1d12 Days of Christmas – Day 4

Well, it looks like you’ve managed to avoid any encounters for a couple of days… it’s time for a DOUBLE ENCOUNTER, I think!

First, Michael Tresca at The Examiner gives us d2o Modern stats for Krampus (as if you haven’t had enough Krampus by now!)

Then, at the very bottom of your stocking, down among the nasty little bits of candy cane and lint from Christmases past have accumulated, you find this terrible little creature – Horror for the Holidays, a compact collection of festive horror stories, compiled by Nuelow Games. It features Locke, Lovecraft, Machen, and Poe, along with stories from HM Croker, Bret Harte, Hume Nesbit, and Edgar Wallace, in a pulp-styled package. It’s great for curling up with by the fire while enjoying a cup of eggnog and listening to something horrible and blasphemous scratching at your windowpane.

That should keep you busy for a little while. Now roll a save versus poison for that mistletoe that Big K just forced down your character’s throat!

 

1d12 Days of Christmas – Day 3

I worry for whatever is on the other end of that rope...

What’s this? Another holiday random encounter? As you pull a card from the Deck of Many Things, you encounter…

More Krampus! This time he comes to you in the form of a free 3-page PDF from Nevermet Press, a system-neutral holiday NPC for you to download, convert to your favorite system, and let loose on your campaign!

Have your PCs been naughty? Then it might be time for them to get a lesson from our favorite Alpine Christmas Demon! Download Krampus – a system neutral holiday NPC here!

 

1d12 Days of Christmas – Day 2

Epic Christmas adventure! And like any good gift, it's free!

It’s here! Another completely random day of the 1d12 Days of Christmas! As you reach into Santa’s Bag of Holding, you pull out…

It Happened One Christmas, a free adventure for one of my favorite RPGs of all time – Faery’s Tale, from Firefly Games. In it, Father Christmas enlists the aid of some of the fair folk to help a village that has come under a terrible curse from a a nasty prince. It even includes a new faery type (Christmas Elves) for the characters to play.

The adventure is a bit on the short side, but could easily be beefed up – in fact, a section at the end contains several suggestions for extending the story. One of them even gets Old Man Winter involved, and I can think of a bunch of other characters from Christmas lore (*cough*Krampus*cough*) who fit right in to the story.

If you have young people who are interested in trying out roleplaying (or you’re interested in gettting them interested), Faery’s Tale is an excellent choice for an introductory game, and this adventure would be great as their first one ever.

Or you can play it with all grownups. It’s okay. No one will judge you. We’re all friends here.

Download it from Firefly Games right here: It Happened One Christmas

 

1d12 Days of Christmas – Day 1

He knows if you've been naughty.

Christmas and RPGs always seemed to have a connection to me, ever since I asked for the World of Greyhawk set back in 1982 and actually found it under the tree that year (and made a tradition for a few years after that of asking for at least one D&D book from my family, and chuckling as they share the tale of what they had to go through to get it).

So with that in mind, I bring you 1d12 Days of Christmas – a random amount of Christmas-themed Quixotist posts. Who knows how many you’ll get, or when they’ll happen?

For the first one this year, I bring you Krampus! If you haven’t heard of him yet, I’m pretty sure you will – in Alpine countries, Krampus is a demonic creature who accompanies St. Nicholas on his night journey, punishing the naughty children by giving them switches (or even hitting them with them), and sometimes even capturing some of the very naughty ones in a little cage slung over his back.

Krampus entered my family’s Christmas mythology the moment we first learned about him, and now along with cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer, we leave some meat for Krampus (though since raw meat is usually dangerous to leave laying around, we stick to beef jerky).

Of course, just the idea of a monster connected to Christmas appeals greatly to gamer-type people like ourselves. as you would expect, lots of roleplayers have incorporated Krampus into their games in one way or another. Recently, I had the opportunity to do an illustration of Krampus for Berin Kinsman’s blog – so if you play Pathfinder or D&D 3.5, you can now add Krampus to your own personal Monster Manual. Enjoy!

If you’d like to learn more about Krampus, visit his Wikipedia page and the wonderful krampus.com.

And there’s your first 1d12 Day of Christmas. When will your next encounter happen? Only the DM knows…