THE CARNAGE - What Went Down? AD&D 1st Ed to DCC RPG

[atlascott]

So I started a new game with the old group. (Got the band back together). We are all "3.whatever, 4.whatever'ed" out.

We wanted old school, and since we are all in our 40's, yeah, we still have our 1st Ed. books. The fellas roll up a pretty competent, pretty diverse Party.

And for the remainder of Session One, we get 1/4 through Talons of the Horned King, a great GG adventure. Sure, it was written for 3.0, but I find it easy to convert to AD&D.

In the month between sessions, I somehow pick up DCC RPG, and pretty much, its love at first sight. I begin scheming as to how to work the transition?

Reboot? Nah, they like their PC's...
By the book conversion? Kinda will not work...

These guys are likely to revolt, I think, if I change rules on them mid-stream in an adventure...they have made their opinions about rules known, quickly and vocally, in the past...

Long story short, since I am doing the rug-pulling, I decide to go out of my way to make the transition as palatable as possible: convert the split class characters and allow all of the benefits of AD&D as well as those in DCC RPG, but for THESE CHARACTERS ONLY. Meaning that if they die and create new guys, they have to be 'by the book'. Found good Paladin, Ranger and Gnome materials on this very forum and elsewhere. Wasn't too hard.

To my surprise, the rules change was NOT a tough sell at all. I started with the spellcasters (3rd level) "With these rules, you can cast a spell you know as many times per day as you want, as long as you keep making your spell checks. If you fail, there's a small chance of really bad things -- but an even better chance of a really fantastic result." For the fighters "check out these critical hit charts..." and your Paladins can lay on hands...

To my surprise, everyone is EXCITED and ENERGIZED by the new rules. Two of the 5 guys want to buy the rules immediately, and they are all into figuring out how it all comes together...

Session two, we spend and hour or two on the conversions and eating, and then...game time...

Unfortunately, DCC RPG IS more deadly than your traditional game, as they quickly discovered.

TPK. Frist time that has happened in 10 years. And no one was upset or PO'ed by it.

Had we all had a better understanding of burning luck and spellburn, they MAY have survived (some maybe), but I put it down to an epically-bad series of rolls. This was not in one combat, mind you. This was legendarily-bad d20 rolling the likes I am not sure I have ever seen.

Case in point, without spoilers, there is a trap that, EVEN AFTER THE PARTY WAS ALERTED TO IT, caused damage to 4 of the 5 PC's, with several additional near misses.

Everyone had a baslt, everyone is excited about the game and the rules, and everyone is very into their new characters...

Here are my impressions after 32 years of RPG'ing.

1. Chargen takes very, very little time compared to most other system. Thank goodness.

2. Combat does not take forever -- everyone has a specialty that they are very good at, a role, and they do it. The thoughtful synergy of the rules is very, very impressive.

3. The Elf may be slightly overpowered from a strictly mathematical angle. Not sure why anyone would play a Mage if the numbers matter to them.

4. I think we are going to be running this game for a long, long time.

5. I am letting the reboot start at 1st level, with slightly munchkin'ed Stats. But if we have a TPK, we are gonna go 0 level old-school, RAW. There will be grousers and complainers, but I think the guys are impressed enough by the rules, and by the strange, roll of the die, random POWER of a good magic roll or a great critical hit.

6. I do not see much point in playing anything else in this genre. Awesome, and well done, Goodman Games.

[Raven_Crowking]

Welcome!

[GnomeBoy]

...Not sure why anyone would play a Mage if the numbers matter to them...

Of course, if you're playing strictly by the book, and your character is Human, and you want to cast spells, but don't want to be a Cleric... Wizard is your only choice.

Not that anyone has to play by the book.

And, welcome, too!

[Karaptis]

Your story is very similar to mine. I'm glad you still have a group. Due to geography mine is gone. I find virtual tabletops a pain in my rear end to DM with. When my life gets back in order, I will find a group and play.

[DM Cojo]

My story is also similar...except we were playing 2nd edition AD&D. I didn't try to convert that party though, just put them on the shelf. Your experience gives me good ideas to convert the existing party if that is what they want to do.

The party is made up of a dwarf fighter, elf ranger, elf cleric, two specialist wizards, a druid, a thief, and a paladin. Some will be straight conversions like the dwarf, thief and wizards, although I may let them hand pick their spells to maintain some feeling of "specialization." The elf will have to choose one path or the other. The paladin is stated out in Crawl magazine. And the druid would just be a cleric with nature type spells. I think the conversions will be fairly simple.

My group loves the game. Four players have purchased the book already, and two more seem on the verge. Our games are a blast, especially the funnels.

[finarvyn]

atlascott, overall I agree with your assessment and am glad that you gave DCC a shot. Many of the folks who complain about DCC have never actually played it, and most of the folks I've encountered who actually played it have liked it.

I think the secret fro your situation is that the DCC RPG rules are pretty "loose", or that they are easy to adjust "on the fly," so that conversion from other D&D-style systems isn't much of a pain at all.

It's possible that some of the extra powers you gave the characters messed up game balance a little, but clearly not enough to stop the TPK. Indeed, if it worked for you once you might even get rid of the "one character only" rule and house-rule some of those other classes into your game, if the players really want them that much.

[Skyscraper]

Welcome to the boards and the game! I just ended my short 12-15 session long campaign, and i'm playing two online games, DCC rocks.

5. I am letting the reboot start at 1st level, with slightly munchkin'ed Stats. But if we have a TPK, we are gonna go 0 level old-school, RAW. There will be grousers and complainers, but I think the guys are impressed enough by the rules, and by the strange, roll of the die, random POWER of a good magic roll or a great critical hit.

The funnel (level 0) is simply one of the best rules I have ever seen. So much fun is to be had that your players might regret levelling up to level 1. I'd think twice about skipping it.

[finarvyn]

The funnel (level 0) is simply one of the best rules I have ever seen. So much fun is to be had that your players might regret levelling up to level 1. I'd think twice about skipping it.

True, and if some player doesn't like it, it's probably only an adventure or two added onto the rest of the campaign. A lot of fun can be had early on, and I agree that some players regret moving on to "real" characters.

[Ogrepuppy]

Awesome, and well done, Goodman Games.

So...you're saying you like it?