This is the first in a series of design diaries. The Music of the Spheres is Chaos has been years in the making. Let’s learn more about the design process from author of DCC #100, Harley Stroh.
Design Diary: Distilling the Chaos
by Harley Stroh
The first iteration of The Music of the Spheres is Chaos was shared somewhere around Gen Con 2015. The core of the pitch was a central spinning map, with four spinning sub-maps. It was a fun idea, and not something other publishers had done.
Other projects came up, Lankhmar exploded on the scene, other adventures needed to be had. But all the while Spheres simmered in the background.
The next iteration excised one of the sub-maps. An elemental-themed adventure, with four elemental spheres was too predictable, too symmetrical, too staid. It needed to be weird. The adventure background and logic evolved to match.
Years passed. We were creeping up on one hundred numbered DCCs. Spheres would make a good candidate to commemorate the achievement.
By now the spinning map element seemed trivial. What was going to be really cool about this adventure? (If it was ever published?) In my free time I studied what I called the backer map, the base sheet that everything else was pinned to.
What if, instead of physical locations, spinning through this map carried the PCs through the God-Eaters’ strange, alchemical cosmology? What if that cosmology could affect the PCs and their encounters? Adventuring in the House of one zodiac was beneficial to warriors and dwarves, but was a detriment to wizards and elves. To keep the math simple we’d use the dice chain rather than static modifiers.
More time passed. DCC 100 was looming. We had more adventures to publish, but we needed to get 100 out of the way so we could publish 101+.
Now instead of a 4th sub map, we would give the players something cool to study and play with, a spinning disc inscribed with weird sigils. This key would control the dungeon maps. Attentive players could use the zodiac to their advantage, transforming the challenge.
But spinning the map had to come at a cost. Each turn of the alembic had to transform the foe at the center of the map, giving it form, power, and a greater hold on the material realm. The PCs would be responsible for its power, and forced to weigh the benefit and cost of spinning the Grand Alembic.
Meanwhile, Joseph was squeezing every adventure he could into the decimal system, and non-core lines. The time to publish DCC 100 was now.
But wait. Could we add one last bit of awesomeness? What if judges could draw their own maps on the back side of spinning maps? So that every judge could take DCC 100 and make it their own?
The Music of the Spheres is Chaos benefited greatly from having time, whether by luck or my inability to write quickly. Like an alchemical stew boiling in a retort, the adventure has been distilled and refined over six long years.
Any one of the prior iterations could have been a cool adventure. Any one of the design elements could have made for a memorable module. But taken together, they built up to adventure, that – with your help – will be worthy of the title of DCC 100.
Dungeon Crawl Classics #100: The Music of the Spheres is Chaos
The boxed set is bursting with the puzzles, foes, and magic only found in a DCC RPG adventure.
Inside you will find the God Eaters’ grand alchymical experiment, with its spinning alembic and rotating elemental spheres. This takes the form of a large game board, approximately 17″ x 22″, with four separate spinning maps that attach to the board.
An adventure booklet of 112 pages provides hitherto unknown monsters, perils, and traps. These lurk in the forgotten corridors, certain to bring a quick end to overconfident explorers.
Players will have the opportunity to study and manipulate the fabled Alembic Key, a relic rife with Theophagic sigils and zodiac signs. But beware, foolhardy reavers! Rotating the key spins the dungeon, transforming the PCs and altering reality itself! Left in the hands of a fidgety player, it could easily spell the end of the multiverse. This physical prop is composed of two spinning dials and is used by players during the adventure.
And as befitting DCC #100, the adventure is replete with player handouts in the form of a 28-page booklet containing over 40 illustrations of the Alembic, its elemental spheres, and the terrors lurking within the dark halls, as well as the infamous Sheaves of Chaos.
Finally, any adventure is only as good as the judge running it. Music of the Spheres is Chaos was designed with the judge in mind. The boxed set includes the Bookmark of 4 Parts – a tool for referencing the PCs’ own changes.
This Boxed Set includes:
- Adventure Booklet (112 pages)
- Player Handout Booklet (28 pages and more than 40 illustrations)
- Large 17″ x 22″ Gameboard and four separate Spinning Maps
- Double-sided bookmark of 4 Parts (to track changes imposed by the Spinning Map)
- Alembic Key prop (used by players to spin the dungeon!)
- 3 Sheaves of Chaos handouts
