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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9568700" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/5JS1j4Z.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 517px" /> Chapter Eight: Xcrawl, aka the GamesComprising the first real outline of the setting proper, this focuses on Xcrawl’s history as a game, its impact on the entertainment industry, and various broad rules and regulations common to tournaments. Before recorded history, a great Cataclysm destroyed many civilizations of old as well as virtually all evidence of the event. The few records that exist are the stuff of myth and legend, encompassing a vague Heroic Age. Thousands of years later, in 1976, a team of archeologists unearthed a sapient talking sword named Warsong. The blade was all too happy to tell of his exploits with the half-elven adventurer Zimble, and was the personal witness to many “dungeon crawls.” Never before has there been such excellently preserved evidence of the Heroic Age, which in turn inspired a new slew of media. A strategy game known as Dungeonbattle was one such example, which would form the eventual games of Xcrawl.The 1980s were a time of instability in the North American Empire. Emperor Ronald I was warned of a prophecy where a Messianic savior of the cult of the One God would overthrow him, and Zimbabwe’s overthrow of their old government in favor of a parliamentary system was the first such example in world history. Needing a more modern bread and circus equivalent to placate the masses, Emperor Ronald I was inspired after seeing in the news a group of Dungeonbattle LARPers defending themselves and killing real ghouls. And thus Xcrawl was born.The early days of Xcrawl were noted for being unpredictable before a set of universal regulations smoothed things out. The Adventurer’s Guild serves as the main regulatory body, setting the rules while also dispensing membership status to crawlers in the North American Empire. Xcrawl tournaments are broken up into multiple divisions which also correspond to character levels: the first three divisions (Action League, Varsity Action, Division V) are nonlethal simulations of the real thing for elementary to high school students. Division IV is the semi-pro, and serves as the 0 level funnel for PCs, while Division III is when things get lethal and provides the full Xcrawl experience at 1st to 2nd level. This Division is notable for having the highest death rate due to the crawlers’ lack of experience. Divisions II and I have greater degrees of challenge and danger and levels 3-4 and 5-6 respectively, with I representing big league superstars. There’s only one Unlimited Class event, the Texarcana Crawl which is held once every 3-4 years. Only world-class teams of at least 7th level can hope to survive.In the world of Xcrawl, an AVS (or Arcane Video Screen) is a magical television set that conjures the screen in the air, and the item is common enough to be a fixture in most NAE households. Like real-world sports, Xcrawl tournaments both large and small are broadcast on channels, and live audience members can buy tickets to be in either mass stadium seatings or more exclusive boxes. AVS are also used in Xcrawl itself, particularly as two-way communication devices for a tournament’s DJ, or Dungeon Judge, to communicate with the crawlers and audience. Dungeon Judges serve as the ultimate authority on how a dungeon is designed, from the physical layout to the placement of enemies, obstacles, and prizes, plus secondary services such as business deals with advertisers. DJs also serve as the “face” of their particular Xcrawl tournament, being akin to a WWE wrestler in adopting exaggerated mannerisms and a theme to go with it.Monsters serve as the general opposition to crawler parties. Most of them are unintelligent or semi-intelligent creatures, either living ones captured by monster hunters and delivered to a DJ’s menagerie, or artificial entities like constructs and undead supplied by the Necromancer’s Guild. Intelligent monsters (and “monsters” who are the major humanoid races) are treated as employees and given wages for their participation, as well as bonuses for exemplary performances. Summoned monsters are created by mages for the crawl and generally dismissed at the end. Guild regulations and NAE laws prevent fiends from being summoned, but everything else is fair game. Monsters, particularly the intelligent ones, can gain their own fandoms equal to any crawler. Intelligent monsters have the option of surrendering, although they get bonuses for putting up a good enough fight so they usually only do so for when it’s clear that they’d lose. A referee can “call” a room if unintelligent monsters are clearly outmatched, or negate an intelligent monster’s surrender if it’s clear that they’re being cowardly or throwing the fight.Beyond the contestants and monsters, Xcrawl has a variety of staff for ensuring that everything runs smoothly, and wear NonCom badges designating their status as a noncombatant. Attacking them is grounds for disqualification, and the badges are enchanted to teleport the wearer to the nearest emergency facility if injured. Common grounds for disqualification are general-purpose common sense stuff, such as refusing to engage with the prescribed rules of the competition, torturing and mutilating enemies, and so on. But a warning is given first for all but the most blatant offenses. Crawlers are also disqualified if they leave the dungeon via a NoGo door, which basically lets them “escape” the dungeon albeit they can’t return later in the crawl.While the most common win condition for a dungeon is for at least one team member to make it to the end, there are variations to this. For example, crawlers might be competing against other teams, and whoever finishes the dungeon in the shortest amount of time gets 1st place as part of a ranked system. Additionally, there are break rooms (at least one per dungeon level) that allow crawlers to safely rest up. They all have at least a paramedic, food, bathrooms, and by law can never have any monsters, traps, or other dangers.There are a variety of smaller rules, a few of which are notable in that they result in more restrictive playstyles than you’d get in a typical dungeon-crawling campaign. For one, crawlers can only make use of a defeated enemy’s equipment for the remainder of a combat encounter they’re in, and once that fight’s over they cannot take it to use in the rest of the dungeon. The only exception is for replacing broken gear. Additionally, while monsters can be charmed or otherwise brought under a PC’s control, they can only be made to participate for the rest of the encounter and cannot be brought into further areas. Crawlers cannot begin a dungeon with pre-cast spells, and must wait until the tournament starts to cast such spells. Also, each crawler can bring along one retainer for non-combat support roles.This chapter ends with the optional rule of “substitute teammates,” which basically allow a player to replace a dead PC with a reserve member who joins the crawler team before their next encounter. Reservists level up slower, and some tournaments might have a “mortality level” where the team loses if a certain number of crawlers get killed.Thoughts: I find it ironic that this world’s Ronald Reagan popularized the Dungeons & Dragons equivalent, given that his strongest supporters were the same people who spearheaded the Satanic Panic. I do like the idea of making traditional fantasy tropes being popular historical legends, along with the fantasy genre being created by interviews with a magic sword. The grouping of divisions based on average party level would be a bit too balanced and metagamey for the average OSR ruleset, but given Xcrawl is a professional sport in-universe it actually works out quite well.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/GQblb6d.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 483px" /> Chapter Nine: XworldThis iteration of Xcrawl is notable for having trimmed a lot of the fat in regards to the setting proper. While previous sourcebooks devoted a significant amount of page count talking about how this fantasy Earth is different, the bulk of this sourcebook’s rather brief chapter focuses on the North American Empire. Instead of opening up with a general history like in prior titles, this chapter is a collection of common cultural subjects for fleshing out the NAE in the first half, with the latter half covering the Olympian pantheon and other common deities.To paint things in broad strokes, the existence of pagan gods prevented Christianity from developing into a religious superpower. Such people are simply known as Messianics, with their religion referred to as the One God Cult. Messianics settled the North American continent, as did the more culturally dominant pagans later on, and the two groups initially entered into an alliance under the forces of George Augustus in fighting off the British. But August betrayed the Messianics, outlawing their religion and hunting them down mercilessly, forming a new North American Empire that has been a tyrannical nation ever since. But unlike in our world, the NAE wasn’t very big on forcibly colonizing the Native Americans, and most North American indigenous people still maintain their ancestral homelands with the NAE holding territory over a few real-world cities like New York and Chicago. Native Americans have formed autonomous federations who are pretty much treated as their own political blocs, although the NAE views them as savages barely worth conquering, much less interacting with. Most Native Americans view the Empire as a cruel and oppressive government (quite rightfully, the book notes), and generally don’t want to have anything to do with them.NAE cities are sprawling metropolises, with outlying rings of suburbs and farmland surrounding dense districts. Democratic systems of government never really caught on in this Earth, and the nobility in the NAE are mostly-human families who trace their ancestry back to Europe as well as commoners who have been granted noble status for exceptional service. Additionally, the Emperor occupies both a secular and religious authority, and it’s possible for the Olympian gods to appoint an Emperor in exceptional circumstances (they did so for Emperor Ronald I). While the state supplies all NAE citizens with basic living necessities such as free healthcare, public libraries, and inter-city transportation as part of caravans, commoners do not have any guaranteed human rights, their lives can be upended by the whims of a noble, and they have no representative leaders to appeal to should they be dissatisfied with the government. Xcrawl’s Earth also didn’t get the development of capitalism either, as the economy is governed by a series of medieval-style trade guilds who number in the hundreds in the NAE and hold sway over everything from apprenticeships, to pensions, to quality and safety standardsAs for magic, a Guild of Magi strictly controls who can learn and practice the supernatural arts, and those who wish to practice it must apply for membership which requires sponsorship by an existing Guild member. Necromancers managed to get enough capital to form their own guild due to being the primary suppliers of undead monsters for Xcrawl games. Gnomes and elves have their own regulatory body known as the Toadstool Court, and as for priestly mages they are part of formal church hierarchy in the Olympic Temple. Messengers are still a new phenomenon, and given that they have powers directly from the gods they have more leeway in choosing to operate more independently. Interestingly, the latter half of the 20th century saw the development of a new magical tradition known as technomagic. Technomancers known as media mages discovered and tapped into a new power source known as “regard,” which draws on the energy of anyone engaging with the magical networks generated by AVS screens and spellphones. There’s already concerns of them using their powers for all sorts of nefarious conspiracies.When it comes to monsters, most of them aren’t really a part of mainstream NAE society. Dragons are powerful enough to control their own personal fiefdoms in the wild territories between cities. They have a non-aggression treaty with the North American Empire, and also some subtle worldbuilding drops that Japan is still an Empire and also ruled by dragons. The other major monstrous blocs are in the Zura’ah’zura, or “land beneath the land.” Most of the underground kingdoms are ruled by the Alfar, pale-skinned humanoids who are distant cousins to elves and practice extensive body modification. They were defeated by the NAE in the War of Subterranean Aggression, and while both sides have trade relations the Alfar and NAE citizenry still have generations-long bitterness and distrust between each other. Most humanoid monsters that participate in Xcrawl tournaments are Zura’ah’zura citizens who traveled aboveground for economic opportunity.We also get a discussion on Quests outside the tournaments, particularly in regards to attaining magical power, unique items, and reversing curses. This section refers us to 100 Adventure Ideas Outside of the Arena in one of the Appendices in back, which include a diverse assortment of brief yet interesting concepts. Some of my favorites include an alchemist asking the party to hunt for ingredients in a dangerous area in exchange for a lifetime sponsorship and free healing potions; someone using magic to masquerade as one of the PCs in order to earn money and fame, and the party must either put a stop to them or recruit them for their own use; helping a noble build a summer palace in a dangerous location by exploring monster-filled areas and guarding construction workers; a documentary film-maker paying the PCs to act as security detail while he gets footage of a feud between two dragons fighting over territory; and the PCs being invited onto an historically accurate tour boat cruise commemorating the journeys of Odysseus. One of the people onboard manages to offend Poseidon in this last example, who brings foul weather, aquatic monsters, and pirates to ravage the vessel!<img src="https://i.imgur.com/IamXFqk.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 636px" />The second half of this chapter governs the religious traditions of the NAE. The book notes that there are hundreds of deities in the Olympian Pantheon alone, and the ones listed are just the most popular ones. Greco-Roman paganism has become much more formalized and hierarchical, with three major sects known as Temples, with the Kingdom of Rome and Kingdom of Greece being home to the other major two of Earth. The NAE Temple uses the Romanized names of the Olympian pantheon, and while citizens are legally obliged to honor all its gods, most people pick a single deity who personally appeals to them as their patron. We get write-ups for 24 deities, expanding upon their earlier mentioned in the Messenger class. They are all gods and significant figures from Greek and Roman legends, including such standbys as Jupiter, Mars, and Neptune, but also some more obscure deities and those not usually thought of as gods such as Cupid and the Furaie. Trivia, who is more popularly known IRL as Hecate, is more of a goddess of knowledge than one of magic here.We also have seven non-Olympian gods who are popular in the NAE. Five of them are closely tied to common fantasy races, such as the obscure orcish deity Exofah who is the patron of suicide missions and hopeless battles. He is popular among half-orcs for his underdog status and being outlawed in mainstream orcish society. Kaiseka is a deity representing the cycle of death and life and is primarily worshiped by druids, but has a growing following among rebellious teenagers. While the nonhuman gods can be worshiped by humans, only the elf goddess Aiia Gesilvala has a decent amount of human worshipers for her patronage of music and art. Finally, Speaker-in-Thunder is the Sioux name for a Native American deity who takes on the role of a great creator spirit, and is a benevolent ruler of lesser spirits.Thoughts: When it comes to Xcrawl as a setting, one of the more common complaints I’ve seen is that it spends too much page count on irrelevant historical events that take away from the parodic aspect of dungeon-crawling death sports. It looks like Goodman Games took this to heart; while the setting still has inferences, it is much more barebones and focuses only on the nation the PCs are a part of by default.Personally speaking, I do feel that Xcrawl is still better off as a completely fictional world, as even here it being set in “the real world” still raises a whole host of questions. Since pagan gods exist, the Abrahamic tradition of monotheism is wrong. So does the Christian god exist, and if so can he grant divine magic to his followers? And what about the Jews? They didn’t go along with believing that Jesus was the Messiah, so did they just fade away? Since modern-day Rome is a Kingdom, when did the Roman Empire fall? Did the Olympian gods try to prevent it, or did they hasten its demise from inter-divine squabbling? I could think of a lot more questions, but even when trying to pull things back, the setting still leaves too many things unexplained.Additionally, I need to note one particular annoyance. While the name Speaker-In-Thunder doesn’t appear to correspond to any real-world indigenous deity as far as I can tell from Googling, it still has a problematic aspect in treating all Native Americans as a cultural monolith. There’s hundreds of tribes in the United States alone, with a huge array of individual languages, customs, belief systems, and traditional means of government. While this aspect was also present in the 3rd Edition version of Xcrawl, given the increased awareness of Native American issues in general, it’s a poor showing on Goodman Games’ part to leave this in.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/idFutlM.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="width: 525px" /> Chapter Ten: Judge’s RulesThe vast majority of this chapter covers specific Blaster patrons and their unique spells and uses of Invoke Patron. As I covered that in the prior post, this section will be quite short. As one can guess, it covers rules and advice relevant to the GM’s side of the screen. It begins with some general rules of GM etiquette such as a willingness to house rule, being neutral and not showing favoritism, and so on. We then cover how the different supernatural classes learn their spells, and also how they can learn new ones. In addition to automatically learning 1 new spell upon leveling up, blasters can learn a random spell by spending 1d3 weeks in practice. Gnomes can do the same by communing with nature (doesn’t specify a time period), arcane tricksters* do so via shady pacts with spirits and other underhand methods via 2d24 days, and half-elves require learning non-level up magic through tomes or studying under a mentor or patron in a month’s time. All spells outside of leveling up must be 1st level, so 2nd and higher level magic should be done via GM Fiat through difficult quests .*Presume that they mean elven tricksters.Messengers who request for Divine Aid are tapping into the most powerful and open-ended feature of their class. Due to this, deities require a specific request in return. A d10 table is given as a guideline for tasks and quests, such as the messenger receiving a dream to build an expensive temple to their patron deity in a remote area, or helping protect a pregnant woman from danger as her child is prophesied to be of great importance. We also have a table of sample effects that can be conjured based on the DC for Divine Aid, ranging from DC 10 to 20 but there’s no real upper limit for results above this beyond the GM’s judgment.Experience Points is a short section going over when the GM should reward them, and by how much. Unlike other OSR games, [Title] Crawl Classics games award experience points based upon the overall level of difficulty for an encounter subjective the party at the time. For example, a trap or monster might still be the same statwise, but can ibe much more difficult (and thus can grant more Experience) when put into encounters for a lower level party than a higher level one. An encounter can give anywhere from 0 to 4 experience points, with most granting 2. Encounters giving 1 experience are for relatively easy stuff that expend few resources, 2 are for typical encounters that shouldn’t result in great losses but still require the PCs to take them seriously, 3 are more difficult encounters that require good tactics and have a good chance of killing a character, and 4 are extremely dangerous encounters that can drain most of a party’s resource and have a fair chance of a TPK. Experience can be granted for non-combat activities, but there’s more leeway and they should be done for tasks in line with their class, like a messenger putting up a convincing speech to get more converts for their deity.The final section of this chapter covers the Luck ability, a repeating of its effects, when to call for a roll, and when to raise and lower it as a reward and penalty. Generally speaking, PCs who act against the tenets of their alignment risk permanent penalties to their Luck score, with the losses growing greater for repeat offenses. This represents the deities punishing them for going back on their ethos. Conversely, PCs who act in accordance with their alignment and honor their deity’s tenets when doing so would be inconvenient can be granted permanent bonuses as rewards.Additionally, PCs who burn through Luck should be faced with more misfortunes reflecting their “luck running out,” such as unintelligent monsters targeting PCs with the lowest Luck first if given an equal opportunity, and being targeted more by random traps. This is to reflect that Luck isn’t just a metacurrency for PCs to burn through without a care in the world.Thoughts: I like the idea of allowing characters to learn more spells via study and training, and limiting them to 1st level spells is a good balance in preventing them from doubling up on the most potent options consistently. I do feel that the table of sample Divine Aid results would be better off in the Messenger class description, as any group with a PC of that class would be consulting that page a lot. Similarly, I think that the Blaster patrons would’ve been better off in the Magic section. The Experience Point rewards are more or less a copy from Dungeon Crawl Classics, and while very different from other dungeon-crawling RPGs it’s very simple and straightforward which is in line with the [Title] Crawl Classics ethos. The suggestions on when to reward and penalize Luck may be controversial in that it more or less makes alignment a straightjacket, something quite unpopular at many gaming tables. While alignment in [Title] Crawl Classics is usually more of a cosmic allegiance than personality traits, Xcrawl Classics is different. Since Law and Chaos are no longer binary good/evil, this may cause more arguments at the table if a player feels that they were acting consistently Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic but the GM disagrees.Thoughts So Far: I outlined my thoughts in the individual chapters, but my general vibes are that Xcrawl’s worldbuilding is its weak point. That being said, I do like the “points of light” vibe of authoritarian urban sprawls separated by vast tracts of dangerous wilds, and while individually brief I do like how these chapters give ideas on quests outside of Xcrawl tournaments. Speaking of which, I love the chapter on the Xcrawl tournaments the most, and the explanations on the in-universe rules are easy to understand. I particularly love the idea of Dungeon Judges, in that they give each dungeon an explicit face and personality.Join us next time as we finish up this book with Getting Paid, Monsters, and Adventures!</blockquote>

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