Goodman Games

Hail, all ye magnificent magicians, clever wayfarers, squalmy witches, and all things that crawl from the vats! Be warned that I have returned to lead a charge across the Dying Earth, lest the sun wink out before we have seen it's like! The Pilgrims of the Black Obelisk are well on their way to Erze Damath, and blood is already upon the plains...

I now live in Murphy, North Carolina, and having gotten the PDFs from Kickstarter, the bug has bitten again! I've been playing in our local game shop, Bill and Ogre's Games, and already have a good group together. I've been playing these past few years, but without a game shop (or time to trek out far from home) we've ran home games in DCC and other systems. Now with a new closer storefront conveniently timed with this release of Vancian proportions, another campaign was inevitable.

I've posted my first 3 games, one already past at the time of this posting, the next tomorrow, and a week hence. I'll post reports here if any care to read them, but spoilers will run rampant as the unworthy blood of peasants...mwahaha....

Looking forward to it!

Before I begin, let me inform you of my house rules:
1. The first time you play DCC with me, you must use randomly generated zeroes per the book, as Crom intended! After that, we'll see...
2. If you complete the funnel with surviving zeroes but would still rather roll up your own, you can trade them in to do this. If you have zeroes that wouldn't have leveled up, every 2 zeroes is worth 1 level 1 character. If you want to use an alternate die roll method like 4d6 ^drop the lowest, that'll cost double. Also, every character you trade in, I level up as an NPC nemesis for your character- somehow you crossed them or stole their fate... mwahaha...
3. Even in the Dying Earth novels, Jack Vance often mentions a creature as though it should be familiar and never describes it further, like wheriots and droggers. I found this maddening at first, but now I give as much detail as I have and ask the table what they see the first time we encounter a "new" creature and that description becomes canon for my future games, complete with illustrations the following week.

That said, my first pilgrimage (4 players, 16 characters- my wife and now year-old daughter, and two new players) left the Inn of the Violet Imp and trekked across the Plain of Oparona with all confidence, only to be attacked by a visp while aiding a suspicious traveler! They fled as bandits suddenly attacked from a flanking dune, suffering a couple of losses from their arrow guns. A watchmen caught the visp in his spyglass as they escaped, but was unable to confirm his suspicions. Next they found a snare in the path, decided not to investigate, and were trailed by a strange creature whom they scared off with torches and multiple watchmen. The creature missed an opportunity (here I was confused, as I thought there would be a couple nights travel before the River Wyr, but the map and other encounters seemed to suggest more immediate pacing). Upon reaching the river, they decided to lure the tithe-priests out to help carry "a heavy tithe", then through clever placement, deceptive conniving, and The Spell of the Macroid Toe (castable through a fluke) they ambushed and overwhelmed the priests, killing 3, subduing the rest and taking their guns!

Here we stopped, and the following week my new players wouldn't be able to attend. But due to popular demand, I had 5 new players join, so I just started a second pilgrimage! The innkeeper warned the second party away from the bandit plains, as another party went that way days before. A diviner in this group got a bad omen from Madon and rejected their assistance, taking the coastal road alone. They made quick work of the fisher-men, may have tried to contact a dead god in the temple ruins, and decided to ford the river on their own when they at last came to it. Having had less luck with the wheriots than the first party and traveling days askance at the Wyr, we are set to potentially have a meetup should everyone show up at the next game!

Sounds like a great campaign. One thing I like about DCC is that general "every monster unique" philosophy and it looks like you have captured that totally. Love the fact that you make your monsters "canon" to your campaign so that if one is encountered later it will be the same as the first. I can't wait to read more about your sessions.

Hmm... my games aren't showing up on the Events Calendar. I wonder if I'm doing something wrong, or if they're just busy getting the print copies out?

Anyway, next game will be Sunday and the hopeful conclusion of the funnel. Time to cull the weak and unlucky to make way for some level 1 adventurers! I'm excited to see how the new classes play!

Well, I had a group of pilgrims reach Erze Damath! The unique players from game 1 (who chose the plains route) couldn't make it, so I ran the rest of the second group along the plains- after all, they travelled north a couple miles to ford the Wyr. I had 6 players with 2-3 characters each. They absolutely murdered a travelling peddler, captured a teratoid resembling a chocobo (my daughter was thrilled), slaughtered infected pilgrims, balked a demonlord's advances, and at last made it to the holy city where they RAN LIKE HELL. Too many survivors for my tastes, but they did well, playing cautiosly and cleverly (and with some good die-rolls) so I fault them not!

Since certain end-game events weren't triggered, I can still run my other group of pilgrims to the same potential fate should they come next week, along with any new players on hand. I may have to alternate weeks and run two sessions- we'll see!

Last time in The Dying Earth, the "pilgrims" to Erze Damath find themselves somewhat unwelcome (what, with the demons rampant in the holy city in the middle of oblations) so sought out the source of a black crystal plague they encountered. This ended them up in the Cave of Secrets nestled in the ruins a few days out. How will they fair against The One Who Watches from Below? So far they've explored the first floor (without discovering the REAL secret of the cave yet!) and nearly lost two members to the most unusual "monks" who maintain the cave and were forced to recover at camp outside...

I love stringing modules together rather than railroading them into the Next Thing by providing hooks drawn from similarities between them. I connected the infected pilgrims encounter with The One Who Watches from Below and they seized upon it! I also had readied The Laughing Idol of Lar-Shann, Intrigue in the Court of Chaos (if they dilly-dallied too long), and of course the confrontation with Ohmvos who is now set up in the holy city. Leaving a demon lord wannabe to run amok on the Dying Earth can't be a great idea... mwahaha....