Posterous theme by Cory Watilo
Rev. Dak Ultimak

Dak, D.M.

Sword, Board and Beer!

bicycles, love, anarchy...

...and Dungeons & Dragons.

The weirdo behind StrayCouches Press and Crawl! a fanzine dedicated to the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game.

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DCC RPG at GAMEX (Strategicon) 2012

I'll be running two 0-level games at Strategicon's Gamex 2012, Memorial Weekend, in Los Angeles if anyone wants to play. I'll be running The Portal Under The Stars on Friday night and Sailors On The Starless Sea Saturday night. I'll also have copies of Crawl! No.1 on hand. If you're going to be there please join the game, or say Hi! Shoppers can shop for FREE, only gamers need registration.

My games start at 8PM each night, I'll probably be running around the exhibitor or open-gaming halls all day before that. If anyone wants to coordinate a meet-up during the day, email me: [rev d.t dak @t straycouches d.t com] I might be found at the bar on occassion. 

http://www.strategicon.net/index.php

 

My schedule:

Friday May 25, 8PM

 DCC RPG: The Portal Under The Stars

Introductory 0-level adventure. An introduction to DCC RPG, 0-level character creation and short adventure. All materials provided.

Seeking wealth and escape from their peasant lives, the characters investigate a supernatural portal that appears only once every half-century when the stars are right.

Return to the glory days of fantasy with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. Adventure as 1974 intended you to, with modern rules grounded in the origins of sword & sorcery. Fast play, cryptic secrets, and a mysterious past awaits.

7 players
Ages 13+

 

Saturday May 26, 8PM

DCC RPG: Sailors On The Starless Sea

Introductory 0-level adventure. An introduction to DCC RPG, 0-level character creation and short adventure. All materials provided.

Beastmen howl in the night and your fellow villagers are snatched from their beds. With no heroes to defend you, who will rise to stand against the encircling darkness? The secrets of Chaos are yours to unearth, but at what cost to sanity or soul?

Return to the glory days of fantasy with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. Adventure as 1974 intended you to, with modern rules grounded in the origins of sword & sorcery. Fast play, cryptic secrets, and a mysterious past awaits.

7 players
Ages 13+

 

Teaser

Guess what? The official release date is one week away! That means in just over a week everyone will have their delicate fingers smashed by the puppy killer that is the DCC RPG Core Book. This also means I'll be able to ship the pre-orders of Crawl! fanzine no.1! I have surprise for all pre-orders, but I don't want to say what it is. It was inspired by a little joke that I took as a challenge, and you saw what happened the last time I felt challenged. I step it up. So here's a hint: 

Crawl5668
5868

The next couple days are going to be spent folding, stapling, enveloping, labeling and stamping. Then I go on a quick trip to the desert for the weekend, then Monday will be a trip to the post office. So expect your copy of the zine sometime in the next week or two! 

Aplus's DCC RPG Reference Sheets (and a cover I made.)

This is awesome. Jeremy Deram, or Aplus, of People them with monsters (blog) has compiled some of the frequently used tables from DCC RPG into a digest sized document that can be printed as signatures, folded and stapled into a zine-like booklet. It's awesome, and you can download it from here:

http://peoplethemwithmonsters.blogspot.com/p/dcc-rpg-resources.html

He has even shared the cover he used for his personal copy:

http://peoplethemwithmonsters.blogspot.com/2012/05/dcc-rpg-reference-sheets-updated.html

I've decided to make my own and include a cheat sheet for PC creation. You can see it here:

Dccrefscover

and download it from my Box.com: https://www.box.com/s/3fa66cd9457f6e121371

AN OSR ZINE MEME

This guy started it: http://fightingfantasist.blogspot.com/2012/04/your-blog-is-your-eighties-fanzine.html. I decided to take on the challenge and not just stop at a cover, but make a full on zine using the last several posts from my D&D Blog (which is found here: http://dakdm.straycouches.com. All articles appeared there first.)

Some of the posts were plugs for Crawl!, so I thought I'd get clever and make them ads. I also took a plug for the DCC RPG PDF and made that an ad too. It took me few hours, most of it spent formatting text and re-doing some art so it matches a style that I like. I highly recommend comparing the original posts with the ones found in the zine. No way was I perfect, but the analog version was fun to figure out. As a special bonus, it features new art from Crawl! fanzine and an early version of an article that will be appearing in Crawl! No.2! Best of all, I'm making this available free as a PDF, in both a readable and printable format. I might also release it as an epub ebook, we'll see. 

Any way, I present to you REV. DAK D.M., zine no. 8: 

PDF for reading

PDF for printing The "for printing" version is formatted (impossed) for double-sided (duplex) printing on Letter sized paper (A4 should work fine, too.) Just print double-sided, fold & staple!

If someone wants me to send them a printed version, I can do that! Dwolla, Paypal or Google Wallet $2 ($3 if you're in Canada, and $3.50 overseas) to rev.dak@straycouches.com or just email me. Make sure you let me know what you're buying (DAK, D.M. No.8). Keep in mind that this won't be the highest quality paper (Crawl! will be printed on premium paper.) This will be cheap, but cool. Also note that there aren't any back issues. Issues 1 through 7 don't exist!

DCC RPG PDF is out!

Gmg5070coverlarge
If you pre-ordered a copy of DCC RPG before April 1st, you would have recieved an email to download the full copy of DCC RPG PDF! 

I have to say, it is beautiful. Full color covers and end papers are included, and they're amazing.

This also means the game has been approved for PRINT! Can you smell it? I can't wait to lay my hands on this Mighty Tome.

20 Campaign Questions

20 questions from this site, http://untimately.blogspot.com/2012/02/20-quick-questions-rules.html, as they pertain to my current campaign.

  1. Ability scores generation method? 3d6 in order.
  2. How are death and dying handled? Zero HP make a Luck check, DC 15, three fails you die.
  3. What about raising the dead? No one has tried. But there would probably be a quest involved, and lots of blood spilled.
  4. How are replacement PCs handled? Role 3 zero leveled guys, level the best to the same as the lowest level PC in the party.
  5. Initiative: individual, group, or something else? Individual, d20 style.
  6. Are there critical hits and fumbles? How do they work? Yes, DCC rules as written.
  7. Do I get any benefits for wearing a helmet? Not yet! But I've heard some good ideas. Will probably do something like this: Helmet will be -1 on "perception" type checks, but protect you from one CRIT per session or encounter.
  8. Can I hurt my friends if I fire into melee or do something similarly silly? Yes. DCC RAW. 50% to hit an adjacent creature if you miss your target.
  9. Will we need to run from some encounters, or will we be able to kill everything? Run.
  10. Level-draining monsters: yes or no? No. Permanent stat drain, yes.
  11. Are there going to be cases where a failed save results in PC death? Yes.
  12. How strictly are encumbrance & resources tracked? Story dependent. 
  13. What's required when my PC gains a level? Training? Do I get new spells automatically? Can it happen in the middle of an adventure, or do I have to wait for down time?  Gold can be spent for XP as training.Spells found, from scrolls or books, can be usable when leveling permits. PCs can level after being issued XP. 
  14. What do I get experience for? Whenever I give em, typically after fights or other challenges.
  15. How are traps located? Description, dice rolling, or some combination? Logical combination of the two.
  16. Are retainers encouraged and how does morale work? Retainers, yes. They're basically 0-level characters, that can level and become full fledged characters if their master wants. Morale is a Will save.
  17. How do I identify magic items? With a spell, research, usage or finding an expert. There aren't many, so when they get one, the Wizard or Elf can try and identify it.
  18. Can I buy magic items? Oh, come on: how about just potions? No, no.
  19. Can I create magic items? When and how? When you get a spell that allows you to.
  20. What about splitting the party? Be my guest. Players are welcome to do whatever they want, but the more experienced ones tend to live by the code, "Never split the party."