Dungeon Crawl Classics

Dungeon Crawl Classics is an "old school" style RPG with an interesting way of promoting characters from "villager" to "adventurer": The so-called "funnel".

The idea is that a player will take several level-0 villagers on a coming-of-age adventure, after which (assuming they survive) they will be level-1 adventurers and get to select all kinds of new abilities.

But right now, all characters in the party are villagers, armed with loaves of bread or sacks of grain or ... well you get the picture.

The system uses the familiar D20 for most tests, but introduces a bunch of perhaps unfamiliar dice such as the d16 or d24, which will be supplied, along with paper and pencils, and pre-generated characters.

The Adventure:

The brothers Molan and Felan were two Chaos Lord champions. 

Vicious and cunning beyond measure, and without a scrap of mercy in their war-hardened hearts, they led hordes of bestial humanoids to victory against the armies of good. With the spoils of their bloody campaigns, they raised a mighty keep and rained terror and violence down upon all in their demesne.

In the end, the brothers’ success was their undoing. Disparate forces of men, dwarves, and elves rallied together in a crusade against the wicked chaos lords. For thirty-nine days, the allies laid siege to the foul keep. And on the fortieth day, the captain of the elves dealt Felan a mortal blow.

Realizing that his own end was drawing near, Molan retreated into the ancient caves beneath the keep., never to be heard of again.

Then, as the armies of good laid waste to the keep, Molan gave up his mortal shell, commending his damned soul into the writhing limbs of the gods of Chaos.

Molan made only one request. When ages had passed, and the armies of good fell into disarray once more, he asked to return and lay waste to his ancient foes.

That time has come.

Mutant Crawl Classics

The Mutant Crawl Classics game system is derived from the popular "old school -ish" Dungeon Crawl Classics, and presents the players with an opportunity to game in a fanciful future post-apocalyptic world where the definition of "a person" has, of necessity, been broadened to include mutants and sentient plants.

Similar game settings such as Metamorphosis Alpha and Gamma World might already be familiar to the prospective player.

The system uses the standard D20 for most tests, but can use more exotic side-counts if required (e.g. 16- or 24-sided dice). Such dice will be provided, along with pre-generated characters, scratch paper and pencils and so forth.

The game we will be playing has the players wielding multiple "level 0" characters, and their objective will be to get at least ONE of these to the scenario's end to be promoted to Level-1 and to return to their village with a prized Old World Artifact.

The Game

Having left their village for their Rite of Passage, the PCs awaken in the midst of a pitched underground battle, only to discover that they have been abducted and enslaved by semi-sentient ant-men.

Trapped in this hellish anthill, they must find a way to escape, to acquire artifacts, and to foil

the schemes of the ant-men.

If they fail, they die—and the ant army will inevitably spread further, enslaving their home village and

perhaps even the world of Terra A.D. itself.

ALIEN RPG - Destroyer of Worlds

The game uses the ALIEN RPG system which provides an exciting player experience exactly in line with expectations from the movies, in this case, especially ALIENS. Players will get the most from the game by "leaning in" to the milieu and scenery chewing a-la Hudson (at the right moments) is of course to be applauded. 

As characters progress through the story they will accumulate stress, which can be beneficial by increasing chances of success when skill rolls are called for, but can trigger panic too. Stress can be relieved by finding a safe place and resting for ten minutes or so. Are there any safe places? Better hope so. 

Combat is deadly, and PCs should strive to only involve themselves in it in a manner that emphasizes their advantages, namely the pulse rifle, the grenade launcher, the incinerator unit and (of course) the smart gun. Lock and load, marine! 

The PCs will be organized (most likely) with a command structure, and best use of game time will be for all players to remember they are pretending to be military personnel with a pounded-in respect for that hierarchy. Mutinous dissent will almost certainly bring disaster down on everyone.

Background:

Located within the Outer Veil, Kruger 60 and 61 Cygni are two colonial systems located very close to the UPP border in an area of UA space called the Advance. The Advance splinters off the American Corridor and juts Spinward into UPP territory. The Kruger 60 system has been a key oil supply and military staging post for the United Americas Allied Command (UAAC) and the Colonial Marines for years, and has been strategically important during the so-called Oil Wars. The severe petroleum shortage throughout the colonies has led the United Americas, the Three World Empire, and the Union of Progressive Peoples into a race to secure new sources of crude oil. These Oil Wars have created severe border tensions. Stretched too thin, the UAAC and the Colonial Marines maintain an uneasy peace throughout the colonies. Tired of severely rationed supplies and the mega-corporations’ mistreatment of the working class, insurgency groups have cropped up in defiance of their local governments—and the resource poor UPP is poised to take advantage of this development. Recently, the UPP expanded their borders to engulf 61 Cygni, annexing the colony on LV-038 in the process. Allied Command sent a task force to challenge the claim. The nearest system, Kruger 60—and the moon the PCs are on—is feared to be next. (Courtesy Free League, no infringement of copyright intended).

Ariarcus colony is based on a moon in the Kruger-60 system. It is extremely cold and dark, and any colonist that could afford to get offworld has gone, either because the original opportunities for free enterprise have evaporated or because of fears of war, leaving large parts of the town derelict.

Current population is about 2200 colonists, some 400 marines (split between the ground and in orbit) and around 40 military scientists.

Pipes of various diameters, from a few inches to several feet, run overhead in most of the streets to convey the oil form the refinery to the elevator cable, which also serves as a pumping conduit to orbit as well as providing the space elevator with its anchor.

A military lockdown has recently been ordered, grounding all spacecraft and immobilizing the space elevator.

The Games

ACT 1 - The marines are tasked with finding and capturing a small group of AWOLS with stolen intelligence. They will have to deal with disgruntled colonists, insurgents and possible UPP agents. All materials required will be supplied, including paper, pencils and a pool of the dice needed to play. Pre-generated characters will be supplied.

ACT 2 - The marines have their quarry (hopefully) and must now return them to Fort Nebraska through an increasingly hostile environment. They have their weapons, equipment and a nice cozy APC, but will need their wits to survive this one. All materials required will be supplied, including paper, pencils and a pool of the dice needed to play. Pre-generated characters will be supplied.

It will not be necessary to have played in ACT 1 to take part in ACT 2 - though any who wish to do so may of course join the "fun".

West Side Warriors - a Savage Worlds game for 3-12 players and a GM

Think The Warriors, played out in a post-appocalyptic NYC, using the same methods as in West Side Story

New York is a wasteland by night. Vicious gangs run rampant, stealing, vandalising and using unrestrained threatening choreography on each other and any poor bugger who wanders into theater.

The players take the part of members of the mostly unknown gang The Warriors, after gang delegates (the players) have attended a meeting of gangs in The Bronx.

The object is to get back to Coney Island with everyone as undamaged as possible. Unfortunately, unbekownst by The Warriors, they have been framed for the killing of Mr Big, an important member of NY's most powerful gang The Riffs.

The Riffs have put a bounty on The Warriors!

Every gang in NY is looking for The Warriors, and the road back to Coney Island will be a difficult one.

Navigating NYC

The Warriors move across NY using a map broken into zones. Crossing zones takes cinematic amounts of time decided by the GM, but at least one gang must be overcome in every case in order to enter a zone. Gangs can be confronted and overcome by combat, or The Warriors may attempt Stealthy Passage, avoiding contact by EITHER a series of standard group stealth rolls (in which the least stealthy PC determines the outcome) or by Stealth Choreography, which consists of a series of group performance rolls (using the least able performer's skill). Success in either will grant a conflict-free passage into and out of the zone. Choreographed Stealth can also grant bennies.

Confrontation

When confronted by another gang, initiative is determined, and the winner gets to choose the mode of combat:

1. Ultra violence - a vicious no-holds-barred brawl using whatever weapons come to hand (no guns, no-one can afford them). PCs may use a single skill to elaborate on their combat technique, using athletics in conjunction with a descriptive narration, or taunt (with a suitably humiliating descriptive narration) to put opponents on the "back foot" until their next turn. Winners incerease their gang reputation (which affects combat bonuses and penalties) losers lose reputation (as well as getting sliced up a treat). Losing reduces the Warriors's reputation and blocks their way forward on the map, forcing the choice of a new route or a re-match.
2. Choreography - a vicious no-holds-barred dance-off that wll grant the winning gang bennies. (Bennies are used for re-rolls and avoiding damage). Losers slink off or faint away with shame.

Whoever has Gang Initiative decides the nature of the battle - either Choreography or Ultra-Violence. Th GM plays the NPC gang.

Choreography battles are "Dramatic Challenges" of a random number of rounds with fixed initiative. Whoever wins determines the performance troupe size AND dance formation, which must be matched by the opposing gang as best possible. Non-performers sit out and watch. The gang that wins the most rounds of performance wins the choreography battle. If that is The Warriors, they continue on their way and each PC gets a benny.

How it works:

1. The GM rolls for the challenge length, and determines the NPC Performance "target number" to be beaten by The Warriors' performance.
2. The Warriors' leader makes the group Perform roll using their Perfom skill
3. The leader may elaborate their performance with a skill roll for +1, or +2 for a raise.
4. Each member of the performing troupe within 5 inches of the leader rolls their own Perform and adds +1 to the leader's roll for a success or +2 for a raise.
5. Each member of the performing troupe within 5 inches of the leader MUST then use the same elaboration as the leader, granting an additional +1 or +2 for a raise.
6. An un-bennied failure of the elaboration OR the performance roll of a trouper removes them and any bonuses they may have contributed from the performance AND can run the risk of tripping other adjacent performers of their troupe, forcing an immediate athletics check to recover or be removed from the troupe along with any bonuses the tripped PC may have contributed to the performance roll.
7. The losing team must remove one performer from the stage for the next round due to twisted ankles, hamstring problems or histrionic meltdowns.

Most number of wins after the challenge ends determines victory. Winner sends the other gang skulking away and if the PCs are the winners, each member of The Warriors who performed (including those who were eliminated during the performance) gets a benny, and the Warriors may progress on the map as they wish. Draws are determined by single combat Perform challenges Leader to Leader. At this point player might announce that they are opting for a vocal performance, and could describe the nature of this song and what it is attempting to achieve. Extra bennies or other bonuses might be granted for a clever enough use of this tactic.

Any member of The Warriors may contest the leadership if they feel agrieved. This can be settled amicably, by a gang vote or by the above combat methods, PC on PC. Players might be wise to avoid Ultra-Violence challenges for the good of the gang, but the choice is theirs.

This is a musical. No-one dies.

Characters who take enough damage to kill them faint instead. The wound penalties do accrue though.

Players may at any time "chew the scenery" by announcing they are going to sing. They must say what the theme of their song will be, and what they are hoping to attain by singing it. Examples might be attempts to gain sympathy for imagined (or real) wrongs by other gang members, pleas to reconsider decisions already made and so forth. The other players may take the performance to heart or with a pinch of salt, but a simple success will grant a benny if the technique is not over-used.

Bennies are a feature of the Savage Worlds game system. They enable players to re-roll bad dice results, to soak away damage as though it never happened and to change features of the encounter in minor but possibly important ways.

This scenario uses three different colors of benny.

1. White Bennies are used as described above
2. Red Bennies are used either as White Bennies or to add 1D6 to any single roll. Using one grants the GM a benny
3. Blue Bennies work like Red Bennies but do not grant the GM a draw
4. In-game benny draws are done blind, for a random color

More New Purchases

I obtained a number of old school games made by Parker Brothers and Waddingtons recently.

These games were designed by masters of the form, usually complex enough to hold the attention of an adult while being easy enough to play to allow for children to join in (or possibly the adults post Christmas Dinner c/w copious quantities of alcohol). Waddingtons' Formula One was a purchase that was voted a damn good waste of time at my local friendly game store three months ago, and I just picked up copies of Waddingtons' Blast Off, a Space Race game I had played in the early 1970s which was in excellent condition, and Parker Brothers' Masterpiece which is an art collector game where the object is to collect works of art that are highly prized while dumping your acquired forgeries on the other players. Each artwork card is a reproduction of an actual painting, and gets assigned a random value known only to the owner as it is drawn. A very clever mechanic and a game I've wanted to play since I was an older kid. Never knew anyone who had it though.

I also picked up a copy of Waddingtons' Spy Ring, which I had played at university in the mid-1970s but it turns out there are two different iterations of the game. The one I had played was the original. The one I bought turned out to have a different game-play and objective while using many of the same pieces. Sadly, the one I want to play is the other one. Oh well.

Can't wait to get a crowd together for some old-school gaming.

New Purchases

More new purchases, courtesy of eBay.

I've long been wanting to get a look at the Avalon Hill old chestnut Outdoor Survival, pretty much since it was suggested as a resource in the last few pages of Wilderness Adventures, the third booklet that came in the box that held the original version of Dungeons and Dragons. Gary Gygax suggested using the Outdoor Survival map board as a campaign map for D&D, retasking the various features on the board as castles, baronies etc.

When the chance came to buy the game I jumped at it, and scored a copy that by the looks of it had never been played. I, of course, plan to ruin the collectibility of the thing by punching the counters from the sheet and actually playing the game. It looks to be an odd beast, where the players are actually playing however many simultaneous games but not actually doing much in the way of co-operating. The conceit is that players are lost in the Great American Outdoors and must survive and navigate their way to safety. To simulate being lost in confusing territory while at the same time having a bird's eye view of the whole terrain, the players do not have complete freedom of movement, but must move in straight lines largely in accordance with instructions randomly determined according to how dilapidated the player characters are. If a counter crosses a trail, the player may decide to follow it instead of beating through the bush, but that's about all the discretionary movement one is allowed if my cursory reading of the rules is right.

The different counters show the same characters in steadily decreasing state of health, from striding along confidently to staggering and even crawling desperately. It is all very amusing, in a life-or-death way.

The game came with an actual wilderness survival booklet too, the game having aspirations to be a teaching tool as well as a good way to kill a couple of hours on a rainy day.

Looks like fun.

Own Goal

I recently picked up used copies of Panzerblitz and Panzer Leader, two games from Avalon Hill's golden age of bookcase games, which I somehow managed not to buy despite promising every time I saw them that I would.

For those not in the know, these games "simulate" armoured conflicts in WWII, Panzerblitz between Germany and Soviet Russia and Panzer Leader between the German and Allied armies post D-Day. In their time there were expansions available (if you could find them) that could shift either game into new theaters of war. They remain quite popular with enthusiasts to this day, even though neither game has been available outside of a collector's market since the late 80s.

Picturing battles to come with opponents I am determined to scare up, I decided to pen my own version of The Panzerlied - the German song of the tankmen as heard in the movie The Battle of the Bulge. Since I don't speak German, and the point was to needle my putative opponent (assuming I get to play Germany) the lyrics were of necessity in English and inflammatory in nature.

If we see an enemy tank we shoot it to bits!
If we see an enemy truck we shoot it to bits!
And if we see a tank hunter we shoot and shoot until it's blown to bits!
If we see an enemy jeep we shoot it to bits!

The enemy hides in camouflage which we shoot to bits!
The enemy hides in houses which we then shoot to bits!
The enemy hides in trenches which we squish and then we shoot them to bits!
The enemy hides in bunkers which we shoot to bits!

The enemy arrives in landing craft which we shoot to bits!
The enemy arrives in gliders which we then shoot to bits!
The enemy arrives at airfields which we overrun and then we shoot to bits!
The enemy arrives in halftracks which we shoot to bits!

Only thing is, since writing it I can't stop it running round and round in my head. It seems I have written an earworm.

So that worked.