PRODUCT REVIEW: TRANSYLVANIAN ADVENTURES

I was excited to see this when it came out, and I remain excited (some years later) at the prospect of it still coming out.

It nicely ties a simple, flexible system in Dungeon Crawl Classics to some relatively light-hearted Hammer Horror flavored PC options, with a juicy pulpy feel in case you were interested in heroics and Ravenloft-oriented play for your group of DCC gamers

The book is a few fundamental alterations to the DCC Luck and death system, a very very complex PC background system, a good handful of character classes, and some hints at greatness. I wish that the author had followed through with hinted plans to expand it into monsters and setting suggestions, and there is a strong hint that the magic system (sadly hanging still in Limbo) would be pretty meaty and different than what we got in the core DCC book. I devoured the whole thing and went to bed pretty late/early with my eyes bleeding profusely and the names of some ancient evils on my lips.

I would purchase this again - I think I left a review on the day it was published to the effect of some layout issues and typos, and its leanness in terms of setting, magic, and monsters were the things that I found wanting.

I still find them wanting, but it did provide me and us (a loose cadre of crack monster-hunters and treasure-oriented scoundrels) with 20 or 30 hours of great fun, so it was money well-spent, I think. It seems to me that it opened up the DCC field for genre-bending in a way that is proving fruitful even today with the release of lots of 3rd party stuff like Black Powder Black Magic and the Neon City stuff.

Blackest Friday in the Multi-Reality of the Golden Orange Imperatur

It is nearly that time of year, once again. The Shattered Moon drifts lazily in the sky, the winds chill and become thick with ash, the Flumph Herds wend their way Aereth-ward in their majestic migrations, and of course (most importantly!) vendors everywhere reduce their profit margins somewhat to entice religious fervor and dysreasoning in the masses. When we last visited this topic, nigh on 3 years ago, it was an exercise in Gygaxian democracy. At this time, let us put politics and argument aside and point out that what really opens these Kaotic gates across the Land of Thrend and the multiversal Aereth is a weakening of the planar barriers due to a lust for savings. I do not think I put a fine-enough point on it, before. Well, how do we combat this weakening in our own hearts, and in the interdimensional meson-boson exclusionary forces? One way to accomplish it (as is well understood by most laymen and initiates into the mysteries of Science) is to blast these weakenings with Tachyon Accelerators - explosive, rewarding, and prone to obliviate your own great-great-grandfather.  Also, expensive.

Another way is to simply refrain from purchasing things! It's not Austerity, exactly, it's more like self-control for the betterment of causal reality and one's community.

To this end, henceforward, the Golden-Orange Imperatur has ordained, on pain of death, that Citizentities shall refrain from approaching Kaotic Hot Spots for purchases on the post-gratitude holiday. Further, no transactions shall occur between networked, aetherical, astral, or any extraplanar sentiences for purpose of exchange of goods for coin, scrip, or barter.

Tax holidays are NOT in effect, except on Hypersailboats, Spelljammer craft, Keeps and/or Keep components, and cloned Kaiju for registered Kaiju-Brawling agents.

Aleaxes will be deployed if purchases are detected, and Modron armies are en route to interfere with delivery of saleable goods without permit of the Golden OrangeThrone.

REVOKE SALE (4th level M/U - 2nd Level Cleric) - an ongoing sale is suddenly and irrevocably ended, and previous low prices already paid are recanted. The difference between the sale price and MSRP is deducted from the inventory of the PCs

TIERED WEBWAY SUMMONING (5th M/U, 5th Cleric). Summoner may choose individual, preferred planes to summon creatures from, and other planes are excluded within the radius of effect of this spell for the entire duration. One might choose, say, Elysium and the Disney Plane, but not the Sports Plane, except for a substantial, modest upcharge. For the sake of encouraging competition. The Orange-Gold Imperatur makes absolutely no additional moneys above and beyond the usual ones owing to the effects of this spell, except on a DC 4 Will save. His associates and cronies, either.

(I gave up on this crummy post since it got too depressing for me - maybe you can find some worth in it)

GLOGgin' Frostgrave 'n' Shit

i AM SADDENED THESE DAYS BY GENRE PURISTS. I don't know why I need to keep saying this. The same thinking that lead to Dragonlance. The same thinking that took all the fun out of Rogue Trader and turned it into 40K 8th edition, where none of the figures/characters have much in the way of personality but many of them have skulls and pointy bits.

I don't know where I'm going with this. I picked up Dungeon Crawl Classics almost totally since Daniel Bishop's The Thing in the Chimney impressed me so much with its sacred reverence of Dentist Elves and disregard for hard-fantasy tropes. Since then, it's (I mean DCC) spawned a whole lot of great stuff, but I still see a trend toward (in the DCC community on G+ anyways) new folks clinging to 3e and PF ways of thinking, and also maybe can we just agree that a Warforged or whatever the fuck it is could just be an android or a robot (total non-sequitur I know)

It's actually made me shrink away from the DCC people, whereas I am fully aware that I ought to dig in and prevent the steady slide that MCC will surely prompt into (even though the book explicitly says to mix it up) THIS IS FANTASY and THIS IS SCIFI camps.

Anyways, trying to drift away from G+ gaming (keeping a tenuous hold on friendships which are the parts of Google that I do value) and move more toward a face-to-face gaming existence, even though I don't have much in the way of time these days. Joined a local club where we've had a Blood Bowl tournament (Blood Bowl, by the way, has kept its sense of humor for almost the entirety of its run), and this weekend we're starting a Frostgrave campaign.

A nice thing about Frostgrave is that it's relatively inexpensive, totally modular, simple, and nicely incorporates skirmish rules and roleplay-type advancement. And it hints that although the magic system upon which it is based (totally simple BTW) is fairly comprehensive, it also is open to much embellishment, even in the scope of its own add-ons. I mean, every so often in the official add-ons a new school of magic in addition to the regular available ones pops up. Astromancy, for example, is described as a "lost" school of minor magic.  I like this way of thinking, and I will tell you why. It's because MazeRats, Into the Odd, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and a couple of other systems sort of do away with "official interpretations" of comprehensive magic, and sort of let you fiddle with it.

A really good guy in this regard is +Arnold K, who is not only a Muscle Wizard but also a very novelly-thinking and creative dude. He's got a RPG system that is great, but his Wizards system really shines in that it gives one much much leeway in terms of weirdness.

I'm thinking of adding several minor schools of wizardry to Frostgrave, including weird spells and side-quests and such.

Taffimantics
Sewage Enchanter
Sciencology
Coffeetologists
Dentitrics
Black Sous Chefery
The Thousand Paths of Ukulele Magic

I mean, whatever. It doesn't matter as long as it's fun.

I feel like none of these ideas are worth sharing anymore. It's this shitty snow. Snowomancy. That is definitely a thing. Constructs that are snowmen. Depression Magick. Malaisorcery

More later maybe if I can get a salad in me on my break