Free RPG Day + DCC RPG World Tour 2015

I know, this is a fairly lousy entry for those not living in or around Madrid, but who knows: maybe you happen to be in Spain next month on holidays, or on an undercover mission, or to learn how to play the spanish guitar or cook paella. Weirder things happen all the time.

In any case, even before Phlogiston Books existed as a would-be-publishing-affair, we've been running games for the DCC RPPG World Tour. They'll all have been a blast, so we'll of course do it again this year. In this case, we thought to celebrate the Free RPG Day playing the game we support and love. And, since we've read and listened to great reports about the great Hypercube of Myt, that's what we'll do: a Tournament.

This we can assure you: if you come by Generación X on June 20th, at 11 am more or less, there'll be a seat for you, and an english-speaking judge to run a game. Spanish hospitality for a fellow DCC RPG player, at its best.

What we can't assure you is that your 0-level characters will survive...

Names for Cults! Or other weird organizations, by Chris Fazio

Names for Cults! Or other weird organizations

Roll 1d24 per column

1 The Dread
2 The Silver
3 The Sacred
4 The Glorious
5 The Foul
6 The Shuddering
7 The Virginal
8 The Blighted
9 The Frenzied
10 The Phantasmal
11 The Golden
12 The Tormented
13 The Immortal
14 The Oracular
15 The Loathsome
16 The Holy
17 The Fiery
18 The Carnal
19 The Ghoulish
20 The Sedate
21 The Unworthy
22 The Fiendish
23 The Seething
24 The Elder

Cult of
Worshipers of
Holders of
Keepers of
Singers of
Gazers of
Implements of
Blades of
Children of
Inheritors of
Revelers of
Prophets of
Saints of
Feasters of
Hunters of
Seers of
Order of
Warriors of
Lovers of
Sacrifices of
Stewards of
Fingers of
Cannibals of
Artists of

the Ghostly
the Unknowable
the Lonely
the Dreaming
the Bloody
the Infinite
the Grey
the Dark
the Emerald
the Dread
the Stone
the Shrouded
the Undying
the Eternal
the Laughing
the Grinning
the Sapphire
the Hanged
the Ancient
the Burning
the Thorny
the Drowned
the Flayed
the Decaying

King
Eye
Star
Path
Ocean
Heart
One
God
Queen
Goddess
Lord
Lady
Beast
Hand
Dragon
Moon
Sun
Abyss
Skull
Child
Woman
Man
Spider
Flesh

Rolled my own: "The Shuddering Children of the Undying eye". Wonderful.

Disturbing rural encounters, by Nacho Sevilla

Disturbing rural encounters

1d14

1        A tattered kid stares wordlessly from the side of the road as he picks his nose. As he turns his back to the PCs, a strange lump stirs under his garments before he disappears.

2        A fevered horse crosses the road, bloodshot eyes and froth in its lips, requiring that 1d3-1 PCs make a Ref save or be hit for 1d6 damage. The horse can’t be calmed down and if it’s somehow stopped or held, it’ll rise on its hind legs and, after uttering a human laugh, will drop dead.

3        A female laborer stops working to watch the travelers and to insult and threaten them, getting more and more violent.

4        A wandering seller shows the travelers her wares insistently. She ends up displaying an eclectic collection of potions and charms, in exchange of which she doesn’t ask for money, just some hair and a blood drop. Those she put inside a pot full of silt, alongside some more.

5        During the journey, the plants and animals look gradually sickly and changed.  Strangely hued corn, lettuces shaped in weird shapes and covered with unnatural outgrowths, pustule-ridden and ill-looking cattle, extremely pop-eyed bunnies...

6        A dog comes near the party and after sniffing them, or trying to, tails them from afar. Oddly, the dog is joined later by a cat, then a rooster, and a goose, a pig, a cow...

7        Those locals who see the travelers greet them kindly from a distance, but if approached they begin to look restless, then fearful, and finally they freak out so much that they try to kill themselves.

Result 14: something like this, more or less*

8        A god-forsaken village on the road. When walking through it, doors and windows can be heard closing as the visitors proceed.

9        The corn growing on both sides of the road progressively invades it, making the path narrower until it vanishes completely. When they turn around, there’ll be no trace of the path and they’ll be in the middle of a cornfield.

10        A sudden hail storm forces the travelers to take shelter. The ice rocks are increasingly bigger and faster (1 hp dmg/minute). The only place to run for cover seems to be a barn; violent blows can be heard coming from the inside.

11        Some locals are laying a fence across the road so “those things can’t get through”.

12       On a nearby stream a mysterious mill’s wheel spins against the current’s flow.

13        Pikes and pitchforks with dogs’ heads stuck on them keep popping here and there, and their number keep increasing.

14        The party stumbles upon Humberto Felipe Arteamado, a somber-looking bard, well known for his horror tales, who joins them to share their wine and fire during the night. He’ll talk about an unspeakable abomination, murmured by the locals to dwell in some peasants’ barn, further ahead in the road. During the night he disappears, leaving behind a small octopoid figurine wrapped in furs.

* Image taken from the Lamentations of the Flame Princess forum header. Of course it belongs to Raggi.

Transplanar Climatology, by Gabriel Ciprés

Transplanar climatology

1d24

1    Dead Calm. A mysterious (from the players’ viewpoint) silence settles in, making them suspicious. All players must discuss with the next one who speaks.

2    Nice and calm. The weather is lovely across the planes of existence. PCs are in a great mood and must show it with displays of camaraderie.

3    Weird Rain. Roll 1d7: 1-Feces, 2-Green paint, 3-Nuts and bolts from a gnomish machine, 4-Bat wings, 5-Salt, 6-Forks, 7-All of these at the same time.

4    Magic Gale. A stream of wild magic energies instills life into the biggest non-magical object each character is carrying. Animated objects hate each other, and they talk to and demand their owners that they destroy their rivals. The PCs must save or fall under their influence.

5    Karmic Downpour. A multicolor rain swaps the PCs personalities. Every player takes the character sheet of the player on his/her right. If someone's got the DM on his/her right, instead of taking a character sheet, he/she turns into a 1d3-headed dragon.

6    Spectral Twister. A huge twister made of unknown energies approaches the PCs fastly. It’s completely innocuous and will go through them harmlessly, but they don't need to know it.

7    Someone left a gate open. Just like that. In a nearby plane, an inept wizard took a break for lunch and left a gate open through which stuff is falling on the PCs. Roll 1d6: 1-Soiled clothes, 2-Scraps of food, 3- Big and heavy books (1d5 damage upon impact), 4-Scribbled parchments, 5-Random magic potions, 6-Familiar (a puppy, a parrot, a toad...) that breathes fire when it’s between planes.

8    Pack of transplanar demons. A pack of demons that look exactly like the PCs (save with deer antlers and flip-flops) attack by surprise the PC in the rear. Despite their appearance, their stats are like a goblin’s.

9    Energy Overload. The atmospheric magic is so intense that all magic items triple their bonus but they burn to touch (1d2 damage every round until it’s dropped). Dropped objects will turn into slugs (it’s an irreversible process) on a 1-13 in 1d30.

10    Will o’ the wisps. The second highest-level PC begins to shine (in a color that is the lowest-level PC’s favorite). Anybody who touches him will get shivers and awful nightmares about sawdust for a week.

11    Planar Heat wave. The interplanar space’s got a stale smell. All the PCs lose 1d5 hit points to sweat and heat stroke unless they take off their clothes and take a shower with all their drinking water.

12    Elemental Leak. The PCs’ journey takes them near an elemental plane that, unfortunately, has a leak. The floor gets ankle-deep in (Roll 1d5): 1-Fire, 2-Earth, 3-Water, 4-Wind, 5-Socks (yep, there’s an elemental plane of that stuff).

Socks of planes. Or was it plane of socks...?

13    Night falls, no matter what time it is.

14    Day breaks, no matter what time it is.

15    Temporal Interruption. The space-time continuum stops because of a breakdown. While the maintenance gods fix the issue, the Judge and PCs must keep silent during 1d6 minutes. Whoever speaks takes 1d16 damage.

16    Spectral Cyclone. It’s exactly like the Spectral Twister (result 6 on this table) but it’s deadly.

17    Screaming Snowstorm. Roll 1d7: 1-Screaming leaves, 2-Screaming cat heads, 3-Screaming bricks, 4-Screaming cockroaches, 5-Screaming sugar, 6-Screaming cleaning water, 7-All of these at the same time. Screaming.

18    Outlandish Dew. Humidity from unknown origins soaks everything. You need to stop and dry up or you risk to lose your equipment and food.

19   Rhyme. The lowest-level character becomes encrusted with ice. Unless his/her mates do something, he/she’ll slip and fall to the floor in 1d16 turns.

20    Magic and Electric Storm. PCs wearing metal armor are struck for 1d13 damage. Magic-users have to cast a random spell at a random target at maximum effect.

21    Dimensional Catastrophe. In a nearby plane, a group of adventurers failed to stop a megalomaniac villain from destroying the world. The skies open up and corpses and burnt debris fall from that plane. Roll 1d5 to know what kind of plane it was: 1-Fantasy, 2-Futuristic, 3-Superheroes, 4-Noir, 5-Cartoons.

22    Transplanar Nomads. Mysterious hooded guys who wander through the planes. Roll 1d7 for their demeanor: 1- Friendly, 2-Hostile, 3-Don’t care much about anything, 4-They speak weirdly and are difficult to understand, 5-Democrats, 6-Moustached, 7-Cannibals.

23    Galactic Equinox. A great festival where the gods from all over the multiverse meet up. Clerics must offer a mandatory mass for the party. If there’s more than one, the one who worships the most powerful god takes precedence.

24    Climatic Mashup. Roll 1d5 times on the table and apply all the results.

Setting the (winning) table

I'll try not to rely too much on clichés, but it'll be hard.

First of all: thank you a million. Seven courageous souls answered the challenge, and many of them sent more than one table (for a grand total of 13 tables, what a magic number). I'd a stinking liar if I didn't confess that we wanted even more, but sometimes less is more, because in this case all of them are just awesome.

But this is a contest, so enough of these niceties, and let's get to the point: the winner. After a tense week of deliberations, the solemn jury has come to a decision, and has unanimously chosen Gabriel Ciprés' table, Transplanar Climatology. On its 24 entries, Gabriel details a list of encounters and background occurrences for something that sooner or later will happen on an Appendix N game table: a travel through the planes.

Result 3 on the table "Transplanar Climatology"

Next week, and as soon as possible, we'll publish the table here, both in English and Spanish. After this one, the rest of them will come, so that the community can use and enjoy them.

Congratulations, Gabriel! As promised, we'll send you The chained coffin via express transplanar courier. Here, let me roll on the table...