Double Post: Three Nights at Castle Fear and Shen-Yi: Sunslayer!

  Been neglecting to update on the blog so here's a double-post for two trifolds I made recently, along with some thoughts I had while making 'em!

Get them here!

 https://xiaofang64.itch.io/three-nights-at-castle-fear

 https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/572059/three-nights-at-castle-fear-for-fatherfog-0e

 https://xiaofang64.itch.io/shen-yi-sunslayer

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/570959/shen-yi-sunslayer-a-mothership-adventure 

 

Three Nights, Fairy Tales, and (for some reason) running Tier 4 D&D

 

When Fatherfog 0e dropped, I already had an adventure ready to write. I bashed out 3 Nights in about as many real world nights (not counting sprucing up, art and revisions). It's about a haunted castle full of weirdo undead, and a challenge to win the hand of a noble!

This is because, as it happens, I had already written it! My oldest D&D group are currently coming to the end of 6 years of play, with characters they've followed all the way from level 1 to 20. Our tier-4 campaign (which is 2 sessions from being over at time of writing!) is a bespoke, fairy-tale themed adventure called The Faerie's Last Tale.

The difficulties with running high level D&D have been documented to death, so I won't list them all here. But suffice to say, it's more a fairy-tale themed power fantasy. One quest in particular took inspiration from a lesser known Grimm tale and mouthful, The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was. And it was fun, but it wasn't scary.

As soon as I read through FF0e, I knew I had to convert the quest. An aspect of Fatherfog that I love, but which some people bounce off of, is the way it balanced horror with fairy-tale wackiness. One of my playtesters rolled a starting item that was an immortal fly that can't fly. How can you not love this stuff?! The Story of the Youth is a great example of this balance. It's full of deadly shadows and murderous undead, and yet it's also one of the funniest things I've ever read. My sincere hope is that TKG stays the course on this tone, because it has the potential to really distinguish Fatherfog as a product.

Shen-Yi, Action-Adventure, and Triptech 3

 

For the TripTech3 game jam, I tried something a little different, to mixed results. Shen-Yi is more action-horror, with world-ending stakes (a 3-faction terrorist consortium wants to blow up the sun!) and some clear inspirations from the likes of Star Wars and Aliens (with an s).

 

It's not typical Mothership fare, but it also woudn't work in a less deadly system. At least, I don't think so. Having playtested it a few times, the horror comes out in the deadliness of MoSh's core mechanics, the careful planning, and the inevitable gore-soaked, radiation-rich chaos of the final confrontation.

The other entries TT3 was a treasure trove, as usual, and some of my faves were:

• The Apotheosis Engine: a super creative adventure set on a barren planet with an artefact that brings imagination to life!
• Sol Incarnate: A moody ass race-against time vs. a sun cult, where THINGS hunt you in the dark! Has a tie-in with Shen-Yi!
• Seven Stars Remembered: (the #1 ranked title of the TT3 Jam!) a beautifully illustrated alien dungeon where you build a dice obelisk IRL!
• THE OLD DUST: a sci-fi menagerie/medical horror adventure with. (Also it's based on the legend of the moon goddess Chang'e, lover of the archer Hou-Yi that my adventure's based on!)
• SPACE BEND: Just a damn good body horror scenario where the main danger is getting WARPED out of shape!