to work meant the tubes. Again, the only characters with the chance to figure out how to use them didn't take the risk. So 1 player said his 3 guys would enter and the others didn't want too. He ended up in the den on a random roll! The others got bright idea to ask PO-Z and she said that it was fine and went into den a set it where it didn't random them somewhere else. The encounter with EL-RON was overwhelming. It was going to be a TPK easily. The 3 who entered first got caught with skullcaps and went into game and 1 died first round. I knew that it was going to be a massacre so I decided that if player burned 1 luck he would reappear in RL room but would go back into game in 1d3 rounds or he was dead. The second round another of his guys died quickly and I said it would take 2 luck to reappear in RL room. He took it. The third round the others started popping in and EL-RON used an action to leave game to capture the others coming in so the guy in room got a reprieve and didn't get attacked that round. By the 4th round almost whole group was in room and the ones in game were not fairing well but the girl that had put on headband in daughters room I told her that the skullcap didn't seal and so she was in RL room. She attacked EL-RON and hit and that distracted him next round. One player held his shield above his head and so skullcap didn't work and he attacked as well. So EL-RON ignored the game players, who couldn't hit him in game and if did barely hurt him (Energyshield + high HP=too tough). The ones outside though which were 5 characters were mind attacked with mind control and 3 got controlled. Luckily, the other 2 got some excellent attacks and actually killed the real body. I had to take some liberties with the encounter but if ran the way it was supposed too I really believe it was too tough. Thoughts on any others that ran it and did your groups do well? None of my players could make a Artifact Check to save their lives (literally) on any weapon they found. So after killing EL-RON and finding the fob they decided to try to AC the tube to exit. He broke it and took 2 damage which didn't kill him but now they were stuck in room and he was down to 1 luck. Now everyone is so low on luck score they were trapped and so had to use fusion torch. The only problem, as I said before only 3 of them could even try to use it and all were down to 1 or 2 luck by now. It looked hopeless. Finally the decision was made just to try and the roll was terrible, as usual, and the guy burned down to 1 luck but made it work once. PO-Z told them about garage and asked for her help with tubes and they got to bubbleport and encounter N-REE and easily made AI roll but the power grid started to go but no one had a TL 5 to understand the bubblecar! So I decided that a combat AC was absurd in this encounter as the CM 10 (straight roll no bonuses was impossible as best roll would be an 10) so I gave them the fob (+5) and the girl with fob rolled an 18! Exactly what they needed to get a one time use and they flew away and watched the tower explode. Using on board nav compter they flew around until one of them saw a familiar landmark near their village and got the car to crash land doing 1 HP to all but no one died. They hiked back to village as heroes.


Overall it was a great adventure but the TL and CM of aritfacts they encountered were to much for them. Another group (or better rolls) with characters with higher INT would do well. None of the players had a character with above a 14 INT and only 3 had 13 and 2 of them died. I get that it is artifacts of the Ancient Ones use at own risk but I am thinking maybe drop TL down by one but stay with same CM. Others could have tried to do checks with even a 10. Everything in adventure was TL 4 or higher. It was really fun and I would love to run it again and hope the other ready made adventures are just as fun.