BASHCon 2016 Events

BASHCon is coming up in a few weeks, February 19-21 at the University of Toledo, and I'll be running a few games.

BASHCon 1988 was the first D&D convention I ever went to. I had just turned 9 and the trip to Toledo from Cleveland was my Birthday present. I bought a Potion of Paper Aging and got sold on a space exploration game called Expendables. After a couple of hours poking around in the dealer's room my dad came back from the university library and we headed back. The next year we got a to stay in a hotel room that had adult shit my dad had to keep off the TV and adult shit going on in the neighboring rooms.

This turned into a yearly thing until I turned 15 when I hit my low point of D&D playing and stopped doing stuff with my dad. Sometime in my early 20s I came back, and found Yu Gi Oh and heroclix and not much on the RPG front. Still there was fun to be had. My dad was pretty amused when I told him I was first going back and maybe somewhat satisfied our old activity stuck, and that I had found a something in which I can find joy. This will be the first one since the old man died, there is a lot of memory and nostalgia tied up in this thing.

BASHCon is also where I met my now good gaming buddies Tom and Robin. And it's where a woman told late 20s me that her 14ish year old daughter ought be very desirable because she was a female gamer. And she kept pushing it, like Walder Frey. It was the Times of a Dying Pancreas, and i had been puking in the parking lot earlier, so there was an onedge haze to the day already. That is one of the weirdest things to ever have happened to me, game related or not. I'd entertain it being a deranged figment of my imagination if my buddy Nick wasn't there giving me what the fuck is going on looks. Whodini told me the freaks come out at night, not at D&D conventions.

This will be the first year in many that I run events at BASHCon. When I was 11 I registered to run a game. When my players arrived and saw it was a kid refereeing, they suddenly remembered they were gonna be late for work and had to bail. A bit later my friend Justin and I saw them playing D&D in a lounge area on the way out. Justin called them out on faking work, I just wanted to climb into the Catacombs of Doom. This experience now presents me with a potential dilemma. If I ever show up to a con game and it's a kid sitting there running it, do I stay or cut? On the one hand I remember the humiliation I felt, on the other hand I kinda hate kids...

What I'm running:

Gimme Shelter for Crawlspace. I've written about his one here, its a mad camp romp often fueled by drugs (real and roleplayed) to get to a homeless shelter while avoiding cops and cultists.

Jupiter Mining Company Disaster using the DCC-ified Savage Worlds rules from last week. Disaster will strike the paper pushers of the future who do the busy work on a Ganymede water extraction outpost in order to maintain fictions about labor and human endeavour. And there will be robots that have grumpy cat heads.

Scream Bloody Gore DCC-RPG. Based of the death metal record by Death (Florida). My first and second posts on here were on this idea. Dark fantasy, undead, deranged priests. Each song of the ten songs corresponding to a point on this point crawl, and also serve as the clock/timeline of events. Was gonna run it with second level characters so there's some mercurial magic hyjinks, but maybe I'll do zero level with a suspicious number of dark grimoires available to the bakers and swineherds.

Adventure Scenario Part Two of Scream Bloody Gore: Zombie Ritual

The following is the outline of a scenario to be run using your favorite fantasy role playing game. Lamentations of the Flame Princess, DCC RPG, Tunnels & Trolls¹, OSR clones, D&D (whatever except fourth) and even Dungeon World should all work alright. Stats are left intentionally vague or ignored. This is the second of a ten part series of adventure scenarios inspired by Death's debut album Scream Bloody Gore, sometimes considered the first death metal record.

PART TWO: ZOMBIE RITUAL

The party arrives at the outside of a cave. From within torchlight flickers and sounds of perverse pleasure can be heard piercing ritualized chanting. 

>Mən dit parçalamaq, heç bir zərər ilə mənə geri gələcək kimi, ekastase qaçırılmaq ola bilər ki, mənim söz eşitmək mənim arzu yerinə yetirmək və ehtiyac yerinə yetirmək, mənim heupe yeni həyat ayı Godin yalvarmaq, belə ki!<

If any degree of stealth is employed the cave may be entered without the notice of its inhabitants. 

Once inside a cadre of young people can be seen chanting and passing around an ornate goblet. They are very focused with what they are doing and can be watched unnoticed unless some sort of ruckus is made by the observers.

A few moments after drinking from the cup, each individual cries out in an ecstatic anguish, and writhing maggots pour forth from its orifices.

There is an orgy of anthropophagia and depraved necrophilia. 

Blood violence gore and maggots litter the cave.

Characters ought make a wisdom check, or will saving throw, or sanity type check. 
On a fail, good paladin types get enraged, evil weirdo types get enthralled or aroused, those without a strong alignment pull get sickened.

If not engaged the newly turned zomboid creatures will be content to feast and fuck on and in the carrion until sweet annihilation comes in orgiastic fervor. If they are disturbed, they will attack as a standard zombie with the addition of carrying Zombie Maggots. Unlike standard zombies, they are fascinated with their own devourment, either by another zombie or through autophagia, and are thusly readily distracted. Character's fleeing are unlikely to be pursued. 

If any of the maggots are within 20 feet of a humanoid it will crawl toward them. Treat them as rot grubs or equivalent for combat purposes. If they are able to enter a character, the process of Zombie Maggot Infestation begins (see below).

The goblet that had been passed around appears to be extremely valuable. It is the Goblet of Ydricebonon. It radiates magic and chaos.

Anyone who touches the goblet must make a saving throw or be compelled to drink its contents. It is filled with Vile Gore! You want more! Character is at end stages of Zombie Maggot Infestation. Gloves protect against its effects, but carrying it on one's person carries a one percent cumulative chance per day that Zombie Maggot infestation will begin. Mad necromancers, bored aristocrats and other evil types will pay handsomely for this item.

Zombie Maggot Infestation

Zombie Maggots are crawling toward your brain. It is an unusual sensation of pleasure and pain.

Each game round (or unit of time lasting approximately 6-10 seconds) the infected character gains one ZMI point per maggot he or she is host to, or 10 per maggot for each minute.

Any holy spell, cure wounds, bless, will delay the onset of the zombie madness by reducing the ZMI point by 100 per level of the spell.

The infestation can be removed with a cleansing ritual conducted by a level 8 or higher cleric. The cost of materials for the ritual is 4000 gp.

A 5th level magic-user can transmute the infestation. This however has undesirable side effects as determined by the referee. The cost of transmutation materials is 500 gp.

ZMI Points	Effect
Zero and below	Symptom free
1-100	Beginnings of zombie maggot infestation. At this stage it is somewhat pleasant and euphoric. Characters more foolhardy than normal and have a +1 to checks against fear effects.
101-500	Zombie maggot infestation is progressing. Characters are immune to fear effects. Characters fantasize about their own death and annihilation. There are chances for them to DREAM REAL.
501-1000	Zombie maggot infestation is very advanced. Characters are unable to concentrate on anything except their dreams and fantasies. The waking world exists in a haze. They are no longer able to eat vegetables or cooked meat.
1001+	End stages of zombie maggot infestation. The character becomes a zombie in 1d4 rounds.

Next up: Denial of Life! Anyone reading this? Is any of it useful for your game? What are you playing? Would detailed stats be helpful, or do just make it up anyway?

---

---

1 Tom, my bad for forgetting in the first post.^↩

Adventure Scenario Part One of Scream Bloody Gore: Infernal Death

The following is the outline of a scenario to be run using your favorite fantasy role playing game. Lamentations of the Flame Princess, DCC RPG, OSR clones, D&D (whatever except fourth) and even Dungeon World should all work alright. Stats are left intentionally vague or ignored. It is the first part of a ten part series of adventure scenarios inspired by Death's debut album Scream Bloody Gore, sometimes considered the first death metal record.

This adventure series can either be dropped into an ongoing campaign, be run as a one off, or act as the start of a campaign. 

Introduction.

You have been pursued by the Baron's men since the village of Mantas. What did you do to get on the Baron's bad side?

If the party is not forthcoming with their misdeeds and treachery, roll 1d10 to determine for them.

1. You discovered evidence of the Baron's fraternization with demons. He will stop at nothing to recover the abyssal scroll which bears his seal.
2. The Baron is embarrassed by his offspring's publicly casual attitude toward sexual experimentation and has taken to exacting harsh punishment upon all partners.
3. The party had been hired by the Baron to poison a well and make it look like the work of a rival. While successfully causing the painful death of half a village ever so discretely, the Baron can not allow loose ends to run around willy-nilly.
4. While acting as attendants, the party filled the Baron's Blood Tankard with wine.
5. The Baron's niece fled to escape a marriage of political convenience. The party was hired to bring her home. They did not.
6. "So you have spoken, and from your speaking gifts will come to you." The Baron only wishes to deliver what is due.
7. While most is permitted during the Carnival of Excess, the party managed to step outside that which is deemed acceptable behavior and insulted the Baron.
8. The baron took grave offence at the name of their adventuring band.
9. The Archgoat of the region took an the party under his wing. The Baron will strike at his rivals in every way possible.
10. The Baron's agents determined the party walks the Sinister Path.

PART ONE: INFERNAL DEATH

In order to avoid the watchful eye of the wrathful Baron, the party has taken to traveling under the cloak of darkness so that they might safely escape His realm.

The darkness is pierced by a glowing at the horizon. Upon closer inspection it may be determined that the glow originates from bonfires.

As the party nears these bonfires are funeral pyres. Ten are burning in the immediate area. On a successful listen roll cries of anguish can be heard before they are extinguished by the blaze.

A lone figure attends to the fires. He wears the vestments of a priest of the area's dominant deity.

He seems frightened, nervous and distracted.

If engaged he will provide the following information:

• His village has been plagued by the walking dead.
• Torching the dying is the only way to appease their god and prevent them from rising upon death.
• Though some innocents are killed this way, it beats the alternative.
• The dead procreate in some sinister manner, how exactly is unknown.
• This has happened for as long as anyone can remember, returning in times of moral decay.
• Tonight ten souls were burned: The Shellworks, Ralf and Rohesia, and their four children; Old Bartolomen, the hermit; Agnes the Crone; Drengen the swineherd; and three travelling peddlers whose names are all lost.
• The unnamed Shellworks infant has not yet been immolated. It must first have its naming ceremony.

The priest will burn the child and return to his prayers.

Lo we traverse the worlds of death
The hallucinations in the mind of a mad god
So too do we
Create bastard worlds for our dreams and madness
So we mock the locusts and ground our feet
And with the click of a heel return