Goodman Games

Only glanced at the DCC rpg, but I noticed that wizard/cleric spells only go as high as 5th level. Makes sense in a low levelled rpg.

I'm interested though, in knowing the design process taken when culling the spells down to 5th level.

What criteria was forefront when deciding what gets thrown out, and what stays?

Bump

Of course this is just speculation, as i have no insight of how Joseph did all that.

First , I guess they gave precedence to the spells that are and always have been staples of the D&D franchise : think of Magic Missile, Flaming Hands, etc.
Second, if I had lots of spells but had to leave some of them out of the core book, I'd try to give precedence to spells that are very different from each other; i'd try to fill different niches in the magic system.
For example, if you have Flaming Hands but not Shocking Hands it's because it'd be very easy for a GM (or a player!) to create the second based on the first. Just tweek it a little bit.
That's exactly the process DCC is trying to promote.

Just like the previous poster, I am only speculating on the reasons why the spells only go up to 5th level, but I do so based on some things I've found in the rulebook.

First, an 18 ability score does allow access to 6th level spells. So far, nobody has stated that this is a typo.

Secondly, on page 359, under 'Heroes', it states that characters of 10+ level are considered demigods.

Based on this, I'm guessing that there will be a future release of 6th to 9th level spells, but these will be for characters of over level 10, which a character won't reach for some time from now (if ever) if the game is played as intended.

Forgive my vagueness, but in earlier days, there was talk of the game's 'higher levels' (6th and up at the time) involving Keep building and more of an Empire building/maintaining vibe. This was moved beyond the main rulebook when fan-pressure pushed the range of levels up to 10, and may still be on the drawing board for a future suppliment to DCC RPG.

They're called Domain levels in OSR speak. ACKS has some good stuff that focuses on Domain levels. Domain levels would probably start at 6th in DCC as opposed to 9th in most other games. But DCC RPG is focused on adventuring and crazy magic, and not Strongholds and Domains.

I don't think Joseph isn't particularly interested in that type of gaming, and personally I feel the same way. But I did pick up ACKS for reference if it comes to it. Swords & Wizardry, my go-to game for rules & what-not that's not included in DCC RPG, has some stuff to, but not nearly as comprehensive as ACKS.

Since both of those games are OGL, hacking them to fit DCC RPG wouldn't be very hard and legal to do so. I'd be curious to see what people would do.