Surprisingly, this is no dungeon crawl. It is man versus beasts in the Wilds around Dead Goblin Lake. Yep, Attack of the Frawgs is primarily an outdoor, or dare I say it, wilderness adventure. I had assumed both by nature of the name - Dungeon Crawl Classics - and the first few adventures from Goodman Games that dungeons were going to be the be all. Thankfully, they are not. There is a place for wilderness adventures in the DCC realm of adventures, but they are plotted out similarly to dungeon adventures in the DCC system. I suppose this makes sense, as experience is earned by "encounter", not by enemies felled or gold found. I do like the DCC experience system, but that's a topic for another post.
The adventure itself looks to be a fun one. I like the idea of townsfolk rising up to protect their own against evil invading their lands and lively hood. I'm also pleasantly pleased with how well the wilderness adventure appears to plot out. I'm very tempted to run this in tomorrow night's game with my party of newly levels 1st level PCs. I guess I'll figure that out before game time ;)
The cover art is great, the interior art is fine and the maps are very serviceable. The maps aren't like those in the various DCC Adventures from Goodman Games, but they are easy on the eyes and following them is a breeze (as great as some of the Goodman maps are, I think I get distracted at times by all the shinnies and following them can sometimes be confusing - not complaining - I love them - just sayin').
Attack of the Frawgs is an excellent addition to the DCC assortment of adventures.
From the blurb:
When creatures prey on the innocent, the meek must become the hunters!
Panic is mounting in the isolated settlement of Sagewood! Frightened villagers speak in hushed tones of “walking frogs the size of men” peering at them from within the woods. And now, a severely wounded local trapper has barely managed to return from Dead Goblin Lake; the fate of his partner known only to the foul creatures that so savagely attacked them.
In a small village without heroes, the townsfolk look desperately towards each other for salvation from this terror. Those who face the creatures will almost certainly pay with their lives...
Are you brave enough to risk it all?
Attack of the Frawgs is a Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game adventure designed for 8-14 0-level characters or can be easily adapted for use with 1st-level characters.
Do tell us more about the DCC experience system, please. One of the problems with classic D&D is that the experience points appear to be pitched at the right level for groups that played as often and for as long as they did in Lake Geneva. In other words, at least once a week for many hours at a time. Does DCC allow PCs to appreciably advance when played by adults with other commitments?
ReplyDeleteDr Bargle:
ReplyDeleteA brief summary. Each encounter gives you about 2 XP (0 to 4 based on difficulty, GM desire, etc). 1st lvl is 10 XP away. 2nd is 50 XP away.
DCC levels are sort of "double levels" compared to 3rd 1/2 Edition -- in that the game only goes to 10th level. So XP requirements do add up. To answer your question ... in a once or twice a month for about three hours a session game? Things will certainly slow down, advancement wise.
However a GM is free to increase the "scale" to speed up advancement some.
As this was a 0-level module I was actually able to "cheat" with the experience points per encounter: basically in the judge's section I describe what the expected body count is for 0-level characters and say, "And congratulations, any survivors should now be considered 1st-level!"
ReplyDeleteFor the "Haunting of Larvik Island" DCC RPG remaster I'm doing, that is a 1st-level adventure so I am re-balancing all the encounters using the techniques described in the DCC core rulebook and paraphrased by Doug above.
Hope you guys enjoy the adventure.
-Stephen Newton-
Author, Attack of the Frawgs