Play the upcoming Dr. Grordbort RPG in D&D 5E with this exclusive quickstart adventure
Prepare for Scientific Adventure Violence.
A Dr. Grordbort RPG is on the way, and you can get your first taste of the satirical sci-fi universe on the tabletop with a brand new playable quickstart adventure - exclusively on Dicebreaker.
For those not familiar, Dr. Grordbort is the brainchild of Greg Broadmore, a designer, writer and sculptor at Weta Workshop - the Oscar-winning effects studio behind films including The Lord of the Rings and Avatar - who created the retro sci-fi universe over a decade ago with a line of raygun props. Since then, the universe has expanded to include comic books, video game DLC for Half-Life 2, an international exhibition and, now, an upcoming tabletop RPG: Dr. Grordbort's Scientific Adventure Violence.
Dr. Grordbort's Scientific Adventure Violence is a supplement for Dungeons & Dragons 5E. Like the wider Dr. Grordbort’s universe, the upcoming RPG is a satirical take on the colonialism, capitalism, sexism and other such elements seen in the pulp sci-fi adventures of 1930s comic strips like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. Think something like Fallout, but with 19th-century England in its raygun sights instead of ‘50s America.
While the universe engages with the distasteful aspects of such stories and makes use of similar old-school imagery, Dr. Grordbort’s itself aims to tear apart the philosophies by lampooning them through its retro-futuristic setting - effectively the Victorian British Empire, but on Venus - and thoroughly unlikeable characters, such as alien game hunter Lord Cockswain.
This latest quickstart is the fourth in a series of five adventure paths released ahead of the game’s upcoming Kickstarter campaign in August. You don’t need to have played any of the previous quickstart adventures to jump in here, but you will need to grab the original Quick Start 1 set as it includes information on the game’s mechanics and other introductory materials. Luckily, you can pick up everything you need for free right here. If you enjoy this adventure, the other quickstarts are modular and can be played in any order.
Like the other adventure paths, Quick Start 4 sees the player characters start out in the town of Split Gut Gulch when an experimental tank is suddenly dropped in the Blood Jungle to the north. Each adventure path presents a different route to the tank - in the case of this latest supplement, the players join a caravan travelling from the town to a colonialist fort called Lower Goocester Outpost. As they journey, they can choose whether to join a Venusian Freedom Fighter on their mission to blow up a dam - and destroy Split Gut Gulch with it.
As well as the new adventure, Quick Start 4 includes a brand new pre-generated character who is ready to play. Angkor Sporaticus is a Martian Prodigy - Dr. Grordbort’s equivalent to 5E’s magic-using Sorcerer - who starts at level four and comes equipped with a ray-pistol, along with various other inventive gadgets for the players to use on their journey.
The latest Dr. Grordbort's Scientific Adventure Violence quickstart also features two new monsters from the alien world: the massive, dinosaur-like Troysk's Tardmoid and the similarly huge Venusian Dimple-Backed Vroxel, which feeds on shavings of Mountain Meat Beetle butt barnacles. Charming.
You can download Dr. Grordbort's Scientific Adventure Violence’s Quick Start 4 - including the adventure and pre-gen character sheet - exclusively from Dicebreaker here: