Worshipers symbolically killing an effigy of a saint of killers
That title is an exhortation.
NSFW, and trigger warning for bad things.
I was thinking about how some good old fashioned evil deities make a campaign setting sing. I also want to recommend the old version of Judges Guild's Unknown Gods (the recent version is shit).
Vasterolompos, God of Serial Killers Fanes to Vasterolompos are rare, almost always found exclusively in the underworld. More common is to run across a forgotten shrine in the wilderness. Vast started as a hearth deity, or so scholars say, but at some point became a god of revenge or murder and eventually methodical homicide.
Worshipers, madmen all, each have their calling cards, rules, and modus operandi. One might only kill on Woodsdays. Another might only kill women, and keep their severed hands as trophies, a third may entice men into assaulting her before cutting their throats mid-coitus. Messed up shit. Have your lines and veils and x-cards sorted for these things.
One thing the killers usually seem to do is burn an amber candle near the killing-site to honor their god and gain its blessings (which may include henchmen, special abilities, or monstrous forms).
The king's highway-riders have several outstanding warrants for killers that are still at large.
They say that Vast whispers to potential worshipers, and entices them to study his scattered lore.
Ug, I have to go take a shower now.
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Thru henchmen, all things are possible, so jot that down.
So you've seen this idea from be before (when I did it for old D&Ds), but this time it is a DCCRPG flavored take.
In my upcoming game, I'll give an adventure credit per session a player attends. A PC can spend credits equal to a level to earn it, but first they have to finish a quest that matches with their level title (PCs or Judge can suggest different ideas, trying to weave quests into other PC's wherever possible).
It's quite possible PCs will acquire quite a few credits between quest realizations, but that's fine.
There are a few entries where I came up with a couple ideas and put them in. Sometimes multiple ideas. I learned a lot about DCC doing this. Not only should you not feel restricted to the level up ideas here nor even the level titles. The book mentions that these are just the most common.
So let the player propose a title they are working towards. What could they do to get called that? Thus spoke Goodman: "Characters of 6th level and above are extremely rare, so much so that no generic titles exist. Players are encouraged to develop their own titles for such levels using Appendix T for inspiration as needed."
At other times, retroactive titles may be acceptable, based on level-appropriate exploits. "I am now Yak-friend!"
Cleric Title Quests
Lvl
Lawful
Chaotic
Neutral
1
Acolyte: Fetch an item that will serve useful in religious ceremonies to your gods.
Zealot: Slaughter a den of infidels. For chaos!
Witness: Observe a rare phenomenon and survive to tell the tale.
2
Heathen-slayer: Strike down a dirty cultist leader.
Convert: In a place where the gods must listen, reject the Law Lords.
Pupil: Seek and serve a hermit to learn their secrets.
3
Brother/Sister: Bring a small fortune to a monastic order and join it for a year and a day.
Cultist: Bring us three skulls; we need something to drink out of.
Chronicler: Travel to a ruin to record a name lost to time. •Witness a crazy ass thing your party gets into and write it down.
4
Curate: Find a relic of a saint--a foreskin or some-such that is purported to heal the sick. • Heal a sick community.
Apostle: Join a dark savior in their creepy pilgrimage.
Judge: Arbitrate a dispute between strange entities.
5
Father: Clear out and re-sanctify some ancient fane to house your flock.
High Priest: Gather your minions for a great ceremony. • Have a god-duel with another cleric, old testament style.
A lot of thief things feel urban and guild related to me. They might be good as play-by-post tasks done between games. Or maybe they can trick the other PCs into thinking they are in the guild too.
Lvl
Lawful
Chaotic
Neutral
1
Bravo: Win a duel in a public square to earn a spot in the thieves guild.
Thug: Bash some ponce and take their jewelry.
Beggar: Case and rob a temple that is foolish enough to let paupers in.
2
Apprentice: Accompany a elder-thievesman on a job.
Murderer: Garotte a guy that looked at you funny.
Cutpurse: Grab a bag and run.
3
Rogue: Take a job that uses your luck, guile, and charm.
Cutthroat: Lead a kidnapping of a high-value specialist.
Burglar: Steal 39 girdles from a high-security temple.
4
Capo: Discipline some underlings that snitched or killed the wrong noble.
Executioner: Someone pissed off the guild and you are taking them out.
Robber: Successfully hold up a noble's carriage: "Your money or life."
5
Boss: Take the reigns of a city's underworld; all the other potential bosses seem to have fallen out of windows.
Assassin: Kill a king or hero during a highly secure ceremony.
Swindler: Trick some nobles into investing in your sure thing.
Warrior Title Quests
Note that noble warriors should probably try out being part of a military order (p46). I say if you earn the title Knight then you are in!
Lvl
Lawful
Chaotic
Neutral
1
Squire: Save your mentor or a noble from a deadly threat.
Bandit: Raid a local outpost and escape with the pay-chest.
Wildling: Slay a predator with 2× your HD using primitive tools.
2
Champion: Deal the killing blow on a baddie giving a town trouble.
Brigand: Organize a gang and hold a strategic bridge for one week.
Barbarian: Crush your enemies. Hear the lamentations of their women.
3
Knight: Fend off those who disturb the king's peace!
Marauder: Search the land till you find something worth sacking.
Berserker: Defeat a monster 3× your size while naked.
4
Cavalier: Fucking joust to the death with mounted foe(s).
Ravager: Plunder a great hoard with your horde.
Headman: Slay the leader of a tribe in an honorable or brutal duel.
5
Paladin: Complete a mission for royalty or extra-planar big wigs. Check out Lankhmar DCC agents.
Reaver: Unleash the horde! Take out a settlement worthy of your military might.
Chieftain: Unite three disparate tribes under your banner.
Wizard Title Quests
Hey did you notice the rulebook has chaos first for wizards? Also, they share cultist with Clerics.
Lvl
Chaotic
Lawful
Neutral
1
Cultist: Procure the heart of a monster to use for a cult party. •Make a pilgrimage to an entity's stronghold, and learn Patron Bond in the process.
Evoker: Get the components for a summon spell (Consult Spirit & Find Familiar counts), which you learn too.
Astrologist: Follow a supernova to witness a supernatural event. •Quest to change an ally's birth augur.
Controller: Cow or boss around something with your arcane might.
Enchanter: Bewitch or transfigure an important creature or place.
3
Diabolist: Summon or manifest a creature from the seven hells.
Conjurer: Bring forth entities to fight for you. This could teach you a spell like Animal Summoning p129 or Monster Summoning p184.
Magician: Craft a magic staff or item (this teaches you a spell).
4
Warlock/Witch: Make a pact with a powerful entity for power. You know patron bond for this purpose.
Summoner: Call forth a great entity with a ritual-style spell.
Thaumaturgist: Warp a foe with your magic might.
5
Necromancer: Raise the dead for a great purpose (like a siege).
Elementalist: Specialize in elemental magic (this teaches you Arcane Affinity p162)
Sorcerer: Eat another mage's brain to absorb their power.
Dwarf Title Quests
Lvl
Lawful
Chaotic
Neutral
1
Agent: Recover a stolen clan item.
Rebel: Sabotage a king’s forge to protest unjust conditions.
Apprentice: Gather fine materials for your elders.
2
Broker: Negotiate a trade deal between two rival clans.
Dissident: Free political prisoners from a mountain hold.
Novice: Discover a new vein of metal in dangerous territory.
3
Delegate: Represent your clan to an supernatural entity or body.
Exile: Perform an act of greed so great you are kicked out of the clan.
Journeyer: Travel to the world's lowest depth and return with treasure.
4
Envoy: Deliver an important object.
Iconoclast: Destroy an ancient statue you believe is a "shackle."
Crafter: Forge a weapon using an extraordinary component. For this purpose, you have the ability to cast Sword Magic p229 until you succeed.
5
Syndic: Establish a new stronghold recognized by the Dwarf Kings.
Renegade: Lead a revolution that overthrows a corrupt Rune Pope.
Thegn: Lead a force of dwarves to reclaim a dwarven treasury*.
*: In my setting, hoarding treasure turns dwarves into monsters, so something big is waiting for ya.
Elf & Hobbit Title Quests
Elves and Hobbits have the same first level title. Odd. Also, the bookmark for the PDF has Elf as ELF and it bugs me. And I am also thinking we shoulda had a bit more Melnibonésé in the titles.
Lvl
Elf (All Alignments)
Hobbit (All Alignments)
1
Wanderer: Visit a place not on any map; return with a strange plant.
Wanderer: Travel far and return with a new ingredient.
2
Seer: Get a patron (you learn the spell to bond) and get from them a vision of the coming end.
Explorer: Map a dungeon or wilderness. Gotta find all the rooms/features. • Visit another plane of existence.
3
Quester: Find visit three strange locations for three different purposes. • Make up an epic quest. It's in the name after all.
Collector: Acquire three impossible items (e.g. bottled moonlight). • Acquire a full set of something, such as The Rod of Seven Parts.
4
Savant: Research a new spell not in the book (you make and quest; Judge edits)
Accumulator: Amass a hoard so large it attracts a dragon.
5
Elder: Help one of the young kingdoms of the with a great trouble.
Wise One: Win a riddle contest with a sphinx while pipe-weeded out of your gourd.
So, I've been running a PBP of Horrible Hounds of Hendenberg (please check out the replay!). I've got some issues with the hex crawl part.
It doesn't say how long it takes to find a feature; it takes too many die rolls for my tastes. Hangman's Hill and the Hermit Cave should be part of the town's map, not a hex away. A very nice looking/vibing product, but a little sloppy.
Well, I can at least make the rolls simplified for you fine people.
Using math, html, and a surly sandlestin, I converted all the things into a d100 table. You should probably roll on it, declare to the players what happens and let them deal with it, then roll again as they wander around.
d100 Roll
Feature Found?
Travel Time
Encounter?
Navigation
Nav w/spec*
01–17
Yes
2 Hours
—
On Course
On Course
18–25
Yes
4 Hours
Yes
On Course
On Course
26–33
Yes
6 Hours
Yes
On Course
On Course
34–50
No
2 Hours
—
LOST
On Course
51–66
No
3 Hours
—
On Course
On Course
67–75
No
4 Hours
Yes
LOST
On Course
76–83
No
5 Hours
—
LOST
On Course
84–92
No
6 Hours
Yes
LOST
LOST
93–00
No
3 Hours
Yes
LOST
LOST
* Specialist: Elves, Rangers, or guides reduce travel time by half and help you avoid getting lost. If you have a map, you should be able to find your way every time.
While you still have a spell in this system memorized, you will gain a beneficial side effect. This will totally out you as a magic user tho, so beware witch hunters.
Also feel free to ad hoc flavorful cantrips while you have a spell uncast.
Some 1st Level spells for now. Lemme know if I should do all the D&D spells.
Charm Person: +1 to your CHA mod. The DM rolls 2d8 for reaction rolls if you are party face.
Detect Magic: You can smell if a spell has been cast in the space you are in today.
Floating Disc: You have an extra, orbital inventory slot.
Hold Portal: IBS holds no power over you. Also, you can't vomit.
Light (Darkness): Silver eyes like the 2nd pilot of Star Trek.
Magic Missile: Your compass points toward the biggest baddie of the dungeon.
Protection from Evil: Chance of triggering traps halved.
Read Languages: Everyone in the party is literate in whatever languages you are.
Read Magic: You can hear muttering when magical writing is in the same room.
Shield: +1 to your base AC.
Sleep: You stand a d20 over CHA chance of talking a non-hostile to sleep. When this chance fails, you yourself pass out tho.
Ventriloquism: You can change your voice to whoever that you want.
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The old/basic D&D level titles are kinda pointless when divorced from their war-game roots. But we can repurpose them to be goals in the following super-short leveling system:
At session's end you will be awarded between 0 to 3 XP, depending on how metal things got. At 10XP, you are ready to quest. Your quest depends on the level title you are earning.
Fighty types
2. Warrior: Deal the killing blow on a biggie baddie that is giving a community trouble. 3. Swordsman: Square off with an armed boss. No allies can get involved in the melee (the baddie needn't follow these rules). 4. Hero: Save an endangered or jailed NPC, getting them back to safety. 5. Swashbuckler: Be the decisive part of a sea-battle. Swashbuckling on airships or spaceships also allowed. 6. Myrmidon: Join a group with a strong leader and mercilessly carry out their will. 7. Champion: Go on a mission for the powers that be, either royalty, a khan, or extra-planar big wigs. 8. Superhero: Defeat a monster that could be the stuff of myths, like a hydra. 9. Lord: Take the reigns of a city or people. Heavy is the head, Conan.
Mage types
2. Seer: Visit a Delphic site to get arcane wisdom. 3. Conjurer: Summon or manifest something (research a spell and cast it). 4. Theurgist: Learn about lost history, perhaps by bringing a strange cult to light. 5. Thaumaturgist: Do a great magical work in front of a crowd that will spread tales of your wonder-working. 6. Magician: Craft a magic wand or staff that you will wield. 7. Enchanter: Bewitch or transfigure an important creature or place. 8. Warlock: Make a pact with a powerful entity to gain some of its power. 9. Sorcerer: Eat another mage's brain. "I assure you it was necessary, my fellows!" 10. Necromancer: Raise the dead for a great purpose (we'll have to adjust the spell lists or something, methinks). 11. Wizard: Defeat a demon lord or trick a god.
Clerical types:
2. Adept: Join in on a holy mission. 3. Village Priest: If you build it, they will come. 4. Vicar: Act as the hand of a higher cleric in a matter of some importance. 5. Curate: Cleanse an area of all undead or evil spirits. 6. Bishop: Guide several temples in a religious campaign. 7. Lama: Perform a mission in the higher spheres, cleansing yourself in the process. 8. Patriarch: Time to establish a new sect. Find a relic to build it around and prepare for a holy war.
The filchy type titles don't seem to lend themselves well to group play. Maybe play by post with the DM during downtime between group adventures would be more appropriate. Here are the titles tho. Make shit up; I ain't got time for dirty thieves. In fact, take all quest ideas in this post as mere suggestions. You propose a quest and the DM tries to work with it.
2. Footpad: Stab some ponce. 3. Cutpurse: Filch a McGuffin. 4. Robber: "Your money or your life. Please don't tell my paladin friend." 5. Burglar: Steal 39 girdles. 6. Filcher: Get those gems that are serving as idol eyes, no matter how bad an idea this is. 7. Sharper: Trick a powerful entity. 8. Magsman: Convince a big cheese that you won't stab them in the back, then stab them in the back. 9. Thief: Steal the royal jewels. 10. Master Thief: Steal Orcus's wand.
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Chaos vs Authority Both sides don't give rip about the little people. It's a crapsack world, and the points of light left in it are established by oligarchs that desire to enslave and crush everyone because their god is Mammon.
Demons whisper sweet seductions about taking down the rich, but their wanton means cause everyone to suffer in the end. Should the PCs manage to take down the rulers, they will likely become the thing that they hate or destroy the world. Then the next batch of PCs get to take on the old ones. Anything more metal than killing your past self?!
Look up Michael Moorcock for inspiration on this and countless other things in this post.
Monstrous Monsters Make things that the PCs will fear and high five over somehow slaying. Buggers with eyes in the wrong places. Undead that spread their curse with their tainted claws. Aliens that gestate in your blood. Don't send in goblins*, send in something the players have never seen before.
The worst monster is man though. Give the PCs lots of leather-clad, spiked out agents of dark lords and demons to mow through. Give plenty of them demonic alterations to show their alignment to weird, inhuman powers. See mutants, below.
Kick the Puppy, Run over the Kid Nobody is safe in Metal World. That animal companion? Blat! That unicorn you befriended with rations? Head-shot! And children, won't somebody please think of the children?
In the original Toxic Crusader, they run over an innocent kid. Everyone wants to see the villains suffer after that. Make your players into holy avengers.
Mutants mutants mutants I just think they're neat. Seed each adventure with at least one thing that will alter a PC's mind, soul, or body. Have the majority of the things have upside. Have a lot of them be mixed blessings. I wanna see your campaign turn into Gwar. Let's get your PC to bite off the head of the richest man in the world.
Don't forget to throw mutants at your players too. Mutated people, freaked out animals, biblically-accurate angels. Keep it weird, and perverted.
Guns Bring guns into your game somehow. Uzis and ray-guns. Look to Fallout New Vegas for inspiration here. Baddies constantly have guns in an ideal elf game, and the PCs are gonna want them. Shoot them down for their avarice!
How do the guns get in here? A wizard did it. I wanna show you a little trick mom taught me while you weren't around.
Be sure to use friendly fire rules too. You missed the baddie? When you definitely shot one of your buds fighting right next to it for exploding d12 damage.
Behemoths Big monsters show up to devastate the world. Harbingers... uh harbinge them! Prophesies of the end times are metal. Scaling a giant horror is metal. Fighting its immune system is metal. Giving it an aneurysm by blowing up an artifact in its brain is metal. Boss battles should feel like album covers come to life.
Epic Mounts Give the PCs something crazy to ride. Dinosaurs with laser eyes. Human centipedes. That thing from the cover of the Heavy Metal movie. Flying is usually better, but sometimes a humble velociraptor or blond oast will do.
Valhalla You can either get crushed by plague or wars at home or go out there and seize the world by the throat, dying a glorious death. GMs, look for opportunities to give PCs a righteous end while doing something epic. Then ride a Valkyrie (epic mount) to the next crystal sphere.
Crit Tables and Stakes I wanna see you mangled. I want you leaving your friend behind to die because they can't walk and the spider-people are coming. Use crit tables like the ones at Winds of Chaos (I need to work on a non-warhammer version of those). Or I think Arnold K or Cavegirl or somebody made some good injury tables for when you run out of HP. Let the blood splatter in the survivor's faces.
On the other hand, don't forget to give your players metal damage moments too. "How do you want to do this?!" should be on your lips constantly, as they plow through their foes.
Metal Albums and Songs are your inspiration Get ideas for scenarios, spells, and gods from metal sources. I once wrote an RPG that was full of Dio songs. Ride the tiger! Hooah!
Dark Gods Gods are Lovecraftian cancers on reality. They want your fealty. You are a plaything. If you encounter the Buddha on the road, cut him down! Leave the lawful clerics on the cutting room floor, or make them realize they serve the worst version of the fire and brimstone gods that are very angry at mankind.
(Tim Curry intensifies) SsSpAcE! Get cosmic. The universe is full of dead titans and lurking horrors. Get the PCs onto strange planets and into horrific dimensions. Make space as scary as that dumb Event Horizon was supposed to be.
---- * Goblinslayer gobbos get a pass, but you'd better have a session zero about the content there, bud. Gore is one thing, what those goblins do in episode one is a whole thing.
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I did the math (and rounded up to the nearest 16%) (lord, someone should probably check my probabilities) to answer the question:
What if you used the initiative die in J. West's GOZR as the threat die too?
This appeals to me because I'm the kinda dude that forgets threat if a macro isn't screaming at me about it.
Remember, in GOZR, a 1 or a 2 counts as a threat realized.
Threat Die
% Chance (≥1 die rolls 1 or 2)
Equivalent d6 Roll ≤
3d4
87.5%
5
2d4
75%
5
3d6
70.37%
4
1d3
66.67%
4
2d6
55.56%
3
1d4
50%
3
2d8
43.75%
3
1d6
33.33%
2
1d8
25%
2
1d10
20%
1
1d20
10%
1*
*: Maybe you have to roll again and get 1 to 3 to represent this low percentage, or maybe let the common gooz (the monster with this sucky range) have their moment to shine anyways. I know I'd choose the later.
So it is possible for the PCs to win the initiative (they just need a 3 or better) but still have to deal with a threat coming to the fore.
In our roll20 GOZR games, I switched to a d20 for initiative and adapted the percentiles above to d20 ranges. The appeal of the honest d6 is tempting me tho.
The following is intended to be put into a bookmarklet. I… dunno how to do javascript things otherwise… If keeping a script in a browser bookmark doesn't work for you, just revisit this page sometime or copy it to a .txt file. The bookmarklet: Make a Gooz (drag it to your bookmarks bar or make a new bookmark and copy the link from it, then edit it into your bookmark). You can test it just by clicking it here too.
It will generate a gooz PC for you. You’ll need James West’s GOZR to like, play the game. I really recommend you get the print version.
Anyhoo, test it out, let me know if it works. If you wanna play GOZR, I am running it on Discord, so, if anyone wants in on that...
UPDATE: This bookmarklet has seen a few updates. It has many weapons and names from blog posts and drafts by JV West that I tracked down. It even has needs and deed from the sequel GOZR book that may never come out. A couple weapons (short bow and boomer) are ones I renamed to account for versions of a weapon where the damage was different in print. You may want to excise them from your game for being impure.
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Some people hate boxed text, and others find it useful (I met one of my players when they reached out to complain Wizardarium had no boxes). Others point out that many players zone out when they hear the boxed speech starting.
What if we could spice it up in a fun way that everyone likes? Rhyming room descriptions! I just think they're neat.
I'm currently running the Dragon Magazine version of The Dancing Hut (Baba Yaga). What could I say about the first room?
Tho it appears an old woman's hovel to be It is filled with an air of mystery.
Upon the rude table, flickering weakly A lantern is set to help you see
The floor is of beaten earth Six timber walls give small berth
In one corner of this small hexagon be a basin under a table, no dinner, just the lamp, thereupon
A wood burning stove with chimney rising to the room's center And a straw mattress with a worn quilt o'er 'er.
There is a door standing opposite... here and there a bit of brick-a-brack: Pegs, shelves, boxes, combs, and sewing supplies... dare you enter, or go you back?
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Sometimes a DM has no idea what to do. One trick you could try is turning to a random page in a book and finding a random word to inspire you. But I usually have kanji study cards at hand.
Example from a recent game. The players got interested in the fact that there were itinerant barbarians in town and wanted to hire one, so I had to come up with a guy on the fly. The card I drew had the kanji 介, which triggered the word 介護 for me, which can be used for care-giving.
One English word I associate with that is nurse, because care-givers for the elderly are often called that. So I came up with a nurse-barbarian. He is into taking care of the wounded. For his name, I took the reading of the kanji, kai, and made him Kai the nursebarian.
In the same session, I let the players world-wank up some rumors about the house they were going to rumble. One player was like, "I dunno, I got nothing," and I assured them it was fine to pass on the question, but I also showed them the next kanji card in my box which was the kanji for other, and that got some creative-release.
You could use kanji to answer many kinds of questions. What does the prophesy say? What kind of trick is in this room? If you don't feel joy sparking, go to the next card in the box.
I looked a bit for some online random kanji generators, but frankly I like these cards (translations are on the back side) much better, as the example combo words are really what gets the juices flowing, and a kanji without a friend is often a half-baked idea--unless you happen to know a good wago word that uses it.介 is not such a kanji, so yeah, the card is helpful.
Like I said, there are a million ways to randomize ideas, like dictionaries. Sometimes, when I need a treasure, I turn to the kanji cards, but often I turn to a copy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art's catalogue. ----
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