After learning that death metal masters, The Black Dahlia Murder, commissioned Dungeonpunx to create a Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition adventure to promote their latest album, Verminous, I knew I wanted to learn the details. Fortunately, Dungeonpunx was more than happy to talk about the project, how it came about, and his thoughts on doing more of these promotions in the future.
EGG EMBRY (EGG): You wrote a Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition adventure, Depths of Drasted, based on the title track, “Verminous”, from The Black Dahlia Murder’s latest album. How did you become a part of this project?
DUNGEONPUNX (DP): The Black Dahlia Murder approached our longterm collaborator, friend, and crusty pensmith, Rich ‘Nerdgore’ Sampson, to create art for a roleplaying module they wanted to produce on a limited basis. Rich had collaborated with us in the past on our first adventure, In the Name Of Suffering, as well as a bunch of shirts and other ephemera, and suggested that we have a crack at writing the module. We pitched an idea based upon the brief to Night Shift Merchandise and Metal Blade Records and we got the gig.
EGG: What parts of the song and art inspired this adventure? How involved was TBDM?
DP: TBDM wanted the game to reflect the feel of their record. They already had some art drawn up for the album sleeve by Juanjo Castellano and some internal illos of monstrous rats and lakes of slime which helped us to get an idea of the tone they wanted. The cover artwork we found especially evocative of early Swedish and Floridian death metal so we were well onboard with that. The guys in the band had some very specific requirements that they wanted to include so we just riffed on those themes and the brooding atmosphere of the record, tossed in some of our trademark scruffy punk attitude and that was that.
EGG: Why D&D as opposed to Pathfinder or another system?
DP: We play a few different systems but 5e seems to be the most accessible and, arguably, the most popular right now, and that was really important for TBDM, for the module to be accessible to new or returning players. The Dungeonpunx are fans of the narrative element of roleplaying rather than the mechanics side of things so we tried to keep things relatively light on that front and focused on stupid and fun stuff the players could get involved with.
EGG: In the Depths of Drasted Boxed Set, there are dice, a DM screen, maps, and more. Who handled the art? What level(s) is this adventure for?
DP: The art was handled by a few guys, as already mentioned our friend Nerdgore created some of the interior art as well as Lucas ‘Shoggoth’ Korte – it’s exactly the kind of art we’d put in our publications so we found it easy to riff off.
We’ve aimed it at level five characters as we feel that’s a good sweet spot where it’s still approachable for new players, but your characters actually start having some cool stuff on them; no one wants to be crawling a dungeon with nothing but a kitchen fork! We had a laugh making some of the tables for detailing grizzly mutations and insanity effects, we’ve also dropped in plenty of easter eggs for metal and punk fans to dig out!
EGG: D&D and other RPGs are experiencing unprecedented levels of societal acceptance. Celebrities are openly gaming, fast food chains are making games as promotional items, and, closer to this topic, Rotting Christ has crowdfunded a French RPG. Do you feel that this boxed set from The Black Dahlia Murder is opening a new front in the expansion of RPGs into the wider world?
DP: Will it open a new front? I have no idea. RPG’s seem to have become a lot more socially acceptable in the current cultural climate. When we were kids we definitely took a lot of grief from squares for being into RPGs, skateboarding, comic books, or underground music. So, I guess it’s cool that the times have changed and this stuff is reaching a broader audience nowadays. I really hope that more bands jump onto this idea and get a bit more creative with their merch, particularly if they want to pay us to write it. It’s weird to me that anyone would give a toss about what celebrity’s do, but that’s the world we live in, and if Vin Diesel’s Twitter feed switches some kid onto D&D then more power to’em.
EGG: What other projects are you working on?
DP: We’ve got a few modules of our own including part two of our In The Name Of Suffering series and the new South Of Heaven adventure that Nate’s been working on. They’re all set in the same horrible realm of rusty weapons, ancient Wetherspoons pubs, and sword for hire deals gone wrong. Our friends at Gamma Valley have got a great project coming out called Caer Mundus which we’ve had involvement with and Exalted Funeral are always pushing the independent RPG community forward!
EGG: Thank you for talking with me about this project.
DP: No worries, Egg, thanks for the interest. Follow us on Instagram @dungeonpunx to keep up to date with what we are working on. Listen to old Sepultura, peace.
The Black Dahlia Murder’s new album, Verminous, comes out on April 17, 2020 from Metal Blade Records. Pre-order the album, the RPG adventure, and other merchandise from Night Shift Merchandise.
You can follow The Black Dahlia Murder online at their official website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Special thanks to Nikki Law, Head of Publicity at Metal Blade Records, for making this interview happen.
To read more about the inspiration for this product, check out my interview with Trevor Strnad of The Black Dahlia Murder at EN World.
Latest posts by Egg Embry (see all)
- New Gamemaster Month 2023 - January 20, 2023
