Mashup Campaign Idea

I've been watching a lot of TV lately.  Just finished up West world season 1, The Alienist, and season 1 of the Frankenstein chronicles.  All of which are really good! I highly recommend them.

So here's the idea, I've always been a HUGE fan of the old horror movies, Lon Chaney, Bella Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Claude Rains, the list is never ending honestly.  Another movie I absolutely loved when I was a kid was Monster Squad! Of course you can throw in some Penny Dreadful into the mix as well.

Setting: Early 1800's English Countryside, and England (well sort of).
System:  Lotfp (with black powder guns), or maybe Call of Cthulhu.  I just realized this could totally work for DP&D as well!

The PCs are in a virtual environment, much like West World, It's England in the early 1800s.  They are fully aware that they are in the environment, it's an escape from everyday life in the year 3000.  The evening is foggy, the oil lanterns burn low in the tavern.  There is a scream from outside, the PCs rush to see what happened.  Lying in the street is a prostitute, her body is crumpled, head twisted almost all the way around.  No human could do this.....

The rabbit hole leads the PCs to all the great monsters from the horror movies, Frankie, Dracula, Werewolves, etc.  It's up to them to find out what's happening and stop it.

It's going to be campy, just like those movies, it's going to be scary.

The twist of course, unlike West World, and much like Total Recall the PCs can die in the world.

The Stoner - Alternative Class for Dark Places & Demogorgons

The Stoner (Sub class of Rebel) 

You spend a inordinate amount of time out of class, smoking grass behind the janitor's shed.  Paranoia & Conspiracy theories are always on your mind. You are pretty mellow and lack any real worry about life.

Prerequisites:  Intelligence 

Level 1 - Beginning Skills Knowledge General, Select one of the following:  Language, Mechanics, Paranormal, Science.  You get that skill and and get a +1 on all rolls for that skill.  -2 to all skill rolls towards police. 

LEVEL	ADVANCEMENT
2	Gain Ranged Weapons Skill (or a +1 if you have it)
3	+1 to attack rolls, or +1 to any INT based Skill
4	+2 to all Saving Throws
5	Gains dream bong!

Starting Equipment:  A lighter, rolling papers, a backpack, hard cheese, 1d6 dollars, metal pipe and screens, half a gram of mary jane. 

Man: You wanna get high, man?
Pedro: Does Howdy Doody got wooden Balls, man? - Cheech & Chong 



DP&D Kickstarter is now LIVE! Go Check it out.
SURVIVE THIS!! Dark Places & Demogorgons RPG Core Rulebook

A review of the character classes in Dark Places & Demogorgons

Dark Places & Demogorgons has a huge variety of classes, you can play as the following: The Kid Scientist, The Nerd, The Geek, The Jock, Extreme Athlete, The Karate Kid, Break Dancer, Goth, Metal Head, Preppy, The Princess, Teen Heart Throb, Bully, The Hood, and last but not least the Punk Rocker.

Since I was basically a nerd punk rocker, I decided to review those 2.  As well, I took Judo when I was kid (i was terrible at it) however I loved Ralph Macchio, so I will also review the Karate Kid.

The Nerd 
You've always been picked on for being different and for being smarter than everyone else... Well I was always picked on anyways.

You must have a Intelligence of 13, you automatically get the following skills:  Knowledge, General & Science, a -1 to Strength, CON, & CHA, and a +1 to INT And Wis.  I like it already!

Advancement is kinda nifty in DP&D, All of the classes go to level 5 and as you go your skills increase and some attributes.  In the case of the Nerd, they get a +1 to all knowledge rolls at level 2, a +1 to Intelligence at level 3.  (That's as far as I go for now, you'll have to buy the book!).  The game itself has waves of Fifth Edition as far as the classes go & leveling up, but it easy.

Starting gear is funny: Home Computer, home library, library card, a flashlight, 4d6 dollars and a revenge of the nerds poster.

I'd like to add some silly black glasses, a plaid shirt button up to your neck, possibly suspenders, defiantly a Kleenex or two in your pocket (allergies!)

Obviously there are a pile of great pop culture references for nerds, most of the crew from Big Bang Theory, Thelma, Urkel, George McFly.

The Punk Rocker 
No prerequisites needed for this one! Except maybe a disrespect for authority, and a bad attitude. Starting off you get art & music, driving and intimidation skills.  - 2 to all skill checks against authority figures (LMFAO awesome)

As you level your armour class increases, fear and intimidation checks, and so on

Starting equipment: punk clothes, leather jacket with patches, pocket knife, punk rock handbook

I'll add a knock off stratocaster guitar, a package of band aids, a skateboard missing a wheel

Obviously you can pull influences from Punk Music, Punky Brewster, a few of the lost boys. Marty McFly.

The Karate Kid

Prerequistes: dex 9, and Con 8.
You start off with basic athletics, martial arts.  You get a +1 dex and a -1 charisma (due to people thinking your a bit weird).

As you level you get bonuses to your AC, and physical attacks, extra melee

Starting equipment: a Gi, pair of nunchuks, throwing starts, last dragon VHS,

Obviously The Karate Kid you can draw an influence from, as well bruce lee, chuck norris,

I love all the humour written into the character classes!  There are a lot of great throw back quotes that get you in the right frame of mind to roll up your character!

The Kickstarter launches tomorrow! 
Check out the video (I wish i could embed it) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6YmUBpzi9Y

Dark places & Demogorgon - A Review

+Eric from Bloat Games was kind enough to send me over a pdf copy of his new game, "Dark Places & Demogorgon".  Here is the elevator pitch from the back of the book.

"Dark Places & Demogorgon is a tabletop roleplaying game that uses the original 1970s fantasy rules and mutates it into a retro nightmare that you hold in your hands.  In DP&D you play as a high school student in the 1980s, the town you live in has had a rash of disappearances and strange happenings.  The adults seem lost as to what to do, the police are as clueless as ever, and reverend Philips is on another witch hunt.  It's up to you and your friends to figure out what's going on and stop if from happening again!"   Heavily influenced by 80s pop culture, DP&D draws inspiration from movies like the lost boys, ET, Goonies, Weird Science, The Ghost Busters, The breakfast club and TV shows like Stranger Things, Erie Indiana, and Scooby Doo.  

This game is going to be fun.  I think specifically if you have a group of players that all grew up in the 80s and get the theme of it.  Which is pretty much most of the OSR audience (or atleast a reasonable amount of it).  My 5e group would be at home playing this, my old school group all grew up in the 90s (so I might have to do a bit of explaining what a VCR is!).  

Eric and Co did a great job of game design.  The mechanics of this game are similar to the original 70s version of "the world's most popular roleplaying game".  The mechanics use S&W type rules, with d6s and 20s.  Although there is a bit of fifth edition throw in for good measure (advantage/disadvantage).  As well a few other sources.  (the XP system is akin to DCC).  

First off, the book is fantastically laid out, great art that puts you right into the mix of the theme and general idea.  There are even actual photos from year books (I'm guessing friends of Erics).  

You play the game as a teenager, and its basically race as a class.  Specifically you can play classes like "The nerd, the athlete, the karate kid, the goth, the kid scientist, etc").  All of the classes have special little things they can do, and a few disadvantages I suppose.  

There is also a skill system (based on DCs) that is pretty cool.  Not unsimilar to profiencies. 

The name of the game is really about mystery and role playing, it's not as combat heavy (which makes sense, as it would be a TPK a lot I think!).  The experience system that was dreamed up works fantastically, giving players XP for participating, achieving goals, etc.  It's similar to DCC in that we are not talking about having to get 1500 XP to get to level 2.  

The game comes with a baked in setting called Jtown (which is your small town in middle America in the 80s).  Which could easily be any small town anywhere in the world with a bit of tweaking.  

There are examples of play, monsters, adventure ideas, sample characters, weapons and armour (including a trash can lid! haha).  

I really like the idea of being a player in this game, and going with a different character archetype than what I was in High School (ie I was a nerd, and I can play a dumb jock!).  

While reading the book, I thought about how to start a campaign.  Obviously would depend on the characters in the game (for instance there are a whole bunch of backgrounds for the characters that you can roll, things like "being obsessed with D&D or my little pony, or mtv). But instead of the usual "you meet in a tavern", I thought "alright your playing D&D in some dudes basement".  So the whole thing is like your playing a role playing game in a role playing game.  You could even do it to your players during a regular fantasy game! hhahaha, that would be a trip.  

The premise of the game is somewhat similar to Crimson Dragon Slayer, as far as the 80s throwback references, and the immersion into that world.  However it's gonzo on a different level, and a different game entirely.  

Eric is going to be running a kickstarter for this book, if your interested in it keep an eye on his youtube channel.  At this point the book is laid out and ready to go, so it's probably going to be about getting the book in peoples hands.  

Seriously it's super cool! 

Thanks for sending me a copy Eric!  I'll see if I can't  get my players to solve a Scooby doo type mystery soon! (which btw I'm a huge fan of!)  

Here's Erics video showing off the book. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rKD4wB9r44

Here's Ivanmikes review of the book.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaMQvT9TcYc&t=1s