This week’s guest is Gavin Norman of Necrotic Gnome. We talk about OSE – Old School Essentials, and his incredibly successful Kickstarter campaign for Dolmenwood RPG with Exalted Funeral. The Kickstarter is live now though Sep. 8, 2023. We discuss all the fun things that come with it: the books, minis, the soundtrack on vinyl by Tales Under the Oak, and so much more.
Dolmenwood is a fantasy adventure game set in a lavishly detailed world inspired by the fairy tales and eerie folklore of the British Isles. Like traditional fairy tales, Dolmenwood blends the dark and whimsical, the wondrous and weird.
Streamlined rules and helpful introductory materials guide novice players, while unique new magic and monsters bring a fresh sense of the unknown to veteran role-players. We’re launching the three Dolmenwood core books, plus a range of delectable extras.
You can walk on the six surfaces (north, east, south, west, ceiling, floor) as gravity seems to work in all directions here. Ladles and spoons line the walls. Tables on each surface are covered in knick knacks. There’s a hellfire coil in the center of each surface that the cauldron likes to sit on. It only turns on when the cauldron moves to a new surface. Three cackling witches (maiden, mother & crone) are flying around on their broom and tidying up. They’re here simply as observers of the cauldron. “Don’t mind us. Boil and bubble the hot coil is trouble.”
In the center of the room is the legendary Fey Cauldron of Sadness and Joy. This sentient magic item was forged of iron in a mold of pixies. It contains brews that connect to fey dimensions of pure sadness and pure joy. It has arms to stir itself and quick legs that dance and leap from surface to surface, yet it never spills a drop. It has a duality of goblin faces on either side. One is the quintessential personification of sadness, the other of happiness.
The game: PCs secretly write down six items that are connected to their past. Designate three as happy and three as sad. One of these items appears on a table on the surface of each of the six directions. The cauldron tells you to each choose an item that isn’t your own, and add it to the cauldron. Rotten or perfumed mist rises as the cauldron stirs an item into itself. Roll randomly for which surface the cauldron will move to each round. PCs tell the cauldron when they’re done adding items.
Resolution: If more sad items were added, it opens a portal to the fey dimension of sadness and sorrow begins to take over the world. If more happy items were added… fey dimension of happiness. If there were equal amounts of happy and sad items, the cauldron shrinks down and becomes a small pouch. Once a day you may draw from the pouch to pull out a specific item that is meaningful to whoever you’re targeting. Roll a d6: 1-3 the item makes them sad, 4-6 the item makes them happy.
Art: Tiger Wizard Words: Steve Albertson
Story by: Andrew Bellury, Steve Albertson, Gavin Norman
Appendix N: The Black Cauldron, The Beastmaster, The Neverending Story, Labyrinth, Whinnie the Pooh (Eeyore), Hellraiser, Willow, Beauty and the Beast (1991), D&D b/x, Return to Oz, Amelie, Batman, UHF.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
Join our very own Tiger Wizard on the third and most likely final chapter of the Sky ov Crimson Flame this Saturday from 7 – 9 pm EST on the Goodman Games Twitch channel. He’s got two of his original 4 characters still alive, but will they make it through? Tune in to find out!
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Dungeon Cats is a rules-light, casual TTRPG by our own Tiger Wizard. The pre-launch page is now live on the Epic Level’s Kickstarter! Click the “notify me on launch” button to make sure you don’t miss out!
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We’ll all be partying at Dragon Con in Atlanta Aug 31 – Sep 4 . Dragon Warrior will be running games.
Sat 9:00 AM – Old School Essentials: Mad Dungeon Rooms
Sun 1:00 PM – Old School Essentials: Mad Dungeon Rooms
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We’ll be podcasting live at Gamehole Con in Madison on Oct. 19th- 24th. Dragon Warrior will be running games. Sign ups are now available. Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 10:00 AM CST – Old School Essentials: Mad Dungeon Rooms
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Monsters! Mazes! Martinis & Minotaurs! The Epic Levels – Armor Classy CDungeon is now available for purchase at Exalted Funeral. This amazing artifact is both a compact disc of the fantasy RPG hip hop album, and a full-color compact dungeon adventure that’s based on the album’s songs and Wisconsin oddity attraction, The House on the Rock. The included system-agnostic mini-adventure features a fully illustrated 10 room dungeon crawl.
Art & layout: Tiger Wizard
Written by: Steve Albertson
Additional artwork by: Ambrose H. Hoilman & Michael Mauldin
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Thanks for listening to Season Two of the Epic Levels Mad Dungeon podcast, where D&D hip hop group Epic Levels and a guest create a system-neutral, playable dungeon room using improv, comedy, and lifetimes wasted on roleplaying games.
You can support us via Patreon for early episode releases, bonus map content, extra art, access to our discord server, and lots of other exclusive goodies.
Get nerd merch and stay up to date with socials: HERE
Mad Dungeon is hosted by Andrew Bellury, Steve Albertson, and produced by Zach Cowan.
Theme song by Epic Levels and beat by Mason Grant.
© 2023 Epic Levels. All characters in this adventure–even those based on real people–are entirely fictional.