Living 4 Crits: DCCRPG World Tour Weekend

World Tour Planetary Romance

This weekend we explored two very special Dungeon Crawl Classics planets for the +Goodman Games 2016 World Tour: Venus and the Purple Planet. Here are our stories!

Cry Freedom and Let Slip the Bat-Men of Venus

For our first Road Crew event of the weekend, I ran Cry Freedom and Let Slip the Bat-Men of Venus, a Crawljammer adventure by +Tim Callahan, for the Norwin Game Knights open game night. This was not my first time running this fast and delightful space romp. Last December I reskinned the module for DCC Star Wars, titling it the Mynock Men of Sunev. Had a lot of fun then, and had a lot of fun with the adventure last night as well. Since Judge Evan (Lord Old Man Legolas of Ikea) was running his own adventure, I ran this as an "Away Team" mission for some of the other crewmembers of the Starship Tentanic.

The Post-Apocalyptic, Time-Traveling, Space Buccaneers

Seamus the Clogging Cleric - Cleric (Level 3), played by Craig
Scrooges McDucks IX - Thief (Level 3), played by Dylan
Fenrir - Robot Cleric (Level 3), played by Alex
Pickle - Warrior (Level 3), played by Michael
Lithium Shield - Halfling (Level 3), played by Jeremy
Fred - Tentacle Bard (Level 3), played by Andy
0-Level Minions - played by David

Bob the Grave Digger (RIP, killed by Laser Cat)
Scavenger Guy the Dwarven Scavenger
Corny the Corn Farmer

In our play session the away team met up with weird, bright yellow humanoid aliens, and agreed to save their princess from an evil splinter cell of their species. The space pirates went for a frontal assault on the evil Zanist treetop lair, disarming traps, freeing lasercats, and taking a guard hostage. After interrogating the guard (made easier by Fred the Tentacle's bardic abilities), the party learned of the princess's whereabouts and went directly the holding cell. Blasting a hole in the door, the space pirates tried negotiating with the jailor. When that didn't work Seamus used a cleric spell to command the jailor to open the door, deactivate the cyberdogs, and jump to his death. Winning.

Interesting Facts about Venus

Venusians speak Spanish not English.
On Venus, instead of gold pieces, dollars, or credits, the common currency is Sears Gift Cards. Unfortunately, there is no Sears located on Venus.
During the adventure the party uncovered a cache of Laser Cats:

1d12 Damage
+1D to Attack Roll (d24 instead of d20)
Range: 70/140/210
When handling for the first time, the PC must have a treat in hand. If no treat, PC makes a Reflex save (DC 15) or they get shot. If a treat is offered make a DC 15, to gain the apparent loyalty of the Laser Cat. The Laser Cat isn't really being loyal, they are just tolerating the user.
On an attack roll of a 1, the Laser Cat explodes causing 1d12 damage to everything in a 10' radius.
On a damage roll of 1 or 2, another loyalty check is required (+Doug Kovacs)
If the damage roll equals the Luck stat of the PC, something bad happens. Roll 1d4 (+Doug Kovacs):

1 - Laser Furball: Built up laser hair causes damage in radius to enemy, and potentially anything else adjacent, including allies.
2 - Laser Cat Pee: Burns the user. Fortitude Save DC 15 or take 1d5 damage.
3 - Laser Cat Diabetes: Must give Laser Cat 1 dose of insulin for each use of Laser Cat as weapon. Laser Cats hate needles though, so each injection requires a new Loyalty test.
4 - Laser Cat is pregnant: 1d13 new laser cats appear next month.

Escape From the Purple Planet

For our second event, Evie and I joined +Michael Bolam and the rest of the DCC RPG Pittsburgh crew for a Sunday afternoon of gaming at Phantom of the Attic in Oakland. I've been staring longingly at my Peril on the Purple Planet boxed set for several months now. So it wasn't hard for me to pick the 0-level funnel Escape From the Purple Planet for my players. As a little twist, and since I've been in a Weird Western mood ever since Pinnacle Entertainment Group announced the 20th Anniversary Deadlands Kickstarter, I used the Purple Sorcerer character generator to throw together a whole mess o' Black Powder, Black Magic 0-level characters.

Evie

Jenny McGee, Butcher
Britney Spears, Elven Barrister
Medal Moe, Wainwright (RIP, clawed by Kith)
Eliza Schuyler, Brewer (RIP, beaten to death with a halfling corpse)

Laura

Toby All, Porter
Bunnie, Midwife (RIP, legs broken trying to break free of chains)
Dr. Cod, Physician (RIP, clawed by Kith)
Sudz, Elven Brewer (RIP, bashed by Coward)

Stefan

Tila, Mutant Guard
Ram Man, Dwarf Pharmacist
Man E Faces, Photographer (RIP, neck broken by Kith)
Adam, Sawyer (RIP, grabbed by the Maur)
Orca, Clothier (RIP, grabbed by the Maur)

John

Crazy Carl, Peddler
Mycroft, Mutant Researcher
Dr. Pink (RIP, slain by Coward)
Frank, Pumber (RIP, bitten by Kith)

Twelve ordinary folks from the Weird West, minding their own business at Hubble's Bar in Deadwood, help Agent Earl investigate a crashed purple meteor near the saloon. Exposure to the meteor teleports all twelve poor souls to a Kith arena on the savage Purple Planet. After getting free from their bonds, the earthlings make their way through the subterranean passages beneath the arena, facing Kith, Cowards (giant kith), and a terrible creature known as the Maur. If not for the weapons they found along the way, along with a bunch of mutants and future-folk from the land of Umerica, they wouldn't have made their way to a crashed Cthulhu-folk space-faring long-ship. After freeing the Cthulhu-folk captain, the adventurers returned home to Earth

Interesting Facts about The Purple Planet

You'll often hear a DCC judge poll the players to find out who has the lowest Luck score before dishing out some kind of terrible event. I've found that this query tends to eat up time, so I tried something new this game: The Unlucky Squirrel. A painted lawn ornament, covered in fake blood, the Unlucky Squirrel is given to the player with that special character just waiting to die. As a judge it's really easy to just look for the squirrel, and then dish out pain. Love it!
Our replacement PC's from Umerica were created using the Crawling Under a Broken Moon occupation list.
While I was judging the Purple Planet at one table, +Michael Bolam was running the Free RPG Day DCC Lankhmar adventure The Madhouse Meet.