Reviews from R'lyeh: DCC Day

Showing posts with label DCC Day. Show all posts

Friday, 29 August 2025

Friday Fantasy: DCC Day #6 DCC Day 2025 Adventure Pack

As well as contributing to Free RPG Day every year Goodman Games also has its own ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day’. The day is notable not only for the events and the range of adventures being played for Goodman Games’ roleplaying games, but also for the scenarios it releases specifically to be played on the day. For ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day 2025’, which took place today on Saturday, July 19th, 2025,* the publisher is releasing not one, not two, but three scenarios, plus a limited edition printing of Dungeon Crawl Classics #108: The Seventh Thrall of Sekrekan. Two of the scenarios, ‘The Fall of Al-Razi’ and ‘Balticrawl Blitz’, appear in the duology, the DCC Day 2025 Adventure Pack. The third is DCC Day #6: The Key to Castle Whiterock. Both DCC Day #6: The Key to Castle Whiterock and ‘The Fall of Al-Razi’ are written for use with Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, whilst the other, ‘Balticrawl Blitz’ is for use with the Xcrawl Classics Role-Playing Game, the ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics’ adaptation and upgrade of the earlier Xcrawl Core Rulebook for use with Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, which turns the concept of dungeoneering into an arena sport and monetises it!

* The late international delivery of titles for DCC Day #6 means that these reviews are also late. Apologies.

As in past years, the DCC Day 2025 Adventure Pack contains two adventures. The first and longest of the two is ‘The Fall of Al-Razi’ are written for use with Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. It is designed for a party of four to six Player Characters of First Level and begins with them in an enchanted forest, come to a grove where a rose bush whose petals are known to have healing properties is known to grow. When they attempt to pick them, a ghost of a knight appears and begs for their aid. Introducing himself as Al-Razi, he was once a great knight, but in an accident, he fell from his horse, but then a fairy queen caught him and stole him from death. He asks that the Player Characters free him from his torment. The opportunity for this will come at fairy parade through the village of Taribat, which takes place only once every seven years. Al-Razi will ride at the head of the parade and if the Player Characters can catch him when he falls from horse, he will be freed. Unfortunately, in order to be able to see past the veil of the fairy, the Player Characters need water from an enchanted pool to wash their eyes in. Fortunately, Al-Razi knows there is such a pool—beyond the Twilight Cave.

The thrust of the scenario is for the Player Characters to enter the Twilight Cave and search for the pool. This is a race against time to the pool and back again to the village of Taribat. There are fun encounters here, such as the giant kittens playing with a giant mouse, a chance to make some purchases from a ‘Ye Olde magic Shoppe’ in what is actually a scenario befitting cliché, and some not entirely unhelpful witches. The second part of the scenario is the parade itself, which will lead from one stone outside the village to another on the opposite side. The whole of the village will turn out to watch and celebrate with costumes, drinks, and music, completely unaware as to the true nature of the parade. Only the Player Characters will have any idea as what the parade is and will only be able to see who really is in the parade by wiping their eyes with the enchanted water. This is a rolling combat as the parade will constantly be on the move and the members of the parade will take action if they realise what the Player Characters are trying to do. The Queen will respond with an array of deadly illusions, backed up with her paper handmaidens, and the Fey Riders encircle Al-Razi.

The scenario requires a bit of staging upon the part of the Judge in order for the Player Characters to get past the Fey Riders and be with Al-Razi at the right time to catch him as he falls. One thing to be avoided is fighting the fairy queen, as she is a very tough opponent for First Level Player Characters. It is also possible to fail—though the consequences are quite minor, as well as do very well. Otherwise, this is a raucous climax to an entertaining scenario.

The second scenario is ‘Balticrawl Blitz’, which is designed for the Xcrawl Classics Role-Playing Game and again for party of four to six Player Characters of First Level. In the Player Characters are invited to participate in the annual Division III Balticrawl Blitz. As this title suggests, this event takes place in the rundown and corrupt city of Baltimore. The Player Characters get a taste of the latter when someone knocks on the door of their hotel room and are offered a bribe to throw the Xcrawl in a particular room! The event itself is very much themed around the city of Baltimore and its history. This starts with the DJ, or ‘Dungeon Judge’, ‘DJ Nevermore’, a thin sallow moustachioed man in Victorian dress with a raven on his shoulder, who has designed the event and will be running it. So, quite literally inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, this scenario has Gothic streak as wide as a white one running through a Goth’s hair. The other inspiration for the adventure is the city’s love of crabs, but this is mainly because the event’s main sponsor is the Elder Bay Spices Company, whose blend of spices is popular with seafood all along the east coast.

At just five locations, ‘Balticrawl Blitz’ is a small scenario. It is playable in a single session if paced right and some of the encounters are tough for Player Characters of First Level. A Player Character Messenger will be needed to provide healing. Another issue is that it is a very American scenario and not everyone is going to be fully aware of Baltimore’s history, and having to explain some of the references will break the immersion. Otherwise, a solid scenario for the Xcrawl Classics Role-Playing Game that is easy to slip into a campaign.

Physically, DCC Day 2025 Adventure Pack is as well done as you would expect for a release from Goodman Games. The artwork is decent, but a little cartoonish in places—which actually suits the Xcrawl Classics Role-Playing Game—and the cartography is definitely better for the Dungeon Crawl Classics scenario than the Xcrawl Classics scenario. Similarly, the cover is very cartoony, but it still works.

DCC Day 2025 Adventure Pack delivers two good scenarios for two different games, but of the two, ‘The Fall of Al-Razi’ is the more inventive and interesting. Both are easy to add to a campaign though and both could be run as Character Funnels, though ‘The Fall of Al-Razi’ is probably the better of the two for that as well.

Friday, 1 August 2025

Friday Fantasy: DCC Day #6 The Key to Castle Whiterock

DCC Day #6: The Key to Castle Whiterock does come with a bit of backstory. It is a preview and adventure for Castle Whiterock: The Greatest Dungeon Story Ever Told published by Goodman Games, which is the subject of a forthcoming crowdfunding campaign. This crowdfunding campaign brings back and updates Dungeon Crawl Classics #51: Castle Whiterock, originally published in 2007. It received its own preview for Free RPG Day, in 2007, in the form of Dungeon Crawl Classics #51.5: The Sinister Secret of Whiterock, and Castle Whiterock: The Greatest Dungeon Story Ever Told has already been given a preview in the form of The Dying Light of Castle Whiterock, published for Free RPG Day 2025. Both Dungeon Crawl Classics #51: Castle Whiterock and Dungeon Crawl Classics #51.5: The Sinister Secret of Whiterock were written for use with Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, but both Castle Whiterock: The Dying Light of Castle Whiterock and Castle Whiterock: The Greatest Dungeon Story Ever Told are written for use with two separate roleplaying games. These are the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition. DCC Day #6: The Key to Castle Whiterock differs in that it is solely written for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game.

DCC Day #6: The Key to Castle Whiterock is designed for a party of First Level Player Characters and designed to introduce Castle Whiterock: The Greatest Dungeon Story Ever Told. If completed, the adventure will provide the Player Characters with a map of part of Castle Whiterock, details of one of its secrets, and some treasure, as well as some surprising allies. In doing so, they will go all the way back to Castle Whiterock’s origins as Clynnoise, a monastery that was home to the Order of the Dawning Sun, over a thousand years ago. Since that time, it has been sacked multiple times and been occupied by Orcs, cultists, a Red Dragon, and more recently, a band of slavers. In doing so, they will go all the way back to Castle Whiterock’s origins as Clynnoise, a monastery that was home to the Order of the Dawning Sun, over a thousand years ago. Since that time, it has been sacked multiple times and been occupied by Orcs, cultists, a Red Dragon, and more recently, a band of slavers. The Player Characters have set out to explore the dungeon of Castle Whiterock, but due to good fortune have come into possession of another map. This shows the location of a lone tomb in the Ul Dominor Mountains near Castle Whiterock. Deciphering the text on the map reveals that the tomb is the burial place of Reglee Callim, famed architect of the Clynnoise, and that she was buried with “[H]er wisdom, plans, and keys”. It suggests that she might have gone to her grave with notes about the building and layout of Clynnoise as well as the means to access the ancient ruins.

The adventure itself begins at the entrance as marked on the map, high up a circuitous path overlooking a valley. Beyond the entrance lies the Callim family tomb complex, a simple, two-level complex of tombs, chapels, and more, marked by sarcophagi, burial niches, and the like. There are undead and there are ghosts, just as you would expect in a tomb complex. There is also some treasure to loot, but not a great amount and barely a handful magical items. All in keeping with the low treasure rates to be expected of a Dungeon Crawl Classics scenario. However, the scenario is not just a tomb to be looted and there are a couple of good story strands to what is quite a simple dungeon. The first is that the dungeon is not infested with evil monsters, rather that the resting dead tends towards Law rather than Chaos. The second is that despite being dead for over a thousand years, the Player Characters can talk to Reglee Callim and gain some clues as to what to expect on the second level. However, whilst the third and final strand of the scenario is to be found on the second level, it is wholly unexpected. This is that the Player Characters are not the only invaders to the tomb. As the Player Characters have entered from above, a band of Goblins, lead by a would be Hobgoblin warlord, has entered from below and as the Player Characters discover, are looting from below.

The scenario offers two options in terms of how the Player Characters might react to the goblinoid presence. In classic style, they could slaughter the lot, though the band is quite large for a group of First Level Player Characters to defeat. Alternatively, the Player Characters could negotiate and even enter an alliance with the Hobgoblin warlord. For a share of the treasure, the warlord even provides several Goblins to fight alongside the Player Characters as well as to make sure their Hobgoblin boss gets her share. It brings a degree of co-operation to play that is not normally present in this style of roleplaying and often not at First Level as well as an unexpected element of roleplaying. The Hobgoblin warlord and her Goblin cohorts are nicely detailed, helping the Judge to portray them as they interact with the Player Characters.

Physically, DCC Day #6: The Key to Castle Whiterock is as well done as you would expect for a release from Goodman Games. The artwork is decent, but a little cartoonish in places, whilst the cartography is not as interesting as that usually found in Dungeon Crawl Classics scenarios. The cover is very nicely done, showing the moment the final confrontation in the dungeon.

DCC Day #6: The Key to Castle Whiterock has a lighter, though a not humorous, feel than most adventures for Dungeon Crawl Classics. If the Dungeon Master was willing, it is easily adapted to Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition as per the guidelines given in Castle Whiterock: The Dying Light of Castle Whiterock. If the scenario is lacking, it is perhaps a good hook to keep the players and their characters interested to want to explore Castle Whiterock, but as a prequel to the campaign and if a playing group has set out to play Castle Whiterock: The Greatest Dungeon Story Ever Told, then DCC Day #6: The Key to Castle Whiterock is a solid addition to the campaign and sets the Player Characters with an advantage or two in readiness.

Friday, 13 September 2024

Friday Fantasy: DCC Day #5 Gods of the Earth

Designed to be played with between six and eight First Level Player Characters, DCC Day #5: Gods of the Earth opens with the Player Characters at the death-feast of the great jarl, Horwend, who recently died and left his queen, Gerutha, a widow. They are outsiders this far north in Isvik, but tradition demands that the new jarl, Horwend’s brother, Feng, include strangers in the celebration of his brother’s life. Horwend’s body lies on the table as his men around drink, feats, arm wrestle, sing, and merry. At midnight, Feng stands up and proclaims that is as is traditional, a body of men should have the honour of standing vigil over the late jarl’s body following his death-feast, and that Gerutha has cast the bones and determined that it should be none other than the Player Characters who undertake this task. They will be well-rewarded, in addition to the honour of standing vigil. Of course, the Player Characters have little choice and find themselves in the late jarl’s tomb on a nearby rocky island with the wind and the rain lashing walls of the barrow outside. As is to be expected this is not going to be quiet night for the Player Characters, let alone Horwend. There are portents and there are pleas, the latter from Horwend’s spirit—prevent his body from being taken and his spirit from being sacrificed to the old chaos Gods of the Earth in their final hatching of the Chaos-Egg.

It is a great set-up which sends the Player Characters into the blood-red stone-lined tunnels and rooms below Horwend’s tomb. This is a complex dedicated to the service of the Gods of the Earth, deities of Chaos awaiting the birth of the great End-Wolf and with it their dominion over all of the lands. Fortunately, the heroes of the Sky Gods put an end to this long ago, but could it be that someone is to bring about the birth of the End-Wolf once again? The complex is infested with Chaos-infused Larvalings, home to monstrous—but fortunately sleeping Formorians, the last stand of the Horwend’s forebears, and the workshop of the true villain of the piece as well as their throne. The complex consists of eleven locations, but all of them are highly detailed, interesting, and challenging. Perhaps overly challenging so for First Level Player Characters, but there are moments of respite and the Player Characters can find small boons here and there which might give them the edge they need. What the Player Characters will find is a lot of treasure. In fact, if the Player Characters survive and get out of the complex, they will quite wealthy. And that in addition to any reward promised by the ghostly Horwend.

DCC Day #5: Gods of the Earth does not necessarily end quite there with the Player Characters defeating the villain and their plans, grabbing the treasure and escaping both the tomb and Isvik. An appendix with six other separate areas connected to the complex under Horwend’s tomb. These are the tombs of his forebears, fallen in various states of disrepair since they were plundered for the Gods of the Earth’s plan. Like the other parts of the complex there is a lot of treasure to be found in these tombs, as well as one or two interesting magical items. These are all optional though.

Physically, DCC Day #5: Gods of the Earth is as well done as you would expect for a release from Goodman Games. The artwork is decent and the cartography well done. The cover is very nicely done, showing the moment when Horwend appears before the Player Characters. The handouts are also decently done.

DCC Day #5: Gods of the Earth has a grim and grimy feel, much of it a nod to the Vikings and Norse mythology. The fact that it is set in the North means that it could be adapted to any Viking-type setting, or even the Lankhmar setting of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set. In whatever way it is used, DCC Day #5: Gods of the Earth should provide two or so sessions’ worth of play, especially if the Player Characters search the other tombs. Overall, DCC Day #5: Gods of the Earth is an enjoyably entertaining scenario with a great hook.

Friday, 9 August 2024

Friday Fantasy: DCC Day #5 DCC Day 2024 Adventure Pack

The DCC Day 2024 Adventure Pack contains two scenarios. The first scenario is ‘The Grinding Keep’, a scenario by Marc Bruner written for four to six First Level Player Characters for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. Drawing from the Appendix N of the Dungeon Master’s Guide for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition, it is inspired by the works of Michael Moorcock and John Bellairs. The scenario is a locked room—or manor house—puzzle box, where the Player Characters have been sent to locate the Enduring Light, a lantern whose light is said to bless those it falls upon. The butler seems welcoming as silent staff serve them drinks and later diner as they await an audience with the lord of the manor. It is of course, designed to lull them into a false sense of security as the following morning, the Player Characters find themselves trapped in a house that seems to change around them in random fashion as they move from location to location. The home definitely feels bigger on the inside and if the Player Characters are not careful, they will get lost and separated from each other. There is something strangely organic about the house and this becomes increasingly apparent as the Player Characters explore further and it literally comes alive. Surprisingly, the Enduring Light is easy to find, but getting out of the house is another matter. To do this, they will need to work through several puzzles, some of which are quite challenging and some of which do rely on player knowledge.

Although the scenario is short, it is not straightforward and it does require more preparation than its length suggests. This is primarily due to the random nature of the movement throughout the scenario’s second half and the puzzle elements that need to be solved before the Player Characters can progress. Consequently, the scenario may be slightly too complex for anyone playing the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game for the first time. It is possible for the Player Characters to hack their way out, but the puzzle solving method is much more satisfying. Overall, ‘The Grinding Keep’ serves up a solid dollop of Dungeon Crawl Classics weirdness.

‘Tuscon Death Storm!’ is the first scenario to be released for the Xcrawl Classics Role-Playing Game, prior to its actual release. Written by the game’s designer, Brendan Lasalle, it is a bit of an odd choice—at least as a first release. First, it is designed for Second Level Player Characters, and second, it takes place outside of an Xcrawl arena where most of the action in the roleplaying game takes place. So, it is of no use to a Judge beginning her Xcrawl Classics Role-Playing Game campaign and it requires the Player Characters to have acquired at least a Level before attempting it. As a demonstration game it also does not showcase what the game is about either. In fact, it is closer to a straightforward dungeon for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game than it is a Xcrawl Classics Role-Playing Game scenario. However, this does not mean that it is actually a bad scenario, but rather that its set-up and release are untimely. Plus, if the Judge can hold on and run this scenario once the Player Characters in her campaign have reached Second Level, then ‘Tuscon Death Storm!’ comes into its own.

In ‘Tuscon Death Storm!’, the Player Characters are Xcrawlers on the up, having taken their first footsteps in the area. This brings them to the attention of DJ Creature Feature, an industry veteran notorious for the popular Necromerica event. She has lost contact with a colleague, producer Margaret Cauldwell, who was working on converting a recently discovered temple just outside of Tuscon, Arizona, into an Xcrawl dungeon arena. Having already sent people to check up on her and her team, DJ Creature Feature asks the Player Characters to go and investigate. If they, then she promises access to a Division II event and sponsors for the event, which would be a big step up in terms of the Player Characters’ careers. This—and the fact that the scenario showcases how playing in the Xcrawl Classics Role-Playing Game—is where ‘Tuscon Death Storm!’, adding depth and detail to the Xcrawl world beyond the walls of the arena.

The scenario is short, running to just nine locations and seven pages. It is also linear, but it is nicely detailed, the descriptions neatly contrasting the ancient feel of the temple with the equipment and plans of a modern work crew along with health and safety concerns. The monsters that the Player Characters will face are modern twists on old creatures—though at the end of it, they are likely to be sick of a certain breed of dog. They will have to face on the sponsored beverage monsters that the Xcrawl Classics Role-Playing Game is fond of. A great touch is that the Player Characters’ efforts to investigate the old temple are being filmed so that the footage can be turned into a documentary to promote the new area. The recording process also means that the Player Characters are still performing and still do grandstanding moves to gain bonuses.

Ultimately, ‘Tuscon Death Storm!’ gives the Player Characters opportunities to be heroes outside of the arena, make some contacts, and hopefully give their careers a lift. It is a decent ‘in-between’ scenario that slips into an ongoing campaign with ease and pushes it along a bit.

Physically, the DCC Day 2024 Adventure Pack is as well done as you would expect for a release from Goodman Games. The artwork is decent and the cartography well done. The cover is very nicely done, showing the Xcrawlers at a bar watching the activities of the Player Characters in ‘The Grinding Keep’ scenario, whilst the inside artwork depicts the reverse. That is, the Player Characters of ‘The Grinding Keep’ scenario looking at a group portrait of the Xcrawlers in a victory pose. It is a nice touch.

The DCC Day 2024 Adventure Pack is a solid release for Goodman Games’ own celebratory day. Both scenarios are good, but not immediately useful, either due to the extra preparation required or the relative awkwardness of fitting it into a campaign.

Friday, 22 September 2023

Friday Fantasy: DCC Day #1 DCC Day 2020 Adventure Pack

DCC Day 2020 Adventure Pack is actually longer than most scenario releases for either Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, or the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set! The trilogy opens with ‘Expedition to Algol’, a scenario for First Level Player Characters for Dungeon Crawl Classics. The Player Characters are engaged by the wizard Bartakus-Thrum to participate in an experiment which will see them transported to another planet. Fortunately, the experiment is a complete success and the Player Characters find themselves under the intense heat and light and humidity of an alien world and its three suns—two yellow and one green—in a city of several thousand lizard-men being besieged by another several thousand cat-men. Unfortunately, the Player Characters have no way of getting back home, so as it turns out, the experiment is not actually a complete success. Their situation though, is not quite as dire as it sounds. Their arrival has been foretold and the Hall of Tests awaits them…

The Hall of Tests consists of a hollow tower which descends deeper into the ground and is dominated by a giant statute of a humanoid with three eyes. It has a number of rooms leading off the main tower that the Player Characters will work their way down, exploring and examining its techno-magical features. In the long-abandoned complex, the Player Characters will discover the source of the animal-men outside the tower and of course, in doing so, will transform themselves, some of the secrets of the thoroughly Lawful Evil Space Wasps which once ruled this world and their technology, a very helpful purple arm, and even a way home! The most fun part of this, at least for the Judge, is going to be portraying the arm. Ultimately, the Player Characters can find a way home, but if they are in any way transformed, will they want to? If they decide to stay, the Judge will find further information about the world of Algol in Dungeon Crawl Classics #84: Peril on the Purple Planet and of course, ‘Expedition to Algol’ can be used as an introduction to that campaign setting. ‘Expedition to Algol’ is an excellent scenario, whether used as a one-shot or introduction.

‘The Heist’ is the second adventure in the DCC Day 2020 Adventure Pack. This is for Third Level Player Characters and is written for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set. As small-time crooks—thieves, burglars, and cutpurses—the Player Characters all know that the treasure hoard of the merchant-lord Duke Oraso is only bettered by the Overlord of Lankhmar himself. The most famous of his fabulous treasures are the Stars of Lankhmar, three enormous jewels that the duke has pledged to the Gods of Lankhmar, though not yet delivered. Whilst many a thief has sworn an oath into his cups to steal such treasures, none have succeeded, but when news comes that Duke Oraso will throw open the gates of his city manse and host a grand fête for all the nobles of the city, the opportunity to burgle one of the richest men in the city and do it under his very nose, is not to be missed. With this set-up, ‘The Heist’ is one-part grand soirée, one-part mystery play, and one-part dungeon, and all together, a grand affair.

The Player Characters will need to procure disguises and decide how they want to get into the duke’s manse and then begin their search of it—above and below ground—for the duke’s treasure vault. There are lots of opportunities for sneaking around, roleplaying (especially with dissolute members of the nobility), and larceny, all under the watchful gaze of the duke’s guards and his assistant, the Vizier. For the most part, the Player Characters are free to move around as they want, though their disguises will work better in some areas of the Manse than other, and there are a number of timed events throughout the evening. The Player Characters only really have to be present for grand finale to the duke’s mystery play. The scenario includes a full map of the Manse, both above and below ground, a table of rumours and gossip, timeline, a big table of nobles in attendance whom the Player Characters can mingle and hobnob with, a smaller table of treasures to purloin, and a quick-sheet of rules from the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set for easy reference or if the Judge is running the scenario using just Dungeon Crawl Classics. The only thing missing perhaps is a table of possible relationships between the nobles attending the fête and more item descriptions of the things that the Player Characters can steal to add flavour and verisimilitude rather than just monetary value.

‘The Heist’ is a grand affair and at twenty-four pages in length, not just the longest scenario in the DCC Day 2020 Adventure Pack, but its highlight. This is a great scenario, very well supported, with plenty of options in terms of how the Player Characters approach what could be a very Oceans 11-style heist. However, it is far too big and far too detailed to be really run as a one-shot or convention scenario as suggested, and given how good the scenario is, what is it still doing hidden away in the pages of the DCC Day 2020 Adventure Pack and not being more readily available for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Judge? Hopefully, if there is an anthology of scenarios for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set, this one will be included. It deserves a reprint and to be better known to Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Judges.

The third and final scenario is ‘Ruins of Future Past’. Designed for Player Characters of First Level, this is for use with Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic. It begins with the Player Characters stumbling into a temporal rift and being sent swirling back in time to find themselves in a stone complex inhabited by an annoyed out of time ‘ghost’, and full of weirdness such as edible mushrooms seeking human comfort that sprout from the walls, a puppet show performed by skeletons, a library arranged as a perpetual spiral of book piles, and a thing of wax stretched so membranously thin it covers a whole room. This is the partially abandoned workshop of Ram’Gan, a wizard who specialises in the magic of time and considers himself to be a ‘chronoartist’ and much of the contents of the workshop consists of incomplete or failed experiments from his ‘art’. Located in a former temple to a minor pharaoh, ‘Ruins of Future Past’ concludes with a confrontation with one or more temporal echoes of Ram’Gan, such as ‘Primordial Ram’Gan the Vicious’ or ‘Black Powder Ram’Gan the Leadslinger’ and the discovery of a ‘time tunnel’. This can be used to get the Player Characters home or alternatively, thrown through time to their next adventure.

Although there are some technological treasures to be found at the end of the adventure, ‘Ruins of Future Past’ is only nominally a scenario for Mutant Crawl Classics. Of course, it pulls the Player Characters from Terra A.D. and out of time, but what they end up in feels like and is written as a dungeon more suitable for Dungeon Crawl Classics than Mutant Crawl Classics. The fact that the scenario is not written from the point of view of the Mutant Player Character and that the author suggests that it is “equally suitable for equivalent-level Dungeon Crawl Classics characters” lends itself to the suggestion that this was a Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure quickly repurposed to Mutant Crawl Classics with mentions of Terra A.D. at the beginning and end of the scenario. That said, as a Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure, ‘Ruins of Future Past’ delivers all of the Swords & Sorcery weirdness you would expect of a Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure and as a Mutant Crawl Classics adventure it works as a ‘fish out of water’—or ‘mutants out of time’—scenario. In either, its ‘thrown out of time’ start makes it easy to drop into a campaign and if the Judge wanted to start a time travel campaign using either Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic or the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, this would be a good jumping off point.

Physically, the DCC Day 2020 Adventure Pack is as decently presented as you would expect from Goodman Games. The adventures are well-written, the artwork decent, and the cartography excellent.

Of course, the DCC Day 2020 Adventure Pack was a bargain when it was released for DCC Day back in 2020. After all, it was free! Plus, all three scenarios are playable, with one scenario—‘Expedition to Algol’—being good and one scenario—‘The Heist’—being really good. In fact, ‘The Heist’ is a must have scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Judge, making the DCC Day 2020 Adventure Pack a worthwhile purchase for that alone. In which case, the other two adventures are a bonus.

Friday, 1 September 2023

Friday Fantasy: DCC Day #1 Shadow of the Beakmen

As well as contributing to Free RPG Day every year Goodman Games also has its own ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day’, which sadly, can be a very North American event. The day is notable not only for the events and the range of adventures being played for Goodman Games’ roleplaying games, but also for the scenarios it releases specifically to be played on the day. For ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day 2020’, which took place on Saturday, May 16th, 2020, the publisher released two items. The first was DCC Day #1: Shadow of the Beakmen, a single scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. The second was the DCC Day 2020 Adventure Pack, which not only provided support for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, but also for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set, with a scenario for each. This format has been has been followed for each subsequent DCC Day, that is, a single scenario and an anthology containing two or three scenarios, all of them short, relatively easy to run and add to an ongoing campaign, or even use as a one-shot of convention game.

DCC Day #1: Shadow of the Beakmen is short and it is designed to be played within a four-hour slot, whether that is at a convention or on DCC Day itself. The scenario is designed for a party of four to eight First Level Player Characters. They are travelling between locations when they come across a small village standing on a lake. From the settlement echo screams and cries of terror, smoke hangs over its rooftops from the buildings already set ablaze, and strange figures move in the shimmering light, some riding crocodiles and wielding a lance of stone tipped with a weird green light in a perversion of the knights of old. Yet this is not what catches the eyes of the adventurers, for a blazing emerald light emanates from beside the lake. There is something dangerous happening there, more dangerous than the marauders roving the streets of the village. As befits a one-shot or convention-style scenario, such as DCC Day #1: Shadow of the Beakmen is that it leaps straight into the situation, presenting the players and their characters with a choice—do they rush to the villagers’ aid or do they ride away? Now to be fair, the Player Characters will be pulled into the adventure whatever choice they make, but DCC Day #1: Shadow of the Beakmen will be all the more interesting if the players decide that the best course of action is to intervene.

Intervention then, sets up what is actually the best scene in the scenario. This is the running battle across the village, down its streets and into the marketplace to the docks and the edge of the lake. It is handled as a series of random encounters, with villagers begging for help, buildings collapsing into flames, and encounters with the strange beaked humanoids, some of whom are riding crocodiles and wielding green-tipped lances, that are attacking the village and attempting to capture the villagers. It feels brutal and desperate. Once at the lakeside, the Player Characters can discover the cause of the light, something strange is summoning something even worse than that attacking the village. More of the beak-faced men! This sets a big battle, but defeating them gives the Player Characters the chance to discover more about the invaders.

The second part of the scenario takes place in the Malachite Stele, a giant stone tower that has erupted from the lake as a result of the summoning. It is a traditional dungeon, although limited to just nine locations and is thus linear in nature. Fortunately, its brevity is made up by its atmosphere, which is muddy and murky, squelchy and slimy, the damp meaning it is also cold. It is thoroughly unpleasant. There is also a good mix of encounters throughout the dungeon. There are pools where the Player Characters can gain great boons or suffer terrible banes in classically random chances, there are chambers with egg sacs incubating more beakmen much like those of Aliens, and there is a challenging big boss encounter at the end, but in between there is the second-best scene in the scenario. This is with the Weaver, a corpulent woman with long silver hair and eight segmented limbs, who spinning the silk that each egg sac is made from. She wants to escape and in the main bit of roleplaying in the scenario, will negotiate for her release. Of course, she cannot be exactly trusted, and it is suggested that if freed, she will want to play a role in the future lives of the Player Characters. Further, if her web is plucked, it enables a Player Character to scry another location in the Malachite Stele complex. This can be random, but it can also be used to hint that the complex contains more rooms than at first seems. Several are behind a secret door—though there is another, more dangerous means of access—and the foresight granted by the web should help the Player Characters to progress further.

Finally, at the top of the Malachite Stele, the Player Characters will face the villain of the scenario, the Master of Shadows. This is a challenging fight, both for the Player Characters to fight and the Judge to run.

Physically, DCC Day #1: Shadow of the Beakmen is decently done. It is lightly illustrated, but the artwork is decent. If there is an issue with the artwork, it is that the Weaver is not illustrated and considering that she has the possibility of her playing a role in the future lives of the Player Characters, not illustrating her was a missed opportunity. Both maps are well done though, and the monsters stats being placed on their stat cards at the back of the adventure makes them easy to use.

DCC Day #1: Shadow of the Beakmen starts with the cliché of a village in peril and gives it an immediacy rarely embraced by that cliché, throwing the Player Characters straight into the action and facing some very strange creatures! The scenario has a couple of really good scenes and plenty of action and really makes for a good low-Level one-shot or convention scenario.

Saturday, 22 July 2023

Kaiju Crawl

Crash of the Titans is designed for a party of between four and six Third Level Player Characters which takes them into a unique environment to face—well, actually, to not face—but dodge and work around a pair of kaiju-sized monsters! The Holy Medicinal Order asks the Player Characters to help find a replacement power source for its most precious device of the Ancients—a rejuv-chamber—which is capable of healing almost any injury or illness. It requires a Q-Pack, one of the rarest of power cells and the Order knows of only one source where another can be found—the City of Storms. This is located in a nearby city of the Ancients and is renowned for the electrical storms which play out above its skies. However, when the Player Characters arrive, they discover that the skies are clear and the area, buildings and all, sits in a swamp of acidic water. This though is the very least of their problems.

As the Player Characters explore the area, they disturb not one, but giant mutants, one an insectoid monstrosity, the other all tentacles, and both towering over the Player Characters and the area. Both monsters wander the area randomly, stomping on the Player Characters if they notice them, and battling each other when end up in the same location. The region consists of six hexes surrounding a central hex which is a lake. There are encounters to be had and locations to be explored and scavenged in each of the six surrounding hexes amongst the old industrial and residential buildings. In other adventures for Mutant Crawl Classics, the number of artefacts that the Player Characters can find and make use of does sometimes feel scanty, but here the number feels about right given the limited number of locations and size of the scenario. The progress of the Player Characters is both hampered and driven by the looming presence and threat of the giant mutants, but it is also helped by a much larger, but more of an environmental nature mutant, which literally whispers hints to them as they move around the area.

Eventually, the Player Characters will find a Q-Pack, but will be faced with another problem—how to charge it! Thus sets up the second half of the scenario as the Player Characters ascend the vine-entwined walls of the area’s only standing building. This is a power tower and once inside, they will need to find a way to restore it to full operation and charge the Q-Pack, setting up the climax of the scenario in true King Kong kaiju style!

Crash of the Titans is a short adventure, which can be played in a single session, but probably best plays out in two. There is a sense of openness to the scenario with its relatively flat, swamp location combined with the ominous presence of the two giant mutants wandering around the region, sometimes clashing and fighting each other, forcing the Player Characters to flee. All of this can be played out on the scenario’s map which is presented in full colour inside its wraparound card cover. The scenario even comes with a pair of standees, one for each giant mutant, which the Judge can cut out of the cover and then use to indicate where each giant mutant is on the map. Whilst this would give the scenario a sense of space, would a Judge really want to cut holes in Crash of the Titans’ fantastic cover?

Physically, Crash of the Titans is very nicely presented. The cover hints at the adventure to come and the map inside the wraparound cover is very nice. In fact, it is actually good to see a map for Mutant Crawl Classics done in full colour like this. The scenario is otherwise well written, easy to understand, and straightforward to run.

If perhaps Crash of the Titans is missing anything it is that the whispering ally that the Player Characters encounter during the scenario could have been developed further, perhaps as a Patron—an alternative to the Patron A.I.s usually encountered in the Mutant Crawl Classics? Otherwise, Crash of the Titans is a great little scenario for Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, one which packs a lot of inventive adventure into its few pages. Overall, of the releases for ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day 2023’, Crash of the Titans is the best of the three scenarios released.

Friday, 21 July 2023

Friday Fantasy: DCC Day #3 Chanters in the Dark

As well as contributing to Free RPG Day every year Goodman Games also has its own ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day’, which sadly, is a very North American event. The day is notable not only for the events and the range of adventures being played for Goodman Games’ roleplaying games, but also for the scenarios it releases specifically to be played on the day. For ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day 2022’, which took place on Saturday, July 16th, 2022, the publisher released not one, not two, but three items for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic. These included Dungeon Crawl Classics Day: The Book of Fallen Gods , a book of Patron ‘Un-gods’, gods who were, and whose worship has drastically dwindled, but were the Player Character Wizards and Clerics to find them, would accept worship once again; the DCC Day 2022 Adventure Pack, which contained two scenarios, one for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and one for Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic; and DCC Day #3 Chanters in the Dark, a separate scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. With ‘Dungeon Crawl Classics Day 2023’ taking place tomorrow on Saturday, July 22nd and with a preview of the DCC Day 2023 Adventure Pack, the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game scenario for the event, having already been published, it is DCC Day #3 Chanters in the Dark which is being reviewed today.

DCC Day #3 Chanters in the Dark is a bit special. Designed for a party of between four and eight Player Characters of First Level, it begins en media res, with their being aboard a boat that hurtling along an underground river before plunging deeper into the earth. This is exactly how Dungeon Crawl Classics #67: Sailors on the Starless Sea, the classic Character Funnel ended and although it can be run as a standalone adventure, DCC Day #3 Chanters in the Dark is actually designed as a sequel to Dungeon Crawl Classics #67: Sailors on the Starless Sea. To that end, it even includes advice on how the Player Characters can Level up, from Zero Level to First Level within the confines of the scenario given that they are far away the surface and home. The most amusing of this advice is what to do with the animals that Zero Level Player Characters sometimes begin play with at the start of Character Funnels. Essentially, chickens and ducks will not be a problem per se, but if a Player Character former farmer and would-be adventurer really wants to bring his pig or his cow along, there might be more of an issue. Otherwise, the leveling up advice covers the acquisition of spells for Clerics, Elves, and Wizards, as well both tools and skills for thieves.

The river dumps the Player Characters in the cave entrance to the Lost City of Quetat, an underground, alien city much in the mold of I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City. The city is small, dominated by an arena and an entrance to a temple. It is primarily inhabited by beastmen of various types, many of which seem to be suffering from Anophthalmia. However, this does not seem to bother the transient beastmen who regularly move from one of the city’s simple, but ancient dwellings to another. Their lives are dominated by the worship of Yuzz and part of this involves the sacrifice of their eyes. This does not disturb them unduly and they see it as part of both worship and normal life. Plus, the eyes do grow back. However, the continued worship of Yuzz and the dominance of its priesthood has divided the Beastmen. Reformers seek change and want to overthrow the priests of the Temple of Yuzz and the beastmen’s dependence on the Great Fungal Mound which lies at the heart of their faith and their subsistence. Rebuilders want the Player Characters to stay and become part of the community, providing the Beastmen with new blood and possibly, new leadership. The Religious want continued worship of Yuzz and consumption of the Great Fungal Mound and acceptance of the sacrifice of their eyes and the narcotic effect of the Great Fungal Mound. The Religious will regard the Player Characters as interlopers and an evil threat to the city if they do not leave or conform.

The progress of the Player Characters will driven by three factors. One is the need to find a way out and a means to return to the surface world. The other is the three factions and interacting with one, two, or all three of them, even allying with one of them, which is likely to be the Reformers. Combining these is a series of events which will very likely influence the reactions and opinions of the Player Characters as they go about the city in pursuit of the other factors. There are some genuinely creepy moments in the scenario, such as stumbling upon one of the blind Beastmen for the first time, encountering the elephantine Caretaker with its proboscis that it uses to literally suck the eyeballs out of its victims—willing or unwilling, the weirdness of the temple and the priesthood, and the moment that that one of the Player Characters has the eyeballs sucked out of his head! There are rules included for this and the effects of being both partially and totally blind included, but rest assured that this is horribly disturbing and means that is DCC Day #3 Chanters in the Dark best suited for a mature audience and its genre is as much horror as it is fantasy. At best, most players are going find this aspect of the scenario ‘icky’, at best, at worst, ommetaphobia-inducing.

The emphasis in DCC Day #3 Chanters in the Dark veers towards exploration and interaction, but there is plenty of combat in the scenario as well, so that overall mix is fairly balanced. Although the actions of the Player Characters can alter the balance of power in the Quetat, they cannot solve the problem at the core of the situation as they are far too low Level. Ultimately, they will turn to attempting to escape that that presents a very physical challenge, which can end with the Player Characters successfully escaping to surface or being trapped in Lost City of Quetat...

Physically, DCC Day #3 Chanters in the Dark is decently done. It is lightly illustrated, but the artwork is okay. It it is a pity that the eye-sucking monster was not illustrated. The maps are clear and easy to read, although there is a disconnect between the main map and the internal map of a building in that the number for the main building is not in keeping with the numbering of its internal locations so that there is no location number ‘2’ on the main map, but its internal locations all start with ‘2’.

DCC Day #3 Chanters in the Dark details a low level, unworldly lost city in the tradition of classic scenarios of the past and classic pulp stories, but makes it creepier and weirder and even more claustrophobic. This is great little scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game for First Level Player Characters which will challenge them to survive right to the very end.

Friday, 14 July 2023

Friday Fantasy: DCC Day 2023 Adventure Pack

The first adventure in the DCC Day 2023 Adventure Pack is ‘The Rift of the Seeping Night’. Designed for a party of between five and seven First Level Player Characters, it is notable for being the winner of the of the ‘2022 Mystery Map Contest. The scenario begins with the Player Characters summoned to the normally sunlit city of Sphyre high in the Torrith Mountains. Here the people have worshipped the sun for centuries, but now the pattern of day and night has changed, the latter longer, the former shorter. Normally, the city is protected by the immortal wizard, Baltothume, but something must have happened to him for the light of the sun to have begun failing, so the Player Characters are expected to enter the and explore the outpost when he has lived for thousands of years. The outpost is quite small, consisting of just nineteen locations divided between two halves. The first half is where Baltothume lived and worked and feels quite tight and worked to be liveable, whereas the second half is darker and has rougher-hewn, natural feel to it, of a far wider space than the Player Characters can see.

To progress beyond the first half, the Player Characters will need to explore the facility and solve several puzzles, all possessing a solar nature, requiring either light or shadow. There are a few encounters here, but in the main they are just about enough of a threat to First Level Player Characters. The scenario is puzzle-orientated—so much so that they require their own notes—their being solved opens the way into the dungeon’s second half and then back again for its dénouement after that. Surprisingly, for a scenario of this size, it does includes more than the route between the two, preventing the scenario from stalling when the Player Characters cannot make any further progress. That said, the players and their characters may find themselves stalling when attempting to solve the scenario’s puzzles. Careful attention to detail is required and the Judge should definitely make notes as part of her preparation to run ‘The Rift of the Seeping Night’, both to help her understanding and to help her players and their characters come to understand how it works.

‘The Rift of the Seeping Night’ is a neat, nicely self-contained—of course, decently detailed, dungeon which can played through in a session or two. The detail extends to a pair of entertainingly memorable magical items that will help the Player Characters in the exploration of the dungeon. The combination of its puzzles and theme of night and day that split the dungeon should engage players who like to think their way through a situation and the Judge should definitely prepare for that.

The second adventure in the DCC Day 2023 Adventure Pack is ‘Grave of the Gearwright’. Designed for a party of between four and six Second Level Player Characters, it is actually inspired by DragonMech, the fantasy-steampunk-mecha setting published by Goodman Games in 2004. (Perhaps the scenario is a precursor to it being re-released, this time for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game? Who knows? Watch this space in 2024 on the roleplaying game’s twentieth anniversary.) That said, the scenario is not specifically designed to be run using that setting, but rather as an adventure for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game which combines magic and machinery. The scenario definitely requires a Thief, whilst Player Characters with a mechanical or engineering inclination will also be useful. Clerics or Wizards with mind or nature-affecting spells will find their spells to be less effective in the scenario given the nature of the dangers that the Player Characters will face.

Master Gearwright Alia Coppermantle has not been from in weeks. Perhaps they are tasked with checking on her well-being by a friend or stealing some of her secrets by a rival, but in whatever way they get involved, the Player Characters begin the scenario outside her tower, about to break in. That is quickly achieved and once inside, they will find the tower and its workshops below to be occupied by creatures that resemble weird balls of spiked tentacles and Dwarves very mechanically going about their work. If the Player Characters can defeat one of the constantly working Dwarves, they should learn some of what has been going on at the workshop (the Judge will need to prepare exactly what each Dwarf can remember as it will be different for each one), but not quite the true nature of the threat. That is invasion! From the Moon, no less! Ultimately, whether they sneak their way through the complex via its ventilation shafts—because ‘Grave of the Gearwright’ is as much Science Fiction as it is Fantasy and technological as much as it is magical, and therefore really, really needs ventilation shafts—the Player Characters can locate the missing Gearwright and learn what has happened in the workshop. Here the Judge will need to be a little inventive as Master Gearwright Alia Coppermantle has lost her voice. Nevertheless, that is not going to stop her and the scenario will climax with a battle for possession of the mecha that she was constructing.

‘Grave of the Gearwright’ is definitely more Science Fiction than fantasy in its feel and trappings. It does offer the opportunity for a Player Character to begin to learn engineering as a skill and even take the Great Machine as a Patron. What it does not do is let the Player Characters take control of the mecha, which would have been fun for the final scenes in the scenario. The fight up and down the giant robot, as well as atop it, is a great stage upon which to have a battle though. Otherwise, ‘Grave of the Gearwright’ is the more straightforward of the two scenarios in DCC Day 2023 Adventure Pack with an emphasis on combat and stealth. It also pushes the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game slightly in a direction that the roleplaying game as a whole is not quite compatible with as written, but this will vary from one Judge to the next.

Physically, the DCC Day 2023 Adventure Pack is decently done. The artwork is fun and the maps clear, and both scenarios are well written and easy to read.

Of the two scenarios in the DCC Day 2023 Adventure Pack, ‘The Rift of the Seeping Night’ is both more interesting and more challenging, as well as easier to add to campaign. Otherwise, with two different scenarios in terms of tone and mystery for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, the DCC Day 2023 Adventure Pack contains two entertaining scenarios as you would expect from Goodman Games.

Friday, 4 November 2022

Friday Fantasy: DCC Day 2021 Adventure Pack

The DCC Day 2021 Adventure Pack opens with ‘Temple Siege!’. This is designed for five to six First Level Player Characters and draws directly from ‘Appendix N’ by being inspired by the Cossacks stories of Harold Lamb, an influence on Robert E. Howard. The Player Characters will definitely encounter horse nomads—and they prove to be a rough, evil lot, ready to kill the Player Characters and take whatever they have. ‘Temple Siege!’ is a very different scenario. Rather than being an atypical dungeon, it takes place entirely in the confines of a single location. Such a constraint is a challenge to the author. Can he create an interesting location and an interesting plot built around the one place? Often, these are ‘locked room’ style adventures, but ‘Temple Siege!’ is not quite that. Rather, the Player Characters are trapped within the confines of the site, but the door is open and the enemy really wants to get in!

‘Temple Siege!’ takes place on the nomad steppes where the Player Characters have come to plunder an ancient temple, but not long after they enter its confines, they are besieged by a band of nomads. The Player Characters have a limited number of actions they can take between wave upon wave of nomad incursions inside the temple, but they also have a lot to examine in the temple. There are puzzles to be solved and traps to be discovered, some of which will lead to means and ways that the Player Characters can use to their advantage. To that end, the Judge is provided with a wealth of detail which she will need to understand and be able to impart to her players as their characters, as well as handle the three different waves of vile nomads, each of which is slightly different. The progress of the Player Characters will be greatly hampered if they do not have a Thief amongst their number. ‘Temple Siege!’ is a scenario which will keep a Thief really busy just as it will keep a Fighter—and other Classes—busy facing off against the nomads outside. ‘Temple Siege!’ might be slightly too long a scenario to run in a single session and its isolated, nomad steppe location make it a little too difficult to add to a campaign, although the prominent role of the Thief Class in the scenario means that it could work with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set. Overall though, this is a detailed and fun scenario which combines traps, puzzles, and combat in an entertainingly fought situation.

The DCC Day 2021 Adventure Pack is really notable for its inclusion of the first scenario for Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth, the adaptation of the world of Jack Vance’s Dying Earth. ‘Fathoms Below Witch Isle’ is again a scenario for First Level Player Characters, but just three or four. However, it does not require the use of Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth and does not make use of the new Classes from Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth, but can instead be run using the standard rules from the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. (Doubtless, this will change once Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth is widely available.) The scenario opens with their travelling aboard the Calealen, a vessel pulled by giant sea worms that need careful handling throughout the journey. Due to circumstances beyond their control—and heedless of the Calealen’s somewhat scurvy crew—the Player Characters find themselves cast ashore on a decidedly strange island. One that has been turned upside down! To find out how this came about and perhaps make their escape back to sea, they must descend the upturned mountain and confront a mad hermit!

‘Fathoms Below Witch Isle’ is intentionally odd and weird, just as you would expect from something set in the world of Jack Vance’s Dying Earth. For the Judge, the language itself is ostentatious and takes some getting used to, but the scenario works just as well under the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game as it will under Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth. However, it does not quite feel weird enough, primarily because the players cannot engage with it as Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth characters yet, and only as Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game characters. This is still a decent scenario and will be enjoyable which ever version of Dungeon Crawl Classics is used.

‘The Neverwhen Rock’ is a Character Funnel for Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic. It can be run on its own, or if the Judge has access, run together with ‘Ruins of Future Past’, the scenario from the DCC Day 2020 Adventure Pack. As part of their Rite of Passage, the Player Characters are instructed by the tribal shaman to examine a strange boulder not too far away and explore the cave inside of it, the likes of which no one has ever seen before. Although their characters will have no idea as to what is going on, the players will quickly realise that this is a time travel adventure. It is a very basic one though, with an obvious nod to Doctor Who, and the Player Characters never get the chance to explore the strange boulder, merely get thrust out of it in different locations. It definitely feels like it should be more and like some of the great ideas presented in other titles from Goodman Games, it leaves the Judge left wondering what to do next if she wants to do more with that idea.

Physically, DCC Day 2021 Adventure Pack is decently done. The artwork is fun and the maps clear. The maps for both ‘Temple Siege!’ and ‘Fathoms Below Witch Isle’ are both well done. All three scenarios are well written and easy to read.

The DCC Day 2021 Adventure Pack contains three scenarios which vary in their utility and their capacity to entertain. ‘Temple Siege!’ is the standout entry, a thrillingly constrained and nicely detailed encounter which will challenge the player and their characters and is suitable for almost any Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game setting. ‘Fathoms Below Witch Isle’ is a serviceable introduction to Dungeon Crawl Classics: Dying Earth, but will really come into its own when the Judge and her players can experience the whole of what the setting has to offer, including characters Classes. In comparison, ‘The Neverwhen Rock’ feels too slight, as if it wants to be something more, but the page count is constraining it. There are more than enough Character Funnels for Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic that the Judge not really need look at this unless she has access to ‘Ruins of Future Past’ from the DCC Day 2020 Adventure Pack.