Every year I have a holiday tradition. I invite a few friends over, make pancakes, and have a Kristmas Kobold 1-shot. I suppose it’s a sort of (sometimes dreaded) holiday-themed adventure, but the cheese factor is cranked to 11 by the fact that the PCs are all kobolds, a fact which has never failed to provide hours of entertainment as the players get in the mood to play conniving, clever, unwise little creatures.
Last year I used the Gamma World system (with the tagline of “Well you WERE kobolds…once…”) because it lends itself terrifically well to simple, fun games that don’t ask for a lot of investment. I wrote it up last year after the fact, which may have been a mistake because the other holiday tradition when I DM this game is to get rrrrreeeallly drunk.
There is a third tradition, though, too–at least, this is the second year I’m doing it, and two yearly events totally make it a tradition, right? At any rate, I’ve asked the kind Randall Walker (@deadorcs on twitter) to write up the final boss again this year (last year’s boss being the ineffable Sandy Claws). And this year, the final boss is a doozy.
And isn’t he a looker? See, Krampus is an austrian tradition I learned about a few years ago, and I gotta say, I’m kinda in love with the guy. He apparently chases Santa around like a two-bit lawyer after an ambulance, scoops up all the wicked children in a sack, and carries them away for a midnight snack. Santa gets cookies and milk while Krampus feasts on the flesh of the wicked.
Could there be a better villain for a holiday one-shot?
I’m not going to release his stats here. I think Randall wanted to put up his info after the holidays, so I’ll leave that to him. It’s his baby, after all (HEE HEE BABY KRAMPUS ok I’ll write that up later). I will, however, give you a peek at the plot:
It’s a cold and snowy winter. You hate that, being kobolds and all, so you’ve been snug in your lair trying to wait out the hideous frozen sky-filth. Just as the days seem their darkest, small shiny presents began appearing throughout the caverns. At first thrilled by the surprises and gifts of poking sticks and hamster balls (NO HAMSTER) and burritos and sealing wax and strings and many other things, life soon turned sinister as shortly after the presents began to appear, the children began to disappear, leaving little behind besides a few rags and some poop stains.
You have been tasked by the den mother (mostly chosen by not hiding fast enough when she came striding angrily through the caverns) to find these lost children, despite explaining to her that she could just make more of them. She seems particularly attached to these ones, inexplicably, and has threatened to cast you out in the frozen wastes if you do not take care of this. Tonight.
Game is in a week and a half. I’m stoked to see some friends and to play some ridiculous game, and this is one holiday tradition I hope I keep for a long, long time.
How about you? Do you have any gaming-related holiday traditions?
Holiday gaming is family games, usually. When Grandpa Ken was alive it was Pinocle at a penny per point but we also play Uno, Pit, Rummicube, Scrabble, and have set up the Wii from time to time.
Awesome! Don’t know if you saw it – but did you want to be part of the Krampus Carnival we’re running this week? Here’s the link:
http://nevermetpress.com/merry-krampus-let-the-carnival-begin