Edgewise
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Hey guys, I made an adventure! It's called The Magician's House, and naturally enough, it's for DCC. Here's the google doc link:
I would have uploaded it to resources, but it's just too long. It's probably the maps, since every room or significant location gets its own full-page graphic.
So let me tell you about The Magician's House...
What's it about?
The city is going to be destroyed unless someone reads the inscription from the Sealing Stone before the attack of the demon cultist army. Sure, people can translate the runes, but only one man knows how they sound: Mordant the Irregular, a mage of some renown.
But Mordant hasn't been seen in a few months. Last time he was spotted outside his home, he was staggering back from a drinking binge with his friend, Lutz, in tow. The cultists are five days away, so the party is hired to break into the eponymous residence and find either the owner or some key to pronouncing the runes of the Sealing Stone.
What's it like?
The House isn't huge, but it's one of those wizard deals where each room is in a different pocket universe or plane and the doors are actually seamless portals. That means that there's a huge variety of locations, and there's a lot going on in every one.
There's a prominent faerie theme to the whole affair and a lot of whimsy. The PCs can travel to the moon, to abandoned cities on the other side of the mirror, to the bottom of a deep sea coral bed and a library that covers an entire planet. There are children and ogres and aliens and magic rings with secret command words.
What are the specs?
The adventure is written as a one-off with pre-generated characters; I provide one second-level character of each DCC core class. Each character has two Win conditions and one Lose condition. If the Lose condition is fulfilled, the PC "loses." If it is not fulfilled and either or both of the Win conditions is met, then the PC "wins." Otherwise, he or she muddles through.
Of course, there is no need to play it as a one-off. This can easily be inserted into a campaign with a couple of minor considerations.
There are 18 numbered locations (with a few sub-locations), and each gets its own map. The nature of layout means that it doesn't really fit together in three dimensional space, so there's no map for the entire thing. There are plenty of loops, and all the "secret doors" require a lot more thinking that rolling.
Almost all the NPCs can be interacted with, and there are factions and cross-purposes aplenty. It is technically possible to complete the adventure without any combat, but most parties are going to be a bit more aggressive.
What else? In addition to wholly original magic items and mostly new monsters, there are five new arcane spells and three new patrons. Plus there are seven handouts for the players.
What's lacking?
Art. Layout. Editing.
As for the last of these, this thing is way too long at 121 pages! For 18 numbered locations, that's the sort of thing for which Bryce routinely crucifies designers. Now, in all fairness, when you take away the maps, handouts, pre-generated PCs, new spells, new patrons and rumor tables, you're left with about sixty pages. That's still too much for eighteen locations, of course.
Now in double fairness, some of these locations have sub-locations. One of them technically comprises an entire planet, while another takes place in an abandoned city. And there's a lot going on in those locations. I worked pretty hard to exclude unnecessary content.
But it still seems like way too much. There are probably multiple categories of things that I can omit or tighten up. If anyone has any suggestions along those lines, feel free to pass them on to me.
And of course I welcome any other feedback as well.
UPDATE 1/21/2019: It now has (public domain) art and layout (two-column, nice fonts), and has received a few revisions from self-editing. The length is down to 110 pages without art, 119 with. It could still benefit from a critical look from a new pair of eyes, some better (commissioned) art, and professional layout, but it's come a long way.
Availability
Consider this to be freely available to anyone who wants to read or even use it. Feel free to rip off ideas as you like. In the near future, I'd like to spiff it up just enough to put it on DriveThru as PWYW. If enough people seem to like it, I may look into putting together a more professional version in the longer term - something with art and actual layout, for instance.
Heck, it's probably not legal right now, because I have no idea where I got the images in a couple of the handouts. I'm planning to replace those with original art as soon as is feasible, even if it's a couple laughable scribbles in MS Paint.
If you grab this, I'd love to hear what you think in this thread. I'd be super interested if anyone wants to run it; I've already run it three times but it needs more of that. Let me know if that happens.
Enjoy!
I would have uploaded it to resources, but it's just too long. It's probably the maps, since every room or significant location gets its own full-page graphic.
So let me tell you about The Magician's House...
What's it about?
The city is going to be destroyed unless someone reads the inscription from the Sealing Stone before the attack of the demon cultist army. Sure, people can translate the runes, but only one man knows how they sound: Mordant the Irregular, a mage of some renown.
But Mordant hasn't been seen in a few months. Last time he was spotted outside his home, he was staggering back from a drinking binge with his friend, Lutz, in tow. The cultists are five days away, so the party is hired to break into the eponymous residence and find either the owner or some key to pronouncing the runes of the Sealing Stone.
What's it like?
The House isn't huge, but it's one of those wizard deals where each room is in a different pocket universe or plane and the doors are actually seamless portals. That means that there's a huge variety of locations, and there's a lot going on in every one.
There's a prominent faerie theme to the whole affair and a lot of whimsy. The PCs can travel to the moon, to abandoned cities on the other side of the mirror, to the bottom of a deep sea coral bed and a library that covers an entire planet. There are children and ogres and aliens and magic rings with secret command words.
What are the specs?
The adventure is written as a one-off with pre-generated characters; I provide one second-level character of each DCC core class. Each character has two Win conditions and one Lose condition. If the Lose condition is fulfilled, the PC "loses." If it is not fulfilled and either or both of the Win conditions is met, then the PC "wins." Otherwise, he or she muddles through.
Of course, there is no need to play it as a one-off. This can easily be inserted into a campaign with a couple of minor considerations.
There are 18 numbered locations (with a few sub-locations), and each gets its own map. The nature of layout means that it doesn't really fit together in three dimensional space, so there's no map for the entire thing. There are plenty of loops, and all the "secret doors" require a lot more thinking that rolling.
Almost all the NPCs can be interacted with, and there are factions and cross-purposes aplenty. It is technically possible to complete the adventure without any combat, but most parties are going to be a bit more aggressive.
What else? In addition to wholly original magic items and mostly new monsters, there are five new arcane spells and three new patrons. Plus there are seven handouts for the players.
What's lacking?
Art. Layout. Editing.
As for the last of these, this thing is way too long at 121 pages! For 18 numbered locations, that's the sort of thing for which Bryce routinely crucifies designers. Now, in all fairness, when you take away the maps, handouts, pre-generated PCs, new spells, new patrons and rumor tables, you're left with about sixty pages. That's still too much for eighteen locations, of course.
Now in double fairness, some of these locations have sub-locations. One of them technically comprises an entire planet, while another takes place in an abandoned city. And there's a lot going on in those locations. I worked pretty hard to exclude unnecessary content.
But it still seems like way too much. There are probably multiple categories of things that I can omit or tighten up. If anyone has any suggestions along those lines, feel free to pass them on to me.
And of course I welcome any other feedback as well.
UPDATE 1/21/2019: It now has (public domain) art and layout (two-column, nice fonts), and has received a few revisions from self-editing. The length is down to 110 pages without art, 119 with. It could still benefit from a critical look from a new pair of eyes, some better (commissioned) art, and professional layout, but it's come a long way.
Availability
Consider this to be freely available to anyone who wants to read or even use it. Feel free to rip off ideas as you like. In the near future, I'd like to spiff it up just enough to put it on DriveThru as PWYW. If enough people seem to like it, I may look into putting together a more professional version in the longer term - something with art and actual layout, for instance.
Heck, it's probably not legal right now, because I have no idea where I got the images in a couple of the handouts. I'm planning to replace those with original art as soon as is feasible, even if it's a couple laughable scribbles in MS Paint.
If you grab this, I'd love to hear what you think in this thread. I'd be super interested if anyone wants to run it; I've already run it three times but it needs more of that. Let me know if that happens.
Enjoy!
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