Lullabies and Marauders
New zines for DCC and MCC
Today we're exploring a couple new zines that you can grab on Kickstarter! One for DCC and one for MCC. I dive into both the story behind their creation, but also what they contain. Keep reading and check out the screenshots!
Lullaby For The Volcanic Wyrm
So there's this trope about "throwing virgins into volcanos to appease the gods", except this time its to appease a dragon. That trope is the basis for Lullaby for the Volcanic Wyrm. I just thought it would be funny if the virgin sacrifice really did work to keep volcano from erupting.
That's the premise for this adventure, you're an islander whose village stopped doing the sacrifices! Now the volcano is erupting. Magma flows down from the mountain. Pyroclastic rain is burning your huts. And all the non-virgins are basically bullying the PCs (all virgins or at least no one believes that your aren't) to go and let yourself be eaten by the dragon. They don't know if it still just wants one person but they aren't taking chances so you all need to go. It makes for a pretty silly and light-hearted adventure.
The premise sets up a pretty awesome finale for a funnel adventure. You know it's gonna end in a confrontation with a dragon, but not quite how. And the PCs could possibly kill the dragon, or at least they can if the judge doesn't just have it start flying and breathing fire. So if they don't want to get eaten, they really need to come up with a plan. Well, there's several ways (including PC occupations, for which this adventure has a custom table) that they can know about an old song that is said to have once been used to put the dragon to sleep.
The song is called The Dragon Sleeps Tonight and you definitely know the tune. I bet you can even start singing it right now. But the PCs can't just go up there and start singing. To just give them the answer like that would be incredibly anti-climatic! They have to search around the island to gather some special instruments. Then they need to do a good job at playing the instruments (and have enough surviving PCs to play them)!
There's plenty more to the adventure though. Dolan the Ogre blocks one of the two paths up, and the other is blocked by a scary two-headed, human-faced serpent. Or the players could attempt a trek through the jungle, which has its own unique perils. The PCs will likely encounter Dragon Cultists who want the dragon to awaken. Perhaps, they're the ones who convinced the villagers to skip the sacrifice this year?
Anyway, that's enough spoilers. I wanted an adventure that's quick and easy to run. So this is a point crawl adventure that you can run in about two hours. Keeping it short has a few benefits. First, it's advantageous to the person who has little free time to play a game during the week. Second, it's better for conventions. It can be an easy way to get in a morning game without having to wake up early, but it's also a much quicker way to try out a new system.
Marauders of the Multiverse
Marauders started with a brainstorming session where I wrote down a number of different ideas for what it would encapsulate. An essay on post-apocalyptic settlements? A travel system based around finding crazy landmarks to create point crawl locations? Carousing tables for post-apoc cities and wilderness? A new patron AI? Should I explore the underwater side of Terra AD that was touched upon in Into The Glowing Depths? Have a new adventure or two? If you have some strong thoughts on future MCC zines, tell me in the comments!
I settled on having a few short adventures that I wrote more in the style of an OSE adventure, and a new patron AI complete with patron taint, glowburn, and new wetware. Part of that is because Tim Sattley (Bada$$ Bunnies, Horror at the M.E.R.C.C.) offered me a that full patron write-up! I had several adventure outlines from when I was going through dungeon23. Conversations from our MCC episodes of Rules As Written had lead me to outlining several about the different antagonistic archaic alignments. I later repaid Tim by writing some stretch goal content for his Purple Planet adventure. I was more than happy to backdoor myself into the Purple Planet Horde.
But there's a lot in there so let's get a better overview of it all.
The Patron AI is something very special. It's a huge shoutout to Alana, the person behind the Goodman Games twitch channel. So everything about it is based around the concept of online streaming.
Alrighty folks, I think that's plenty for today. Remember to back Bloody Barbershops & Sanguine Scissors, and add these extra to your order! There's a pledge tier for grabbing both, but they're also available as add-ons if you just want one of them.
What tropes do you think would be perfect to explore in a funnel? What else do you want out of a MCC zine?
What Else Is Going On?
Big Trouble For A Little Blood
Now available on DriveThruRPG and Goodman Games! Or get it as an add-on with Bloody Barbershops & Sanguine Scissors!
It’s Chinese New Year in San Francisco and the PCs must save a green-eyed girl before dawn. The PCs will adventure across the streets of China Town, a dock-side vampire bar, thin places between worlds, and to the very heart of the head vampire’s lair. In addition, there’s the level-2 bonus adventure: Sinister Secret of the Slugmen. The characters find themselves chasing an ex-Confederate bounty hunter who’s gone from bad to badder in his search for secret Confederate gold.
Deities and Demi-Bros & Deadly Dudez/Toxic Creeps
Deities and Demi-Bros will bring to life the gods of Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland. Deadly Dudez/Toxic Creeps is a stand-alone manual of monsters, baddies, creeps, and weirdos. 100+ more deadly things for your scumdog players to kill and loot their dead bodies.
