The Crypt Crawl Blog has moved!

I am combining all of our gaming blogs together in one place.

This is the link to the new blog! Follow it!

The work goes on.

I am working on the second version as best I can. I need to find a few bits and pieces to put up here that will show off some of the changes, yet without the whole work they may look "Od".

I am just going to take that chance. This is a preliminary pdf that covers the different types of player cards in the version 2 rules. There may be further tweaks on these, but the basics should be understandable.

If you have any thoughts to pass on, e-mail me at mark@marksmysteries.com

WOW! Thank You! Beta Version 2 in progress.

I want to thank all of you early adopters who sent in their e-mail comments, questions, observations and suggestions for Crypt Crawl. You really have done an excellent job, it has helped considerably. We are using them to determine the direction and feel of the game. You have also indicated what you want to see the rules do for you. Again, Thank You!

It will take me about two weeks to compile all of the responses, so you have until Feb 1st to get into the early responders.

As we start into version 2 we will be tightening down the details so these early voices have the biggest influence on the games construction and path.

We will always be glad to hear from people, but from here on out we may be too far along to fully use your suggestions. Sorry about that, but we do have to start pouring the concrete at some point, and Feb 1st is that date.

What happens when you die and are rebuilt in the Vat?

The Vat, and the lives that go with it, are a Crypt Crawl specific Tech. Other Go Time worlds may, or may not, have an equivalent Tech.

When a Spirit Warrior dies in Crypt Crawl they can be rebuilt in the Chalist Vats. No messy body parts needed, they build you a new body. Being a Spirit Warrior has some serious advantages.

In many ways the death and rebuilding of a Spirit Warrior offers the character an opportunity to "Do it all over again".

Since they are building your character a new body this is an opportunity to change your characters stats by choosing a different Spirit Warrior card for the character. There are nine basic sets of stats in the basic Crypt Crawl RPG game, and you can switch these at this time.

You can also change the characters appearance. When you first created the character you choose from Human, Elf, Dwarf, Fox, Tiger, Wolf, Troll, Orc or Demoni. These are available again. You may also want to create an entirely new appearance, such as horse, skunk, rat or rabbit. We snuck in that option when we said there were other "rare" appearances. A chance to express your characters inner personality.

Expertise information is obtained by taking a soothing Vat bath and spending Role-Playing points. So, when your Spirit Warrior dies it is also time to reload your Expertise's. When a Spirit Warrior dies they may choose to make Expertise changes. It is certainly a time for reflection and reconsideration. If you are not happy with your characters choices, make them again! You must always keep the Universal Expertise.

It is not necessary for a Spirit Warrior to die in battle to make these changes. If the character really wants to the Chalists can put you in the Vat and rebuild you right then and there. This does cost you one of your lives, so use this option with care.

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Gennar Spawn sighted

Gennar (Demon Spawn)

In the distance you can see the strange four legged gate of the Gennar Males. Their long arms reach nearly to the ground and they run by placing their arms forward and swinging their bodies forward in a strange swinging manuever that causes them to appear to bounce along the ground towards you. They have sharp pointed ears on either side of a squat lizardish head. The eyes are large with small black pupils that somehow look empty. Their skin is a grey green leathery substance. They have patterns of orange and gold highlighting their features. When these creatures stand upright they rise to their five foot tall and 4 foot wide size to fight with the long sharp claws on their hands.

The females of the species are more humanoid in shape and sre eirly attractive. They share the skin and coloring of their males, but they have normal length arms, however, they to have long shape claws.

Gennar are semi-intelligent and follow the commands of their demonic masters. They do not use ranged weapons. They act as a pack and come in numbers from 3 to 30. Larger packs frequently have Genkar with them as well. Their strange eyes allow them to see about 90 feet in the dark.

Gennar, Male (Spawn) Value=120

*Melee=10 *Ranged=0 *Toughness=20 *Armor=0 *Initiative=0 *Move=7

*Capacity=40 *Actions=2 *Value= 120

Gennar, Female (Spawn) Value=120

*Melee=2 *Ranged=0 *Toughness=20 *Armor=0 *Initiative=0 *Move=6

*Capacity=40 *Actions=3 *Value= 120

When do you really need a contest roll?

First, when we talk about a contest in the Go Time worlds we mean a 2d6 roll (plus bonuses) by the character versus a 2d6 roll (plus bonuses) by the GM. The highest roll succeeds and ties go to the GM.

Contest rolls are used whenever there is a doubt about the outcome of an Action the player or cast member want to perform. On the surface that appears to be a simple statement, but when does "doubt" creep in? We need some generic guidelines to help the GM call for just the contest rolls that are important.

GM's, of course, are welcome to come up with their own guidelines, or to modify my thoughts to fit their campaign.

There are a group of Actions which do not have an opposing force, and therefore are not contested. That means no contest roll is necessary, the character simply performs the Action. Getting up from the ground after falling, drawing a weapon, moving, walking up a hill, climbing an easy to climb tree, and many more mundane Actions fall in this category.

The first class of doubtful situations I want to address are those which cause damage to an unsuspecting target. What do you do when a cast member has successfully snuck up on a character and they want to slice open the characters throat and kill them? The character is unaware, or surprised, yet in a very real sense, they are opposed to dying. What is the GM going to do? My answer is Luck. The player just might get Lucky and survive. I call for a Luck contest. The player rolls 2d6 and the GM rolls 2d6. If the character is lucky and wins the contest, the GM determines the result. I suggest that the character takes damage equal to half of their remaining Toughness. If the GM wins the contest, the character goes to zero Toughness and falls to the ground, dead. That is unlucky, indeed. (Note: The other characters do have time, under the Go Time death rules, to save their comrades life.) I have put this in terms of what happens to characters to bring home the point. This same procedure can be used by characters when they get the drop on cast members.

The second class of doubtful situations involve the role-playing of a character during the game. If a player is able to present an interesting and logical series of Actions performed by the character the GM may decide that the player succeeds and that no roll is necessary. I do not have the words to explain this, so I will use some examples to clarify this class of doubtful situations. Keep in mind that if the players description of the characters actions are not entertaining, these become just a contest roll.

A character wants to obtain knowledge from a local farmer. The player proceeds to assist the farmer, explaining how she will cause the farmer to feel good about the character. The explanation is entertaining for the GM and for the other players, who may even help. As a GM, I decide that the explanation replaces a successful contest roll, and the player gets the information they want, or an idea of where the information is.

A character wants to obtain knowledge from a defeated and unconscious enemy Horror. The series of Actions they use includes the rousing of the Horror and some unique descriptions of their skills with a knife plus a healthy bit of acting. Once again I find myself entertained and decide that the character has successfully completed an intimidation contest. They get the information they want.

The character wants to hide in a thicket and ambush a Fiend. She may well be assisted by other characters distracting the fiends. The Fiends are walking down the path, tracking the party. One of the characters gives an entertaining explanation of how they will proceed to hide and ambush the last bad guy in the enemy party. As a GM I may well decide that the characters careful preparation replaces a contest roll. For the actual attack on the fiend, I would use the luck roll, as I described earlier. How many times have we seen the good guys trim down their enemies this way? Well, we can see it again.

The third class of doubtful situations have to do with adventure goals, knowledge, and clues needed to triumph in the end. Some of the information that is provided through ancient glyphs or ingenious puzzles is essential for the characters to obtain. Therefore the GM must, in some situations, abandon the contest rolls and let the characters earn the answers through role-playing and skill use, no matter what the dice say.

The bottom line here is that in the Go Time RPG worlds, including Crypt Crawl, are Role-Playing games. As a GM you need to allow the role-playing aspect of the games to have real value and become more important than the games mechanics. We can do this by making entertaining role-playing into successful contest rolls.