first campaign

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T_L_S
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first campaign

Post by T_L_S »

I've been playing RPGs since 1981. Played numerous systems over the years. My intro to DCC was playing in a funnel about five years ago. About two years ago I got one of those starter booklets at Free RPG Day and ran the two scenarios online. Recently I put together a group for in-person gaming. We got together last Saturday and I ran them through Beneath the Well of Brass. I had four players and each had three 0-level PCs. They were fairly careful and cautious. One player lost two of his people to shades in the gate room but nobody else lost a PC. I may have been too lenient with the fulgarates. But, everyone had fun.

The plan is to run Temple Siege! next. I have quite a few scenarios so we'll probably have a six or seven session campaign (assuming no TPKs).

This a great company with a great game. I wish I had DCC back in the 1980's.
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Re: first campaign

Post by T_L_S »

If anyone has run Temple Siege! and has some tips then let me hear them.

It looks like the party will be one elf, one halfling, one fighter and one thief. Although, we may get another player for the next session.
T_L_S
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Re: first campaign

Post by T_L_S »

I know this company produced modules for D&D3.5 some years ago and they used a "World of Aereth" setting. Are the modules for the DCC system supposed to also be set in that same world?
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Re: first campaign

Post by GnomeBoy »

There are references to Aereth -- the biggest being Journey to the Center of Aereth!

These references mostly take the form of "hey, we gotta name this town something whatever we do, so we might as well use something from Aereth," but I think they are mostly down to author whim, not any policy that the modules are specifically set within the World of Aereth... More like an Easter Egg.
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Re: first campaign

Post by herecomethejudge »

T_L_S wrote: Tue Apr 05, 2022 9:29 am I know this company produced modules for D&D3.5 some years ago and they used a "World of Aereth" setting. Are the modules for the DCC system supposed to also be set in that same world?
Loosely, yes, though by no means do you need to read through the older 3.0 Aereth sourcebooks to do DCC RPG. Biggest help that the older guides have been for me was in fleshing out some of the deities.
T_L_S
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Re: first campaign

Post by T_L_S »

We still have not done the second session due to scheduling problems and various delays. We might get to it in two weeks.

It's amazing how hard it is to get folks together even when the plan is to have only one session per month.
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Re: first campaign

Post by Bobjester »

My first DCC game (and funnel!) was also Beneath the Well of Brass! I had the same problem with the lack of character death, but I had problems understanding the description of the flame spurts in the well, and handling the shades at the gate and not having any of the efreeti guards attack in the throne/treasure room.

In the future, I'd simplify the flame column in the well to instead of counting down (in your own head) how many rounds between flame spurts, to simply have each character make a saving throw. If they save, then the flame didn't spurt on their way down. If they failed, then a flame spurt got them.

Surving the attack by the shades at the gate was pure luck. I may have given away the importance of exact location of each character by asking each player to point out where their characters were standing on a battleboard drawn out for that room.

The efreeti not attacking was pure chance. A bad initiative or stealth roll (all players rolled incredibly high for their stealth checks!). Next time, I'll have the characters make a saving throw against setting off a magical alarm when any of the treasure is touched which alerts 1 or 2 efreeti guards!

My second ever DCC game was also Temple Siege! It was great, although I only had one player, so I let him run all four of his surviving characters from Well of Brass (above).

I added some exposition to get them from their dreary "Siberian" village to the arid Cossack steppes involving the Chaotic nature of the Key to Sezrekan found in Well. An off-screen character who found the Key opened a portal (as the Well suggests) and the present player's characters fell or jumped through, following the now Chaotic 1st level wizard & thief of the Key of Sezrekan.

This scenario worked out almost exactly as written, and I didn't have to push the player to make any correct decisions. Even the cypher was decoded within minutes after finding the decipher code in the Angelz Eye, and the player stated how much he hates real world puzzles like this in D&D games!

I think following the suggestions of how to balance search actions between attack waves of Bodko's forces were spot on. It gave the player enough time to find clues & decipher them, although he did not explore either of the two side rooms.

One of the NPCs they followed through the opened portal (my own expositional device) was hiding in one of the rooms - the one with the dragon statuette/flamethrower. He revealed himself when one of the player's 4 characters was slain, having two of the three flame shots left. He used one flame shot to kill Jimji (wave 2 leader), and as a replacement option for the player's use, if he so chose to take. (He did.)

He deciphered the cypher's clues about the Standard of Yoangyr and the Axe of the Hunter location and got to searching. They recovered them in time for the 3rd and final wave, the character's less-than-average but lucky rolling Noble took up the axe and rolled a natural 20 on his first attack against Bodko, nearly killing him in one blow!

It was a great finale, and the player mopped up the temple, earning much XP and loot in the process.

They did not, however, find a certain egg, nor did they take the bodies of the slain tribesmen for a bounty. They also forgot about the 3 remaining "gibberers" that were turned by the Standard of Yoangyr. They are still roaming about the steppes, soon to attract attention from their demonic lord who will seek vengeance on the killers of Bodko, and will multiply the gibberers in number!

Two things I noticed: With one player, he tends to not make greatly informed choices because he didn't have another player to bounce ideas with.

In Temple Siege, time is granted to players to search, but, choices will be critical. If they'd found and discovered how to operate the flame throwing dragon statue, they have a good chance of survival. My lone player didn't search the two smaller rooms, but he made a lot of good choices at the altar, the cypher and the holy relics!

Without the altar's two hidden features (the hidden great crossbow and the holy water basin) all 4 of his characters would be dead. Without the Axe of the Hunter's lucky nat20, Bodko could have done far more damage.

Jimji's rubbery shadow entrance by horn freaked the player out!

I didn't calculate XP until the next day after I had returned home. Using the core rules suggestion of 1-4 XP per encounter, I broke this adventure down to each entry location & 1-2 XP for each entry explored, awarding 3 or 4 for great decision making, and for the attacking waves, I awarded 1-4 XP for each.

I don't remember the exact totals, but for every entry I read & they explored, they got XP for. Things not discovered, no XP.
The grand total was 42 XP, just 8 XP shy of each character reaching 2nd level. The replacement character only received half (21) because he was only under the player's control for half the time.

Over all, this adventure was a lot of fun to run and the player had a great time. The critical hits & fumbles are the frosting on the cake for DCC!

Setting wise: I recently got Tales From the Fallen Empire from Chapter 13 Press, and this is just the kind of sword & sorcery style setting I wanted in the first place, so I will probably use a lot of material from this sourcebook for my own home-made campaign world of Buornemonde-Zenimir.
“The wounds received in battle bestow honor, they do not take it away...”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
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Re: first campaign

Post by Bobjester »

Follow up on Temple Siege: The leader of the 2nd wave, Jimji the Shadow has spell-like powers (Hypnotic Command and Unbar Portal) that you have to use as written, as I could not find Hypnotic Command listed as a wizard or clerical spell in the DCC core rulebook. I did not look up Unbar Portal, as the situation never arose.

Luckily, the power descriptions are enough to get you through the encounter without any undue consternation. They have DCs and if-then results, and ability durations, and the like.
“The wounds received in battle bestow honor, they do not take it away...”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
T_L_S
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Re: first campaign

Post by T_L_S »

We were supposed to do the second session today but again folks had to cancel! It is getting annoying.

Thus, we have not yet done Temple Siege! but I'm hoping I can make it happen in June.
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