Review 21: The Accursed Heart of the World Ender
Most TTRPG systems have a very distinct style and tone to them, which is often best reinforced by the adventures written for them. That is one of the major selling points for Dungeon Crawl Classics-- everyone hears about all the modules and the great art. "The Accursed Heart of the World Ender" in particular, written by Brendan LaSalle, is an excellent example of a distillation of the weird and crazy fantasy that is integral to DCC. This one is also a "who's who" of the creators who really give DCC its vibe, with cover art by Doug Kovacs, cartography and interior art by Stefan Poag, and a bunch of other interior art by Chris Arneson, Bradley McDevitt, Jesse Mohn, and Cliff Kurowski. It is written as a 0-level funnel adventure, and is further described as a "convention module." I've run it a couple of times as such, once to introduce a group of entirely brand new players to the system and another time for some more seasoned players.
Getting it to the Table
For a Goodman Games adventure, this one is actually pretty concise. Clocking in at about 20 pages, there is but a single page of "background" before it gets into the information that the GM will actually need in order to run the game. Being a convention module, it is definitely more linear than most, and it is aware of this. Helpfully, there is a bullet point list of the main story beats of the adventure spelled out, along with a vague recommendation that you shouldn't feel bound to these if the players go elsewhere. There's not much support given for that eventuality, so it's more of a token nod than anything else.
Getting the players involved is usually pretty simple in a funnel adventure, because the whole idea is that it's a bunch of normal villagers thrown into a weird situation and forced to fight for their lives-- this one has the PCs be chosen to test their fate in a sacred ritual that is said to portend the coming of the true king to save the land. Long story short, they actually end up participating in a ritual that frees an ancient demon lord from its eternal prison and allows it to ravage the land. This kind of setup is great for conventions or big fun one-shots (the second time I ran it was for about 8 players at a taproom), so I'm not too annoyed with the linear nature of it. There is a very fun process where "unworthy" PCs get cursed by the power of the relic, with a great table of weird mutations which you could 100% steal for other games. Because the rest of it is a linear chase broken up by battles, there is not very much preparation needed on the part of the GM. The information that you need is presented where you need it, and this would be a great adventure to just have in your back pocket to run at short notice. The maps are also incidental-- there is not much of a dungeon crawl at all, so it's really just a matter of knowing the general spatial relationships of things as you guide the PCs through to the next set piece.
What Worked?
- Fantastic mutation table that really sets the tone for a weird fantasy game, and can make some really memorable PCs if they survive.
- Pretty darn concise and usable layout for a Goodman Games adventure-- not a lot of wasted space given over to useless description or back story.
- Very fun multi-stage battle with the demon lord, with plenty of opportunity for heroic deaths and peasant valor.
- Optional hooks for later campaigning, based on the actions that the PCs take in defeating the evil.
What Didn't Work?
- Don't run this if you want a non-linear sandbox experience to open your campaign-- it's definitely written on rails, but it's a fun ride!
- As written, there's a fair amount of waiting around that can happen before it gets to the interesting stuff-- it seems to expect that players will want to look at the boring stuff in the temple like the animal pens and the kitchen, when there is really no purpose in doing so. I recommend just opening the adventure with their arrival at the temple and then just go right into the ceremony.
Final Thoughts
I've written before about the difference between a linear adventure and a railroad, and this is a perfect example of a linear one being just fine if that's the thing you're going for. Again, because it's designed as a convention module, this was definitely meant to be demonstrative of the wild and over the top nature of DCC, and it fits the bill in that regard. I feel that it gets a bit overlooked when compared to some of the more popular funnels (like Sailors on the Starless Sea, which I honestly think is a bit overrated-- more on that in the future).
You can get "The Accursed Heart of the World Ender" at the Goodman Games web store. Thanks for reading!