Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG Playtest: Part 0


Goodman Games, makers of the very popular and prolific Dungeon Crawl Classic adventures for 3E and 4E D&D have decided to produce their own RPG. You should click here to read more about the DCC RPG. Like Paizo did with Pathfinder, Goodman Games are releasing an in-progress Beta Version of their rules as a free download. I've decided to throw in my efforts and playtest the game myself, at least to the best of my abilities all by myself in Korea.

If you were are too lazy to follow the above link, allow me to summarize what the DCC RPG is all about. I quote the site:

"What if Gygax and Arneson had access to the Open Game License when they created D&D? What if they spent their time adapting thirty years of game design principles to their stated inspirations -- rather than creating the building blocks from scratch? What if someone were to attempt just that: to immerse himself in the game’s inspirations and re-envision the output using modern game design principles"

Essentially, the designers tried to go back to the roots of D&D, to the books and stories that inspired the game (as shown in Appendix N of the AD&D Dungeonmaster's Guide) and design a modern game that more closely reflects those literary sources. Thus, magic is more random and dangerous, characters are not necessarily super heroes, etc.

If you're interested, feel free to go and download the Beta rules for yourself. I'm not here to review them, at least not in this post. What I'm doing right now is playtesting them, putting the crunchy bits into action and seeing how they play out. I'm sure I'll do an actual review at some point in the next few weeks. Until then, stay tuned for my playtest.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mutant Crawl Classics inspired patron for DCC: The Star Child

Image
The Mutant Crawl Classics Kickstarter is winding down to its final days. Using the free rules found here , I ran the Free RPG Day Funnel adventure Museum at the End of Time . Inspired by events that are very likely to occur within that adventure (and happened in my home game with the kids), I designed a new patron usable for DCC. Just a little something to tide you all over while you wait for the MCC game to release next year. Feel free to use, share, or whatever. I welcome feedback and would love to know if anyone actually makes use of this thing. PATRON: THE STAR CHILD Somewhere across the infinite realms of time, space, and possibility, there stands the greatest possible achievement of architectural design: a monolithic solid whose perfect and precise dimensions exist in a ratio utterly pleasing to the cosmos itself. Not only are the monolith’s height, width, and depth in perfect harmony with the divine ratio, but so too are its invisible dimensions, on into
Read more

Finally, Gen Con Event Luck (Torchbearer RPG)

Image
My oldest son and I are attending Gen Con together this year. It's pretty cool in that it will be the first time I've been in the United States during Gen Con in about 7 years. Without the Army to send me somewhere else during the big convention, I thought it might be neat to take my son. This will be my third Gen Con (I went in 2000 and 2002) and his first. The first year that I went, I barely did anything but wander around the dealer room, bleary-eyed and overwhelmed. My second Gen Con was a little more successful as my friends and I played in the D&D Open Tournament that year. Unfortunately, that event took up most of our available gaming time. This year, my goal was to sign up for a few different events that not only featured my favorite games, but also gave me a chance to game with some of the designers whose work I enjoy. I'm not a fan of gamer celebrities, but I do see the value in having the author of a module running his or her work for you right there at
Read more

Why is Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition So Expensive?

Image
On the day I backed the most excellent Silent Legions Kickstarter , I had first contemplated buying the brand new 7th Edition of Call of Cthulhu. Thanks to a cool group of gamers I met in Korea, I finally got to take Chaosium's version of the game off my always growing list of "games I own but have never played" last year. We played in a food court, under florescent lights, surrounded by Burger King and Taco Bell patrons, and it was still fun. Better yet, my oldest son played with us and had a good time. I passed on the original Kickstarter but was watching with great anticipation for the new edition to finally see release. For those who don't know, Call of Cthulhu is not a game that changes much from edition to edition. Unlike, say D&D, which is basically a totally different game every ten years or so, a new edition of Call of Cthulhu basically just means cleaned up typos, maybe a format change here, a little rules tweak there, and some new cover art. Wit
Read more