This week’s guest is Luke Crane and we get into the philosophy behind TTRPG creation. We talk about making games as a teen, creating his games Burning Wheel, Mouse Guard and Torchbearer. We talk about his LARP Inheritance, and Luke and Steve playing it together at Gen Con 2023.
Follow Luke Crane: Website
Flaming blood drips from the ceiling onto narrow ledges over a pool of fire-blood that’ll stick to you like napalm. Teflon rafts float in the pool that will cook you if you stay on them too long. Out of the fire and into the frying pan… literally. Trap! A portcullis drops down in the doorway you came through, cutting you off from escape. The ledges collapse underneath you. Jump!
On a stationary center plinth is orc lawyer Janet Reno Nevada Esquire, wearing a pantsuit with heels. She’s chained to a massive lectern where the Book ov Blood & Fire rests. It’s a treatise on religious subjugation disguised as self help rests on. She’s bleeding fire, yelling her true name and the name of her true love (who’s somewhere nearby). She desperately looks up rules as fire shoots out of the book. She’s suffering and has been driven to this state by the cursed book.
Mounted on a pole and wheel contraption, she wields the oversized Book ov Blood & Fire like a flail to knock you into the pool, or flings pages for a ranged attack. If a page hits you, make a mental save (with a solid debate argument) or suffer The Rules: When you bleed, your blood becomes fire. You must say your true name and the name of your true love.
Reading from the cursed book chains you to the lectern to guard the room. It makes you invincible, but you’re always under the mental and physical pain of The Rules. The pool of fire-blood is from the collective wounds of all of the cursed book’s previous owners. You can heal Janet’s magical wounds to calm her down, but to break the curse you must bring her true love before her.
Art: Tiger Wizard Words: Steve Albertson
Story by: Andrew Bellury, Steve Albertson, Luke Crane
Appendix N: Fahrenheit 451, The Bible (Ten Commandments), Chicken Soup for the Soul, Warhammer 40k (the librarian), Carrie (1976 film), House of Flying Daggers, American Gladiators.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
All Dwarf drawings are in, submissions have closed, and our amazing panel of judges are reviewing all of the entries. We’ll be announcing the winners very soon!
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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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The new Games Omnivorous Kickstarter is live now, and completely funded! FRONTIER SCUM is an ENNIE-winning rules-lite Acid Western roleplaying game. An auto-destructive, violent and LSD-infused take on Spaghetti Westerns, about wanted outlaws making their mark on an unreal Lost Frontier. Probably getting shot before having the chance to shoot. A rough-and-tumble world of insatiable greed where scum live one slug from the grave.
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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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Two new poster adventure maps are now available for purchase at Exalted Funeral.
The Worm that Glows based off of season one, episode 11 with Jenna Marie of Chaotic Click Clacks with amazing artwork from Oh! Oozi.
Oh! Oozi is also the artist and co-creator with Steve for their Image comic book Ghost Spy.
Headkicker! The Musical based off of season one, episode 19 with Brian Shutter of Neon Lords of the Toxic Wastes with front side artwork from Mustafa Bekir.
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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 Inner Resting.
© 2023 Epic Levels. All characters in this adventure–even those based on real people–are entirely fictional.