Last Tuesday a reduced set of my general
gaming group came to my place to have our first Dungeon Crawl Classics game.
Overall it went well I thought, and I got positive feedback from the players. I’m
hoping that as things get pulpier they’ll also start enjoying the settings as
well as just the pure joy of rolling dice, roleplaying with good friends over a
few beers.
I’m running Sailors On The Starless Sea, henceforth
known as Sailors On The Sunless Sea because I called it that by mistake once,
and it’s extra bleakness then appeal to me. In preparation I printed out copies
of the 0 level character creation rules, weapons and armour pages from the DCC
PDF, one for each player. I also printed out several blank versions of the
excellent 4 characters per page PC sheets from Purple Sorcerer - http://purplesorcerer.com/create.htm
The players, Dan, Monkey, Michael and Toby
all rolled up 4 funnel characters using the normal method. Only Monkey hadn’t
been in my 4e campaign, so generally they got through the concepts very
quickly. The only oddity was that three elves were rolled and no other
races. Then we began.
I added a little more flavour to the
introduction around how the PC’s friends and family had disappeared from the
village following the revival of the ruined Chaos keep. I then read the standard
introduction out. One of Dan’s characters had a spyglass with which scanned the
ruins and spotted the Vine Horrors, writhing and briar riddled. The players
started arguing over if it was night or day, I think Michael wanted them to
have burning brands and pitchforks, which needed a night setting, but some
measure of preservation held out and they agreed it was day time. I rule that
if the players are arguing about the metagame, the characters are arguing in
character about something, and this attracted the Vine Horrors who were then
peppered with remarkably good shooting from bows. Once the Vine Horrors reached the party good
initiative rolls saved them from injury.
Then the party approached the ruins and
upon seeing the portcullis and intact tower… split up! Yes you read that right.
One group went to scale the tower using rope. This started well, with Monkey’s
hunter making his first two climb rolls easily. He wanted to reach the roof,
and this last ascent cost him his life. While he had cleverly tied the rope to the
bars at each of the previous two floors windows, the rope mysteriously seemed
to untie itself from it’s lasso on the crenulations. He only took a single d6
roll for damage, rather than the 3d6 he would have had he not tied himself off,
but 5 points was enough to kill him. Another character went up to retrieve the
body, which was swinging in the wind, but couldn’t revive him.
The second group started ducking under the
portcullis when it collapsed down, almost injuring one of the characters, but
splitting this second group into two.
Now the characters are in three groups. Those on the inside, dusted
themselves off, looked around and headed for the ruined chapel. There they were
met with the grisly sight of blacked skeletons and charred remains. Their
immediate interest lay with the chainmail and weapons left behind, which they
donned, ignoring the ghostly fire that swept through the chapel . Only then did
they investigate the leering and bejeweled furry toad idol and fountain. One
character saw a strange ripple on the surface of the black pool, but the others
still approached and were met by the vile tar ooze. A dramatic fight ensued, in
which the butcher was pulverised and burnt to death. After the battle they
retreated back out without further investigation of the idol.
The tower group and those left behind at
the portcullis regrouped and went to investigate the west side of the ruins
where they found the partially collapsed wall.
One of the characters spotted the danger
here, but having been slighted by the character who wished to immediately climb
the wall he cryptically declared it safe, and seconds later the climber was
crushed to pulp beneath several tons of monolithic stone. I’m very lucky to
have players who are more than willing to take cues from each other to make
play more enjoyable, even at their own cost.
The wall’s collapse revealed the pit that
seemed to lead to a portal outlined by ancient runes. At this point the
characters all came together and descended. One of the sages knew these ancient
symbols and deciphered the words, to which there was general confusion and very
little analysis. My impression is that they haven’t yet taken on board that clues
are generally there to protect against death. Then several of the characters
worked together to shove the door open. Three of them died in the ensuing fiery
explosion! High damage rolls meant even those who scrambled away were scorched
to a crisp. But the door was open and the way ahead tantalized them with the tomb
of the barbarian lord and his gleaming vorpal axe!
Here persistency paid off. The players
tried repeated to get into the magically cold and icy room, eventually using
rope tied to the waist of the most agile in their party. They then worked
together to free to giant axe, and retreated before the numbing cold took them.
However the echoing thunder and evil laughter that sounded out as they passed
for the last time back through the portal may yet come to haunt them further.
At this point we called it a night. I wrote up the deaths as follows :-
* The trapper Chi Rian was lost to us first, when he dashed his head upon the tower he was ascending with dubious rope.
* Brave Baldric Baldricson, radish farmer, passed to the better place holding the line against the vile Tar Ooze. * Tyle the butcher was crushed by the collapsing wall, he will be greatly mourned this wintermass. * Aura Frtiz The Wisewoman, Gribal Nubit notable Scribe and Rai Ock the blessed ropemaker were consumed in unholy fire before the quad curse’d gate.
So the party of villagers is down to ten
characters and they have yet to enter the ruins themselves. Our next session is
booked for Tuesday the 7th of Jan, and I’ll write up their further
adventures as they happen. Next time I’ll
make some food, as we’re not serviced by decent Pizza where I live, by which I
mean the expensive sour dough kind. In the past when we’ve planned at Dan’s,
and what used to be Toby and Monkey’s house share they made really good stews
and every put in a few quid to pay for it, a tradition I’d like to extend.
