Land of Phantoms

Into the fray with the Charger… The Charger is a stalwart warrior seeking to sharpen himself against the whetstone of destiny. The Charger chooses not to back down from any adversary and pursues the thrill of battle for its own sake. Whence fore the Charger? Most people who are familiar with the tropes of Hammer Horror and Gothic Fiction are probably scratching their heads right about now. Where exactly did this Charger notion come from? The Charger is the only class with such a conspicuous absence from the books and movies upon which Transylvanian Adventures is based. Up and down. Left and sideways. No Chargers. Why is that? The reason for the Charger involves another tenet upon which Transylvanian Adventures stands: playability. It became noticeable early on in Transylvanian Adventures' development that there was a hole in the spectrum of classes. Transylvanian Adventures lacked the prototypical "I hit them with my axe" class. During playtests with DCC, I...

Without further ado, the Hunter… The Hunter is a person who is singularly devoted to finding and slaying creatures of the dark. The Hunter possesses a driving vendetta against the supernatural and unmatched skills dedicated to their destruction. What the Hunter Does In a nod to some of the derring-do that Peter Cushing laid down as Dr. Van Helsing, the Hunter gets Mighty Deeds and is quite good at them. The Hunter can cast rudimentary rituals and also turn the unholy, although the Hunter is not as good at either as the Polymath. The Hunter starts out with a good selection of weapon trainings -- the best in the game. And the option to become a sort of weapons master is definitely open to this class. The Hunter is always alert and is rarely caught off-guard by the forces of eeeevil. The Hunter is a master at infiltration and sabotage and has a nifty little MacGuyver sort of ability that is one of my favorites in the game. The Hunter is armed with a weapon of unique a...

With Great Power… The Half-Breed is one of the more interesting classes when it comes to abilities or "class  features". What separates it from other classes is that its class features and upgrades can be chosen randomly. They don't have to be. But for some players, there's an element of fun in not knowing what the Half-Breed can do. The only other class that has this element of randomness available to them is the Exotic -- who can randomly add Exotic Weapon upgrades in the same fashion. There are a few common abilities that all Half-Breeds share. All Half-Breeds can jump farther and move faster than normal humans -- a class feature I've called "Spring-Heeled Jack" for now. All Half-Breeds have low-light vision and are the only class to have that ability in TA/TG. All Half-Breeds have also picked up a Sneak Attack/Backstab ability in the last re-write that should be familiar to most. The flagship of being a Half-Breed, though, are the abilities it...

Continuing from Part I yesterday, I'm finishing up with some text from the Transylvanian Grimoire that deals directly with the Half-Breed's worldview and place in society. This is something to consider in terms of the Half-Breed's relationship to the party and the world at large. And the Half-Breed's alignment plays the greatest role in defining it. Here's a snippet from the book: Having lived outside of human society for most of their lives, Half-Breeds often exhibit an unhealthy ignorance or disregard for its mores and laws. But Half-Breeds are not necessarily malign. In fact, it’s rare for Half-Breeds to fully embrace their dark side. Lawful Half-Breeds are those who were found and raised in seclusion. Generally in a monastic order of some sort. By nature, Half-Breeds are uncomfortable around religious iconography but some religious sects have successfully trained them to be monster-killing machines. Neutral Half-Breeds comprise the majority of their kind....

Okay - I will go into this. I would like a more detailed blogpost on the Half-Breed and their possible interaction with the rest of the party. Would the class be playable in a Hammer-like setting? After all - you are a monster of some sort and the more devoted members of the party would probably still kill you. Also more info on the monster powers and being half-something etc. Is this chosen at attaining first level or not? -- Zdanman I solicited topics for a new blogpost on the DCC Transylvanian Adventures forum on the Goodman Games website and Zdanman came through with a good one. Zdanman wants more information on the Half-Breed and I can't blame him. The Half-Breed is one of the most enigmatic classes in The Transylvanian Grimoire. Here's why Zdanman's question is a fantastic topic for a blogpost The Half-Breed is the only class in Transylvanian Adventures that qualifies as non-human. It's sort of a demihuman class/race but, before we grow too concerned about a...

I ran a group of five willing participants through an adventure with 1st Level Transylvanian Adventures characters. First off, the adventure was a huge death trap for 1st Level characters. I used Raid on Black Goat Wood with some fleshing out in the pre-dungeon phase. I went a little light on the wandering monsters but still… No characters died. The party of five 1st level characters killed 3 Satyrs. And successfully navigated a Black Pudding. And no characters died. These were 1st Level characters. With no spellcasters. In a setting with no magical healing. Wha?! The characters in the party included: Berthold, the Albino Artist, now a 1st Level Half-Breed Tito, the Outlaw, now a 1st Level Redeemable Sybilla, the Scout, now a 1st Level Exotic Snorri, the Savage, now a 1st Level Charger Buffy, the Vacationer, now a 1st Level Hunter What Worked Well, making the characters more survivable worked. Too well, in fact. And it wasn't so much the Hit Points chan...

Thus far, we've covered The Valiant, The Half-Breed and The Exotic. Now I'd like to introduce you to another class that will be appearing in Transylvanian Adventures. I apologize for the detour into the pages of the Transylvanian Grimoire with the Exotic and Half-Breed. But you must understand, it is so easy to get lost in these woods. May I present, to you, the Polymath! The Polymath is a learned scholar whose broad knowledge has come to account for those things which philosophy and metaphysics cannot explain. The Polymath is an expert at distilling fact from folklore and using that information to his or her advantage. What the Polymath Does Polymaths are masters of Ritual Magic . They can even circumvent other types of magic with their mojo. Making them kind of the magical "trapfinders" of the party. Oh dear, I've said too much. The Polymath is the only class at 1st level who knows how to Stake a Vampire . That could be useful, no? Other classes j...