Skip to main content

Tales from the Sanctum

Card Catalog

Welcome

The Sanctum Secorum podcast plumbs the depths of Appendix N as it applies to DCC RPG. Each show reviews one piece of Appendix N media — be it literature or film — and then discusses how to bring aspects of it to the table for your DCC game. We explore how the selected piece might already easily fit into particular modules and DCC settings, and we highlight one specific DCC module that really ties into the Appendix N material.

Enter the Sanctum Secorum… and be inspired.

MCC RPG Kickstarter: Final Hours, Final Stretch Goal(s)

Written by Gatekeeper
Leave a Comment

A mere six hours remain in the Mutant Crawl Classics kickstarter campaign and just over $4,000 remain to hit the final stretch goal(s) at $200,000. This has been an exciting kickstarter and is the second most successful Goodman Games kickstarter (after the 4th printing of DCC RPG). Congratulations to Jim Wampler on the rampant success of his labors.

Now go out and pledge so we can get these last goodies!!!!

Pad of character sheets. One of those gummed tear-off pads so you never run out of 0-level character sheets! (Well, you might run out eventually but it will be a while…)

The Character and Creature Creation Codex. A booklet that is easily laid flat for photocopying, featuring high-res custom-illustrated character sheets, a different one for each MCC class. Plus it will also have a blank worksheet for generating your own custom mutated creatures. And another blank worksheet for generating your own custom artificial life forms (robots, androids, and holograms). And finally a page of instructions for how to use the tables in the core book to utilize these work sheets.

Both of these go to print backers at $200k. (PDF backers will also get a PDF of the materials, though obviously not the printed character sheet pad.)

Kickstarter, Kickstarters, News

Kickstarter Update : Mutant Crawl Classics

Written by Gatekeeper
Leave a Comment

d07edf0f56c12ccfc7b8db016e57e7e1_originalThe Goodman Games Kickstarter for Mutant Crawl Classics is still going strong and is about to cross the $75,000 threshold. When that happens the last announced stretch goal gets hit and soon the next round will be announced. Plenty of great goodies already coming, FOUR adventures and a mutation manual with additional content and rumors of other great things in the wings.

Act now to get your choice of the regular MCC book or the limited (and you know you will kick yourself later if you don’t get it) foil cover. Keep in mind that those foil cover DCC books tend to be pretty rare and are highly sought after later so if you even THINK you might want one, get it now!

Kickstarter, News

News – Special Episode

Written by Gatekeeper
1 Comment

While the latest episode announced that the next journey into the Sanctum Secorum would be to discuss Purple Priestess of the Mad Moon, sharp-eyed readers may notice a different title announced in the new companion.

With the MCC Kickstarter going strong, the Keepers of Mysteries are instead delving into the world of Jack Kirby’s Kamandi – listed as an Appendix M inspiration by MCC creator Jim Wampler. This episode will be released in two weeks on July 15th, just in time for the final days of the Kickstarter.

Of course, since MCC isn’t available yet, we will be serving up weird and fantastic things for your DCC table, to help settle that craving until the arrival of MCC next year.

Kickstarters, News

Review: Feast of the Preserver

Written by Bob Brinkman
1 Comment

142751Feast of the Preserver from Shinobi 27 Games is often billed as a “survival horror adventure”, but that isn’t wholly accurate. It is more a mini-campaign than an adventure, weighing in as a 44 page PDF, there is a lot going on here…and all of it delightfully dark. There are probably 12-16 hours of game play here if players really dig deep and investigate all the opportunities afforded them.

Written for a party of 3-4th level PCs, this is not an adventure for a novice Judge. There are a number of twists and turns written into the storyline and, if run like a traditional dungeon crawl, the air of doom and menace would become lost. This adventure thrives on the helplessness of villagers, struck by an unknown plague, a raid for ransom by bandits, and the mysterious titular religious feast. Keeping solid notes and establishing a timeline to keep things running smoothly is recommended.

Once in though? Oh, what an adventure! Survival horror indeed! The players will need to be at their absolute sharpest to escape the hazards they face. It isn’t that the adventure’s threats are overwhelmingly powerful…but they are quite clever. This is an adventure that calls for brains as much as brawn and those seeking to “murder hobo” their way through it will most likely perish. Fools rush in…to a chipper shredder.

The quality of the material itself is also top notch: the interior art is dark and evocative, the writing reminiscent of the classic Hammer films, and the new material presented can easily be pulled and dropped into an ongoing campaign (who doesn’t want a new “dark” patron). This is an adventure that can be dropped into any ongoing campaign of appropriate level or one that can be hinted at and built towards from campaign start. The tools are provided to make players more than a little leery of what dwells in the darkness.

$9.50 gets you a hard copy and the PDF and it is very much worth it.

News, Reviews, Uncategorized

New Goodman Games Kickstarter Launches

Written by Gatekeeper
Leave a Comment

photo-original

The latest Kickstarter effort from Goodman Games has just launched. Of course, these are known for great stretch goals and extras and this time things get interesting.

Up for funding is Age of Cthulhu #9, The Lost of the Expedition, by friend of the show Jon Hook. Beyond the Lovecraftian level of excitement, Goodman Games has kicked things up a notch with a DCC RPG stretch goal.

At $7,000: A PDF booklet with Dungeon Crawl Classics stats for 10 Cthulhu mythos creatures. Enhance your DCC campaign with the denizens of H.P. Lovecraft’s imagination! Adventurers will lose their minds over these new monsters.

Lovecraftian horrors for DCC RPG plus a new Call of Cthulhu adventure (that we here at the Sanctum highly recommend)! With such modest backing goals, let’s see if folks can smash this one out of the park.

The Lost Expedition Kickstarter

Kickstarter, News

Goodman Games Humble Bundle

Written by Gatekeeper
Leave a Comment

From Goodman Games

Adventurer! Goodman Games has partnered with the Bundle of Holding to bring you an amazing deal! Our fellowship brings you the Dungeon Crawlers Bundle, featuring the original D20 Dungeon Crawl Classics tabletop fantasy roleplaying modules from Goodman Games. Since 2003 the Dungeon Crawl Classics line has captured the Old School spirit in over 60 adventures published for Dungeons & Dragons 3.x and its successors under the Open Gaming License. In 2012 Goodman published a free-standing DCC RPG.

You only have one more week to get in on this Bundle of Holding! For this offer Goodman Games has gathered many of the best DCC modules from 2003-07, arranging them to ramp smoothly from 1st to 15th level. They all work great with D&D 3.5, Pathfinder, and their descendants. Written by popular designers like D&D leads Monte Cook and Mike Mearls, these DCC adventures are 100% good, solid dungeon crawls, with bloody combat, intriguing mazes, and no NPCs who aren’t meant to be killed. The monsters you fear, the traps you dread, and the secret doors you know must be there somewhere — they’re all here, for a spectacular bargain price.

Pay just US$9.95 for all five titles in our Low-Level Crawls (levels 1-7, total retail value $51.50) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks:

  • DCC #2: The Lost Vault of Tsathazar Rho (level 1) (retail price $7): An introductory scenario by D&D5 lead designer Mike Mearls set in a temple infested with Lovecraftian creatures.
  • #29: The Adventure Begins (levels 1-2) (retail $20): A huge 268-page anthology of novice-level adventures. Each can kick off a whole campaign.
  • #36: Talons of the Horned King (levels 3-5) (retail $9): Fantasy meets future tech in a wrecked spaceship filled with cyborg monsters.
  • #7: The Secret of Smuggler’s Cove (levels 5-7) (retail $7.50): One of the most admired DCC modules, a rescue mission into a haunted lighthouse that pays homage to the classic Saltmarsh series of AD&D adventures.
  • NEW! #17: Legacy of the Savage Kings (levels 4-6) (retail $8): A terrible Witch Queen is mining corrupted swamp-earth to produce evil Blight Blades. A memorable adventure in the spirit of Keep on the Borderlands.

And if you pay more than the threshold price (currently $17.74), you’ll level up and also get our entire High-Level Crawls of fivemore titles (levels 7-15, total retail value $45):

  • NEW! #8: Mysteries of the Drow (levels 7-9) (retail $8): A tournament adventure especially designed for drow (dark elf) player characters.
  • #50: Vault of the Iron Overlord (levels 7-9) (retail $9): A spinning-dial Vault of Rings and a three-part boss battle ornament this memorable adventure by Monte Cook.
  • #30: Vault of the Dragon Kings (levels 10-12) (retail $13): A seriously deadly Gen Con tournament module set in an immense complex built for titanic monarchs.
  • #12.5: Iron Crypt of the Heretics (levels 11-13) (retail $7): A supposedly impregnable crypt was designed by the world’s greatest thieves, magicians, and seers to keep great evil imprisoned forever — but (uh-oh) didn’t. A DCChomage to Tomb of Horrors.
  • #15: Lost Tomb of the Sphinx Queen (levels 14-15) (retail $8): A puzzle-based adventure leading to a foredestined battle to defeat the last monarch of a long-dead empire of monsters.

The Bundle of Holding page has full details. The sooner you buy in, the better the deal. Sign up now before the bundle offer ends!

News

Review – Drongo: Ruins of the Witch Kingdoms

Written by Gatekeeper
2 Comments

Reading through +Mark Hunt‘s “Drongo: Ruins of the Witch Kingdoms “, it would be easy to compare this to the Purple Planet or to MCC but that would do it a great disservice. While Drongo could easily be used to supplement campaigns of either (or any DCC campaign) the level of detail provided gives a great feel for the world, and hints at so much more.

New character classes, races, and the like make this a nice addition to any Judge’s toolbox, with the addition of a nicely thought-provoking section on rewarding PCs that gave me a few ideas.

The book gives details and broad information without becoming overwhelming and inundated with minutia. Rather than flooding the reader with information overload a couple of paragraphs gives a Judge all they need to know to be able to run with a subject. The book is succinct and wholly usable in so many ways that it is simply a must have.

Originally, a limited number of print copies were available at Gen Con 2015 (these sold out). Recently, Drongo came back into print again and copies were making their way around Gary Con to people who had pre-ordered through Mark.  Drongo is well worth picking up in hard copy or PDF.

For ideas how to work Drongo into your campaign, or Appendix N into Drongo, check out Sanctum Secorum Episode #02.

Reviews,