Game Report: Demo at Game Depot, Tempe AZ
Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2012 4:53 am
This is a little overdue, but here it is:
In November I ran a demo one-shot of Dungeon Crawl Classics at the Game Depot in Tempe, Arizona. The adventure was the bonus one that came with the pre-orders of the DCC book. It was ran with first level, pre-generated characters.
We ended up with seven players, each with two characters (of which, eight died). Most of the players were older, in their late 30s on up, except two boys, each about 12 years old with only 4e experience ("do you have power cards for us?" was heard that day). I won't go into detail of what happened, but the impression of the game followed age group.
All of the older players loved it. It reminded them of the old days. The kids didn't quite get it, especially the skill system, lack of 4e like powers, and character death. The older player players pointed out that in 4e it is very hard to die. The risk of death at each corner in this game was well received by them. The kids were confused- apparently neither had ever had a character die! Well, the two losing three characters total was a shock.
The older players all agreed that the risk of immediate death made them play different, making smarter choices because of the terrible outcomes. One of the deaths of the kids was made totally because he thought he could just rush in and succeed.
The one thing all players liked was the crit charts. The descriptions made them really enjoy a "20" coming up and the call out of the visceral description of the hit.
I look forward to running another game soon.
In November I ran a demo one-shot of Dungeon Crawl Classics at the Game Depot in Tempe, Arizona. The adventure was the bonus one that came with the pre-orders of the DCC book. It was ran with first level, pre-generated characters.
We ended up with seven players, each with two characters (of which, eight died). Most of the players were older, in their late 30s on up, except two boys, each about 12 years old with only 4e experience ("do you have power cards for us?" was heard that day). I won't go into detail of what happened, but the impression of the game followed age group.
All of the older players loved it. It reminded them of the old days. The kids didn't quite get it, especially the skill system, lack of 4e like powers, and character death. The older player players pointed out that in 4e it is very hard to die. The risk of death at each corner in this game was well received by them. The kids were confused- apparently neither had ever had a character die! Well, the two losing three characters total was a shock.
The older players all agreed that the risk of immediate death made them play different, making smarter choices because of the terrible outcomes. One of the deaths of the kids was made totally because he thought he could just rush in and succeed.
The one thing all players liked was the crit charts. The descriptions made them really enjoy a "20" coming up and the call out of the visceral description of the hit.
I look forward to running another game soon.