Interview: Loot The Body's Against The Cult of the Hippie Commune

Those meddling hippie cultists are at it again!

Loot The Body is an amazing musical artist and it’s actually all just one guy! I spent some time chatting with Levi Núñez about his upcoming DCC zine: Against The Cult of the Hippie Commune. Levi is no stranger to DCC, as he’s done created music for DCC projects such as: Netcrawl (music video), Sailors on the Starless Sea (music video), and Elfland: Beyond The Fields We Know (music video)! He’s also one half of the creative team behind Skate Wizards (music video), which is a rules lite game about exactly what it sounds like.

In Against the Cult of the Hippie Commune, players are humble townsfolk in 1960’s rural America attempting to rescue innocent teenagers from the clutches of a sinister hippie cult. Dirty bikers, dark rituals, and strange weed smoke await those brave enough to confront the mysterious Jackie Starr and his minions. The PCs are no city slickers, but they know evil when they see it, and they sure as heck aren’t gonna see their town ruined by some dirty hippies!

When did you first get the idea for this adventure and what sparked it? 

The seed of the idea came about a year ago from driving around listening to music from the 60’s San Francisco scene and just letting my mind wander. I started thinking about the hippie dream and the people who took advantage of it. It wasn’t long before I started to draw connections between real life cults and fantasy cults. I had fun finding analogues between 60’s counterculture and a typical fantasy world. The small town, the villagers, the charismatic cult leader, the henchmen and low-level bosses … I could find each of these in the setting and yet they seemed fresh to me because the background is not your typical DCC setting. 

Did the adventure change much from that original idea or mostly stay the same?

The seed of the idea stayed the same. I just had to make sure I had enough around that idea to create a playable sandbox. Most of that came in the form of NPCs like bikers, a rock band, and dope peddlers. Plus the commune is living in an old estate that has a haunted past of its own.

You've got the writing, layout and art, and the music all working in tandem with each other on this project! Were there any elements that were harder to make gel with the others or did it all come pretty naturally?

It didn’t come naturally but the process was fun. A big component of Loot the Body is giving myself permission to do stuff. Even if I’m no good at it. Some of that is because it’s fun to learn new things but most of it is because it’s the only way I can actually get the ideas in my head out into the world. The songwriting is usually what comes easiest to me just because I have the most practice doing that. The layout was harder because I was teaching myself InDesign at the same time but it was also somewhat fun. Having Skate Wizards under my belt gave me a little confidence that I could maybe write something that some people might like.

You've said that Dak helped encourage and guide you along the process. What did he help you through that you hadn't already learned through co-creating Skate Wizards?

Dak was crucial because he eliminated the biggest hurdles I had. He liked the idea and offered to edit it for me. This was huge because I am terrible at stats and rules and stuff like that. Beyond NPC stats, I had an idea of a certain type of spellburn being a central component to the game and helped translate that from an idea to something practical. Also, since I was pretty much doing all the writing and art and layout  … having an outside POV was super important just as a sanity check. I am grateful to him for his expertise but more than anything for his encouragement.

What was the most interesting or tricky thing about making the DCC rules work in a 1960s America setting?

The framework of the DCC funnel was just a lift and drop. I can think of a few 0 level adventures that feature simple folks taking on something evil that is corrupting their village. Coming up with 100 1960’s small town occupations was a lot of fun. The hardest thing for me was stating NPCs for combat and that’s where Dak really helped out. He also playtested the adventure as well. I had run it for my group but I’m such a “rule of cool” Judge that I can’t be trusted to run a “rules as written” game. I wanted the game to work for stricter judges as well.

Thanks so much for letting us learn more about Against The Cult of the Hippie Commune! Anything else that you want to share?

I just want to thank the DCC community for being so open and welcoming to my work. I am a creative person and have to make stuff no matter what, but the fact that some people out there actually enjoy it means a lot to me.

Are you excited to make those hippies cut their hair? What’s another underrated alt-setting that uses the DCC rules system?

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