I don't post a lot about Goodman Games Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, but I probably should remedy that oversight. Prior to the pandemic our group played a lot of the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, both at conventions and among our face-to-face home games. I have always enjoyed my experiences with the game, both from a player's perspective and perhaps more discretely so from a position behind the DM screen. DCC RPG can be (should be) a game that is quite deadly to characters, but it is often considered bad DM form to enjoy the killing of player's characters too openly, so I will keep that on the "down-low". ;-)
The DCC RPG appeals to "old school" gamer preferences in some ways, but it is more of a modern game in many other respects. It does not attempt to reproduce any older version of the game - i.e. it's not a retro-clone. The DCC RPG uses many of the familiar "modern d20" mechanics including ascending armor class and Reflex, Fortitude and Willpower saves. It also introduces novel game mechanics such as the DCC RPG "dice chain" using "odd?" dice with three, five, seven, fourteen, sixteen, twenty-four and thirty sides in addition to the now ubiquitous four, six, eight, ten and twenty sided role-playing game dice. Spell effects in DCC can vary considerably depending on the outcome of a casting dice roll - yes you roll dice to cast your magic in DCC RPG! Warrior types in the DCC RPG may perform a "Mighty Deed of Arms" by stating what special effect they are going for and in addition to succeeding with an attack if they roll well on the Deed Die (and the referee is in agreement) they get to be "awesome" by pulling off their Mighty Deed. This alone makes martial characters feel a lot more useful and fun to play in the DCC RPG.
Actually, as I think on it, there is an awful lot about DCC RPG that makes the game a lot more fun to play! That is the point that publisher Goodman Games is making with everything I have seen from them. Make the game, and by extension our RPG hobby, a lot more fun!
The "funnel" is DCC's preferred method of starting your characters at "zero" level as peasants, laborers, craftsmen or artisans and then running them through a gauntlet-like killer 1st adventure adventure in order to "season" the survivors, who then become your future level-one player characters. Funnel play is one of the rather innovative aspects of the DCC RPG that sets it apart from any other FRP I know, but it has perhaps been over emphasized when we talk about DCC. The experience of playing through a funnel is definitely a significant part of the DCC experience, but having done so once or twice, I think most players get the point the funnel technique is there to make. What overvaluing the funnel risks missing altogether is that DCC RPG play really shines once the characters get past the funneling and have become real PCs with class abilities, decent equipment, and alignments.
The "message" that the DCC RPG seems to want us to take-away from the funnel experience is that DCC's philosophy of play differs from other current versions of popular FRP games. That random dice rolls can produce characters that are fun to play and that a character's unique "personality" can be something that emerges organically through the experience of playing the character at the table. In short, that there is more than one way to have fun role-playing!
The Characters section of the DCC RPG book begins with a statement that sets the tone this game is aiming for.
"You're no hero. You're an adventurer, a reaver, a cutpurse, a heathen slayer, a tight-lipped warlock guarding long dead secrets. You seek gold and glory, winning it with sword and spell, caked in the blood and filth of the weak, the dark, the demons, and the vanquished. There are treasures to be won deep underneath, and you shall have them..."
Touted as "Appendix N gaming", one of DCC RPG's stated aims is to provide the armchair adventurer with rules that will readily allow for a game experience more closely resembling the action read about in the sources that are commonly referred to as "Appendix N" - a list included in the Dungeon Masters Guide written by Gary Gygax under the section titled "Inspirational and Educational Reading". To be fair, the original Appendix N (also reproduced in the DCC RPG if you don't have access to Gygax's DMG) includes a variety of works that form a diversity in literary approaches to the fantastic and supernatural, the eternal struggle of cosmic forces, and the essential nature of heroic behavior. The DCC RPG appears to most closely associate itself with Appendix N sources that feature the protagonist who is an anti-hero, a sell-sword, or a self-serving rogue to whom no higher purpose appeals than to increase one's purse in order to fund a good time spent carousing. If the character names "Conan", "Fafhrd" and "Gray Mouser" mean anything to you, then you are thinking on the DCC RPG's wave-length.
Many role-playing games are designed with the assumption that player will consist of a group of five or more, being a referee (or whatever title the person administering the game session is called) and four or more players. This is how I have mostly played the DCC RPG - three to four (or more) players plus referee/GM. With continuing challenges that in-person gaming is presenting, I find myself looking at alternatives that will support solo and/or one-on-one game-play, which at least in the near future seems likely to be a convenient way to enjoy our hobby. The DCC RPG works better for this purpose than some other FRP games I have tried to play with smaller groups. The level of complexity in DCC lends itself to each player easily managing multiple characters - the "funnel" actually recommends that each player has at least three to four characters in play at the beginning of that session(and assumes several of them will perish). Even at higher character levels, I have found that the DCC RPG plays quite well with players controlling multiple PCs. The game's flexibility to scale encounters up or down according to, and along with, the number of available players opens up new playing possibilities for me using this system. As a result, this system, along with others that also prove to be suitable for such play, are likely to get even more of my attention in the near future.
It can be easy to overlook the entire game philosophy point that the DCC RPG seems to be making - that there is more than one way to have fun with this hobby. And they show you how to do this fun thing in a way that I have encountered no where else.
Not every hero has to start out totally awesome!
Not every PC needs to be generated through careful crafting, by choosing among many options. Sometimes the best and most favored characters can be found randomly by rolling dice and playing what the dice have handed you. Luck and not knowing what will happen ahead of time is a big part of the fun that I find in playing games, especially so with the DCC RPG. And of course it is the nature of "Luck" to be fickle, delivering both delight and disappointment with a smile - that too is part of the fun of discovery through play.
When playing the same old retro-clone isn't as exciting as it used to be; when designing a point-buy character looses its appeal; when playing the 'all awesome all the time" character starts to grow tiresome; or when coming up with yet another unique three-page character backstory seems a bit too taxing, maybe it's time to play the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG.
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