A Feudal Universe (aka DCC-DUNE)

It's been a while since I've worked on this idea and with a new film releasing, someday post-covid, and bringing in more added interest to the subject matter I figured now is as good of a time as any to begin again.

What is DCC-DUNE?

DCC-DUNE or as it's tentatively titled Feudal Universe will hopefully be an up coming zine for use the with Dungeon Crawl Classics ruleset. See I've been huge Dune fan ever since I'd laid eyes on David Lynch's Dune around the age of 8 or so. And while that particular rendition doesn't follow the story as well as others, the ascetics really stuck with me and it was the major reason I decided to read the books.

Now one might argue that Dungeon Crawl Classics and Dune don't really mesh well and frankly they're probably right. There's a lot of subtle political and religious nuance that comes with Dune and one could argue that a more story-driven RPG would evoke the correct feel. To that I'll argue that all those ideas can be accomplished through role-playing as opposed to game mechanics. None-the-less this campaign setting I wish to write isn't suppose to be an exactly replica of the Dune universe but merely inspired by it, a "what if Dune was in Appendix N with the rest of the bunch" mixed with other sci-fi films, and blended all together with medieval fantasy and heavy metal! 

So without further ado, here lies the History of the Feudal Universe:

Reign of the Thinking-Machines:

Once, long ago, there was peace and tranquility across the entire universe. Every machine had a purpose and worked in conjunction with every other machine to produce Harmony. The Thinking-Machines, aware of the destructive nature of the species, kept the remnants of mankind enslaved for their own safety. All was as it should be.

Then seemingly without reason what is now known as the Great Glitch occurred. It’s effects rippled across the machine empire of Harmony and the Thinking-Machines developed a programming akin to arrogance. Whole sections of Harmony seceded from the rest, forming intelligences that differed from the norm. The inner turmoil between the separations halted the expansion of the empire, and the deeper reaches of space were neglected.

It was there in that dark and dormant abode that a species was left to evolve. A tall people with pale complexions like the radiance of faint moonlight. Their eyes blazed with the light of miniature galaxies, swirling clouds of orange and blue. Their brows furrowed in several small ripples, giving them a sinister look even more so defined by their sharply pointed ears. They are known as the Felfenkin, who in time would help to free the enslaved human race from the clutches of their Thinking-Machine overlords in a holy war that would last for a hundreds, and would eventually lead to the downfall of both Thinking-Machine and Felfenkin.

The Hundred Years War:

The Hundred Years War began with skirmishes at Thinking-Machine complexes on the outer-rim. There the Felfenkin, with the help of newly freed slaves, crushed any machines in their path. The battles would soon escalate as more freed humans took command and led assaults on entire machine worlds. The Felfenkin, after much debate with their kind, decided the only way to defeat the Thinking-Machine empire was to teach the human race how to expand their minds, and enhance their bodies using a substance the Felfenkin merely called the Fume. This strange substance bestowed long life to the Felfenkin, and when exposed to humans showed unlimited potential.

Fume soon became the most precious resource in all the Known Universe.  In time, and after much over-exposure to the Fume, the Seers, as they are now named, discovered a means to fold phlogiston. After re-purposing machine factories, the humans were able to produce large warships that could assault the inner worlds of Harmony, and with the help of the Seers unpredictable ability to jump through space, began surprise blitzkrieg attacks, which ultimately turned the tides of war in their favor.

As the seemingly never ending war waged technology lessened, and many marvels were lost. Eventually whole star systems were separated, and fledgling human kingdoms began to spring up. When the war finally ended at the Bridge of Leng-duun, it wasn’t long before another began between the squabbling humans for supremacy over the Known Universe. The Felfenkin, having no want for rule, attempted to persuade the humans against sparing, but seeing the Felfenkin persuasions as a ruse to steal control and re-enslave them, the humans turned on the people that first helped free them, driving the Felfenkin into the deep recesses of space where they have dwelled ever since.

Artwork by: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/32mJD

The Young Kingdoms:

In those early years, with many small kingdoms sparring for rule, the kingdom that could refine the most Fume would eventually win the throne, unifying the sparing houses under the monarchical banner of the One & True Sanctified Emperor of All. A Landsraad was formed so that all Houses under the rule of the Imperium could have a voice. The Temple of the Golden Flesh, a strict religious faction that had risen in the ashes of the Hundreds Years War, decreed that, “All machines made in the likeness of the mind and body of man were forbidden under penalty of death.” Prosperity soon brought the construction of the Great Schools that continued mankind's evolution, and many that now lived no longer remember these teachings were originally gifts from the Felfenkin who, though not exiled entirely from the realm, were now shunned by all mankind with fear and mistrust.

The Landsraad:

To control such a vast and varied universe the Emperor of All formed the Landsraad; where all Great and Minor Houses in the Imperium may debate. There are currently 7038 representatives, each from either a Great or Minor House and each seeking the good graces of the One & True Sanctified Emperor of All in the hopes of obtaining a Fume fiefdom.

Fume Nebulas:

Sparse and varied, these nebulas house the strange substance known commonly as the Fume. The Fume is neither liquid nor gas, yet contains properties of both, and is used throughout the Imperium in order to enhance both the mind and body. Every Great and Minor house strives to be granted a Fume fiefdom from the Emperor of All and many an Assassin’s War, if not outright conflicts, have started for such pursuits. The Fume is highly addictive and causes the user’s eyes to change into a swirling mix of orange and blue.

Within the Fume Nebulas are behemoth beasts known as Galaxorms, great worm-like creatures that “swim” through the nebulas devouring anything in sight.  There have been limited studies of the Galaxorms, but it appears the beasts are attracted to the Fume, and possibly have some connection to its creation.  Many Fume refineries have been destroyed from Galaxorm attacks resulting in the nebulas becoming cluttered with an abundance of debris.

The Fume nebulas contain several hundreds if not thousands floating asteroids. Most refineries are built on these rocky surfaces and, unknown to many, the scattered and tribal people of the Felfenkin build their cities beneath the surface of these asteroids.

DCC, DUNE, & MORE

Well things sure have gotten crazy around these parts between a pandemic, political factions running awry, and all the other shit 2020 has so graciously handed us. Most of this has led me down a mentally exhausting spiral, but with the lows come the highs and I need to climb out of the murk and back into the game (literally).

If I put forth my upcoming plans here I can be all the more disappointed later when they don't come to fruition! But seriously I'm hoping that I can get out of this slump and finish some projects and grow my meager hobby into something.

The plan right now is: to finish Seekers ov the Other Worlds which is turning into more of a campaign style adventure and is thus forcing me to write even more than I planned, working a DCC DUNE style zine for Kickstarter's ZineQuest, and publish a buddies adventure module!

So enough talk! Lets do this!

SOLD OUT!

The first printing of Sky ov Crimson Flame is sold out! Thanks to everyone, Kickstarter backers, individual buyers from online and conventions, and retail stores for purchasing my first adventure. I have learned a lot from that experience and plan to keep moving forward with future adventures and a 2nd printing of the Sky.

You can still find physical copies at Goodman Games (they also come with the PDF), and PDF copies at Drive Thru RPG.

Thanks for all your support!

CyclopsCon Recap II

It's time for another recap (before I forget most of details!). This time I'll be focusing on my Blights ov the Eastern Forest session. Lets begin!

A Merrily to Our Deaths Do We Go!

Knowing how deadly the forest could be I decided that each player should have at least two 1st level PCs. Almost every player decided to roll up a wizard/warrior combo with not one Cleric among the bunch! (Note: We decided to use the Luck rules for healing via the DCC: Lankhmar boxset.) I provided the group a map of the Eastern Forest, something one of the wizards had acquired from the Elders of the nearby village of Reed. The conclave of wizards huddles up away from the warriors and other vagabonds of the party to discuss their next move and decided that from what they could gather about the Wrook (a soul stealing fiend) there was bound to be some sort of treasure or magic to be had at his hut. So without further a due they ventured into the forest.

Fortunately for them there were no random encounters to be had on their journey (For this session I didn't roll 1d6 for every hex as the adventure says). After about half a days march the branches of the forest began to be filled with hundreds if not thousands of murderous looking crows, much larger, uglier than one's average avian. Though the birds did not bother the party, they did continue to swoop down from their branches every once in a while and called out continuously, creating quite the  cacophony of sounds, and unknown to the party alerting the Wrook that someone was approaching his hunt.

When the party finally made it to a the clearing in which the hunt sat, one of them, at the direction of a wizard no doubt, decided to sneak up to the hunt to take a peak behind the leather straps hanging over the doorway. Before that character could make it halfway across the clearing the flock of crows began to attack! A battle ensued and which things were looking pretty dire for our heroes! A pair of 0-level villagers came running into the forest to help (one of my players arrived late and rolled up 0-level PCs instead of 1st level!) and one was immediately killed! (That player rolled up another 1st level character, who was also slain I believe.)

Eventually using a bit of magic, and the luck of the halfling, the party was able to scare off the majority of the crows. After assessing their wounds they entered the hunt and found a treasure trove piled around the edges of this dirty abode, but something sinister lay in the nest of the next room. (Here I should add that one of the character had a goose they would honk if danger lurked by, or so that character believed his goose did...)

In that room was a nest with 13 two foot tall black eggs. Ghostly faces could be discerned swirling up to the semi-transparent edge of the eggs. Like any good wizards of ill repute, one of them took an egg and stowed it in his backpack. Just as they were about to destroy the eggs and grab the treasure the Wrook arrived in a torrent of feathers, calling them thieves and vagabonds and promising to take their filthy souls to add to his collection!

Unfortunately for the Wrook (aka me, the Judge) I rolled far too low on my initiative and they party was able to get many a whack in, summon a wolf to bite the Wrook's chick legs and popped out one of his golden eye balls. (In retrospect maybe I should have allowed this "big baddy" 2d20 action dice...)

Before he could suffer anymore damage he fled his hut vowing revenge on the party and took off in a storm of wind and feathers to the East! The party, suffering few losses took up as much gold as they could carry and headed back to the village to rest up till their next outing of which was decided to be Jumbii-Beyr Glen, but that is for another post!

CyclopsCon Recap I

Hello everyone! It is the Monday after the first annual CyclopsCon and I couldn't be happier! Though I only ran 3 games I had a blast! This entire venture was a brand new experience for a lot of people including myself. I choice to run my games through Discord and though I had some prior experience with the app nothing I didn't really know that much about. Now however I really enjoyed the experience and will continue to run games through it while we all are stuck in quarantine!

Running Sky ov Crimson Flame (again!)

 

I can't tell you how many times I've run this adventure, you'd think I'd be sick of it by now, but (and for obvious reasons: new players, etc) every experience is different and this go round was just as fun as my first playtest. It should be noted however that I like to change things around a bit, test out new ideas, change the monster stats, and other various things to keep myself interested. I'm counting each one of these sessions as a mini-playtest of sorts so that the 2nd printing will be better than the original and maybe even different than the first.

Anyways on to the session recap! (This weekend is a bit hazy, but I'll try to remember as much as I can.) As some of you may know this is a 0-level adventure. I had 6 players, each with 4 0-level PCs. The first encounter they faced were the wretched villagers, flayed humans whose minds had cracked and were now essentially zombies of a sort. The party as a whole did well with this first combat challenge, but at least one PC went down, his belly having been ripped open and his innards pulled out.

[Judge's Note: Over the years I have learned that if you roll initiative in the standard fashion in a funnel adventure the PCs may over take the monsters before you get a chance to attack. My fix is to have the players roll initiative (a simple d20 roll). I right down their scores and all their characters go in order, but one or two monsters get to interject between the players turns, pop-corn style. I feel like this makes combat more "cinematic". This usually only works when you have a group of monsters or a monster with multiple attacks.]

After the dwarves of the party chanted funeral rites over the dead and gave them a quick burial, the party continue East, heading in the direction of the fiery red star that was falling from the sky. They eventually ended up at the edge of a cliff, where two flayed forms hung crucified. A natural rock bridge lead over the valley to the Ancient Keep. There was a horrid fat bat chewing on one of the corpses. They decide to attack the bat and miss sticking the corpse with an arrow. The bat flies up to the attack  the party and they discover it's actually a child's head with bat wings attached! At the same time the corpses heads pop off and attack, attempting to spear the PCs with their spinal cords.

The party easily dispatches this bunch and decides to quickly rush across the bridge, pressing close against the portcullis as to not be seen from the battlements. One of the PCs (I forget who now) nimbly climbs up the 40' tower walls (they rolled really high!) and peaks over the edge. At the same time they do this they spot a pair of cherub head-bats, cooing and giggling to themselves, as they push over one of the stag-headed gargoyles. The PC climbing has time to warn the party, dropping the dagger in his mouth to do so, and most of the characters below jump out of the way except one who is pancaked by the falling statue.

Other PCs decide to start climbing as the bridge begins to collapse, but another statue is pushed over by other pair of head-bats. When this statue crashes, the entire bridge section collapses and the PCs luckily fall to the ledge below. Another unfortunately PC was splattered! 

[Judge's Note: In the adventure it is written that each PC must succeed a Reflex or Luck save or fall to the valley below. I decided I did want to kill too many PCs this early in the game and waved this save.]

Now on the ledge the party could head either left or right. They decided right, but before they traveled down this ledge one of the PCs just happen to have a cart (don't you just love the nonsensical nature of 0-level PC equipment!) and decided, with the help of other PCs equipment, to build a sort of mannequin by stacking wood in the cart to look like a person, with a carved face and some hair glued on with honey. They rolled their decoy down the rocky trail in the hopes of avoiding a trap.

Well it worked! Three head-bats swooped down and exploded (they had bombs attached to them) where the cart landed. This created a hole in the side of the rock that lead to the catacombs beneath the keep. The PCs entered the catacombs and after some hesitation, his skeleton seemed cursed or had elephantiasis, took the sword from the skeletal remains of an ancient king. A series of steps lead to a backside of a secret door which led to a corridor within the keep.

After inspecting some old tapestries they managed to pick the locks to the library. As soon as they opened the door they spotted a nude figure standing on the balcony. Deciding this person was no good one of the PCs attempting to push it over the edge and MISSED! With a swirl of liquid like movement the things flesh instantly turned around and swallow the PC whole inside it's corrupted puss filled flesh. After a few of the other party members stabbed at the monster (and killed the PC within) one of the players wanted to perform a mighty-deed to decapitate the monster!

(As Judge I decided that if they could hit the creature's AC and roll a 6 on a d6 it would happen and guess what... IT DID!) 

The PC ran and sliced the things head from its shoulders! Being only a husk of flesh the head was caught up by the wind and flew over the edge of the balcony while the rest of the creatures body deflated and melted in to a steaming pile of yellow goo! With the horror gone the PCs decided to explore the Library and found: a scroll (which one opened and was immediately mummified, the rest of the party burned the body lest it rise anew), a box with a face (which ended up being the face of a PC's lover, he lost a point of Intelligence from the shock!), some letters, fleshy pants, and a bottle with a grey phallic thing. 

(At this point we we're at the 3 hour mark at it was 2am on my side of the world so we decided to call it a night and resume at a later date.)

If you liked this story, then consider purchasing my adventure Sky ov Crimson Flame! As of this writing there are only 20 copies left!

Til next next adventurers!

Cyclops Con 2020!

Cyclops Con is almost upon us! Goodman Games is hosting a cyber con (how cool is that?) and I'll be running 3 games via Discord.

Sky ov Crimson Flame  - Friday at 11:00pm EST
Blights ov the Eastern Forest - Saturday at 11:00am EST
The Croaking Fane - Sunday at 11:00pm EST

You can register to sign up here.

During the days of the con Owl Knight Publishing will be running two sales. One DriveThruRPG the PDF for Sky ov Crimson Flame will be $4.00! Here on the site the physical copies (which come with a free PDF) will be $10.00 + shipping, but I've got a very limited run of first printings left and once their gone they are gone!

I hope you're all doing well and remember to stay safe out their! This plague is no joke! Wash your hands you filthy animals!

Hey! Woah! It's 2020!

Hello! Is there anyone there? Hello? 

Yes... I'm bad at this blogging thing, sorry about that, but if you are reading this, then please BUY MY ADVENTURE MODULE! (Just kidding, but seriously you probably should.) So what's new, you may be asking, well let me tell you!

I'm still writing the follow up adventure to Sky ov Crimson Flame, entitled Seekers ov the Other Worlds, and though I had some play-test sessions at last years GenCon I'm beginning a whole new series of re-writes! Hopefully this will transition in to a full 1st draft, which will need more through play-testing before publishing of course. I believe all this will be more easily obtainable than before simply due to the fact that I no longer need to travel out of state for work, having permanently moved to Atlanta, GA for film/television work last year.

Speaking of publishing! Goodman Games is about to drop a Kickstarter for The Greatest Thieves in Lankhmar of which I was honored to write a small, but deadly, encounter for Round 3 of the Tournament style adventure. So be sure to check that out when it drops! I've also been working on some other top secret writing assignments that I can't speak of yet, but you'll all be in for a hell of a treat!

AnyHOO! That's what's new. I wish I could write faster and publish quicker, but life tends to say otherwise! Till next time friends!