The Chained Coffin

Dungeon Crawl Classics #83

by Michael Curtis (contributor)

A whispered voice calls from a coffin bound in chains, urging the heroes into the depths of the Shudder Mountains, a place rife with superstition and forlorn secrets. In the shadowy, pine-grown valleys of the Deep Hollows lurk mysteries of a bygone age and a new evil emerging from the ruins of the past. The adventurers must plumb the mountains’ secluded reaches to root out this rising terror before its power comes to fruition. Standing in their path are cackling witches, subtle devils, lingering spirits, and a foul thing that moves in the night. Can the heroes appease that which lies within the Chained Coffin and thwart the dawn of a new and terrible age?

Genres: Role Playing Games

Hardcover

Published November 19, 2019

Reviews

[Ty Arthur · Rating 5 out of 5]

RPG publishers, do yourself a favor and pick this up. Give it a good read and then figure out how you can make a supplement this high quality for your own lines.

Based on the cover art and description, I thought this was going to be a collection of gothic horror adventures for high level Dungeon Crawl Classics characters. I was wrong. Wildly, hilariously, amazingly wrong. And I've never been so glad to be wrong.

This isn't an adventure. It's a full campaign setting that happens to be jam packed full of a bunch of adventures at the end. That setting is what shines, because it's way outside the norm both for Dungeon Crawl Classics and for fantasy roleplaying in general. The setting covers the Shudder Mountains, which is a fantasy take on Appalachian culture. I didn't expect to like that. In fact when I realized what was happening I thought I'd hate it.

Wrong again.

It would have been really, really easy to make The Chained Coffin a satire piece or a bad parody with inbred cannibal hillbillies playing banjos, but that's not what happens. The author critically isn't making fun of mountain folk, he's sharing their culture with a fantasy twist, and somehow it works.

Appalachian folklore fits surprisingly well in a human-centric fantasy campaign. Devils at the crossroads offering your heart's desire for a price, insular villages not fond of rude outsiders in a dangerous wilderness, herb craft and rustic proverbs, even Ancient Aliens, it all gets a DCC twist that is a refreshing change. As much as I love the utterly gonzo, metal-as-fuck approach DCC normally takes, its nice to have a palette cleanser every now and again and go a different direction.

Of course, I've got to mention the physical rune spinner tucked into the end of the book. Remember those old password spinners you got with PC games? It's like that, but way higher quality, and its a thing of absolute beauty. Besides taking a prominent place in the main adventure, there's even a few pages devoted to re-using the spinner in other ways so its not a wasted one-off prop.

Long story short, this thing is jam packed full of more in-universe goodness than you'd get in nearly any other campaign setting, and somehow its a full $10 cheaper than the average RPG hardcover. Big time kudos to everyone involved here. Now for the question -- when will the Shudder Mountains get turned into an Infinity Engine style video game?

[Kelvin Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has an evocative Appalachian horror feel, all backwoods witches and devils at crossroads, the individual encounters are interesting challenges, and the overall structure is quite intelligent and robust, with plenty of clues and alternate paths to the climax.

Alas, the backwoods horror does clash with the D&Dness of the adventure at times -- particularly that climax, which is more Elric than Silver John -- and it's very possible to get to the end, thanks to that robust structure, having missed some of those evocative encounters.

(My fix: ease the built in time limit so the players feel less of a rush to get to the climax and are happier to explore a bit more and engage with the locals.)

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first box set for the DCC RPG, this one accompanied the module of the same name: The Chained Coffin. Drawing heavily on the inspiration of Appendix N author Manly Wade Wellman and the folklore of Appalachia, this module and box set introduced the Appalachia-inspired setting called the Shudder Mountains. The box set contains expanded information on this setting and some addition adventures set in the Shudder Mountains. In the module of The Chained Coffin, the PCs have to transport a chained coffin over some rough terrain through the Shudder Mountains to prevent the rise of a great evil. The difficulties of carrying a heavy chained coffin through mountainous terrain is classic RPG problem-solving stuff, and the adventures and encounters along the way are based on Appalachian folklore and the stories of Manly Wade Wellman (and yes, you can find things like magical musical instruments and face mountain-dwelling giants and haunted log cabins and such). The module featured a spinning device that features in the climax of the novel. It's a great module - I've run it in a convention setting, and managed to make it fit a 4-hour slot, even though it is a pretty expansive setting. I would love to run a full Shudder Mountains campaign, someday . . .

[Doug Kallies · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised.

Having read a few of Goodman Games' offerings for DCC, I've come to expect a certain format from their adventure modules.

The Chained Coffin certainly delivers that, but there's so much more. It offers an entire campaign setting based on a supernatural version of the Appalachian Mountains (inspired by the writings of Manly Wade Wellman).

It presents as a departure from the traditional medieval European setting prevalent in most fantasy RPGs, and is a fresh and spooky take on a different kind of environment.

While it is written in the DCC ruleset, it is easily adapted to other systems.

Highly recommended.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a unique campaign world setting from the endlessly creative minds at Goodman Games. Based on the work of Manly Wade Wellman, the Shudder Mountains are a dark fantasy version of the Appalachian Mountains, filled with weird monsters, fearsome magicks, and dark doings. It's a pleasure to read, and I'm looking forward to running my group through some of these shadowy hollers and muddy cricks. Fun stuff.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

As good and as unique as RPG campaign settings come. Deeply reverential of both the culture and tales of real world Appalachia and (almost) never exploitative of the people or their hardships. The horror here is pervasive but never hicksploitation or slasher movie-like. More eldritch evil, ala the Manly Wade Wellman stories that inspired these adventures.