A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Dungeon Crawl Classics #77: The Croaking Fane

Dungeon Crawl Classics #77: The Croaking Fane by Michael Curtis is a role playing game supplement published by Goodman Games for use with Dungeon Crawl Classics. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result. This is an adventure for 3rd level characters.

The supplement is available as a 20-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $6.99 although it was purchased at a reduced price in a special bundle. Two pages are the front and rear covers, one the front matter, one an ad and a small fraction of a page the Open Game License.

This is a frog-themed dungeon adventure which is hardly the most original idea to be had. It starts with the Background which explains details of the Toad War, in which the Salientian Knot, the followers of Schaphigroadaz, the Lord of Evil Amphibians, came out second best to those of Schaphigroadaz’s spawn Bobugbubilz. Now they want to regain their position of power. This introduces two organisations that are supposed to be integrated with the setting and, frankly, this background has no relevance at all to the adventure. It can thus be ignored completely.

The characters can get involved with this as a side adventure; it suggests adding references to the Salientian Knot in a few places before they are encountered, then rumours send the characters to the temple. Given what the adventure is like, this can probably be disposed of as well. Just drop in a rumour about an evil cult that needs dealing with.

The adventure itself involves exploring the Croaking Fane, a frog-shaped temple with both above and underground areas. There are also some rather nasty encounters; flesh eating tadpoles that can strip flesh to the bone and a tomb robber discovered just prior to them being eaten from the inside by a plague of carnivorous toads. Moral: Don’t touch stuff in evil temples. Even once the primary foes are dealt with, the adventure isn’t over; there’s a second major nasty and the, when everything looks to be over, the temple locks down and a final nasty emerges. A three-stage boss fight perhaps.

Appendix A: New Spell has a single new spell that causes the in-body carnivorous toad infestation mentioned earlier.

Finally, there are two full page maps of the temple levels.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #77: The Croaking Fane in Review

The PDF is bookmarked but only the major sections are linked. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of error. There are a number of black and white illustrations, which appear to be custom, as well as the maps. Presentation is good.

As mentioned, the lore at the beginning is rather needless. Though lore can add to a setting, characters could easily go through this adventure without knowing a single thing about it, including the names of either evil frog god. In some ways, it might be easier if they do, rather than try to integrate two powerful cults into a setting. Though evil frog temples are hardly unusual – they effectively predate RPGs – this is definitely one of the better ones. It’s sometimes nasty and definitely interesting. Dungeon Crawl Classics #77: The Croaking Fane is a decent little adventure and it can be found by clicking here.