Let’s Run an X Crawl

 

With the upcoming X Crawl Classic coming to Kickstarter soon I’m pretty excited about new and returning players getting involved. It’s not a secret that I X Crawl is in my top three favorite RPGs and I would love for it to succeed. To that end I wanted to share some of my thoughts on how to start an X Crawl campaign. I’ve been playing X Crawl for nearly as long as there’s been a game. I played in the first ever Buckeye Crawl at Origins back in… “Zeus am I old.” Anyway, I’ve run a successful multi-year campaign, and several smaller one shots, and demos.

X Crawl is a unique beast and when getting started I made some assumptions based entirely on my years of gaming before that. While my history helped and anyone should be fine there are a couple of things I figured out through trial and error I thought might be helpful to others.

This article is going to be about how to start an X-Crawl campaign for Dungeon Judges (DJ’s). I’m planning to write a second article for players and what they might want to think about to get ready. I’ll try and have useful information here for both groups but I’m primarily focusing on Dungeon Judges.

For the purposes of this article, I’m going to use the Memphis Crawl from the X-Crawl colored edition rules as a reference point here. There will be some minor spoilers, but it will all be stuff I think the players should know going in. I won’t lay out any traps, plot twists, or direct information. I will give a general overview of some of the major themes and recurring characters.

 

GETTING READY

Most of what you want to do here is what you would for any adventure. Read through it, take some notes, and be familiar enough to run what your player’s will encounter. There are a couple of small differences between this and other settings.

First, you’re going to want to pay attention to the Dungeon Judge. This is going to be your character for the adventure. While, you’ll be playing all of the NPC’s as normal, the DJ is special. They’re the opponent but not necessarily the villain. They have a style, a way of behaving, and will interact with the players by Arcane Video Screens (AVS); a magic close circuit television. Every DJ has their own style, goals, and will be a force in the arena without ever coming into direct conflict with the characters.

For Memphis Crawl this is DJ Cudgel Up. She’ll be the character you spend the most time playing. If you look through the notes on her and the crawl you might notice a couple of things. First, Memphis Crawl is the opening crawl of the season. It’s meant to get the year going and bring everyone back after an off season break. Because of this the crawl has several very showy elements, large set pieces, and a few fan favorite monsters. Second, she wants the characters to be heroes; after all she gives them princess to save. Finally, the players are all Division 3 and this will most likely be their first nationally televised appearance. They’ll not be well know so the crawl makes up for and accentuates it.

This crawl is designed to give the players/characters a chance to introduce themselves to the world and make a splash doing it. It’s the first one of the year, it lets new teams introduce themselves to the public, gives them well known opponents to face off against, and princess to save. They are meant to come away from this with fans.

Another thing that sometimes gets overlooked are their opponents. This is a competitive sport. While it’s easy to think of it as team vs monsters it’s important to remember that there are five other teams running the first level of the crawl. Two of the six teams go on to compete in level two. Only the best team gets to compete in the final level. To this end you might want to have a couple of other teams named and ready to go.

I have a stable of teams set up ahead of time to pull from. I usually go through and create names and mascots for the other groups they’ll face. I also like to have some the teams set up with names, classes, and races for the different members. I’ll usually tick one off as the team captain as well. Your players may never directly interact with any of these teams and I honestly don’t even think you need stats. It’s just a nice piece of background information to flash on a scoreboard or for after the level.

 

            CHARACTER INFORMATION

Before you sit down for your first game, you’ll want to let the players know some things about the game. The description of the adventure is pretty good and gives them a good way in. However, I think there are a couple of things they should know before you go in. Cudgel Up has been running Memphis Crawl for a while and there are a few things that make it and X Crawl different from other games. These are some of the things that make X Crawl shine and will challenge your players to think even before they enter the level.

First off is the Princess. Every year Cudgel Up gives the contestants a number of princesses to rescue. This is a given. If you’re players are going to go into the crawl their character would know this. They’d also know that on occasion some of the princesses will be in harm’s way, this makes loading up on nothing but area spells and effects…not an awful idea, but it could limit options at a critical point. They’ll want a couple of single target options. They’ll also know that saving the princess involves reaching them and completing a challenge, this isn’t an escort mission. The princess’ will also be themed to areas of the dungeon. Each one will appear in costume at the beginning of every level and only some of them will be taken away. This will give them hints at what’s to come in levels 2 and 3 if they think to pay attention. It won’t be a guarantee of success but might help out in some of their potion buying and spell selection.

Next are the celebrity monsters. They are going to know that there will be the Cudgel Up Dancers and Vrusk the troll to contend with. The Dancers show up multiple times and this group of well-trained goblins are extremely loyal and tricky. They move with the coordination of your average SEAL team and have a room designed specifically for them that they’ve been practicing in. While they won’t be able to do anything in particular to prepare for them, they’ll want to be prepared to handle the little buggers when they show up. These are not going to be mindless thugs but well trained opponents. Also, they can show up on more than one level. They might only be on level 2 this year or they could appear in all three levels of the crawl.

Vrusk is a different matter. Vrusk the troll is a feature in the first level of every Memphis Crawl. This gives him the most exposure. He’s a fan favorite with his own fan club and a special rate for them to get tickets in his room. The players wouldn’t even have to work hard to learn that he’s going to be on level 1. They’ll probably come across it on the news or in their Facebook feeds. They will know everything about Vrusk, he’s big, a troll, and has woven barbed wire through his skin. He likes to grapple contestants and shred them against his skin. He’ll also be far more popular in his room than they will be. The crowd will be rooting for him. They also won’t kill him. The referee’s always call the room when Vrusk gets knocked unconscious for the first time. This will encourage the players to bring fire, but to remember that he might be holding one of them when it comes time to chuck the vial of alchemist’s fire or cast burning hands.

 

Finally, Cudgel Up likes to highlight Memphis in her Crawl. This can include area knowledge, local celebrities, or even challenges based on landmarks. While they won’t have any specific knowledge it might be fun to let them hit some Memphis tourist sites and see if they can figure some stuff out.

Now, you don’t have to tell players this. I think you should as it’s a part of X Crawl. They’ll know these things. They happen every year and are honestly an expected feature of Cudgel up. They won’t apply to every crawl the players encounter. I can think of at least two published crawls where they’re being run by new DJ’s and this sort of information wouldn’t be available. There are also several who don’t use recurring monsters, but would have certain themes, events, or types of encounters. One of the home brew DJ’s I created was DJ Big Daddy who was a former biker. Most of the prizes in his Crawl were high end custom Motorcycle parts. They could easily be sold for a good value but the team that won the entire event would also win a special edition Harley-Davidson’s and the custom parts would be installed for them. They know that much going in, it was even a factor in whether or not my players choose the crawl.

 

WHERE TO BEGIN THE SESSION

Unlike most RPG’s X-Crawl gives us a pretty decent starting point; the green room. We don’t have to know how the players met, became a team, or decided to go adventuring. We literally get to start with, “You’re in the green room…”

This gives us an advantage over a lot of starting campaigns. We get to skip a lot of the introductory bits of the game. The characters have been working together for a while, trained together, and know one another pretty well. Where a lot of games spend session 1 figuring out the group dynamics, this group is ready made. That’s a big step towards pushing forward.

This will help your players as well. I’ve never had a character concept 100% survive the first few sessions. It’s rare that I have a characters voice and mannerisms locked in for the first game. I’ll have a rough idea and can answer some surface level questions but usually anything really detailed I’ve written will be contradicted in a game or two. Starting in the green room helps players avoid spilling a lot of details about themselves that will have to be worked around later.

If you want to give them some role-play opportunities to get started with small steps, you have access to the greatest introductions of all time; game show questions. If you’ve ever watched the first five minutes of any game show you’ll have seen the host introduce the players and ask them a short leading question. You know the type, what’s a hobby you like, where did you go to school, is there anyone back home you want to say hi to? For X Crawl you want to start with something similar. Give the players a chance to get used to their characters before hitting them with heavy sports interviews. Questions you might even try if players seem to be having a rougher time is direct mechanics based ones like, their favorite weapon, fighting style, or spell.

Hit each player with a quick easy question and then move on to the dungeon. Let the fighting and adventure happen, take notes and at later interviews in the break rooms, after major show pieces, and at the end of the level to ask about the highlights from the crawl. Check out sports interview or even E sports interviews for some good examples of questions to ask here. In fact, I would recommend E sports over traditional sports for a much more fitting feel to what X Crawl is trying to accomplish.

 

NO GO DOOR PLACEMENT

You might have noticed that at Division 3 every room is to come equipped with at least 1 No Go Door for a quick escape should a contestant feel overwhelmed. You might also notice they don’t show up on the map at all. While you could go through and place them beforehand so you know exactly where they are. In fact I used to do this. I even included descriptions of where those doors should be in the adventure I posted on my blog. However, I’m going to back that up and say that you probably don’t want to place the No Go Doors on the map at the beginning. In fact you probably don’t want to point out their location unless specifically asked.

Part of this is it just clutters the map and reminds players that there’s something to get them out of jail if they get in over their heads. The other reasons is if you place them it might make useless if you need them. If you mark the No Go Door on the west wall when the team enters the room only to have the wizard really need one while standing on the east side of the room you’ve basically cut him off from his only escape.

I think X Crawl should be deadly; it should kill characters. However, it shouldn’t be unforgiving. Leave the No Go Doors off the map and then if a player gets into a bad spot and wants to save their character add it to the map and tell them where the exit is. You don’t have to make it a freebie. In fact I’d make them work for it a little bit. Make them have to scramble, give it some drama; if possible. Make them sweat.

If the player needs a way out and haven’t thought of one you can even remind them the No Go Door is an option. However, you should also remind them that by using it they are eliminating their character from the remainder of the level.  If the team manages to finish without them they can come back for the next level but it’ll be tougher with one contestant down and it should be.

 

BETWEEN THE LEVELS

They’ve made it to the end of the level and won the day. Now what? You can start on level two and get right to the next part of the crawl. It’s easy, fast, and a readymade next step. There’s nothing wrong with keeping the action going and if it works for you and your players it’s the best solution.

However, I will recommend giving them a little bit of flavor in the world. The first level of the crawl is run over three days with two teams running the level each day, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. Teams will have to wait to see how they did and learn the final results. In that time they are able to socialize, visit the town, and hang out in the hotel. Maybe they want to visit the local Adventures Guild and learn from the veterans or train to keep in top form. There are lots of options to explore.

Maybe they can interact with other teams. Give them a rival or friend they get along well with. Introduce them to the plucky underdog who’s just trying to make good. If you’ve ever watched any sports movie or sports in general you’ve probably seen the effects rival teams can have. I’m from Ohio and the rivalry between Ohio State and Michigan that crops up every year is intense and all consuming. I don’t even live near the college and it gets dug in pretty harsh. Professional wresting has great rivalry promos floating around. How would your players react to someone from another team calling them out by declaring he’ll get more kills in the next level than their fighter?

Even if you don’t do any of these things it’s nice to give them some extra touches. Tell them how the other teams did. Most X Crawls expect/require a twenty percent mortality rate to keep the audience engaged and the ratings up. List off a couple of the deaths from the other teams. Highlights from the crawl are always fun too. Maybe another team had a hard time with a challenge the player’s breezed through or the reverse. Maybe one of the other teams discovered a secret your players missed. Maybe one team got completely wiped out or only had one member survive. Maybe someone got their arm torn off and their career ended early. There’s a lot of flavor that can be added here for these little bits.

One other thing to think about between the levels is the dungeons monsters. There are typically two or three days between level levels to allow for tear down, set up, and any promotional events the crawl has planned. However, something the monsters do during that time is watch the game tapes. While it won’t help the more mindless animals and undead the intelligent opponents will have a bit of new tactics to practice. If your players found a tactic they liked the monsters will try and find a work around.

Is the party’s tank hard to hit but does little damage then maybe they can be ignored in favor of softer targets. Does the mage favor area spells, then the monsters will space themselves out. Does the cleric focus all of their healing on single targets, then maybe spread the damage around. Did anyone have difficulty with a particular type of saving throw, they might be that spell type’s principal target moving forward.

 

FINAL THOUGHTS

There you go. I hope this helps you get ready for your first crawl. X Crawl is an amazing game with tons of flavor and fun. If you just run it as a funhouse dungeon you’ll have a great time and lots of laughs. If you decide to add a couple of small tweaks here and there I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. Some of my favorite gaming stories are X Crawl stories and I’d love to sit around and share a couple of pints and the tall tales of days gone and adventures had with the lot of you. If you do use any of this advice or have some more for others coming along, please leave it in the comments below. I’d love to hear it.