Concept Pitch: The DCC/MCC Holiday Advent(ure) Calendar?

You ever have an idea for a project that just tickles the back of your brain for days and weeks and months and years upon end? This is that project for me.

For several years, I've thought about producing an RPG Holiday Advent(ure) Calendar. (See what I did there?) This would be a collection of 25 one-page adventures that would be released one each day from Dec. 1 through 25, much like an advent calendar. Each day of the holiday season - YAY - new adventure! And on the last day, all 25 would be bundled up into one compilation and made available to everyone. I always though this would be a neat little holiday "gift" that would be fun to produce and to have.

So why haven't I jumped on the horse and started this project? Several reasons:

1. I usually remember it around mid-November, when it's faaaar too late to try to get something like this written and in hands by Dec. 1.

2. I produced a similar project titled One Year in The Savage AfterWorld, which is a collection of 52 micro-adventures for Mutant Future and, honestly, it'd be tough from me to crank out 25 brand-new concepts that don't repeat a few within that tome.

3. Writing 25 one-pagers for one system would be overkill, because what if someone doesn't play that specific RPG? Or worse, what if I tried to write 25 one-pagers for 25 different systems? Then I'd have at least one of interest for everyone, but 24 other adventures they could care less about.

However, with the DCC/MCC system, there's enough similarity - yet variety - to make this work. There could be one-page encounters for DCC; some for MCC; some for the Shudder Mountains; some for Dark Frontiers; and Lahnkmar and Empire of the East and Dying Earth and Purple Planet and Umerica and I'm missing a TON of other settings. And all of these are compatible with each other, as mixing and matching is what it's all about.

I haven't decided yet whether this is the year or not, but what would be easiest for me would be to put out the clarion call for folks who wanted to contribute. I envision "drop-in" single encounters rather than multiple room dungeon crawls. (For what I envision, check out any of my Dangerous Encounter posts here at TSAW.) I hope that this post will both prompt me to put pen to paper and get started and/or that others who are interested in contributing might toss their hat into the ring.

Do-It-Yourself Lovecraft/Cthulhu Picture Dice

In my last blog post, I lamented that there wasn't yet a Lovecraft-themed set of Rory's Story Cubes. After all, they have many different sets available, as well as licensed sets like Batman, Doctor Who, Scooby Doo, and Adventure Time (later this year). So why not some Story Cubes based on the brain-melting horrors of The Great Old Ones?

So, as I usually do when I want something that doesn't exist, I made it myself.

My Lovecraft picture dice is a mini-set of three cubes with 18 iconic images of a Cthulhu-esque nature. I went online with a list of icons I wanted to find and, sticking to simple black-and-white line art, found some suitable artwork to use. I created a template of 20 1-inch squares, and fit each of the 18 images within. I had a set of spare white 6-siders that were 1/2 inch across, so I shrank my template by 50% (so the squares were now 1/2 inch across), then printed it out on a sheet of label paper. I cut out the squares, adhered them randomly to my spare dice, and now I have my own set of Lovecraftian picture dice to use with my Story Cubes. (I also plan to use them with Untold: Adventures Await upon Kickstarter fulfillment.)

Here's the image I created. I'll leave the descriptions of what each represents up to your imagination:

Oh, and if you wish to create your own set of Lovecraft picture dice, you can either grab the image above of download the original PNG file from my Google Drive at this link. Print it off, cut it out, and glue the 18 images to three spare dice. Then roll up some Lovecraftian nightmares of your own!

A Sneak Peak Into My "Gaming Projects" Notebook

Many of you who know me or have hung out with me have no doubt seen me toting around my little black notebook (pictured here). I have carried this notebook -- or one like it -- for years. I have it with me at work, at events, in my car, and resting on the table next to me as I hammer out this post. Inside my "Gaming Projects" notebook is a collection of notes, scripts, ideas, and works-in-progress for a variety of games and systems.

Today, I went through my notebook and did a bit of organizing. I thought it'd be a fun "glimpse" for you if I were to make a quick listing of things and projects currently in the works.

(Don't ask me to expound on anything here, nor ask me what my timeline is for any of these. I work on them as the mood hits, and release them when they're done. But here's some stuff you can look forward to one day in the future.)

(CW = Cryptworld; TM = Timemaster; MF = Mutant Future; DCC = Dungeon Crawl Classics; HOPE = Our Last Best Hope; Fiasco = Fiasco; Anything is "quotes" is the working title of a scenario/adventure in the works)

CW - "Speed Demon" - Driverless vehicle terrorizes small town
CW - "Final Voyage of the Golden Dawn" - Abandoned ship found floating off shore.
CW - "Last Call/Wasted" - Zombies attack a remote tavern. Players are barflies.
CW - "The CW Atlas" - Worldwide locations of supernatural interest.
CW - "Expiration Date" - PCs cheat Death. He's not happy about it.
CW - "The Coldcreek Conspiracy" - Based on a Cryptworld adventure-writing exercise.
CW - "Kid Stuff" - Adults in a neighborhood disappear. Creepy kids terrorize the area.
CW - "Maul Be Home for Christmas" - A department store Santa is found murdered after hours in a locked-down mall.
CW - "Lost Vegas" - Unexplained murders in a Vegas casino.
CW - "Untitled Solo CW Adventure" - A one-person solo adventure to learn the system.
CW - "The Century of the Dead" - A village of the undead reappears for 24 hours every 100 years (Brigadoon-inspired).
CW - "Deadfall" - Collyer Brothers-inspired trap-laden house -- and something lurks within.
CW - Helltown, Ohio
CW/ROT - "Knights of the Living Dead"
CW - THINGS to stat uup: Drauger; Computer Virus; Worm That Walks; Succubus/Incubus; Tsukumogami; Bog Mummy/Salt Mummy/Ice Mummy; Pollo Maligro; Zombeak
TM - Jenny Everywhere
TM - "An Apple A Day" -- Millions of deaths due to the lack of a single piece of fruit.
TM - "Postage Due/The Day The Sky Fell" - Compilation of TM adventures I've written.
MF - "Dead In The Water" - Written; just needs to be assembled and distributed.
MF - "World of Korgoth of Barbaria supplement"
CAH - "Transylmania"
CAH - "SPY U"
DCC - "The Scourge From Beyond Infinity"
DCC - "Escape From Vulture Gully"
HOPE - "Virus"
FIASCO - "Small Town Ink"