Thursday, May 19, 2011

Free RPG Day Adventure Starter

Thanks to Joseph Goodman, I recently received an advance copy of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Adventure Starter that'll be released to the public on Free RPG Day next month. The Adventure Starter consists of two adventures, one for 0-1st level characters and another for 5th level characters. Though very short, the adventures are quite interesting and have a nice pulp fantasy vibe to them. You can tell that Goodman and his collaborators have really been immersing themselves in the literary forebears of D&D as preparation for writing the DCC RPG.

I'll probably do a lengthier "review" of this product later. For now, I'll only say that, the more I see of the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, the more intrigued I am. I'm starting to think that may prove to be a bigger success than people are expecting. Neither a true clone nor really "3e lite," as some have suggested, the DCC RPG is most definitely its own game with its own sensibility. This fact, coupled with its little quirks, like the Zocchi dice, and what I am sure will be solid adventure support from Goodman, ought to distinguish it from any of its competitors.

A year ago, I wasn't all that enthusiastic about the DCC RPG. Now, I'm actually looking forward to its release. Heck, I'd love to play it, which is about as ringing an endorsement as I can give a game that's not even been released yet.

17 comments:

  1. I'm chomping at the bit to give this game a try.

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  2. Having refereed a game it is a lot fun. And I ran the adventure twice once for the DCC playtest and another time for my Swords & Wizardry campaign. It worked well for both.

    It going to live or die by it's presentation as it is extremely table heavy for spells. Because of deliberate emphasis on what Joseph and Harley feel represents older fantasy the game has a different set of trade off than what we are used to in D&D. For example magic is Perilous even for the "good" guys.

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  3. "For example magic is Perilous even for the "good" guys."

    That's a selling point for me, already. :)

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  4. Well from what I read on Jeff's blog, there's tons of random tables. So I'm pretty excited.

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  5. From what i've seen so far i believe this could be the game that can once and for all get my gaming group out of 3.5/pathfinder. Which is something that I haven't been able to do with Savage Worlds or any of the retro clones.

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  6. I'm very much looking to see how this game ends up, and would love to see an in-depth review of the freebies you've gotten.

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  7. I don't know, I still don't really see what you guys are seeing...

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  8. I hope people actually playtest it and comment on the DCC forum:

    http://www.goodman-games.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=60

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  9. My Tuesday group is interested in playtesting DCC, and we're looking forward to it.

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  10. I think the use of the Zocchi dice (d14, d16) are a big mistake from a marketing standpoint. I can see gamers giving this game a pass simply because the have to order special dice just to play it. That said, on a personal level, I definitely want to check out the game.

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  11. Any indication on how mini & map heavy it will be?

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  12. @mmaranda
    Not heavy at all... Quite the opposite actually. The playtest that I participated in was sans maps (one done quickly on a piece of paper) and no minis at all.

    I'm not sure what the "official" stance is on this stuff, but Harley ran it w/out any attention paid to those two things at all. It was an excellent experience.

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  13. We've used graph paper, but no minis or battlemat. Contrary to other predictions, I expect to see this game boost sales of dice. I bought dice for the first time in years after trying this game.

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  14. 1. It's not based on minis at all. Of course, you could use them if you like, but there aren't any reasons why they would need to be there.
    2. The funny dice aspect is both compelling and frustrating -- using cool dice is cool, but it's hard to find the strange ones. On the other hand, simulating a d16 (for example) is really pretty simple if you use a d8 and a "control" d6 (low = 1-8, high is 9-16). The funny dice are NOT required in order to play. I bought some for a playtest, then forgot to bring them with me. My players did the control die thing without any problems at all.
    3. It's a great game, but I agree that presentation may make or break its success. Some may not like the number of spell tables but I think they work just fine once you get used to them. Makes magic more unpredictable!

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  15. How many types of funny dice are needed? I can't off-hand think of a way to roll a d14 or a d18...

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  16. I am SO looking forward to this! This might well be the Best Buy of the year for me.

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  17. I bit the bullet & bought the game.  I probably will never actually play it, though.  It looks like a fun read.

    And who knows, maybe when I visit my old gamer budies, who moved, I'll toss it my bag for a one shot here and there.

    Heh, even if I play it a only a couple of times, I will have got twice the millage out of it that I got from 4E D&D.
     

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