1. Campaign Introduction and Overview
This month, I shall attempt to participate in Adam Dickstein's RPG Campaign Tour Challenge 2026 with two different campaigns in two different blogs. In Decidedly 6-Sided, I am discussing my Toledo Ghostbusters campaign. For Applied Phantasticality, I shall be using a campaign I have been preparing for, but have not yet run. (I would very much like to start it by this spring.) My responses to this challenge's prompts will likely be brief as this campaign world is a work in progress, but I think it may help in shaping its direction.
The campaign is called The Zem of Null. The system is Mutant Crawl Classics RPG. As with most MCC RPG campaigns, it starts with a rite of passage for the youths of a primitive tribe in a post-apocalyptic world and leads to an exploration of that world far beyond the travels of their elders where they will discover the ruins and artifacts of the Ancients and possible clues as to their disappearance. Player characters will be seeking to prove themselves to their tribe, improve their status, help their village, and expand their knowledge. They may also have other goals dictated by their own personal aspirations, codes, relationships, and interests.
The Zem is a tribe of all genotypes (Humans, Mutants, Manimals, and Plantients), essentially a confederation of the refugees of many different tribes that had been decimated by various hostile tribes, natural disasters, and monstrous rampages. They banded together for mutual protection and, through cooperation and the sharing of knowledge and traditions, prospered and expanded. There are now many villages in the Zem tribe including Null, Onay, T'Woh, T'Hree, Foh-Ur, Feevay, and others. The player characters begin as Zem in the village of Null about to take part in the rite of passage that will confer the privileges of adulthood in their society.
Each player will start with four 0-level characters in the standard manner of MCC RPG (eight 0-level characters each if I can't find more than two players). The house rules are here. As mentioned there, all human classes from both Mutant Crawl Classics RPG and Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG are permitted. Non-human classes from DCC RPG will be considered, but will probably have to be reskinned for this setting. In general, this is a science fantasy campaign where the line between sorcery and super science is blurry and the sword can be as mighty as the laser pistol.
[For more information about RPG Campaign Tour Challenge 2026, read this.]
