Mini Review - The Haunting of Larvik Island (DCC RPG Adventure)

I've been running a DCC RPG campaign since the start of the summer. My herd of cats will be finishing up (I hope) Doom of the Savage Kings tomorrow night and I need to decide on some options for the party to head to next.. Larvik Island is a strong possibility.

Last fall I ran Attack of the Frawgs, the first DCC RPG release from Thick Skull (aka +Stephen Newton ) and my players had a blast with it. Just as importantly, I did too. The Haunting of Larvik Island looks to kick that experience up a notch.

Here's the players' intro:

For centuries the legendary exploits of the mighty warlord Larvik have inspired storytellers and adventurers. Despite his glory, Larvik’s fortunes were lost in the war between his sons following his death. What remains of his legacy is a dangerous island bearing his name and the legend of its treasure accessible only once every 35 years. 

That time is at hand! Will your party be stout enough to explore the island, defeat both natural beasts and lost souls, and decipher the mysterious markers Larvik left behind? Will you uncover the lost caverns before time runs out and the secret is hidden for another generation, or will you merely become another footnote in the history of the many who have fallen never to return chasing the legend of Larvik Island?

Yep, Larvik has an excellent DCC feel to it and can handle 1st to 2nd level characters, which is good, as it's quite possible that some of the PC's may hit level 2 before the end of the adventure.

New magic items, new diseases (did we have old ones?) and some interesting background pieces add value to the adventure.

My guess is about 2 evenings of play from Larvik for the average gaming group and probably 3 nights for mine - as I said earlier, it's like trying to herd cats with them sometimes...

There is a nice selection of wilderness and cavern locations and maps. The player handouts are spot on (and will work well in a VTT like Roll20 and the like). The maps will suffice for online gaming, but I do appreciate when publishers like +Purple Duck Games add unkeyed maps for online play, and wish other PDF publishers would follow suit (hint hint ;)

If I have a critique, its the addition of the slight watermarking on the pages to make them appear like aged paper on the corner. While it doesn't interfere with reading AT ALL, it will use more ink than is needed to print this out - and I print out all adventures before I run them (I dont print out the handouts, as Roll20 handles that awesomely).

All in all an excellent addition to the DCC RPG collection of adventures. Hopefully over the next couple of weeks we'll have some session reports to add to the mix - assuming my group heads off in this direction - damn cats!

Win Some DCC RPG Swag! Post a 0-Level Occupation

Alright, here we go. The 2nd Monthly Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG Contest. This month's contest topic is: 0-Level Occupations.


Here's what you need to do to enter:

1 - Add a comment to this post using the following example's format:

Occupation: Town Guardsman

Trained Weapon: Short sword

                              Trade Goods: Set of Manacles


2 - Add a description if you would like, but it's not needed.

3 - You're done!

The current prize list is as follows:

   1 Copy Each of Crawl! Issue #1 AND Issue #2 - which will go to the winner of my choice. This is where creativity will take precedence.  Dak Ultimak will mail them (read this as "physical copies") to the winner, so I'll be asking the winner for their snail mail address. (courtesy of Dak)

  2 Copies of Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk (courtesy of Purple Sorcerer Games) in PDF to random entrants

  1 Copy of Perils of the Sunken City (again, courtesy of Purple Sorcerer Games in PDF to a random entrant

  1 Copy of Attack of the Frawgs! (courtesy of Thick Skull Adventures)

  1 Copy of Bone Hoard of the Dancing Horror (courtesy of Purple Duck Games)

adding more prizes to the pool!

   5 winners (who, in my judgement, have an entry that makes me laugh, giggle, say "holy shit!" or simply "Wow!") will win their choice of one of the first 16 releases from the Toys For the Sandbox series AND their choice of either TFTSB #23 Pirate Island or #24 The Lost Colony. The first part of this prize selection is from me and the second part is courtesy of Quinn Conklin, the writer of the Toys For the Sandbox series. How f'n cool is that?

Note: Entries to this contest may be used in a forthcoming issue of Crawl! Your commenting on this post means you acknowledge and accept that your entry may be placed in the hands of future readers of Crawl!, the DCC Fanzine and / or used in a free iOS or Android App or webpage by Purple Sorcerer Games.

Entries must be in by midnite, july 31st, 2012 EST - Enter as often as you may like, but only one entry will count towards the random prize pool. One prize per winner. End edit ;)