Actor, director, and big ol’ nerd Matthew Lillard is turning his DnD comedy show about adventurers meeting sticky ends into a book of one shot adventures. Faster Purple Worm: Everybody Dies is a book about finding the fun in a TPK, with 15 one shots that all end in death. It’s produced through Lillard and Bill Rehor’s company Beadle & Grimm’s and went up on Kickstarter on September 3.
The upcoming DnD book is based on Lillard’s Amazon Freevee/Plex TV show: Faster, Purple Worm, Kill! Kill! Released in 2023, the show aims to stand out from juggernauts in the actual play scene with its unique premise. We spoke to Lillard and Rehor about it, and discovered that while it’s mostly played for laughs, the show can tell surprisingly human stories “of people that do incredible things in the face of, ultimately, their demise.”
Now, the pair want to bring that experience to people’s home games with 15 one-shot adventures for babby level 1 characters just taking their first (and last) steps in the big wide world. Designed for irreverent, improvisational games, the book comes loaded with tips for being spontaneous.
From previews of the book on the Kickstarter page it looks like each adventure’s title begins with the words “everybody dies”, and that they’re based on episodes of the Faster Purple Worm show. Examples include everybody dies at a costume ball, in a den of snakes, or on a squid.
Plenty of tabletop RPG players loathe character death, and ‘Killer DM’ has become a malignant label, which many a dedicated gamemaster has been tarred and feathered with. However, the Kickstarter campaign points out the many advantages of this style of play, whichever side of the DM screen you’re seated on.
DMs don’t have to stress about planning long arcs, and they can forget about balance – handing out busted DnD magic items and powerful boons that most groups don’t get to play with. Players similarly don’t have to worry about long-term decisions, and knowing you’re doomed to die can be freeing from a roleplaying perspective.
However, the book acknowledges that it’s not for everyone, so each adventure has a ‘sidebar’ suggesting ways to adapt the adventure to make it part of an ongoing campaign in which the players actually survive.
Faster Purple Worm: Everybody Dies has hit its funding goal, having raised $121,500 at time of writing, and already unlocked its stretch goals (extra adventures which bring the total up from 12 to 15). Pledging can get you a PDF or physical copy of the book, with higher tiers unlocking extras like an alternate cover or an autographed edition.
It’s also worth nothing that the book has ‘Vol. 1’ stuck onto the end of the title, so presumably its creators are anticipating a Vol. 2 sooner or later.
For more Dungeons and Dragons, check out our guide to all DnD races and DnD classes, or learn about the 2024 Player’s Handbook and new concepts like weapon mastery.
Source: Wargamer
