The zine starts with a discussion about party composition. In DCC its really important for a party to have the four core classes: warrior, cleric, magic-user, and thief. While Some classes, can fill-in for the roles (don't have a warrior, a dwarf is a good substitute), other classes (like the cleric) don't really have a substitute. The two new classes presented are the Ranger (warrior/thief) and treefolk (warrior/cleric). While treefolk don't seem like a classic pc race, the author sites ents being listed as part of the "free peoples" of Middle Earth to justify their inclusion into the game.
Downtime isn't something really discussed in DCC. Like the many classic fantasy stories that inspired it, adventures typically just go from adventure to adventure. I think downtime is a fun part of gaming, so I appreciate some thoughts and rules for adding it to your DCC game.
Keeping with the nature them, there are two pages worth of herbs presented. Each herb has a name, location it can be found, and what effects the herb has. One page includes seven legendary herbs. They are powerful ingredients and can be used to inspire adventures and grand quests. The other page includes 12 mundane herbs, which includes the information mentioned above and DC for finding them.
There are three new nature-based spells. The first can be used by clerics. The other two are for magic-users. The new Treefolk class can use all of these spells. My favorite of these spells is Chimeric Graft which allows you to graft an animal body part onto another creature.
The zine also includes undead related pc material. Death isn't a rarity for DCC PC's. However, it's not the end. It is possible that the character can rise as a Revenant to gain revenge. This is done by a roll, which is modified by different things related to the character's death. Revenants gain powers to help them get their revenge. The other character option is dhampir. With a judge's permission a player can have their character be born as a dhampir (which comes with powers and weaknesses). It's also possible to become a dhampir through other means during play.
There is a six page toolkit to help judge's create vampires. While DCC isn't a game of balance, there are some relatively balanced vampire creation rules. I like this personally, but you don't have to use the point-by power system if you don't want to.
One of my favorite parts of DCC is patrons. Graves & Groves includes patron stats for the Prime Vampire. This includes the basic tables you need for a patron; Invoke Patron check results and Patron Taint. It also includes three new patron spells.
This is followed by a fourteen page hex-crawl adventure called Vow of the Vampire. There are maps, charts, and everything you need. There's even a really cool magic sword. The adventure is primarily designed for level 1 characters, but can be played as an extended adventure with a large 0-level party.
The zine ends with a mini-bestiary that goes with the natural and undead theme. The Giant Newt is my favorite new monster just because it has a really annoying, but fun ability. The Fungal Zombie Spider sounds fun. Shambling Moss isn't anything new, but doesn't have a pre-existing DCC equivalent. We also get two different npc Treefolk statblocks, and template rules for Revenant.
The book ends with a treefolk starting occupation chart.
There's a lot of great new content for your DCC game here. I think it plays really well with Nightworld, Macabre #1, and Vampire Blood. Grab your copy today at the Goodman Game Store.
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