There are times when having a game hardback in your hand puts things into perspective and so it with Dungeon Crawl Classics, suddenly some of the more esoteric aspects of Crawling Under A Broken Moon Issue #2 make a whole lot more sense now. But I have to ask the question why beholden to the classic post apocalyptic films of yesteryear? Why not take it in another completely insane direction, one with a cultclassic Lovecraftian twist? 'Crawling Under A Broken Moon Issue #2' can help you to do exactly that with bells on! Seriously.
Now according to the DCC rpg rule book, the usual stuff for funnels involves taking a whole load of zero level PC's throwing through a meat grinder of an adventure situation and those who survive become adventurers in a tradition high fantasy or swords & sorcery adventure setting to which I say, 'That's pure crap'. Why simply limit yourself to simply Appendix N or pulp style fantasy when there are row after row of other books and classic 80's cinema to pull from. Because that's exactly the vein from which Crawling Under A Broken Moon goes for. And three films come to mind whilst reading through issue #2, these include the so called Apocalypse trilogy(The Thing, Prince Of Darkness and In The Mouth Of Madness' from the hand of John Carpenter, with the addition of 'They Live'. For our purposes at the moment we're going to turn to In The Mouth Of Madness. There are some solid reasons for this.
Now according to the DCC rpg rule book, the usual stuff for funnels involves taking a whole load of zero level PC's throwing through a meat grinder of an adventure situation and those who survive become adventurers in a tradition high fantasy or swords & sorcery adventure setting to which I say, 'That's pure crap'. Why simply limit yourself to simply Appendix N or pulp style fantasy when there are row after row of other books and classic 80's cinema to pull from. Because that's exactly the vein from which Crawling Under A Broken Moon goes for. And three films come to mind whilst reading through issue #2, these include the so called Apocalypse trilogy(The Thing, Prince Of Darkness and In The Mouth Of Madness' from the hand of John Carpenter, with the addition of 'They Live'. For our purposes at the moment we're going to turn to In The Mouth Of Madness. There are some solid reasons for this.
Issue Two features some things that we're going to need use for this translation:
The Mutant
A racial class about those who have been “blessed” by the twisted earth
A racial class about those who have been “blessed” by the twisted earth
Cirque de Bizarre
Making mutants out of “normal” monsters
Making mutants out of “normal” monsters
Weapons of the Wastelands
Grenades!
Grenades!
Twisted Menagerie
Zombie Monks of the Cyberhive, the Robolich, and the Mutitan!An Interesting Place to Die
The Floating Tower of the Cyberhive"Do you read Sutter Cane?"
Zombie Monks of the Cyberhive, the Robolich, and the Mutitan!An Interesting Place to Die
The Floating Tower of the Cyberhive"Do you read Sutter Cane?"
In the Mouth of Madness is about the break down of the old reality on a grand scale as the creeping influences of the new one come into play & this relates to how the mutants are created in DCC. As we shall see this is key to how campaign might be played out.
Warning If You Haven't Seen In The Mouth Of Madness Then There Are Major Spoilers Ahead!
When it comes to dealing in the funnel for a DCC Sutter Kane crossover, think of all those poor bastards subject to the weird and warping radiations and powers of the Old Ones from the lens of Sutter Kane. Suddenly the idea of using four or five victims of Kane's power doesn't seem so far out.
I can hear you saying well this belongs far more in a game of Call of Cthulhu then DCC and you might be right or are you? Think about it, according to the DCC rulebook you've got the divinities playing around with mortals like finger puppets and that's often the end of things. To use a qoute from a recent interview from the Wall Street Journal as fodder here.
According to Jonn Carpenter - 'As for the “Apocalypse Trilogy,” all three
of those movies are, in one way or another, about the end of things,
about the end of everything, the world we know, but in different ways.
“The Thing” is the science fiction way, where this creature was going to
imitate itself and take over the world. “Prince of Darkness” is another
way. And then, “In the Mouth of Madness,” basically, is an alternate
reality has taken over. Each of those things is kind of an apocalyptic
kind of movie, but a very different take on it. And I’ve been a fan of
H.P. Lovecraft since I was a kid. My dad bought me a book, “Great Tales
of Terror and the Supernatural.” It was one of those Penguin books, a
big, thick one, and it had all sorts of authors in it: M.R. James, Edgar
Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. So I read several of his stories, and
they were the creepiest. Oof! Wow!' You can read this article right over HERE
In the mouth of Madness alternative reality has taken over and the victims of it are your mutants, as to how they might wake up in the post apocalyptic wastelands. Same Neil's character jumps from one reality to another with little to no rime or reason or does it? Could he simply be subject to the whims of his patron that he doesn't know he has yet?
These sorts of mutants or victims would possibly have the will power to break the hold of their unseen masters of reality's will & hold over themselves allowing them to 'wake up' to the true reality of the wasteland or other dimensional location. Such individuals would be dangerous and possibly marked as one might an escaped animal or lab specimen or broken toy. Or they might just let these poor fools go because we really can't understand the logical of such alien beings.
This also explains the alien mutations suffered by animals, and monsters that are released unto the world ala the article Cirque de Bizarre Making mutants out of “normal” monsters. Remember the Lovecraft novella the Color out of Space? Suddenly this situation not so implausible. Weird mutations happen all of the time in the wastelands. How you approach the causes are really up to the dungeon master.
The controlling alien influences of the They Live move are never seen at all. We get a bunch of low level alien minions who live among us as unseen prison guards keeping us asleep in that particular reality of the film 'They Live'. Well that's where the monsters of Twisted Menagerie
Zombie Monks of the Cyberhive, the Robolich, and the Mutitan!An Interesting Place to Die
The Floating Tower of the Cyberhive all come into play, peek behind the curtain of reality and suddenly its all Gamma alien mutant overlords with weird agendas and strange teleporters waiting to send your adventurers off to other parts of John Carpenter's film creations. Isn't fandom wonderful.
"Do you read Sutter Cane?"
All of this blog entry is for pure entertainment and educational purposes none of this article is an attempt to violate nor impinge upon the copyright or trademarks of the DCC rpg, John Carpenter, In The Mouth of Madness, nor the Crawling Under A Broken Moon fanzine. This is strictly the author's opinions as a John Carpenter and DCC fanatic.
Next update 'The Thing From Another World'
These sorts of mutants or victims would possibly have the will power to break the hold of their unseen masters of reality's will & hold over themselves allowing them to 'wake up' to the true reality of the wasteland or other dimensional location. Such individuals would be dangerous and possibly marked as one might an escaped animal or lab specimen or broken toy. Or they might just let these poor fools go because we really can't understand the logical of such alien beings.
This also explains the alien mutations suffered by animals, and monsters that are released unto the world ala the article Cirque de Bizarre Making mutants out of “normal” monsters. Remember the Lovecraft novella the Color out of Space? Suddenly this situation not so implausible. Weird mutations happen all of the time in the wastelands. How you approach the causes are really up to the dungeon master.
Zombie Monks of the Cyberhive, the Robolich, and the Mutitan!An Interesting Place to Die
The Floating Tower of the Cyberhive all come into play, peek behind the curtain of reality and suddenly its all Gamma alien mutant overlords with weird agendas and strange teleporters waiting to send your adventurers off to other parts of John Carpenter's film creations. Isn't fandom wonderful.
"Do you read Sutter Cane?"
All of this blog entry is for pure entertainment and educational purposes none of this article is an attempt to violate nor impinge upon the copyright or trademarks of the DCC rpg, John Carpenter, In The Mouth of Madness, nor the Crawling Under A Broken Moon fanzine. This is strictly the author's opinions as a John Carpenter and DCC fanatic.
Next update 'The Thing From Another World'
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