Following up on the last post, conversion thoughts and an alternate Jackalwere

By Boccob's Beard, a new post! I've already matched 2025 productivity on the first day of 2026, the only place we can go from here is UP!

In my last post, I converted a Jackalwere from Advanced Dungeon & Dragons to Dungeon Crawl Classics, reposted below for convenience:

Jackalwere: Init +4; Atk bite +4 melee (1d4+2) or weapon +4 melee (varies +2); Crit 20 M/d10; AC 16; HD 4d8+2 (20 hp); MV 30’; Act 2d20; SP shape-shifting, sleep gaze, half damage from non-magical and non-iron; SV Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +3; AL C. 

These wicked creatures have two forms: A notable large jackal and a humanoid jackal. They delight in the slaughter of men and the taking of loot. They are 20% likely to be accompanied by 1d6 normal jackals (Init +2; Atk bite +0 melee (1d3-1)Crit 20 M/d3; AC 13; HD 1d4 (2 hp); MV 30’; Act 1d20; SV Fort +0, Ref +4, Will -2; AL N.), who will not actively aid the jackalwere but will not flee unless it is killed or disabled, and will attack in defense or retaliation of the pack.

Shape-shifting: May appear as a large jackal or a humanoid jackal. In humanoid form they may wield weapons (a d7 may be rolled: 1-longsword; 2-battleaxe; 3-polearm; 4-spear; 5-two-handed sword; 6-handaxe; 7- a magical weapon of judge’s choosing). Held weapons are dropped during transformation, although magical weapons may meld into the new form and be loosed after death, at judge’s discretion.

Sleep Gaze: The weird eyes of the jackalwere can lull the unwary into slumber. During the jackalwere’s first turn in a combat (and potentially if new combatants appear), it casts sleep using 1d12+11, treating a natural 1 as a 12 result. The only targets that may be selected are those who have not yet acted in this combat

Now here is a version converted to DCC but using the 3rd Edition Fiend Folio as the basis:

Jackalwere: Init +3; Atk bite +5 melee (1d5+1) or weapon +5 melee (varies +1); Crit 20 M/d10; AC 15; HD 4d8+6 (24 hp); MV 40’; Act 2d20; SP shape-shifting, sleep gaze, half damage from non-magical; SV Fort +6, Ref +7, Will +3; AL C. 

These wicked creatures have many forms: A notable large jackal, a humanoid jackal, and the guise of non-specific humanoids. They delight in the slaughter of men and the taking of loot. They are 20% likely to be accompanied by 1d6 normal jackals (Init +2; Atk bite +0 melee (1d3-1)Crit 20 M/d3; AC 13; HD 1d4 (2 hp); MV 30’; Act 1d20; SV Fort +0, Ref +4, Will -2; AL N.), who will not actively aid the jackalwere but will not flee unless it is killed or disabled, and will attack in defense or retaliation of the pack.

Shape-shifting: May appear as a large jackal, a humanoid jackal, or any man-sized humanoid. In humanoid form they may wield weapons (a d7 may be rolled: 1-longsword; 2-battleaxe; 3-polearm; 4-spear; 5-two-handed sword; 6-handaxe; 7- a magical weapon of judge’s choosing). Weapons and equipment may nonfunctionally meld into the new form and be loosed after death, at judge’s discretion.

Sleep Gaze: The weird eyes of the jackalwere can lull foes into slumber. Any enemy within 30' that meets the gaze of the jackalwere in any form must make a DC 10 Will save or fall into deep but natural sleep for 5 minutes. Those in combat receive +1d to the save. Those who avert their eyes need not save but make all attacks at -1d.

You'll notice that despite being the same creature of different levels of challenge (Dungeon Level VI in AD&D 1e/Challenge Rating 2 in D&D 3e), both end up relatively close (in fact, I'm surprised how close my 1e>DCC version is to the 3e version that I specifically didn't reference). While lots of little numbers shift around, I want to point out three big ones:

Shape-shifting: The AD&D Monster Manual implies but does not elaborate on whether Jackalweres can assume the forms of (demi-)human(oid)s. While it may seem "logical" to assume so, remember that many of the lycanthropes in the AD&D Monster Manual only have two forms: Werebears turn into bears, werewolves turn into bipedal wolves (unless they're wolweres [sic], who turn into wolves, because they're wolves who turn into men), so limiting the jackalwere to two forms - canid and canid humanoid seemed appropriate. In my imagination, it seemed like a lone or small group of wild dogs (jackals) approaching a camp before one suddenly stands and rushed with a weapon in hand. The 3e Fiend Folio, one the other hand, explicitly identifies mimickry of medium-sized humanoids, which includes essentially everything that's between 3.5' and 7' tall.

Half-damage from X: AD&D uses a very simple "can't be hit except by +N or better magic weapons" system, to which iron weapons is another factor in the jackalwere's case. This has been a controversial issue since steel is an alloy of iron; obviously, if steel counts as iron then the jackalwere has some pretty crappy defenses, but if steel doesn't count as iron then what else is effective? Did Gary Gygax intend for PCs to hammer an iron spike into a jackalwere's skull or whack him with a cast-iron skillet? I wasn't quite sure myself, so half damage except magic and iron seemed good enough. Meanwhile, 3e's solution to the question was to remove the iron and give this guy Damage Reduction 15 (FIFTEEN)/+1, which means any weapon without a +1 magic bonus is reduced by 15 (FIFTEEN) points. Needless to say, I think that's a terrible mechanical decision because it's effectively the same as "can only be hit by magic weapons" but with uglier jargon. So half damage except from magical.

Sleep Gaze: Probably the biggest difference between conversions. The AD&D Monster Manual specifies that the gaze can only affect "unsuspecting" creatures and notes that "hostile creature are not unsuspecting!" While flavorful, it's also limiting. So how can it work? Surprise most likely, which I expanded to include initiative. The image is thus: The adventurer goes to toss some food to or scare off  the wild dogs (jackals) and his eyes meet the gaze of the big one's swirling, glowing green-and-pink eyes. Winning initiative in this scenario represents tearing your eyes from that hypnotic gaze, or an unconscious act of mental resistance. So, for the AD&D>DCC version, this gaze is a rocket tag event at the jackalwere's first initiative: explosive and potentially deadly as up to 4 targets are likely to pass out, but once that one trick is done for, the fight is relatively easy because it has relatively low hp and saves. The 3e version specifies that it's every round. It's easier to save against, but it's persistent, and the best way to avoid it dramatically reduces accuracy.

In closing, my advice is this: When converting things, whether from old D&D, new D&D, or media, it's good to unburden yourself of the accumulated "common knowledge" about those things and interpret using only the source in question. Things may get too weird, and that's okay; Your conversion might end up too close to the accepted default, and that's okay too; the important thing is that (You) are recontextualizing things, and by doing so, finding new paths to trod upon.

Until next time, fight on!

Annual Post featuring DCC Jackalwere Conversion and OSR Doomposting!

It is once again time for my annual blogpost! Things have been good in the meat dimension, as the Local Game Store gained a new owner who has, in turn, revitalized the local community, with a weekly "one-shot" (but not really) night on Wednesdays. Unfortunately, many planned posts did not reach fruition, but I'll be running some Dungeon(/Mutant/X-) Crawl Classics open table games in 2026, so I may polish some of those ideas. And before I proceed further, Merry Christmas!

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Using some of Daniel J. Bishop's guidelines, I converted the AD&D Jackalwere (and jackals) to DCC:

Jackalwere: Init +4; Atk bite +4 melee (1d4+2) or weapon +4 melee (varies +2); Crit 20 M/d10; AC 16; HD 4d8+2 (20 hp); MV 30’; Act 2d20; SP shape-shifting, sleep gaze, half damage from non-magical and non-iron; SV Fort +3, Ref +4, Will +3; AL C. 

These wicked creatures have two forms: A notable large jackal and a humanoid jackal. They delight in the slaughter of men and the taking of loot. They are 20% likely to be accompanied by 1d6 normal jackals (Init +2; Atk bite +0 melee (1d3-1)Crit 20 M/d3; AC 13; HD 1d4 (2 hp); MV 30’; Act 1d20; SV Fort +0, Ref +4, Will -2; AL N.), who will not actively aid the jackalwere but will not flee unless it is killed or disabled, and will attack in defense or retaliation of the pack.

Shape-shifting: May appear as a large jackal or a humanoid jackal. In humanoid form they may wield weapons (a d7 may be rolled: 1-longsword; 2-battleaxe; 3-polearm; 4-spear; 5-two-handed sword; 6-handaxe; 7- a magical weapon of judge’s choosing). Held weapons are dropped during transformation, although magical weapons may meld into the new form and be loosed after death, at judge’s discretion.

Sleep Gaze: The weird eyes of the jackalwere can lull the unwary into slumber. During the jackalwere’s first turn in a combat (and potentially if new combatants appear), it casts sleep using 1d12+11, treating a natural 1 as a 12 result. The only targets that may be selected are those who have not yet acted in this combat

While unplaytested, it was fun converting, especially since I'm likely to actually use it soon. 

- - -

So, the OSR. What's up with that? I've had an odd feeling ever since 2024 that it was fizzling out on multiple fronts.

Splinter "sects" like BrOSR and CAG have become more notorious, and unlike the earlier G+ era schism which was strictly political, there are actual game differences too. Strangely, both BrOSR and CAG are both OD&D/AD&D-fixated, caustic, "my way or the highway" cliques full of semantics jockeys that insist they're the inheritors of TRVE D&D, unlike OSR.

On the retroclone side, there has been a rise of anti-retroclone sentiment in the sense of "why would I use THOSE when I can just get the real things?" that has slowly but inexorably risen. And to be honest, I sort of agree with the sentiment. Matt Finch stuck the landing with his new edition of Swords & Wizardry, although I have my doubts that S&W's former pedigree of "least complex OSR game" is a relevant selling point in a post-Shadowdark ecosystem. Meanwhile OSRIC 3.0 decided to use landscape formatting for the premium books with portrait consigned to cheapo DTRPG POD; Labyrinth Lord 2e doesn't really improve anything and makes several things worse (speaking as a fan and owner of Advanced Labyrinth Lord); OSE 2e (or BXE 3e if we want to be honest) is essentially a rip-off of Advanced Labyrinth Lord, but the fanbase prefers the simplicity of Basic D&D; ACKS II might legitimately be a game with too much rules support; etc.

But a bigger point is this: I haven't been hyped for any actual, 100% OSR product (I was interested in Goodman Games' DCC CSIO, but at $250, it was simply too much for most who didn't have political/moral/ethical objections). It seems like 5 years ago, people were saying the OSR didn't need more rulesets, it needed more settings, yet OSR offerings seemed to have regressed into a self-indulgent throwback era. 

Mayhaps 2026 will herald some major upheavals. Fingers crossed for ASE getting finished!

Black Streams + Dungeon Crawl Classics: Brainstorming

Note: This posts contains affiliate links. A portion of your purchases go to the author (of this blog [the disclaimer seems a little ambiguous so I'm just clarifying {maybe I just have brain problems}]). 

This post is a set of conversion(?) notes for using Black Streams and Dungeon Crawl Classics. Black Streams is a supplement for Labyrinth Lord but it was apparently expanded and polished into Scarlet Heroes (which I'm probably going to buy soon). I'm pretty sure you could use Black Streams with almost any class- and level- system including D&D 5e and Pathfinder, but why would you play Pathfinder? :^) 

Let's dive in.

Starting Character(s): I'd recommend letting the player roll up 5 level-0 characters for funnels. 

Fray Die: The first departure we going to have to make from Black Streams is the Fray Die. This one is kinda dicey. Usually, the PC gets to roll a Fray Die and deal damage to an enemy with equal or less HD than himself. For level-0 characters this would mean other PCs and NPC villagers. But if one player is controlling all the level-0 PCs he really isn't going to use his Fray Die against his own PCs barring possession/insanity/whatever and slaughtering droves of peasants is a weird situation that probably won't come up either. In any case, if the GM decides to allow the Fray Die it's 1d4 for level-0 characters.

Defy Death: Level-0 characters can Defy Death as outlined in Black Streams but they roll a 1d6 damage die for their first attempt, 1d8 for their second, and 1d10 for all subsequent attempts. Keep in mind that DCC funnels tend to have a shitload of instadeath encounters. Spellcasters can use Defy Death to avoid Corruption and/or Patron Taint but they have can only avoid one or the other with a single Defy Death use; in another words, if a caster gets both Corruption and Patron Taint at the same time he needs to Defy Death twice to reject them (once for Corruption and one for Taint).

Fun with Funnels

Today I ran two funnel adventures for Goodman Games' Dungeon Crawl Classics system. It was pretty fun. The players were my 9-year old brother and my 4X-year old father (referred to as "Bro" and "Dad" in the rest of the post). I'm a cheapskate so our gaming materials were the DCC Free RPG Day 2016 modules (I'll link them individually in a bit) and the DCC beta rules.

Regarding rules, I enforced marching orders, initiative, the fumble tables, and crit tables. However, the "0-level characters only roll 1d4" caveat on the crit table was dumb so I tossed that out.

Funnel 1: The Museum at The End of Time

The first adventure for the upcoming Mutant Crawl Classics game, The Museum at The End of Time is 0-level funnel adventure intended for 15-20 (yes, it's that lethal) characters. Dad and Bro only received 4 characters each. The intro was that many aeons ago there was a terrible magic (nuclear) war that ravaged the world. The PCs were the inhabitants of a medieval-level village who were hated by their peers for unspecified reasons, and so were ordered to march into the deadly Glow Desert: If these brave souls could find some mighty relics and return them to the village then they would be allowed to become a part of the community again. 

A scant few minutes into their voyage, the Silane Serpent reared its ugly head. Marilene, Dad's Halfling Moneylender, noticed the strange ripples and led her group to a rocky outcropping; Bro decided to have his characters climb the highest sand dune. In a massive corkscrew motion, the worm devoured three (3 on a 1d3) of Bro's peasants before the last scrambled into the rocks were Dad's group had taken shelter. They waited until the beast finally left at sunset.

Around that time, they noticed a curious sound; as time wore on, it became clear that it sounded like screaming. The group decided to stand and fight. Soon, six gray-skinned humanoids with pulsating mushrooms instead of heads approached the party. I have to note two things here: First, I altered the description of the Screamer-zombies to make it less gory for 9-year old Bro; second, I didn't notice the HP listing in the Screamer stat block so I rolled HP for each one. Two were much weaker (2 HP), while four were slightly stronger (5 & 6 HP). The party hesitated, unsure if these creatures were hostile. Cire the Jester fired a warning shot in front of one of the advancing Screamers. It did not comply. Bros last surviving PC, Elwyn the Gambler, tried to flee but then returned to the fray.

At first it went well. One of the the 2 HP Screamers fumbled and accidentally killed itself. Trystan the Cobbler survived a Screamer's claw and sent the wretched beast tumbling into the sand, surely dead. Marilene the Halfling cut down another Screamer. But the tide quickly turned and the remaining three Screamers made short work of the party. That's the first time I've experienced a TPK as a GM.

Funnel 2: The Madhouse Meet

When all was said and done, The Massacre at The End of Time had only taken about 30 minutes. Both Bro and Dad still wanted to play. Since I didn't have any other adventure handy, I decided to run the other adventure included in the Free RPG Day book, The Madhouse Meet for Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be (legally) available for free anywhere, you have to buy it from a site like RPGnow (I really wish I had monetized this blog but I don't want to sell out).

As a level 1 adventure, I was leery about how well things would pan out. Just to make things faster we re-used the Zeroes from the previous funnel with one exception; Bro got an extra character, Iago the Smuggler. The module starts with a tried-and-true premise; you wake up in a dungeon, shackled to the wall. and all your stuff minus your clothes is missing. Three characters make the DC 8 Intelligence check to remember rumors of kidnappings in The Great City. They were interrupted by a 7-foot tall gray-skinned man with a club in one had, a big sack in the other, and a burlap bag over his head. He dispensed stale bread and a little water then exited.

The PCs leapt into action. First Gladys the Woodcutter managed to find some makeshift tools to pick the lock then promptly broke them. Mave the Elven Navigator didn't have such terrible luck and managed to free herself and everyone else from their shackles. But almost immediately they heard the approach of footsteps! Quickly, everyone slipped into their unlocked manacles and pretended to be still trapped. Their gray-skinned jailor returned, gave a quick look around, and noticed that Elwyn the Gambler's bonds were open. He took a step toward the prisoner, ready to beat some cooperation into him. Initiative was rolled. The first action was by Iago the Smuggler, who fled into the hallway. Everyone else piled and punched the jailor. Miraculously, the jailor managed to miss every attack while the PCs manage to pummel him with their fists. Eventually, he dropped his club and cowered against a wall, whimpering.

Our heroes exited their cell and investigated their environs. Marilene the Halfling Moneylender almost got the door open. Iago the Smuggler tried to bust the iron-reinforced door by ramming it with his shoulder, causing him 1 point of damage. Marilene finally got the door open. The heroes split into groups. Dad's group discovered a room full of (inanimate) skeletons covered in some kind of green slime. Both groups pressed on to the jailor's room, where they found their starting gear and some extra treasure. Exiting through another door, they spotted a staircase and began to ascend.

Once above, Dad's and Bro's PCs split and intermixed. One headed toward what would turn out to be the wizard's bedroom, while the other found the mess hall. Iago and Mave entered the bedroom. Iago stepped on the luxurious carpet and a strange mist rose to entrap him! Luckily he made his saving throw and escaped. Mave searched the wardrobe, finding nothing but pastel silk robes. Iago tried a few on but none fit. Mave discovered a secret compartment with some scrolls and a small brass case. She effortlessly exited the room and began talking to her friends about her find. Poor Iago got caught in the malevolent magical mists of the wicked rug once again. At this point Dad decided his PCs didn't care about Bro's bumbling Iago. Bro had one character in position to help: Daffydd the Gambler. After much waffling, Daffydd charged in to help. He somehow avoided the nefarious carpet. Grabbing Iago's arms he tried to pull him out of those sinister swirls of fog, but to no avail. The fog snaked into Iago's nostrils and its weird touch dealt 1 point of damage. Now one turn away from death, Iago tried to wrest free from the foul fog. He and Daffydd escaped the room to the relative safety of the cruciform hallway outside.

While this was happening, the other group discovered the mess hall. Dad's PCs, suspicious of the connection between the food, magic, and their hulking jailor, decided to immediately exit. Bro's three PCs cracked open a barrel and started tearing into some salted meat. Then they ate some cheese from a barrel. Unfortunately, this cheese was magically tainted (a 30% chance I added to the module). Gladys the Woodcutter's ear shriveled. Elwyn the Gambler vomited a ray of green magic that struck Cian the Cooper. Cian grew four inches.

Mave tried to read the three scrolls but they were written in a strange language. Two were complete gibberish but from the third she managed to glean that it was a thesis on the use of magic-infused slime combined with humanoids to create super-soldiers. At this point, a patrol of two guards swung open the only unexplored door. They immediately spotted six escaped inmates. However, they didn't spot Bro's three magically altered gluttons. The glutton gang had the opportunity to launch surprise attacks against the guards. Bro decided that they would wait. In the ensuing fight, one guard was killed, Trystan the Cobbler (Dad's PC) did, and a guard fled. Dad's characters now viewed the mess hall three with suspicion.

The fleeing guard reported the events to the wizard, who rounded up four additional guards. His cunning plan was for him and two guards to march through the same door from earlier while a squad of three would sneak in through the mess hall, flanking the insolent escapees.

And, so the wizard, in his pastel glory, moved to attack, shielded by his loyal minions. Unfortunately, the flanking squad swung the door open and found themselves face-to-face with three opponents! The gluttons waded into combat. One guard tried to charge but fumbled, landing on his back like a turtle.
Mave the Elf perished in hand-to-hand combat. Elwyn stabbed a guard in the hand and sent his sword flying. Gladys died. Unable to effectively fight in the mess hall's second doorway, one guard quickly turned and arrived to guard his master. The pastel wizard tried to cast a Magic Missile only to flub. A guard died. Mave died. Elwyn died.

To understand what happened next, you have to think about what the wizard was thinking. The jailor was most likely dead (the prisoners wouldn't have escaped otherwise), two guards were dead, the cook (who actually just sat the battle out fixing stew) should have been dead, a contingent were apparently stalemating his mess hall flankers, and while the escapees would inevitably die it looked like they would take even more of the guards with him. He'd not only lose a whole batch of test subjects but also personnel. He failed his morale check. "Just surrender and you guys can walk out of here."

Marilene, burning with fury, stabbed a guard in the brain in response to the proposition. Iago threw a stone from his sling straight into the mage's head, sending it flying across the room (gotta love crit charts). Seeing their employer dead, the guards quickly surrendered. They led the surviving PCs to the exit, where the emerged into the sun-lit streets of The Great City.

Afterthoughts

It was pretty amazing to me that actual funnel didn't work very well but the level Lankhmar adventure went amazingly and really helped to crystallize the level-0 redshirts into distinctive characters. I did tone down the Lankhmar adventure some: Guard patrols were reduced to two  members instead of three, the jailor and wizard both lost 1 HD (which lead to Iago's miraculous one-shot on him). But otherwise it just seem to provide a much more fun experience for everyone involved than the Mutant Crawl Classics funnel. For the curious, the players didn't pick their PCs' alignments, I assigned them based on the characters' actions in-game. The survivors of the second funnel are as follows:

- Marilene, Lawful Halfling

- Daffydd, Lawful Warrior

- Cire, Neutral Thief

- Iago, Neutral Thief

- Cian, Chaotic Wizard

We should be holding another session soon, I'll post again if anything interesting happens then.