Sorcerous Scrutinies: Crawl! Mega-Edition Issue No.1

                                                                             Crawl! 

Mega-Edition No. 1

Straycouches Press

But for you, the Gilded City sleeps.  The raucous tavern emptied at last, spilling you into the labyrinth of dark alleys that wind back to your hovel.  As you round the final corner, a jittery, robed figure lurches in front of you from the shadows, a chaotic energy about him.  You brandish your longsword and assume a fighting pose, every bit the daring swordsman.  Strange spectres seem to halo around the robed man, barely visible but persistent in their nigh-imperceptible whispers.

Torchlight illuminates the strange, changing features of the robed man, and you notice that his bare feet are, in fact, hands.  Your eyes strain as you struggle to understand, you wish you had not drunk that final mug of ale, and then a bony foot appears from the man’s sleeve and begins to somatically gesture in your direction.  

Instinctively, you thrust forward with your trusty blade, slayer of many, enchanted by the Mad Wizard Mandalf himself.  But it is no blade you hold, now it is a wand of bone.  The robed figure smiles.  

“Van Den Danderclanden promised that to me many years ago.  Your blade has always been my wand.”

Time slows around you, a horrible blemish grows on your chest, and you drop the bone wand to the alley’s cobblestones with a scream.  The laughter of the robed one echoes in your mind as you sprint away.

What It Is

Cracking open an issue of Crawl! feels a whole lot like getting a fresh Dungeon Magazine in the mail as a kid: a slim volume stuffed with brand-new theorycraft, alternate takes on game systems, and fodder for the aspiring Judge. Crawl! is the original zine for DCC, born in 2012 from Reverend Dak’s Straycouches Press, and the Mega-Edition of No. 1 that recently came in the mail has been a joy to rediscover.

Its centerpiece is Van Den Danderclanden, the first third-party patron for the DCC system and the patron of the wizard from my little tale above. If you have a power-hungry wizard PC at your table, he’s a tempting, fleshed-out patron, and the Mega-Edition finally collects his complete spells and spellburn in one place.

The rest of the toolbox has earned permanent slots in my games: a skill system, sword & sorcery campaign variants, and a method (p. 25) for converting spells from old AD&D books. My 2E spellbook supplements had been gathering dust, but now they’re back in the rotation!

The Mega-Edition itself is comic-book sized on nice, fancy paper, fits a standard comic bag and board, and keeps the 2013 Special Edition layout.

At The Table

As to how Crawl! has appeared at my table over the years, Crawl! No. 6 and No. 10 have gotten the most rotation, offering exciting new classes for PCs.  The Gnome (Crawl! No. 6) was a massive hit on one adventure, and I have always had a soft spot for Bards.  Prior to the DCC Annual, the Dwarven Priest (Crawl! No. 10) was the first time I got a Dwarven PC to cast spells in the DCC system, something that has felt like a D&D staple for me since childhood.  The Gnome’s trick die is a fantastic novelty and a menace in combat: my player had squirrel companions, hyper-realistic mirror images, the whole works.

Issue No. 1, however, has found a lot of use in my Lankhmar campaigns.  I adopted the Combat Healing variant rule years ago (before Lankhmar released), and love the option for PCs to burn an action to try to rouse a companion, who then has to burn a point of stamina to recover.  This rule includes a ‘KO Hangover’ effect that I also like, giving downed players a -2 to almost everything until they rest.  The Sword and Sorcery section is ideal for Lankhmar, giving you options for a funnel without the demi humans, and more thoughts on healing variants without clerics around.  

 

Art Spotlight

Kovacs’ variant cover, ‘The Purgatorium of Nihla Darklieben’, is gripping; each damned face is a different tormented mask of pain, glimpses of what might befall you when you misfire or invoke major corruption for the last time.  Brett Miller’s unimpressed bat-wizard with bony hands is also iconic and evocative on the back cover and page 8, it just oozes with character.

Judge Takeaways

Transmute the Old

The ‘OSR Conversions: Spells’ piece on p. 25 is the one I’d hand a new Judge first, so let’s put it to work.  I always loved the flavor of ‘Fist of Stone’ from my 1991 Tome of Magic; for one round per level you get a super fist at 18/00 Strength.  Let’s DCC-icise it.

Fist of Stone (Alteration)

Level 1 Wizard Spell

Range: Self, Duration: Varies, Casting time: 1 action, Save: None.

1: Lost, failure, and worse! The caster’s hand turns to wet limestone for 1d4 hours and cannot hold anything.

2-11: Lost. Failure. 

12-13:  One of the caster’s fists hardens into pale, chalky limestone.  The caster gains the benefit of 13 Strength (+1 to Attack and Damage), and their altered fist has a damage die of 1d4 for the spell’s duration.  The caster cannot cast spells while the fist is stone, and each blow causes crumbling (on a natural 1 attack, the fist crumbles [1d2 damage to the caster] and the spell ends).  This effect lasts for 1 round/CL.

14-17:  One of the caster’s fists hardens into glossy, black obsidian.  The caster gains the benefit of 16 Strength (+2 to Attack and Damage), and their altered fist has a damage die of 1d7 for the spell’s duration.  This fist is brittle, and misfortune could accompany a fumble (on a natural 1 attack, the fist shatters [1d4 damage to the caster] and the spell ends).  The caster cannot cast spells while the fist is stone.  This effect lasts for 1 turn.

18-19: One of the caster’s fists hardens into speckled, grey granite.  The caster gains the benefit of 18 Strength (+3 to Attack and Damage), and their altered fist has a damage die of 1d10 for the spell’s duration.  This fist is solid but controllable, and the caster can cast spells while under the spell’s effect.  This effect lasts for 1 turn/CL.

20+: One of the caster’s fists hardens into ruby-red corundum.  The caster gains the benefit of 20 Strength (+4 to Attack and Damage), and their altered fist has a damage die of 1d14 for the spell’s duration.  This fist is solid but controllable, and the caster can cast spells while under the spell’s effect.  The corundum fist also glows ruby and sheds light.  This effect lasts for 1 turn/CL.

Tempt the Power-Hungry

Van Den Danderclanden is a mad mage from the future who reaches back through time to contact past selves and servants to aid in his quest for godhood.  Modules like Return to the Starless Sea, Frozen in Time or Across the Veil of Time feature time travel shenanigans; perhaps during those adventures you could weave the future whispers of a potential patron into the adventure to prospective Wizards and Elves?  For more conventional funnels, perhaps an unlucky roll could be altered by Van Den Danderclanden… in exchange for a piece of the prospective servant’s soul!

Conclusion

Crawl! No. 1 is the rare supplement I can recommend at any price. Try the Æther Edition PDF for free (it’s pay-what-you-want on itch), grab the Classic Edition zine with PDF for the price of a pint on Gumroad, or go all in on the Mega-Edition if you love a nice physical object. And if No. 1 hooks you, the first twelve issues come as a print+PDF 12-pack for a great deal.  By writing this piece, I’m hoping I can do my part to see more Mega-Editions, so that eventually my shelf will be complete with all the Crawl! issues back to back!

Fist of Stone is just one spell; go dust off your old spellbooks and share your conversions with the rest of us!  Now, the next time a robed stranger with hands for feet confronts you in a dark alley, you’ll know who they serve.