[Diablo] What is The Secret Cow Level?
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[Diablo] What is The Secret Cow Level?
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:
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:
Last edited by Big Mac on Sat Feb 10, 2018 12:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: [Diablo] What is The Secret Cow Level?
There is a wiki about that: http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/The_Secret_Cow_Level
Never played it however.
Never played it however.
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Re: [Diablo] What is The Secret Cow Level?
If you read the first few lines of the image posted on FB for this topic, it says "easter egg"Big Mac wrote:That's a pretty weird name for a RPG product. It sounds a bit like a joke. What is this supposed to be?

GP
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Re: [Diablo] What is The Secret Cow Level?
Thanks. That does sound a bit strange, but I guess it could be played seriously.Sturm wrote:There is a wiki about that: http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/The_Secret_Cow_Level
Never played it however.
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Re: [Diablo] What is The Secret Cow Level?
Oh this?:agathokles wrote:If you read the first few lines of the image posted on FB for this topic, it says "easter egg"Big Mac wrote:That's a pretty weird name for a RPG product. It sounds a bit like a joke. What is this supposed to be?
GP

Thanks GP!
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Re: [Diablo] What is The Secret Cow Level?
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).Big Mac wrote:Thanks. That does sound a bit strange, but I guess it could be played seriously.Sturm wrote:There is a wiki about that: http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/The_Secret_Cow_Level
Never played it however.
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Re: [Diablo] What is The Secret Cow Level?
IndeedBig Mac wrote: Oh this?:

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Re: [Diablo] What is The Secret Cow Level?
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).Boneguard wrote: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).Big Mac wrote:Thanks. That does sound a bit strange, but I guess it could be played seriously.Sturm wrote:There is a wiki about that: http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/The_Secret_Cow_Level
Never played it however.
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Re: [Diablo] What is The Secret Cow Level?
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Re: [Diablo] What is The Secret Cow Level?
Perfect! I know what I'm running in tonight's session!Big Mac wrote:I just found The Secret Cow Level on the WotC website!
There is a preview, the encounter and a map.

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.

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Re: [Diablo] What is The Secret Cow Level?
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.)
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.)
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Re: [Diablo] What is The Secret Cow Level?
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.)

(*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.)

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Re: [Diablo] What is The Secret Cow Level?
If you want to bump it up, you could probably take the approach of the Metamagic Feats, from 3rd Edition.willpell wrote: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.
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.
Surely, it it is milk, it would be harvested from cows that had not been killed during the process.willpell wrote: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.)
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.

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Re: [Diablo] What is The Secret Cow Level?
So, why would you expect those cows to have milk that tastes like kerosene?Dread Delgath wrote: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.![]()

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Re: [Diablo] What is The Secret Cow Level?
.... only Holy Cows can make Holy Milk.Big Mac wrote: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".

(whereas Swiss cows make hole-y cheese)

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Re: [Diablo] What is The Secret Cow Level?
Because they're evil, and they're "devil" cows?Big Mac wrote:So, why would you expect those cows to have milk that tastes like kerosene?Dread Delgath wrote: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.![]()


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.

A big THANKS! to Giant Space Hamster & Chimpman for the cookies! (Dark Side be damned!)
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Re: [Diablo] What is The Secret Cow Level?
Who the heck is this Hellgirl?
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Re: [Diablo] What is The Secret Cow Level?
I wonder if cows in Diablo's Secret Cow Level are related to bonnicons!Dread Delgath wrote: ↑Fri Mar 09, 2018 5:57 pmBecause they're evil, and they're "devil" cows?Big Mac wrote:So, why would you expect those cows to have milk that tastes like kerosene?Dread Delgath wrote: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 suppose there could be some sort of corruption theme to it.Dread Delgath wrote: ↑Fri Mar 09, 2018 5:57 pmAlso 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 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.

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Re: [Diablo] What is The Secret Cow Level?
Drinking the Cow King's milk should inflict a character with Taint. Even, and especially, if the game isn't using the Taint rules....
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Re: [Diablo] What is The Secret Cow Level?
T'aint no thing like secret cows milk.

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Re: [Diablo] What is The Secret Cow Level?

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.)
Good one! Yep. Good one.

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.Big Mac wrote: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.![]()

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