PDM here. Thank you for the positive review. Here are some stats for the module: The Creature: AC: 15 HP: 30. Attacks: 2. Damage: d6+5. +5 to all attacks and saves. Cannot be charmed or put to sleep.. All attacks only inflict 1hp of damage. Critical hits and firearms do 2hp. Lightning and electrical attacks cure d6hp. Player Characters: Henry Clerval, 6th level poet, AC: 15, HP: 12. Ernst Frankenstein (Victor's younger brother), F3, AC: 13, HP: 18. Dirty Harold, bodyguard. F4, AC: 14, HP; 20hp. I also use Justine Moritz as a PC, but I like your idea of her being the bride better. :)
Are you familiar with the "A Ghastly Affair" rpg? This would be a useful adventure for it. If you have any other adventures during the Gothic era, or even a Dracula in you, I think you'd enjoy checking it out.
I would like to recommend to you a horror themed dungeon crawl for Old School Essentials titled "It Came from the Scriptorium". Its a love letter to the Evil Dead and Phantasm film series taking place in a monastery in which a ritual to contact the after life goes very wrong, and can be run in a single session!
I'm about to run this adventure in a few weeks, I tried to download the character sheets you made but the pdf was corrupted. I used the stats that PDM mentioned in a comment and used chatgpt to create a summary of the literary characters. I think I have at least 3 PCs that I can have the players use, I used one of my own characters from a comic I'm making and changed some things to make him fit into this world, He has an affinity to science and some technical know how, he can be a novice alchemist, so he could be someone that might be fascinated by Victor's endeavors at first until he realizes that Victor actually made a creature. He might have unknowingly helped Vic create the creature by providing chemicals or some invention. He could be a fun Npc I can use for some scenes and I can easily make him a PC if a player wants to play him after I set up what he can do. I also made a grave digger character with a love for poetry that can be an NPC. I'm toying with the idea of making him a poetry book with his poems, that maybe a player ( probably the Henry Clerval PC since PDM made him a 6th Level Poet) can use to try to persuade the creature to abandon its desire to destroy Victor. Will he succeed? I think it would be a fun prop and I can include partial journal entries describing sightings of the creature or encounters with grave robbers. I'll be making a few more NPCs, thugs, grave robbers, and I'll make a few more pregens with different backgrounds like doctor ,detective and professor. Thanks for the video, I'm rewatching it for more ideas on how to actually run the adventure.
I love literary adaptations in RPGs, and PDM is a gift to the hobby. I own this scenario from Quest Givers, and I would encourage anyone whose interest has been piqued by this video to pick it up.
I've run this with dnd5e just fine, I've given players all the agency to finish the monster right away if they wanted and the funnest thing in the lab scene was sorcerer shooting running away monster with 5hp left with chaos bolt... and you know what? Yep, lightining damage on both dice, he had no choice but to heal the monster instead of killing it... it was amazing ) And we played final scene at the lake )
I just picked up this adventure a few days ago, I was thinking about running it tomorrow for a group of beginners at the library but noticed that there aren't descriptions on the type of PCs that would fit in that setting. I'd also need to gather up some quick stats for thugs, grave robbers and any NPC that might fit in scenes. I liked your suggestion for PCs and I see that PDM commented some stats. That will definitely help. I was thinking about using Basic Fantasy as the rules or the Deathbringer mechanics, the simpler the better. I'll have to look for a system that has Victorian style PCs and NPCS that I can borrow. I also have an idea for the bride if one of my players or PCs is female and dies. That PC will become the bride. I was thinking about WHY the party would be in the area, The party can start IN the coach ride to the town, (It provides an opportunity to roleplay before meeting Elizabeth and backstories can be fleshed out) and one of the PCs can be someone that Elizabeth wrote and asked to come and look for Victor. A Prop letter from Elizabeth would be fun to make. That PC can easily be Henry Clerval, and he can be the leader of the group. I think i'll run it in October closer to Halloween, I'll have more of a chance to prep and make any props or print outs I can use. Great video and glad I found it!
Great to see a new video from you! Awesome review! I'll be interested to hear what percentage of the players you ran this adventure for had read the novel. My guess would be somewhere around 75%. Am I close?
I do like pdm's videos, but his writing more sizzle than steak for me. The mechanics need to at least be talked about in context of the world, otherwise it comes off as a writing prompt for the gm. The mechanics should be more than an after thought even with rules light systems. That having been said, glad you like it, and a dm that likes to restat all monsters in an adventure would probably like this as it gets them to the prep they find fun.
Yes - and I think if this were a deeper adventure, the generic, rules light approach wouldn't work as well. For this one, statting out the monster, and a handful of thugs wasnt hard, but I am also well-practiced in doing that exercise. I can see it being frustrating to other GMs.
@@1ShotJC having a monster that can do everything the scenario needs it to is the difficult part with this scenario, I found. The players might chose not to fight the grave robbers but fight Dr. Frankenstein and end this in the second scene. PDM kind of railroads the players; ie, the monster has to be able to get away and into places undetected and survive the first encounter with the pc's. Depending on the system, this is hard, an no real thought is given or suggested in the sort of characters appropriate for this, as you pointed out. Ie, a Savage Worlds Rippers character might start out a bigger monster than the creature and just start shooting when the creature appears to get a new set of lungs. A Gurps player familiar with the system might make a former calvary officer with a sword cane and a revolver who might just kill the creature to put the thing down. These are mechanical concerns that the entire thing hinges on that you will have to have a better than average grasp of the rules of whatever game you are playing. Like I said, lots of sizzle, but no steak. The work does not give you what you actually need to run the scenario and no way to prevent the players from upsetting a fairly well known plot. Not sure who this is for.
PDM here. Thank you for the positive review. Here are some stats for the module: The Creature: AC: 15 HP: 30. Attacks: 2. Damage: d6+5. +5 to all attacks and saves. Cannot be charmed or put to sleep.. All attacks only inflict 1hp of damage. Critical hits and firearms do 2hp. Lightning and electrical attacks cure d6hp. Player Characters: Henry Clerval, 6th level poet, AC: 15, HP: 12. Ernst Frankenstein (Victor's younger brother), F3, AC: 13, HP: 18. Dirty Harold, bodyguard. F4, AC: 14, HP; 20hp. I also use Justine Moritz as a PC, but I like your idea of her being the bride better. :)
Are you familiar with the "A Ghastly Affair" rpg? This would be a useful adventure for it. If you have any other adventures during the Gothic era, or even a Dracula in you, I think you'd enjoy checking it out.
I would like to recommend to you a horror themed dungeon crawl for Old School Essentials titled "It Came from the Scriptorium". Its a love letter to the Evil Dead and Phantasm film series taking place in a monastery in which a ritual to contact the after life goes very wrong, and can be run in a single session!
Oh cool- I'll check it out!
I'm about to run this adventure in a few weeks, I tried to download the character sheets you made but the pdf was corrupted.
I used the stats that PDM mentioned in a comment and used chatgpt to create a summary of the literary characters. I think I have at least 3 PCs that I can have the players use, I used one of my own characters from a comic I'm making and changed some things to make him fit into this world, He has an affinity to science and some technical know how, he can be a novice alchemist, so he could be someone that might be fascinated by Victor's endeavors at first until he realizes that Victor actually made a creature. He might have unknowingly helped Vic create the creature by providing chemicals or some invention. He could be a fun Npc I can use for some scenes and I can easily make him a PC if a player wants to play him after I set up what he can do. I also made a grave digger character with a love for poetry that can be an NPC. I'm toying with the idea of making him a poetry book with his poems, that maybe a player ( probably the Henry Clerval PC since PDM made him a 6th Level Poet) can use to try to persuade the creature to abandon its desire to destroy Victor. Will he succeed?
I think it would be a fun prop and I can include partial journal entries describing sightings of the creature or encounters with grave robbers.
I'll be making a few more NPCs, thugs, grave robbers, and I'll make a few more pregens with different backgrounds like doctor ,detective and professor.
Thanks for the video, I'm rewatching it for more ideas on how to actually run the adventure.
I love literary adaptations in RPGs, and PDM is a gift to the hobby. I own this scenario from Quest Givers, and I would encourage anyone whose interest has been piqued by this video to pick it up.
I've run this with dnd5e just fine, I've given players all the agency to finish the monster right away if they wanted and the funnest thing in the lab scene was sorcerer shooting running away monster with 5hp left with chaos bolt... and you know what? Yep, lightining damage on both dice, he had no choice but to heal the monster instead of killing it... it was amazing ) And we played final scene at the lake )
I just picked up this adventure a few days ago, I was thinking about running it tomorrow for a group of beginners at the library but noticed that there aren't descriptions on the type of PCs that would fit in that setting. I'd also need to gather up some quick stats for thugs, grave robbers and any NPC that might fit in scenes. I liked your suggestion for PCs and I see that PDM commented some stats.
That will definitely help.
I was thinking about using Basic Fantasy as the rules or the Deathbringer mechanics, the simpler the better. I'll have to look for a system that has Victorian style PCs and NPCS that I can borrow.
I also have an idea for the bride if one of my players or PCs is female and dies. That PC will become the bride.
I was thinking about WHY the party would be in the area, The party can start IN the coach ride to the town, (It provides an opportunity to roleplay before meeting Elizabeth and backstories can be fleshed out) and one of the PCs can be someone that Elizabeth wrote and asked to come and look for Victor. A Prop letter from Elizabeth would be fun to make.
That PC can easily be Henry Clerval, and he can be the leader of the group.
I think i'll run it in October closer to Halloween, I'll have more of a chance to prep and make any props or print outs I can use. Great video and glad I found it!
I really want to adapt this module for Vampire: the masquerade and do a super campy Dracula vs. Frankenstein universal monster movie homage
I love that!
I would have to add some ‘Young Frankenstein’ references. 😂 Love your videos! 👍🏼
Yes was VERY tempting to do that!
@@1ShotJC Putting on the Ritz! Maybe a little soft shoe number. Is there a bard in the group? 😂
Great to see a new video from you! Awesome review! I'll be interested to hear what percentage of the players you ran this adventure for had read the novel. My guess would be somewhere around 75%. Am I close?
I do like pdm's videos, but his writing more sizzle than steak for me. The mechanics need to at least be talked about in context of the world, otherwise it comes off as a writing prompt for the gm. The mechanics should be more than an after thought even with rules light systems.
That having been said, glad you like it, and a dm that likes to restat all monsters in an adventure would probably like this as it gets them to the prep they find fun.
Yes - and I think if this were a deeper adventure, the generic, rules light approach wouldn't work as well. For this one, statting out the monster, and a handful of thugs wasnt hard, but I am also well-practiced in doing that exercise. I can see it being frustrating to other GMs.
@@1ShotJC having a monster that can do everything the scenario needs it to is the difficult part with this scenario, I found. The players might chose not to fight the grave robbers but fight Dr. Frankenstein and end this in the second scene. PDM kind of railroads the players; ie, the monster has to be able to get away and into places undetected and survive the first encounter with the pc's. Depending on the system, this is hard, an no real thought is given or suggested in the sort of characters appropriate for this, as you pointed out. Ie, a Savage Worlds Rippers character might start out a bigger monster than the creature and just start shooting when the creature appears to get a new set of lungs. A Gurps player familiar with the system might make a former calvary officer with a sword cane and a revolver who might just kill the creature to put the thing down. These are mechanical concerns that the entire thing hinges on that you will have to have a better than average grasp of the rules of whatever game you are playing.
Like I said, lots of sizzle, but no steak. The work does not give you what you actually need to run the scenario and no way to prevent the players from upsetting a fairly well known plot. Not sure who this is for.