Friday, January 29, 2016

Using The Gamma World Adventure GW1 Legion of Gold By Gary Gygax & Luke Gygax & Paul Reiche III As Post Apocalpytic Dungeon Crawl Classic's Wasteland Adventurer Funnel


The post the other day about Dark Outpost  had me thinking about another of my favorite post apocalyptic sand box modules for first  edition Gamma World, The Legion of Gold. This module features a number of mini encounters and throws the PC's into the deep end of the 'terrors' this science fantasy game.
The PC's are introduced to the Barony of Horn and some of the monsters, hazards, and dangers of the Gamma World system. This sounds very familiar to Dungeon Crawl Classics players who have to deal with having to be thrown into the deep end of the pond with a funnel.
Here's the blurb from the back cover of Legion of Gold; "
"There is much to worry about in the mutated world of the future, but Baron Jemmas, Warder of Horn, has more on his mind than most. In recent weeks several of the outlying towns of his Barony have been wiped out by a band of mysterious golden marauders.These creatures struck from nowhere and vanished without a trace when their deeds were done. The Warder has decided that they must be stopped before the entire Barony of Horn falls beneath their onslaught, and so he is offering a great reward to anyone who can defeat the Legion of Gold."



So given the whole cloth feel of Gary Gygax & Luke Gygax & Paul Reiche III's creation I could see putting through a bunch of zero level mutants, fighters and more through the first half of Legion of Gold.  There are several encounters and monsters that would make this a very epic post apocalyptic sand box capable of wrecking an adventuring party where only the strong and able survive. Which is exactly how a funnel functions in the first place.  Given some of the post apocalyptic elements of the Crawling Under A Broken Moon fanzine its easy to see this coming together.
In fact issue number three of Crawling Under A Broken Moon has a complete mall adventure location that could be used as a side trek in Legion of Gold and slipped into the background of the campaign with little notice as a rumor or a quick encounter.



The main heart and soul of Legion of Gold is the weird wrap around way that the underwater complex sort of snakes its way through the encounters within GW1. The hyper intelligent A.I. and the events of the underwater complex add a certain deadliness to this adventure that I think translates well into the over the top essence of Dungeon Crawl Classics. In fact the events of The  Albuquerque Spaceport mini adventure could lead into a Crawljammer campaign with very little effort but a bit of modification on the DM's part. The real fly in the oinitment is the system overlay but is isn't as much of a problem as it first appears. The DM should use the DCC and Crawling Under A Broken fanzine systems for smooth and quick transition. Even though Legion of Gold is only thirty two pages long DM's are going to have to several optional systems from Crawling Under A Broken Moon's Hi Caliber Hijink's issue to simulate the new creatures, new robots, and new weapons. The transition is going to rely on the slight of hand by the DM. The Buggems have monster analogs already within the various issue of Crawling and the DM can vary the strength of the enemy mutant monsters  depending upon the the strengths of your adventurers.


The real star of this module is the underwater complex and many of the environs are going to be challenged with some of the deadly and dangerous encounters.This is match made in the depths of a mutated hell and since this module is already a sand box its not much of a leap to see that many of the elements of Legion of Gold and DCC are going to easily mixed and matched for a maximum result.


For even more deadly effects on the PC's effort that can pad this adventure out a bit more just add in a small Deep One's nest and watch to chaos ensue. These Lovecraftian bastards can easily war with the forces of the underwater complex allowing PC's to have even more of a slice of the old school pie. 

All in all I think that Crawling Under a Broken Moon and the Legion of Gold have the potential to work really well as an entire mini campaign unto themselves. The Baron Jemmas, Warder of Horn could become a post apocalyptic patron kicking even more adventures into high gear within the Barony of Horn.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.