Dying Earth - Turjan or Cugel

DCC Dying Earth is both a sourcebook and a setting for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role-Playing Game that offers a portal to the singular world of The Dying Earth novels by Jack Vance. Officially licensed by his estate, the Kickstarter will launch later in 2020 and the product will release in 2021...!

Moderators: DJ LaBoss, finarvyn, michaelcurtis, Harley Stroh

Post Reply
User avatar
catseye yellow
Cold-Blooded Diabolist
Posts: 448
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 5:23 am

Dying Earth - Turjan or Cugel

Post by catseye yellow »

those who have read through Vance's DE cycle know that there was a substantial tonal shift from earliest short stories collected in the eponymous collection to latter date Cugel and Rhialto stories. while earliest stories were more "serious" and in the vein of horror latter stories were more humorous.

turjan is lean and competent heroic adventurer and while liane is cugel prototype he is more competent and sinister (though cugel can be more dangerous to those around him). cugel on the other hand while totally amoral and self-serving is more prone to verbose shouting matches and base swindles than swordplay. rhialto, incredibly powerful that he is, is also a little bit more buffoonish and pompous than mazirian or pandelume.

so, what is your preference? do you plan to mix and match or go straight for one or other?
User avatar
finarvyn
Cold-Hearted Immortal
Posts: 2599
Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2009 3:42 am
FLGS: Fair Game, Downers Grove IL
Location: Chicago suburbs
Contact:

Re: Dying Earth - Turjan or Cugel

Post by finarvyn »

Cugel was always my favorite.
Marv / Finarvyn
DCC Minister of Propaganda; Deputized 6/8/11 (over 11 years of SPAM bustin'!)
DCC RPG playtester 2011, DCC Lankhmar trivia contest winner 2015; OD&D player since 1975

"The worthy GM never purposely kills players' PCs, He presents opportunities for the rash and unthinking players to do that all on their own."
-- Gary Gygax
"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!"
-- Dave Arneson
"Misinterpreting the rules is a shared memory for many of us"
-- Joseph Goodman
User avatar
catseye yellow
Cold-Blooded Diabolist
Posts: 448
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 5:23 am

Re: Dying Earth - Turjan or Cugel

Post by catseye yellow »

i would concur that cugel stories are more fun but some of the original set were also very interesting (like turjan's story and liane the wayfarer). also, maybe one could argue that the gap between sensibilities of the original set and latter cugel stories is literally the gap that exists between how one expects D&D adventure to unfold and how it actually plays out.
User avatar
Pesky
Mighty-Thewed Reaver
Posts: 313
Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2012 10:21 pm
Location: California, USA

Re: Dying Earth - Turjan or Cugel

Post by Pesky »

Rhialto is probably my fave.
Terry Olson
User avatar
catseye yellow
Cold-Blooded Diabolist
Posts: 448
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 5:23 am

Re: Dying Earth - Turjan or Cugel

Post by catseye yellow »

ah, yes failed to mention rhialto in the topic header. i love ALL DE stories but in some way rhialto is the most comical of three. not that it is bad but i prefer cugel. that said for actual gaming i would go for the turjan feel with helpings of cugel and smatterings of rhialto. cook under dying sun for thirty aeons. serve cold like vengeance!
pulsemeat
Far-Sighted Wanderer
Posts: 11
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 6:50 am
FLGS: Valet de Couer

Re: Dying Earth - Turjan or Cugel

Post by pulsemeat »

I absolutely adored the first two books (Dying Earth & Eyes). Every page had some fantastic, insane concept that was dying to be expressed. I found myself laughing out loud and constantly pestering my wife about the latest crazy event I just read.

Then Cugel's Saga was fun in a mannerpunk sort of way, and Rhialto was so dull I couldn't finish it.

So I'm gonna go with Turjan.
User avatar
Steel Rabbit
Gongfarmer
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Aug 09, 2013 12:37 am
FLGS: STRATEGIES Games & Hobbies
Location: Vancouver, BC
Contact:

Re: Dying Earth - Turjan or Cugel

Post by Steel Rabbit »

I absolutely love Cugel, though I have a soft spot for knaves that get themselves into trouble through their own actions...
Post Reply

Return to “DCC Dying Earth”