Dungeon Crawl Classics Continued (Ep.85)

Summary

---

The GROGNARD Files - Episode 85: Dungeon Crawl Classics Continued

Date: September 9, 2025
Host: Dirk the Dice
Guests: Judge Blythe (Blithy), Dave Patterson

---

Episode Overview

In this "annual"-sized follow-up to their initial deep dive, Dirk the Dice and the ever-enthusiastic Judge Blythe (aka Blithy) return to Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC), spotlighting its most notable spin-offs and supplements. The discussion traverses DCC’s monster expansions, branded settings (Lankmar, Dying Earth, Mutant Crawl Classics, X-Crawl), and their experiences running campaigns and one-shots. Dave Patterson joins to champion Fritz Leiber’s Lankmar stories for the Appendix G recommendations, and the crew closes with candid RPG table-talk, sharing ongoing GMing challenges, campaign juggling, and system musings.

---

Main Themes and Segments

1. The Allure of Dungeon Crawl Classics (00:16–04:28)

• Dirk and Blithy reaffirm their devotion to DCC.
  • Dirk recounts a recent wizard character with a "malign force" patron and the lasting appeal of DCC.
  • Blithy jokes about Dirk’s "dull look" as DCC zealot.

Quote:

"No Games Master Screen ever has anything useful on it... the reason I like a Games Master Screen is because what I like is a hostile psychological barrier between me and my players." — Dirk (03:45)

2. DCC Monster Book: Dungeon Denizens (05:08–07:45)

• Review of the new monster compendium.
  • Offers 500+ monsters with art and scenario hooks.
  • Fills a gap—core rulebook has just enough, but modules add more, and this book brings it together.
  • Some new "gonzo" monsters (e.g., Mirror Golem) feel in tune with DCC’s sensibility.

Quote:

"With DCC, anything goes really… it's almost like anything goes." — Dirk (07:08)

3. DIY DCC & Writing Adventures (07:45–08:12)

• Monster book may spur more original adventures vs. just running published modules.
• Discussions on prepping "Maze of the Mirror Golem" as a one-shot.

---

4. DCC Lankmar: Emulating Fritz Leiber’s City (08:12–17:40)

• Recap of their Lankmar mini-campaign:
  • Used a series of linked modules, tweaked for continuity.
  • Lankmar’s single-city focus and carousing table foster character-driven narratives and trouble.
  • Differences from core DCC:
    • Only Warriors, Rogues, and Wizards (no elves, dwarves, clerics).
    • Spell stipulation table limits/complicates magic use.
    • Fleeting Luck allows for luck-burning instead of healing.
    • Carousing table injects city life consequences between adventures.

Memorable Mechanic:

"The higher the result (on the carousing table), the more luck you get, but the worse result is—like waking up on the sacrificial altar of a cult waiting to be sacrificed." — Dirk (13:52)

• Lankmar flavor:
  • Less gonzo, more grounded. Focuses more on capers, factions, underworld dealings, and city intrigue than random monster slaying.
  • Players often feel like NPCs in a larger, living world.

Quote:

"You're almost as PCs... NPCs in a larger narrative that are going on around you." — Judge Blythe (15:29)
"I've always kind of struggled a bit with urban adventures… but the Lankmar setting is such that Cha can get away with that kind of stuff..." — Dirk (16:17)

---

5. DCC Dying Earth: Jack Vance’s World Reimagined (17:43–25:31)

• Acquiring and unboxing the set:

  • Discusses content (rules, setting, map, adventures).
  • Dying Earth is well-supported with modules capturing the "Vancian" vibe—pilgrims, humor, and doom.

• Challenges running Dying Earth:

  • Classes are novel but complex (vat thing, witch, Wayfarer/trickster).
  • Rules shift: more fundamental changes than Lankmar—players really need to read the rules.
  • Introduction of "grudge tokens:" PCs can make each other fail rolls, reflecting the world's vanity/arrogance.

Quote:

"Grudge tokens… you can make other players fail roles...all slightly vain, slightly arrogant people who don't like other people's success." — Dirk (22:36)

• "Fire and Forget" Spellcasting Returns:
  • DCC’s usual magic system (not fire-and-forget) is replaced in Dying Earth to match Vance, ironically reintroducing the D&D spell limitation DCC once left behind.

Quote:

"All joys of DCC is you got rid of that and now you bring it in...it's like, weird." — Dirk (24:07)

---

6. DCC Box Sets & Modules—One Shots vs. Campaigns (25:31–34:30)

• All the settings discussed (Lankmar, Dying Earth, Mutant Crawl, X-Crawl) favor campaign play rather than just one-shots.
• The modules are highly praised for their flexibility and immediacy.

Quote:

"There's a lot to be said for that sometimes... That's quite a rare thing." — Dirk (25:50)

---

7. Mutant Crawl Classics (MCC): Post-Apocalyptic Gonzo (26:41–30:36)

• MCC as DCC's answer to Gamma World—post-apoc, mutations instead of magic.
  • Play as manimals, plantians, or purestrain humans.
  • Artifacts and understanding lost technology are core mechanics.
  • Robots will respond differently depending on character ancestry.

Quote:

"You think DCC's gonzo, but I mean, that's Gonzo, the capital G, isn't it?" — Dirk (29:12)

• MCC is more fun in play than it reads.
  • Special callout to late Russ Nicholson’s artwork.

---

8. X-Crawl Classics: Dungeon Deathsport (30:39–35:07)

• DCC in a modern, blood-sport reality TV setting.
  • Blends "The Running Man" with dungeon crawling—celebrity dungeoneers, crowds, fame as a stat.
  • Showboating role = adoration of the crowd.
  • Works better as a campaign with fame/wealth arc, but also succeeds as a daft, one-off diversion.

Quote:

"It doesn't seem it should work, but it does actually. It's in practice." — Dirk (34:30)

---

9. Appendix G: The Sword Series of Fritz Leiber (36:27–53:12)

Guest Dave Patterson champions Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories.

• Detailed literary analysis:
  • Leiber’s works are argued to embody the feel of an RPG campaign—gritty, grounded, with comedic twists and unexpected turns.
  • Comparison to Warhammer Fantasy RPG (WFRP)—grittiness, background magic, complex (but not overwrought) lore.
  • Leiber coined the phrase "swords and sorcery" in correspondence with Michael Moorcock.

Key Quote:

"If you like role playing games, this is the closest you're going to get in novel and short story form. They are a distillation in novel form of how you imagine role playing games are going to be." — Dave Patterson (40:24)

• Leiber’s Influence:
  • Swords of Lankmar, considered the best entry point and closest in tone to WFRP urban stories.
  • The city’s depth and dark undercurrents revealed gradually, like a campaign.

Sample passage read from Swords and Deviltry (51:58):

"The two greatest swordsmen ever to be in this or any other universe of fact or fiction...fated forever to encounter the most deadly of enemies, the most fell of foes, the most delectable of girls…"

• Dave’s preferred archetype:
  • "I am absolutely a Grey Mouser…probably the first 10 characters I ever made…"
  • Judge Blythe relates to Fafhrd—"not Conan…the vulnerable barbarian with a soft heart."

---

10. GM Table Talk: Current RPG Worries and Campaign Prep (53:29–70:32)

GMIT: “GM Imposter Syndrome” & Campaign Overload

• Blithy confronts GMIT by overcommitting to events and campaign slots (Dracula Dossier, Glorantha/RuneQuest, Blade Runner, Planescape at Morpcon).
• Planescape musings:
  • Considers system fit for the setting, debates 5E’s shortcomings vs. OSR games.

Quote:

"Put 5th Edition characters into a dungeon…great. Once you stick them into other environments, it just falls apart..." — Dirk (58:00)

Table Note-Taking Habits

• Dirk takes copious GM notes, barely any as a player.
• Blithy relies on group recall during play.

Preparing for Pirates of Drinax (Traveller)

• Dirk summarizes past campaign seasons for group clarity, reflects on open plot threads.
• The campaign’s scope expands as players’ actions generate consequences—threats and big decisions about the future empire.
• Discussion about matching pacing and stakes as campaign progresses.

Quote:

"There's more loose ends still than I imagined...maybe I'm wrong. I have to say I apologize, it's gone forever." — Dirk (65:39)

---

Notable Quotes and Moments

• On DCC’s random and evocative monster design:
  • "Some games, it feels like they're pushing the look because the monsters...don't quite fit. But with DCC...anything goes." (Dirk, 07:08)
• On DCC being best as a campaign platform:
  • "Maybe a lot of these kind of dungeon crawl classics box sets are more about campaigns than the original DCC." (Dirk, 33:12)
• On Leiber’s influence:
  • "I think he's influenced it to a significantly bigger extent...as much if not more than Tolkien..." (Dave Patterson, 49:30)
• RPG design wisdom:
  • "Sometimes with role playing games, everyone can get a little bit earnest about it...But equally there is a place sometimes for running around the dungeon, fighting monsters and avoiding traps." (Dirk, 35:08)

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:16: Main episode theme introduction
• 05:08: DCC Monster Book/Dungeon Denizens
• 08:12: Lankmar campaign discussion
• 17:43: Dying Earth box set
• 26:41: Mutant Crawl Classics
• 30:39: X-Crawl Classics
• 36:27: Appendix G (Fritz Leiber segment with Dave Patterson)
• 53:29: RPG closing thoughts, campaign prepping, system discussions
• 62:23: Pirates of Drinax catch-up

---

Tone & Atmosphere

True to GROGNARD Files tradition, the discussion is lively, irreverent, a bit self-deprecating, and always affectionate towards the games and their community. The hosts’ banter, the joy in their reminiscence, and the thoughtful exploration of DCC’s many facets make this an engaging listen for die-hard fans and curious newcomers alike.

---

For more detailed Appendix G recommendations or to join future episodes, visit their Discord or consider becoming a Patreon supporter.

Transcript

[Dirk the Dice]

Have you seen me dice bag. The Grognard Files?

[Host/Announcer]

Hello, my name is Dirt the Dice and this is the Grognard Files podcast where we talk bobbins about tabletop RPGs from back in the day. And today I'm coming alive from my den for the second part of Dungeon Crawl Classics. Yes, this is picking up all the bits that we didn't quite cover in the first part. You shouldn't see this as a supplement, you should see it more as a DCC annual.

[Judge Blythe]

I think I've got this, have I?

[Host/Announcer]

It's got a different cover. In this episode, I'm joined in the room of rippling rambling by a resident rose lawyer and dead DCC zealot, Judge Blithy. I hide behind the games master screen and roll on a table, apparently at random, and explore some of the different versions and iterations that belong to the DCC family. One of the versions of DCC that we've been enjoying in recent months is the Lankmar campaign. It's based on the works of Fritz Leiber. And I'm joined in the zoom of Role Playing Rambling by DAV Patterson, host of the Frankenstein's RPG podcast. He shares his enthusiasm for the sword series starring Faford and the Grey Mouser and adds the series to the Appendix G. The never ending list of inspiration and recommendations. Blithey is back, back, back towards the end for us to reflect on some of the RPG concerns that we've got with going on at the moment, things that we're preparing and things that are concerning us right now and the role playing game experience. I'll be back at the end with a few parish notices and words of thanks. Until then, ramblers.

[Judge Blythe]

Let's get rambling Games Master screen. Welcome to the room of Role playing Rambling. And we're up in the attic. Hello. I've got Judge Blythe with me. Hello there, Blythe.

[Dirk the Dice]

Hello, Dirk.

[Judge Blythe]

I am up in the attic. It's been sweltering recently, but there's a low wind blowing through the rafters. How have you been doing?

[Dirk the Dice]

I've been okay.

[Judge Blythe]

I'm okay. Let's get straight into this because what we're going to do is look at Dungeon Crawl classics. You still fervent in your belief that it's an amazing game?

[Dirk the Dice]

I'm still fully paid up. Cult member I played recently. I was invited to play in Andrew McDonald's DCC game in Fanboy 3 and I had a great time playing a wizard.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, you've got that dull look behind your Eyes as though you're under the thrall of some.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

Some wizard. Some. Some malign force.

[Dirk the Dice]

My wizard did have a malign force as his patron, so he's a rather dubious character. But I had a lot of fun playing it. It was very, very good. Enjoyed it. So. Yeah, I'm not. I'm not. You know, you. You said.

[Dave Patterson]

You.

[Dirk the Dice]

I think when I got into dcc, you said, oh, I think it's just a fashion thing. And it's not, is it? Yeah, still.

[Judge Blythe]

I'm still fervent for belief.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, still, Still.

[Judge Blythe]

Okay. I'm gonna erect this Games Master Screen in front of me. Is there a Games Master Screen for dcc?

[Dirk the Dice]

There's a few. There's lots.

[Judge Blythe]

There's lots of.

[Dirk the Dice]

There's lots. They do a lot of Games Master Screen. I mean, maybe that's. That's part of it for me, you know, I like a Games Master Screen, but there's loads. They do loads of them. They do one for every version of it, I think.

[Judge Blythe]

And so what's on it? Because you still don't know.

[Dirk the Dice]

You still know. I don't know. Because. Doesn't matter what's on it. No. No Games Master Screen ever has anything useful on it. And if it does have anything useful on it, you forget to look at it when you play and you end up looking at the rulebook and think, oh, tables on the screen. Why did I look at it? That's irrelevant. The reason I like a Games Master Screen is because what I like is a hostile psychological barrier between me and my players. Some people would say it's just a piece of cardboard. What I would say is, no, it's a barrier between me and them, the great unwashed players.

[Judge Blythe]

There you go. I love it.

[Dirk the Dice]

I love a Game Master Screen. The bigger the better. Don't talk to anything printed on it at all. Just a piece of cardboard. It'd do, wouldn't it? Yeah. With barbed wire across the top.

[Judge Blythe]

Well, I. I use this one to hide my secrets because on the other side of here I have a table.

[Dirk the Dice]

Okay.

[Judge Blythe]

That I'm going to roll, apparently at random. All right, choose your dice. What dice should it be?

[Dirk the Dice]

I'm gonna. I'm only gonna roll a D14.

[Judge Blythe]

D14.

[Dirk the Dice]

True DCC style. For D14.

[Judge Blythe]

It goes, roll it.

[Dirk the Dice]

Never stop. Bloody roll. You'll be rolling around forever, won't it?

[Judge Blythe]

It goes.

[Dave Patterson]

Oh.

[Judge Blythe]

And up first we hit dcc, which we taught us about last time, didn't we talked about the mechanics, but this was on the. On, on the table. Because you've got a new book.

[Dirk the Dice]

Haven't yet.

[Host/Announcer]

Pretty short.

[Dirk the Dice]

I've got the Dungeon Denizens book, the monster book. They produced a monster book. There are monsters in the game, obviously, but it's a expanded monster book, which is really good.

[Judge Blythe]

So what does it give you?

[Dirk the Dice]

It just gives you, like, 500 monsters with pictures of all the monsters and all the ideas for scenarios and all the stats and this, the monster book. But it's. I think, as we've discussed before, you can't really beat a monster book, can you? As a. As a supplement to a game, a monster book is really good. And I suppose. I suppose in a way, I don't mean to criticize the cult of dcc, but I suppose it's been lacking a bit in that, weirdly, because the Core Rules has monsters in it. As you have enough monsters to play a game, you know, there's enough monsters in there, but a lot of the monsters come through the adventures. So when you buy an adventure, there'll be some different monsters in. So you kind of build up a companion of monsters through the modules. Whereas this book.

[Judge Blythe]

Does it bring together the monsters that's appeared in the modules?

[Dirk the Dice]

It might do. I'm not sure, actually. That's a good point. I didn't really spot anything, but it could. But I think there's lots of new things in there as well.

[Judge Blythe]

So 500 monsters. Is it pushing its look? Has it got an antelope in it?

[Dirk the Dice]

It's not got antelope in it, and it's not got a giant banger or not tank either. But it has some weird stuff in. Yeah, there's obviously weird monsters. I think there's like. What did I see was looking through it the other night? A mirror golem or something. Or a mirror golem. Golem. Golem. Where it's like a humanoid figure, but you see your own reflection in it, that kind of thing? There's kind of weird stuff where you look at it and think, oh, this is odd. But then that's DCC in some ways. I think it works with dcc because DCC can be so gonzo and crazy at times that having crazy monsters doesn't feel like they're pushing the luck, because it feels like it's an integral part of it. Some games, it feels like they're pushing the look because the monsters, when they come up with these kind of extreme examples of a monster, sometimes it feels like they're pushing the boundaries of the game. They don't quite fit. But with dcc, it does Kind of works because anything, it's almost like anything goes really.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. Monsters break the rules. That's all right, is it?

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

So normally when you've done this you've. I'm right in thinking that you've run the modules, haven't you?

[Dirk the Dice]

So does.

[Dave Patterson]

Is.

[Judge Blythe]

Is that what you've done so far, run modules?

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, yeah, I've run some modules, yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

But you've not created your own stuff, have you?

[Dirk the Dice]

No, not really, no. But I mean I've kind of tweaked some of the modules quite a bit.

[Judge Blythe]

But does this mean that buying the dungeon.

[Dirk the Dice]

I think it might do, yeah. I'm tempted to kind just make you want to kind of write your own adventure really, so that you can use some of these monsters. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

So what's your approach going to be? Is it going to be like a

[Dirk the Dice]

Mega dungeon or only a mega dungeon? It'd be like a one shot, wouldn't it? You know.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Let's face it, you can't, can't expect people to play these games for months on end. But as much as I'd like to, but yeah, probably going to be a one shot. Maybe. Maybe for Greg, me, Tish. We'll see.

[Judge Blythe]

We'll see the Maze of the Mirror Golem.

[Dirk the Dice]

Something like. Yeah, Maze of the Mirror Golem. You need to catch the title, don't you? Catch your title.

[Judge Blythe]

You can have that one.

[Dirk the Dice]

Thank you.

[Judge Blythe]

Okay, let's go back to the table. Oh, I've got Lankmar. Dcc. Lankmar. So we played a campaign of this.

[Dirk the Dice]

We did a little mini campaign of it.

[Judge Blythe]

Mini campaign, but it's quite substantial. We played it for longer than our 10 session.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

And just talk us through that. Was that a series of modules or was it a game?

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, it was a series of modules, but I kind of tweaked and messed about with them and used them as a kind of basis for a little campaign because they do sort of run together. I think that's one of the things with ecc, the modules do. You can go from one to the other and link things together, perhaps more than in other games. But yeah, they were like, was it the Gang Lords of Lankmar? And then a couple of others where I sort of tied it together, which is quite easy to do because in Lankmar there's a couple of things really. There's the first thing, it's because it's a city campaign, you're in one place, aren't you? So it's easy to get embroiled with other NPCs who might lead to other adventures. There's a sense of continuity to it, but also you've got something where you've got that carousing table. So they have a carousing table, don't they, in there, which we rolled on. And that generates some adventures, doesn't it, with you get into trouble, basically.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. It's like a dentine thing, isn't it? So between adventures. Yeah. Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Well, what it does. What's interesting at a Lankbar one, I would say all the ones we may talk about during this conversation. Lankmar is the least sort of messed with, if you know what I mean, the least meddled with version of it. So it feels very much like normal dcc, doesn't it? I think. Yeah, to a point. Although fortunately, to get rid of clerics. So there's only. There's no elves and dwarves. It's like that. So all you've got is warriors, rogues and wizards. That's the only three character classes you've got, but a lot of it. And you have a thing called fleeting luck. So you get luck points that you can burn rather than your own luck.

[Judge Blythe]

And the wizard spells work differently as well, don't they?

[Dirk the Dice]

Not in DC6, not in Lankmar. They do in Diner.

[Judge Blythe]

All right.

[Dirk the Dice]

But they do a little bit. Yeah, they do slightly in that what it introduces. The differences that it introduces in Lankmar are spell stipulation.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, I think that's what I was referring to. You say kind of makes it a little trickier to cast spells. So, you know, as a player character, you not going to get to a level of, like some of the great evil sorcerers that you get in, like our stories. You are kind of inhibited a little bit by these stipulations.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, it kind of. I suppose it kind of tones down the magic a bit in that sense that the spells are still both the same, but to cast them, you have to roll on a spell stipulation table. That gives you like a. You've. You've got to do like. There was one way you need.

[Judge Blythe]

You.

[Dirk the Dice]

You always have needed assistance from someone else to cast it.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Or you've got to. You know, there's like that ones where, you know your wizard's got to be naked or something like that, or got to be outside. Can't cast it inside. Or you can. You can only cast it inside. They can only cast it during the day and only cast it during night. That kind of thing is. Is a Change from normal dcc. Yeah. It's not quite like mercurial magic. Mercurial magic's more about side effects of a spell, isn't it, in normal ecc, whereas in. In Lankmar, it's more about what you have to do to cast it. Yeah, it limits, I suppose. Makes it kind of interesting as well, doesn't it? Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

And it also weaves in to the lore, the patrons. No, they're not just like random patrons. They are from Blank.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, they're from the. Yeah. And Yubel of the what? The faceless whatever. Yeah. And all that kind of stuff. Yeah, yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

So I felt, as a magic user, part of that Lankmar world, but it seemed slightly odd because as a player character in that world, the main characters don't use magic. In fact, they turn their face away from magic, don't they? Fafa. Great.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I suppose that is something like my box set. The magic. There is magic, but there's less magic. There's not as many magic items. It's all a bit rarer, isn't it? And wizards are kind of strange and corrupted slightly, aren't they? More so than in normal dcc. So, yeah, it tones down the magic a bit. That's one change, I think. The other. The other changes in it are there's rules around lock, isn't there? So you can burn luck and stuff to heal because there's no cleric. So you can do heal yourself by using luck points and that kind of thing, having a bit of a rest as that kind of thing going on. But also you get your luck back. Normally in dcc, only rogues really get luck back. You do get it back, but it's quite tricky to get it back. You might only get a couple of points after an adventure, you know, if you've pleased the gods or something like that. Whereas in the Lankmar, you could potentially get it all back. But what you have to do is roll on a carousing table. So between an adventure, you pick a dice. The bigger the dice, the higher your potential result on the carousing table, and that determines how much luck you get back. But you have to put up with the result from the carousing table, most of which involve things like gambling debts or being stuck in prison. The higher the result, the more luck you get, but the worse the result is. So I think one of the higher results is you might get 2d10 look back, but you find you after a drunken night out, you wake up on the sacrificial altar of a cult waiting to be sacrificed, which generates its own adventures.

[Judge Blythe]

It's very tempting, isn't it, to lean on the word gonzo? And I'm not going to. It's the G word. It does have that madcap sense to it.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yes, yeah, yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

That anything can happen.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

However it is within the frame of Lankmar and Lankman stories, I think it does a good job of emulating.

[Dirk the Dice]

It does a really good job. And it, like you say it is gonzo, but it. But it. It's reined in with the Lankmar one, and it's a little more. What's the word? Not pedestrian. That sounds really, really bad to say it's pedestrian, but it's a bit more grounded, isn't it? Ground. That's the word.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Less gonzo. More grounded. The G word. Yeah, less gonzo. More grounded in that. Yeah. There's a bit less magic, and it's more about getting into trouble in a city and the criminal element of it. With the Thieves Guild and some of that kind of stuff. Yeah, into it.

[Judge Blythe]

And does a really good job, I think, with the artwork, the maps, the cartography that you show in conveying a sense of like. But also, as you say, like the Thieves Guild and some of the different factions that operate in this city, they're there, but, you know, to come back to our loa is snore.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

You don't really need to get embroiled in all the different functions, motivations and what have you. They're just there and you're just there.

[Dirk the Dice]

And you. You might interact. Interact with them or not.

[Host/Announcer]

You're.

[Dave Patterson]

You're.

[Judge Blythe]

You're almost as PCs. You're almost NPCs in a larger narrative that are going on around you.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

That you kind of cross into every so often.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

You know, like, exactly. You know, you might pick up a box and be chasing the skeletal hand through the city.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yes, exactly. Yeah, yeah. And it might not involve. I mean, there was one where you had to steal a elephant's head from a tavern, didn't you? And replace it with that. It was quite a lot of fun. Like a heist, but it was a heist where you had to take this head. We were spoilers as to why, but you did find out why. But you were given this job of stealing a behemoth's head from this tavern where this ritual was going on, but replacing it without anybody knowing. There were no monsters involved. But it was like a bit of a caper, wasn't it? A Bit of a heist kind of caper where, you know, you were trying to do this, get away with it. But it didn't involve monsters, it didn't involve a dungeon. It was very. It's like an urban setting. Yeah. You know, and they do a good job of that because I think I've always. I've always kind of struggled a bit with urban adventures. You know, they can sometimes be a bit problematic, can't they? Because you don't quite know what to do or you sort of feel, well, if player characters do this, this and this, is that not gonna bring the city guard down on them and that kind of thing. But the Lankmar setting is such that Cha can get away with that kind of stuff because it's that kind of setting, isn't it?

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. I got a sense as a gm, I suppose us as players got more out of it than the Waterdeep campaign that you ran.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I did see a funny, funny comment once about Lankba on. Is it. That's just a Reddit. It's one of these daft sites. It was somebody complaining they'd bought the box set, the white Martin. They bought it and they said, this is outrageous. This is just a rip off of Water Dip. What's. What's what? Goodman Games thinking this is just. It's the same thing as Bautisteep when he go, oh, no, honey.

[Judge Blythe]

Really?

[Dirk the Dice]

Honey, Is that what you think?

[Judge Blythe]

Okay, next up we have Dying Earth.

[Dirk the Dice]

Dying Earth.

[Judge Blythe]

Now I was looking forward to this, but I never actually got it. But you'd have thought me as Jack Vance fan, I'd be all lovely, but at the time it was really expensive to purchase and get shipped. So did you do the Kickstarter?

[Dirk the Dice]

No, I didn't do the Kickstarter, but what I did, I put in a pre order at Leisure Games. Leisure Games are doing pre orders so that when the Kickstarters arrived, you know, the retail ones put pre order in. And I got a. I don't think. I didn't pre order it. I got the old email notification that it's available and then fastest finger first I got. Got a box, you know, ordered a box set. So.

[Judge Blythe]

So you've got the box set. Have you got the booklet as well? The rule book? What do you get? What do you.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, yeah, the box set. I think as far as I know, the box set contains pretty much everything. So there's like, there's, there's a rule guide to it which gives you the different rules and the way it changes the system and then there's a setting book and a few. There's an adventure as well and maps and things like that. So you get pretty much everything in the box set. I'm not sure. You might not get the games master screen though. Shocking. I can't remember now, but yeah, you get everything you need in the box set. So yeah, you don't really need anything else.

[Judge Blythe]

Is it well served with modules because you played a couple.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, they produced quite a few modules for it, right? Got a few. Yeah, they produced quite a few modules. The module is quite good. They do capture that kind of fancy and flavor quite well. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

The one I played certainly had that.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, with the Pilgrims, wasn't it? The funnel one with the pilgrims.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. It's a while ago now, but I seem to remember having a troop of pigs.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, it was like the Pilgrims of the Black Obelisk or something where you're all going on some journey to pay homage to this weird obelisk. And it does have a Vancian feel to it, doesn't it? You know, where you traipsing through the countryside as a troop of pilgrims. All zero level, you know, and obviously doomed to die at certain points. Yeah. But yeah, there was a pig. There was a pig in here.

[Judge Blythe]

There's always a pig involved.

[Dirk the Dice]

Pigs are chickens, isn't there? It's a DCC thing. They got a pig or a chicken. Like comedy animals out there, you know, no one ever has. It was a sheep or cow and a cow's not kind of funny, is it? But some reason a chicken or a pig did that. Act funny. This will be funny.

[Judge Blythe]

So I've only played the funnel version, the zero level version of it. I play very little of it. Yeah, I'm a big fan of Diana, but it's because you've not offered it very much. And why is that?

[Dirk the Dice]

Well, I have run. I mean, I've run a funnel and I've run a couple of proper games where you've got the character classes and I think it is quite a tricky one, if I'm honest. I think they do a very good job of creating a Vancian world. And the character classes that they bring in are very Valencian. So you can play a vat thing.

[Judge Blythe]

Oh, yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

So that's a vat thing.

[Judge Blythe]

Wizards have grown them in a. Yeah,

[Dirk the Dice]

play a vat thing, which is quite.

[Judge Blythe]

I always love that from Rails of the Marvelous. The fact that he's growing. Yeah. Different creatures.

[Dirk the Dice]

Play a vat thing. Can play a witch, you can play what's called a Wayfarer, which is like a bit of a rogue roguish character.

[Judge Blythe]

Kujul.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, that Kugel, Yeah. Or you can play a wizard. They do say you can bring in the other character classes, but again, aren't sure. You bring in warriors, I suppose, but I don't think you could bring in clerics, particularly. You can't bring in elves and halfling and dwarves, because they're not in dinosaur. They sort of work. I sure you could bring wizards in because again, it's. It's a peculiar thing, but what I would say about Dying Earth and this came across when I ran it, I think it's quite hard work. If you run Lankmar dcc. Lankmar with players who'd never played dcc. Oh, they'd play dcc, but they'd never played in Lankmar. That would be fine. It would work. It would be fine. Have done that. And it's quite easy. People get it. The rule changes are not huge. They're just enough rule changes to make it a bit different. But nothing too worrisome, nothing to keep you, you know, occupy your mind too much. I think what I found with the Dying Earth one was. It was one of those where I thought, do you know what? I think everyone needs to have read these rules to play it, because even if you've played dcc, it changes a lot of the rules. The carriage classes are quite different in the way they operate, so they have a lot of abilities which are very vanishing but quite tricky.

[Judge Blythe]

I think the trickster. I think I looked at that.

[Dirk the Dice]

The Wayfarer.

[Judge Blythe]

The Wayfarer, yeah. And it is like a trickster type.

[Dirk the Dice]

It is a bit like. Like a con man, isn't it?

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, yeah. And that's got some additional rules around it, hasn't it? That.

[Dirk the Dice]

Well, the two. The two.

[Dave Patterson]

The main.

[Dirk the Dice]

Different rule in it, and it's quite a good rule, is a thing called a grudge token. Oh, I remember. You get grudge tokens where you can make other players fail their roles. Because the idea is you're all slight. Like in Dying Earth, you're all slightly vain, slightly arrogant people who don't like other people's success. So you can actually make players, Other players fail roles with. Which is quite funny.

[Judge Blythe]

Which is funny. But it's one of those things you need player buying.

[Dirk the Dice]

You make sure you got player buy and you play buy. We all agree.

[Judge Blythe]

Well, let's just say that and move on. Let's go.

[Dirk the Dice]

If you don't get player buying, don't bother playing it. I don't buy into this, or don't bother playing it anyway. But one of the peculiar things about it, and I think this is really odd, is that obviously Vancian magic, we all know about Vancian magic, don't we? Fire and Forget, D and D. Well,

[Judge Blythe]

that's Gygax's interpretation of Vancium Mag.

[Dirk the Dice]

That's his interpretation.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, of course.

[Dirk the Dice]

All right. But what DCC does, the original game is it goes against that, doesn't it? Because it's not Fire and Forget, it's roll on table. And maybe you forget it or maybe you don't. But of course, in Dying Earth, they bring in a Fire and forget system for wizards. You think it's really odd, this, because all joys of DCC is you got rid of that and now you bring it in. So what you do as a wizard, you get a spell and you roll on the table. Whatever result you get, that's what happens when you cast it. And when you cast it, it's forgotten.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

So it's like a weird inversion of we invented a game that got rid of this stupid D and D thing about Fire and Forget, but now we've created the Dying Earth, we've had to retrofit our system to be Fire and Forget. It's like, weird. I can understand why they do it, because you would have to, because that's Vance. That's sort of the way it's perceived to work. It's an odd thing, but I think Dying Earth, it's very nice, it's very good. It is very vancy. And they've done a good job of creating the atmosphere, but I would say it pushes the original game in directions that make it more complicated or different. So if you think, you know, dcc, when you play Dying Earth, you'll think, oh, hang on, there's load. There's things here that I don't. You know, the way witches work with the curses is all, again, a bit unusual. Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

I think in advance as well. It's kind of missing the point because they won't get. They won't get their hands dirty with the magicians.

[Dirk the Dice]

No, they ain't really. They wouldn't be wandering around adventuring. Yeah, that's true, actually, isn't it?

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, they tend to be. They have an elevated status in their own mind.

[Dirk the Dice]

Slightly. Yeah, they're all mine. Slightly aloof characters.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

They'd send the vat things out to go and do the dirty work, wouldn't they?

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. And like an asmajika kind of model.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah. Probably the most complicated and the one that bends it and twists it a little bit.

[Judge Blythe]

It strikes me that it, the dying earth element of it is the modules. And I think that sort of. I tried to say that last time that it feels to me that it's the modules where the magic is for dcc. They're just well prepared, aren't they? Well, well produced and well thought about.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, well produced and also they use. They're useful out there. They're useful pieces of RPG paraphernalia in that. You can grab hold of one of these things, read it and then run it. You know, there is a lot to be said for that sometimes. That's quite a rare thing, isn't it? Because a lot of companies nowadays produce campaign books or things that. That's great if you've got the time and you've got player, player buying, player buying, player buying. We've got player buying player buying player buying those DCC modules. Two sessions maybe. Two sessions, yeah. Sometimes one maybe. Relaxed about two sessions. Yeah. And you can run an adventure pretty much as written. Mess about with it, baby. 1.

[Judge Blythe]

I'm very surprised you. You were asking whether there's going to be more coming up is there are more coming up.

[Dirk the Dice]

More coming up. All the D14.

[Judge Blythe]

Oh, I've hit an eight mutant crow classic. Oh yeah. So this is the harmonized to Gamma World.

[Dirk the Dice]

It is really. Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

It's a different take post apocalyptic, but it's still got fantasy elements to it, hasn't it? And where the magic is replaced by mutations and artifacts.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, it's like crazy science, isn't so it's that crazy post apocalyptic thing where you can play like an animal, can't you? An animal? Or you can play a plant. Is it a plantian? It's like a plant humanoid. Or you can play a pure strained human. And then it's got sciency weird science stuff in it. Some of which is like science where you think all right, yeah, that's a bit like science and other bits you think just bonkers. That's just like magic.

[Judge Blythe]

It does. It's a fun game, I'd say. I've not played it a lot.

[Dirk the Dice]

No.

[Judge Blythe]

But every time I've played it I've enjoyed playing it.

[Dirk the Dice]

And I think that is the strange thing about Mutant Crawl classics. I've seen read things where people are a little bit critical of it. They feel it's not quite as good as DCC or quite as fleshed out as dcc. But what I would say is I think it plays better than it reads.

[Judge Blythe]

Yes.

[Dirk the Dice]

So you look at it and say there's like pure. One of the character classes is that some of the character classes are pure strange humans. And they don't seem to have as many abilities as the mutants. Mutants or the plantiatry or the manimals who get special mutant powers. On the face of it, you look at it and think, why would you want to play a pure strange human? But what it cleverly does, it has rules about understanding and using technology and how AI and robots and things respond to you. And if you're a pure strained human, the robots respond to you in a more positive way than if you're a plant. Like, because they don't acknowledge you, they won't acknowledge that kind of thing. So when you actually play it, you realize it's quite cleverly positioned in terms of these character classes, though they do work. You've got to make rules to understand technology. So if you find a laser piss, you've got to make a roll to understand it. And if you're not a mutant, you've got a better chance of understanding it.

[Judge Blythe]

You realize as well that those artifacts are key to the game, aren't they're

[Dirk the Dice]

a big part of the game. So your mutant might have powers, but when you encounter some robot, the robot is more likely to shoot the mutant. It's been designed to acknowledge humans. I kind of like it. I do like Mutant Coral Classics. I mean, you think DCC's gonzo, but I mean, that's Gonzo, the capital G, isn't it?

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. And it is less grounded. It is one of those where it gives the players a bit of license to have fun with it.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

And it's a bit tongue in cheek. The scenario I played, I think, is it ATOs, the one with it's. It's really Zardo. It's Zardos.

[Dirk the Dice]

Is it?

[Judge Blythe]

Yes. But thanks to Roger Kaur, I brought together the idea of Zardos with famine in Fargo, so brought together an old Gamma World scenario with that and it became Nandoz. So it was Nando's Big Chicken.

[Dirk the Dice]

Oh, that's right, the big chicken. I remember I played in it.

[Host/Announcer]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Big chicken head. Yeah. It is like Gamma World. But I remember having Gamma World back in the day and never really getting on with it because it's what I always thought Gamma World seemed a bit silly, but what I realized now is I don't think it was silly enough. Maybe some of Gamma World felt. Still felt like it was trying to replicate a Post apocalyptic world. Mutant Crawl Classics, isn't it? Says there's been a great disaster. It's just bonkers.

[Judge Blythe]

The thing I most enjoyed about getting it was realizing that it had some Russ Nicholson, some late Russ Nicholson artwork in it. So, yeah, it's worth getting just for that, I'd say.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, but it's a fun. It's, I think Mutant Crow Classics. It doesn't get quite as much love as it deserves in the DCC community, I would say.

[Judge Blythe]

Let's have a final roll on here.

[Dirk the Dice]

Okay.

[Judge Blythe]

Oh, it's X Crow Classics. Now. We did talk a bit about this last time when we had Brendan and so this is just to remind everybody this is. It's really the running man in a dungeon, isn't it?

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, it's like a. Well, are you futuristic? I read somewhere someone said I was set in a alternative 80s because they've got a president called Ronald, haven't they? Yes, particularly like Ronald Reagan. I think the idea is that the world of DCC has moved on into a future like ours. But all the elves and wizards and orcs still exist, but it's become a 20th century civilization. A form of entertainment, a bloodsport is these dungeons that are dumb. You know, he's like gladiators, isn't it? You know what, the wrestling thing, that's what it is. So you create characters who are like celebrities or trying to be celebrities in this world.

[Judge Blythe]

Talk a little bit more about that element of the game, which is about crowd pleasing. So there's mechanics around that, isn't there? Sure.

[Dirk the Dice]

You do a showboating role, don't you? Yeah, yeah. To get the adoration of the crowd.

[Judge Blythe]

Part of your motivation in there is, is to increase your chances of success by getting the adoration of the crowd.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah. But what I would say, and I think that's an interesting element of it, is I've played extra classics a few times now as one shots, but every time I play it as a one shot, I was thinking it'd be better as a campaign game, which is odd because when you look at it on paper, you think, oh, it's perfect for a one shot, isn't it? Because it's just a crazy dungeon. And that's true. So I've had fun playing it. Brendan ran a game at Expo and I played in that and it was great. But in the back of my mind, I think things like the showboating rule about getting kind of fame and all that, it's the idea to be like a campaign where you build up your position As a celebrity and build up your wealth.

[Judge Blythe]

Build.

[Dirk the Dice]

That's sort of the point of it. And as a one shot, you're missing that element of it, aren't you? A bit. Because as a one shot, it's just like an old fashioned survive the dungeon, isn't it? That's why it is survive the dungeon. Whereas if you played it over a series of months, it would be survive the dungeon, but also become famous, become rich, become a celebrity dungeoneer sort of thing. And that element of it is sort of missing on a one shot.

[Judge Blythe]

And it.

[Dirk the Dice]

And it got me thinking, actually, about all the, you know, like the Lankmar going back to Lankmar. I think that's true of Lankmar. You can run Lankmar games as a one shot and I have done that and they've been fine. But I think you're missing something if you don't run it as a campaign. So when we ran that, when I ran that little campaign, it was far. It came alive far more than when I'd run one shots. Because of the carousing table, because of the interaction with Thieves Guild, because of these plans and plots that you started to hatch. Maybe a lot of these kind of dungeon crawl classics box sets are more about campaigns than the original DCC X

[Judge Blythe]

Crawl classics is about touring the different cities, isn't it? So if you've got a band of celebrity gladiators take from city to city with the stories that they take with them. Yeah, I. I agree. That would be more fun.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

And what I like about it is that there's a certain cheekiness to it, but it's also bringing fantasy tropes that are essentially European into an American setting.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

And it works somehow. It kind of creates its own mythology around it.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it's like the mythology of role playing games, isn't it? In a way, that is the mythology of role playing games sort of moved into this weird 20th century setting. Because I must admit, when I heard about it, I thought, not sure about this. Is this a bit daft? It is a bit daft. It is daft. Of course it is. But when I've played it, I've thought, actually this kind of works rather well, this. It doesn't in theory, it doesn't seem to shouldn't work, but it does, actually. It's in practice.

[Judge Blythe]

I think it's all right to do daft every so often.

[Dirk the Dice]

I think it is.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's all right. And sometimes that. Again, that's one of DCC's strengths, isn't it? When you look at the original game and you look at all these, all the additional stuff they've done, that idea, isn't it, that sometimes with role playing games, everyone can get a little bit earnest about it, can't they? Yeah, we can count. You can get very earnest about it and very earnest when you're playing games. And there's a place for that because there's a place for those more serious games. Of course there is. But equally there is a place sometimes for running around the dungeon, fighting monsters and avoiding traps. Sometimes that can be. Can be good as well. We can have balls in your lives, can't you? They're all right, you know, it's okay. So I say it's okay to be a bit daft every now and again. Yeah, you know, right.

[Judge Blythe]

I'm folding this table away. I hope you got it out of your system. You do realize the rules and the format of this podcast mean that we can't talk about it ever again.

[Dirk the Dice]

Never talk about D.C. so I hope

[Judge Blythe]

you say your system. Any last words?

[Dirk the Dice]

I'll try not to. I have to have a word with the high priests, see if I'm allowed to not mention it again.

[Judge Blythe]

Have you got a desktop yet?

[Dirk the Dice]

Not yet. Yeah, working. There's hope for me.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, there's hope for you. Yeah, there's hope for you.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

Okay, cheers. Bye then. Appendix G. Welcome to the Zoom of role Playing Rambling where we're collecting our ever expanding never ending list of recommendations from the grog squad. And I've got Dave Patterson with me. Hello there, Dave.

[Dave Patterson]

Hey, Doug, how are you?

[Dirk the Dice]

I'm good, thank you.

[Dave Patterson]

And so.

[Judge Blythe]

So what do you want to enter

[Host/Announcer]

into the Appendix G?

[Dave Patterson]

It's probably entire catalog, but I'm happy to enter a Fritz Lieber. Not quite sure how you pronounce his name. I know that the one that we actually read was Swords and Deviltry.

[Judge Blythe]

Swords and Deviltry, which I think is the first one, isn't it?

[Dave Patterson]

I might be a little bit controversial. I'm not going to ask for MERP to be included and I'm going to ask. Maybe I'd have an alternative of the Swords of Lank, which is a full length book, which is book five in the sort of sword series, as it were, for Labor Leiber, Fritz.

[Judge Blythe]

Well, I think it's Liber because remember when for merp.

[Host/Announcer]

Remember?

[Judge Blythe]

I don't know if you've listened to that one. We did one on Middle Earth, role playing and a special guest we had Liz Danforth and she Enjoyed the podcast, but she was furious that we kept referring to him as Lieber. And it is Liber.

[Dave Patterson]

I've actually seen a video clip where he. He corrects somebody and says, it's Liber.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. And I think they used to hang out. So I think Fritz Leibach was in with the gaming crowd back in the convention days, because I think there's quite a lot of crossover, particularly around where Ken Santander and Liz Danforth were traveling around with the science fiction crowd and the gaming group got together inevitably.

[Host/Announcer]

He used to be in the bar,

[Judge Blythe]

I think, and made friends with.

[Dave Patterson]

Well, he designed a game for tsr. I didn't know that they. They designed the landmark board games. So when. When I know we were going to sort of have a chat about what. What the influence was on role playing games and everything else. Yeah. In terms of. He put together. Yeah. This game was of a strategy board game, really, more than anything else of Lankmar. Oh, wow. Amazing.

[Judge Blythe]

That's amazing.

[Dave Patterson]

They did the. The second edition of AD&D. They did a. A Lankmar version of it, I think, didn't they?

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. And I think they've done one for Savage Worlds. And of course, we're talking about DCC this time, so it has definitely always been there, wasn't it, as an influence? So what. What about you, Dev?

[Host/Announcer]

When did you.

[Judge Blythe]

When did you first read these? How did you come across them?

[Dave Patterson]

Well, as you can probably guess any. Obviously it's not on video, but the. The state of the books that I have in front of me, I've had them for. For Donkey's Years. And I think. I think I. I was reading them before I got involved in any kind of role playing. And I remember being completely captivated, I think, by. Oddly enough, I thought, because his name was Fritz Labor Liber. I thought he was European until eventually I got a book that said, you know, the best living American fantasy writer, which was a surprise because I think the sensibility in there, I think his language is quite European and his sense of humor in the book, I think, is quite European. So I thought it was a bit more complex than most of the fantasy I was reading. I found him before. I then found things like Vance and, you know, Stephen Donaldson and all the rest of it. And I thought he was very gritty and dark, which is why I think he stayed with me for that long, because it had quite a formative period. And that was a sort of fantasy, I guess. And the arc that I was on was very, very similar to. To labor.

[Judge Blythe]

If you're going to give a pitch to somebody who hasn't read these books, what would it be?

[Dave Patterson]

So obviously these are principally about Fafford and the Grey Mouser. I think the pitch would be, if you like role playing games, this is the closest you're going to get in novel and short story form. They are a distillation in novel form of how you imagine role playing games are going to be.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. And why is that, do you think? Some of that is down to that comic element of it. The way that things get resolved in these stories is not necessarily straightforward, is it? And it kind of matches that player character experience of let's think of a plan. And then it goes wrong.

[Dave Patterson]

There's almost like there is sort of in the background there is a Machiavellian presence, as you know, as the GM might be, that says, this sounds like a great plan, but, oh, now this is going to happen. And I think, you know, the stories will often have twists and turns and they take it in a different direction.

[Judge Blythe]

Well, I came to them quite late and the collection I've got are these ones which have got the fantastic Jeff Taylor covers. And I think you're right. Immediately when I saw them, they kind of evoked the swords and sorcery that was in my head when I was playing role playing games in a way that very few other novels do, really.

[Dave Patterson]

I think the closest ally or the closest game to Safford and the Grey Mouser is Warhammer Fantasy roleplay. Slightly gritty magic is kind of. It's there, but it's not really. It's kind of frowned upon. So it kind of works on a. As a sort of a sub context. And there are all these. This sort of dark forces are in the background. So you have the Skaven who are all underground and they're all warped. And you have obviously warp stone and everything else. And you have gods that are a little bit involved but a little bit removed. And actually they really don't care about you. And you have these sort of elder presences that are out there. You're kind of trying to survive in a slightly more gritty and realistic environment. And I think that the closest corollary to Lancomer is Old Empire. It's not so fantastical in terms of what the heroes can do. The books lend themselves to role playing and role playing. Lend themselves so well to the books, if you like.

[Judge Blythe]

And the background lore to Lankmar, it's light touches. You get the sense that the Thieves Guild operates and it's quite complicated structure and it involves ancestors.

[Host/Announcer]

And if you get deep into it,

[Judge Blythe]

those ancestors still have influence because they're undead or they've still got a presence, but it's not. You get a sense that tacitly, that there's more to this city than meets the eye. And it's revealed very slowly, isn't it? Just like you would in a game, I guess.

[Dave Patterson]

There's a veneer of mundanity. It's seedy, it's horrible, but it's all kind of, you know, full of crime. And then, as you said, you suddenly discover, hang on a second, there are these sort of malevolent forces that are just underneath. And then they meet the magicians, Shioba of the Eyeless Face and Mingo of the Seven Eyes, and they suddenly are opened up into entirely new vistas and they go and steal, obviously, the Mask of Death and these sorts of things. So that, you know, there's a sort of a graduation to, okay, well, now we're going to go and steal stuff from gods, where you could kind of plug that. If you started off as first level thief and barbarian, you end up as 10th level. Okay, now we're battling, not battling gods, but escaping gods and stealing from them. And it happens several times throughout all of the books where they, you know, and they go to different planes and it's, you know, there's. There's the element of the fantastic in there.

[Judge Blythe]

But it always feels best when they're in Lankmar. I think the strongest stories are when they're in the city, isn't it? Whether that's under the city or. Or within it. And if you. If you're coming new to it, Swords and Deviltry isn't necessarily the best one to start with. Even though it's the first one chronologically in the story, they weren't written at the same time. And some of his writing later on isn't as strong as his early writing.

[Dave Patterson]

I would say he took him until, I think the late 60s, before he brought all the stories together and tried to plot them in terms of how they would have, you know, how the development of the characters would have been. So he's a little bit all over the place. He was. He was quite friendly with Lovecraft, you know, isn't influenced by all of these people. Then he's sort of competitive with Tolkien and Vance, and you can see how the stories have kind of changed in the. Whether the element of the fantastical and the element of the dark, I guess, as well. So he was kind of writing a little bit out of Sync. I think, as I said, I think his strongest book is the Swords of Lankmar. And in that is probably, as I was kind of trying to make the case for earlier on, is the closest to Warhammer fantasy roleplaying where there is this sort of background of the rats and the queen rat or rat goddess are running Lankmar secretly. Liber has even more of an influence over role playing that we maybe don't take at face value.

[Judge Blythe]

I think it's important that it was in correspondence with Michael Moorcock that he actually coined the phrase swords and sorcery.

[Dave Patterson]

And even. Even though Safford and the Grey Mouser never. They don't die. Although technically I guess they do because they get brought back to life on a couple of occasions. However, it's not quite as fantastical as Conan, for example, where you just know Conan's going to survive. It doesn't matter what happens, Conan's going to survive. There's always this element of, you know, as I talking about before, not necessarily the mundane, but there is an element of mortality, I guess is possibly a better way of looking at it.

[Judge Blythe]

I think we commented when we did it in the book club how often one or the other of them needs to rescue each other.

[Dave Patterson]

And that is consistent throughout the entire canon. Variously pulling each other's backside out of the fire, without a doubt.

[Judge Blythe]

When you were role playing Dave, are you a Grey Mouse or are you a Fafford?

[Dave Patterson]

I am absolutely a Grey Mouser. Probably the first 10 characters I ever made. And it didn't matter what the role playing game was. You could have looked at them and gone, yeah, great mouser. I'm that dull. I look for the rogue, I look for the thief, the shadowy gerbil. I couldn't be bothered to move away from that. We then played very, very rarely play a magic user. And partly because I quite like the fact that, you know, my personal preference is for magic to be there, but to be very much in the background. And I genuinely think it's because this is where I started.

[Judge Blythe]

I've always been more of a fafferd, as you say, he's not Conan the Barbarian. He's a vulnerable barbarian with a soft heart and very stoical. And as we were saying earlier, he's always pulling his friend out of scrapes, isn't he?

[Dave Patterson]

Well, exactly. And also, you know, is a convicted ladies man.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yes.

[Dave Patterson]

Which, you know, clearly is another thing that you have in common. But I would say that Fafid's taste tends towards the slightly extreme. So there is One stage where he starts a relationship with a ghoul and she has entirely transparent skin which is, I would say is a bit off putting but you know, you may feel

[Judge Blythe]

differently each to their own. I always find it amazing that they haven't been adapted. They would be perfect, wouldn't they? As you said, they are serialized so you could have little self contained stories.

[Dave Patterson]

I really don't understand why. Firstly, it's not more of a dominant game environment to play it. I guess it's been a bit diluted by all of the spin up. I think it is. I genuinely believe it to be incredibly fun, you know, fundamental to fantasy as a genre. I think there are so many people who've taken inspiration from Liber and from Fafeth and the Grey Mouser across the whole of fantasy. I would actually say as much if not blob. And this is controversial, maybe even than Tolkien. I think he's influenced it to a significantly bigger extent. But there's never been a film, there's never been a television series, there's never been a cartoon. And as you said, these stories, they work. So what they are episodes. You know, every single story is a brilliant episode that you could absolutely see. You know. And they've done bloody Robert Jordan, you know, the Wheel of the Wheel of Time versus the Swords of Lankmar. What the heck is going on?

[Judge Blythe]

I've never read the graphic novels.

[Dave Patterson]

It's Mike Mignola and actually they, they really do work well as a visual. You know we were talking before about what would you recommend? I would say the one I've got is the Fafford and the Gray Mouse at Omnibus.

[Judge Blythe]

It's a Hellboy guy.

[Dave Patterson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you can really, you can really see it. But visually the stories translate so well into, particularly into comics. Which is why I think if they made a film or a television series of Fafford and the Grey Mouse it might quite be absolutely brilliant. I don't think Henry Cavill would get either of the roles which would also be a bonus.

[Judge Blythe]

And so have you played in the world of Likemar? Have you played any of the derived games?

[Dave Patterson]

You're going to be amazed at this.

[Dirk the Dice]

But no, we'll have to put that right.

[Judge Blythe]

Then we'll have to get onto Blythe and run dcc.

[Dave Patterson]

Absolutely. Yeah. I would absolutely go for dcc. I still think I technically have because I played Wulfrup and Jeremy is. It's sort of, you know, it really concentrates on the gritty which is what I think is the is the real benefit and the real. The grounding of Fafford and the Grey Mouser is that sort of very, very dark, subtle setting.

[Judge Blythe]

And I've got my copy of the Swords of Lankmar here and I've not opened it for 40 odd years and the page is a bit brittle, but you'd maybe want to read it again.

[Dave Patterson]

Dave, There's a bit at the very beginning of Swords and Deviltries, the author's notes at the very beginning, his introduction, which I thought sums up the approach to these books and also to role playing in general. So if you wouldn't mind me just reading a little bit.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, of course. Please do.

[Dave Patterson]

So this is, this is about. This is from Swords and Deviltry, book one of the saga of Thaford and the Grey Mouser. The two greatest swordsmen ever to be in this or any other universe of fact or fiction. More skillful masters of the blade even than Cyrano de Bergerac, Skar Gordon Conan, John Carter, d', Artagnan, Randok Daha and Andra Devoris. Two comrades to the death and black comedians for all eternity. Lusty, brawling, wine bibbing, imaginative, romantic, earthy, thievish, sardonic, humorous, forever seeking adventure across the wide world. Fated forever to encounter the most deadly of enemies, the most fell of foes, the most delectable of girls, and the most dire of sorcerers and supernatural beasts and other personages. Now how could you not see that as the basis of the greatest role playing games you've ever encountered?

[Judge Blythe]

And on that note, Dave, I think it's a great explanation of me and you that as well.

[Dave Patterson]

Thank you, Fafid.

[Dirk the Dice]

And thank you, Mosa.

[Judge Blythe]

Thanks for that, Dave. I'll get me caught. Welcome back to the room of role playing Rambling. We've got our overshirts on. Overshirts? I thought it was a bit warm to put a coat on.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, yeah, the overshirt. What's the.

[Judge Blythe]

You know, heading towards the go. Oh, one of those shackets. A shacket?

[Dirk the Dice]

What's that, where's that word come from?

[Judge Blythe]

A shattered shacket.

[Dirk the Dice]

What's that word come from? I've seen these for sale and I've looked at. Every time I've seen a so called shacket. I've either thought it's a shirt, all right, or a jacket. What are you talking. What are people talking about?

[Judge Blythe]

Well, if we wear these shackets we're not going to feel the benefit, however tortured quip.

[Dirk the Dice]

Put a shacket on you. Don't do that.

[Judge Blythe]

Heading towards the door and it's time for our closing time chat. Any other business? Have you got any other business? Blank.

[Dirk the Dice]

Have you? You start giving me a chance to think of something. Okay.

[Judge Blythe]

As you know, I've been suffering from gmit.

[Dirk the Dice]

Of course. Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

I think I found the cure. I think I found.

[Dirk the Dice]

What is the cure.

[Judge Blythe]

Put myself forward for too many things.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah. And then you've got to deal with it.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah. You just got to ride it through, face it and take it on the chin.

[Judge Blythe]

Fight or flight. No, do or die.

[Dirk the Dice]

Do or die. Fight or flight.

[Judge Blythe]

It'll cure me or kill me.

[Dirk the Dice]

Sink or swim.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

What's something like?

[Judge Blythe]

All of those, all those things, all the advice. So on the horizon, I've got. I'm gonna do Dracula dossier over 24 hours, which we'll probably talk about in a bit more detail in another occasion that's on the horizon. In November for Grog meeting, I've signed up for Glorantha Games. So that's in Birmingham, a one off event. So I'm gonna do a RuneQuest adventure.

[Dirk the Dice]

No, of course you did.

[Judge Blythe]

You want more? I have got more for you. I've also got Owlbearer, the wizard staff, which I'm learning Blade Runner and writing a scenario for that. But I've also before then we've got Morpcon. And for Morpcon, I've turned back to Planescape. Now, remind me, have you played any Planescape?

[Dirk the Dice]

I've not played any Planescape, no.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. So we talked about it before, I think, when we talked about multiverses. Planescape is the AD&D 90s supplement that were produced of a multiverse that you can move between. You start off in Sigil, which is this city which has got portals into these different worlds. And there's something intriguing about this setting that I really love and I have run it several times using old school essentials. However, a couple years ago I bought the 5th Edition D& D box set of Plateskin. Yeah. Which is very attractively produced. And so I'm considering using that because I've got it. I should use it. Yeah, yeah, use it.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

But by this there is a great mismatch between the system and the setting.

[Dirk the Dice]

It's fifth edition. The setting, the box sets for fifth edition.

[Judge Blythe]

Yes.

[Dirk the Dice]

So it's. Yeah, it's for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

So you get a book that tells you all about Sid, Joel.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

It gives you some of the. They've got different monsters for the multiverse.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

And it gives you an adventure campaign. Yeah, adventure. So I looked at that, I thought, no, that doesn't quite fit. I'll go back to some of the old ones and see whether that they inspire me. And unfortunately, from that time where they wrote adventures and very often they would say, no matter what the player characters do, the following will happen.

[Dirk the Dice]

Like my adventures now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You say read it. As you read it, you think alarm claxing is off in your head, where you think, oh, for God's sake, come on, you can't do that.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. So whatever they do to try and alter the course of actions, it's not going to change anything.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

So these scenarios are saying, you might as well not be there.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

But they're very appealing, those adventures, because they interact in the world in a very different way than normal D and D. Yeah, normal D and D go down the dungeon and have a fight with a monster, don't you?

[Dirk the Dice]

You do, yeah. Yeah. That's what it's designed for.

[Judge Blythe]

Exactly. And that's what 5th Edition D& D is designed for.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

It's only effective, isn't it? You realize when you're engaging with the fight.

[Dirk the Dice]

It does. That's very true. I think we've talked about this before, haven't we? I have that problem with Dragon heist in a city adventure. I just don't think it does anything else. Well, apart from fighting monsters of being in a deadly dungeon or something like that. So put 5th edition characters into a dungeon or some temple of evil or something where there's lots of threats and monsters and traps and it's great. But once you stick them into other environments, it just falls apart. I think as a game and as a world, it just. The whole thing just falls apart. It's just like daft. We just said daftness is all right, but I just wanted 5th edition. It does one thing particularly well, but once you move it away from that one thing, it does sort of where

[Judge Blythe]

you've got a setting there that is rich and full of ideas and potential, but all that potential is the opposite of fighting stuff.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

So how are you going to engage with the system or use the system in a fitting way? I might as well use anything. I might as well use old school essentials, because that probably would be more effective.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, well, it's a little bit more toned down, isn't it, in terms of. I mean, it's still dungeon bashing type stuff, but it's a bit more toned down in terms of the power of your characters is because, again, I think one of the problems with 5th edition is the characters become powerful very quickly. I suppose this is again something about comparing it to dcc. In fifth Edition, characters become powerful very, very quickly, can do lots of powerful things at relatively low levels. So one of the tricky things is when you're running adventures for those characters, people want to do those things, don't they? But those powerful things are often combat related. If you're just wandering around a city or somewhere having some interactions, that's fine, but as a player in back your mind you're thinking, God, I can cast Fireball. Come on, come on, give me a chance to cast Fireball.

[Judge Blythe]

Or in the case of Planet Capes or one of the adventures is around stopping an unstoppable force of moderns that are going on a march through the plains. As player characters, you can't stop them. So how do you resolve this? How can you deal with it?

[Dirk the Dice]

Because it. Yeah, because it's built around combat type stuff, but it's also built around being able to defeat things. Very combat related game. But within that you've also got this idea that you can beat things but like you say, if you present them with some conundrum of you can't stop these things or what are you supposed to do with that?

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. In D and D, there's no compromise in this game.

[Dirk the Dice]

Do you think that's because they're trying to port it into 5th edition and it doesn't quite work? Would it have worked with Air D and D or would it still not have worked? It still doesn't work.

[Judge Blythe]

I, I think there is a bit of a mismatch, but that's why I think Old School Essentials works better. Because it's less prescriptive, isn't it?

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

So you can use. You can. When I found when I was playing it, people were using their attributes in interesting ways because you've got more of rulings, not rules, whereas with 5th edition you got less scope, I think for that kind of manipulation. So if you're persuading someone, you've got less available to you. Whereas if you're having a scrap with them, you've got loads of options.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was going to sign up for your Mark Con game

[Judge Blythe]

and you wonder why I get GMI Test assure. Now I'm all this, am I overthinking it?

[Dirk the Dice]

I'm overthinking it. But you're overthinking it, are you? Because I think there is that thing when you gonna run a game and you look at these things, you back your mind. There is the thing. Is this really gonna work as a. Yeah, as a one shot. Is it gonna work in the way. I think it's gonna work.

[Judge Blythe]

I mean, I couldn't put. Make it play together. Put a lot of monsters in here.

[Dirk the Dice]

It's an option.

[Judge Blythe]

It is an option, but it's not. It's not the spirit of.

[Dirk the Dice]

Not the spirit of it. Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

It's the setting. Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, There we go.

[Judge Blythe]

I don't think I'll ever get a cure at this rate.

[Dirk the Dice]

I think you're cured. I think you're cured. You've thrown yourself into it. You're back in. You're back in the game.

[Judge Blythe]

Back in the game.

[Dirk the Dice]

Back on the high horse. You're back in the saddle. Yeah, you're all right.

[Judge Blythe]

What about you, Blather?

[Dirk the Dice]

Well, I've been. I've been doing that thing of trying to kick start in my head, pyroxygenics, which we're going to start in September, aren't we? So the other day I've. And I'm gonna. I'll post this on the roll 20 thing. I did a summary of last season. I sat down. I've been meaning to do it for ages. You know, you have to take a deep breath and go, right, yes, let's go through the notes that I made from last time. Let's do some kind of summary for everybody that's not too long winded, although it probably is too long winded because I had not to, isn't it? A lot happened. But try and keep it succinct to the point, get the key points and do some kind of summary as much for me as you, because whenever I do this, we've done it. We're on our fourth season of Pirates Drillax now. Whenever I've done a summary, the difficult fourth season, the difficult fourth season, it kind of helps me as well because when I write it down and I focus on it and I do all the bit, I look at it and I think, oh, right, okay, now, never mind the players. This has helped me focus on where they're at with everything. So I've been doing a bit of that, really. And then trying to think, right, well, let's flesh out a bit of. Can't flesh out too much of it because you'll all go and do something weird or whatever you want to do. But just trying to get my head around that. It's always strange, isn't it? I know you've talked about it before where that thing of you're doing a big campaign, you have A break from it. And then it's not that I'm not looking forward to it. It's not that I am. But there's that, like I said, there's that deep breath, isn't there? Where you. Like a mountain, you look up at the top of it and think, right, here we go.

[Judge Blythe]

It's like set off. Start the engine again.

[Dirk the Dice]

Start the engine from cold. Yeah, yeah. Been in the garage for a few months. Start the engine. Is it going to start? Oh, no, no. Oh, right. It's turning over now. Okay.

[Judge Blythe]

I'm not quite sure where I'm going.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

I mean, it's one of these perennial arguments, isn't it, about who should be taking the notes. As a player, I don't take notes. And I know for some people that is like, yeah, that is terrible. Some people are just constantly taking copies.

[Dirk the Dice]

Notes I'll take not. They're like bullet point note. Oh, I can hear.

[Judge Blythe]

It's a keyboard.

[Dave Patterson]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

It's weird thing about me, see, when I run a game, I make lots of notes, as you know. But when I'm player, I just make bullet points. Yeah. You know, I should be the other way around really. Why do I do all these copious GM notes I never look at really I. Copious player notes.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. But I don't say notes, but I know that everybody else is. And you'll see, you played with me enough to know that my technique is. So what does everybody think of. What does everyone think of this character?

[Dirk the Dice]

This guy whose name I can't remember.

[Judge Blythe]

So what's his role in all this? And people volunteer their idea. And then it reminds me, oh, yeah, that's right. That's how he fits.

[Dirk the Dice]

The other odd thing about pirates of dream actors, as I've said to you, when we met Mike in the pub, I think I said almost like a swearing a vow to you all, this will be the final season. I'm not convinced now. After writing the summary, I thought, oh, there's a lot of things went on. You've got a lot of. You got this guy, he's on your ship. You rescued him. You rescued them. That's delayed to that. You've got this. You've got.

[Judge Blythe]

We've got so many people in our low birth. Yeah, yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

And there's like, there's like some villains you've not really dealt with. And I think, all right, okay, maybe. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. I have to say I apologize. It's gone forever.

[Judge Blythe]

What I've said as a player, point of view. Yeah, we're all enjoying it. Yeah, we're all enjoying it. We'll never get a chance to play this campaign again.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

So I think we just keep.

[Dirk the Dice]

That is the danger, dangers, rushing it, isn't it? Thinking, oh, no.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

You know, I said we'd be finished for January, so let's rush it. But depends what you do, doesn't it, what you decide to do? Yeah, there are some. I suppose when I wrote the summary and I looked at it, I thought, there's more loose ends still than I imagined. Because even though you formed the Empire and got planets to agree to be in the Empire, it's quite a big achievement, Quite a big part of the campaign you've completed. There's other planets that don't want to join that you do want to join. There's the pirates on thieves. There's still that GD core thing going on. You think, oh, you got to kind of resolve some of these, haven't you? Or if you don't resolve them, I've got to think of the consequences of not resolving.

[Judge Blythe]

And I think there'll be lots of fun in that because I think what we need right now. Now, probably not. I probably want to withdraw this at a later date.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

But I think it's been a bit too plain sailing for us. I think we need a bit of jeopardy and threat increasing.

[Dirk the Dice]

Gad makes a note of that.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, I do, I do. Because it's been quite exciting and there's always that thrill, isn't there, of achieving things. And we have gone through that and it. That sense of satisfaction. But so far, everything that we've encountered, we've always felt like we've had the upper hand.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

Because we're smart and we like this idea that way.

[Dirk the Dice]

I think the interesting thing, though, towards the end of the campaign is, and this isn't a spoiler for anyone who's not played it, but there is. You're at the point now where you've got all these planets to kind of bend the knee to King Goleb and say they'll join the Empire, but you're not really formed an empire. So what you have to do now, or will have to do is take on the Imperium and the Aslam and say we're an empire and you're gonna have to put up with us. And that's where the jeopardy will come. Whether the Imperium gonna say, no way, we're having this, and send all the ships into. Yeah, the Drinaxian kind Of wherever. And that's. Or are the Aslan going to do that? Yeah. And that start Empire.

[Judge Blythe]

Aren't you that. To me, it sounds really exciting.

[Dirk the Dice]

And there are some interesting mini games that will come to. Mini games and different rules about that. You know, about how you. We're not at our stage yet, but there are some rules about how you declare yourself an empire formally to these huge powers that are on either side of you. And their reaction might be.

[Judge Blythe]

I'm rather hoping that you're going to dust off Mayday or Striker.

[Dirk the Dice]

I thought those when we played it the last season. The rules again, I'm not going to mention any names because I'm conscious of spoilers, but there was a big. There was a space battle, wasn't there?

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Which they had. They have little rules for space battles which are quite good. And they're like, not the rules, not the ship combat rules. It's like mass space battle rules within it. And that was quite good fun because it gave us a dramatic sense of. You went to Bora. The battle of Borate, wasn't it?

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

You went to Borate and met some other ships and had a good old space fight and some of your ships blew up. Some of our ships blew up.

[Judge Blythe]

It felt like one of those things that we'd have done back in the day on a big table.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

Bought a black table flop.

[Dave Patterson]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

With the hope of making a great space battle with, like teacup stuff in

[Dirk the Dice]

it for planets on this. Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. And the old thing being a bit disappointing.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah. But it wasn't disappointing in parts like that.

[Judge Blythe]

No.

[Dirk the Dice]

That was quite. There are some quite good little rules in there for, you know, doing stuff like that.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. Yeah. There are. There are those scenes out there where they. Don't they, like, telescope out, don't they? Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

It's like a scalable thing where. Right on this. This session, like that one. This and there have been a few others like that. This session is bigger than just you play a character, you're involved in it, but there's also a big space battle going on where they've got a bit of a fleet and you've got a fleet and you're gonna clash in a sector and battle it out.

[Judge Blythe]

You know, as you're saying these words, Blythe, I'm getting kind of overcome with excitement at the prospect, the prospects forming an.

[Dirk the Dice]

And having your own. Having your own planet.

[Judge Blythe]

Flamboo rides again.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

Hey, great stuff. Cheers. Bla.

[Dirk the Dice]

Goodbye. A film and a half ago. Distinction.

[Judge Blythe]

Can he.

[Host/Announcer]

Hang on?

[Dirk the Dice]

I would trim the ocean wide I would cross the great divide I would do anything for you I would yeah. My God, what have I done?

[Dave Patterson]

We can taste your flesh.

[Judge Blythe]

Gatsby and the great race one night of horror for many players available now

[Dirk the Dice]

at drivethrurpg.com thanks to Dave Patterson for

[Host/Announcer]

adding another one onto the list of the Appendix G. If you go to our Discord, you'll find the full list of the appendix as it grows and grows. If you're interested in adding your obsession onto the list list, then please let me know. I know that some people have contacted me previously with their suggestions. Don't worry, I still have them. I'll fit you into the programming. At some point in the future you'll have heard the brand new advert for the Gatsby and the Great Race written by Paul Fricker, which is now available to purchase updated 7th edition call of Cthulhu version at the Miskatonic Repository over at drivethrurpglo. You'll probably have heard, if you've been keeping up, that we ran that scenario at this year's Grog meet, which was a tremendous success and an amazing experience. So it's great to see that the supplement is now available to buy. At a recent book club we looked at the man in the High Castle

[Judge Blythe]

by Philip K. Dick.

[Host/Announcer]

At the meeting Paul pointed out that Philip K. Dick was probably has more influence on his scenario writing than Lovecraft himself. And of course when I think about Gatsby works with its mind bending realities and multiple layers and I think yes, of course that's where it comes from. There've been some brand new patrons joining us over at Patreon over the past couple of months and I know I did say that I would call out some individuals this time and thank them, but I'm going to leave it till next time if you don't mind, because I've got a bit of a croak. Rest assured you'll get a mention next time. We're extremely grateful for anyone who puts a tip in the tip jar, past and present because it's what keeps this show on the road. It keeps us motivated, pays for all the various overheads that come with, also supports our side projects. It gives a boost to the Discord server and makes sure that we continue to invest content. And thank you for listening.

[Judge Blythe]

If you do get a chance to

[Host/Announcer]

pass it on to somebody, you know, be really grateful. Last weekend I went to Glorantha Games and somebody said to me I only found out about your podcast because somebody I know, sent me an email with a link on.

[Judge Blythe]

So if you can think of anybody

[Host/Announcer]

that you know who would like to listen, then please pass it on. We haven't had a review for a while. I don't want to sound too desperate,

[Judge Blythe]

but, you know, please.

[Host/Announcer]

One of the projects we've got on the go at the moment is a gladiatorial arena league. It's about to open, and Monday night is fight night. I think next time when we meet, things are gonna get a little savage. Until then, adios, amigos.

[Dirk the Dice]

Sam. Sat.