Xcrawl Classics Designer Diary: Mojo|Goodman Games

Posted By billward on Jul 24, 2023 |

Xcrawl Classics Designer Diary: Mojo

by Brendan LaSalle

Hey all – Brendan here with another peek behind the curtain at the rules behind Xcrawl. This time I want to go over one of my absolute favorite mechanics, an Xcrawl original at that: Mojo!

The Mojo rules popped up during my second-ever session of Xcrawl with my roommates, if I remember correctly. I needed a teamwork mechanic because I wanted Xcrawl teams to stand apart from the average group of dungeon delvers.

So many of the dungeon adventures of my childhood ended with intra-party betrayal of one kind or another – skimming treasure, pickpocketing, aggressive dibs-calling on magic items, or sometimes even PVP combat. I always had a hard time picturing that. I imagine that going down into a dark labyrinth full of hostile monsters and death traps with a bunch of fellow adventurers would foster the same kind of unshakable comradery that forms between people who survived a war together. At a certain point, you have all saved one another’s lives so many times that the only believable group dynamic would be at worst a begrudging loyalty, and at best an unbreakable honor-bond of friendship for life.

I wanted Xcrawl teams to feel like real groups of folks who had survived death together, folks who had one another’s backs because anything less would be a betrayal of their shared experiences. Thus Mojo was born.

Mojo represents the unconscious power of teamwork that makes the effectiveness of a group greater than the sum of their individual parts.

In the early days Mojo was a shared pool of points that characters could give each other when the chips were down. Everyone enjoyed the mechanic, and even when we would play other systems folks would wistfully lament having no Mojo points to give their buddies when they were in trouble.

The Mojo is a kind of magic ingredient for gaming. Not only does it represent teamwork, it actually creates real world teamwork. You have to keep an eye on your buddies so you know when to throw Mojo – otherwise you let a key resource go to waste, something no gamer is ever happy about.

Michael Curtis was working on the DCC Lankhmar project while I was working on DCC Xcrawl. One of his great creations is Fleeting Luck, representing shifting fortunes and the capricious nature of the Gods of that mad world. I knew that this was the perfect base system for Mojo on first reading.

I quickly reached out Michael to ask if I could borrow his system for Xcrawl and he graciously said yes.

Mojo in XCC is more fun than ever. Crawlers earn Mojo points for defeating encounters, special character circumstances, and GM fiat. Me, I give Mojo points for good role-playing, for outrageous over the top action, and for making me laugh real, real hard.

You don’t spend Mojo points on yourself, you give them to your allies – before the die roll! – to help them succeed. But if anyone rolls a natural one on an attack roll, spell check, or skill check everyone loses their Mojo.

Mojo makes Xcrawl feel more like a team sport, and that is its ultimate goal! Earn Mojo points, share Mojo points, but never, ever hoard Mojo points.

Next time we will talk about an innovation which is brand-new to this iteration of Xcrawl: The Spellphone!

Right now as part of our Xcrawl Classics Kickstarter, you can pick up a tube of Mojo Tokens (and a whole lot more!) for your Xcrawl games as an add-on — a great value over retail!