Using The Free Gamma World Adventure GW5 Rapture Of The Deep As Post Apocalyptic Dungeon Crawl Classic's Wasteland Adventurer Funnel

So I'm speaking with friends last night about the last travesty of my using Legion of Gold as a funnel for a post apocalyptic Dungeon Crawling Classics game using the Crawling Under A Broken Moon rules. So the big complaint that I heard from my friends and players was that they couldn't afford Legion of Gold but loved the ideas of such a funnel. Too bad there isn't a free Gamma World module that could be used in much the same way? Well actually there is! In fact this module has a straight up dangerous high level and very lethal faction from Gamma World introduced way back in an early issue of Dragon magazine. It really doesn't matter which one because everything you need is actually in GW5 and its free. It happens to be for second edition Gamma World and that's really not going to be a problem.

GRAB IT RIGHT HERE 

So what exactly is GW Five Rapture of The Deep and why is it free?
It's a fan made module created to fill the gap in the TSR GW sequence, GW5. For intermediate to advanced players. Here's where the funnel takes place your PC's are some of the victims caught within the attacks happening along the former Florida panhandle.

"A terrible menace from the sea is threatening villages all along the coast. Whole shoreline communities have been disappearing without a trace.
After going through the usual DCC funnel style experience using a bunch of aquatic mutants and their gear, the PC's should have a small side adventure in the ruins of Florida.  Then this bit get's them straight into the action;
"The remaining area inhabitants have banded together and sent for a group of experienced heroes to help. They want to know what could be causing these horrible events, and more importantly, what can be done to put a stop to them. Is it some new terrifying monster from the depths? Or is there something more sinister at work? "
The biggest hurltle the dungeon master and players might have is the use of the underwater rules for DCC but they are out there in the wilds of the internet if you do a bit of research. Here's some that might be of use. 
"The adventurers will travel deep beneath the waves to discover the answer. Can they survive the strange and dangerous ocean depths of Gamma World? Can they solve the mystery before it's too late? " This adventure is an extended campaign for underwater post apocalyptic adventure and there is a ton to encounter and deal with in Rapture of the Deep. This is an underwater sandbox that I've seen several side adventures worked into the background of play over the years and even with DCC it shouldn't be any different.
So that's really the set up for the post apocalyptic DM and his players. The adventure contains a whole plethora of Gamma World underwater madness including: " game master notes, background information, maps, rules for underwater adventuring, new equipment, and over 30 new aquatic creatures."

Rereading through Rapture of the Deep it brought home the opportunities for expansion of several set pieces I've seen used in Gamma World, Mutant Future and other PA games that other DM have used one of which has been floating space ship launch sites controlled by A.I.'s and machine intelligence gods. Many of these ideas were perfect for off of the coast or Florida and Gulf of Mexico, this fits in perfectly with the Merica of Crawling Under A Broken Moon. There are some free resources to that end right over HERE 


Rapture of the Deep features an extensive style of underwater campaigning and this adventure could take months for a group of experienced players to go through. Have several PC's ready and make extensive use of this time to establish an underwater domain or base for PC's because by the time they're done your going to have very high level adventurers at least three or forth level in DCC. If they survive the experience. For myself I used the pattern of the movie Leviathan from 1988 as the pattern for the domain that the players had. A roving under sea mining and scavenging  platform that the PC's managed to free from its A.I. god became they're domain. This same formula could easily work for a DCC game.

GW 5 has its own set of challenges but also an extensive set of rewards and ideas for a range of extended post apocalyptic play. The module remains a favorite of mine. For issues of Crawling Under A Broken Moon that would help I suggest issue #11, 10, 7, UX01: High Caliber Hijinks, and more. Hell just buy the whole damn run and you won't be sorry. More Gamma World and DCC goodness coming up.  

Commentary On Using Famine in Far-Go Gamma World module GW2 By Michael Price As Post Apocalyptic Science Fantasy Adventurer Funnel For Dungeon Crawl Classics Crawling Under A Broken Moon's Fanzine

 Famine in Far-Go is one of the first modules for the classic Gamma World game that I've ever owned and its a perfect vechile to weed out PC's for post apocalyptic gaming especially for a Dungeon Crawl Classics style of game. Here's the low down and some ideas for using GW2 as as a funnel and mini campaign.

I dusted off Famine In Far- Go at about three am and began to dig through my notes for this classic Gamma World module, I bought this module down in Toys- R- Us back in the early Eighties when they carried such wonderful products of the imagination. I started thinking about this module as a possible funnel system for Crawling Under A Broken Moon's fanzine. The first half of the module is a perfect funnel system with full advantages for monster placement and it plugs right into the post apocalyptic nostalgia sweet spot. The PC's are part of  the agricultural community of Far-Go, preparing to embark on the Rite of Adulthood. They must quest for the Forrest of Knowledge and experience the One Truth after eating certain sacred berries. Sounds a bit like a Dungeon Crawl Classics funnel to me.

The back cover blurb gives the overview of the first half of the module and a bit of the over arching tone of GW2.
"Far-Go is dying... the people are afraid... the animals are wasting away... the crops are withering in the fields. No one, even Arx Skystone, the high priest, knows what has caused Far-Go's misfortune. You are part of a group of young adventurers about to begin the sacred Rite of Adulthood. The last hope of survival for Far-Go rests with your party. On your journey to the Forest of Knowledge, you must search for clues to the origin of the mysterious plague. This quest may lead you into great danger... and great knowledge. As you travel through the savage wilderness, all you have are you companions, your wits, your strength... and your dreams!!"
Far-Go is the perfect adventurer location and strikes a nice tone as an adventurer base and community. Far more interesting is the fact that it allows a DM to put his party of adventurers smack dab into the middle of for a Crawling Under A Broken Moon campaign is the rich pickings of 'Merica or to shift it around into the heart land near Pitzburke.  I never really cleaved to the heart and soul of the rail road plot line of GW2 and instead focused on letting the players wander from one hex to another. This is quite deadly module in its own right, add to this the meteor that's fallen from the sky which I think gave the whole adventure a weird Lovecraftian quality ala the Colour Out of Space. Add to this the badders that worship their former football mascot now turned god and you've got the makings for one hell of a mini campaign. Badders are nothing to fool with as any GW player will tell you.



The wastelands of  the Famine in Far-Go adventure module are a mini snap shot and preview of things to come for both Legion of Gold which preceded it and the Ruins of Pitzburke. This doesn't even begin to over the encounters within the  La Prix Industries Automated Chicken Processing Factory and its army of mutated machine gun wielding chickenoids. This is a straight up mutant crawl with all of the trimmings including wacko robots, nasty androids, a whole host of new weapons, equipment, mutated NPC's and more. All of this is perfect fodder for the Crawling Under A Broken Moon 'Merican vibe and materials. Issue #3 of Crawling Under A Broken Moon is going to come in handy for two reasons while running Famine In Far Go. One it can be used easily to generate O level PC's quickly and second the The Mall Maul can serve as a side quest for the PC's before getting to the main dance of death in the chicken factory.



Famine In Far Go isn't actually that expensive to get a hold of a used copy on Amazon clocking in at nine dollars and a bit for shipping. The module remains a classic for a reason and easily adaptable to any number of old school post apocalyptic games.

Using The Free Gamma World Adventure GW5 Rapture Of The Deep As Post Apocalyptic Dungeon Crawl Classic's Wasteland Adventurer Funnel

So I'm speaking with friends last night about the last travesty of my using Legion of Gold as a funnel for a post apocalyptic Dungeon Crawling Classics game using the Crawling Under A Broken Moon rules. So the big complaint that I heard from my friends and players was that they couldn't afford Legion of Gold but loved the ideas of such a funnel. Too bad there isn't a free Gamma World module that could be used in much the same way? Well actually there is! In fact this module has a straight up dangerous high level and very lethal faction from Gamma World introduced way back in an early issue of Dragon magazine. It really doesn't matter which one because everything you need is actually in GW5 and its free. It happens to be for second edition Gamma World and that's really not going to be a problem.

GRAB IT RIGHT HERE

So what exactly is GW Five Rapture of The Deep and why is it free?
It's a fan made module created to fill the gap in the TSR GW sequence, GW5. For intermediate to advanced players. Here's where the funnel takes place your PC's are some of the victims caught within the attacks happening along the former Florida panhandle.

"A terrible menace from the sea is threatening villages all along the coast. Whole shoreline communities have been disappearing without a trace.
After going through the usual DCC funnel style experience using a bunch of aquatic mutants and their gear, the PC's should have a small side adventure in the ruins of Florida.  Then this bit get's them straight into the action;
"The remaining area inhabitants have banded together and sent for a group of experienced heroes to help. They want to know what could be causing these horrible events, and more importantly, what can be done to put a stop to them. Is it some new terrifying monster from the depths? Or is there something more sinister at work? "
The biggest hurltle the dungeon master and players might have is the use of the underwater rules for DCC but they are out there in the wilds of the internet if you do a bit of research. Here's some that might be of use.
"The adventurers will travel deep beneath the waves to discover the answer. Can they survive the strange and dangerous ocean depths of Gamma World? Can they solve the mystery before it's too late? " This adventure is an extended campaign for underwater post apocalyptic adventure and there is a ton to encounter and deal with in Rapture of the Deep. This is an underwater sandbox that I've seen several side adventures worked into the background of play over the years and even with DCC it shouldn't be any different.
So that's really the set up for the post apocalyptic DM and his players. The adventure contains a whole plethora of Gamma World underwater madness including: " game master notes, background information, maps, rules for underwater adventuring, new equipment, and over 30 new aquatic creatures."

Rereading through Rapture of the Deep it brought home the opportunities for expansion of several set pieces I've seen used in Gamma World, Mutant Future and other PA games that other DM have used one of which has been floating space ship launch sites controlled by A.I.'s and machine intelligence gods. Many of these ideas were perfect for off of the coast or Florida and Gulf of Mexico, this fits in perfectly with the Merica of Crawling Under A Broken Moon. There are some free resources to that end right over HERE


Rapture of the Deep features an extensive style of underwater campaigning and this adventure could take months for a group of experienced players to go through. Have several PC's ready and make extensive use of this time to establish an underwater domain or base for PC's because by the time they're done your going to have very high level adventurers at least three or forth level in DCC. If they survive the experience. For myself I used the pattern of the movie Leviathan from 1988 as the pattern for the domain that the players had. A roving under sea mining and scavenging  platform that the PC's managed to free from its A.I. god became they're domain. This same formula could easily work for a DCC game.

GW 5 has its own set of challenges but also an extensive set of rewards and ideas for a range of extended post apocalyptic play. The module remains a favorite of mine. For issues of Crawling Under A Broken Moon that would help I suggest issue #11, 10, 7, UX01: High Caliber Hijinks, and more. Hell just buy the whole damn run and you won't be sorry. More Gamma World and DCC goodness coming up. 

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.

Free Dungeon Crawl Classics Old School Space Campaign Resource From G+ & Noah Stevens's Space Dungeon Community

So apparently I gave my friend Noah Stevens of The Hapless Henchmen blog  a bit of a hard time when I mentioned JamesWard's Dark Outpost adventure and didn't give his marvelous G+ community for Dungeon Crawl Classics space adventure a shout. If your into space dungeons and DCC then your going to want to head over to the G+ community. Is very active and has some great DCC and old school resources as well as an on going play by post game. Please note that this is an invite only group and so you're going to have to contact Noah Stevens about joining the Space Dungeon group yourselves. In the meantime the group is
 RIGHT OVER HERE



One thing about the Dungeon Crawl Classic's community its extremely active and Noah has cranked out some great material for the game. Specifically three great resources that would fit right at home in Crawljammer and the wastelands of Umerica's Crawling Under A Broken Moon.

Space Dungeon - Mechannids

Are the sorts of alien bastards that mutants and space adventurers alike live in fear of. These alien horrors should be handled carefully by parties and make an adventure unto themselves. 

The Silgurians 
are the sorts of aliens  that your adventurers are likely to wander into on some back water world and they're nasty as it gets for a middle management space horror. He's got a whole write up on these things including technology, patron status and more.

Finally Noah gets his rock and zombie groove on with  Peoria Plague Redux - don't breathe the vapors, Garfunkel!  which is all kinds of wrong and DCC right in so many ways.

There is a ton of material that Noah has put up on his blog for free for DCC and if your a DM its quality stuff for the game for free and he does a damn fine job.

Using James Ward's Dark Outpost Adventure By Eldritch Enterprises As Dungeon Crawl Classics Space Adventurer Funnel

Its been a very long time since I thought about James Ward's Magnum Opus adventure Dark Outpost. That changed tonight. The blurb of Dark Outpost reads like certain Saturday night cable sci fi horror movies but its got a creepy flavor all of its own;

"Dark Outpost is a generic science fiction adventure set aboard a spacestation in geosynchronous orbit above a small class M planet. This massive station, built by robots and crewed by automated machines, is the pride of the galactic fleet, and the hope of those that will colonize the planet below.  But something has gone wrong. 

Nearly a month ago, all communications from the outpost ceased.  A patrol vessel was sent in to investigate, and it, too, was never again heard from.  Since that time the Planet Kask outpost has been known as the Dark Outpost.  Have you the courage to explore its mystery?"

GRAB IT RIGHT HERE

Dark Outpost  is an adventure by James Ward that came out three years ago from Eldritch Enterprises for just about any science fiction system. The whole adventure feels very old school science fiction as if the adventure walked off the page from an add in early issues of Dragon Magazine or The Space Gamer. The adventure is one very close to my heart and I can see using it with any number of rpgs but one very crazy thought came into my head today. Taking the Dark Outpost adventure premise and running a bunch of O level cadets through it ala the Dungeon Crawl Classics funnel campaign generator system. Imagine sending a bunch of Crawl Jammer or Crawling Under A Broken Moon   zero level PC's through the bot and alien life form infested space habitat, the crown jewel of an empire. One of Wards often quoted saying is that he doesn’t kill players, they do it to themselves and Dark Outpost has this notion in spades. Because of its very nature I can see using this adventure with the DCC version of Metamorphosis Alpha. The PC awaken from their cryotubes aboard the Dark Outpost and events take off from there. 



 Because Dark Outpost is almost a mini campaign unto itself, this entire exercise could take place upon the station itself and perhaps expand to the planet Task below(as in Tim Kask a little inside joke cus their friends and all). Anyhow I can see using the adventure to center the players within an enclosed environment with all kinds of weirdness happening in the background. The adventure is quite eerie in its own right and feels like some of the areas are tailor made to make the players stand back and take notice of the high science fiction weirdness going on around them. There are new pieces of equipment, new monsters, & a ton of maps in this one.
This is really where the adventure shines offering what amounts to a fun solid night of play or several that could be stretched out the DM sees fit. This I think is one of the entry points for the PC's for a DCC style funnel, Dark Outpost is divided up into sections with unique encounters and monsters allowing the DM to customize the funnel or set of encounters as they see fit. The DM has plenty of elbow room to add in the backstory as they want and more then enough detail to pull in the players into the deep end of the station's  space terror. One particular issue of Crawling Under A Broken Moon that might come in handy is the

UX01: High Caliber Hijinks (DCC) From Shield of Faith Studio.Which contains rules for Alien and Weird Weapons that fit right into the background of Dark Outpost.

All in all I think that Dark Outpost is a perfect fit to the gonzo and over the top old school gaming world of Dungeon Crawl Classics. The look and feel of the gaming materials is highly authentic, James Ward does a killer job on this adventure and its ideas and science fiction background are idealilly suited to test the merits and medal of even the most experienced players .