I took a class taught by Christina Stiles on writing for tabletop RPGs when I was a senior in college. She's a wealth of great info and experience on the industry and an all-around cool person. I'll have to track down a copy of Dungeon #61.
Have you ever heard the story of how Shelley thought up Frankenstein? She, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and her half sister went on a vacation and they spent their nights telling eachother ghost stories as it stormed outside. Shelley couldn't think of one for a few days, but then she had a dream about a half-monster-half-man and the next day she came up with Frankenstein. They all agreed it was the best story. Makes me want to rent a house on the shore with a few friends and play this module dressed in regency clothing
They were on Lake Geneva in Switzerland, if I recall correctly, when the tale of Frankenstein was born. And the game we all love was born on another Lake Geneva, in Wisconsin.
The Monster's side as rephrased by a wizard "I was given life, but I'm ugly. So I killed my maker's relative and am forcing him to allow me to reproduce. I promise that if I get the means to produce offspring there will be no further problems happening what so ever." Ye I don't think the party will be sold on that.
@@khrage9429 I enjoyed it a lot, but that might say more about my standards than the quality of the show! Here's the scene where Lily (the supposed bride) rejects Caliban (the Creature): ua-cam.com/video/3SPpXk3vR8I/v-deo.html
To up the creepiness factor of a horror session, seat the players so that their backs are to a dark room. Occasionally look over their shoulders like you saw something in the darkened room behind them. Sequel idea if the monster survives: Frankenstein Vs. the Space Monster!
Really like the way you use the environment to make the encounter more challenging. Definitely something for me to consider in future encounter design.
Try playing Space fantasy ttrpg such as Star War/Star Trek with college level math/ engineering/ physic students .. instead of rolling an abstract combat system, they turn .. everything .. into a word math problem to solve.
Victor Frankenstein: "......OOOOOHHHH....THAT kind of bodybuilding! I thought it was weird that one of the jocks at the university took an interest in my work."
Read through Frankenstein earlier this year for the first time and absolutely loved it. I was thinking of making a zombie horror one shot set in Falkovnia (Ravenloft) for Halloween but I might grab this instead.
@Professor Dungeon Master: Have players ever offered "the Monster" to join the party? "We could always use a big guy like you." And, "The chicks can go for a guy with a good heart and plenty of gold, no matter how ugly he is."
I wonder if this would work better if people don't know that it is "Frankenstein's Monster"... change names, and even change the creature -- it could be anything, such as monster that was enslaved by the researcher, a summoned spirit. I would especially do this if dropping it into a campaign. Might get some eye-rolls. If players are familiar with the Frankenstein story, I think they might have even more tendency to side with the creature. Of course as a convention one-shot, advertising up front that it is Frankenstein's Monster would be the draw and they'd know what they were getting into.
I need to improve my adventure writing skills. After running 6 adventures I asked the players what they like so far and what they didn't. Although all the feed back was positive they all said we want more like that Black Angus adventure. Oh sure the only one I didn't write myself, lol. Oh well.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 What's this Black Angus adventure? I've actually been working to adapt the plot from "Flesh & Blood" myself into a Warhammer adventure, so I'd be very interested to take a look!
I just bought the module. Looks great, going to be running this as a one shot soon. It looks like it will be effortless to run with practically no prep and can be done entirely in theater of the mind. One question though, how do I go about getting permission to print when I send this Staples?
Just bought the PDF. Appreciating the writing and simple format. I wanted to ask, do you think it would be a good idea to change the names so that the players don't know to expect the Frankenstein plot (even though at some point they'll catch on)?
Loved the video and the adventure. Thank you for this! I know spare time is difficult,but with this and Macdeath, I would love to see other classics turned into dnd! Yes we have curse of strahd, but I would love to see your take on Stoker's Dracula etc.
Both Victor and Adam (I know the name is not in the book, but it might as well be official at this point) are monsters. Victor is an arrogant madman, who abandoned what was essentially a child, because it was scary looking, but Adam is a monster, whether as a result of nature, or nurter he murders fairly causally throughout the book. Adam is also fairly petty and bitter, he also wants Victor to bring a hideously deformed woman into being to fill that void. Essentially he wants to bring another life like his into being so that they will suffer along side him, and just assumes this woman will love him, by default. That is seriously desturbing whene you really mull it over. In the end both men are the monster.
Grew up in the country by ravines, hills cover in dry leaves are next to impossible to run strait up on with muddy shoes. Fast way to go up a hill is at an angle or zig zag if you what a strait path up the ridge. Fun effect, we didn't have to wait for it to snow in my area, even during summer we just Pledge spay the bottom of sleds and go down wet grassy hills or the dry pack leaves.
This is the same thing I'm looking for in Curse of Sthrad: moral quanderys. ... I plan to play my paladin of Lathaner, for both roleplay and powergaming reasons. (But mostly roleplay. I'm playing a sub-optimal subclass.)
Thank you for making your videos your informations has helped push my dm ability so much. if you get time I would love to see a video on warlocks and there relationships between the patron and party as a lot of my players love to play warlocks and I can’t seem to do it justice thanks again :D
I feel you could adapt a lot of gothic horror stories for horror themed encounters and campaigns such as say Dracula and A Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (that one must happen though one hell of a good novella and works well in a d&d setting using some adaptations), maybe even try some Shakespearean plays as well, Macbeth I think works well for adaptation.
Great video as always! Just in time for Halloween! 4:53 you say fire-based spells will explode the lab because of flammable liquids and gas, but isn't the lab already on fire in the beginning of the encounter?
What happens if the players take the creature's side and decide to help it? Are there branching encounters, or are they more or less forced to fight the creature? Seems like the last encounter is unlikely to happen if they help the creature from the beginning.
An excellent adventure design! You could fill it out with some other basic encounters; peasants seeking revenge on the Doctor for past wrongs or witnessing the Monster helping peasants. These might create additional moral conflict.
I LOVE this! Professor, (or any of you expert game masters!) could I ask you for more of this kind of content, especially for Halloween? I've always wanted to do a Wolfman sort of Dungeons and Dragons game, where the players have to find and fight a wolfman, but in so many of the modern games, werewolves are so dang wimpy. They either have too few hit points, or their legendary "can only be killed/hurt by silver" is absolutely pathetic. I also find the save to resist becoming a werewolf yourself ridiculously easy. I know a DM can change whatever they like, but I can't help but feel like that's cheating and the game rules are set that way for a reason. Do you have any advice?
Sorry DB, but why would I buy your T-Shirt, when PDM says that Charisma is a dump stat; I personally don't see where moving me from 2 CHA to 3 CHA is of much help? :( PDM you might want to add a player spoiler warning in future videos, those players are always looking for an edge. Jigsaw, nice, I think I read that adventure. Love the AC by room concept, the 3Ts are for me. Great sounding adventure, as soon as I am done reading my copy of MacDeath, I may consider picking this up ;). Another great PDM video, thanks!
Excellent module! We played through it as a family around halloween as it was my kids birthday wish. We all loved it. Especially meeting the monster.
I took a class taught by Christina Stiles on writing for tabletop RPGs when I was a senior in college. She's a wealth of great info and experience on the industry and an all-around cool person. I'll have to track down a copy of Dungeon #61.
She's a good friend and great designer.
Have you ever heard the story of how Shelley thought up Frankenstein? She, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and her half sister went on a vacation and they spent their nights telling eachother ghost stories as it stormed outside. Shelley couldn't think of one for a few days, but then she had a dream about a half-monster-half-man and the next day she came up with Frankenstein. They all agreed it was the best story.
Makes me want to rent a house on the shore with a few friends and play this module dressed in regency clothing
They were on Lake Geneva in Switzerland, if I recall correctly, when the tale of Frankenstein was born. And the game we all love was born on another Lake Geneva, in Wisconsin.
@@caravanmaster5228 What! that's awesome
McDeath is fantastic. That one is on tap for my new campaign once all this Covid is behind us. Will definitely be picking this one up as well!
Okay, is it just me? Or are those lead window, lights on looking in/dark looking out window sections PURE GENIUS?
"Also, the room's going to explode in less than 30 seconds."
Yep, it's a Professor DungeonMaster scenario alright.
HA! Right?!
The Monster's side as rephrased by a wizard "I was given life, but I'm ugly. So I killed my maker's relative and am forcing him to allow me to reproduce. I promise that if I get the means to produce offspring there will be no further problems happening what so ever."
Ye I don't think the party will be sold on that.
Additionally, does the woman monster get any say in this?
@@unnefer001 love the idea of lady frank getting created, noping out of this bs and creating a movement to overthrow the patriarchy.
@@khrage9429 IIRC that was a storyline in the TV series, Penny Dreadful.
@@khpa3665 cool! I don’t think that I saw it. Was it any good?
@@khrage9429 I enjoyed it a lot, but that might say more about my standards than the quality of the show! Here's the scene where Lily (the supposed bride) rejects Caliban (the Creature): ua-cam.com/video/3SPpXk3vR8I/v-deo.html
I know you said the vids didn't get enough traffic, but I thought the literary reenactment videos were cool!
Thank you. Keep passing them on.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 I've shown them to a couple of people, I really enjoyed them.
I bought the Master Edition of ICRPG a few days ago because of your Reviews in the past.
Thx for your awesome work Prof. Dungeonmaster (=
Impressive that Shelley was 18-19 years old when she wrote Frankenstein
Dan you are an inspiration. Thanks for giving us all such a great module!
Always amazing working with you Prof :)
Deathbringer's punchlines always slay.
"Lite Rules. Heavy 'tude" 😂 totally radical, dude!
Thank you!
I love this, it's a really good adaptation of the amazing and deep book!
Thank you!
To up the creepiness factor of a horror session, seat the players so that their backs are to a dark room. Occasionally look over their shoulders like you saw something in the darkened room behind them.
Sequel idea if the monster survives: Frankenstein Vs. the Space Monster!
Thanks for sharing your time and hard work with us Professor! You're an absolute legend
Thank you and I appreciate YOU sharing this video.
Always a pleasure Professor!
This is quite simple, and Frankly fantastic! Thanks for sharing this!
Frankly, well done.
Bought me a t-shirt and an adventure module, thanks! Love your work!
Fun adventure! The Professor teaming up with Quest givers is excellent! Great horror game for Halloween 🎃!
Thank you!
Really like the way you use the environment to make the encounter more challenging. Definitely something for me to consider in future encounter design.
Literally bought this two days ago and printed it yesterday, cant wait to run it!
Thank you for your support!
This sounds suspiciously like a ploy to get a literary discussion going at the game table...
It also sounds like an absolute blast!
Try playing Space fantasy ttrpg such as Star War/Star Trek with college level math/ engineering/ physic students .. instead of rolling an abstract combat system, they turn .. everything .. into a word math problem to solve.
Victor Frankenstein: "......OOOOOHHHH....THAT kind of bodybuilding! I thought it was weird that one of the jocks at the university took an interest in my work."
0:50
Wow you co-wrote that adventure?!
I remember playing it back in the day, really enjoyed it.
Many belated thanks!
Thanks!
I remember Jigsaw from back in the day! Fantastic Ravenloft adventure. Goodness I miss Dungeon Magazine!
Treasure Island would work well as a D&D adventure too.
This was marvelous. Thank you.
You are welcome!
wonderful ideas
works even better for Call of Cthulhu
Thank for watching!
Just got it! Cant wait to run this for my 2 groups!! I am going to mix it in with the Haunt Trilogy.
Phenomenal adventure concepts!!! Fantastic miniatures and UDT Sets for this video!!!
Thanks! Pass it on!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Shared!!!
Awesome minis- love the fire tokens(?) too!
Read through Frankenstein earlier this year for the first time and absolutely loved it. I was thinking of making a zombie horror one shot set in Falkovnia (Ravenloft) for Halloween but I might grab this instead.
@Professor Dungeon Master: Have players ever offered "the Monster" to join the party? "We could always use a big guy like you." And, "The chicks can go for a guy with a good heart and plenty of gold, no matter how ugly he is."
Yes. But he would not accept the offer.
Just bought this and read it! Great adventure. Really excited to run it for the players of my game and our DM this month
I wonder if this would work better if people don't know that it is "Frankenstein's Monster"... change names, and even change the creature -- it could be anything, such as monster that was enslaved by the researcher, a summoned spirit. I would especially do this if dropping it into a campaign. Might get some eye-rolls. If players are familiar with the Frankenstein story, I think they might have even more tendency to side with the creature.
Of course as a convention one-shot, advertising up front that it is Frankenstein's Monster would be the draw and they'd know what they were getting into.
I need to improve my adventure writing skills. After running 6 adventures I asked the players what they like so far and what they didn't. Although all the feed back was positive they all said we want more like that Black Angus adventure. Oh sure the only one I didn't write myself, lol. Oh well.
That plot was stolen from the film "Flesh & Blood." I'm good at stealing things, so your players will probably enjoy Frankenstein!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 What's this Black Angus adventure? I've actually been working to adapt the plot from "Flesh & Blood" myself into a Warhammer adventure, so I'd be very interested to take a look!
@@dartfast ua-cam.com/video/3dQunnEAVmI/v-deo.html
I just bought the module. Looks great, going to be running this as a one shot soon. It looks like it will be effortless to run with practically no prep and can be done entirely in theater of the mind. One question though, how do I go about getting permission to print when I send this Staples?
This is amazing! Thank you for your wisdom.
Thank you!
Just bought the PDF. Appreciating the writing and simple format. I wanted to ask, do you think it would be a good idea to change the names so that the players don't know to expect the Frankenstein plot (even though at some point they'll catch on)?
You could. I'll change Frankenstein's name to "Richtenheim" occasionally.
Yes! I have never been so excited for a ttrpg release 😁 I deff will look to try and run this for Halloween 🎃
Came for Frankenstein, stayed for Frankenstein's creature.
Loved the video and the adventure. Thank you for this! I know spare time is difficult,but with this and Macdeath, I would love to see other classics turned into dnd! Yes we have curse of strahd, but I would love to see your take on Stoker's Dracula etc.
Thanks for not using film grain!! :)
Epic as always professor!
Thank you!
Abby something... Food for the algorithm
Thanks!
Great seasonal scenario idea!
I love it! For sure using this soon.
Thanks for watching!
Excellent premise for a Halloween adventure!
Thanks for your support, Ron!
Very cool! Is the frozen lake a special UDT? Looks awesome.
ua-cam.com/video/KTHl-xFITlM/v-deo.html
Both Victor and Adam (I know the name is not in the book, but it might as well be official at this point) are monsters. Victor is an arrogant madman, who abandoned what was essentially a child, because it was scary looking, but Adam is a monster, whether as a result of nature, or nurter he murders fairly causally throughout the book. Adam is also fairly petty and bitter, he also wants Victor to bring a hideously deformed woman into being to fill that void. Essentially he wants to bring another life like his into being so that they will suffer along side him, and just assumes this woman will love him, by default. That is seriously desturbing whene you really mull it over. In the end both men are the monster.
Crafty use of terrain to impede the PCs. I need to use this more. Great episode!
Grew up in the country by ravines, hills cover in dry leaves are next to impossible to run strait up on with muddy shoes. Fast way to go up a hill is at an angle or zig zag if you what a strait path up the ridge.
Fun effect, we didn't have to wait for it to snow in my area, even during summer we just Pledge spay the bottom of sleds and go down wet grassy hills or the dry pack leaves.
Great stuff friend 👏 👍
Nice use of mini's in this one.
I love the doctor and monster minis!!
Happy Halloween, Professor!
I need to do this more, add the 3 T's to the finale of games.
This is the same thing I'm looking for in Curse of Sthrad: moral quanderys.
...
I plan to play my paladin of Lathaner, for both roleplay and powergaming reasons.
(But mostly roleplay. I'm playing a sub-optimal subclass.)
Sounds cool
Thanks for sharing
Thanks for watching!
This is just Brilliant!!!
I appreciate your support!
I do love horror in rpgs, I always stick some cosmic horror in :p
Great Dungeon Craft, I'm really into gothic horror. Where did you get the creature miniature I love it and would like to get one. Thanks
Sadly, I cannot remember.
Thank you for making your videos your informations has helped push my dm ability so much. if you get time I would love to see a video on warlocks and there relationships between the patron and party as a lot of my players love to play warlocks and I can’t seem to do it justice thanks again :D
great video and great adventure!
where did you get the minis shown? they are great.
O_o omg this would be perfect also for SHadows of the Demonlord O_o nice thanks!
I think Victors brother would die well as trying to "kill the creature" or at least defend himself from this horror
ME: _Kills both Victor for his unrepentent playing of God in creating a twisted mockery of life AND The Creature for his murder of a child._
deathbringer, bringing in the dad jokes
Did you ever have a group cross both Dr. Frankenstein and the "Creature" ? I'm curious, one group I had would likely have tried it. 🤔
I feel you could adapt a lot of gothic horror stories for horror themed encounters and campaigns such as say Dracula and A Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (that one must happen though one hell of a good novella and works well in a d&d setting using some adaptations), maybe even try some Shakespearean plays as well, Macbeth I think works well for adaptation.
Professor DM has done MacDeath with QuestGivers. Check it out 😉
Hahaha
Another great video but when are we going to see more crafting videos? Just curious...
IDK why, but I mistook Death Bringer for Asgore Dreamer from Undertale for a few seconds there.
Great video as always! Just in time for Halloween!
4:53 you say fire-based spells will explode the lab because of flammable liquids and gas, but isn't the lab already on fire in the beginning of the encounter?
Nice episode!
Thank you, Lynne!
Great stuff!
What if the players choose to help the creature? What is the lab and ice encounter if they don't fight the creature?
Super interesting question!
I answer that question in the module. The characters have total freedom.
What happens if the players take the creature's side and decide to help it? Are there branching encounters, or are they more or less forced to fight the creature? Seems like the last encounter is unlikely to happen if they help the creature from the beginning.
I have that magazine and di play the adventure. It was fun and I lead to some.other stuff too.
An excellent adventure design! You could fill it out with some other basic encounters; peasants seeking revenge on the Doctor for past wrongs or witnessing the Monster helping peasants. These might create additional moral conflict.
Great ideas!
Good stuff!
I LOVE this! Professor, (or any of you expert game masters!) could I ask you for more of this kind of content, especially for Halloween? I've always wanted to do a Wolfman sort of Dungeons and Dragons game, where the players have to find and fight a wolfman, but in so many of the modern games, werewolves are so dang wimpy. They either have too few hit points, or their legendary "can only be killed/hurt by silver" is absolutely pathetic. I also find the save to resist becoming a werewolf yourself ridiculously easy. I know a DM can change whatever they like, but I can't help but feel like that's cheating and the game rules are set that way for a reason. Do you have any advice?
Theyre both monsters in the end...
It's a classic debate. Thanks for watching!
Love this.
where are those Monster and Dr. figures from?
Printed Obsession & Great Grimoire
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Thanks PDM!
Awesome!
Having the party work against one another doesn't sound like fun D&D to me.
Sorry DB, but why would I buy your T-Shirt, when PDM says that Charisma is a dump stat; I personally don't see where moving me from 2 CHA to 3 CHA is of much help? :( PDM you might want to add a player spoiler warning in future videos, those players are always looking for an edge. Jigsaw, nice, I think I read that adventure. Love the AC by room concept, the 3Ts are for me. Great sounding adventure, as soon as I am done reading my copy of MacDeath, I may consider picking this up ;). Another great PDM video, thanks!
Thank you!
So cool !
Easy solution: one of the female PC's is particularly messed up and falls in love with the monster
Body building contest!
Shared!
Nice
Yay!
🌟 *support squad .*
And then someone rolls to seduce the creature because there's always someone...
Is Questgivers Broken? I purchased Frankenstein last night and have yet to get an email or download link after several attempts
Second!
Hey Professor! Trying to track down your email, starting to feel very incompetent at my task. Willing to comment your email or send me it privately?
Moral quandary and environmental sabotage for players makes for great game play!