D8 OSR/D&Dable Things Inspired by Super Castlevania IV

Super Castlevania IV is an excellent action platform game originally released for the Super Famicom and Super Nintendo in America in 1991 and Europe in 1992. Essentially a remake of the classic NES game, you take the role of whip wielding vampire hunter Simon Belmont on his quest to defeat Dracula in the eponymous Castlevania.

It has a commitment to a strong Gothic atmosphere, varied level design and an imaginative approach to various mythological creatures. Coupled with solid gameplay, it is a classic that really helped showcase the leap in technology from the NES to the SNES.

There have been examples of OSR and D&D settings that have emulated the Gothic genre [1] and this game could definitely be of great inspiration for those doing a setting of that style or for any sort of fantasy setting.

D8 OSR/D&Dable things inspired by Super Castlevania IV:

1. There is a great evil holding a tyrannical sway over the land but look, a new member of the family of heroic monster slayers is here to help!

1D4 complications:

1. "Hero" seduced by dark forces or pure greed and wants the ungodly power of what they are trying to slay.

2. Hero is way too old for this shit, will need assistance from the party. [2]

3. Hero is actually a massive prick who will attempt to take all the treasure they can from the great evil's lair and then will gloat about it to the party. Hero will most likely become a treasure hunting, monster slaying rival of the party after the great evil is destroyed.

4. Not the hero but rather a servant of the great evil posing as them, with the intention of bringing a relic/magic item of the family to the great evil to augment its power. The actual hero has been murdered.

2. Magical/Blessed Equipment (1D6):

1. A goddamn boomerang cross, a true ranged relic.

2. A holy whip, randomly determine the foe it was made to slay.

3. Silver pocket watch that can very briefly stop time.

4. Holy water vials that can be thrown and create a blue fire upon impact.

5. A strange tablet that increases one's rate of fire with thrown weaponry such as hand axes or daggers.

6. A bronze statue of a bat holding a hoop. Can be activated once per day to animate and be directed where to “hover” with the hoop, allowing someone to use a rope or whip to swing across, throw a grappling hook onto it to climb upward, and so on.

3. Skeleton Knights, with a similarly skeletal steed. Will wield either a sword or a lance.

Personality/Quirks Table (1D4):

1. Bloodthirsty, berserk, will definitely charge at the party.

2. Cool headed, honourable but still aligned to Chaos, willing to strike a bargain or engage in a reasonable contest.

3. Not actually evil, wants to be chivalrous and help people, too naive to realise why people scream and call for a priest.

4. Haunted by memories prior to being undead, obsessed with a key memory of a lost love/family member/place of importance and will not rest or let anyone deter it from following their obsession.

4. Calcified Rock Men who break into smaller rock men when damaged enough. A close relation (possibly feuding with the Rock Men) is the Granite Giant, which becomes smaller but faster when it is damaged.

5. Bloody, fleshy blobs that will stick to walls and “stretch out” into a form resembling the skinned upper half of a human, with the intent of strangling their victims. A similarly deadly surface hugging creature are green masses of tentacles with a single mouth that fall from the ceiling onto prey.

6. A mummified but very much alive and furious chronomancer, who has taken over a clock tower with both loyal followers and amazed neophytes alike. This is part of a planned ritual to reverse time back to when he was the tyrannical ruler of the city, so that he can prevent the rebel coup that killed him. In my head, due to messing with time itself, all chronomancers are in a strange flux that makes them look like stop motion animation.

7. Gold skeletons (or any golden monster). Has a base value per HP in gold coins, thus the value depreciates when it is damaged. Yes, there are individuals who will buy one alive. Yes, they are probably a wizard.

8. A flesh golem alchemist, or one that has basically found good results from chucking alchemy flasks at people.

Example flask types table (1D4):

1. GAH, FIRE!

2. GAH, ACID!

3. A sort of alchemical flashbang.

4. Roll a potion effect from a different source [3] or GM's choice.

[1] Such as the classic Ravenloft modules and setting, or the wonderful blog Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque.

[2] There are lots of ways to go about this. My immediate instinct would be to make the aged heroic slayer a Don Quixote type character, and that his family are very worried about his obsession with the family legacy, but that doesn't mean you can't go with a world weary warrior, someone guilt stricken for not following the family tradition earlier in life, or something else.

[3] Such as this brilliant one from Goblin Punch.

Also, the soundtrack is amazing.