Hey party peoples, H20-Pocalypse launches tomorrow on February 9th. I first started chatting with Josh over on the Neon Lords Discord. Soon enough, I was also doing the editing on this project! He’s created a really awesome setting using the DCC rules system. The water’s warm and the waves aren’t too choppy so let’s dive into this interview!
So you first described this as "surf punk world of a water apocalypse where you play in a punk band of pirates, sticking it to the high barges (the rich)". As someone with what is often considered a strange appreciation for the film Waterworld, this sounds like a lot of fun. Assuming that's your primary inspiration, what are the other primary sources of inspiration? Film? TV? Music?
I love Waterworld! Agreed, highly underrated. My 10-second pitch is Tank Girl + Firefly + Waterworld if The band Agent Orange did the soundtrack. But besides Tank Girl and Firefly, Movies like Hook, Wild Zero, Surf Ninjas, Repo Man, and The Toxic Avenger can be seen throughout the project DNA. Music-wise, I was heavily inspired by The Mummies, Agent Orange, and The Cramps, along with the newer bands like the Skegss, Amyl and the Sniffers, The Chats, and FIDLR. Saturday Morning cartoons like TMNT, Street Sharks, and Pirates of Dark Water were huge inspirations.
So in this zine you have a new class, the Hydropunk. Tell us a little about their abilities and how they fit into the setting that you've created.
Hydropunks are musicians, renegades, freedom fighters, and pirates who travel the waters searching for "artifacts" from the old world in order to have them enhanced with arcane crystals left behind by the Atlanteans. All Hydropunk bands have a ship, but their preferred mode of travel is Hydroboards; these crystal-enhanced boards can ride on a flat surface and water. Hydropunks possess a strong spirit of will, and they can push themselves past their limits to perform mighty deeds in battle, Hydroboarding, and Shredding (playing music).
This zine also has a bunch of random tables and a short adventure. I get the feeling that you have more an "improv" style, than a "heavy prep" style when you run games. Am I right in that assessment?
You are 100% right; I was highly inspired by Knave, MÖRK BORG, Pirate BORG, and DCC Lankhmar. For me, random tables are an amazing way for the judge and the players to interact with the world collaboratively; they create great " yes and " moments and offer a touch of holistic chaos. I also find adding random events and encounters offers so much replayability for modules since different judges will interpret the events and encounters differently. All this, combined with the fact that every table is a tool to be used somewhere else, I think, is one of the key strengths of the OSR. This zine can be easily used in other systems to roll up Punk Names, Band Names, Junk Weapons, Junk Armor, and a host of other weird stuff.
You are also including a version of the Hydropunk class for Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland. Tell us a bit more about how it designing the same thing but in two different systems. Any tips for folks trying to do something similar?
The inspiration came from a post Brian Shutter had made on the Neon Lords Discord, he asked, "If the planet is called Urth and the USA is Neo-Terraxx... what are the rest of the planet areas called?" The settings share similar vibes, and since Australian Surf Punk is a big influence in the game, it seemed like the natural conclusion. I felt compelled to do it, lol. My advice would be to make sure you know both systems. Playtest both classes individually and just do it! It was a joy tinkering with my ideas in someone else's world. It helped me boil down the essence of what the idea of the class was.
Thanks for sharing so much! Anything that I didn't ask that you wish I did? Please share if there's something you gotta tell folks!
H2O-Pocalypse, a DCC compatible zine of Surf Punk Piracy, comes out on February 9th! And be excellent to each other!
What other crazy settings would you like to see in zine form? Tell me about your favorite B-movie that had a great premise, but not so perfect execution that you’d love to see become a setting or adventure!
What else is going on?
The Sorcerer’s Fate
Darkness and mayhem await the village losers sent to learn the sorcerer's fate in this 0-level funnel for Dungeon Crawl Classics. It’s at about 60% funding on Kickstarter with 3 weeks left. Go lend a hand in making this zine a reality!
The Purple Planet Horde!
In the next couple weeks, I’ll be interviewing James Pozenel and Tim Sattley. Both of them are contributing to the Purple Planet horde. Go check out their projects on BackerKit!