Monster Challenge (The Black Hack)

I have become quite infatuated with the second edition of The Black Hack as of late and over in the MeWe Black Hack group a fellow going by the name Arcum Daggson posted the following:

  Sow. Starting DM here, looking to use DCC material. Having some guidelines from veteran players how to convert creatures would be highly appreciated.
   Eg. This creature.

   Corrupted Elemental Hydra: Init +6; Atk slam +10 melee (2d6); AC 16; HD 12d8 (59 hp); MV swim 80’; Act 1d20 per head; SP engulf and drown, vulnerable to fire and heat, elemental traits; SV Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +8; AL C.

   Surely it would lose some stats, but what about HD and AC? Or is this more or less good to go as is? Do you also implement difficulty classes? Or...

So, I decided to take a stab at the creature. I was unfamiliar with DCC (I know of it, but never played) as well as the creature, so a quick Google-fuing and I had a few ideas. A corrupted Elemental Hydra sounds pretty badass to me, so I wanted to make this thing powerful. I think I did. Here you go, enjoy throwing this badass mofo at your players.

Corrupted Elemental Hydra - HD 8
Bite attack- STR (1 Close) 2d10 dmg
Breath weapon - see below (d4 Nearby) see below
Aura of True Fear - Any Character that starts their turn Nearby the Hydra, must pass a WIS or CON Test (Player decides) - or suffer Disadvantage on any test they take this round.
AV - 2
o Multiple heads! roll 2d4 to determine how many heads the hydra has. Creature can attack a number of times equal to the number of heads.
o Breath weapon! Each head has different breath weapon attacks, each has a usage die, once expended it must 'rest' that attack for two rounds before it may use that breath weapon again. The head may perform other actions during the breath weapon 'rest'. Roll d6 for each head to determine' its elemental focus:
1 - Poison Gas Breath! CON or Weakened for d4 rounds
2 - Fire Breath! DEX 4d6 dmg, flammable objects burst into flames, do 2 additional dmg for d4 rounds after attack
3 - Wind Gust! STR or forced to Faraway, if an obstacles blocks target's path to Faraway, target takes 3d6 dmg
4 - Acid Ball! d4 worn or held or items on target are destroyed, GM discretion for magical items
5 - Ice Blast! DEX 3d6 dmg from flying ice chunks
6 - Earth Deluge! STR 2d4 dmg and Paralyzed as buried by dirt, to escape must make a STR with Disadvantage

B/X Mummy Rot

I did not care for any of the versions of Mummy Rot I found around the web, so I made my own B/X version. A little softer initially, and I think it allows the character to survive a little longer, and therefore reach a cure, but is still pretty heavy handed.

MUMMY ROT

• Allows for normal healing but at ½ the normal rate. Any Healing spell, potion, or aid has only a 50% chance of working.
• At the outset of the disease, the character will permanently lose d4 Constitution and d4 Charisma points. These cannot be restored through resting, healing, spells (including a Remove Curse spell), etc.
• Every day the character must make a Save vs Death/Poison or suffer permanent 1hp loss to their maximum hit point total and permanently lose 1 point of CON or CHA (50% chance to either). These cannot be restored through resting, healing, spells (including a Remove Curse spell), etc. Any reduction in CON or CHA is accompanied by a visible wasting of their flesh (sunken eyes, graying of the skin, etc.)
• Only a Remove Curse can stop the cycle and remove the supernatural disease.

If Hit Points, CON, or CHA reaches zero, the character dies. In d6 turns the character will rise and become a mummy.

 

An OSR logo

I was bored after stuffing myself with turkey, so I opened up Inkscape and came up with an logo that I really liked. I am far more inclined towards one-color logos as this allows for the logo to be placed on far more surfaces: hats, shirts, product covers, etc.

Black and white version.

Old school blue version.

This logo is released Free Forever into the Public Domain with no attribution requirements or possiblity of being revoked in the future. Long live gaming. 

Vintage Gaming

The OSR has taken a good deal of flack lately because of the various groups vying for 'control' or domination of the group per sa. So, I am a little tired of it, tired of the "you are not part of the group" or "he thinks he is a gatekeeper" or "the OSR is just a bunch of old, white grumpy dudes" so I came up with my own term and decided to do a logo for it.

Yep, it looks a little rough around the edges, on purpose. We are old, we play older games, and we do not care what you think about it.

Additional versions:

This logo is released under a CC license, feel free to use it in your works so long as you abide by the license:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Blackwater Bay update

I have been working here and there on a new, fully vector, map of my little setting. I thought I would share an update. This is just a screenshot on where I am right now. The Barrow Mounds I posted previously are located near Prolge in the Hyllic Forest.

Barrowmounds anyone?

I have been reading the excellent Barrowmaze and the initial section really has got me thinking. My own game has been floundering due to player inability to make the scheduled game and I have paused the full campaign and switched over to running shorter, 1on1 adventures. So far I have ran two, with another planned for this week. With the game happening only relying on me and one other (possibly two) being available, these tend to happen more regularly. Plus, this gives the players the option of trying out a new character without the deep connection the ones in the campaign tend to be.

As such, I have started drawing out shorter, quick, one session maps inspired by the idea found in the pages of Barrowmaze. I created a template in Inkscape so I can easily slap in the map (and ensure that 5' actually matches 5') and spit out a PDF for printing. I have tested out each one and so far, I totally dig it. I think it would be useful in planning a quick game.

Here is the first one, you can get the PNG or PDF here.

For second one, I made the mistake of drawing it far too linear, so while the squares DO actually match up with the grid, it pretty much makes the grid useless in describing the rooms (duh, rookie map maker mistake!) You can get the PNG and PDF here.

Over the weekend I received a Samsung Galazy S3 tablet, for the explicit use of drawing maps and reading books (my two year old Kindle is ok, but has speed and battery life issues). So about seven minutes after I signed into the new toy, I started drawing a map. The result is below, I like drawing digitally (almost as much as on paper....nostalgia) because it allows for error correction, line thickness control and the best part? I do not have to use my sucky ass scanner. I think it produces a more consistent and solid look across the entire piece. You can find the PNG and PDF here.

Feel free to visit my Patreon, download and print out those PDFs for your game. Give them a spin, tell me how you like them, what I could do better/different, and if you found them useful. If you like them, consider adding your name to my supporters. Their support allowed me to purchase the tools that allow me to continue to make maps for everyone.