Fiddler's Knob, the old mountain up beyond Hootin' Holler, has a heart full of music. From all around the Shudder Mountains, pickers, strummers, and singers would gather to fill the holler with song and dance.
Until that day something inside broke.
It wasn't like a mine collapse, although that happened too. It was more like the first string on a fiddle snapped. Twing! One minute there was a sweet song in the air and the next minute chaos. Bats under the sofa, quiltin' bee on fire, six-legged fire-breathin' whistlepigs runnin' about the woods . . . .
Whistlpig Breakdown brings the Appalachian-inspired Shudder Mountains alive with the colorful townsfolk of Hootin Holler and a "dungeon crawl" deep into the heart of the nearby mountain, Fiddler's Knob. Along the way, your band of adventurers will learn magical folk songs, taste enchanted witch liquor, and explore the legends sewn into the blocks of an enchanted quilt.
The adventurers arrive in town for the reknowned music fest only to find out that the hollow is overrun with abominable whistlepigs (or woodchucks to y'all city folk). Unravelling the tragedy that set the varmint aberrations loose will take the adventurers into the beating heart of Fidder's Knob where they will discover the musical mystery enchanting Hootin' Holler and come face to face with the granddaddy varmint abomination of them all!
Whistlepig Breakdown is a Dungeon Crawl Classics compatable adventure set in the Appalachian-inspired Shudder Mountains. Please join us for the journey and support this project today!
The book itself is a 30-page 8.5" x 11" full-sized saddle-stitched module crammed full of adventure, illustrations, Appalachian abominations, and new folk magic like Ruler Discipline and Blessing of the Holy Hootch. Plus, your adventurers may find artifacts like the Memory Quilt, Hanry's Varmintbane Axe, and the Hootin' Holler Hymnal. They may even learn the ritual Old Song, "Whistlepig Breakdown!"
In addition, we will be including an additional encounter, Smiling Other, which won the Goodman Games writing contest in 2024! See below for more details.
We will calculate and charge shipping costs separately at the end of the campaign. To keep shipping costs down, we handle shipping in-house (literally in my house) and use USPS media mail whenever possible.
We expect to be sending out the print version in June of this year and, of course, the digital version will go out very soon after the campaign ends. The book is quite nearly done, and we print locally so we believe this timeline is very achievable.
As a special bonus, we are including the award-winning encounter, Smiling Other! Never before published, this encounter won the 2024 Goodman Games writing contest for a DCC adventure. Smiling Other is a short encounter with two local boys who went down to the river to pray (or maybe just to go fishin'), and found themselves wading through a riffle inhabited by an otherworldly aberration. Your party of adventures will arrive just as the water is really heating up!
Drop the encounter anywhere in the Shudder Mountains or any other fantasy world where good ol' boys like to drop a line in the stream.
And here's a holler back to the good folks at Goodman Games who stirred up a heapin' helpin' of creativity with their writing contest! Thanks y'all!
Tricksy Grue Games is a small publisher of roleplaying game supplements founded by Jeff Regner. We publish modules for Dungeon Crawl Classics under a third-party publishing agreement with Goodman Games.
Jeff's journey with roleplaying games started with the Basic Set in 1979 and has wound its way through more rulesets and genres than he can count. He started Tricksy Grue Games by accident following some deeply-appreciated encouragement at Gary Con. Our first publication, O, Death! successfully crowdfunded in 2023 and Exhuming John Barleycorn came out a year later. Whistlepig Breakdown is the third Shudder Mountains adventure from Tricksy Grue Games.
Cover art for Whistlepig Breakdown is the work of Pittsburgh-based collage artist, Rebecca Lefkowitz. Maryland artist, Greg Lambert contributed interior illustrations as well as cartography. Ohio artist, Stephen Otterman created interior illustrations, and Lisa Regner provided illustrations and inspiration for the author.
Aaron Cahall, professional editor, with many credits in the game publishing industry provided editing work for this and Tricksy Grue's prior publications.
Like everything Tricksy Grue Games produces, this project is a labor of love, so no AI was used.
Plus, we appreciate all of our playtesters without whom we would never have any idea if our crazy ideas would be fun at the table: Scrum Con 2024 (Summer Sudbrink, Dave Sokolowski, Robert Broughman, Jacob Rummel, Fran Rummel, Kristin Matherly); Origins 2024 (James R.C. Hazel III, Nathan Kline, Paxton Jameson, Geoffrey Frost); GenCon 2024 (Jim Gitzlaff, Jazon Mizzell, Julie Woodman, Robert Schneider, Rob Chronister, John Milfelt, Joshua Irvin, Lisa Ward, Amanda N. Ison, Janet Branch, Michael Branch, Martin Gooch); Gongfarmers Local #716 in Fulton, MD (Kelly Armstrong, Dominic Buck, Matt Kirkhart, Abby Gaimaro, Dominick Gaimaro, James Hunt, Jason Menard).
