Land of Phantoms

This time around we have another class that will be making its appearance in the Transylvanian Grimoire . The Exotic will be joining the Theorist and the Half-Breed in the triumvirate of awesome that will be tentatively delayed until after the release of the Transylvanian Adventures core book. Without further ado, The Exotic… The Exotic hails from a remote, exotic region of the world such as India, China, Africa or the Americas. The Exotic exhibits strange, yet effective, fighting styles with seemingly inferior weapons like staves or oddly shaped knives. The Exotic also has special techniques for combat, healing and working with nature that seem magical to people accustomed to the customs and conveniences of Western Europe. What the Exotic Does I thought I may have been too coy with initial class summaries so I thought I would give more information on what these classes do and what separates them from the other classes in Transylvanian Adventures . Exotics worship strange ...

I ran a group through the proposed 0-Level sample adventure in Transylvanian Adventures . I feel the playtest went well, despite a few bumpy spots. The adventure needs some sprucing up but I was surprised at how easily everyone figured out what was going on. I thought the scenario would be too complicated but the sub-plots seemed obvious to the group after they'd explored the cavern in full. I don't want to give too much away because a lot may change with the adventure before it's done. But I'll hit some High Points, What Went Right and What We Learned below. First off, the cast members… The Survivors Berthold the Albino Artist : Survived, just barely, by fleeing the cavern in the last room. Clara McMillan the Alcoholic Vacationer : Though spending much of the adventure in a drunken stupor, Clara successfully navigated the cavern and made it out alive. Sybilla the Scout : Used her wits and her shortbow with a bold confidence to emerge from the cavern unscathe...

Yes, that's a Cher reference. So be it! Since  Zdanman did such a great job  of getting the inside scoop on this class, I thought I'd go ahead and throw it out there. It's one of my favorite classes in the game and I was sad to have to move it to The Transylvanian Grimoire. But this guy, or gal, is probably used to that sort of treatment. Today I introduce... The Half-Breed! The Half-Breed was born from an unnatural lineage. The Halfbreed is often sickly but is gifted in the arts of magic and fighting (or aiding) the forces of darkness Is that really it? Well, yeah, sorta. The Half-Breed needs little-to-no introduction. It's half bouncing baby and other half dark broody not-quite-sure. It was emo before Emo Phillips. And it's one of the more interesting classes in these books. Why? Well, let's review what I leaked to Zdanman.  As they progress, each class is capable of "upgrading" their abilities. Such that, they are more divergent fr...

Over on the  TA/TG thread on the Goodman Games' forum , Zdanman asked a lot of good questions and I gave a handful of nebulous answers. It's hard for me to figure out what to say and what not to say because things are still in flux. But I am releasing some information out when I can. Here's the stuff Zdanman and I discussed last week. I'm collecting it here so that no one has to roll a Spot check. About the Valiant... The Valiant class models the typical horror protagonist The Valiant doesn't have a lot of combat prowess But the Valiant does have abilities that will give him or her an edge when it's really needed About Classes in TA/TG ... The Classes in TA are different from the Classes in DCC Classes from TA are not designed to be compatible or mixed with Classes from DCC That said, there's nothing stopping a group from trying it. It's just not something I'm playtesting or putting a lot of effort towards. In some cases, a ski...

Keeping It Classy... I've just finished cleaning up the Classes section for Transylvanian Adventures . Due to space concerns and containing the scope of the first book, I'm having to move 3 Classes to the Transylvanian Grimoire . Those three classes are... The Half-Breed, The Exotic and The Theorist. That means there will only be one "spellcasting" class in the first book -- The Polymath. But I did add a new character class to TA: The Redeemable . No, he's not a coupon. But that keeps the number of classes introduced in Transylvanian Adventures at 6: The Valiant, The Survivor, The Polymath, The Hunter, The Charger and the new one (The Redeemable). There are a number of rules tweaks in TA that build off of what's in Dungeon Crawl Classics. I'm looking forward to sharing some of those soon. But for now, I'll introduce the first class in Transylvanian Adventures... THE VALIANT! The Valiant is a man or woman whom destiny has thrown into the ...