Goodman Games

The first thing I fell in love with about Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG (DCC) was the new take on the fighter - thanks to the wonderful 'Mighty Deeds of Arms' mechanic.

The mechanic is granular enough to be intuitive ("You wanna push him over the cliff? You'll need to roll a 4+ on your deed die.") and doubles as a reasonable damage (and attack) bonus. I'd personally prefer a trade-off (e.g. bonus damage or special maneuever) but that's easily house-ruled.

The mechanic constitutes a sub-system of its own and demonstrates that - far from needlessly complicating a set of rules - this approach can provide tailor-made solutions. Using the standard d20 resolution mechanic ("Pushing over a cliff is a DC 15 check.") would have required an extra roll or similar contortions.

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The next thing I adore is that magic is inherently dangerous.

This captues the feel of Appendix N fiction very nicely and solves the problem of magic being a reliable everyday resource. I don't want to think about settled wizards casting their daily allotment of spells and thereby competing with craftsmen etc. and requiring me to rethink the whole quasi-medieval world.

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Limiting myself to just one more thing to single out for praise, I'll choose Doug Kovacs' outstanding dungeon maps.

(Samples: http://www.goodmangames.com/5070artpreviewkovacs.html)

I find them very useful at the table. The artistic detail makes it easy to (a) remember what a room was all about -- which means less flipping through the adventure -- and (b) to envision the atmosphere and improvise evocative descriptions on the spot.

Perhaps more importantly, they look so damn cool that they make me want to run the corresponding adventure (or something of my own devising for that map). It's all well and good to have classic blue-and-white maps but to me, nothing screams "Run this adventure!" more loudly than Doug Kovacs' maps.

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So what do YOU love about DCC?

(You can find more of my thoughts on DCC at my blog: http://outforblood1.blogspot.de)

For me it's:

1. The spell casting system and the gonzo results that can be rolled. There is just so much here (patrons, mercurial effects, familiars, corruption etc.) that I would buy the book just for this.
2. The mighty deeds system
3. Having a "luck" system in place that allows us to create characters similar to Cudgel
4. The critical hits and fumble tables
5. The character funnel


That is probably in order actually, with the #1 choice being the spell sytem followed by the deeds system and so on. I also love the whole S&S vibe and the simplicity of most of the rules.

Edit: I was going to add what I don't like but maybe I should save that for another thread. Keep this one purely positive.

I'd add just about everything above, along with general 'vibe', and for character evolution, the mindset of 'solve it in the story, no elaborate mechanic necessary...'

I nearly posted a list of what I like best, but then decided that I like the "three things" concept so I'll limit my list to three.

Here's a not-so-well-thought-out list off the top of my head:
1. The appendix N "feel" of the game in general.
2. The old-school mechanics; simple and easy to play.
3. The style/art of the modules.

1 - I think the Mighty Deeds rules are genius. The extra die and then possibility to do something special every round of combat makes a game about warriors exciting again. Heck, you could run a whole campaign with just this class and have a great time.

2 - I love that spell casting is such that it is a gamble to be attempted not a resource to be spent. The combination of risks associated with spells, and also the variability on spell availability work to make magic feel magical again.

3 - I like that the game has a definite style and tone. I'll admit that I lean a bit more towards high fantasy and heroic stories, but I'd much rather have a product with a point of view than a design by committee feel.

4 - Finally, I really appreciate that for all the new subsystems and gonzo nature of the rules the game finds a way to let each character and player shine in turn and in their own way.

My three favorites among the whole book of favorites, in no particular order:

1 - the "just a dude with a weapon" types get to not only do cool stuff, but also get to truly shine and be truly awesome (Mighty Deeds & Backstab-crits)
2 - "Go big or die" play style being a natural default... it really is best to, if you are going to fight at all, go full-bore from the start instead of "playing cautious" unless you want to end up dead.
3 - I don't have to bring anyone back from the dead, nor do I have to worry about "oops, I just killed half the party," because of the dying & recover the body rules.

1) the emphasis on the appendix N inspirations...
2) spell-casting
3) mighty deeds of arms

It's a game that turns to my favorite flavor of fantasy, with equally cool choices for fighter and magic types. I think I've tried nearly every iteration of D&D out there, and none of them have proven more entertaining to me or my players than DCC.

1 That it has an " old school" feel but is not just another " retro clone".
2-the rules are simple & familia enough to my playes, yet different enough to keep them interested/ engaged.
3- Surviving the adventurers depends just as muchon the players inventiveness /imagination. as it does on their characters abilities.

Nicomos wrote:1 That it has an " old school" feel but is not just another " retro clone".
2-the rules are simple & familia enough to my playes, yet different enough to keep them interested/ engaged.
3- Surviving the adventurers depends just as muchon the players inventiveness /imagination. as it does on their characters abilities.

That's a nice list and congrats on your first post.

I particularly like the observation that player inventivieness and imagination trumps stats.

finarvyn wrote:I particularly like the observation that player inventivieness and imagination trumps stats.

YES! Also the reverse - no amount of "my stats rule!" is going to make your boring "I kill it with my axe!" good enough to save your pitiful PC's life.

1. The magic system--love it!
2. Mighty deeds, and the "go ahead and try it" philosophy.
3. Mysterious, unique monsters--the Appendix N feel.

I like the book, too. Font and artwork are particularly nice. Just a few typos I've noticed here and there, no big deal. Only way it could have been cooler: CLOTH COVERS. And that "old book / mildew / cigarette" smell... you know what I'm talking about, like it was stacked in a box in somebody's garage for 20 years.

1. Random Characters.
2. Play what you get.
3. Fast and Furious Play.

All of mine are probably "me too:"

1. Characters are not heroes. They're regular folks that take advantage of a situation to break away from their mundane lives and die in interesting and horrible ways....
2. The DM is the Master again. The world and everything in it (including the characters) belongs to the game master. Character options are the player's imaginations again, not another splatbook's worth of fluffy text. The DM has a simple system that stays out of the way of creativity. Reminds me of when I went BACK to AD&D after D&D 4.0 was announced. It all belongs to the DM...love it. Never been happier with a game system. I like Savage Worlds. I love this system.
3. Character motivations matter more than "Campaign Boxed Text." This game is built for sandbox games, tomb robbing games, thief games, rise-of-the-lowly-farmer-to-twisted-necromancer kinda games, and everything in between. You can have your shining knights and your blackguards. It's all in there...and in one book.

1) The maps, they set the tone so well and are the perfect size.

2) The art. I keep going back to the book to search for things just for the fun of it.

3) The way spells work. The tables are awesome and the is a price to pay. It's epic!

1. The art!
2. The randomness of magic giving it more of the feel of the wizard tapping into the forces of chaos like the Moorcock stories.
3. Mighty deeds forces the fighter player to detail the combat instead of just dropping a 20 sider.
4. Lack of superhero characters makes players think about their actions better.
5. See also number 1

ragboy wrote:All of mine are probably "me too:"

1. Characters are not heroes. They're regular folks that take advantage of a situation to break away from their mundane lives and die in interesting and horrible ways....
2. The DM is the Master again. The world and everything in it (including the characters) belongs to the game master. Character options are the player's imaginations again, not another splatbook's worth of fluffy text. The DM has a simple system that stays out of the way of creativity. Reminds me of when I went BACK to AD&D after D&D 4.0 was announced. It all belongs to the DM...love it. Never been happier with a game system. I like Savage Worlds. I love this system.
3. Character motivations matter more than "Campaign Boxed Text." This game is built for sandbox games, tomb robbing games, thief games, rise-of-the-lowly-farmer-to-twisted-necromancer kinda games, and everything in between. You can have your shining knights and your blackguards. It's all in there...and in one book.

Well said on 3!

Howdy all!

I have read the rules, but am yet to play (short campaign starting in August). From what I read, I like:

1) 0-level funnel
2) magic is magical
3) each class has its own thing

Took a while to narrow it down to three things

• It's Substance (The rules for the Funnel, MDoAs, Spells, Critical & Fumbles, Healing, Recovering the Body, Luck, Patrons, Magic Swords, Dragons, Dwarves, Halflings, Thieves, Falling, etc)
• It's Style (the standard cover, the limited (a.k.a. "Metal") cover, with it's secret message, the interior artwork, the maps, Hugh the Barbarian and his striped bell-bottom pants., etc)
• Misc. Zocchi dice, Class = Race, inclusion of Clerics.. pretty much everything from the "3 Things I Don't Love.." thread; yes, your bugs are my features!

Nice list, Rick. I like the way you looked at global ideas rather than tiny details.

1. The writing. Most rulebooks rely on purely functional prose, but DCC goes the extra mile to pack the text with flavor and wit. I'm a huge fan of irony, and the ironic zest of these rules tickles me almost every time I open the book to a different page.
2. The art. I've probably spent as much time flipping through the rulebook staring at the illustrations as reading the rules. There are so many stories in the drawings, and many of them are so rich in their linework and detail, that they hold my attention in a way that I find rare and precious. Even the gorgeous, full-color paintings in the Pathfinder books don't captivate me in the same way -- I look at them, say, "Oh, that's nice," and go back to whatever rule I was looking up. After a while I ignore them entirely. But the DCC art is truly magical, in a way that transports me back to the age of 13.
3. The intent. Everything about this game just screams, "We want you to have a blast playing this." When I read other game manuals, the intent is, "We're providing you a meticulous set of rules that will cover every situation we can anticipate, while being careful to maintain a precise balance that keeps all characters more-or-less equal and gives everyone an even chance to participate in play." DCC says, "Role-playing should be crazy, gonzo fun. We're going to give you just enough to let you go wild ... and if you're not sure whether you want to go wild, we're going to push you until you realize you really do."

After playing it and DMing it several times now I would say just one thing...
1. This game just feels right. It speaks to my very soul. The 10 year old kid inside of me is jumping up and down screaming this is so awesome!!!