Tales from the Road: My Road Crew experience thus far

[Skars]

Feedback that can't get much more honest or earnest. I love it, thanks for sharing John. I am just now discovering the joys of gaming with my own kids (I handed them a "Dagger" recently)

[Skyscraper]

Wrapped up Game Session 9 at Derby Middle School!

I ran Doom of the Savage Kings after Portal. Feedback from kids:

"I like the art in the book. It's cool." - Lucas R.
"Unlike video games, you get to do whatever you want. It's not scripted." - John N.
"A burial mound shaped like a snake. That's just weird (in a good way)." - Lucas Z.
"I wish you'd told us about burning luck BEFORE my character died!" - Sam A.
"Just because I'm chaotic doesn't mean that I have to be evil. I'm just CHAOS incarnate!" - Adam M.
"What's with the dice? Where can I get these, they're so awesome!" - Jordan H.

Thanks to Joseph and company for nine after-school sessions that truly brought the fun with friends.

- Jon Chappell

That's just cool.

I've started playing with my 7 year old, and he loves it.

[Rick]

Prepping for running not one but two adventures this Saturday; The Imperishable Sorceress bright & early and then The Tower Out of Time later that afternoon.

More on my Free RPG Day here: http://www.goodman-games.com/forums/vie ... 91#p100991

[josemasaga]

Hi everyone! I'd like to share my World Tour games in Madrid (Spain) with you. Sorry it took me so long to report them.

On March 16th I ran a couple of games in Madrid, in the comics shop Generación X. In the morning I chose The perils of the sunken city from Purple Sorcerer Games, a great 0-level funnel. Five people braved their 4 characters against the weird traps and monsters of the aforementioned sunken city (they loved the setting, the paper minis that come with the adventure and the gonzo aspects of it).

The dungeon below the arena:



According to their own words "we expected it to be more deadly" and "it wasn't the butchery we thought it would be". More than half of the original farmers, woodcutters, slaves, etc., survived, so I think they were quite right.

But the absolute star of the morning was the hen Margarita, who unfortunately was eaten alive by one of the waste oozes:



All in all, a great game full of funny and exciting moments.

In the evening I ran The jeweler that dealt in stardust for three people. It was a very different experience, more intimate and Cthulhu-esque, as one of the players pointed out.

The first floor of the jeweler's house:



Their plans, good dice rolls, and combat tactics rewarded them with the last bits of the jeweler's cache and a daring escape from the accursed shop.

Taking into account the great interest that DCC RPG arises here, I'll keep offering more World Tour events in the following months.

[tovokas]

Awesome Jose! Thanks for sharing.

That's so cool to see someone do the layout in dungeon walls, and I love the hen meeting its demise at the hands of the purple slime.

[josemasaga]

Thank you, Jon! Your adventures are a delight to the sight and to play (and run!). You're a great contributor to the DCC RPG success!

[Raven_Crowking]

Thank you, Jon! Your adventures are a delight to the sight and to play (and run!). You're a great contributor to the DCC RPG success!

+2d24!

[ddevil]

Rick - I don't have your email address and guess I can't send PMs yet on this forum so posting here. I wasn't sure if the 2nd part of the 8th level adventure was going to be posted as an event on the YottaQuest site or not and wanted to make sure I didn't miss it. I know you've told us all before but was hoping you could remind me what day and time you were planning on finishing the adventure. Also, do you think it'll be about a 4-5 hour session? I thought that's what we had determined. This is Michael btw.

[tovokas]

Thank you, Jon! Your adventures are a delight to the sight and to play (and run!). You're a great contributor to the DCC RPG success!

+2d24!

Thanks guys, you're very kind.

[Rick]

Off to complete our run through Colossus, Arise! here in a few hours. Even with 12 8th level player characters this one could go south (for the party) if luck's not with them.

[Hrevelax]

Great photos everybody! I really dig the 3d dungeon.

I'm getting ready to run a few DCC games next month and I couldn't be more excited. I judged a game with my young brother and he seemed to like but was really upset when his character died

[themightyeroc]

Just completed my First session for my World Tour efforts to claim the prized Brass Buckle!

It was awesome! Started the night with six players and ended the game with eleven!!! Everyone (but 2 players) were new to DCC and had a great time! It all seems such a whirl now, there was plenty of death, we had our first casualty within ten minutes of starting! A halfling trader fell victim to the Vine Horrors, well I think the Dwarf that pushed him into it may have had something to do with it... anyway.

A little something I added: I created two different Awards to hand out to players. The first is the "Certificate of Horrendous Death" printed on red cardstock. This one is given to a player that loses all of his zero level peasants, I had 3 winners of this one. The second is the "Brave, brave Sir Robin Award" anyone who had at least one original zero level PC survive was given one of these. Appropriately printed on yellow cardstock.



here are my winners, minus one who had left early.

Photo from start of the night!


Looking forward to my next sessions!

[Raven_Crowking]

This Saturday, 6 July 2013, at the Wizard's Cache (333 Bloor St. West, near the St. George subway station), I will be running The Bone Hoard of the Dancing Horror. Second level pregens will be supplied.

Game starts at 1:00 pm.

Hope to see you there!

http://ravencrowking.blogspot.ca/2013/0 ... -date.html

[Rick]

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR COLOSSUS, ARISE!

Spoilers start in...

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Liftoff!

So for the big finale of our playtest of Colossus, Arise!, and for the first time in a DCC RPG game I've been involved in, we used minis (well, sort of...) and a battle map. My "default" style of play will remain without miniatures, but this was a fun change of pace.

The horde of yellow smiley-face guys represent the 10' tall Sons of the Second Age. The small group of tokens in the center are our heroes. And the big feet are those of the headless 300' foot tall undead Chaos titan, Cadixtat

The remaining Wizard (at this point we were down to 6 players left from the original 12) cast Sleep on the horde and dropped every last one of them; the spell check result was enough to effect all unfriendlies within 200'. In hindsight they shoulda probably wakened what with Cadixtat stomping around, but we were running way late.

The pair o' Thieves decided to strike at what they felt must be the titan's weakest spot, so they made climb rolls up the shin, over the knee, up the thigh towards their, uh, objective some 150' up above. Interpreting the results of their criticals vs. that part of the titan's anatomy was a unique challenge

The Law aligned Heroes (of which there were 2 left, the Cleric & the Dwarf, plus the Cleric's 4th level NPC follower) nobly put a plan into action involving surrounding the titan with each bearing one of the artifacts of Chaos and a drop of the blood of Teleus (titan of Law). When in position they intended to bring blood and artifact together, instantly sacrificing themselves and everything else within 150' (like the rampaging titan) by tearing open a dimensional rift. Heavy stuff!

Speaking of heavy, my favorite bit of roleplaying came just before that when the Cleric considered trying to turn Cadixtat with it's own Rod (one of the artifacts of Chaos). The Cleric was able to speak with his deity and learn that if (BIG if there; the DC was 35+) the attempt succeeded the Cleric's alignment would become chaotic, losing all Clerical powers and severing any ties to his god. The Cleric's player did a great job of showing how conflicted he was with that choice. Ultimately he chose to die (see above) and serve his god at his side in the afterlife rather than live on without him.

In the meantime the Wizard pulled off my favorite spellburn action to date; he had his follower (another 4th level NPC) slit his (the wizard's) throat at the spell's conclusion to represent sacrificing all of his Strength, Stamina, & Agility to cast the ultimate maxed out version of Polymorph ( 38+ The caster transforms himself into a creature with HD up to the target’s level and the caster’s CL combined. The transformed creature possesses all the racial abilities and powers of the new form. The change is permanent and no saving throw is allowed)

The target, of course, being the 300' foot tall Chaos titan

Everyone agreed that a 2nd headless undead chaos titan was probably a bad idea, so the Wizard's player asked what else could he turn in to?

Anything was my first thought but under pressure and no wanting to delay things any further I grabbed a Monster Manual from the shelves and said you turn into that, pointing at the entry for the Tarrasque.

There on the fly I decided that the transformed Wizard would be the first Tarrasque this world had ever known and that the experience had driven it mad. I told the player that should the creature survive the battle with the titan he'd be just as likely to attack his former allies as anything else, but for the moment it was clear that the giant monsters were gonna fight! And they did; the Tarrasque leapt up onto the back of the titan and savagely claw-claw-bited away!

So, with the help of the neutral Warrior the three Lawful heroes got into position and brought together the blood of Teleus and the three chaotic artifacts (as the Warrior, the 2 Thieves, and the Dwarf's warboar raced away as fast as they could), sending them, Cadixtat, and the first Tarrasque spiraling away into a dimensional rift. 12 heroes began the adventure and only 3 remained to tell the tale. And one exhausted (in a good way) DCC Judge . The End.

[Skyscraper]

Wow, epic battle there Rick!

[goodmangames]

That table setup is great -- the footprints really give it a sense of scale!

[Hrevelax]

I'm juiced up! I'm running three days of DCC at this years Gam3rcon (http://www.gam3rcon.com/) in San Diego. The schedule is still being worked out but it should be Fri-Sun, somewhere between 2PM and 7 or 11 PM.

And this Firday, I'll be running my game group through their first game. I've been hyping it up ever since we started playing months ago. I hope they enjoy it.

A little something I added: I created two different Awards to hand out to players. The first is the "Certificate of Horrendous Death" printed on red cardstock. This one is given to a player that loses all of his zero level peasants, I had 3 winners of this one. The second is the "Brave, brave Sir Robin Award" anyone who had at least one original zero level PC survive was given one of these. Appropriately printed on yellow cardstock.

That's such a great idea! Can you share those files please??

[lancer]

Alrighty then... I have been out of the Road crew loop here in Durango Co. I have been Running DCC RPG since it's release. we have completed Sailors/sea, People o pit, Portal/stars, Und. corruption, imper. sorceress, and soon to run Tower out of time.
The list of dead zero's is considerable... the amount of fun gaming even more!!!!
I have read other road crew posts and totally enjoy the printed awards for the little stuff... like losing all your zero's in one sitting etc.
I am looking to incorporate quite a bit in my game as a result of seeing what other game groups are doing:)
stay tuned, I will drum up some photos and keep it real!!!
Tom

[goodmangames]

Agreed, the reward certificates is a great idea. Maybe we'll do some official ones! Please post examples of what you've done!

[Rick]

I had my first "less than 100% positive" event.

I ran The 13th Skull, and it mostly went really, really well. The turnout was great (8 players; two more arrived 15 minutes late and though I told them I'd find a way to work them in they decided not to stay).

SPOILERS FOR 13TH SKULL>>>>>>
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They saved the Princess, which I understand is rare. I know that the playtest group that I was a part of at Origins 1-2 years ago didn't save her, but, hell, Doug Kovacs ran that game, so you know it was brutal (and fun)!

As his first action (upon arriving in the 417th Level of Hell), the Wizard went to the bound Princess's aid while everyone else squared off against the bone devil. When the devil's initiative came up, I had him do his special attack, sending spines everywhere, including at the zero level Princess. When the Wizard said he'd try to shield her, I told him that would mean he'd take her damage, too (I rolled 8 for everyone within 30' of the devil, so he'd be taking 16, which coincidentally was all the HP he had). He agreed, and spared her but of course dropped himself in the process. The Cleric (and a luck roll) saved him, fortunately.

After saving her, though, things stalled hard. They wouldn't leave the "Book of Planes" room. So I started sending waves of demons/devils from the hellhole in after them. After 3+ such waves, I sent another wave plus the pile o' skull-headed zombies and told 'em they could hear the beating wings of the pterodactyl just outside. That at least got the Elf out of the room; he did one of those Death Blossom spellburns and flaming hands-ed the lot of them to ashes before dropping.

The rest of the party joined him outside the room, but time (as always) was running short, so I "brought the mountain to Muhammad" by collapsing the huge column the Skull was atop of (I ruled the hellhole had widened and was consuming it; the Skull was all that was keeping the top of it "level" w/ the cave's surface), bringing it down to the cave below where the party was.

The ensuing fight was brief, but not without it's moments. The skull possessed the collapsed Elf - I loved the players' reactions when I told them he now too had a silver skull for a head (I had the Skull possess the Princess that way, too). They pretty quickly bound them up, though.

The Dwarf & Warrior charged in through the protective circle and dinged the Skull up somewhat, but before they finished it off it cast a Magic Missile at them. Or I had hoped it would, but the spellcheck result was the bazooka-like 1 target takes a 4d12 + CL single mega-missile. I rolled a d8, ruling the entire party was in range & an eligible target, and it came up 2; the Halfling.

It did something like 37 points of damage, and all but obliterated the little guy. I felt bad (a little..) but that's the way it goes sometimes (I lost two characters in the game Doug ran!).

The Skull was finished off, sending the column the rest of the way down the hellhole. The Dwarf & Warrior nearly went with it if not for some quick action by their fellow party members. Princesses were returned (more or less unharmed) & rewards were collected.

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END SPOILERS FOR 13TH SKULL>>>>>>

Back to the ex-Halfling: He (the player) seemed to take it okay, but several other players expressed an interest in spending their newly won fortune in gems & jewels (for saving the Princess) to resurrect the Halfling.

I should've said no, but told them they could quest for it, setting up Blades Against Death or The Revelation of Mulmo, but we're scheduled to run another 0-level funnel next time, so I okayed it.

So, he lost a point of Stamina and had a wicked new scar, but the Halfling was still among the living.

The problem surfaced a couple days later when I received an email from the Halfling player; he said that though I might not have been aware (I wasn't), he was "livid" when I killed his character. He said he had 50+ hours invested the "campaign" (these have been a series of one-shots that I very loosely tried to tie in to each other) & the character, and I was wrong not to "weaken its damage output" (the Skull) & heavily insinuated that I fudged the die roll when I determined who it attacked because I didn't roll it out in the open -- which I usually do, but I slip & forget sometimes.

He also all but called out the Cleric's player as cheating since he used his phone (w/ the Crawler Companion app) to make his rolls.

Finally he said he thought i was a good GM but he still thought he had to get all that off his chest.

That was 5 days ago. I took a while before I replied because I was a bit insulted, honestly. I did not fudge the roll and I allowed him to be resurrected. The Cleric player sought my permission to use the app before we started & I approved it. Based on how high his disapproval range got I would be surprised if he'd been cheating.

In my reply I quoted the core book:

Let the characters die if the dice so dictate it. Nothing is
as precious as a PC’s life when it can be taken away—
and nothing is so unchallenging as a game where the
players know the judge will not kill their characters.
The DCC RPG is designed for high character death
rates—let this be true in your game as well. Achieving
5th level in the DCC RPG is a true accomplishment.

I also acknowledged that I'd forgotten to roll out in the open, but what's done is done. I pointed out that I can't see his dice results either (getting old sucks), but I believe in the honor system so that's not a problem, for me.

I quoted a new "kindred spirit" OSR rpg, Ambition and Avarice, too:

Damage, hardship, and death is a part of the game. It is
important to accept death as a possibility. Don’t waste time
lamenting this fact and don’t become emotionally attached
to your character. No one should feel bad about the loss of
a character; not you and especially not the Judge. This is a
game, not psychotherapy.

The Judge doesn’t want to kill you. They also want you to
survive. However, their world must provide a significant
challenge or else overcoming those challenges would not be
satisfying.

Yeah, A&A uses "Judge" as GM, too.

I ended by saying he's welcome at any game I run but with a funnel scheduled for next time (and he's previously voiced his doubt about whether he'd enjoy that type of game) I warned him character death was all but guaranteed (but that's why you get 3-4 of them).

Oh, well. We'll see what he has to say, or if he returns. All in all, this has been a great ride; just a bit of a "bump in the Road" Crew experience for me.

[tovokas]

Folks are interesting, aren't they?

I know it's difficult, but you can't take silliness personally: you did everything right.

Not that I'd ever really game with someone I had to worry about, (cons and demos are different, of course...) but I'll likely be adding the ability at some point to optionally share die rolls between Crawler devices so that the judge will be able to see a log of all the rolls coming from the players, as well as share private messages etc.

[themightyeroc]

Agreed, the reward certificates is a great idea. Maybe we'll do some official ones! Please post examples of what you've done!

Sorry everybody, this took me a bit to do. My creating things on the PC skills are very limited. I basically found a cool border image online (I think this is a guy called ZHU) I then made 2 Word documents and then printed the out the picture of the border, then ran the cardstock thru the printer again and printed out the word stuff. Here they are on white paper, but as I stated above I print the Certificate of Horrendous on Red cardstock, and the Brave Sir Robin Award on Yellow.

[themightyeroc]

I sure you could make a handful of these that were CLASS specific too.

An Award for the Mightiest Deed! of the night, or Most awesome Critical hit etc.

I hope you guys at Goodman take this and run with it, give us some cool awards to hand out at World Tour Events!

[Lansingmike]

[In an effort to be as non spoilery as possible I will only mention the encounter numbers in any modules played and be as general as possible in describing what went down.]

For the first game session at Capital City Collectibles in Lansing Michigan on July 11 we only had two players show up. Another customer showed interest but didn't feel like committing to an evening of play. Originally I was going to run the Free RPG 2013 module of The Imperishable Sorceress with pregens but changed my mind thinking the zero level funnel of Portal Under the Stars would be better (and easier) for new players (and a new GM). Also, as the adventure is in the core book, I thought it might be the only chance to play it before the new players had their own books.

Each player made 6 characters. The most promising was a caravan guard with a good strength and born under the pack hunter sign (as were two other of the player’s characters! the dice do funny things sometimes) with enough luck to actually make it matter.

The first two areas (1-1,1-2) were not too lethal (one death each), but the next two (1-3,1-4) proved to be a bit bloodier due in fault to both player and GM rookie mistakes. I feel I should have run area 1-3 differently, allowing the characters to run wild with their ideas and rewarding imaginative work arounds. Instead I’m afraid I fell back to old habits and ran the encounter as written, relying more on rules than rulings. All deaths occurring in area 1-4 I lay fully at the feet of the players for splitting the party and letting only three characters sneak ahead to deal with this room.

The survivors skipped encounter 1-5 and were only minorly greedy in area 1-6 (which set up what happened in the final scene). They did avoid combat in 1-6 by being clever enough to figure out the motives of their foes.

The final encounter (1-8) proved to be pretty disastrous when they saw the room and promptly figured (wrongly) and attacked what they thought was the magical focus of their foes. This left them blinded, surrounded, and pretty doomed. Here is where I made my second GM mistake. We were running close to our end time and looking at the hopelessness of it all I declared a TPK. Afterwards I realized I should have let the scene play out. If they had been clever and very very lucky they may have been able to pull out a victory (or at least an escape). This game is all about randomness and sometimes just throwing caution to the wind for the fun of it all. I didn’t let that happen.

So, GM lessons learned: when the module calls for 15-20 characters, use 15-20 characters; let things play out and see where they go; when a player tries to avoid an encounter it’s them being clever, not cheaty; a TPK is not so painful when you were able to make 6 characters in fifteen minutes; and above all else, make it fun!

All in all it seemed everyone had a good time and will hopefully see them next time.

[Hrevelax]

My creating things on the PC skills are very limited. I basically found a cool border image online (I think this is a guy called ZHU) I then made 2 Word documents and then printed the out the picture of the border, then ran the cardstock thru the printer again and printed out the word stuff.

Great work. If you don't get a chance to upload, I hope I have a chance to make my own in time for Gam3rcon in San Diego.