Christmas Cheer - a worldwide festive magical field

Discussion of all things magical for DCC RPG -- "Let the Phlogiston take you where it will..."

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Tokage
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Christmas Cheer - a worldwide festive magical field

Post by Tokage »

The core rules bring up that casting spells in certain places, like leylines or elemental planes, can have strange results, from bonuses or penalties to spell checks to other side effects (Magic here and magic there). Why not extend these to be based not just on place, but on time? With Christmas (or your religious equivalent) at our door and all of us, I'm sure, being filled with joy for the holidays, let's have a look at how your spellcasting might be affected during this joyous time.

A spellcaster that serves a god or a patron (like Santa himself) that would approve such nonsense gains +2 to all spell checks made to bring happiness and cheer to the hearts of all sentient beings. This is modified by a further +5 if at least one child or halfling is a recipient.
Animal Summoning always summons reindeers.
If you hate Christmas and refuse to take part to the festivities, you gain -2 to all spell checks. Rolling a critical failure has no miscast or corruption effects (though deity disapproval may still apply), but instead any recipient of your chaotic magics will instead realize Christmas was inside them all along, or any other such nonsense, and their happiness and willingness to be together only grows. Make a DC 20 will save or your heart will grow by three sizes, plus one for every 5 points you fail by.
Above characters, and any snow monsters and other creatures wishing to ruin Christmas, count as unholy creatures for all. Clerics gain +2 to spell checks to turn them, as explained above.
Thieves and halflings gain +2 to their pick pockets skills if they use them to give rather than take. Hiding, moving silently, and climbing will gain the same bonus if it's used to give stuff without being seen. In addition, their carry weight triples. All bonuses are increased to +5, and the carry weight multiplier by two (for a total of x5), if they wear bright red coats and fake beards.
Elves gain the carry weight bonus as well, along with all the spell check bonuses above, but only if they wear red and green. They're not obliged to sport fake beards.
For every non-unholy creature a warrior or a dwarf vanguishes during this time, they gain a lump of coal.
Anyone contributing to the festivities gains +1 to +3 to their luck at the end of yuletide. Failing the will save against growing heart may make you eligible for the bonus as well, at DM's discretion.

Add some more of your own if you're feeling as joyful and slightly insane as I am.
Woodland Mutant
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Re: Christmas Cheer - a worldwide festive magical field

Post by Woodland Mutant »

I dig this idea. Other significant times, like solstices or "When the Stars are Right..." could also apply.

Don't forget Krampus! The Yule Lord rewards his petitioners well during the holidays...
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Raven_Crowking
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Re: Christmas Cheer - a worldwide festive magical field

Post by Raven_Crowking »

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/123889/HT ... ttest=true

At the waning of every year, as the sun grows closer to the horizon, and spends less time in the sky, there comes a time of terrible cold and deep snow to the lands of the north. The world waits with hushed breath for this, the longest night of the year, to be over. Soon, the sun will begin to climb higher each day, and the days grow longer. Although long stretches of cold weather are yet to come, this is the night in which winter’s back is broken. After tonight, the world turns slowly back to warmth and light.

But that is after tonight.

You find yourselves in a great hall, at least 120 feet long and 60 feet wide, with a roaring blaze in the fireplace at one end. The great fire, the heart of which is a huge log some 50 feet in length, lights the hall with flickering light and dancing shadows. The shadows are even darker on the far end of the hall, where at least 40 feet are given over to fir trees growing from the floor of the hall. Indeed, the floor in that direction is covered with a thick carpet of pine needles. Between the fireplace and the trees, the hall is filled with wooden benches and tables, and what appear to be the remains of a lavish meal of roast venison, stuffed goose, pastries, and various vegetables. The room is hot from the fire. The smells of wood burning, combined with the scent of spruce and balsam and of savoury things to eat, fill the air.

The room itself vaults to a height of 60 feet with huge wooden rafters, at least a foot and a half square, crossing the expanse at about 20 feet. This is a huge space indeed.

The walls are of roughly cut and worked stone, covered in places with tapestries depicting vast polar expanses. The floors are made of flagstones. Six archways are visible, three in each of the long walls, and roughly equidistant – two of the archways lead out through the wooded area, one from each wall. Each archway is about 8 feet wide, and vaults to a height of 12 feet.


Two holiday-themed adventures for your DCC campaign; the first is the original DCC holiday adventure, which had been free on my blog when it appeared. The second was specifically designed to give judges a storyline that can use any further holiday adventures from any publisher, if the PCs are willing to keep the spirit of the holiday in their hearts.
SoBH pbp:

Cathbad the Meek (herbalist Wizard 1): AC 9; 4 hp; S 7, A 7, St 10, P 17, I 13, L 8; Neutral; Club, herbs, 50' rope, 50 cp; -1 to melee attack rolls. Hideous scar.
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