Magic School Campaigns by System and Setting: Dungeon Crawl Classics

House of Time by flaviobolla of Deviantart

Dungeon Crawl Classics is one of the most popular OSR games currently on the market.  Not emulating any one particular Edition, DCC borrows elements from multiple games to create a series of themes drawing inspiration from 1970s Sword & Sorcery and lethal "Fantasy Fucking Vietnam" game-play.  One of its most notable features is the Level 0 Funnel, where each player runs 3-4 PCs little better than average folk unsuitable to adventuring such as bakers, tax collectors, and other medieval occupations.  Those who manage to survive the adventure and gain 10 experience points reach 1st level and selects a real Class; it is assumed that from then on the players will control one 1st level PC of their choice, the lucky survivors.

Like other retro-clones, the existing classes are strongly role-based.  The three magic-using classes are Cleric, Elf, and Wizard.  Unlike in other retro-clones, magic is less predictable, where the elf and wizard risks their soul and sanity and the cleric can earn disfavor from their deity.  Combine that with rather deadly critical hit and fumble charts, and you have a dungeon crawl full of random elements and unpredictable combat.

The Class of 969: the School-based Funnel

So, how can we adapt a magic school campaign to Dungeon Crawl Classics?  Well, notice for one how a lot of Level 0 parties are quite large: 12-20 PCs to be weeded down to a pack of grim survivors.  That's a healthy-sized student body for a typical classroom, right?  So instead of villagers of differing occupations banding together, the PCs are all fellow classmates of differing magical traditions banding together to face some impending threat coming to their school!

The school is home to a lot of strange goings-on, but the painstaking discipline of senior staff and daily training imparted to the students keeps most magical disasters from spiraling out of control.  But something terrible happened, and now the class finds themselves in peril!  Perhaps the academy's under attack by an invading army seeking its wealth and secrets; maybe one of the students or teachers turned traitor and summoned a horde of demons past the protective wards; or maybe a civil war erupts among the magical factions as one side takes the initiative and starts killing everyone in the school.

There might not even be a group threatening the academy's stability.  Perhaps the dangers of magic are too great to let anyone but the most skilled keep, and the PCs are sent into a dungeon of trials.  Those who make it to the end alive and with their sanity intact are accepted as full mages and taught the inner mysteries of sorcery.

Larius Firetongue's School for Sorcery: Further Adventure as Level 1 Mages

They got through the funnel, reached first level, and now have real magical power at their fingertips.  What then?  Well for one, this game isn't called Dungeon Crawl Classics for nothing!  You need weirdness and adventure!  Forgotten crypts to climb through, rituals to perform, planar gates to close before the Purple Ooze seeps through and engulfs the entire kingdom!

The Megadungeon: Even senior mages whose minds are battered and broken from contact with otherworldly powers know better than to set up a magic school in any podunk town.  Location is key, it has to be close to a source of eldritch power to properly harmonize the supernatural energies so that when the stars align and-yadda yadda yadda, it's a bunch of wizardly gobbledygook.  What matters is that the school's been built on top of, nearby, or even inside of some strange, labyrinthine place.  This dungeon is responsible for not just the strange goings-on in the land, or the monster of the week bursting forth to menace the school and the nearby peasant village; its foundations hold the key artifacts, spell tomes, and ritual components so necessary for the mages to further their studies into that which can never be truly known.  In order to advance their own power, they must delve into this strange land where civilization ends and the laws of the world do not apply.

It might seem negligent, cruel even, to allow young men and women barely old enough to learn a trade into such a dangerous dungeon.  But the truth of the matter is that they can't rely on anyone else: the teachers have their hands full keeping order among the factions and holding the wards together so the school doesn't cave in on itself in a magical conflagration.  The witch-hunting Knights of Magus, tasked with cutting down any student or teacher who becomes 'too far gone,' see little need in going on dangerous adventures and potentially helping the mages unlock some eldritch abomination upon this world.  The peasants in the nearby village are even more out of their league than you when it comes to dealing with monsters and magic, and those necromancer jerks in the school's basement are probably digging a tunnel straight into the megadungeon and by Sezrekan are you going to let them snatch up all the good stuff!

Careful now, you don't want to end up vaporized! In spite of their best efforts at security, magic is an inherently unstable art.  Death, dismemberment, and insanity are accepted casualties of learning at the school.  It's sad when a student dies or vanishes to the realms between planes, and the mages do hold funerary rites in the ever-increasing cemetery, but it happens often enough that nobody is truly surprised when poor Achebe is stricken with permanent blindness by failing to follow the ritual's instructions, or when Esmerelda turns into a mute snake-woman after spending too much time in the Reptilium.

For this reason it's not out of the blue to suddenly drop a dangerous random encounter within the school grounds.  The PCs might flee, try to unite with fellow students and staff, or even be forced to handle it themselves.  As the DM, take care not to make the danger constant, but do it often enough when the PCs are treating the school as a safe haven too much to remind them that nothing is truly safe when magic is involved.

In a DCC magic school, even middling apprentices and senior staff members bear some kind of physical ailment, deformity, or personality tick.  Feel free to take examples and inspiration from the Corruption section (page 116) of the main rulebook.  For further inspiration, I made a table here:

Roll	Ailment/Behavior
1	Mage has a prosthetic hook hand
2	Mage’s eyes lack irises, are milky pools of white
3	Mage is forming gill slits on neck
4	Mage speaks backwards
5	Mage’s skin is transparent
6	Mage’s flesh, and room has runes carved into it
7	Mage is severely underweight, has to be reminded to eat to survive
8	Mage writes everything in their own blood
9	Mage experiences no emotions, speaks in monotone voice
10	Mage talks to objects as though they’re real people
11	Mage’s skin exudes slimy sweat
12	Mage’s bones are like rubber, body is super-bendable
13	Mage attracts a flock of birds whenever they go outside
14	Mage wears eyepatch, covered eye offers maddening glimpses to those who stare into it
15	Mage wakes up every day with no memories older than 24 hours, still accumulates spell knowledge
16	Mage is living on borrowed time, will drop dead with no explanation in 1d4 months
17	Mage is colorblind
18	Mage collects dead insects
19	Mage refuses to cast any spells for any reason
20	Mage gnaws on their hand, is bruised with teeth marks

Embrace the Zany: Whereas many fantasy RPGs and retro-clones are tightly-defined with genre-appropriate ideas and canon, this is not the case for Dungeon Crawl Classics.  While there's plenty of room for iconic traditional fantasy, there is no shortage of strangeness which would not have a place in more tightly-defined games.  One game session the PC might be infiltrating the dark tower of school's bone-clad necromancers to stop a dangerous ritual.  The next session a meteor from space might crash near the village, from which emerges Rotol the Conqueror, Extra-Dimensional Alien Overlord who must feed on the brain matter of sapient humans to grow to full power.  The emotionless teenage girl who does nothing but dutifully study might actually be a disguised golem, and ends up revealing her super-strength once she throws the class bully across the lake!

Combine what your players know and take for granted in the fantasy and sword & sorcery genre, lay it over the setting in appropriate parts, then scatter some stuff which goes beyond their expectations.  This not only keeps a sense of wonder and mystery in the game, it applies for a nice variance between adventures.

New Apprentice-Based Occupations!

In core Dungeon Crawl Classics, there's not much in the way of suitably supernatural occupations. Astrologer, Fortune-Teller, Shaman, and Wizard's Apprentice are about it.  More than a few standard ones might be offbeat or unsuitable for a magic school-based campaign, so I decided to make a new 1d100 table!  Below is detailed a variety of disciplines and traditions of magic; as 0-level PCs, they do not know any spells (yet) so feel free to theorize as to what some of the more obscure titles might signify.  What is a Claw of Chaos, and why does that PC wield such a mean-looking dagger?  It depends on your campaign, and what the player or GM makes sense of it!

Table: Magic Academy Apprenticeships

Roll	Apprenticeship	Trained Weapon	Trade Goods
1-2	Abjurer	Club	Shield
3-5	Alchemist	Staff	Oil, 1 flask
6-7	Amulet Maker	Hammer (as club)	Warding amulet (non-magical)
8-10	Astrologer	Dagger	Spyglass
11-12	Bard	Short Sword	Musical Instrument
13-14	Blood Mage	Dagger	Vial full of own blood
15-16	Celestial Devotee	Staff	Holy water, 1 vial
17-19	Claw of Chaos	Kukri (as dagger)	Blasphemous Tome
20-22	Curse Speaker	Hammer and Chisel (as club)	Runic plate with names of hated enemies
23-25	Demonologist	Hand Axe	Robes with 5-pointed star on back
26-27	Diviner	Dagger	Crystal Ball (non-magical)
28-29	Earthspeaker	Mace	Pouch of blessed soil
30-32	Eldritch Historian	Quill (treat as dart)	Book of Strange Lore
33-34	Elven Bladecaster	Longsword	Leather Armor
35-36	Elven Greenbond	Club	Clothes made of interweaving leaves
37-38	Elven Star Mage	Staff	Star-shaped necklace worth 1 gp
39-40	Enchanter/Enchantress	Dagger	Perfume
41-43	Fortune-Teller	Dagger	Tarot Deck
44-46	Herbalist	Club	Herbs, 1 lb.
47-49	Illusionist	Sling	Hallucinogenic herbs
50-51	Iron Magus	Iron Bar (as club)	Iron spike
52-53	Maintainer of Balance	Staff	Set of weighted scales
54-56	Naturalist	Sling	Herbs, 1 lb.
57-59	Necromancer	Shovel (as staff)	Bone meal
60-61	Pyromancer	Dagger	Flint & Steel
62-64	Shadowcaster	Garrote	Black hooded cloak
65-66	Spell Dancer	Dart	Performer’s Outfit
67-68	Spirit Keeper	Staff	Ouija board
69-71	Summoner	Spear	Pouch of powdered silver (5 gp worth)
72-73	Sword of Law	Longsword	Shield
74-75	Tattooed Mage	Needle (as dart)	Ink
76-78	Temple Ritualist	Club	Religious Text
79-81	Transmuter	Spear	Vial of unknown substance
82-83	Truenamer	Mace	Dictionary
84-86	Universalist Mage	Spear	Bag of multi-colored pebbles
87-89	Warlock	Shortbow	Human skull
90-91	Warmage	Battleaxe	Vest with royal insignia
92-93	Wearer of Silver	Short Sword	Silver necklace worth 10 gp
94-95	Wild Mage	Flail	Multi-colored string of cloth
96-97	Windshaper	Blowgun	Weathervane
98-00	Witch-hunter	Short Sword	Chain, 10’

Fantasy Novel Review: A Wizard of Earthsea

I had the pleasure of finishing this book today, and sought to share my thoughts here on the blog.  Having picked it up at the behest of many rave reviews and seeing it consistently ranked among the best fantasy novels, I picked it up and was not disappointed.  Although written for young adults and shorter than many of its counterparts in today's market (my copy had a modest 224 pages), it is a worthy read that older folks will find entertaining as well.

The book tells the tale of Ged, a budding mage living in the pastoral island of Gont.  Unlike most of the other children he found that he knew special words which could call animals to him; his aunt, recognizing this as the signs of magic, took him on as an apprentice.  Ged, who was a reckless youth who only saw the powers such talents could bring, was hungry to learn more with little thought to the consequences of its misuse.  When he uses his abilities to defend his village from foreign raiders and is picked up by a more experienced wizard named Ogion, this only bolsters his ego.  When his training ends with him and he's pointed to a magic school at the island of Roke, Ged quickly becomes a favored apprentice who takes to spells of all kinds with ease.

Ged starts out as more of an anti-hero, unlike many typical fantasy protagonists.  He hungers for power, and in spite of Ogion's warnings against delving into magic beyond his grasp, Ged does not take this lesson to heart.  This flaw proves fatal when at Roke he attempts to summon the spirits of the dead to prove a point to a hated rival at school that he's a truly skilled mage.  He is only partly successful, for he does summon a spirit, but in that line between the mortal and afterlife something...else, a nameless shadow from an unknown realm, crawls into the physical world and nearly kills Ged before the archmages of Roke banish it.

The shadow's attack has far-reaching consequences throughout the story.  Ged is left in a near-comatose state for weeks, and the shadow monster is loose in the world and will bring harm to others.  When he finally recovers, Ged finds that even his classmates have surpassed him in their studies, and when he leaves Roke at finds that the shadow is stalking him across land and sea.

The rest of the story has Ged sailing about the region of Earthsea, a chain of islands of diverse climates and peoples.  During his travels he outwits hungry dragons, escapes the clutches of an imprisoned entity beneath a warded stone, and even visits the forlorn villages at the tiny isles before world's end.  We learn more of Earthsea through his travels, although it does not approach the fastidious world-building common to other fantasy novels.  We hear brief mentions of things like the Western Reaches, "where dragons are as common as mice," or the militaristic kingdoms of the Kargs, but mostly in the context of casual conversations or mentions in regards to other matters.  This gives the sense of a deep and vibrant world without the story losing itself in pages of exposition.

Earthsea is in many ways a coming of age story, of a talented yet flawed young man who strives to undo the harm his arrogance has wrought.  The unconventional world and its focus on island travel and civilizations is an interesting touch fantasy novels need more of, and the magic system's focus on every object and being having a true name is neatly explored yet remains consistent throughout the story without losing its wondrous feeling.

A Wizard of Earthsea is not just a good book, it was a trendsetter for many things in the fantasy genre which were novel back in 1968.  It introduced the concept of a magic school three decades before Harry Potter.  It had a wizard protagonist when traditionally the hero was a noble swordsman. And in an era during the final years of the Civil Rights Movement, where it was assumed (if not mandated by certain publishers, notably the Comics Code Authority) that most characters were white-skinned, Le Guin chose to make Ged, as well as the majority of Earthsea's inhabitants, dark-skinned.  This final element is a literary example which is still very rare in the fantasy genre today (a trend I hope falls by the wayside in favor of better representation and more varied worlds).

Final Verdict: 5 out of 5 stars.  The story never once got boring for me, and I recommend it to anyone who's even a casual fan of fantasy novels.

A Wizard of Earthsea can be bought on Amazon.

Ursula K. Le Guin's website.

Fantasy Counterpart Cultures in D&D: Mythic Greece

Acropolis of Athens by Leo von Klenze

Note: I am neither an historian nor an anthropologist.  My understanding of ancient Greece does not approach the scholarly level; this post is instead brainstorming what a D&D setting emulating this culture and era would be like.

A few weeks ago on the Wednesday livechat on Tenkar's Tavern, I broached the subject of deriving inspiration from eras and settings aside from the standard pseudo-Medieval Tolkienish mode.  I figured that the cultures and myths of ancient Greece had great potential, in no small part due to the presence of several iconic monsters as well as the emphasis on exploration, divine meddling, and the exploits of legendary heroes.  The tales of Jason and the Golden Fleece are not unlike a party of adventurers embarking on a quest to find a unique treasure.  Odysseus' journey back home is full of strange lands teeming with dangerous hazards and monsters standing between him and his beloved family back in Ithaca.

The following ideas and suggestions below are designed as a springboard of ideas for gamers seeking to make a fantasy counterpart ancient Greece in their original setting rather than "ancient Greece, but with dragons and magic-users."  This of how Al-Qadim is a fantastic setting counterpart of ancient Arabia, or how Spears of the Dawn is an original setting borrowing elements from various medieval African nations.

Genuine Polytheism

Ancient Grece by raging-akujiki of deviantart

In traditional D&D, there are multiple gods and goddesses with dominion over various aspects of reality.  Most people are free to worship multiple deities, but clerics are generally restricted to the worship of one whether in terms of general setting expectations or grounded in the game mechanics.  There's also the fact that clerics had to closely match their deity's moral ideology in order to gain spells from them.  In this sense, most D&D clerics are monolatrists, who recognize the existence of multiple deities but only choose to worship one.

In a fantasy counterpart Greek game, clerics, druids, and religious folk in general would make prayers and sacrifices to deities based upon the circumstances of the time.  A cleric invoking a healing spell might be calling upon the god of healing and mercy, while the province of battle-spells such as spiritual weapon or shield of faith might fall under the war god's dominion.  In Labyrinth Lord and most OSR games, clerics are unrestricted magic-wise with the exception of spells opposing their alignment, while in Pathfinder one's patron deity determines your domains and code of conduct.

For Pathfinder, there are several alternatives for a genuinely polytheist cleric.  The 3.0 sourcebook Deities & Demigods allowed someone to worship the pantheon as a whole, picking two domains of their choice.  The Midgard Campaign Setting allowed clerics to cycle through deities of their pantheon on a 2-week basis, switching out codes of conducts and domains for the particular god or goddess they were closest to at the time.  For OSR games, it might be a good thematic choice for clerics to be able to use edged weapons (the blunt-only restriction comes from a Christian prohibition on priests from shedding blood).

The gods and goddesses of a fantasy counterpart Greek game will be largely amoral beings; they are fallible like mortals and prone to vice.  Like the Judgment of Paris, a notable or influential mortal who helps or favors one deity over another might invoke the latter's petty wrath.  Worshipers and divine spellcasters might recognize that their deities might be cruel at times, but they are responsible for the maintenance of reality and can be merciful and generous to those who are loyal.  For this reason, it might be best to separate deities from the alignment system and allow virtuous and vile folk alike to receive their aid (and their wrath).

An important thing to consider is that unless you want a "rage against the heavens" game, you should downplay some of the more evil and wicked aspects of deities ancient Greek deities.  Not just to discourage PCs from seeking their aid, but to also avoid the GM coming off as a bully with nigh-invincible NPCs who will punish you irregardless or making them irredeemable to the point that the players don't want to play in the setting.  In Greek mythology, Zeus was a serial rapist and Aphrodite made a mortal woman's life hell for simply being born the most beautiful woman in the land (a circumstance of birth no fault of her own).  With the exception of deities you wish to be blatantly antagonistic and evil, it might be best to have gods to mostly visit their wrath on more legitimate targets, such as mortals who openly curse their names, those who try to misuse their divine gifts, and those who steal from sacred sites and temples.

Another way to grant one's setting a more authentic vibe is the introduction of Mystery Cults.  For those not satisfied with the dominant  culture's pantheon, there are secret societies who only revealed their true beliefs and rites to a select few initiates.  They may be dedicated to the worship of wicked and foul beings who promise power and privilege in the afterlife in exchange for inflicting misery on others; they might practice beliefs considered heretical by the orthodox temples, or members of a persecuted faith, social class, or culture who wish to find liberation or continue their teachings in secret; or they might be a front for secret bacchanal gatherings of excess and behavior frowned upon by polite society.

The City-State

Ancient Greek Polis by Tripio of deviantart

Even though people may belong to a greater region with a shared language and culture, ancient Greece saw the rise of the polis, or city-state, as the dominant political power.  There were about a hundred poleis (plural form of polis) and more or less self-governing for much of their history.  Due to the nation's mountainous terrain, there was not as much physical contact between the city-states.  This resulted in the formation of unique variations on dialects and cultural identities.  Additionally, certain deities were strongly associated with particular city-states, most notably Athens and Athena.

In a fantasy counterpart Greek setting, the nation as it exists might be understood more as a sense of a shared cultural identity of one people holding the same popular religion and language, but little in the way of an official body of government.  People are more likely to identify primarily with the polis or region they were brought up in, and territorial expansions by neighbors would be fought back as fiercely as if it was an invading army from a foreign culture.

Using the advantages of themed cities and the impossibilities of a fantasy world, making each polis unique can really add to the sense of setting flair and why the realm is far from unified.  One polis might be a militaristic fortress where every citizen is trained in the use of weapons; another might have installed the radical concept of democracy after the overthrow of a corrupt autocracy; another might be dominated by a non-human culture such as centaurs or merfolk; and another might be a hidden city, protected by a conclave of illusionists working together to generate the image of ruined streets and titanic beasts to ward off invaders and explorers!

Travel between poleis would be difficult, in no small part due to the many mountainous valleys and island chains.  While small villages and folk living outside the great cities definitely exist, the seat of government would most undoubtedly exist within the confines of urban centers.

High and Low Magic

The Goddess Hecate by azurylipfe of deviantart

Unlike in medieval Europe, magic and religion were not regarded as entirely separate things.  Hecate was the patron goddess of magic, and myths were replete with sorceresses such as Circe and magical items such as a bag holding the four winds inside its skin.  The ancient Greeks regarded magic as a means and end to power, and its practice tended to be a more private affair in comparison to the divine rituals and sacrifices meant to give the gods their due.

In a fantasy counterpart Greek game, magic would be viewed as an amoral force (neither good nor evil), a way of finding out the secrets of the world to gain power over reality and make the forces of nature do one's bidding.  Some common magic items might include curse tablets, written inscriptions and condemnations asking the gods to do harm to one's enemies.  Amulets are created, bought, and sold to guard against such curses as well as the evil eye; as a result, they are one of the most widespread forms of magic items.  The material and otherworldly forces are connected, and spells require rites and formula to perform much like material components.  Magic which is considered exalted or closer to the gods is known as theurgy (high magic); practitioners of this art look down on those who use magic in a short-sighted, fraudulent and/or superstitious way (goetic, or low magic).

Game-wise, the difference between high and low magic is not in the classes themselves but rather the kind of spells cast.  Harmful and illusion-based magic would be regarded as 'low magic,' while divination would be seen as 'high magic' regardless of whether it comes from a cleric or magic-user.  Illusionists and magic-users might alternately be pious (recognizing the power deities grant to reality) and irreligious (only caring about their granted powers for personal ends).

Mythological Races

Half-Medusa Warrior by Brian Brinlee

Although dwarves, elves, and halflings are a classic D&D staple, there exists iconic Greek monsters with humanoid features such as the centaur, cyclops, gorgon, harpy, minotaur, and satyr.  Although several of them traditionally existed as creatures hostile to humanity or possess features unbalanced for gameplay purposes, the original dwarves and elves also had super-powerful abilities and were distrustful of mortals as well.  It can be a fun touch to not only have societies and tribes of mythological humanoids for the party to meet during their adventures, but to play as them too!  As detailed below under "Shameless Plugs," there's quite a bit of existing material for monster PCs of Pathfinder and OSR retroclones out there already.  But for this part, we can focus on how said creatures would fit into a fantasy counterpart Greek game.

Centaurs are forest-dwelling hedonists who are also strong warriors.  Their relationship with humanity would be mixed; on the one hand, they scoff at the clustered city-states of lifeless stone and human culture's emphasis on moderation (an important virtue in ancient Greek society).  On the other hand, they appreciate the fine wine, bronze and iron weapons, and other valuable materials said humans can give them in trade.  Centaur settlements would be mobile, going from forest grove to valley in semi-nomadic patterns when one place runs low on resources.

Cyclopes are a primordial race of island-dwelling giants with strong ties to the god of the sea.  They are incredibly skilled artisans and the greatest among their numbers once forged thunderbolts for the sky god to use as weapons.  Cyclopes are staunch defenders of their islands from foreign ships, and as such are regarded as violent, savage brutes by humans and other seafaring races.  Some tribes live deep underground, helping direct lava flows to help the god of the forge build impressive cities which result in volcanic eruptions above-ground.

Dryads, Faun, Nymphs, and Satyrs are benevolent nature spirits tied to a specific piece of land.  Many humans and mortals worship them as deities, and while far below the power level of the pantheon, they are capable as a group of granting good fortune and divine spells to their worshipers.  They often possess forms similar to humans, but with noticeable plant or animal features.  They might be either helpful or hostile to mortal travelers depending on how they treat the surrounding environment.

Gorgons are transformed initiates belonging to serpent cults.  They possess great powers, able to use their legendary gaze to turn their enemies to stone or grant supernatural insight to their allies.  Depending on the polis and the deities favored there, gorgons might either be feared yet revered religious figures responsible for leading rituals and festivals, or hated monsters believed to make pacts with forbidden powers.

Harpies are winged folk, most of them women, who are born as the result of a pregnant mother eating food grown in a witch's garden.  Although they tend to not have their own culture as a result of this, harpies' aerial talents allow them many opportunities to find others of their kind and move to more tolerant locales.  They flock to poleis which are centers of art and learning, for harpies have an uncanny gift for singing, persuasion, and theater.  Finally, they're highly sought-after as explorers and messengers, for the sea and mountainous terrain serves as minor impediments to those born with wings.

Minotaurs are believed to originate from what is now the labyrinthine ruins of an island-city. Very tall and possessed of a pair of bull-like horns, many wealthy families seek them as mercenaries and soldiers, an occupation the minotaurs are all too happy to accept.  They are also very cunning in skirmish warfare and possess an innate sense of direction, make it nearly impossible for them to get lost in terrain already traversed. Minotaur settlements tend to be virtual mazes with few if any landmarks, making it impractical to assault or occupy by foreign enemies.

Inspirational Material/Shameless Plugs

For Pathfinder and Labyrinth Lord (OSR) games, I wrote up products for versions of monsters playable from level 1, including centaurs, dryads, giants, harpies, and medusa.  In regards to other products, Barrel Rider Games has a few monster classes for Labyrinth Lord such as the Minotaur.  For Pathfinder, Rite Publishing has a Level 1-20 monster class for the same kind of monster.  Purple Duck Games' Legendary Races series includes a cyclops, harpy, and medusa.

Edit: My blog post got picked up by OSR Today (thanks for the mention, McCartan!), who recommended some more material for these kinds of games:

Many years ago, TSR released HR6: Age of Heroes Campaign Sourcebook [AL] for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition. There have been other published products that handled the setting, including Mythic Greece: The Age of Heroes [AL], which was published for Rolemaster Classic [AL] and Fantasy Hero [AL] many years ago. Although these books are old, they contain a lot of great information for those interested in running a campaign set in this particular setting. Of course, there’s also Mazes & Minotaurs, which is a complete game created around the setting which can be used for play as well.

Magic School Campaigns by System & Setting: Spears of the Dawn

Official Artwork by Luigi Castellani

In the venerable Three Lands, there are two kinds of magic.  The first kind is that of natural miracles, invoked by bardic loremasters known as griots and called upon by the spiritualist rites of the marabout.  There are many kinds of spirits, each controlling various aspects of reality, who can be petitioned by mortals to enact tasks on their behalf.  The art of the griot calls upon the existing social norms and customs of their culture, which are not empty rituals in this campaign setting.

The second kind of magic is known as ashe, having nothing to do with the gods, spirits, or society.  It is essential and fundamental to the make-up of the material world; ashe grants wetness to water, cunning to the wise, and heat to the fires among other things.  Those who can manipulate ashe are known as ngangas, a rare talent one can only attain through circumstances of birth rather than training and study.  Even though they're scorned in most lands, an untrained wielder of ashe can accidentally curse his or her fellow villagers, making it a necessity in most lands for local witches to train the sorcerer. This way, they can bestow their magic only on those in need of its protection and afflict the village's enemies with their powers.

The verdant southern nation of Lokossa treats the art of ashe differently; here the mages are the nobles, and claim that their powers are physical evidence of their right to rule.  In fact, the bloody rites of the Sorcerer-King and the ruling families are often all that prevents the monstrous Night Men from swarming the nation's cities and beyond.  Even commoner witches, griots, and marabout are not exempt from this, with the former being adopted into a family of high birth and the latter two inducted into one of many noble priestly societies

The Academy of Dankyira

In the village of Dankyira, a marvelous school of the same name stands.  For unknown reasons the people of this rather small village have a gift for producing folk talented in sorcery, enough that the royal Asona family could not continue the traditional master-apprentice role anymore.  To incorporate as many budding sorcerers as they can, Kusi Asona of the Red Blade traveled through the Five Kingdoms.  He bargained with the charms salesmen in the bustling marketplaces of Sokone, poured through the archives of the old imperial colleges of Nyala, listened at the feet of the olabuns of the Meru nomads, and even ventured into the dangerous Black Lands to the east.

Even for an esteemed nganga of noble ancestry, the mysteries of ashe and the ways and traditions of foreign sorcerers were too much for one soul to know, so he wrote down the most pertinent bits of lore and persuaded, charmed, and bargained with fellow mages to come to Lokossa with him.  In a mere five years the old abandoned shrine of Dankyira at the village's edge grew into a formidable center of learning.  Unbeknownst to all but Kusi and a trusted few, the shrine actually sits upon the ruins of an Eternal tombhouse, its hieroglyphs containing the blasphemous whispering of forbidden magic.  Sometimes an unknowing apprentice would feel the call below the earth, and venture into dark corners best left forgotten.

The academy's former inhabitants are far from the only dangers.  Enemies and rivals of the Asona family worry at the increased number of sorcerers (both nganga and marabout) being trained and inducted in Dankyira; the fact that a few such apprentices are from foreign lands only fuels rumors about the family hiring outside mercenaries for territorial expansions.  They petition the Ahonsu, the Sorcerer-King, to do something about this seeming threat.  For now Lokossa's ruler tolerates the Academy as it brings many ample bodies to the war lines holding back the Night Men.  And that's not counting the cliquish conflicts between Dankyira's students who are noble-born, those who were once commoners, and those completely foreign to Lokossa's lands.

Although Dankyira's academy focuses primarily on knowledge of magic, the Asona hierarchs are not above using the apprentices for their own ends.  As part of a 'course' to demonstrate their supernatural aptitude, a teacher might send off a few pupils to take care of a distant village's zombie problem to gain favors and 'gifts' from the chieftain.  Or they might be sent out into the bush to a rumored spot of great power so that they can harvest the arcane energies dwelling there.  Those who do well enough on tests might be summoned on an annual visit to the capital of Kaeati, where the masked faces of the Ahonsu's court silently watch and judge the "exemplary village mages" and the Asona family by extension.

Mechanical Considerations

Unlike many other retro-clones, three of the four classes in Spears of the Dawn possess spellcasting capability, even if many of the griot's songs are more the manifestation of worldly knowledge and skill than outright magic.  Only the Warrior class is the outlier, which actually can represent thieves and any adventurer who relies upon their own wits and skill instead of external magics.  Without a Warrior, the party will not have the physical staying power or diverse skill-set possessed by the class (Athletics, Stealth, and Tactics are class skills only for the Warrior).  However, certain choices and builds can make up for this.  The War sphere of the marabout can grant access to some good offensive magic when in the thick of combat; the Passion sphere can also make for a good party face if nobody's playing a griot.  All three of the classes have the Scholar skill, while the griot's "remembering" songs can reveal important lore about the world.  Certain PC origins can bolster non-class skills, and when taken in conjunction with the "any one skill" bonus skill for each class can help save some skill points down the line.

It's also inevitable that nganga PCs will share learned spells with each other, making them otherwise more versatile and thus powerful than in other kinds of campaigns.  This should not be discouraged, primarily due to the long learning time (one week per spell level), and for the difficulties inherent in gaining enough favor and trust to learn higher arts from the teachers.

Even though they are teachers, the seniors at Dankyira Academy are still first and foremost interested in making sure that their pupils will not turn against them in the future, and many favors, chores, ethics and loyalty tests, and giving of occult connections (fingernails clipping, lock of hair, etc) are required before the teaching of a new spell can begin.  PC students with a knack for getting into mischief or disagreeing with a teacher too much might find their progress halted, or sent on a dangerous quest in the hopes of them not coming back.  On the other hand, Dankyira does its best to foster a sense of belonging in the students who act admirably, granting them food and shelter at the least and participation in local ceremonies and holidays.  This works particularly well on foreign ngangas, who would otherwise be pushed to the outlying of society, visited rarely except for when the community needs their powers to lift a curse or lift a sickness.

Due to Spears of the Dawn being a sandbox game, it's understandable that a location-centric school campaign under strict tutors might be initially hard to accept adjustment-wise.  Instead of treating the school like a prison and forcing them to stay, give the PCs incentives to stay.  It is a pre-eminent center of learning the Three Lands, and they can gradually build a network of sympathetic allies among the teachers and student body who will mostly treat them well if they don't act like jerks.  Additionally, allow the PCs the opportunity to perform adventures beyond the village and academy like in the aforementioned 'tests' listed above.

Instead of adhering to a main plotline or quest, write up a few sidequest ideas to toss as adventure hooks to the PCs and let them handle the tasks in any order they wish, picking and choosing what interests them.  Be sure to play upon their existing interests and relationships to spur their motivation, and if all else fails you can always have a good old-fashioned dungeon crawl in the Eternal catacombs beneath the school!

And should the PCs wish to end their time at the Academy and head off into the wider world in search of adventure and more arcane power, let them!  The Asona family might not be very happy, and might send agents to 'encourage' them to return, but that can be a great adventure seed in an of itself.  At this point the campaign becomes more like a typical Spears of the Dawn game, but instead of belonging to an order of folk heroes and undead-slayers they're a party of fresh-faced yet formidable mages traveling the land.

Quasar Knight Enterprises Week-long Valentine's Day Sale

Hello folks.  Ever since early June I cast my hand into the self-publishing business.  The wide selection of material in both Pathfinder and OSR communities meant that a lot of material had been covered, forcing me to find areas which received little coverage or appreciation in the respective games as well as ones which aligned with my own interests.  The Abstract Thief was my first book, a playable mage-thief straight from level one with no multi-classing necessary; Nice Things for Fighters was an attempt to address the martial-caster imbalance, while Playable Monsters and Old School Monster Classes granted folk the ability to play as centaurs, gnolls, and other classic fantasy staples for Pathfinder and Labyrinth Lord respectively.

So for February 12th to the 19th, I'm pricing my entire catalog at 50% off on both Drive-Thru RPG and RPGNow.  Five of my books are Pathfinder-oriented, although my latest (Old School Monster Classes) should be of particular interest to fans of old-school Editions and retroclones.

If you enjoyed any of my work, or have problems processing an order, feel free to contact me on blogspot, Google Plus, Twitter, or my business e-mail (quasarknight at gmaildotcom).  I hope that my work brings joy and inspiration to your gaming table, and to continue doing so as I write more role-playing books down the line.

Magic School Campaigns by System & Setting: Lamentations of the Flame Princess

Batman: Arkham City Concept Art

Although a lot of fantasy RPGs have similar themes and tropes across the board, several of the more high-profile retroclones emulate more than straight mechanics of earlier Editions. Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Spears of the Dawn, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, and Dungeon Crawl Classics among others are inspired by unorthodox styles.  For this new series I plan on covering each of these RPGs (and potentially others), discussing how the game lends itself to a magic school campaign.

Lamentations of the Flame Princess is a Basic D&D (Moldvay B/X) retroclone with several notable changes to make it more in line with a weird fantasy vibe.  Dungeons are truly horrific places full of things which shouldn't be.  Adventurers are social outcasts who tend to be either forced out of civilized society, or have nothing left to lose to take up such a suicidal occupation.  Inscrutable cosmic forces of Law and Chaos guide the hands of spellcasters, with both sides being just as inimical to mortal life and welfare.  While it is true that Clerics gain their spells through prayer and formal rituals, there is no concrete proof that the deities they serve are what they appear to be or if they even exist.  The craft of the Magic-User is an art, not a science, the arcane notations within spellbooks meant to trigger a dream-state so that the mortal mind can be temporarily altered to accept the spell knowledge.  Naturally, weird fantasy magic academies are going to carry about an air of the macabre.

Clerical Academies

If the school caters to Clerics, it will not be the typical bright and holy shrine of shining goodness: even if their cause is just, the trials necessary to make a proper Cleric are harrowing and many initiates who fail end up broken, harrowed shells of their former selves.  This is accepted as the price to pay, whether the faith is on a war footing with evil powers or the church serves a vengeful god who tolerates no signs of weakness.  Old priests, broken and scarred by their encounters with the darkness, tell harrowing tales of what awaits beyond the confines of civilization and the light of Law to a classroom of junior witch-hunters.  Druidic cultists gather in the rootways and tunnels of giant seed-monoliths; there they commune with the Horned God and breed strange amalgamations of nature and other divine 'gifts.'  Warrior-monks living in sequestered communes stand stalwart over the prisons of sleeping abominations, their children and children's children passing on the secret blessings so vital to maintaining the wards which trap the beasts.

Wizarding Academies

In fitting with their connection to Chaos, schools for Magic-Users are less scholarly and ritualistic than their divine counterparts.  The tomes of arcane knowledge read less like an academic treatise and more like drug-induced, stream of consciousness writings put down by spellcasters trying to make sense of phenomena they can never truly understand.  Spells are not divided into categorical sub-groups of alteration, divination, and the like.  Spells by their very nature are the anti-thesis of worldly knowledge.

Schools of sorcery are scorned by most civilized realms; some of them are not schools so much as hidden cabals masquerading among a more mundane college.  They might be cloistered pseudo-prisons in the ghettos of a vilified ethnic group, the mages' threats of terrible magic the only thing holding the angry mobs and crusading knights at bay.  They might operate openly in cities secretly ruled by inhuman abominations beyond the stars, who force magically gifted children into their cyclopean cavern-cities for their own nefarious purposes.

Mechanical Considerations

If the Referee allows for all character classes in a Weird Fantasy school setting, then no further adjustments should be made.  The noncasting classes then serve as an auxiliary role to the true spellcasters of the academy.  Dwarves and fighters might be part of a vigilant knightly order tasked with the grim job of slaying any student who gets corrupted by fell powers, and possibly to defend their charges from rogue summoned entities.  Halflings might be servants and staff who help with the daily chores and upkeep of the school, while specialists might round out the more practical teaching positions which supplement the magical arts.

But if the Referee seeks an all-caster party, whether a mixed group of clerics, elves, or magic-users (or an academy with only one type of class) several factors must be considered.  Unlike other campaigns for Lamentations of the Flame Princess, the party will not have access to the martial mastery of a Fighter or the diverse skill-set of a Specialist.  This is understandable to a point, as in a typical LotFP campaign fights are dangerous, bloody affairs to be avoided if at all possible.

For ability scores, I recommend doing the 3d6 method, with the exception of the abilities of primary importance to said class (Intelligence for Elves and Magic-Users, Wisdom for Clerics), in which case 2d6+6 is rolled for said ability score.  That way it's highly likely that the PC will end up with at least passable expertise in spellcraft.

On the fighting front, elves and magic-users gain access to some potent offensive spells such as Magic Missile, Sleep, and maybe even Summon!  The possibilities at higher levels only increase.  Clerics are not very good offensively, but the Bless spell can be allocated for to-hit rolls, and they're very adept at fighting undead.

For skills, I recommend taking inspiration from the demi-human classes and allowing each PC to have a 2 in 6 rating in a single skill of their choice.  This rating increases by 1 at 4th level and every 3 levels thereafter (to a maximum of 6 in 6 rating at 13th level).  The chosen skill must be explained as being somehow related to the apprentice mages' arcane studies, the weirder the better.  Architecture might be gained through dreaming visions of five-dimensional realms beyond space and time; Bushcraft might be gained via pacts with primordial entities sleeping beneath the earth; Stealth might be earned when the mage gives away his true name, family ties, and eventually all aspects of his identity to truly be forgotten and master the arts of illusion.

For experience, the Referee might substitute treasures for supernatural knowledge with an arbitrary silver piece value (to convert to experience points).  Perhaps the party needs to obtain the eggs from the primordial ooze-ponds to serve as a material component for a ritual.  In order to complete the Trial of Thorns beneath the Witch-hunter's academy, the party might first need to prove their mettle to the school's quartermaster who supplies apprentices with silver weapons and holy water.  The PCs do not quest for the crude pleasures of wealth, but for the strange and macabre artifacts so necessary to further their own power.

In conclusion, a weird fantasy school campaign should focus less on the wonders of magic and more of the dreadful fear of what it does to people.  Magic grants power, but it does not grant freedom.  Schools are claustrophobic prisons of forsaken men and women who can never go back to their old lives.  And nobody, not even the teachers, can be trusted to look after your welfare.

Adventures in the Afterlife

Demon's War by Fpeniche of Deviantart

Over on the Dungeon Crawl Classics Google Plus community, there's been discussion about Total Party Kills.  Quite often they're a drain on player enthusiasm and more often than not lead to the end of a campaign. James Spahn (the original poster) mentioned that he found that this wasn't the case when playing Dungeon Crawl Classics, and wanted to see if this sentiment was common among other players as well. Although I have yet to play it, I have read the RPG and believe that one of its advantages is the player buy-in of the game's lethality. Not only do PCs start as ordinary level 0 folk, but each player has multiple PCs to control during the first session. Those who manage to survive the "Level 0 Funnel" gain their 1st level in one of the classes and become bonafide adventurers! But beyond that, as I mentioned in the G+ thread, the game designers discussed a rather pertinent piece of information for a more simplified experience point system to ease the burden of book-keeping. The more likely an RPG is to be rules-heavy, or the more thought and detail required in character creation and advancement, the more emotionally draining it will be when the entire party is wiped out.

On that note, I think that there's some massive potential to be had not just in DCC, but in many D&D settings which have extraplanar realms. Greyhawk and Planescape's Great Wheel*, Golarion's Great Beyond, and Forgotten Realm's World Tree among others have a diverse assortment of planes housing the dearly departed souls of former mortals. Many of these realms, especially the Lower Planes, are dangerous places full of adventure and intrigue. In this case, death is not the final frontier, but one step along a much greater journey.  Below are a series of plot hooks to generate in the case of a total party kill, as the final moments of life escape the party's last survivor.

Your PCs might be dead, but the adventure lives on!

Afterlife Plot Hooks: War World

As the PCs come to after their last defeat, they find themselves on a jutting cliff face looking over a foreign land.  It is a bleak, barren realm of red sky and black earth; figures in the distance down in the lowlands make war, crashing against each other in waves of man and monster, steel and spell.

Behind the PCs sits a massive armored entity sitting on a diamond throne, his shadow casting a long and powerful slice of darkness across the land.  He is the God of War, and has been watching their progress in the mortal world for some time now.  Unwilling to let such talented souls go to waste, he wishes to enlist their help in infiltrating the mobile fortress of Balisphor the Burning.  The war-god's most talented devotees have yet to make progress against the keep's seemingly impenetrable defenses.  To sweeten the deal, he not only offers to allow the PCs a portion of the spoils attained during the assault, but will offer them the chance either to work for him long-term, grant them the ability to return to life once more, or release them to their proper afterlife dependent on their true patron deity and/or alignment.

Afterlife Plot Hooks: The Prison Plane

The plane of Carceri is ruled by the demodands, its entire purpose to hold the most dangerous souls of the Multiverse.  Whatever powerful entity the PCs were up against uses magic to transfer their souls to this hellish realm.  The party wake up in a forlorn town surrounded by scorching hot badlands, acidic seas, impossibly high mountains, or other suitably supernatural prison environment.  Demodands act as the wardens and keep the populace desperate, starving, and at each other's throats so as to better control them.  However, there is a subtle underground movement of resistance by anarchists plotting an uprising as part of a larger plot to overthrow the entire planar hierarchy.  The PCs might be able to use the rebels' schemes to gain equipment and access to the few hidden areas the demodands cannot find by scrying.

Afterlife Plot Hooks: The Call of Sorcery

The party dies, their souls venturing to the realms beyond the world of flesh and blood.  They remain there for an unknown period of time, serving their deities as spiritual heralds or remaining behind in the waking world as ghostly apparitions.  A great evil threatens the land, and a spirit-medium concocts a ritual to summon the spirits of the honored dead.  From planes far and wide the PCs come to this focal point, reunited for the first time in years. They are back on the Material Plane, but as revenants neither living nor dead.

The spiritualist is happy to see them and informs them of dire news, and how he needs their help in thwarting a foul plot.  They are free to accept or decline, but the spiritualist mentions that in order for a revenant to stay on a long-term basis they'll need the aid of people skilled in spirit-calling.  Not just spells, but esoteric material components and even proper rituals are required to keep their souls bound to this world beyond a few months.  Perfect opportunity for further plot hooks and quest rewards!

Afterlife Plot Hooks: Reincarnation

Sometimes spirits do not leave this world, even those who do not become undead.  Some have their essences melded with the surrounding land or even sent back to the Material Plane by their patron deities in a new form.  The PCs come back to life around the same time, but things are...different.  They might find themselves among the ranks of the goblins or orcs who killed them in the caverns, treated as though they lived there their whole lives among them.  Those with a connection to the land might have their souls inhabit a body made of wood and rock, a walking nature elemental.  Or perhaps their spirit comes to inhabit their next of kin, sibling, or parent, those whose blood connection calls out the strongest of all; now two souls inhabit one body, as both of them struggle to either accept this predicament or find a way for the PC to get their old body back.

*PS: For those who are fans of Planescape, I wrote a mostly system-neutral Planar Revision Project about three years ago to add more conflict and adventuring opportunities among the planes.