5 Reasons to Love Weird Discoveries

On Friday afternoon I started feeling this... itch.  Hard to describe really.  Kind of a tingle at the base of my spine that slowly crawled up my back like a roving pack of nanite-infused spiderlings.  The itch made it's way to the base of my neck and then injected itself via a synth syringe into my skull.

The itch was Numenera, and it started taking over my mind.  The Ninth World was calling, and I needed to return home, and fast!  So I did what just about everyone does nowadays to get a game going.  I went on social media and put out a call for players.

From the time I first posted to the game's start I had exactly twenty-seven hours and twenty-one minutes to prepare an adventure.  No sweat, although unfortunately I had a lot on my plate that restricted my adventure prep time.  Friday was Light Up Night in Pittsburgh, and I had already dedicated Saturday morning and early afternoon to prepare for a Gary Con 2017 adventure I was working on.  

I knew that I needed help.  I walked up to my bookshelf, and listened carefully.  

"Psst," I heard from my books.  I thought the sound was coming from the upper right part of the shelf.  "Over here."  

Glancing up to the shelf, I flipped through the books, searching for the weird voice.  "Hello?" I whispered carefully.  

Astoundingly, my copy of Weird Discoveries by +Monte Cook flew off of the shelf and landed at my feet.  The pages flapped fervently as the tome spoke with a strong Navarene accent.  

"I will help you play."  

I gave Weird Discoveries a freeze-framed high five and then the two of us walked downstairs, hand in hand, just a few hours before game-time.  

True story.

Five Reasons to Love

Weird Discoveries is an essential buy for any Numenera game master in 2016, especially those over thirty, with full-time jobs, spouses, kids, and goldendoodles.  No time to prepare for a big game?  Weird Discoveries has your back.  Your kids are looking for a sweet bedtime story?  Let Weird Discoveries soothe them into some bizarre dreams.  

I'm pretty crappy with reviews, so I thought the best way to share my thoughts on Weird Discoveries would be to list out the Five Reasons that everyone should love this Numenera adventure compendium.  

Reason One - Ten Adventures

The number one reason for buying Weird Discoveries is for the adventures.  You get ten of them in total, an each can be played as a stand-alone adventure or one-shot.  Pretty straight forward reason for a quick purchase!  I have the book in both print and PDF, but if I could only have one it would be the electronic format.  While I prefer to read print books, I would rather GM from a printed copy that I can write on, highlight, and pretty much tear apart.  

Reason Two - Sleek Formatting 

After I read the first adventure in Weird Discoveries I had to give it a second read.  The new format, touted well ahead of the books' release, took a little getting used to.  

The first two pages of each adventure give an outline of the entire quest, from start to finish.  There's a summary, some light detail, a suggested starting and end point, and a list of "Keys" - plot points or devices that carry the story forward.  

The second two pages consist of a map and/or flow-chart of the adventure's structure.  Here's where I got a little hung up during my first read.  I noticed that the Keys could be found in multiple sections of the adventure.  Wait, what?  Let me read that again.

Actually it ended up making a lot of sense!  Each adventure is designed so that the plot keys can show up in several possible locations of the adventure.  So if you're trying to run a quick, two-hour demo, there's a reduced chance of missing something important.  Pretty sharp!  

The last two pages of each adventure give the GM a lot more detail behind the adventure, and yet are totally unnecessary for the game to make sense.  Want to run a quick one-shot?  Just read the first four pages.  Want to stretch the adventure out for multiple sessions?  Pages five and six give you more detail, as well as ways to set the adventure into an ongoing campaign.  

Reason Three - Pre-gens Anyone?

I've run Numenera for a lot of Numenewbies, and using the same pre-gen characters from Vortex can get a bit old.  Weird Discoveries is a package deal, however, and it comes with six ready-to-play characters for your table:

• A Stealthy Jack who Crafts Illusions
• A Strong-Willed Nano who Commands Mental Powers
• A Clever Nano who Focuses Mind Over Matter
• A Swift Glaive who Fights with Panache
• A Graceful Glaive who Masters Weaponry
• A Mechanical Jack who Fuses Flesh and Steel

I really appreciate how each character has been created using the Numenera corebook, and don't include anything from the Character Options books.  While I have everything in the Numenera line, most new players start with just the corebook or the streamlined Numenera Player's Guide.  So a new GM can grab Weird Discoveries and have everything they need for folks playing one of these six characters.  

Reason Four - Cyphers at the Ready

You can't play a Cypher System game without cyphers... that would be utter madness!  But it can be easy to forget about the little devices, especially if you're running a game for new players (or if you haven't run the game in four months.)  Rolling up cyphers mid-game tends to slow things down, which is why I usually select them ahead of time.  Weird Discoveries does this for you!

Pages ten and eleven of Weird Discoveries includes thirty-six pre-generated cyphers for you to use with your friends and players.  So when the adventure calls for handing one of these out, just pick one from the list.  The level and effects are already listed out.  If you have the adventure in PDF form, I recommend printing these two pages and then cutting each cypher out, maybe taping it to an index card for easy organization.

Reason Five - Show 'Ems

I love visual aids, especially when someone else does the drawing!  My maps tend to be a hot mess, and my drawings aren't much better than glorified stick figures and basic geometric shapes.  Weird Discoveries includes a whole section of "Show 'Ems" so that you can give your players a true taste of the weird.  I ran last night's adventure on Google Hangouts, so I had the PDF pulled up next to the hangout window.  When it came time to show a picture, I just screen-shared.  So simple!  

My Choice

So what did we end up playing last night?  I went with Please Help Us, an adventure that centers around a small group of explorers trapped within a tiny holding cell in the middle of a forest.  Minutes before starting the adventure, however, I learned that two of my players owned Weird Discoveries, and admitted to reading many of the adventures.  

To change directions on my crew, I quickly reskinned the adventure, having it take place inside the mouth of a two-kilometer long, ancient, decaying humanoid resting by the Clock of Kala.  The humanoid looked a lot like Robocop.  All of the scenes of the adventure took place inside the giant humanoid's mouth, with the "Machine in the Wall" being more of a "Machine in the Tonsil."  I also turned all of the abhumans into walking, talking white blood cells that had gained intelligence and wore clothing.  

We had a great cast of characters for this romp:

• +Alex Perucchini played Sidon-Barrex, the Lattimor Jack who Entertains.
• +Chalice In Chains played Voren, the Mechanical Glaive who Fuses Flesh with Steel
• +David Howard played Ptolemy, the Artificially Intelligent Seeker who Speaks to the Datasphere
• +William Keller played Ruun, the Impulsive Glaive who Gazes into the Abyss

It had been four months since I had last GM's Numenera, although I did get a chance to be a player in +Troy Pichelman's game at Gen Con 2016.  As we moved through the adventure last night, all of the wonder and delightful weirdness came back to me.  My separation from the Cypher System had been too long, and my homesickness for the Ninth World ebbed.

*     *     *

I returned Weird Discoveries to my book shelf, well after midnight.  

"Thanks, I guess," I said to the book.  

"No problem, dude," Weird Discoveries laughed.  "Anytime."  

We did a quick and in no way awkward fist bump before I placed the book on the shelf.  I walked to the edge of the room and turned out the light.  

"Iadace, Weird Discoveries," I called softly.  But there was no answer.  From the gentle snoring, and melodic flutter of its pages, I could tell that Weird Discoveries had already fallen asleep.  

A Week of Star Wars Gaming - Part Two

I think I'm getting the hang of this Star Wars - Edge of the Empire system, albeit at the detriment of my kids' bedtime.  If you haven't read Part One of our full Week of Star Wars Gaming, go back and give it a read.  Here's the continuation of this glorious, Force-filled week... 

Wednesday

"41-VEX, I've got forty-one reasons for you to buy a dewback!" - Jumper Mappy, the Mos Shuuta Dewback Rancher trying to close a deal with the party's Droid Colonist.

On Wednesday we debuted out brand new Star Wars Rebels, Season 2 collection.  Cooper and I watched two episodes while Evie did homework.  Carrie didn't get home from an event until later, so we had to wait until 9pm again to get back to our Edge of the Empire game.  

While Episode I of Escape from Mos Shuuta was fun, especially learning the new game mechanics, we had a much smoother and engaging night during Episode II.  Everyone started getting the hang of the rules system, which made gameplay a lot faster.  Also, the adventure came off the rails, and the party was able to explore the city of Mos Shuuta a little before continuing along the path.  

Perhaps my favorite scenes all involved Cooper's Droid Colonist, 41-VEX, and the purchase of his new dewback named Mitchy.  Cooper insisted that he wanted to visit the dewback stables, and then had to have one of the lizards.  Once purchased (after some shrewd haggling), Mitchy became a full-fledged party member.  

When the party faced off with some pesky stormtroopers, 41-VEX and his trusty steed charged into combat.  Cooper even used his dewback to talk his way past the droid guards out in front of the landing bay.  Cooper insisted that the droids should pet the dewback, and then had a tremendous Coerce roll.  So the entire team entered the facility while the guards were busy admiring Mitchy's silky scales.

Cooper wasn't the only one with crazy ideas.  In order to get into the landing bay with the Krayt Fang, Oskara (played by +Carina W.) claimed to be the new janitors for the landing bay.  The ruse worked, although I informed my daughter that her "Despair" die result meant that the landing bay staff wanted her to clean an incoming Imperial shuttle.  After some quick thinking the party slinked off in stealth-mode, quietly arriving just outside of the Krayt Fang.  

Thursday - Friday

Technically we skipped the Star Wars "gaming" on Thursday and Friday, mostly because of work and then I had a DCCRPG game last night.  But I did get some great swag in the mail: Heroes of the Resistance!  Now I've got the updated Millennium Falcon from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, as well as Poe's T-70 X-Wing.  

Saturday

On Saturday morning we resurrected our old tradition of "Dunkin' & Dragons."  But instead of Dunkin' Donuts we went with Peace Love and Little Donuts, and instead of Dragons we went with Star Wars.  Yes, it was time to complete our run through Escape from Mos Shuuta.

On to Episode III...

Finally the party reached the Krayt Fang, and we were about to take off into the Stars.  Continuing with their stealthy plan of disguising themselves as janitors, Oskara, Lowhrrick, 41-VEX, and Pash convinced the droids to let them on board the YT-1300 freighter for some light cleaning.  

As soon as they were all on board, however, the team attempted to take out the security droids quietly, before Trex the Trandoshan could figure out what was going on.  

The plan didn't quite work out... as planned.  Oskara did a stealthy attack, as did Pash, but 41-VEX didn't get the memo.  The droid used a stun grenade, lobbing it down the corridor towards the cockpit, hitting the security droids, Trex, and even Oskara!  Cooper was amused.  

After slaying Trex, 41-VEX ran back to the engineering compartment and repaired the broken Hyperspace thingie.  The Krayt Fang roared into the skies above Mos Shuuta and into the black, never ending night of space.  

The last part of the adventure was a short space battle between the party's YT-1300 freighter and a pair of TIE Fighters.  The action was quick and exciting, and since we only had four players, everyone had something fun to do.  I asked the group if they enjoyed the game, and everyone gave me a big grin.

Winning!

Jen wanted to make sure that I got a picture of her quote for Pash...

... and Evie spent a lot of time working on her own character art.  

Even Cooper had some stuff to share!

All in all, I think we had a fantastic time with Edge of the Empire.  I had my reservations with the dice mechanics again, especially with tallying them up.  I've had the chance to play in a few games of Age of Rebellion on Google+ and Roll 20, but we always use a dice-app to calculate the results.  But as we moved along in our live-table game, the dice calculating went faster and faster.  It really got easy when the symbols clicked with Carrie, and she was able to guide her brother... and mom... through the results.  

I'm thinking about continuing the story of these four characters on Tuesday night, with the Long Arm of the Hutt. 

Oh, and we also played some Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures today!

Cooper has sat in on a few games with me and his sister Evie, but has never had the opportunity to fly against someone in a solo match.  Well, today Cooper decided to take to the stars on his own!  Cracking open our Ghost and Phantom box, we toyed with the idea of Cooper flying the Ghost... but then again that's a tough ship for a first timer. 

Since he really wanted to play as Hera Syndulla, the best pilot from Star Wars: Rebels, I set Cooper up with the Phantom.

We each went with 25 points, and I picked a Scum and Villainy ship, the Kihraxz fighter.  I've only flown it once or twice before, and never with a one on one, but it seemed like a balanced battle.  

I think the kiddo needs a bit more time in cockpit!  He darted straight past my fighter, and then relied on a dorsal turret upgrade to pepper me from medium range.  Maybe another round or two would've helped him get a victory, but I got very lucky towards the end of the game.  

In the end, I was able to shoot down Cooper's Phantom, forcing the Lothal Rebels to perform a rescue mission and save their pilot.  At least Chopper was on board the shuttle to keep Hera company.  

DCCRPG - The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk - Part Seven

The Wreckening 

By the holy might of Aristemis, we made it!  Our crew of crazy Dungeon Crawl Classics players finally finished the Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk.  It only took us six months and seven sessions to get there.

Way to get through an adventure designed for 0-level characters with a crew of 1st, and later 2nd, level characters.  Nice job, guys.  

Okay, I'll take some of the blame.  I added a bunch of side-quests, new creatures, and strange threats to the region.  I also completely indulged the group in their fantasies of Sunken City real estate speculation.  Good times!

The Great SCOT Continues

The Free Company, our adventuring party happily enjoying the Great Sunken City Omnibus Tour, completed Perils of the Sunken City and last month moved onto the The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk.  If you're interesting in starting this story from the beginning, here are the previous tales:

• Perils of the Sunken City, Part One
• Perils of the Sunken City, Part Two
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part One
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part Two
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part Three
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part Four
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part Five
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part Six

This is an open door campaign, so we can always have new players join our group.  Here are our only rules from game to game:

• Schedule five players for each event
• Hold a sixth seat free for last minute additions
• Players who complete an adventure have "dibs" on joining the next adventure
• Players can bow out, and rejoin later with living or new characters so long as there is a open spot at the virtual table

As always, Die Rodney!

The Free Company Roster

• Nicodemus - Thief, played by +Alex Perucchini 
• Razoul - Psion*, played by +Marc Plourde
• Ssof Rehtaf - Cleric, played by +andrew lyon 
• Imric - Elf, played by +Paul Go 
• Sir M'gordo the Ooze Knight - Dwarf, played by +Thomas Howell 
• Watson - Wizard, played by +Craig McCullough 

*New class featured in UX02: Mind Games

The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part Seven

The Free Company returns to Castle Bellows with Jonas Gralk, looking for a reward from the newly self-appointed Lord Manse.  Lord Manse, disappointed that not all of the townsfolk are saved, offers the original reward of six prize hogs and a few basic weapons.  The party pushes for more money, and offers to take out Clotilda Gralk, and recapture the Castle of the Ooze.  Lord Manse agrees to award each member of The Free Company with five hundred gold pieces if they can return with Clotilda's head.

Watson finds out that a strange man is waiting for him in the nearby community room, and goes to investigate.  Inside, the enigmatic Van den Danderclanden makes a request of the wizard.  He asks Watson to travel to Clotilda's Ooze Pits and return with the Dark and Unholy Mask of Rot.  Van den Danderclanden speaks in a very strange manner, referencing future and past events seemingly out of order.  Ssof Rehtaf believes the man to be arcane in nature and casts detect magic on Van den Danderclanden.  The result of the spell leaves Ssof blinded, but Van den Danderclanden quickly reverses this effect by stroking the cleric on the cheek in a somewhat uncomfortable manner.

Van den Danderclanden also offers M'gordo the mighty Beard Salts of Gharkal.  

The New Company spends the rest of the afternoon preparing for battle before approaching the Ooze Pits in the dark of night.  Once there, Nicodemus checks out the northeast tower where Clotilda is said to be staying.  A thatch roof would make for an excellent entrance, but first there were six guards to dispatch.  This is a piece of cake for the crew of six.  

With the last guard dead, the party enters the center of the Ooze Pits to free the remaining slaves.  That's when Clotilda shows up.  But instead of a normal human woman, the party discovers Clotilda to be a thirty foot tall oozy monstrosity...

... it was Clotilda-tron!

Ssof Rehtaf was done with this ooze crap.  The cleric calls to Aristemis, his deity, and paralyzes the mighty Clotilda-tron!  The battle is completely lopsided from that point on.  Magic missile eagles, long swords, daggers, Clotilda-tron is carved up into tiny pieces of ooze.  Once dead, Clotilda-tron dissolves into the ground.  This of course leaves the party without a head to turn in to Lord Manse.

So Nicodemus finds one of the injured guards and cuts her head off while she is still alive.  Then he chars it a bit so that it could be passed off as Clotilda.

The Free Company returns to Castle Bellows and Lord Manse.  Razoul uses some psionics to pass the head of the dead guard off as Clotilda's, thus earning the party three-thousand gold pieces.  Watson brings the Dark and Unholy Mask of Rot to Van den Danderclanden, who offers to become the wizard's patron.  Watson declines.

Looking to gain some fame in the region, M'gordo donates much of his earnings to the castle citizens and as a tithe to Lord Manse.  Lord Manse bestows the knighthood of the ooze upon the dwarven soldier, forever making him Sir M'gordo the Ooze Knight.  

Sir M'gordo also takes his newly acquired pig and mounts a suit of studded leather barding on the beast.  

The Free Company then departs Castle Bellows and returns to Slither's End to check on their cash money. 

Adventure Notes

• The Beard Salts of Gharkal:  Single use.  The user grows fangs and becomes a cannibal for one hour.  For every living limb (still attached to a living creature) they eat they regain 1d4 hp.  The fangs are permanent.  

• Clotilda-tron (Huge, 30' tall).  Init +4, Atk ooze limbs (x4) +5 melee (dmg 1d6+4 + rot), AC 15,  6d10 HP, HP 50, MV 40', Act 1d20, SP: Rot (see Sunken City Omnibus, DC 12 Fort Save), Oozey Verp (DC 12 Reflex Save, 2d5 acid damage in a 20' burst), Splashback (on melee hit DC 12 Reflex save or take rot corruption.) SV Fort +5, Ref -2, Will +5.  

• Holy crap that battle with Clotilda-tron was a beat down!  Andy, who has had a rough time with his 12 Personality cleric, rolled a natural 20 for his Paralysis spell.  Then Clotilda-tron failed her will save.  Poor Clotilda-tron...

• I couldn't get Craig to take Van den Danderclanden on as a patron, nor was Paul interested.  But if you'd like to learn more about this crazy third party Patron, check out Crawl! issue 1!

Quotes?

"Guys, who am I?" - Watson proves to Van den Danderclanden that he's for realz.  

"Ssof!  It's good to see you alive." - Van den Danderclanden speaking.

"Five coins the padre doesn't make it tonight." - Nicodemus made bets all night.

"I have a plan.., Andy's character goes in and says 'hi.'" - Alex knew this didn't work well last game.

"Apparantly Aristemis enjoys humility." - How true.  

Jim - "Andy, what's your part in this."
Andy - "I'm the 'ideas' man."

"... and all the lawful characters head off somewhere else." - Craig, as Nicodemus starts cutting off guard heads.  

Jim - "Andy, you feel a brief burning at the base of your neck, but it goes away."
Andy - "That's the feeling of generosity." 

In Memoriam 

• Ugh... none!

A Week of Star Wars Gaming - Part One

I know the Living 4 Crits blog has been quiet, and I apologize.  Between work, and school, and soccer, and Halloween prep (it's our favorite holiday), getting time to blog, let alone game, is a real challenge.  This is the ultimate curse of adulthood.  I have the cash to buy some awesome games without asking for my parents' permission, and yet I don't have the time to play them all.

I thought I'd showcase how we've been able to squeeze in at least a little gaming, despite the crazy schedule.  With Star Wars Rogue One on the horizon, our house is erupting into full Force Fever.  We watched Episode 7 over the weekend... twice... and are ready to finish season two of Rebels.  Evie and I did some X-Wing dueling on Sunday night, and the entire family decided to give Star Wars - Edge of the Empire a try.  

So here's our Star Wars themed "week in review," part one... 

Sunday

Another grudge match in the Walls household, this time between Evie and me.  I guess technically that's virtually every grudge match, between we are the only two regular Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game players in the house.  Carrie, Cooper, and Jen occasionally play with us, but it's rare.  

Surprise, surprise, Evie showed up with a pair of TIE-Interceptors and three TIE-Fighters.  Originally we were going to go with two 100 point teams, but we scaled back to 80 points because of it being a school night.  Not that we finished, since we ended up pushing way past bedtime...

... I get an F for parenting skills.  

We did get to dust off our medium freighter miniature though, so that's a win!

A view from my side of the table.  Two X-Wings and a Z-95 that managed to get blown up in the first turn.  Go #TeamJames.

I have to say that I held my own pretty well during this game.  It was five on two for a good portion of the session, until I lost an X-Wing in the last turn before calling it a draw.  Technically Evie won on points, but don't tell her that.  

Monday (Halloween)

Not a gaming night, but for Halloween I went out with Kylo Ren (Evie) as my own Star Wars/Firefly/Doctor Who creation: Cyberbacca Cobb!

Tuesday

We gave Star Wars - Edge of the Empire another try on Tuesday night!  I've had the opportunity to play Age of Rebellion several times over the last year, but it's been about eighteen months since I've attempted to gamemaster Fantasy Flight's Star Wars system myself.  I've gotta say, the beginner's box for this game is fabulous!  It's incredibly easy to get a game going, and the first adventure helps guide a GM step-by-step through the process.  

Jennifer and I are trying to make a commitment to play something every Tuesday night, no matter what happens with our schedule.  It just so happens that we almost weren't able to make good on this first promise.  I had to work late, Jen had to work (she usually works Mondays instead of Tuesdays, but took off yesterday for Halloween), and there was some confusion with bath schedules.  But we were committed...

... so we started playing at 9pm!

Again... "F" for parenting.

For Episode I of Escape from Mos Shuuta we had the following players and characters:

• Carrie played Oskara the Twi'lek Bounty Hunter
• Evie played Lowhhrick the Wookie Hired Gun
• Cooper played 41-VEX the Droid Colonist
• Jennifer played Pash the Human Smuggler

A common silly look from Evie for the evening.  All-in-all, we had a much easier time with the dice mechanic than I expected.  I remembered last time having to spend a lot of time working through the results, but these kiddos picked up quickly.  It helped having character sheets that cover and explain all of the details.

I think the high point of Episode I for us was Evie trying to hide from the Gamorrean Guards.    With her brother hiding in a closet, and both her mom and sister behind a stage, Evie decided to have her wookie try and impersonate a rug...

...

... it didn't work.

Furthermore, when Evie yelled "ouch!" I told her that her character did the same.  The dice result made sense as well.  This, of course, led to a fight scene.

Carrie, our clever artist, illustrated the scene with Oskara sniping the guards from behind a doorway.

Reading the character backstories aloud, covering some of the rules basics, and playing the first two encounters took us just over an hour, so we decided to pause the game...

... to be continued.  

DCCRPG World Tour - Beyond the Silver Scream

Yes... THE Bruce Dickinson

"I hate things with curves." - The Nerd Girl Margaret Miller, a Wizard and Initiate of the Dimensional Dogs

Some Stranger Things

After binge-watching Stranger Things on Netflix back in July, I went on the hunt for a Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure that could deliver some of the same, nostalgic 1980's "feels."  My quest did not take very long!  After scrolling through some of the offerings on DriveThruRPG, I discovered Beyond the Silver Scream by +Forrest Aguirre.  The description featured was perfect:

"Players begin as high school kids in the mid-'70s - early -'80s who go to the local seedy theater to catch the premier of the new horror flick "Screaming Sorority Girls from Planet Playtex."  But the horror isn't confined to the screen!  And the special-effects are all-too-real.  So take a seat and brace yourself for an adventure where the director isn't the only one doing the cutting!"

That was all I needed... SOLD!

Beyond the Silver Scream is a fast and fun 0-level funnel adventure that starts in a modern world, but quickly takes players into a strange underground cultist lair.  Along with the module itself, the product features some terrific bonus content:

• An occupation list fitting for the '70s and '80s.
• A full patron write up for The Dimensional Dogs, a weird and bizarre "elder god'ish" entity.  

As we got closer to October's DCCRPG World Tour event at Phantom of the Attic in Pittsburgh, I got the urge to run this adventure.  Teaming up with Judge +Michael Bolam, I ran Beyond the Silver Scream as part of the DCC RPG Pittsburgh Halloween Horror Hoopla!  Michael ran The Sinister Sutures of the Sempstress by +Michael Curtis.  

To make things interesting I decided to beef up Behind the Silver Scream and turn it into a 2nd level adventure.  My last two Road Crew events at Phantom Games were both 0-level funnels (The Museum at the End of Time and Escape from the Purple Planet), and I wanted to seem some Spellburn and disapproval!  

I had some tweaking to do!

Adventure Adjustments

Once I start tinkering with an adventure I can get a little carried away.  Here's what I came up with to make Beyond the Silver Scream my own:

Plot

• I totally jacked up the plot of this adventure, injecting both Dungeon Master and Venger from the Dungeons & Dragons Cartoon, as well as a ton of Blue Oyster Cult references.

• My plot went as follows:  
• Venger from the D&D Cartoon, in a quest to gain power, created a ritual to gain the power of The Dimensional Dogs all for himself.  He had collected an entire village worth of souls to use for one aspect of the ritual, including the band Blue Oyster Cult, and needed to make one more sacrifice.  
• Hoping to thwart his nemesis, Dungeon Master would recruit some brave heroes from Earth and set them on a path to intercept Venger.  
• Not wanting to give their power over to Venger, The Dimensional Dogs would also try to sway the new heroes to their side, giving them access to the blessed Blade of Bruce Dickinson.  

• Since there is a point in the adventure where the PC's can either head towards the weird village of time dilation or the scene of the cult sacrifice, I decided that either could be where we ended the quest.  Either way, the PC's would somehow get contacted by The Dimensional Dogs, be given the opportunity to take them on as a patron, and be granted the beloved Blade of Bruce Dickinson.

Characters

• I started all the PC's as 0-level characters, generated using modern-day characters.  Although the adventure features a 0-level occupation list, I used the "Teens out of Time" list on Purple Sorcerer.  This saved me from having to write too much out by hand.  

• Each player received just one 0-level character, but early on in the game I had Dungeon Master upgrade everyone to a shiny new 2nd level character!  

• We only had three players, so I let everyone play a pair of characters.  
• Chris
• Margaret Miller, the Nerd Girl Wizard
• Ron Englehart, the Undercover Cop Warrior
• Christopher
• Eddie, the Metalhead Warrior
• Stacy, the Overachiever Girl Elf
• Richard
• Mark Marnie Smith, the Kleptomaniac Halfling
• Amara Jackson, the Chess Club Girl Thief

• Sadly, three of our PC's didn't make it.  Stacy, Ron Englehart, and Eddie all fell battling evil.  RIP.  

Rules Tweaks

• To set the adventure up for 2nd level characters I made some simple changes to most of the encounters.  
• For difficulty classes, I added +2 where it deemed fitting.  So DC 12 instead of DC 10, etc.  
• The cultists are tough already, with decent HP.  I just boosted their AC's, gave them some additional attack modifiers (another +2 to hit) and some more gear.  
• I tried making their gear extra creepy.  For instance, the guards in area 18 I had their flails be actual biting human heads on chains. 
• I substituted randomly generated Type I demons for the Devilspawn in Area 5.  I rolled up a Hyena-Turtle Demon that was quite fitting. 

• The Abomination in area 25 needed some big-time beefing up!  
• I went with 50 HP, and another +2 to all saving throws.
• I also gave the Abomination a Caustic Spew, requiring a DC 14 Reflex Save or suffer 2d6 damage and get blinded for 1d6 rounds.  
• This Caustic Spew automatically activated in a 20' detonation once the beast was killed.  Pop!

• Venger!  Since he was featured so prominently in my adventure, I had to give him a write-up.  (Init +4; Atk Sword of the 9 Hells +4, 1d8+3 dmg; AC 15; HP 50; MV 20, 50 Flight; Act 2d20; Spellcasting +8, access to all 1st and 2nd level spells.)

• Blade of Bruce Dickinson:  Yes.. THE Bruce Dickinson!
• +1 Long Sword
• Alignment: Chaotic
• Intelligence: 5
• Communication: Simple Urges
• Bane: Venger 
• Power: Wielder gains infravision 120'
• Power:  The sword causes an additional +3 damage if another player spends their entire action drumming.  +5 extra damage if using a cowbell. (I added a cowbell in one of the cultist's closets for just this purpose.)

Richard, Christopher, James, Chris