In October 2022 we presented the DCC Horror Bundle, an all-new collection of spooky adventure modules for the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG from Goodman Games. Though many DCC modules present sword-and-sorcery scenarios of gold and glory, in 2015 Goodman branched out (oozed out?) to produce annual horror scenarios – often tied to Halloween – that throw standard DCC fantasy characters into nightmarish pocket dimensions, Cthulhoid laboratories, Frankensteinian towers, abomination-haunted coffin ships, and cursed wedding receptions.
One beauty of these otherwise gory modules (for character levels 0 through 6) is the way they fit smoothly, unexpectedly into a conventional Dungeon Crawl Classics campaign. You start out at The Singin’ Chisel inn and head into the iron mine at Jhurn-Hokaz to learn why the shipments stopped, and three scenes later you’re in the Temple of the Stûf, fighting hollow-bodied cultists of a formless chaotic alien candy. You can slip any of these scenarios into your regular campaign as a trick, and with the right attitude everyone will eat them up like a treat.
Ordinary DCC modules begin with boilerplate text:
“Remember the good old days, when adventures were underground, NPCs were there to be killed, and the finale of every dungeon was the dragon on the 20th level? Those days are back. Dungeon Crawl Classics adventures don’t waste your time with long-winded speeches, weird campaign settings, or NPCs who aren’t meant to be killed. Each adventure is 100% good, solid dungeon crawl, with the monsters you know, the traps you remember, and the secret doors you know are there somewhere.”
One of these DCC Horror modules begins like this:
“Remember the good old days when you had a chance of survival? Monsters had fathomable motivations, the darkness within could be channeled, and the darkness without could be held at bay? Do you remember thinking a caring God could save you if you just prayed hard enough? Fool! Say goodbye to the light; those days are over forever, and you shall tumble down throughout eternity, alone, hopeless, rent, and ruined. Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror has such sights to show you. Each adventure is 666% evil, with monsters that know what scares you, traps you create for yourself, and secret doors that lead straight to a hell beyond imagining.”
Note: These modules require the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG Core Rulebook.
There were seven complete modules in our DCC Horror Collection (retail value $42) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including the zero-level “funnel” campaign kickoffs Creep, Skrag, Creep! and They Served Brandolyn Red; the low-level modules Shadow Under Devil’s Reef, The Corpse That Love Built, It Consumes!, and The Web of All-Torment; and the level-6 scenario The Sinister Sutures of the Sempstress.
