Goodman Games

I just picked up the Goodman reprint of Tegel Manor with the Temple of Tsathoggus supplement by Michael Curtis. My PCs just "finished" (abandoned after a big fight) a megadungeon of my own devising, so I'm not going to dive into this right away (I was thinking of trying the Croaking Fane, first, which I haven't read yet, but which I was thinking might be a good lead in to the Tsathoggus frog connection, or maybe Dave Arneson's Temple of the Frog; I'll probably read all three and mix and match something). But I'm curious if anyone has tried statting Tegel for DCC. Right away I see that the mayor of the town is a level 7 fighter. That seems high to me for DCC. The highest level character in my campaign is level 5, and we've been playing for a while. Is the general rule just cut levels in half and round up?

I would definitely be interested in this as I am also going to work it into my current DCC Lankhmar Campaign

Yes, for older material of that sort, cut the level by half.

I still haven't started running Tegel Manor, but fleshing it out has been a lot of fun. I've run sparsely-written one-page dungeons before, and I ran Stonehell, but Tegel as written is a new level of minimalism for me. I'm a novelist myself, and I'm finding that prepping this dungeon is a lot like writing a novel. I mean, I doubt my PCs will ever need to know half the background I've put into it so far, but it's fun knowing this stuff for myself. Who are these Rumps and what are the relationships between them? Who is the "Keeper" that the yellow skull in the long scarlet robe is looking for? What's a purple worm (!) doing under a bed and how does it fit there? I started off by marking up my copy with notes, but eventually I realized I need a dedicated notebook just so I can update all of the room descriptions with details from the map not included in the text. Even if I never run this, it's a fun project trying to piece together MY Tegel Manor.

Actually, I've never run a Judges' Guild module before. Are they all as sparse as this?

They aren't all of them that sparse, but certainly some products from that time have a very minimal approach.

Needless to say, RPG products still go back and forth on how much info is enough, not enough, and how much is too much. We've probably all read modern things that were over-written, and other things that leave so much unsaid we're not sure what the point is...

There's a Swords and Wizardry version too that shouldn't be too hard to convert to DCC.

qstor wrote: ↑Wed Oct 13, 2021 4:32 am There's a Swords and Wizardry version too that shouldn't be too hard to convert to DCC.

Hey man, thanks for the info. I didn't realize there was a Swords & Wizardry version. I'm mostly running the Judge's Guild original (well, the republished version by Goodman Games), though I'm also consulting the Gamescience version and ripping off a little of the Xyntillan campaign that Ravencrowking is running on Discord (plus adding a bunch of my own stuff). Nice having you in the Xyntillan group, though, and I'll check out the Swords & Wizardry edition. I'm running Tegel with my own system that's kind of a mix between DCC and OD&D, so I'm really converting on the fly. Like, my players are used to DCC, so when they came across a group of wights, I had to say, "Normally I wouldn't tell you this directly, but if you get hit by one, it could drain a level from your character." This convinced a cleric to try to Turn Undead rather than moving in for melee.

If anyone wants to jump in on this game on Discord, I have three players currently active out of five who started. Two players had to drop out for unforeseen real world complications. We're not too deep yet, and I'd be happy to catch anyone up. You could take over one of the abandoned characters or create your own and I'll write you in. Three players is a fine number, but the party is a little unbalanced at this point, as we had a Cleric, Fighter, Magic-User, Thief, and Elf. And the Fighter and Cleric had to bail. DM me for details, if interested.

Oof, Tegel Minor is kind of a beast to GM with players used to 5E. I still have a few hangers-on, but death as a real possibility, the lack of a big hook apart from "What loot can we get from this haunted castle?" (though I've added a bit more with the frog cult and stuff). But most of the players still don't seem to get the idea of "Go back, regroup, and come back better prepared." They just want to plow on. And then they get flustered when they die.

double post

I'm not doing myself any favors, though, by using my own homebrew system that is a weird mashup of ODD and DCC.

Original Tegel Manor was sparse. There was a revised edition that was more detailed, there was a never-released 3e version by Gábor Lux that I had the luck to read that is even more detailed, and then there is the current iteration, which is downright bloated. There are also two noteworthy alternatives, Black Monastery by Necromancer Games and Castle Xyntillan by Gábor Lux. The latter is the best spiritual successor to Tegel Manor out there.

There is also a 5E version of Tegel Manor, by Frog God Games. I run 5E characters through DCC modules all the time and I assume one could run DCC characters through a 5E module with little fuss.

One thing to remember about the old school stuff (I still have my Judges Guild version of Tegel Manor from the 1970's) is that they didn't bother much with adventure "balance" and characters had to realize there was a time to fight and a time to run and if you got them confused you died a lot.

finarvyn wrote: ↑Thu Jul 27, 2023 4:19 pm One thing to remember about the old school stuff (I still have my Judges Guild version of Tegel Manor from the 1970's) is that they didn't bother much with adventure "balance" and characters had to realize there was a time to fight and a time to run and if you got them confused you died a lot.

This. Due to its sprawling nature Tegel Manor doesn't use levels the same way as a traditional dungeon used to (the lower you get the more difficult things become), instead it's all over the place. You can easily run into a balrog, vampire, or lich as a level 1 character.