Judge Phil's Zine of Goodies Vol. 3 Review

Volume 3 of Judge Phil's Zine of Goodies has been released digitally and it's another bizarre good time. As you can tell by the cover, the zine features the same amateur art quality and crazy ideas as the previous two volumes. This isn't a bad thing. It's what makes the zine fun. The forward again discusses how DCC helped Judge Phil, but also discusses how it and this zine is creating community and brining folks together.

The zine starts out with a new class, the Were-raptor G-Person.  This one is just downright weird. Like the protagonist of Velocipastor, you can transform between human and raptor form. You're also some sort of agent. Class-wise they get secret agent-y stuff and can also shift into a raptor. Finally they get magic, though this mimics black-ops tech and such. It definitely doesn't fit into a typical DCC game, but then again, what is a typical DCC game. Like the deathmatch wrestler found in volume 1, I think this one is a fun addition to Bloat Game's True Vigilante or Bronx Beasts. I could also see them popping up in Umerica. 

New downtime activity rules are given next. There are tables and charts related to invest money in real estate and take a stab at Stand-Up Comedy. There's enough crunch and variety to these to make them a useful and fun addition to games. I think they both fit very well with the above mentioned DCC settings.

The final downtime activity/game add-on is the Armored Advertising Agency. This bit of sponsorship makes me think of the underrated classic, Mystery Men. I'm sure we'll see something official like this in the future with Xcrawl. 

There are two adventure sites presented. The first is Boulder Mine. The party try to get some owlbear eggs for a local monstrous pet dealer. This one can be done in a single session and has a few different foes and obstacles.

The second adventure is Horse Warranty Department. The Horse Warranty Department is a mysterious new company that sells horse insurance (though they don't ever provide coverage). Obviously this is a cover for vampires. Because.... obviously.

Like previous volumes, this is a fun and ridiculous zine that adds a bit of WTF to DCC. I definitely recommend it. 

Music Monday - Diggy Diggy Hole (Dance Remix)

I'm all about goblin dj's and elven honeys.

Also, here are the original version of Diggy Diggy Hole and the Wind Rose's original version.

Free RPG Day 2014

As most of you know, this past Saturday was Free RPG Day. A really cool game shop in Columbus, Ravenstone Games, was a participant. One fine gentleman ran the DCC adventure, Elzemon and the Blood Drinking Box. You can read his report over at Random Encounters (in Ohio). Unfortunately for me I was unable to play because of work. However, I did stop by Ravenstone Games after work. One of the gents and the owner (two of the three picture in the REiO post) were still there and we chatted for a while. I had a really good time talking with them and it has inspired me to fight my normal anxiety and join up with some of the gaming groups there (though it will have to wait until after my son goes back to stay with his mom). If you want to hear more about Ravenstone Games, you can check out with Tim Snider over at The Savage AfterWorld thought of it, here.

Okay, on to the swag. Because it was the end of the day I was able to pick up a couple of books. I grabbed A Druid's Lament and Make Your Own Luck. Make Your Own Luck looks like a lot of fun. The characters (who are only 2nd level) are involved in defending a  town from siege trolls and protecting an important item. While I think it looks great, it also looks like something that a lot of OSR people would hate. I say this because much like 4th Edition, your characters a big deal. They may not be the most powerful characters in the world (the Icons they serve are), but they are superstars. 13th Age is a game I want to pick up, I just haven't pushed myself to do so. I will eventually though. A Druid's Lament is a mid level C&C adventure. I haven't fully read through it, but it looks nice. I like the adventure location. There's a cool story involving a druid getting help from the old gods (which isn't quite what she expected)  and a few new magic items and interesting encounters.

While I don't have them yet, a  friend of mine at Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs held a copy of The Doom-Cave of the Crystal Headed Children and the Goodman Games offering. I looked through both at Ravenstone and they look cool. I don't know how much mileage I will get out of the Doom-Cave. It's original and all, but unless I decide to run it as a one-shot, I don't ever see myself playing it. Don't get me wrong I might take a few of Raggi's monsters/encounters, but this adventure just doesn't seem like something I'd run. The Goodman Games offering looks fantastic. The DCC adventure looks fun. It's a first level endeavor, that again you can read about over at Random Encounters (in Ohio). The second part of the book is a mid level Maximum XCrawl adventure. Maximum XCrawl is the Pathfinder update to XCrawl. If you aren't familiar XCrawl is a modern day fantastical tv gladiatoial games rpg. Think American Gladiators with dwarves, death, swords, goblins, and hip-hop. Oh and the Roman Empire never fell... They currently have a kickstarter for it going on right now. Eventhough I said I need to slow down on my support of kickstarters, I'm most like going to back this one. It just seems like a really fun setting.

How was your Free RPG Day?