5th Evolution: Carbide City

5th Evolution: Carbide City is a supplement that allows you to take D&D 5th edition rules and enter the realm of comic book heroics.

The book contains 43 pages of content. This is an adventure and rules supplement for 5th edition. You need the core books, basic pdf, or the srd to use it.

It starts with a  full color comic book that sets up the game. It discusses the history or supers, Carbide City (the setting), and the events that lead into the scenario. The scenario has four encounters and a nice little variety of opponents. This is followed by two pages of genre rules and equipment, several pages of npc's (a few generics and several named villains with art and adventure hooks).

Because characters in comic books don't tend to really change power-wise often, Carbide City characters don't have levels. You pick an archetype that you can customize. These are the equivalent of level 12 characters from traditional 5e games. The archetypes are:

• Blaster
• Brick
• Feral
• Gadgeteer
• Ghost
• Martial Artist
• Marksmen
• Speedster
• Telepath
• Teleporter

The book ends with a  page describing how to reward characters in Carbide City (since they don't level up) and a page discussion the crunch of the archetypes (and how you can modify them).

I am of two minds when it comes to this book. I really like it. While I've not played it. It seems very functional and you can easily add to it by pulling from existing 5e material. My issue with it was I was expecting a level up system. I can't really fault the game for not having one though.

If you want a taste of what the book is like you can go to the 5the Evolution website and download the preview adventure, No Going Back. If you have the full pdf, this still provides you with an adventure and a few new npc's for your game.

Currently only backers of the Kickstarter (like me) have print copies, but you can pick the pdf here.

If you like the 5th edition rules of Dungeons and Dragons and love supers, you should definitely pick up 5th Evolution: Carbide City.

Vampire Poodles!

Inspired by this post, I present you with vampire poodles to add to your Vigilante City and Dark Places & Demogorgons games!

Vampire Poodle
Armor Class: 15                                           Attack Damage: Bite 1d6
Hit Dice: 3                                                    Special: Keen Senses, Vampire
Move: 18                                                       Bonuses: +1 to Hit, +3 to Toughness, +1 to Damage
Attacks: 2 per round                                     Terror: 10 HDE: 3

Vampire poodles have excellent senses and low light vision. They get a +4 to all rolls to detect their prey and here/smell things. During the day they appear as regular poodles, but at night they will wait til their owners are asleep and sink their vampiric canines in their owner's jugular. Vampire poodles aren't affected by the sun like regular vampires. They regenerate 1 HP a round (even if reduced to 0 HP) unless they are decapitated or a stake is driven into their hearts. Fire and silver negates their regeneration until the next night. Finally vampire poodles don't cast reflections and will flee from garlic. 

Twelve Days of Sweet Christmas - No-El the Super-Santa From Krypton

I thought I'd kick off the Twelve Days of Sweet Christmas with a bang. Comics Alliance has the best fake covers and this is one of my favorites.

No-El

AC: 15                           Attack Damage: Unarmed, 1d6, Heat Vision 1d6 damage (range 50')
HD: 8                             Special: Kryptonian 
Move: 30/30 (Fly)         Bonuses: +3 to hit, +10 to Toughness,  +5 to Damage
Attacks: 2 per round     HDE:  10
No-El is another survivor of Krypton, though he he's actually been on Earth for many centuries. He is the basis for the legend of Santa Claus. Because of his Kryptonian DNA he can perform feats of inhuman strength, fly, move at super speeds, and has x-ray vision. Finally he is nigh invulnerable, though he loses his toughness against magic attacks and when near kryptonite. Weapons made of kryptonite do an additional 1d6 points of damage and even being within proximity to kryptonite can cause him damage. He takes 1d4 points of damage each round he's in physical contact with kryptonite. In addition if somehow the solar radiation was drained from his cells, he would be powerless.

Merry Axemas Day 12 - Christmas Night of the Living Dead

For the final day of Axemas, I'm giving you a Zombies! 2nd Edition adventure seed based on this MXPX classic.

Christmas Night Of The Living Dead


While travelling cross country to be with their families for the holidays, the party finds themselves stranded in a small town. Fortunately for them, a young couple has shown them the true meaning of Christmas and invited them to stay in their spare room. 

In the middle of the night they hear sounds of screaming and chaos. Santa has come and he's brought the zombie apocalypse with him. 

Stats for the formerly jolly old fat man can be found below. Use Living Dead Zombies for the other zombies the party encounters.

Allow the party to arm themselves with the gifts they were taking to their family. Use the chart below to randomly determine what piece of gear they get. 

Present Table (Roll 1d6)

1. Cast Iron Skillet (1d6+1 damage, -1 to attack rolls if wielder has a Str of 12 or less)
2. Football Pads and Helmet (+3 to AC)
3. Pocket Knife (1d4)
4. Hockey Stick (1d6)
5. Bottle of Good Whiskey (1d6 damage, breaks on natural 18-20, then does 1d6+1 damage, can become Molotov cocktail*)
6. BB Gun (1 damage, range 60')
7. Baseball Bat and Ball (1d6 damage 1d4 range 40')
8. Leather Armor and a Motorcycle Helm (+1 to unarmed damage, +2 to AC)

*1d6 fire dam to 10' area and ignites anything hit, DEX check to put out


The party needs to survive the onslaught and find working transportation to escape the town,

Zombie Santa

Armor Class: 13

Hit Dice: 4
Move: 9 
Attacks: 2 Per round
Attack Damage: Bite (1d6), Claw 1d6-1
Special: Tear Attack 1d6+2 (counts as two attacks), targets the naughty first, distracted by milk and cookies
Pack Size: 1d4 Living Dead Zombies 
Bonuses: +2 to attack, +2 to toughness, +2 to damage
Methods of Termination: Damage to the brain, severing the head, burning the body

There are different ways to decide which player is naughty. You could ask if anyone has recently got a speeding ticket. You could also decide that the last person that told a dirty joke or cussed is the naughtiest. 

Even though he's be turned into one of the living dead, Santa is still distracted by milk and cookies. when presented with a plate of cookies and glass of milk, Santa must stop and spend 1d4 turns eating the cookies and drinking the milk. However, if he's attacked during this time he will go into a rage and attack humans around him. During this time all of his attacks gain advantage and all attacks against him also have advantage.

Ash Wednesday - A Luchagore Christmas

This short is really disturbing and not technically Evil Dead related, but since it features a book bound in human flesh, I figured I could make some Evil Dead content out of it.

Deadite Santa
Armor Class: 12                Damage: Claw, 1d6
Hit Dice: 6                         Special: Deadite, Christmas Magic
Move: 12                           Bonus: +2 to Hit, +2 to Toughness
Attack: 1 per round           HDE: 6

Unfortunately for the children of the world a few decades ago, Saint Nicholas was possessed by a Deadite. Every time a character is damaged by Santa they must make a Critical saving throw or become possessed. It is possible to stop possession by severing the offending limbs. It is possible that certain rituals (and even direct sunlight) might also remove or at least suppressing a Deadite'ss control of the body. 

Santa retains some of his Christmas magic. He can sense when there are naughty people near and knows the dark deeds done by those he can see. He will use these to torment them. Santa can spend his turn revealing a character's dark secrets. The character must make a Mental Save or suffer disadvantage on all attacks for the remainder of comment. If they succeed the saving throw, they gain advantage on attacks against Santa.

Santa also has the ability to fit into chimney and can move down any chimney and will not take damage if there is a fire at the bottom of it.

Santa also has the Hohonomicon. This tome is made bound in the flesh of naughty children and inked in their blood. It contains the following spells from the Necronomicon: Animate Skeleton, Resurrecting The Dead (the Dark version only), and a few unique spells )Animate Toy and Gingerdead Men).

Animate Toy (1 Con): You cause a toy to come to life and do your bidding. You can use my Krampus Gift stats found here for the toy stats. 

Gingerdead Men (1 Con): Dark. You create Gingerdead Men.You can create a small group of regular cookies sized Gingerdead Men or one larger one.

Mighty Nein Intro

I wanted to share the new animated intro to Critical Role for those of you that haven't seen it. It was written and is performed by a few of the players. Even if you don't like the show, this is a cool intro.

30 Days of Night Vampires for STZ2E

I wrote this post for those of you that would like to use the new STZ2E mini campaign setting in Frostbitten to run a 30 Days of Night game. Bears Creek can easily become Barrow, Alaska.

Vampire 
Armor Class: 14                                           Attack Damage: Claw or Bite 1d6
Hit Dice: 4                                                     Special: Vampiric Strength and Weakness
Move: 18                                                       Bonuses: +2 to hit, +4 to Toughness, +2 to Damage
Attacks: 2 per round                                     HDE: 5

Vampire Alpha
Armor Class: 15                                           Attack Damage: Claw or Bite 1d6
Hit Dice: 6                                                     Special: Vampiric Strength and Weakness
Move: 18                                                       Bonuses: +3 to hit, +4 to Toughness, +3 to Damage
Attacks: 2 per round                                     HDE: 7

Vampires are intelligent hunters more akin to sharks than the romantic villains gothic fiction portrays. They are incredibly fast, have razor sharp teeth and claws, and acute senses (+2 on die rolls involving tracking prey). The are extremely resistant to damage. The only weaknesses they have are ultraviolet light. The take 2d6 points of damage each round exposed to UV light. Other than UV light, decapitation is the only way to permanently dispatch one of these killers. Any human bitten by a vampire or that comes in contact with vampire blood will turn into a vampire unless they are decapitated.