Descent into the Candy Crypts

I've spoken about Crimson Dragon Slayer before and its safe to say I like it, I like it a lot. To sum up in a nutshell, its an OSR release that boasts a tongue-in-cheek setting where the characters are your average Joes from the 80's that get sucked into a fantasy world via a computer game. Since I wrote my last bit on it, it's been released officially and has had a few adjustments to make it even shinier.

It's also worth mentioning that I'm currently writing an adventure for it to release soon too, a tale involving the enslavement of halflings, accountants, and a mirror.

In the meantime +Venger Satanis has released a mini-module for CDS, Descent into the Candy Crypts, which is pretty off-the-wall. It focusses on an area to the west of Valeece where a race of candy people and fruit people dwell. The Candies believe themselves to be the superior race in Thule and in particular think that the fruit people (or the Fruities) are bland and dull, whereas the Fruities think they are just fine and that its the Candies who are in fact too sweet. The Candies are very much painted as the bad guys in this adventure however and the characters will find themselves assisting the Fruities by descending into the Candy King's lair to thwart his evil diabolical plans.

In its 14 pages you're getting:

• Info on the setting.
• A table to give players a reason to be there.
• A table to add a random element to each encounter.
• Two maps with pages detailing what is in each area.
• Info on three types of Fruities should the characters wish to play one; Strawberry Folk, Banana-Men, Grapes.
• A few magic items to pepper the adventure with.

The layout and artwork is fantastic, featuring art by +Joshua Burnett inside (with the cover by the hoss himself, +Venger Satanis) and the layout by +MonkeyBlood Design. These guys do great work and compliment Venger's writing perfectly.
The writing itself is as table-friendly as it can be. Rather than trying to force a plot Venger has opted to describe each location one step at a time, releasing the plot through the descriptions. Theres a lot of great places in this module but the final boss fight should prove particularly delicious. If not then the Cherry Light District might be more in the players' taste.

I was surprised not to see some info on how to play one of the Candies along side the Fruities descriptions, especially seeing as one of the pieces of art shows a cool scene of some Candies exploring the crypt. A few can be worked out though by looking at the enemy stats should you desire to.

I think it could have also benefited with a few more setting-based items; a candy cane weapon, sugar bombs, apple seed rifles, that kind of thing. I appreciate that with the races being sweets and fruit that there is a fine line between "usable item" and "living thing" but this is CDS, I'm sure players would't query things too deeply. Spells too - we need spells to turn the bones of our enemies into Pink Wafers, their brains into Walnut Whip, and their eyes into gobstoppers.

CDS Rule Additions

Lets talking briefly about Crystallines. In the CDS core book this race has no racial HP listing but Venger has since stated that this is an oversight he planned to correct with an errata in Descent into the Candy Crypts - and he forgot! Disgraceful. However, he has mentioned on G+ what it should be:

"My suggestion: if you think the crystalline race will be abused for their magic potential, then give them a big fat zero.  If you want to encourage players to play that race (with or without abuse), then give them a d12."

I'd also like to highlight an additional rule that Venger has since suggested:

"Critical hits!  After the most recent game of CDS, I realized that +1d6 to your next attack isn't really comparable to double damage (it has actually never been selected). That's like letting a bird in the hand go in order to chase after a bird in the bush. However, a bird in the hand might just be worth two in the bush, depending on the player.  If he's a little bit of a gambler, it might persuade him to go for it.  

Henceforth, individuals can opt for +2d6 to their next attack if they get a critical hit, instead of the other options listed."

Two additions to scribble into your CDS corebook.

Should You Descend?

Descent into the Candy Crypt is a minuscule £1.92 on DriveThru RPG, a good price for something that should bring a good whack of entertainment to the table. Personally I would be hesitant to run it for first time CDS players as the physical setting is a bit too removed from the day-to-day life of an adventurer in Valeece. Don't want players to cement CDS in their heads as "that fruity sweety game thing".
Your seasoned CDS players however will enjoy it immensely and as a GM it's great to have fresh examples of a dungeon crawl done right. I'd say its a great palette cleanser between your normal game night sessions.