[Diablo] What is The Secret Cow Level?

[Big Mac]

According to Havard's How many Diablo RPG proucts were published? topic, there is a RPG accessory called The Secret Cow Level.

That's a pretty weird name for a RPG product. It sounds a bit like a joke. What is this supposed to be?

EDIT: Adding in a links section.

THE SECRET COW LEVEL:

• The Secret Cow Level Web Enhancement
  • Preview
  • Encounter (464k PDF)
  • Map (408k jpg)
• Diablo Wiki article

[Sturm]

There is a wiki about that: http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/The_Secret_Cow_Level
Never played it however.

[agathokles]

That's a pretty weird name for a RPG product. It sounds a bit like a joke. What is this supposed to be?

If you read the first few lines of the image posted on FB for this topic, it says "easter egg"

GP

[Big Mac]

There is a wiki about that: http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/The_Secret_Cow_Level
Never played it however.

Thanks. That does sound a bit strange, but I guess it could be played seriously.

[Big Mac]

That's a pretty weird name for a RPG product. It sounds a bit like a joke. What is this supposed to be?

If you read the first few lines of the image posted on FB for this topic, it says "easter egg"

GP

Oh this?:


Thanks GP!

[Boneguard]

There is a wiki about that: http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/The_Secret_Cow_Level
Never played it however.

Thanks. That does sound a bit strange, but I guess it could be played seriously.

I don't remember exactly how, but I know Tim's pegleg was involved and Diablo had to be defeated, you could open a portal in the Rogue Camp to the Secret Cow Level and face the Dreaded Cowith King and his troops, it was a hilarious hack-n-slash level, but a fun no us with potentially sweet loot (the Cow King Leathers).

[agathokles]

Oh this?:

Indeed

GP

[Big Mac]

There is a wiki about that: http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/The_Secret_Cow_Level
Never played it however.

Thanks. That does sound a bit strange, but I guess it could be played seriously.

I don't remember exactly how, but I know Tim's pegleg was involved and Diablo had to be defeated, you could open a portal in the Rogue Camp to the Secret Cow Level and face the Dreaded Cowith King and his troops, it was a hilarious hack-n-slash level, but a fun no us with potentially sweet loot (the Cow King Leathers).

I've never played the Diablo computer game. (I'm not one for computer games.) I might actually need to go watch a Lets Play video, or two, to work out what the vibe of this is (compared to the rest of the world).

[Big Mac]

I just found The Secret Cow Level on the WotC website!

There is a preview, the encounter and a map.

[Dread Delgath]

I just found The Secret Cow Level on the WotC website!

There is a preview, the encounter and a map.

Perfect! I know what I'm running in tonight's session!

I just read through it, and with a little bit of switcheroo-moo-moo-magic, this will make the perfect encounter for a quick, Planar Gate hop to Sigil, setting the stage for the supposed 'rescue' of Hellgirl, and facing off against an army of Type I & II demons that look like....

Cows!?!?!? (lead by a minotaur demon that is actually a Balor...)

Too bad I didn't have more time to plan this, or I'd look up Dyson Logos' "Bullshit!" dungeon map and use that, but I don't have the time required to draw it on 1 inch grid posterboard cardstock & cut out room tiles.

Oh well... this should be a milk run.

[willpell]

My biggest problem with the Cow Level is the fact that when you kill the Cow King (how does that make sense?), s/he drops something like twelve Stamina Potions (explicitly described as "milk" in some promotional writing for the game, though I'm not sure if it's official or a fan work), which are totally ordinary and identical in every way to the ones you can buy in every town for 25 GP. (As an aside, the coins in Diablo should really be called Copper Pieces rather than Gold, given how many of them it takes to buy even the most basic items. Thirty cents for a Minor Healing Potion makes more sense than $30, if we translate it into our own money, given that even level 1-9 characters have little need for any more MHPs than they invariably drop in the course of play.)

If I was running a Diablo-based RPG, which I've often thought of doing, I would definitely have the Cow King's Milk do something unique (probably rather disturbing as well, like inflicting the spend-life-as-mana curse on yourself; there are unquestionably times you would want that ability, but it's the sort of thing you can kill yourself by doing at the wrong time, so it suits an item that represents you drinking the bodily fluids of a slain fiend.)

[Dread Delgath]

I imagine that the milk from those cows would taste like kerosene. At least that's what Hellgirl told the party when they finally deciphered the lock* & opened the portal to SCL, and charged in to 'rescue' her. She was actually doing just fine, having turned the tables on the chasme demon that "dragged her to the Abyss", made a bargain with the cows of SCL to let her live in peace on SCL without getting trampled, and also torture the chasme demon just for the helluvit.

(*I had to change the traditional way to enter SCL because all my players have played Diablo II, so the portal became a gate triggered by arranging a handful of gems in the correct settings in the doorway cornerstone. Hellgirl's bargain, however, was that she had to milk them all on a regular basis. ALL of them. Also, I set SCL in Sigil, for a Planescape tie-in to my campaign.)

[Big Mac]

My biggest problem with the Cow Level is the fact that when you kill the Cow King (how does that make sense?), s/he drops something like twelve Stamina Potions (explicitly described as "milk" in some promotional writing for the game, though I'm not sure if it's official or a fan work), which are totally ordinary and identical in every way to the ones you can buy in every town for 25 GP.

If you want to bump it up, you could probably take the approach of the Metamagic Feats, from 3rd Edition.

The Empower Spell or Extend Spell Metamagic Feats are probably good ones to throw onto a potion to make the potion more effective than usual.

If I was running a Diablo-based RPG, which I've often thought of doing, I would definitely have the Cow King's Milk do something unique (probably rather disturbing as well, like inflicting the spend-life-as-mana curse on yourself; there are unquestionably times you would want that ability, but it's the sort of thing you can kill yourself by doing at the wrong time, so it suits an item that represents you drinking the bodily fluids of a slain fiend.)

Surely, it it is milk, it would be harvested from cows that had not been killed during the process.

And, if you have sentient cows, producing milk, they could possibly use magic to enhance their milk production. For example, if a regular cleric can make "Holy Water" a cow cleric could make some sort of "Holy Milk" or "Unholy Milk".

The same could probably be done with other dairy products, to produce magical cheese or butter.

[Big Mac]

I imagine that the milk from those cows would taste like kerosene. At least that's what Hellgirl told the party when they finally deciphered the lock* & opened the portal to SCL, and charged in to 'rescue' her. She was actually doing just fine, having turned the tables on the chasme demon that "dragged her to the Abyss", made a bargain with the cows of SCL to let her live in peace on SCL without getting trampled, and also torture the chasme demon just for the helluvit.

So, why would you expect those cows to have milk that tastes like kerosene?

[RobJN]

And, if you have sentient cows, producing milk, they could possibly use magic to enhance their milk production. For example, if a regular cleric can make "Holy Water" a cow cleric could make some sort of "Holy Milk" or "Unholy Milk".

.... only Holy Cows can make Holy Milk.


(whereas Swiss cows make hole-y cheese)

[Dread Delgath]

I imagine that the milk from those cows would taste like kerosene. At least that's what Hellgirl told the party when they finally deciphered the lock* & opened the portal to SCL, and charged in to 'rescue' her. She was actually doing just fine, having turned the tables on the chasme demon that "dragged her to the Abyss", made a bargain with the cows of SCL to let her live in peace on SCL without getting trampled, and also torture the chasme demon just for the helluvit.

So, why would you expect those cows to have milk that tastes like kerosene?

Because they're evil, and they're "devil" cows?

Also it conforms to the rustic folklore that witches turns cow's milk when they're in the area. However, I concede that my version of SCL differs from the official Diablo II version, but I love to take ideas for D&D and totally change them around for my games. This is one of them.

[willpell]

Who the heck is this Hellgirl?

[Big Mac]

I imagine that the milk from those cows would taste like kerosene. At least that's what Hellgirl told the party when they finally deciphered the lock* & opened the portal to SCL, and charged in to 'rescue' her. She was actually doing just fine, having turned the tables on the chasme demon that "dragged her to the Abyss", made a bargain with the cows of SCL to let her live in peace on SCL without getting trampled, and also torture the chasme demon just for the helluvit.

So, why would you expect those cows to have milk that tastes like kerosene?

Because they're evil, and they're "devil" cows?

I wonder if cows in Diablo's Secret Cow Level are related to bonnicons!

Also it conforms to the rustic folklore that witches turns cow's milk when they're in the area. However, I concede that my version of SCL differs from the official Diablo II version, but I love to take ideas for D&D and totally change them around for my games. This is one of them.

I suppose there could be some sort of corruption theme to it.

I suppose that creatures, like aberrations could also be modified ordinary animals (and humanoids) who have been altered with magical alchemy to make them create chemicals that the natural creatures would not make.

[willpell]

Drinking the Cow King's milk should inflict a character with Taint. Even, and especially, if the game isn't using the Taint rules....

[Angel Tarragon]

Drinking the Cow King's milk should inflict a character with Taint. Even, and especially, if the game isn't using the Taint rules....

T'aint no thing like secret cows milk.

[Dread Delgath]

Who the heck is this Hellgirl?

My Chaotic Neutral Tiefling Warlock PC. Since our group switches DM's occasionally, she's an NPC when I DM, but can be a PC when another player DM's.

She's the one who suggested dropping an adult green dragon* on a castle full of people when the party decided it was high time to finally take care of the evil invaders, and was equally amenable (since no other PCs were around) to finding a milk maid outfit and start milking the cows of SCL.

(*A long story short: party acquired a slightly unstable pocket universe that the DM randomly created monsters & monster lairs within it's boundaries. It sort of absorbed realities wherever it went - kind of like a TARDIS, only it took parts of time and space with it whenever the door/gate/portal is shut, and shunted to another place.

After encountering the green dragon in it's lair and explaining to it that it was in fact laired in a pocket dimension and the universe was much smaller than it's homeworld, it agreed to leave, as long as we opened a door to a place where its own greedy desires could be fulfilled. So we dropped it on a fully populated area full of bad guys.)

I wonder if cows in Diablo's Secret Cow Level are related to bonnicons!

Good one! Yep. Good one.

I suppose there could be some sort of corruption theme to it.

I suppose that creatures, like aberrations could also be modified ordinary animals (and humanoids) who have been altered with magical alchemy to make them create chemicals that the natural creatures would not make.

Sure, you could do that. In a fairy/witch D&D type of game (like "For Faerie Queen & Country" for example (a non-D&D rules game, but still...) it would be a natural property of witches that milk & butter curdles whenever a witch is laired nearby. You could do the same for aberrations or monstrosities.