DunjonCorp Traps

Jumping aboard a bandwagon I think but I had this in the pot cooking before the current fashion. This is my table smith table sections for traps and features. Ought to be pretty self-explanatory except for some of the code. Started ought as strictly Moldvay Basic style, then added some from Kabuki Kaiser's RoTU and the 1e DMG

The intent is to keep them on their toes and give them lots of stuff to play with. It's DCC oriented at the moment with some 3.5 influence also

Peace be upon you

TRAPS

1. AL x 10' Deep Pit 1d6 damage
2. AL x 10' Deep Pit with Spikes 1d8 damage
3. Cesspit - DC 15 Reflex or fall in, DC 15 Fort or catch random disease
4. AL x 20' Deep Pit 2d6 damage per 10'
5. AL x 20' Deep Pit with Spikes 2d8 damage per 10'
6. Slowing Gas - slow for 4 turns, DC {Dice~1d10+12} Fort save
7. Blinding Gas - blind for 4 turns, DC {Dice~1d10+12} Fort save
8. Poison Gas - DC {Dice~1d10+12} Fort save or {Calc~%Level%*5} damage
9. Hail Of Needles - 10 attacks per PC as fighter of Level %Level% doing 1 damage
10. Falling Stones - d6 damage per PC
11. Fusilade Of Darts - 4 attacks per PC as fighter of Level %Level% causing 1d3 damage
12. Burning Oil Shower - d6 damage plus 1 per round for Level %Level% rounds
13. Mummy Rot Powder - DC {Dice~1d10+12} Fort save or cursed as per mummy
14. Acid Rain - %Level%d4 damage plus damage to items
15. Javelin - d10 damage plus %Level%d4
16. Contact Poison - DC {Dice~1d10+12} Fort save or die
17. Shocking Grasp - DC {Dice~1d10+12} Reflex save vs {Calc~%Level%+8}
18. Cold Glyph - DC {Dice~1d10+12} Fort save or {Calc~%Level%*2}
19. Negative Energy Glyph - Save or lose 1 energy level
20. Phantasmal killer - DC {Dice~1d10+12} Will save or Die, passed = random insanity
21. Lightning bolt - DC {Dice~1d10+12} Reflex save or {Dice~5d6} damage, passed = half
22. Monomolecular scythe - attack everyone as Level %Level% Fighter for d20 damage, crits decapitate as Vorpal Sword
23. Disintegration Beams - DC {Dice~2d10+5} Reflex Save or {Calc~%Level%*10} damage
24. Radiation Field Projector - DC {Dice~1d10+12} Fort save or random major corruption
25. Tachyon Bolt - DC {Dice~1d10+12} Reflex save or age d100 years
26. Undeath Glyph - Awaken all undead, turn nearby recent dead into zombies
27. Rust Glyph - DC {Dice~1d10+12} Will save or lose all non-magic metallic items
28. Sonic Glyph - DC {Dice~1d10+12} Fort save or deafness for 4 turns
29. Mud Glyph - DC {Dice~1d10+12} Reflex save or mired in room for 4 turns
30. Arrrow trap - unluckiest PC gets Attack with d20+5 1d10 damage
31. Arrow trap, poisoned unluckiest PC gets Attack with d20+5 1d10 damage and random poison DC 15
32. Ball trap - all PCs in marching order DC 15 Reflex save
33. Caltrops - DC 14 Reflex save or 1d6 damage
34. Caltrops, poisoned - DC 14 Reflex save or 1d6 damage and poison or disease
35. Ceiling block falls - 1d3 unluckiest get a DC 14 Reflex save or 2d12 damage
36. Ceiling collapses - everybody DC 14 Reflex save or death - all stunned
37. Ceiling lowers - find the mechanism with DC 17 Intelligence check in 4 rounds or all die!
38. Chute - into an oubliette or down 1d3 levels on whole party
39. Door, falling - one door has a pit trap behind - roll under Agility to avoid falling
40. Door, one way - will not open from other side
41. Door, resisting - needs a DC 17 Strength check to open
42. Door, specific - only opens with specific command or item
43. Door, spring - door flies open and DC 15 Reflex save or 1d12 damage
44. Floor, collapsing - suddenly, the whole party makes DC 15 to avoid falling into the depths
45. Floor, illusionary - make a DC 13 Will save to disbelieve
46. Gas, blinding - DC {Dice~1d10+12} Fort save or -4 to all attacks
47. Gas, corroding - all items have a 1-5 on Action dice usage to fall apart
48. Gas, panic - everyone moves at +4 in the Initiative order for {Dice~1d4} turns but all actions are at -1d
49. Gas, nausea - DC {Dice~1d10+12} Fort save or roll -2d for initiative and -1d for Actions for {Dice~1d4} turns
50. Gas, obscuring - vision impaired while random monsters arrive, party loses surprise
51. Gas, poison - DC {Dice~1d10+12} Fort save or take 1d6 Stamina damage
52. Vacuum chamber - within {Dice~1d4+2} turns, the breathable air from this area and nearby {Dice~1d4} rooms is evacuated

Feature

1. 3,Half-flooded with waist-high water. Next {Dice~1d4+1} rooms are also flooded
2. 3,Refuse & Putrid Smell
3. 3,Pixel mosaics, animated
4. 3,Voxel sculptures, lewd [Special]
5. 3,Statue from an ancient civilization: [Special]
6. 5,Broken scientific equipment
7. Magic Circle: [Special]
8. 3,Common Fungi blossom all around
9. 3,Slime Patches - 1 in 10 is monstrous and dormant
10. 3,{Dice~1d12} Shipping Containers containing {Dice~2d500} [NMS_Junk.Start]
11. Cryostasis tombs - {Dice~1d4} slabs: {Bold~[Monster]}
12. 3,{Dice~1d4} Mummified corpses: disturbing them causes [Special]
13. 5,Slithering sound
14. 2,Fire pit - 10 percent chance still lit down there
15. 2,Broken and decaying furniture - space station style
16. 2,{Dice~1d4} Thrones - disturbing summons {Bold~[Monster]}
17. Altar - [Special]
18. 5,Mechanical grinding sound
19. 5,Mechanical thumping sound
20. 5,Alarm screeching causes {Bold~[Monster]} to arrive in next turn
21. 2,Weapon racks - {Dice~1d4} ancient mono-scimitars, void grenades, or blasters
22. 2,Hyperbraziers and charcoal - inhaling fumes causes [Special]
23. 2,Ancient battlefield with {Dice~2d20} skeletons and their wargear
24. 5,Obscene hand-painted frescoes - viewing too long causes [Special]
25. 2,Mouldering Tapestries, worth {Dice~2d500} gp but weigh 1000gp
26. Large demon idol from an ancient civilization - worshipping causes [Special]
27. 2,Gene resequencer - change to random race if interacted with
28. 2,Clone Vat - interacting character sacrifices {Dice~1d12} HP and gets faithful/insane/flawed clone
29. 2,Corpse renderer - breaks corpses down into 1d10 potions
30. 2,Trash incinerator - receive 5 gold/AL in antique coins for worhtless items
31. 2,Sauroid pen - either dusty bones or {Bold~{Dice~2d4} Large Dinosaurs} in stasis
32. 2,Pillars of Scrutiny: if diverge from Alignment, then judged and causes [Trap]
33. Altar to Business/Commerce/Mammon - leaving money causes [Special]
34. Archway - stepping through transports to Astral/Ethereal/Dreamlands
35. Illusionary Ceiling - view the sky outside
36. Ancient Container - contains small hoard of [Treasure] plus [NMS_Junk.Start]
37. Interactive Map Dome - some far away region or land
38. Fire - blazing fire in center of room
39. Fireplace - active/inactive
40. Force Field - constrains [NMS_RoTUWM.Hard]
41. Fountain - [Special]
42. Illusion - [Special]
43. Infernal Machine - [Special]
44. Magically confined monster - [NMS_RoTUWM.Extreme]
45. Pedestal - [Special]
46. Pit - bottomless, or else the bottom goes to another realm
47. Pool - mysterious waters cause [Special]
48. Stairway to extra-/para-dimensional section of dungeon
49. Tangleweb vines - DC 14 Reflex save or held fast (whole party)
50. Well - make a wish or climb down to [Pocket]
51. Divinity terminal gives access to previously unknown minor godthing
52. Matter transmittal pad, moves within dungeon or far far away.
53. Warpgate to alternate dimension or plane
54. Soul Gem - every round a beam attacks random party member, DC {Dice~1d12+6} Will save negates, else soul sucked into Gem
55. Planetarium projector - if disturbed then laser attacks at d24 on each party member for 1d10 damage
56. Bottled City access
57. Shimmering Warpgate to [Pocket]

Foul and Deep and Poopy

ALL THIS SEWER DELVING IS GIVING ME THE SPOTS

Let's talk for a second about the term 'Fatberg', shall we?

I can do that. I'm a dad. I can say 'poopy' and without irony and it's totally fine. I say to normal adults all the time "HEY MAN I GOTTA GO POTTY BE RIGHT BACK" before I even understand what is coming out of my mouth. It's a byproduct of fatherhood, and I hope that one day it will pass. I would never say SHIT at my house unless my kid was asleep since, excuse me!, that's a potty word.

A disclaimer, here. I kept hearing about the Barrowmaze a couple years ago. I guess I'd been out of the RPG scene for a long time, maybe 12 to 15 years depending how you reckon it. I was looking for PbP forums to get back into it, sort of low-commitment. Heh! Don't let anybody tell you that PbP is low commitment, by the by. Anyway, I stumbled upon Daniel Bishop's Barrowmaze PbP and quickly found I had little knowledge of the system (DCC) and not nearly enough time to stay on top of it, and so I found GeePlus and thus was history. I wouldn't have found DCC without lagging behind in Daniel's game, and so I shelled out the squibs for a PDF and haven't been impressed like that since maybe the first time I read my AD&D1e DMG!

I have a soft spot for DCC, and Daniel Bishop's stuff. There. I coulda said just that and been fine.

I picked up "Both Foul and Deep" which appeals to the "Underground Explorer" part of my brain. I think when we think of adventures in sewers, we think of "Big Trouble In Little China", the escape from Ladyhawke, and the only other examples I can recall are like C.H.U.D. and some really awful scenes in Aliens Vs. Predator II, and maybe I guess the climax of "IT" by Stephen King. For those, it's drippy water, narrow walkways, and rats. Lots of rats. There's an Indian Jones sewer scene. A lot of CRPGs start with Rats in Sewers. Elder Scrolls: Arena. Lots of Neverwinter Nights freebie modules (i think the sewer steam tunnel set was one of the better ones). I think that we ROMANTICIZE the fantasy sewer, oddly enough, and think that it's a good place to have adventures. We're probably REALLY thinking of the Catacombs of Paris and London and Rome when we think about sewer adventures, when in reality a sewer crawl would be awful, wet, cramped, and torturous. I think this may be the first product I've ever seen that really addresses just how much SHIT you'd find and how sick you'd get if you are so bold and rather let's say FOOLHARDY to go into the sewers of any medieval metropolis, fantasy or no (in reality, I don't think we really had sewers until the early part of the modern era, like maybe late 1800 's early 1900's).

There is a lot of poop in this product. A lot of feces. A torrent of shit. A river of shit. A lot of slime, sewage, and disease. Plenty of awful monsters that have poopy abilities and none would be a good way to die, and all of them would probably not be fun to fight. There's some rationale for having humanoid/human encounters in the sewers - really everybody and everything else you meet down there are likely to be desperate and murderous or at least have the potential for it.

There's a brief adventure/starter with some novel encounters, a couple of dozen new monsters (terrifying owing to their ferocity and filthiness),  also a DCC Patron at the end. I would bond a PC to the Patron Squallas just to drown an enemy in an extradimensional river of shit just one time.

The production values are high, the writing is intelligent and terse, and the Carrion Moth and the Phantom Gentleman are worth the reasonable price of admission. The question remains: how would I tempt the PC's to enter into the accurately-rendered shitty environs of the sewers of say the 3e Ravenloft undercity of Paridon? Poop smells bad! Poop in a toilet smells bad! Poop in the open smells bad (I drove by Tijuana once, I'm just saying)! Poop on the inside the endless world beneath the toilet probably also smells bad!

Fatberg. Look it up!

The Myriad Races of Thrend

I was hacking away at a .TAB file, tryin' to learn Tablesmith coding, which I'm not learning very terrifically just yet but anywho. It's not hard I just no longer have a brain for it, really.

I made a "Random Races" list, so I guess of races that I would allow in my DCC game without much fuss. That is, I envision a world in which there's been a giant apocalypse long ago that hurled the multiverse together in a big squishy, anachronistic, and practically fluff-free fashion.  Alls we know is there's been, long ago, some cataclysm, and now we're all here. More adventuretime or Planescape than Dragonlance for sure.

I admit I'm a little maybe too open about it, and I don't particularly like it when players try to get mechanical bennies from what seems to me to be purely descriptive chunks of detail.  I don't know why I think like that, as a matter of fact the adjudication of the thing ought to be that Fishmen can breathe water and Robots are immune to sleep spells, etc. It would go like that in Into the Odd or Maze Rats, so I don't know why I'm mildly uptight about it in DCC... I ought to take a deeper look at that down the road. Introspection is good in small doses.

Anyways, here's the .TAB file copied n pasted. Some of the options can get a little reiterative, for example you could have a Dreamlands Shadow Alternate Dimesional Candy Person but that's going to be suitably rare at these rates! And of course, looking at the clumsy code I realize that I coulda just saved 5 or 6 lycanthrope spots and put the "Were-" prefix and [SEE ANIMAL SUBTYPE], which I actually did later. The Were-subtypes'll be a lot less common that the normal run of the mill ones, I guess. There's ways to rule out those sorts of combinations, but hey. Weirder the better, IMHO. What's the difference between an Upright Wolf and a Werewolf? Duh. A long long time ago I was thinking about perk-buy methods and it seems to me that these could all be tidied up that way...

Maybe I ought to break my own bad habits and do some stat mods and perks associated with all these races, but meh: we can wing it.

#
# Races of Thrend
#
# By Noah Stevens

:Start
1-20,Human
22,Elf
22,Dwarf
23,Sea Blood
24,Derro
25,Voormis
26,Ape
27,White Ape
28,Mutant
29,Cyborg
30,Synthoid
31,Wood Golem
32,Clay Golem
33,Revenant
34,Wereboar
35,Werewolf
36,Wererat
37,Weretiger
38,Dog
39,Rabbit
40,Kenku
41,Scrappler
42,Robot
43,Cloth Golem
44,Straw Man
45,Winged Monkey
46,Businessman
47,Vampire
48,Quasilich
49,Neanderthal
50,Mongrelman
51,Zomborg
52,Pumpkinhead
53,Tinperson
54,Hyooman
55,Clockwork Person
56,Porcelain Golem
57,Dark Elf
58,Dark Dwarf
59,Wood Elf
60,Scavvie
61,Blinker
62,Upright {Cap~[Creatures]}
63,Newhon Ghoul
64,Grey Man
65,Blue Man
66,Subhuman
67,Atlantean
68,Yuan-Ti
69,Slug Man
70,Candy Person
71,Food Person
72,Cimmerian
73,Ur-Men
74,Centaur
75,Satyr
76,Goblin
77,Gnome
78,Kappa
79,Githyanki
80,Moon Dweller
82,Dralasite
83,Yazirian
84,Bug Person
85,Pixie
86,Faerie
87,Fay {Cap~[Creatures]}
88,Dreamlands [Start]
89,Shadow [Start]
90,Alternate Dimensional [Start]
91,Were[Creatures]

:Creatures
1-3,bear
4-5,boar
6-9,bull
10,cow
11,horse
12-13,hound
14-15,lamb
16-19,lion
20-22,serpent
23-25,stag
26-27,tiger
28-30,wolf
31,sturgeon
32,elk
33,badger
34,hare
35,bat
36,lizard
37,squirrel
38-40,fox
41,dolphin
42-43,panther
45-46,ram
47,goat
48,beaver
49,mountain lion
50,tortoise
51,pike
52,frog
53,rat
54,mare
55,stallion
56,plowhorse
57,ox

The Mathom-Making of Calabraxis

Daniel Bishop of the Raven Crowking's Nest, has a great tradition, based on Tolkien's Hobbit practice of Mathom-ing.  A mathom is a gift that the owner doesn't use to the full extent, and is given freely on the owner's Birthday. I forget when Daniel's birthday is, but to get his Mathom this year (as in dusty years gone by) one need only review a DCC thing and link to Daniel's OP

HERE IS MY REVIEW

Hearken, Wayward Traveller!  Have you a need for weird interludes, full of novel critters and strange situations?  Do your adventurers tire of kobolds, dragons, and Standard Template Spells? Well, look no farther - Claytonian's Wizardarium of Calabraxis seems to me to meet your requirements, Mendicant!

It is spilling over from one plane of reality into the next with interesting to fight/roleplay monsters and alien entities, offers strange toys to play with and experiment upon captives with, deadly traps to kill the unwary, and of course an evil and twisted Wizard that is long dead but still haunts the locale...

I admire Claytonian's work, in that the WoC is a thing he made all on his own, including the art.  In addition to writing and layout, he also has contributed artwork to other DCC authors' productions and is a talented visual artist in his own right. In the span of maybe 18 (6x9?) pages, he gives both a bare-framework and rich opportunity of Roleplay and Combat and Explorative play, with a healthy dose of hooks to bring the PCs in.  In addition, it seems to me that no PC that enters will leave the Wizardarium unchanged, and the multiverse itself may open up before them - weird time-travel possibilities and even transmogrification ought to be expected (and to my mind encouraged)

Disclosure: with Claytonian's permission, I incorporated his suggested Psionic power rules into my own solo gamebook as a way to strengthen the network of bonds between DCC authors' individual work, the way that HPL and Smith and Howard did so long ago. Claytonian is an advocate of this position and practice, I think, as all we DIY hobby-publishers ought to be.

YOU MAY FIND CLAYTONIAN'S OPUS MAGNUM HERE

NOW, BRING ME THE HEAD OF JOHN THE BAPTIST AND A MATHOM, UNLESS THE HEAD IS THE MATHOM 

The Dread of Beginning Anew

February 20, 2017. About 11:30

The weather is amazing for February, a nice spring day.  Clear sun, nice clouds.  Fantastic breeze.  Strange. Unsettling.  As I drove in a weak theta/alpha/low-beta zone to work today (not thinking about Neurofeedback but instead of RPGs, Zak Sabbath's latest hubbub, and the State of Our Fragile Union) - I heard this show on my local NPR affiliate, which is 88.1 if you're curious.  The show On Point with Tom Ashbrook - he of the sexy voice and sort of modestly-leftish politics, I think.

how I imagine tom ashbrook

The topic today was 'Personal Reinvention' and it was about what people do when they are able to escape their dreary/trying day to day lives as (insert awful day job here) and become more fulfilled as (insert new character class here).  I think we as a culture, that is we as in RPG players, really thrive on this feeling.  Why, the whole of DCC is practically founded on it!  What's this? You hate being a Sheperd?  Try being a Wizard, instead!  We also enjoy hordes of zombies (i.e. easy objects of violence), hoards of treasure (enough to never work again) and the ruins of ancient cultures (those people had it made and why did they fuck it up, again?)

I don't know.  I feel like you better learn to do something with your time. The robots are almost here - that's right, I just predicted it.  Robots gonna put you out of work, meatbag, and I hope you've monetized your blog and figured out how to drive eyeballs to it, 'cause even our modest service industry about to get destroyed by mindless labor.  If you ain't prepared to fix a robot, decorate a robot, re-program a robot, or destroy a robot with a gauss-blade, you're fixing to be out of work in a few years.  Time for reinvention!

Cosplay project accomplish

 A client has arrive - BRB

1:31 PM Same Day

So, where am I going with this?  Oh yeah.  When I put out the Space Dungeon DCC funnel generator, I was inspired by Jez's (I don't know if it's +Jez Gordon, but he's pretty terrific) lists on there.  The greatest thing about them is, in my opinion, AMBIGUITY.  That is, you get 4 weirdos and what they are is going to be determined by you, probably within about 10 minutes of play, maybe after the first 1 or 2 die hilariously. There's no prep, really.  There's no feats or builds or other bullshit  - hey man, or woman, if that's your game then great but it's not how I play. The game is about what's happening to these hepcats while we are playing, and if 'Nipple Spooner' was your previous profession, then NO WONDER you're trying to be a thief, now.

I modeled my professions on the Space Dungeon lists with some focus on pop culture - things like Star Wars, obv, and old Sierra adventure games, and space movies (I think 'Ice Pirates' was a big influence,obviously).  +Jon Marr was wise enough to scrub all the copyright-infringing references I put in there, but you can see 'em if you squint a little.  I can't tell you how many times people said "WAIT - ROBOT REPAIRMAN. DOES THAT MEAN HE'S A ROBOT THAT REPAIRS THINGS? OR IS HE A GUY THAT WORKS ON ROBOTS?" I take it back, I think I could, it was probably 15 or so in a couple of months of play.

This is exactly the feeling I was trying to capture with Space Dungeon.

 Going back to the previous earlier text, you're going to have to answer that one yourself, pal.  Why not discard these previous conceptions of what your job is, and learn to use your skills to make your way in this cold, hostile, hilariously fucked up universe? Also, since the robot uprising is nearly upon us - I mean this in the fantasy RPG sense and also in the sense that jeezus have you seen these YouTube videos these days? - you'd better get ready for some radical perceptual shifts, and also, the powers that be are going to make you fight for every motherfucking morsel, if you get my meaning.  I don't just mean the Awful King in Yellow when he comes across the Lake of Hali with his robot troops, but also...  You get me, right?

What I predict is that within about 10 years, you and me are going to have to come to grips with changes in the workforce.  These dead, glassy eyed motherfuckers in Congress are being led by a nutter who is convinced that the old ways are better, and who is hilariously underprepped to handle current sorceries.  The funny thing about pop culture memes - The Walking Dead in particular - is that your job is dead already and you just don't know it, yet.  You have a zombie job, probably.  There are robot cooks that can cook meals, robots that will build cars, robots that will pick strawberries, robots that will teach kids.  Aggressive AIs, AI that can make people fabulously wealthy in the spaces between thoughts, AI that can recognize your face on a blurry video.   So many things you can lose your job to, now, that I hope you can't wait to (like many of us on G+!) monetize your blog to make tens of dollars every year!  I think what we're seeing is a President of The Universe, and a Congress of Zombies, that are fundamentally unready to change the way they think about how shit should be and are cranking down to prevent the flow of humans/human capital so as to sustain the Old Ways that lead to ruin. Maybe we'll get lucky and it won't be all THUNDARR the barbarian (sadly I don't think that thinking about living in a post-apocalypse is sufficient preparation) and I don't even think that the Post-Apockyclipse means that the moon will shatter and there will be ionizing radiation everywhere.  It means that technology/sorcery will sneak up and bite you on the ass and change everything about the world.

I don't know where I am going with this.  There seemed to be a point in the alpha/theta/low beta state I was in on the ride in to work today.  I thought PARALLELS BETWEEN LIFE AND GAMING!  POINTS TO BE MADE ABOUT JOB AMBIGUITY/STRESS AND OPPORTUNITY FOR RADICAL GROWTH AND CHANGE! OPPRESSION, CONFLICT, IMMINENT CATASTROPHE.

#joesky content (as if the previous content was not content-laden enough!)

DEPRESSED ROBOT FOOTSOLDIER/WORKER: Init -5; Atk existential depression (special); blaster +1 (2d6) OR crushing grip +1 (1d8); AC 14; HD 1d10;SV Fort +5, Ref -5, Will Variable (1d6-1d4); AL L

Jonny 8 pauses from senseless murder to consider his position in the proletariat

Depressed Robot Footsoldiers, or Depressed Robot Workers, typically slog through their orders, only pausing from dealing out high damage just long enough to consider their existential plight.  These mental tics are programmed into their directives as a safety measure to prevent uncontrollable rage, or else are products of hacking or programming errors.  Their Will saves are variable, and in any given encounter DRFs may be very resistant to mind control/reprogramming or else totally open-minded and gullible.  They learn quickly, but are usually only entrusted with the most meaningless violent or monotonous tasks, despite having very expensive hardware and enchanted silicoid positronic networks where a human might have a brain and heart (meaning, a metaphysical heart).  Often, they only want someone to listen and they utter the most dreadful and plaintive complaints through their vocoder units, mostly in the binary language of simple machines. If they have an opportunity, they can complain in a way that will actually temporarily prevent the use of beneficial Luck effects within their vicinity as a simple action (meaning no PC can burn Luck of any kind during an encounter). Anybody who can hear the complaints, whether they understand them or not, must make a DC15 Will Save, or else Luck points burned AFTER their complaint are simply unspent with no effect. This complaint lasts until the end of the round, whereupon the effect ceases and then must be renewed again.

DCC Magical Heartbreaker

I have in my mind's eye: a fairly liberal, and rather confusing, kludge/tort/corruption for the magic system of DCC, but rather than write it down sensibly I think the basics might be best described in broad strokes.  Since +Arnold K. released his magical heartbreaker the other day, I find I have thunk a great deal and read a great deal of RQ2 and Ars Magicka (thanks, O beardy ones) and other, less honorable systems.  Much inspired, I suppose by catching Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell on Netflix this past month.  That and lower back injury is keeping me from participating in gaming but much focused on the aethereal realms between my ears.  It seems to me that DCC gives much in the way of the randomness of magic, but less in the way of the Mastery of it, aside from the way a higher-level PC may game it some

1) Vancian Magic, wherein you are limited by your intellect in the number of spell levels you may 'contain' at any time (6 plus your Intelligence bonus at any time, say?). These are lost upon casting, since each version is a different magical concept or critter in your head/soul/whatever
2) you may own and select from any number of spells, contained in your Grimoire(s), which can be stolen from you/lost/destroyed- a disaster and therefore make ye a lab/stronghold and hire thugs and grow guards in your lab, or make deals with things
3) you may develop your own versions of DCC spells after mastery of the original - this increases DCs, obviously (duh!)

4) there's pacts with things; you can bind fay/demons/spirits/elementals/FF style-Mana.  Calling upon these require spellburn of high quantity, or else sacrifice of victims/treasure. As many pacts as Intelligence points, let us propose? And each represents an actual drain on your (choose 1) Intelligence, Luck, Personality? Permanent while in effect, let us propose. That is, the drain affects you as long as you wish to keep the bond in force.  These kinds of loses only heal when the being is released, and some particularly bad ones cause permanent damage

5) alchemical formulae (requiring a lab and spending of loot).

6) Runes a la Runequest from the days of yore - so magicians can be rune-binders, also. You would be advised to check for Death Runes affixed to doors since this was a very common trap in RQ
7) Wizards have access to spells outside of the DCC lists - these work just as described for Crawl! magazine's OSR spells system i.e. the casting roll is 10 plus 2 times the spell's level.  I am inclined to raise the corruption range for these to be equal to the spell's level, also
8) you start with whichever spells you wish, with the restriction being 3+your Int bonus in LEVELS, not spells.  that missing 1 spell is Read Magic, so you can acquire new spells later and often
9) the Spell Duel system needs some tweaking - I think I posted to a version on my blog a couple of years ago
10) affinities a la +Gavin Norman  's excellent Theorems and Thaumaturgy for Labyrinth Lord (can't be bothered to look for link grumble grumble you will do as your heart suggests)
11) Gorgonmilk's +Greg Gorgonmilk excellent Vancian Magic Supplement - alas, it hath Vanished! Perhaps you may supplicate thyself to him for a link to a thing he has on Lulu but be warned for Gorgons have bitter milk and it stiffens the joints
12) All spells must have mercurials - none of this BS 'no result' result. I would allow the Purple Planet mercurials, your own themed mercurials, whatever. Smack a 're-roll' or 'roll on such and such table' right where that  'no mercurial effect' result is
13) I have this 'Dealing with Demons' document compiled from White Dwarves of Long Ago but you can't have it at the moment since I never give magic unless the price is terrible and far outweighs the benefit, and this one is bad news. PM me for a special one-time offer. Include your True Name, and the True Name of your romantic partner, childrens' true names optional
14) Essentially, I want all DCC Wizards to be time bombs of Chaos and awfulness, unless they take a pedestrian and predictable Lawful/Neutral path in which case they are boring and not as much fun.  No such thing as a vanilla wizard.  You ought to aim at specialising/theming between your funnel and your appearance on the scene as a Wiz 1, (note Specialization is Level 2 in DCC!) and so choose your list from available spells on hand in your real world and you are responsible for the rules and we will adjudicate
15) let's assume that OSR spells are on some logarithmic standard so that a AD&D Wish is a level 5 or maybe even 7 for DCC wizards.  This assumes that all OSR authors have done their homework in estimating the level of their spells! heh heh heh)
16) Maze Rats makes for some amazing random spells. Amazeballs.  Find it.
17) Ars Magicka has the thing divided up into effects.  Maybe each effect/rune/circle stacked onto your spell to describe its effects makes a exponential increase in the DC to cast the spell - So Prismatic Spray of Ibn Al Urad (1d4 damage x Destroy x Body = 2x2x2 for a DC of 8).  Something like that would probably suffice.  Don't forget the mercurial!
18) As many Patrons as you like, but be reminded that Patrons exact a heavy toll for help.  That's the point.  I am not often as stringent about this as I should.
19) This magic system assumes strict records of time are kept, since Spellburn will be a serious problem to contend with.
20) every really dangerous spell (to others) ought to have dangers to one's self.  Drawbacks encouraged - Ghastly Affair does this well.
21) I think I have recommended the supplement for LL called uh, Realms of, uh, shit Realms of Crawling Chaos by +Dan Proctor  and +Michael Curtis  almost since the inception of this blog.  Everyone's hands quiver when Detect Magic is cast, not in anticipation but in trepidation.
21) reroll twice, apply results, discard 'No Results' results and roll again.
22) needs MOAR Alchemy

Psionics Supplement Mini-Review plus Yuan Ti for DCC/MCC

So - picked up this thing by +Reid San Filippo (esteemed author of Crawling Under a Broken Moon).

It's called Mind Games. It's a supplement for DCC that shores up one place where I find that DCC doesn't scratch my 1st Ed. AD&D itch better than the original, namely the Psionics. It's funny now that I am older I notice that many, many monsters in the MM1&2 and FF have psionic abilities listed in the stat chunk. I never paid much attention to them, mostly because I think Psionics were frowned upon when I were a lad as an unnecessary, optional option that most people I played with did not opt. When you think about it, Psionics-empowered PCs ought to have been, like Paladins, rare as hen's teeth, given the dwindling, vanishingly unlikely statistics involved necessary to play one if you do (as Crom intends) 3d6 straight down the line. But hey, plenty of folks let their hair loose and upped it some, which I don't think I ever saw.

What Reid has done (and +Claytonian JP hinted at in The Wizardarium) is attached a nicely foreign and exotic system onto the DCC core rules, with very little in the way of changes to the base mechanics, in order to give you that weird flavor of yore back. The thing is chock full of cool stuff, and the art and layout are nicely done. (I hear there was a kerfuffle with print versions but I think it's fixed at the time of this writing). There are 20-something psionic powers of varying dangerousness, a new class, plenty of psionic items (watch for Living Crystal weapons in my campaigns in the near future), and a couple of really terrific monsters.  The Braingineers are like daleks, crossed with spiders, and so they're probably going to fall into my own games, soon.

Mindgames is just what I needed at this point, since I am thinking of siccing some ancient, slithery evil upon some friends at TridentCon, replete with Mind Blasts and Ego Whips and Polymorphing Demon Venom. David "Zeb" Cook is scheduled to attend, and my mind was transported to the Ancient Times when I fussed and fretted about snake cults in a city in the jungles of... I don't recall, was it Chult? Before Chult was a place? I don't know. Suffice it to say that The Dwellers of The Forbidden City charged my young brain with all kinds of images that laid dormant in there until I first view'd a version of King Kong (pretty sure it was Jessica Lange and a young The Dude). I recently had a vision in which I plopped the Forbidden City down with a Lost City erupting up from beneath, and +Kabuki Kaiser 's Kwantoom nearby, across the Pan Lung lake. Can you smell the lemongrass and strange spices? Olchak may give me a hard time about fetishizing the Far East, but it feels like something that hits me (granted I'm a white middle aged guy who was weaned on Saturday Afternoon TV and D&D) right in the tropes-lobe.


Okay, okay, back on track. Yuan-Ti. The demon-worshipping snake-men that everybody loves to hate, and doubly more so because the implicit body horror/snake phobia that gets you right in the amygdala from aeons dark and unremembered. On a glance at the stats below, they are bad ass and ought to send most low level parties fleeing and peeing and quaking and praying (6-9 HD with maybe a 0 armor class, plenty of spells, and psionics, also!) Good thing only 1-4 at a time, and I guess maybe accompanied by some cultists. I note that Deep Ones worry me more, since it's a metaphysical issue, but maybe later for that line of thought. The disciplines listed are B,D (Mind Thrust and Id Insinuation) and F,I,J (Mind Blank, Intellect Fortress, and Tower of Iron Will). With psionic 150 points, that's fairly bad ass, and most of these things will leave psychically undefended adventurers as synapse-shorted, howling idiots before the battle is even begun! Afterward, its disgusting worshippers will trundle you off to a dark cave and poison you into becoming a breeder for a new snake-thing, and (as Dragon #151 points out) if you fail and die during the process, they can neutralize poison you and try again...


So: Yuan-Ti need magic, lots of HD, and PSIONIC POWERS, and so where might we find some of those? Well, in Reid's new thing, that's where!

YUAN TI ABOMINATION: move 15', Init +5; Atk bite +5 (1d10), psionics, spell casting ; Action Die 3d24; AC 18; Hit Dice 8d10; Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +1

Psionic Attack Powers: (roughly analogous to Mind Thrust and Id Insinuation): Kinetic Burst, Affliction, Transmogrify Mind

Psionic Defenses: Hard to say.. Needs development as a power, or maybe not, but boosting the Telepathy Focus Die to 1d10 seems sufficient to me for the moment in order to defend in Duels/Subjugation Battles.

The other forms of Yuan-Ti have lesser Hit Dice and 1 fewer Attack Powers, but they all know 1d4 (suitably reptilian in their manifestation) Wizard or Cleric Spells chosen randomly, in addition to Neutralize Poison and Bind to/Invoke Patron. For PAtrons, use Set/SSeth or that snaky one from AD&BiB or maybe that one from Dragon 150 or the other canonical Yuan-Ti one from your old-fashioned system of choice.

More later - Be Well, Warm-Blooded, Manthings!




Post-Script for reference: These are the original 1e stats from Zeb Cook's Dwellers of the Forbidden City, to my knowledge the first appearance of this classic AD&D monster.

YUAN TI
FREQUENCY: Very Rare
NO. APPEARING: 1-4
ARMOR CLASS: 4/0
MOVE: 12” or 9”
HIT DICE: 6-9
% IN LAIR: 70%
TREASURE TYPE: C
NO. OF ATTACKS: 2
DAMAGE/ATTACK: See below
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Spells
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 20%
INTELLIGENCE: Genius
ALIGNMENT: Chaotic evil
SIZE: M
PSIONIC ABILITY: 150
Attack/Defense Modes: B, D/F, I, J
LEVEL/X.P. VALUE:Variable

Living in tropical jungles, the yuan ti are a degenerate and corrupt race of creatures who were once human. All are devout demon worshippers and have a high regard for all kinds of reptiles. Through dark and unknown practices, their blood has become fouled, thus producing monstrosities, There are three types of yuan ti: purebloods, halfbreeds, and abominations.

Purebloods are the weakest of the yuan ti, having only 6 hit dice. They are human in appearance, except for some slight difference - scaly hands, a forked tongue, or a somewhat reptilian look about them. They are able to pass as humans 80% of the time. They normally handle affairs with the outside world, and may travel far and wide doing so.

Halfbreeds are highly distinctive. Some part of their body is that of a snake, while the rest is human. Appearance may be determined by the table below (rolling once or twice), or the DM may select the changes.

1. 1  Snake head
   
2. 2  Torso can bend and move like a snake’s
   
3. 3  No legs, ends in a snake’s tail
   
4. 4  Has snakes instead of arms
   
5. 5  Body is covered by scales
   
6. 6  Snake tail is growing from backside
   

If any combination seems impossible or unworkable, the result should be ignored. The DM may also create other results involving snakes and humans.

In attacks, a snake-headed halfbreed will bite for 1-10 points of damage, snake-headed arms will bite for 1-6 points, and a tail will constrict for 1-4 points. Otherwise the yuan ti will be able to handle weapons as a normal person. All snake parts will have an armor class of 0. Halfbreeds have 7-8 hit dice.

Abominations are the strongest of the yuan ti. All have 9 hit dice. In appearance they are often confused with nagas and other snake creatures. Abominations are either totally snake- Iike or only have some human feature (such as a head or arms). Their bite (unless human-headed) will do 1-10 points of damage.

All yuan ti with human legs may move 12” per turn. Those with snake bodies move 9” per turn and are able to coil around pillars and the like. Human headed yuan ti are able to cast the following spells once per day:

Cause Fear Darkness, 15’ radius
Snake charm
Sticks to snakes
Neutralize poison
Suggestion
Polymorph other

Yuan ti speak their own language. They may also speak with any snake or snake-like monster. Those with human heads also speak Chaotic and Common.

The Voxelcube Masters of Space Dungeon

The Ancient Race of Warani

Stargazing masters of matter Voxelization technology, the Warani turned the customization of the material world into a game of building blocks

Standing 7 to 9 feet high, the Warani are warlike and aggressive in gathering Voxelblocks to build machines to convert themselves to energy and so escape the confines of the Demiurge plane. They have 3 multi-hinged arms; the symmetrical distribution varies but those with 2 arms sinister tend to become powerful wizards and the others are usually warriors and workers. Almost all the Warani converted to zeta-waves aeons ago. The scant few who remain were driven mad by lust for materiality and these reject honor and impermanence entirely. The awful Warani Ghast Transmuters interred in Nebulmor hate all life jealously, and guard their vast treasures with vitriol and avarice, and also they wield terrible magic and psionics the way earth children play at digging virtual mines

There is much to be learned from their magic; scattered around their lairs , inscribed upon datacubes in long-forgotten trinary codes are powerful summonings, conjurings, and transmutations. 

"Lord Meatpile" was a Warani diplomat who rejected the notions of his people and opted to sustain his mortal form well beyond its natural span by using various methane distillations and hyper-jewel-laced linen strips. He gives off a foul odor that discombobulates lesser beings. He has only awoken when the Mongrelmech refugees violated his crypt and so when the party next meets him his full strength will be apparent. His true name is scattered throughout the crypt in 37 syllables inscribed on voxel cubes that float randomly on æther drifts in the complex; one could conceivably piece them together but if it were done randomly it would take many many human lifetimes

He has done this himself 6 times but he often forgets and so may undertake it again soon

His 3 arms and legs are immensely powerful and his intellect is fogged by undeath (at the moment) but he remains formidable and cunning nonetheless

The (Previously Untold and Spoilery) Story of Halthrag Keep

I wrote this some time ago as a way to keep the solo gamebook's rudimentary plot somewhat meaningful and sensible.  I point out that it was written before the glowing green stones of the Purple Planet were in my mind; must have been some in-community synchronicity happening or something.  I give it to you now, all word dumped and vomited, since I found it in my hard drive.  I had written it to include in a standard DCC-playable multiplayer module, but if you're reading this, and you've read that, then you may have surmised something quite like it already. The next project calls, and I do not believe I will return to this forlorn place anytime soon, and so here it is for a few minutes' diversion.  It's how I mix scifi and fantasy tropes into a thing that is more fun, and since DCC is permissive this way that's why I like it. This may represent the most cohesive world building I ever did and you get a glimpse here of Thrend, which has always hung there for exploring behind my eyeballs just in front of my imagination zone.

SPOILERS BELOW - THIS MAY ALTER YOUR EXPERIENCE OF MY GAMEBOOK IF YOU READ ANY FURTHER

A few hundred years ago, a pair of wizards fought a ceaseless series of battles over honor, or spellbooks, or the musty inner workings of the Mage’s Guild Ball.  A minor offense was given and for this legions of men and women and hosts of man-like creatures died and were forgotten.  Halthrag was one, a petty a vainglorious servant of Sezrekan whose reach often exceeded his grasp.  During the last great battle between these blustering sorcerers (the other Wizard’s name and story are now long forgotten), the lesser known of them had nearly won all – he had not only marshaled legions of lizardmen and uruks, but had won over trow and a towering Cyclops to his cause, Avrogamt by name.  This nigh-unstoppable monster had decimated the Threndian kingdom from North to South with his great stone and pyronite club before he marched upon Halthrag’s Keep.  Stalwart though they were, Halthrag’s guardsmen were losing quite badly and were nearly beaten already when a flock of barrow harpies crashed into the wizard’s tower, splitting it wide and delivering the astral form of Halthrag’s nemesis by way of a flickering obsidian orb.

All at once, Halthrag was killed and his soul sent into the inky blackness of the Forbidden Zone, Avrogamt laid waste to the guard, and the captain of the guard Malkenruth despaired.  Knowing that they would all soon perish without supernatural aid (which they no longer possessed now that their lord was gone), Malkenruth beseeched the golden idol that the men and women of the guard worshipped from their distant homeland.  Unexpectedly, his prayer was heard.  The idol’s master – a powerful Old One in its own right – diverted a passing cargo spaceship with telluric and magnetic forces, crashing the thing in a fiery blue streak that rocked the whole Peninsula of K.

The immediate result was that the top of the High Tower that contained the body of Halthrag and his gloating and astrally-traveling nemesis was obliterated.  A vorpally-polarized hole opened in reality that cracked the obsidian orb and Halthrag’s enemy fled to the ethereal, now disconnected and untethered from his body.  Coincidentally, Avrogamt was knocked to his knees and quickly dispatched by the remaining human guardsmen.  The lizardkind and uruk troops of Halthrag’s enemy were blinded, shaken, and broken.  Malkenruth and his brethren let out a great cry!  The tide was turned!  But their victory was shallow and short-lived, for the cargo of the small ship that destroyed the tower was scattered about the keep and the surrounding lands.  Malkenruth and his peers sickened immediately, and the great swaths of forest around the keep blanched and grew surly.  The river that flowed beneath the keep swallowed a great deal of the twinkling poison from debris that littered the cliffside, and the story tainted the folklore of the Threndian people for generations.  All children were taught to avoid the glittering blue rocks that sometimes turned up in spadefuls of dirt or at the bottoms of squig-holes.

A millennia, an aeon, an age later.  Halthrag Keep lies nearby to the lantern-jawed minor city of Marbourg.  The blasted forests and fields nearby have mostly recovered and farmlands rarely yield sickened crops or mutated livestock.  Some curious apprentice sorcerer takes it upon herself to enter into the long-avoided keep of the dead wizard Halthrag, taking with her a malicious imp named Spellvexit – her familiar spirit.  He is her companion but lusts after her soul, and he smiles and plots against her.  Inadvertently, she awakens the pilot of the diverted craft who (until now) has lain dormant in the wreckage of its otherworldly ship in a hibernation capsule at the bottom of a crater in the eastern yard of the keep.  Her body is annihilated and the pilot sets out to return to the heavens to complete its original mission, the details of which are not important.  But it needs the glittering, glowing blue rocks that tumbled all over the Keep and the surrounding countryside to power its gravitic reactors in order to escape Aereth’s atmosphere.  So it sets the life support systems of the ship and the flying quad-rotor drones inside to find the glowing blue Space Rocks it needs.  The drones and the pilot can sense the life forces that ebb and flow around the keep, and more powerful life forces are usually set upon immediately and turned into servitors to collect the fuel and bits of metal the pilot needs to repair the ship and embark.  It can sense Marbourg, but the limited range of the drones and the state of the corpses in the keep limit the range of its operations. Further, the Xenon-poor atmosphere of Aereth saps the pilot of strength, even though Aereth’s gravity is somewhat less than that of its home planetoid.

Coincidentally, the Arm of Vendel Re’Yune – disembodied sorcerer – has settled upon the High Tower of Halthrag’s Keep in a dimensionally parallel (but proximate) causality.  At night, at this time of year, the resounding temporal echo of the blast that destroyed the obsidian sphere nearby to the portal to the Forbidden Zone allows Vendel Re’Yune to manifest in an extra-dimensional space where the High Tower once existed.  He senses that the technology the spacecraft pilot uses could unlock him from his inter-reality torture.  In dreams, he has contacted the repugnant leader of a troop of were-creature bandits that stalk this area – the Jackals – and implanted the need to find the glowing blue rocks within and around the keep.  Re’Yune hopes to use the rocks as leverage to bargain for technological aid from the pilot, or to somehow overpower it and bend its craft to his will.  It may be that the gravitic reactors can reverse the molecular and quantum entanglement that keeps him alive and entombed.  The drones of the pilot sense their intrusions and do everything they can to turn the Jackals back, including animating corpses to attack the bandits when possible and striking them with ion beams as a last resort.

The pilot merely wants to return to space, and has no understanding of the primitive morality or motivations that guides the carbon-based life on Aereth.

Further, unknown to either faction, a vicious Manticore has taken up residence within the dungeon of the Eastern Gatehouse; a tunnel into the north cliff face opened up after the spacecraft was dug out by the reanimated corpses the pilot roused.  The Manticore is ill and reeling from an encounter with a sorcerer to the south (near Helleborine), one who opened up the heavens and blasted the area he and his mate hunted with a manifestation of Yog Sothoth.  His crude band of hobgoblin followers were liquefied, and his mate was rent into a whiff of plasma.  He is shaken and weakened, and hibernates without being detected by the pilot’s drones.  If awakened from his slumber he will kill every human  within miles and then move on to Marbourg.  No great matter to the pilot (or Vendel Re’Yune) but the hapless citizens of Marbourg would probably suffer high numbers of casualties.

Even further, the cult of Malkenruth’s ancestors has recently sent missionaries into this area who have been led to the keep by dreams and portents.  They seek out the Golden Idol of the Shining God but are somehow always driven off or killed when they do gain surreptitious entry into the keep - usually from the difficult northeastern scramble over the rubble of the destroyed outer wall there.

Lastly, the weird extradimensional energies that course through the area owing to its history and ley-line placement naturally mean that all sorts of strange demiplanar openings wink open and closed in the keep on a regular basis.  Beings from other planes and versions of Aereth pop in and out without understanding why they come and go, and the place is a favorite of fey-beings and Elves.  The King of Elfland and his allies have come to loose agreements with Sezrekan, Hecate, and other patron entities that the place is formally off limits, but this does not keep stray moon elf and dvergar tribes from wandering through and taking captives for sale or trade.

Sadly, after recovering from a spate of Zombie Fever, the citizens of Marbourg have left behind a brutal winter and are mostly unaware that travelers to and fro are at high risk for being brutalized by the Jackal gang, the pilot’s drones and zombies, elvish marauders, and other stray extradimensional wanderers that are generally confused and anxious to return to their nearest parallel universes of origin.

Alpha Crawl Classics Mashup Funnel Thing

I dig DCC, and I deal in Paranoia.  I mean, like, professionally, man.  All day long some days.  Not to bring my work into my hobby but real actual paranoia is sort of my bread and butter.

the early days of computer worship! This sexy little reel-to-reel number holds approximately 5MB, almost enough to keep the image on!

Now, playing Paranoia!  That's another thing.  I think maybe it was +Adam Muszkiewicz  that rang that bell for me on an episode of DSR but I have really only actually played it once, maybe in the early 90's - seems in my recollection it was a sudden and brief transgression away from 2e right before my gaming chums all got into Vampire 1e.  Edition wars!  You want to talk about edition wars, why some people are convinced that 5e Paranoia doesn't even exist! Don't even get me started on the fnord Holloway Texts that were discovered hidden in a farmhouse in remote New Hampshire!  That's practically a whole other game right there, bro

I have often longed to play it, but that's neither here nor there.  Luckily, I have in DCC a fairly flexible rudimentary d20 engine with enough weirdness and entropy that I can kick it in the guts and do whatever I want with it.  By the way, the thing I have mostly written at the moment is like a cross between +Kabuki Kaiser 's excellent systems for solo-play, Margaret St. Claire's Sign of the Labrys, Logan's Run, and Paranoia with some Cthulhu sprinkled inside, all wrapped up in a DCC/MCC/CUaBM package.

Maybe for hilarity, maybe for laffs, I have prepped a PDF for people to use to generate suspicious clones to commit thought crimes adore OUR GOOD FRIEND COMPUTER with, and will run a Paranoia-flavored funnel type thing next Tuesday, maybe, if all goes well.

Consider this an incentive.

I think it nicely incentive-izes the usual Paranoia Stuff that players generally avoid but is really the hilariously spiteful throbbing heart of Classic/Zap

Magic Item of Yes That Sounds Awesome

I been sort of doing this for a regular player a little lately and there's no reasons why you ain't ought to hear it too.  Instead of having really any magical properties or mechanical effects, maybe your magic sword can give you wings and turn the whole world into a Radical Mighty Deed stage.  It's a corollary of my UH WE DONT NEED A NEW RULE FOR THAT; maybe the rule is THE RULES ALREADY COVER THAT

In DCC, the Warrior has the ultimate Freedomizer of Combat: The Mighty Deed. I note that in the more than 100 custom classes I've read for DCC, the Mighty Deed is the most stuck in there as an add-on to fight-y types. It's as if the Warrior weren't badass enough and you need little Orc teeth and infra vision, too!  Weakling!  I digress.  The mechanic is simple enough, a 3+ on the deed die and your awesome maneuver works and you get a cool thing.  It's added to your to hit roll and damage, and stacks with crits and so there's no reason not to do it each round if you're a fighter  warrior. Whatever.

The core book even goes so far as to suggest to the DM "make the scenes of fights into terrain filled stages for awesome mighty deeds", which is cool. One uncool thing, in my opinion, that the core book does is that it GIVES CLEARLY EXPLAINED EXAMPLES, which to my mind is clever way to teach people how it could work, but it also has the unfortunate side effect of turning the entire list of examples into a menu that particularly uncreative folks keep behind their eyelids.  I've had some folks "I deed to disarm" every round. Just that, roll the dice, "a 2 so no deed but I still hit."

I think that's exactly the opposite of the intent of the rule, but hey, YMMV as always.

SO. You get this pair of wings, maybe attached to a breastplate.  You don't fly. You don't float. No feather fall. None of that shit. No bonuses to hit. No damage bonuses. Just the whole world opens up and you can smash shit in glorious awesome ways. Think of it as a token to unlatch your imaginary character's feet from the floor and move, going forward, in 3 dimensions.

Caveat: If you say "I DEED TO BLIND" then it vanishes forever. Can't have glory trumped by shoddy descriptors of boring mechanic

Other examples:

Boots of striding and deeding

gauntlets of spider climb up your ass and clock you

Girdle of Boulder and Other Large Things Hurlingness

Spiderman Swinging Rope of Onehanded Kicking Your Teeth In

Cloak of Spinning Around and Flying Into the Air like a Damn Helicopter

It's just some bullshit token item at the bottom, but the trick is it unlocks that player's brain and tells him or her ITS OKAY TO DO THAT AMAZING THING YOU WANT

BY THE BY, it's my humble opinion that this is baked into the rule already, and FURTHER MORE, if you make a Warrior PC of any kind you have a great deal of freedom already just from the way the rule works. I always give the example of the White Ape Bananawarden, Smasher of Lesser Beasts. There's no explicit reason you couldn't use the Warrior right out of the box to play that PC. Grubbing after infravision and other things is merely a grab; you can get all kinds of neat stuff by adventuring, anyway.

Luck and XP Boosts for DCC

I love DCC's simple XP awards.  Easy to tabulate, but they make for slow advancement and the implication is maybe that long, marathon play sessions and extensive campaigns are the norm.  I do a lot of brief games and short campaigns and to go from a funnel-0 to 3rd or 4th level may take a great deal of time at the rate given in RAW, so I am fumbling and groping through these new standards.  For a RP heavy game with a couple of brief combats and some good exploration, which I want to promote in the Barrowmaze, tonight's session gives about 23XP for DCC characters, enough for a 5th adventure character to finally make it to level 2 (this is +Alex Perucchini 's Sr. Juan Pistolero, pragmatic and straight-forward bandito from the southern Mexican territories possibly Chihuahua).  I will probably adopt something like this for the Castle Gargantua games and also for the Purple Planet.  I like to see characters advance, and Doug's come pretty close to dying a couple of times.  I note also, this implies a great deal of me doing Fear checks that I sometimes miss, as well as abusing Ruin from Transylvanian Adventures pretty blatantly.

Luck Awards:

take up a roleplay opportunity, make people laugh +1 Luck

do some bold combat stuff, hilariously: +1 Luck

do a clever solution to a problem with your non-magical gear: +1 Luck

Die in a way that makes recovery impossible during the game - but cook up an answer for off-screen antics that’s better than just death (Adjudicated - possibly a follower or quest)

Acquire a mission from death before being turned over after dying, explain the mission: +1d4 Luck but your Patron is attached and maybe jealous

Use a magic-item without knowing what it does/trying: +1 Luck after

Opting to use a Dungeon World-style resolution (2d6 plus stat) when a mechanic does not otherwise exist:

    Fail +1 XP

    No/AND: +1 XP

    Yes/AND: +1 Luck

Carouse off-screen, and report it - WITHOUT USING LUCK (maybe needs a carousing table) Bonus XP as the table adjudicates

Play Report to a wide audience e.g. DCCRPG group on G+ :+1 Luck for that character

XP awards for a group (this implies Reaction Rolls and Morale, I think)

Per room/area explored: +1

Peacefully negotiate an encounter: Double

Establish trade routes: +1

Trade goods: +1

Communicate with foreign or new people: +1

Learn something about a culture: +1

Spread news: +1

Learn news/rumors: +1

Haggle (in character): +1

Solve a puzzle: +1

Uncover a conspiracy: +1

Per day of land or sea travel: +1 to a limit of 7

Per thousand GP/Equivalent treasure recovered: +1 to a limit of 10 (this has application in Barrowmaze and other OSR type stuff but not in the grand scheme of DCC stuff, mostly)

Use a class skill in an encounter: +1 XP per encounter

HHSOLO2 in the works

Greetings, Programs!

In the works I have laid down the frameworks for a post-apocalyptic DCC oriented solo dungeon crawl game book.  It's not a sequel, but something new.  There was going to be an emphasis on thieves and Deep Ones in the next one but I lost momentum and it needs to wait... Meantime, I have stocked my future donjon with gross mutated monstrosities, robots, and cultists to chew through PCs.  It's going to have a real SPACE DUNGEON feel, and if you missed that campaign (still fetid with glimmers of unholy life), then you can take part of the universe around in your bookbag/satchel/mule-droid.  Also, just now, I developed a system for cajoling robots and computers and low-sentience machines into doing your will in the >>REDACTED<<

Here's the system, use it for what you like and keep me in mind on those lonely winter nights when you want to wander a haunted and irradiated giant >>REDACTED<< with the cultists of the >>REDACTED<< in hot pursuit.

R31) Hacking and Security Clearance – Your security clearance is a measure of your responsibility and trustworthiness in the >>REDACTED<<. Most plebes like you start with a range of zero to 3; entry level positions. It is possible to acquire passkeys (colored cards) and to be invested with higher Security Clearance levels but this was relatively rare: clever people were typically shipped away or otherwise disposed of before the Neuroleptic Plague. You may use your Security Clearance to get through some locked doors – just place your palm against the reader. If your SL is high enough, the door or gate will open, or the interface of the machine will activate.  Higher level passkeys will always open lower level doors.

If your clearance is not high enough, fear not! If you have an Interface for that machine (i.e. Robot/Vending Machine/Turret) and a Battery, then you can try to hack it. A hack attempt is usually an Intelligence or Personality test with a DC given for that particular machine or terminal. You cannot burn Luck for this test! However, you CAN add extra points up to your Security Level, BEFORE your roll. If you win the DC test, then the door opens, the machine capitulates, the robot submits itself to you. If you don’t win the test, you lose the total amount of the SL points you risked and must earn them back somehow… Sometimes a sentry will be alerted or the machine will do what it thinks best to take care of you, the intruder. This can include some very harsh punishments, so think about what you’re doing, Lawbreaker! Randomly encountered robots and machines will state in their stat blocks whether they can be hacked and what happens if you're successful.