No discussion of my OSR favorites would be complete without mentioning Goodman Games' Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game (DCCRPG). I would say Dungeon Crawl Classics as a concept predates the OSR. The idea started with Joseph Goodman publishing old style dungeon crawl modules for 3rd Edition. The idea was an instant hit with old guys like me that never lost our love for the original game. I collected the entire line and have run DCC #1 Idylls of the Rat King (my favorite of the line) several times.
In 2012, Joseph Goodman published his own role playing game as pictured above. DCCRPG makes use of the OGL and is not am simulacrum of any old edition, but rather a game going back to the inspirations that led to White Box, Appendix N from the Dungeon Masters Guide. Mr. Goodman actually refers to his game as "Appendix N Gaming" and I think he is right on. DCCRPG is written so that it supports playing in the manner and style of the stories found in Appendix N.
So what's in this massive 470+ page book besides tons of old-style gaming art? The rule mechanics themselves build on everything up through at least 3rd Edition, but with a re-imagining of the game to make it feel more like it's literary roots. At its core DCCRPG is a d20 game using a twenty-sided die roll for most tasks, except when it's a d16, or a d24 or some other odd new shaped die. DCCRPG makes use of the usual polyhedron RPG dice and then adds in some extras referred to as "Zocchi Dice", referring to Lou Zocchi, hobby personality and dice salesman extraordinaire. Ascending AC, 3rd Edition saves, and class and level are all familiar mechanics. DCCRPG borrows race-as-class from B/X and it seems to work here as the emphasis is on human PCs.
There are some significant changes to the familiar mechanics, however. Clerics turn things that are unholy to their religion, not just undead and don't use-up their spells when cast, but may annoy their god if they cast too many spells. Wizards don't lose their spells automatically when cast, but roll-to-cast and may fail, succeed, fumble or crit with their spell. Magic is chaos, unpredictable, wild and potentially corrupting. Warriors benefit from better critical hit tables and can use "mighty deeds of arms" to dominate combat. Thieves, Dwarfs, Elfs and Halflings (walking luck charms) round out the available classes.
Before you get the idea this is a game of powerful characters doing epic deeds altering the history of the world, let's talk about the "funnel". Author Joseph Goodman has taken the low-level character death syndrome and made it a part of the rules. Players are encouraged to roll-up several PCs and send them through a funnel adventure. The PCs are zero level peasants with very little equipment. The point is many will die and the ones that emerge alive will level-up to become your 1st level characters. The survivors will presumably also have some personality developed through play at this point.
DCCRPG is a relatively big book. It is lavishly illustrated in a style that definitely reminds me of the oldest days of the hobby, which is the intent. A lot of space is devoted to tables. Each magic spell has a separate table with various effects depending on the roll of the caster. A spell may whiff, do as expected, do better than expected or go badly astray. Remember that magic is chaotic in DCCRPG. Patrons play a big part in magic, especially the more powerful magics. Patrons may be drawn from the gods, demons, elemental forces, aliens or just about anything the referee wants to invent. Several examples are given in the rules. The DCCRPG book is a complete game package with monsters, treasures and two introductory adventures, one is a "funnel".
I have not run DCCRPG, but it is not from a lack of trying. So far I have been unsuccessful in talking anyone into a "funnel" where two-thirds of the PCs die (in hopefully entertaining ways). I will admit, this sounds a bit dark - graveyard humor dark - especially in a hobby culture where character death hardly ever happens. "Why, way back in the day, sonny, we used to go through a stack of characters before midnight and be glad we had the opportunity to play."
"The times, they are a-changin'." Bob Dylan said that.
No comments:
Post a Comment