Written by Mark Tygart • Edited by Logan Howard • Art & Layout By

Written by Mark Tygart • Edited by Logan Howard • Art & Layout by Jesse Ross Sample© 2018 Sword Breaker Press file Efficiunt Daemones, ut quae non sunt, sic tamen quasi sint, conspicienda hominibus exhibeant. Demons so work that things which are unreal appear as if they were real.

—LACTANTIUS

Sample file TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 5

Setting 6

Location 9

Encounters in the Mist 10

Moves 14

Monsters 20

Items & Spells 24

Compendium Classes 28 Sample file Introduction Shortly after I decided to explore Dungeon World, I stumbled into a I love. Sitting down and trying to be like Mark Tygart was the action bunch of free materials designed for the game. The most exciting that helped me overcome my doubts and give myself permission to part was the cache of Dungeon Starters shared by Mark Tygart. make things and share them with my friends and the wide world.

The brilliant Marshall Miller came up with the Dungeon Starter for- Imagine my surprise when one of the people who reached out to mat. It’s a collection of questions for the player characters, impres- encourage me after I released my first few zines was Mark Tygart sions of the setting, monsters to encounter, and moves to advance himself! Now I have this very exciting opportunity to work togeth- the action and theme. Each one is like a “module” only better because er with him and Jesse Ross on the adventure you have before you. I it plays into the open-ended player-driven aspects of Dungeon World. hope you will play it, steal from it or be inspired to make your own. The gm works together with the players to launch an adventure that If you do, let us know! belongs to everyone at the table but has some tools to quickly chal- lenge the players and respond to their explorations.

Mark Tygart has been adding to an ever growing catalog of excit- ing adventures that can be found on his blog, The Cats of Tindalos 1 . Finding Mark’s collection changed my life. It was like going to a friend’s house and seeing Legos for the first time. I was looking Logan Howard, [email protected] over Mark’s shoulder while he took ideas and used Marshall Mill- er’s tool set to make play-objects with them. I wanted to play too!

I sat down and constructed my first Dungeon Starter following Mark’s examples. I called it “The Tyrant Machine”. That project turned into my first issue of Sword Breaker. That was the hurdle I needed to clear on my way to actively creating content for the game

1 – The Cats of Tindalos: catsoftindalos.blogspot.com

Sample5 file Setting TONE

A Castle in the Mist is my attempt to create a very personal “weird Specifically as a diehard Star Trek fan my primary inspiration is tale” Dungeon World adventure in the Sword Breaker format. the classic Robert Block Star Trek: The Original Series Halloween episode “Catspaw”. Robert Bloch (April 5, 1917–September 23, 1994) What is a “weird tale” you might ask? was a genre fiction writer, primarily of crime, horror, fantasy and H. P. Lovecraft popularized the term in his essays. In “Supernatural science fiction, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is best known as Horror in Literature”, Lovecraft defines the genre: the writer of “Psycho”, the basis for the film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock. He was a protégé of H. P. Lovecraft who was the The true weird tale has something more than secret murder, bloody first to seriously encourage his talent. The Robert Bloch Award is bones, or a sheeted form clanking chains according to rule. A certain presented in honor of his memory at the annual Necronomicon atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread of outer, unknown convention. The award is in the shape of the Shining Trapezohe- forces must be present; and there must be a hint, expressed with a seri- dron as described in H.P. Lovecraft’s tale dedicated to Bloch, “The ousness and portentousness becoming its subject, of that most terrible Haunter of the Dark”. conception of the human brain—a malign and particular suspension or defeat of those fixed laws of Nature which are our only safeguard He penned three Star Trek original series episodes. All of these were against the assaults of chaos and the daemons of unplumbed space. based on short stories written by him previously. “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” came out from three of his stories, most notably Although weird tales or sometimes “weird fiction” has been “Queen of the Metal Men”, “Catspaw” was loosely based on his 1957 chiefly used as a historical description for works through story “Broomstick Ride”, while “Wolf in the Fold” was adapted from the 1930s, the term has enjoyed a contemporary revival in the 1943 story “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper”, which was previously “New Weird” fiction. For example, China Miéville often re- adapted to an episode of Thriller in 1961. fers to his work as weird fiction. Many horror writers have also situated themselves within the weird tradition, including Clive Another influence has been my love for Philip K. Dick’s mind melt- Barker and Ramsey Campbell. ing science fiction and his many stepchildren in current cinema. I particularly love HBO’s series Westworld, Philip Nolan’s film Yet my first encounter with this type of storytelling was located Inception and Ridley Scott’s classic filmBlade Runner and its brilliant sometime in a distant part of the galaxy in the 23rd century. sequel.

Sample6 file So imagine a kid breaking out his Star Trek action figures to play this adventure is supposed to be like. I’m going over to my friend with his Dungeons & Dragons miniatures hopped up on Halloween Logan Howard’s house to play but the defects in the game as Game candy while watching a Westworld marathon and you’ll get what Master are all mine. I hope you and your players have a good time.

APPENDIX N

If you want more of the right vibe for your sessions in A Castle in the The Nightmare Before Christmas film and Tim Burton films in general Mist, any of the following will also help you get there. Night Gallery television series (particularly the stories adapted Star Trek: The Original Series (check out all the Robert Bloch from H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith) episodes; Catspaw is the adventure’s primary inspiration) Old Vincent Price horror films, particularly the Roger Corman’s The Twilight Zone television series “Edgar Allen Poe” series and especially “The Haunted Palace”.

The Outer Limits television series British Hammer horror films of the 1960s Horror( of Dracula)

The early films “twist ending” films of M. Night Shamaylan The horror fiction of Edgar Allen Poe, H.P. Lovecraft Quest( for Unknown Kadath), Clark Ashton Smith and Robert Bloch Supernatural television series (“Trickster episodes”) Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories by Fritz Leiber (particularly Christopher Nolan’s filmInception Adept’s Game and Bazaar of the Bizarre) David Fincher’s filmThe Game William Hope Hodgson’s classic horror novel The Boats of the “Glen Stephen King’s The Running Man and the film Carrig” and the Japanese horror film based on itAttack of the Mushroom People Invasion of the Pod People film and various remakes Michael Crichton’s adventure tales and the films and television Drew Goddard’s filmCabin in the Woods (Produced and cowritten based on them (Westworld) by Joss Whedon) Dream Park novels of Larry Niven and Steven Barnes

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