Kingbeast's Lair

I love Chad Underkoffler’s “What Was Cool At” RPG convention videos…here is the latest one.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #43 – The Curse From The Barrens (DCC43) from Goodman Games is a module for d20 that was written by Greg Oppedisano. The module states that it is for characters from levels 3 through 5. It takes the PC to the far north where they encounter a deadly curse and two warring native tribes. I converted the adventure to Fantasy Hero and ran it twice. Thus I cannot comment on how the adventure actually plays for d20.

I purchased the PDF version of the product from DriveThruRPG. It has a color front and back cover and an entirely black and white interior. The book is 8 1/2? x 11″ and is 36 pages in length. The page count includes three pages of maps and a page of player handouts. There is also the standard OGL page.

-== What I Like ==-

I really like the underlying theme of the PC getting caught between two warring tribes. This gives the PC a chance to first react to the tribes, then resolve their problem, then act as mediators for bringing them back together. The dynamic allows for a serious amount of role-playing. I was pleasantly surprised to find this in a “Dungeon Crawl Classic” module…I was not sure role-playing was in the billing when I made the purchase.

The flow of the module from scene to scene is very nicely done. There are not any hard breaks and the path to progress is very clear. My group likes to be directed by the plot but not railroaded. DCC43 did a good job of moving things along nicely.

This adventure is very easy to adapt to any campaign setting. As I was adopting DCC43 to Fantasy Hero and my own world so this is an important need for me. It was also very easy to extend the ending to introduce the following adventure.

The front cover artwork is very colorful and evocative. Jim Roslof did a nice job on it. The back cover is fun. The interior art is well placed and not too dark. The handouts are very cool.

The maps are nicely done. The interior maps which are the ones that folks are most likely to use are clear and easy to follow even though there are multitiered rooms in a couple of places. Often that can make maps more difficult to read but they did a good job here. It might have been nice to have arrows in the streams to slow the direction the water is flowing but that is a minor complaint.

-== What I Don’t Like ==-

DCC43 could have included more character hooks. There are only two included party hooks and they involve hiring the party and simply attacking them. Seems like they could have included a couple of others that are a bit more imaginative.

Some parts of glacial lair is a bit “forced”. In one area where there is a hallway that widens out to a falling ice block trap that feels completely out of place. It really seems like the designer needed a trap because, “a dungeon is not a dungeon without a trap”.

-== Summary ==-

Overall the adventure is exactly what I expected. That is NOT a bad thing. Right now you can get DCC43 on DriveThruRPG for a mere $4.89 at this URL. Holy glacial lair Batman why are you waiting!

I give it 8 out of 10 paws.

Date At Start Of Game: 07/28/206

[Author's Note: This is the log for the 10th session. Note that the order of the events in this record may not be in the exact order that they occurred during play.]

Resting In Ambrosia Trades

After resolving the situation between the warring tribes the PC decide to rest a while in Ambrosia Trades. Oren works on his breastplate with a local blacksmith named Blyre. Po starts researching a new spirit refreshing spell. The others go about other miscellaneous tasks. After about two weeks the PC decide to leave. They follow the stick to the south then east across the Fayland Crossing.

The Wickshine Inn

As they are coming down the mountains on the west side of the crossing the summer rains start to pick up to near torrential levels. Night falls and the PC start to worry about shelter. As they round a bend in the road they see a small inn nestled between the hills. It sits on the edge of what appears to be an old apple orchard. Outside a large Ape Man is securing shutters on the windows. When they get closer Po notes that the apple trees are bare and do not look too healthy. The man greets the PC and welcomes them to the Wickshine Inn. A stable boy, a young Bear Kin, comes over and joins the party as they enter the building. Inside the PC remove their outer clothing for drying by the fire while they meet the staff and guests

The staff includes the following:

• Abel and Dorthea Still – Ape Kin – The proprietor and his wife.
• Usta and Jinny – Cougar Kin – Young teenage girls who appear to sisters. Usta has a mark on her shoulder that one of the PC has seen on slaves.
• Aved – Bear Kin – A youthful helper that seems to have Usta and Jinny’s attention.

The guests include the following:

• Kurdy Deel – Badger Kin – An old tinker with a thick wool hat. He claims to be at the inn to help the Stills mend some old pots.
• Marten L’Gentsia – Dolphin Kin – Dandy bird scholar who like to bore people with his most recent discovery. Po sees that his broach is magical.
• Ille Sorden – Ape Kin – Thin man with graying hair who claims to be travelling east looking for his son that died in a battle near Oakhurst. He speaks with Oren who was in the opposing army during that battle. It did not go well for the defenders so Oren does not have much hope for Ille. Po detects that Ille has some type of healing spell active on his person.
• Eadon Marsh – Boa Kin – Loud warrior who Ille has hired as a bodyguard during his trek east.
• Ditmore and Exter Shurry – Racoon Kin – Traders who specialize in “hard to find good”. They buy some of the trinkets from Po and later show off their glasswares. Ditmore has a cold so the pair has been in the Wickshine Inn for a night.
• Josia Two-Coins – Rat Gog – Travelling priest who carries a crudely carved wooden walking stick. Po thinks that the Joshia is either a bush league shaman or someone posing as one.

After carousing for a while Oren strikes up a conversation with Abel and Dorthea in the kitchen. Abel tells Oren that the Wickshine Inn has been in his family for four generations. Long ago the inn was part of a village called Wickshine. It was called Wickshine because of the fine apple brandy that was brewed by the locals. About 20 years ago the apple production dropped dramatically. This sent the village into a tailspin. Now all that remains is the inn.

Under Siege

The PC are awoken early in the morning when they hear a scream from Dorthea. The PC react quickly. Oren and the rest of the PC head down the stairs while Bilby jumps out a nearby window. When Oren comes down the stairs he spies two spiny black creatures approaching Dorthea. They are about the same size as the twin Cougar Kins so Oren’s first guess is that something happened to Usta and Jinny. While flying around the back of the inn Bilby sees a large group of figures approaching through the morning fog. He flies in a downstairs window to alert the PC that there are incoming foes. Abel axes one of the spiny creatures while Po casts spells. Oren attacks a third creature that he thinks is Aved. After downing his foe Oren smells a strong incense smell on the body. Cillian and Oren race upstairs to investigate. Cillian finds a thick incense smoke in the upstairs rafters that is coming from a loose board over Ille’s room. With that Cillian follows Oren as they bash into Ille’s room. Ille attacks Oren with a spell that causes his old scars to rupture in pain! The attack is so devastating that it actually stuns the tough Armadillo Kin. After the attack Ille casts a spell that makes him turn into a shadow and flies downstairs. Cillian quickly knocks over Ille’s censor which has the immediate effect of causing the spiny creatures to turn back into the young staff members. The PC downstairs see Ille appear near the hearth as hoards of skeletons start to break in through the shuttered windows. Ille laughs in a maniacal fashion as he reaches into the hearth and pulls out what appears to be a black tile. Bilby being the closest PC slices out at the hand holding the tile. In a deft strike the tile goes flying! As the tile hits the ground Po swoops down and picks it up. To Po’s surprise the tile attacks his brain and clenches his hand around it so that he cannot release it! In desperation Po flies up the stairs thinking that the stone might somehow control the skeletons. All the while the tile is gnawing away at Po! Bilby narrowly escapes the skeleton hoard using deft acrobatics. Ille again turns into a shadow and appears in the room. This time Oren lays him out cold with a well placed shot to the stomach. Po flies out of an upstairs window then it knocked out by the tile and falls. The tile slips from his grasp as Po hits the ground. Cillian looks out the window and grabs the tile using his wind spirits. He then carefully places the tile into a pouch without touching it. Luckily Po awakes and take flight just as the skeletons close on his position. In not much more time the PC take out the remaining skeletons who appear confused now that Ille is unconcious.

The other guests are frightened but not harmed. The young staff are several injured but Po prevents them from dying by using his healing abilities. Now the PC are left to question Ille and examine the tile…

Date At End Of Game: 09/02/206

During the Hero seminar Steve, Darren, and Jason also briefly touched on what some of their 3rd party partners will be doing. Here are some highlights.

d3 will continue to have products. They had two of their Fantasy Hero books at the Hero booth for the first time in print and they looked GREAT.

Atomic Overmind will be continuing with the 6e version of Day After Ragnarok. One cool new project involves exploring the insides of the midgard serpent.

The final announcement was my favorite. Hero will be working with Arc Dream to produce 6e versions of several of their products. The first will be…drum roll please…Kerberos Club in 6e! Talk about awesome pie with awesome sauce!

I attended DunDraCon for a few hours on Saturday morning. After having several nice conversations with friends I went to the What’s New With Hero seminar. Here are the results with some of my editorial comments. (I copied this from the Hero Games discussion forum. Thanks for posting it Gary. )

2010 Release

• Champions out now – Beautiful book. Looks to be a winner.
• Hero System Martial Arts – They had a demo copy at the booth. Looks great. Several expanded sections on MA powers that looks neat.
• HS Powers (CO MMO Powers will be done later) April – Meh.
• Champions Universe May – Not interested.
• Bestiary – Definite buy. 300+ monsters updated to 6th ed. The 5th ed Bestiary is one of my most commonly used books.
• 3 Volume Champs (Master, teams, solo) villains GenCon ish – Eh. Hard cover and full color (HCFC).
• Fantasy Hero (GenCon) Full color hardbound – Definite buy. It will be nice to see Steve’s 6th ed treatment of FH. HCFC.
• HSEG – Will probably buy it but it is not an exciting book per se.
• Fantasy Hero Grimoire – Maybe.
• Champions Beyond (CU in outer space) including Malvens – Lot of folks at the con seemed excited about this one but I am in the who cares camp.

Re: Hero Dice. Maybe dice at some point. Darren would like to have them by GenCon, but doesn’t have high hopes that it’ll work out in time. Hopefully by the end of the year. Oh, and they’ll be blue dice with yellow numbers.

2011 Planned Releases

• HERO System Vehicles: If you need to get from Point A to Point B, the best way is a car, plane, or other vehicle ? and if you’re a hero, sometimes a tank, time machine, or hoverjet! The HERO System Vehicle Guide is your complete guide to vehicles in the HERO System, including advanced and expanded rules for creating and using them and hundreds of example vehicles of all types from every campaign, genre, and time period. It’s an essential resource for any HERO System gamer!
  Author: Steven S. Long
  Tentative Release Date: Early 2011
  - I’ll buy it. I hope the rewrite is good.
• The Martial World: The Champions Universe is full of superheroic martial arts action, and The Martial World tells you all about it! Within its pages you’ll read about the secrets of the fabled Yengtao Temple, discover what the insidious Dr. Yin Wu is up to, learn everything you ever wanted to know about the deadly Cult of the Red Banner, and maybe even find out how your character can compete in the legendary Tournament of the Dragon!
  Author: Steven S. Long
  Tentative Release Date: Early 2011
  - I’ll pass on this one.
• The HERO System Advanced Player’s Guide II: HERO System fans have enjoyed our Advanced Player’s Guide so much that it’s time for a sequel! APG2 features even more rules expansions, additions, options, and variants for the HERO System, including rules for ?social combat,? mental combat, and more!
  Author: Steven S. Long
  Tentative Release Date: Early 2011
  - Might get this one…not sure. The social combat stuff might be fun.
• Millennium City: The heart of the Champions Universe is Millennium City, a glittering, high-tech ?City of the Future? built where Detroit once stood. This supplement is your complete guide to Millennium City, with information on its people, neighborhoods, politics, law enforcement, crime, and much more!
  Authors: Steven S. Long, Darren Watts
  Tentative Release Date: Mid-2011 (GenCon release)
  - Pass.
• Mythic Hero: The gods and monsters of legend come to life in Mythic Hero! This HERO System supplement reviews numerous bodies of myth from around the world, ranging from the familiar (such as Greek and Norse) to the unusual (like Aztec, Slavic, and Yoruban). It features character sheets for gods, heroes, and their adversaries, HERO System writeups for special spells and enchanted items unique to each culture, and more!
  Author: Steven S. Long
  Tentative Release Date: Mid-2011
  - Probably pass but Steve seemed into this one so it will probably rock.
• Star Hero: Adventure among the stars with Star Hero, a genre book that shows you how to create characters, campaigns, and technology for the Science Fiction genre! You can explore alien worlds, fight off space pirates, pilot a starship in outer space battles or trading missions, and even travel through time ? if it’s a part of Science Fiction, you’ll find it in Star Hero.
  Author: Steven S. Long
  Tentative Release Date: Mid-2011 (GenCon release)
  - Probably will buy. Star Hero could use some rework IMHO.
• The Book Of The Empress: In the Champions Universe, one of the greatest threats to humanity’s freedom is the extradimensional conqueror Istvatha V’han, Empress of a Billion Dimensions. The Book Of The Empress is your complete guide to this deadly master villain. In addition to discussing her history, powers, personality, and goals, it provides detailed information about her immense military resources ? soldiers, weapons, vehicles, and more from a million planes of reality. It also tells you about her far-flung domain, with descriptions of some of the most important (or weirdest!) dimensions in her empire.
  Author: Steven S. Long
  Tentative Release Date: Late 2011
  - Again not too exciting for me.
• Cyber Hero: In Cyberpunk Science Fiction, the world of the near future is an often grim place where corporations have more power than governments, crime and corruption rule the streets, and people augment their bodies with ?cyberware? and ?bioware? so they can move faster, attack more powerfully, and control machines with mental commands. Cyber Hero is your guide to this fascinating subgenre, including character Templates, rules for cyberware and the net, and several mini-settings to get you started.
  Author: Steven S. Long
  Tentative Release Date: Late 2011
  - I’ll get it. I want to see the takes on netrunning.
• Time Travel Hero: Take a journey through the centuries with Time Travel Hero! This subgenre book for Star Hero discusses the nature of time from a scientific and dramatic standpoint, how to run time travel campaigns, and more. It also includes ?mini-genre books? covering important periods in time such as the Wild West, the Victorian Age, and the era of swashbucklers and pirates.
  Author: Steven S. Long
  Tentative Release Date: Late 2011
  - To me this was the standout announcement of the seminar. If you want to highlight how fantastic your universal system is at handling different genres what better way to do it…a time travel book. I also ran a time travel Danger International campaign off and on for several years so I have an interest in the campaign style.

Hero goodness.