Completely Unfathomable DCC

This is a review the DCC version of the Hydra Cooperative adventure Completely Unfathomable. The adventure is a collection of Operation Unfathomable and Odious Uplands. The first is an underground fetch quest and the later is an above ground point crawl. The two work together as the below ground cave system has an exit that is a point in the above ground adventure and they both share some of the same monsters, NPCs, and backstory.

This is a really great adventure, I give it high marks, much better than the Arduin adventures I have previously reviewed. Of course the Arduin adventures have historical reasons to study them to understand the origins of gaming and styles of play. Completely Unfathomable benefits from everything that came before and all that the OSR community has offered. This adventure is not without its flaws and may not be for everyone’s tastes.

I’m reviewing the PDF version of this adventure, which I bought this on DriveThruRPG.com.

The art is great

There are images of locations, NPCs, and monsters throughout the book. The art is fun, evocative, and inspiring. I took screenshots of the PDF, cropped and shared these images with my players. We were playing online so I could text the group an image.

There is also a couple comic book pages that show a group of adventures traveling through the dungeon’s caves. I’m guessing these pages come from this comic by the author about adventures traveling through the underground of Operation Unfathomable.

There are images of all of the monster and NPCs, patrons, maps, and some illustrations of landmarks and locations. I can’t stress how great the art is.

The maps

The maps are pretty good but are spread across several pages making them hard to read. This happens with both Operation and Odious.

The underground maps used for Operation Unfathomable are split into four pages. This makes it a little hard to follow the meandering natural cave system as a it cross from one page to the next. There is a second copy of the map at the end of the first book but this map turned 90 degrees compared to the earlier copy of the same map which adds some confusion.

The uplands map is divided into two page. The maps don’t have actual hexes or squares. Which is why I said point crawl. I would have liked to see hexes or grid for easily estimating distances.

The underground map has 20′ squares marked on. While the intention is that cave system seem vast the actual size is about 1280′ by 660′. So it’s possible to traverse most of the dungeon fairly quickly on foot. Characters could traverse the length of the dungeon in about 10 turns if they kept moving with out stopping.

The underground dungeon has about 21 named locations. One of these locations is its own sub dungeon with two levels and 14 numbered areas.

The Encounters

The encounters are for the most part well written and fun.

The biggest hurdle for most might the amount of humor and sci-fi. Many of the encounters present humorous situations that might break the mood of a serious fantasy environment. For example a common encounter is Science Fungoids. These are sort of high tech Myconids. They carry clipboards, enchanted stylus, and death ray pistols and most often want to have players test out experimental spores but first ask the group to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Another encounter is a sort of flying saucer hovering in a cave. If these things don’t bother you or upset the atmosphere you are trying to create there’s no problem.

The second biggest hurdle might be the amount technology. Speaking of those science fungoids, their death rays are pretty potent. I like the idea that these are not the typical fungus men that are low level easy encounters. Turning standard assumptions on their heads is good to keep your players on their toes. But the death ray pistols are pretty potent: 60′ range creatures of 4 HD or less must make a DC 13 Fort save or die, or take 2D10+2 on a successful save. That’s a pretty potent encounter for something that is more traditionally more of a pushover.

The question of is it possible that players can capture some of these death ray pistols. The description gives the pistol 4 shots and the science fungoids carry two extra power crystals. That puts a good limitation on the device. There is also the question of whether players will understand how to operate the devices. Note that they’re a lot of tough encounters, many not meant to be fought. Putting death rays in player hands might create some interesting, or un balancing situations.

There are a few encounters that beg for more details or leave out what I could consider important details. For example one important room has a figure frozen in a block of ice. There is not explanation for this, no name, or history, and no information about whether it is possible thaw this individual from the ice. I feel this is the type thing that players will latch on to and a DM may have to come up with some answers.

Another encounter is a flying saucer in a room with a forcefield. It’s next to impossible to get into the ship. This is situation that could have players spend a good portion of a play session without a satisfying resolution. They’ve tried everything but still can’t get into the ship. I like the idea but this is a room that really doesn’t add to the game in any way.

Balance

The game states up front that many of the encounters are not balance and that there is no expectation of balance. I can get behind this. I think a more interesting game world asks players to assess situations and make shrewd decisions.

All of that said if I could ask for one thing more from the module it would be more encounters that hit a sweet spot for low level combat. Maybe this would be a few more encounters around 2 HD creatures. We like combat in my group.

Writing

The writing is very good. It reads well and the language is fun and inspiring.

There is an issue with the room/location descriptions where text provides a description of the area but has a mix of player facing and GM secret info. This means as a GM you need to read the whole description then piece together what is immediately obvious to players that you can describe and reserve the rest for further exploration. This I think is weakest part of the adventure. Not a deal breaker just something that makes it harder to run as a GM.

How does it play?

It plays pretty good in an old school style. The game is written for DCC and the rules and monster stat blocks reflect this.

Despite the size of the map it doesn’t seem to be large enough! The main underground map covers two pages and measure about 1280′ wide by 660′ across. There are two major passageways. Both of these passageways extent off the either side of the map. it’s easy for players to wander off the map. It would then be up to the GM to handle what happens.

The map overall is not that large, and there are only 21 named locations. In my play sessions the players managed to get the quest object in three or four sessions. The players almost traveled directly to the device organically following their whims.

The random encounter table is fun. The chance for an encounter using the odds provided seemed to make for few encounters. Which may or may not be what was intended.

Some of the encounters and effects are deadly! This may or may not go over well with your group. Old school play often stresses player mortality but some play groups find making up new characters a bit a burden that puts a damper on play. I think this game does a good job of stating the deadly nature up front and providing a few clues to telegraph the danger of a situation.

Conclusion

I ended up mostly covering Operation Unfathomable here. I’ll write another post covering Odious Uplands later.

Would I buy this adventure? I did! Would I recommend you buy it? If you like what you read here, and sci-fi in your fantasy doesn’t bother you or upset your table, and you don’t mind humor in your RPG play, then get this module! I’d say the strong points are its creative invention and illustrations. Did I say the art was really good!