Demon Castle Dracula!
Castlevania, the castle of Dracula, which is rumored to appear every century, suddenly materialized out of the mist as if to show her the way.
I might get a chance to run a Castlevania-inspired dungeon ruckus for Halloween. I’m reflecting on Symphony of the Night (my favorite game in the series), and just beginning to consider how it might translate into Dungeon World.
Consider this thread a “Give a Penny, Take a Penny” for your Castlevania Adventure Fronts, Monsters, Bonds, Compendium Classes, and anything else that seems essential. Feel free to post write-ups or moves for your favorite creatures of Castlevania, or anything else you deem creepy enough for the occasion!
I will post some initial ideas later tonight, after I get my kids to bed. I’m also a big fan of Bram Stoker’s portrayal of the vampire as a an apocalyptic Antichrist nightmare, and my ideas might get inflected by that.
But enough talk… Have at you!
#dracula #vampire #halloween #castlevania #monsters
Some leading questions, inspired by the novel: You have tracked the vampire to his fortress in the Carpathians. What did he take from you during his reign of terror in London? You have evidence of the vampire’s sorcerous might: what is it? At great personal cost, you uncovered a clue about the vampire’s diabolical master plan: What is the clue, and how did you find it? What rumor have you heard about the vampire’s weakness?
Front: Descent into Madness
Impending Doom: slavery to Dracula
Grim Portents:
– One PC is the focus of this Front. She has a dream that Dracula came to her in the night.
– She awakens to find grave dirt on her boots.
– she starts hallucinating Dracula as people she knows
– she is unable to stop herself from performing a vile deed in Dracula’s name
Joel Watkins that is an awesome idea. I would make the Stakes “Who will fall prey to Dracula’s corruption?” and have the Grim Portents affect the entire party. But not the same ones at the same time.
Swarm them with Medusa heads and knock them down from high places!
http://codex.dungeon-world.com/monster/870004
Personally, I would make the stakes sharp, wooden ones.
Wynand Louw Rim shot! 🙂
Bonds:
____‘s family has served with my own bloodline against The Count for generations.
____ knows a secret of my family’s curse, but has refused to tell me.
(Let’s see if anybody catches this reference)
El Pistol Del Sol (Reach, Near, Solar, 3 ammo, )
This ancient weapon is a mass of lenses and light capturing crystals. It allows the user to fire bolts of concentrated sunlight at their foes. Especially effective against the undead. Because it is powered by the sun it doesn’t require ammunition, at least not in the usual sense. Directly exposing the weapon’s solar collector to sunlight for several minutes will fill the weapon with enough energy for multiple shots. Strangely enough shouting the word “Taiyo” will cause it to refill in a matter of moments, but will certainly draw unwanted attention. Also a user may expend 2 ammo to give their attacks the Explosive tag.
After writing up the Medusa above, based on the flying gorgon heads in Castlevania, I got to thinking about the Hellboy story Wake the Devil and how the vampire’s mom/demonic patron was Lamia. So I started playing around with the idea of this Medusa playing a similar role in my twist on the setting.
“Dracula” means “son of the dragon [or devil]”. What if Dracula was just the herald of the real monster, like Grendel or the Silver Surfer? That could be interesting, and ratchet up the game to a cosmic scale.
So I rewrote the gorgon above as a more Mignola/Lovecraftian horror, taking a lot of ideas from other DW patrons, and this is what I’ve got so far:
http://codex.dungeon-world.com/monster/940001
What I’m noticing is that I write moves as specific cool things I want the monster to do, especially in an action scene. But I see that canonical monster moves are usually more general and suggestive, especially the monsters with versatile abilities like spellcasting.
How do you strike a balance between concrete detail and concise, descriptive monster moves? Would you suggest any revisions to the moves I’ve written for “Drakania”, or would you use this as is?
Thanks again!
In the later ‘vania games it is revealed that the castle itself is the real monster of which Dracula is the face/figurehead. That is why the castle is always changing shape, adding sections. That is why it is a giant mass of traps and monsters. That is why it always comes back. The location is a monster. Dark Heart of the Dreamer has some tools for this sort of thing as well…
This castle is a creature of Chaos. — Alucard
I own Dark Heart of the Dreamer, and I’m chagrinned that I didn’t make the connection. Beautiful.
Are you going to be working with sub-weapons as all?
Die Monster You Don’t Belong in this World!
When you enact a monster’s destruction ritual (Cutting off the head and burying at a cross-roads, placing silver coin under the tongue and building a cairn, burning the roots and sewing the earth with salt, etc) roll + Wis. On a 10 + pick 2. On a 7-9 pick 1.
+ The monster doesn’t rise again
+ Thralls cursed by the monster are freed
+ You gain 2D4 Hearts