Scions of Leviathan

Scions of Leviathan is now available! This is an all new 6th level adventure designed for Star Crawl, but as usual it is easily adapted for DCC, MCC, or other systems altogether. I'm very excited to finally have this adventure finished: I first announced it way back in 2020. I've got a lot of other books in various states of completion and I'm hoping this opens the gates to a more regular release schedule. 

Buy it (and all our other products) in print on the Goodman Games webstore and in PDF at DriveThruRPG. 

Character sheets for the pregens can be found on the Star Crawl Resources page. 

I'm very excited to welcome Victor Spieles to the Tuesday Night Fiend Club: he created some amazing art for this adventure. Check out more of his incredible work on Instagram, under the handle @victorspieles. 

What is Star Crawl?

 

What is Star Crawl?

Star Crawl is a sci-fi role playing supplement, designed for Dungeon Crawl Classics but easily adapted for any d20 based RPG. The book's 100+ pages include:

• Seven new classes, designed after classic sci-fi archetypes
• Rules for applying race templates, further customizing your character. The core book includes 12 race templates, but more keep coming as bonus material in our adventures and on this website.
• Advanced weapons, armor, and equipment- including a 100 entry table for random weird items
• Rules for starships and space combat
• 3 new patrons appropriate for any class
• Rules for randomly generating new worlds, with tables for random celestial and terrestrial quirks
• A bestiary of aliens and creatures
• A full 0-level funnel adventure

Can I get adventures & supplements for Star Crawl?

Absolutely!  So far, we've released two adventures:

• Threen Station Zero: A 2nd level adventure set in an abandoned space station
• Electric Friends: 3rd level characters are tasked with retrieving parts from a robot factory

I'm a really slow writer, but we're working on a few more books we hope to have out soon:

• Beyond the Flesh: A complete cybernetics supplement, including an all new Star Crawl adventure
• The Scions of Leviathan: Wherein the characters must rescue a young man from the clutches of a doomsday cult
• Cries from the Void: A compilation of short scenarios and encounters

Our adventures include pre-generated characters to let you play right away and bonus material to supplement your games. 

Are there online resources for Star Crawl? 

With every new release, we post the supporting materials here. This includes character sheets, race templates, and pregens. 

Why should I take your word that it's good?

You shouldn't- I'm the one selling it. Maybe check out some reviews: 

• The Sanctum Secorum podcast did an in depth review of Star Crawl. 
• A quick breakdown from Throat Punch Games.
• A longer review on Reddit. 
• Hear the creator of Star Crawl talk about the game on an episode of Glowburn. 

And Star Crawl has been one of the top selling 3rd party products on the Goodman Games webstore three years in a row. 

Star Crawl sounds awesome! Where can I get it? 

Print copies of all of our books are available on the Goodman Games web store and PDFs can be bought through DriveThruRPG. 

Electric Friends Now Available!

The next adventure for Star Crawl, Electric Friends is now available in print from the Goodman Games webstore & in PDF at DriveThruRPG.com. Purchase of the print copy through GG includes a free PDF.

In this adventure, your party will explore a robot factory at the behest of an eccentric benefactor. I've had a great time running this adventure over the past year and I'm thrilled to finally be able to share it wide! In addition to the complete adventure, Electric Friends includes the Space Cowboy class and Rodent race template. The Space Cowboy class is added to the new printing of Star Crawl, but I've included it here for folks who already have a copy of the first printing.

And after being sold out for some time, Star Crawl is finally back in print! It's got a few new pieces of art and significantly fewer typos- get the full details here!

SC Character Tokens

To aid running Star Crawl games online, I made a set of tokens for all the Star Crawl character classes & races. These are simple circles, replicating the icons at the bottom of the Star Crawl character sheets & race templates. They work great with Roll20, but I haven't tried them with any other virtual game portals.

Star Crawl Character Tokens

Star Crawl 2nd Printing

Star Crawl has been far more successful that I'd hoped, selling consistently since its 2018 release. As I prepare for another print run, increased printing costs and new distribution options are forcing me to raise the price from $15 to $20. The price of the PDF will not be increasing and I will update the files on DriveThruRPG so folks who bought it there will automatically get the new files. 

Star Crawl is still a value at $20, but to entice you even further, I'm making a few updates to this printing:

• Space Cowboy class: This class is also available on our resources page & will be included in Electric Friends, an adventure being released soon.
• Power weapons fumble table: This gives some extra flavor for critical failures with powered weapons, such as photon pistols and plasma blades.
• New art: I'm replacing a few pieces of art I didn't like from the first run & adding in a couple more pieces. 
• Typo corrections: In a few places, I caught some mistakes I missed last time around. These will be corrected. 

The last few copies of the first printing of Star Crawl are available on the Goodman Games webstore (I've only got 1 copy left myself), so get it while you can- it's soon to be a collector's item!

UPDATE: The first printing of Star Crawl is officially sold out! The updated printing is due back from the printers any day now, so it should be available in the Goodman Games store very soon! Once it's listed there, I'll update the PDF at DriveThruRPG.

Star Crawl Rodents

Over on the Facebook Dark Trails group, Michael Harrington wrote up a DCC Mouseling race. I love the sci-fi/fantasy trope of anthropomorphic animal races & I think mice fit in well with Star Crawl's Prime Apes, Bugs, and Avians. After some minor tweaks to bring it closer to existing races, I'm happy to share the Rodent Race Template!

Rodent Race Template

Dark Trails (and Space Cowboy!)

If you're not already a backer, you should go right now and back the Dark Trails Kickstarter. Dave Baity is an amazing guy and a pillar of the DCC community. He's worked for years perfecting what will no doubt be an incredible book: you won't want to miss out on this game!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2059365241/dark-trails-rpg

Inspired by Dark Trails, I've created a new Star Crawl class, the Space Cowboy! This is a gunslinger inspired by "space western" characters like Firefly's Captain Reynolds and Cowboy Bebop's Spike.

This is a first draft of the class, completely untested. I'll be playtesting it & will likely include a revised version in a future release. I'm eager to hear your thoughts if you try it out in your own games!
Space Cowboy Rule Sheet
Space Cowboy Character Sheet

Space Cowboy

Bounty hunters, duelists, and trackers: space cowboys ride the wild frontiers of space, surviving with guts & guns. Though valued by most crews for their combat prowess, they are just as likely to strike out on their own. When creating a space cowboy, high Agility and Luck statistics will be especially helpful.

Hit Points: Space cowboys gain 1d10 hit points at each level.

Quickdraw: Space cowboys are always ready for trouble and don’t hesitate to throw the first punch. They add their level to Initiative checks.

Trick Shot: Making their living at the end of a gun, space cowboys are the undisputed masters of firearms. The Trick Shot die should be rolled when a space cowboy makes a ranged attack. This result is added to all ranged attack and damage rolls this round (cumulative with any other bonuses).  Before making a ranged attack roll, a space cowboy may declare a Trick Shot. This can be a special maneuver specific to the situation such as shooting a gun out of the target’s hand, reflecting a photon beam off a mirror to hit the target in the back, or the “road agent spin” (flipping a gun being surrendered to make a surprise attack). If the Trick Shot die roll is 3 or higher and the modified attack roll is a success, the space cowboy pulls off the shot. If no special maneuver is attempted and the space cowboy gets a critical hit, add the Trick Shot die roll to the final result on the critical hit table.

True Grit: Space cowboys are just tougher than most other folks, able to survive situations that would lay most low. Any time a space cowboy spends a Luck point to modify a saving throw result, roll their Trick Shot die and add the result to the saving throw total. 

Tracking: A space cowboy gains +1 die type when attempting to track, follow, or otherwise find a target (typically resulting in a d24 for such checks).

Lone Wolf: The space cowboy is accustomed to fighting against the odds. In situations where foes might gain an advantage for attacking in numbers (such as flanking bonuses or pack fighting special abilities), they do not gain such benefits against the space cowboy.

  

Space Cowboy Level Advancement
Level	Attack	Crit Die/ Table	Action Dice	Ref	Fort	Will	Trick Shot Die
1	+1	1d10/II	1d20	+1	+1	+1	d3
2	+1	1d12/II	1d20	+1	+1	+1	d4
3	+2	1d14/II	1d20	+2	+2	+1	d4
4	+2	1d16/II	1d20	+2	+2	+2	d5
5	+3	1d16/II	1d20+1d14	+3	+3	+2	d6
6	+3	1d20/II	1d20+1d16	+3	+3	+2	d6
7	+3	1d20/II	1d20 (x2)	+4	+3	+3	d7
8	+4	1d24/II	1d20 (x2)	+4	+4	+3	d8
9	+4	1d24/II	1d20 (x2)	+5	+4	+3	d8
10	+5	1d30/II	1d20 (x2) +1d14	+6	+5	+4	d10

Gary Con XI Swag

If you'll be at Gary Con XI this week, be sure to keep an eye out for some exclusive Tuesday Night Fiend Club swag! I've got Star Crawl Stickers, TNFC/ Pittsburgh DCC poker chips, and a special mini-zine (more on that below). I'll have some of each for every player in the games I'm running, plus a bunch to hand out to folks I meet.

The stickers & chips will only be available in person, but you can get the Random Alien Generator mini-zine right now!
Star Crawl Random Alien Generator Mini-Zine
For best results,change the print settings to print actual size (don't shrink to fit).
Once printed, follow the folding instructions below (if you have any trouble, do a search for "folding minizine": this is a pretty standard layout).

On Sale: Star Crawl!

Star Crawl is now available in print and PDF!

Print purchase link (through the Goodman Games webstore)
PDF purchase link

I don't have a method for providing a discount PDF code when you buy the print version, but I'll hook you up if you buy the book. Send me an email (tuesdayfiend at gmail) with proof of purchase: either a copy of your receipt from the GG store or a photo of your favorite illustration from the book. It may take a couple days, but I'll email you a PDF direct.

Star Crawl on its way...

Star Crawl is back from the printer and copies are on their way to the Goodman Games warehouse! They should be available to purchase from them in the next two weeks. Sometime after that, I'll make the PDF available. And a few international folks have asked about the option for print on demand from Lulu to save on shipping: I'll be looking into that as well.

Here are the essential details on the book:

• $15 USD retail price ($10 for the PDF)
• 112 b&w pages
• Full size (8"x10.5") and perfect bound
• Six new classes and guidance on taking DCC & MCC characters into space
• All new Race Template rules, including twelve character races
• New weapons, armor, and equipment with rules for customization
• Bestiary of aliens & monsters
• Quick tables to help create new worlds and stellar encounters
• Includes a full 0-level funnel: The Promethean Adventure!

Star Crawl Resources

The following resources are for use with Star Crawl (available now in print on the Goodman Games web store and in PDF from DriveThruRPG).

Character Sheets

Race Templates

Character Tokens

Ship Templates (for best results print the first two pages double sided, flipped on short edge)

Cybernetics Record Sheet

Pregenerated Characters

Pregen Characters (stored on the DCC & Friends Character Repository)

Pregen Characters & Ships for Threen Station Zero

Pregen Characters for Electric Friends

Pregen Characters for The Cybernetic Underbelly (from Beyond the Flesh)

Pregen Characters for Scions of Leviathan

Supplemental Materials

Merchant Race Template (created by James Walls for the Glowburn Podcast)

Space Cowboy Class (inspired by Dave Baity's Dark Trails RPG)

Rodent Race Template (adapted from Mouseling class created by Michael Harrington for Weird Frontiers)

Star Crawl Random Alien Generator Mini-Zine (for best results, print at actual size- don't shrink to fit)
Mini-Zine folding instructions:

Star Crawl Space Battlefield

I took a break from proofreading Star Crawl to make a starfield battlemat for space battles (completely unnecessary for play, but I think it'll add something to con games & demos). I sent the image above to the printer  for a test run (it'll be 2'x3'). If it comes out nice, I'll get a couple more made for sale.

As briefly mentioned in a earlier post, ship combat will take place in the round area to the left- each line marks off a sector (used for range & movement: most weapons have range of 1 & a ship can freely move 1 sector in a turn). At the top of each turn, all ships make maneuvering rolls (using the ship's maneuvering die type) and move their ships in ascending order of the rolls (highest roll goes last, so they have a significant tactical advantage: facing is important when shooting). Ships then fire weapons in reverse, with the last ship placed firing first (this should be familiar to X-Wing players).

If a ship attempts to flee, they move to the Pursuit Tracker. Here, maneuverability is shelved for speed: ships move forward or back based on relative speed rolls. If the fleeing ship moves off the front of the track, they successfully escape;if the pursuer catches the fleeing ship, both return to the combat field.

*Update* I got the test mat back from the printer & it looks great! I went through Banners on the Cheap, using the image linked below. I used it for games at GaryCon & it was perfect.
Space Mat Image

Star Crawl Status Update

Star Crawl is getting ever closer: based on my current estimates, it should be complete & ready for sale by October. Later than I hoped, but I think it'll be worth the delay.

A few updates on progress the past few weeks:

• The cover art has been changed to the image above. I love my space bug, but that skull's just so much more striking.
• I've gotten preliminary approval from Joseph Goodman. I'll be sending him a final version before I send it to the printers, but we're pretty much set. And this may be the first 3rd party product to bear both the "Compatible with DCC" and "Compatible with MCC" logos!
• The book will be full size (8"x11") and about 120 pages. I'll determine the cover price once I have a final cost from the printer, but I'm thinking $15-20. 
• I've started work on two follow up books: an adventure and a hex-crawl supplement. Based on the response to Star Crawl, I may try to push those through for completion by March so I can bring one (or both) to GaryCon.

Star Crawl Art

Star Crawl's cover image

I'm into the final stretch on writing Star Crawl.With a few tables to finish up, the rules themselves are done. I'm still working on the maps for the 0-level funnel and a couple judges will be running playtests in the coming weeks so I can see how easy it is for others to run. As the project is closing in on completion, I've started what's on of the hardest parts for me: art.

I'm not a good artist, but I don't let that hold me back. I didn't do much art for Vehicle mayhem, just the cover & a couple quick drawings inside. For that book, photos of the board & cars seemed fitting, so it wasn't an issue. But with Star Crawl, I want to step it up, so I've been working on art from the beginning of the project. 

 

Interior art for Star Crawl

I also managed to get a few players from my group to make some contributions. I can't wait to share all the amazing work they've done, but below are just a couple samples.

Scene by Dave 8Cylinder

Alien monster by Brad Heiple

Star Crawl Space Combat Preview

I've done testing with the Star Crawl space combat rules and I'm pretty close to a final version. This is a big part of the rules and a pretty significant milestone in being ready to publish Star Crawl.  

I used the Vehicle Mayhem rules as a starting point: those rules are excellent at representing relative movement and tracking armor damage. The image above includes the play areas I'm using for space combat. The left board would be for combat, with ships maneuvering around each other. On the right is the pursuit tracker, used when ships attempt to escape combat. My goal is to keep space battles exciting and fast past while maintaining a tactical feel. As the rules tighten up, I'll post more specifics.

Ship stats will again be similar to Vehicle Mayhem, with simple "dot" armor tracking as a key concept. To avoid massive numbers of dots as ships grow in size, I've added Damage Denominator (DD) as a ship stat. The size and class of the ship determines how much damage is required to remove a point of armor. So, a plasma burst rolls 12 points of damage. This would do 2 dots of damage to a fighter with DD 5 or 1 dot of damage to a battlecruiser with DD 10.

Vehicle Mayhem & Star Crawl at GaryCon X

Photo credit: Drawbridge Games

For those attending GaryCon this weekend, I'll be running games Vehicle Mayhem and Star Crawl.

The first annual Vehicle Mayhem "Disciples of the Wheel" tournament will be held from 4-10:00 pm Friday in Forum AB (table 367). I'll have up to 8 cars on the road at all times: show up any time during that block & jump in when the next car is eliminated!

And Star Crawl will make its convention debut with a session of "Threen Station Zero". I'll be running that 2-6:00 pm on Saturday in Forum AB. The game is full, but feel free to stop by and see the new classes in action. My Saturday evening is open, so if there's demand, I may run a second Star Crawl session off-books after 6:00. 

All weekend I'll have copies of Vehicle Mayhem ($5) and the Vehicle Mayhem playmat ($20), so hit me up if you'd like one.

The header image is from my Vehicle Mayhem demo yesterday at Drawbridge Games. Special thanks to Rico for letting me set up and run!

New DCC Stats: Perception & Credit

In developing Star Crawl for my home campaign (and putting it to paper for eventual release), I've added two statistics: Perception and Credit.

When running and playing DCC, I (and other judges) seem to be inconsistent with how they handle characters noticing things within the current rules.  Some use Intelligence, some use Luck; some say Int for seeing and Luck for hearing (and my memory just isn't good enough to be consistent). Perception is a catch all for these. This derived stat is the sum of the ability modifiers for Intelligence and Luck. Some classes (DCC Thief and SC Scoundrel) add their levels to this score. 

Credit is a fairly complex stat, and one I'm still working to refine, but the idea is to have a way to simulate the complexities of a modern/futuristic character's financial state without just saying "you have X dollars". Each occupation has a starting Credit Die: major changes in life situation may raise or lower that die, but otherwise it's fairly static. Resource windfalls add a transient bonus to Credit, which will help the character buy stuff now but not necessarily have a permanent impact. 

Here's how Credit would work:

Blutark the Particle Harvester has d6 Credit. During his latest adventure, he obtained a frigate loaded with illicit goods. The judge rules that keeping the frigate will increase his credit die (to d8) and selling the cargo will give him a short term bonus (+2). So Blutark heads to the local market with d8+2 Credit for making purchases. There would be a certain threshold for "automatic" purchases (say something with a value less than half your max Credit roll); otherwise, you need to make a Credit roll to afford that item right now. After a month or so, that bonus will be gone but Blutark will still have a d8 Credit die. 

0-Level Star Crawl Generator

The amazing folks over at Purple Sorcerer Games have been kind enough to add my new Star Crawl occupation list to their 0-level party generator. For now, I've only go the occupations there (no Star Signs or customization), but eventually I'll submit more requests to them. For now, it's enough to greatly assist me in the playtest process: I'm currently transferring 10 sheets of characters to use for 0-level testing. I may even have something to run off the books at GaryCon.

Head over to Purple Sorcerer & make some zeros if you want to start to get a feel for Star Crawl.

And here's the fillable PDF 0-level character sheet I'm using, including two custom stats I'm introducing with Star Crawl: Perception and Credit. I'll talk more about both in a future update.

Star Crawl Races

Going into Star Crawl, I absolutely wanted to include alien races. I quickly realized I couldn't do each alien as a class, so I had to figure out a way to introduce races without unbalancing the core DCC rules (after all, a big part of Star Crawl is the ability to smoothly move a DCC campaign into space). At the same time, I wanted to make sure to allow for vast numbers of alien types. The solution I've come up with is the Race Template.
While most sci-fi games clearly define what each alien race is like, Star Crawl does not. When you choose a Race Template, you are just picking a broad template of alien: your character is just one of many sharing some standard attributes. It is up to you, and maybe your judge, to determine what this alien race is actually like.

For example, lets look at Lizards, a staple of many sci-fi & fantasy settings:

The information and flavor text on the Race Template give some guidance, but from there the sky's the limit. Maybe you've got a "V" alien or a 7-foot tall t-rex. There are some "Known Species" listed, many of which will be detailed in the Star Crawl bestiary, in case the player wants to go with a more standard race. The judge may also wish to make race selection a collaborative experience ("OK guys, all the Space Pigs in this campaign are like Lord of the Rings Orcs"). And since the Star Crawl rules will be completely DCC compatible, there's no reason an adventurous judge couldn't bring these rules into their fantasy campaign.

12 Race Templates will come in the Star Crawl rules and I plan to include more with future adventures & supplements.