Behind the Scenes...

I do not have a lot to report but here are the latest things happening in the background that will most assuredly lead to some posts in the future.

 

Escape from Camp Blood: I am still jotting down ideas but would really like to get some serious work done on this board game.  The truth is, I do not have a tremendous amount of serious board game experience so the going has been kind of rough.  Eric at Memories of the Mayfly has been tremendously helpful with providing insight and ideas but I just have not had any solid ideas yet.  It will come along eventually but in the meantime I want to say "Thanks, Eric" and hope that the game starts to take shape soon.  It kind of sucks to be stuck in brainstorm and research mode with no real progress to show.  Soon, I hope to have something for us to make available for download.

 

Swords & Wizardry: After a bit of investigation I believe that I have settled on Swords and Wizardry for my standard retro-clone of choice; as in, games that stick pretty close to the older editions of D&D.  I think S&W does a fabulous job of it and I am working on a project right now with Venger that should be completed later this year.  The DCC RPG is still my all time favorite neo-clone type of game for all of the little changes it makes in the rules.

 

Toldara: I have two ongoing projects for my campaign world.  First, I need to complete the B/X campaign handbook; who knows, maybe I will whip up a S&W version also?  Second, I need to update the map with some geographical changes and additions.

 

USR:  I am still working on the zombie apocalypse adaptation of the USR system.  Most of my work has consisted of background and setting material because USR tends to fade into the background.  The biggest change is in the name of my project.  The name, OUTBREAK, is already taken by a small press rpg and also used for the title of a supplement to another game.  I have decided to either use REMNANTS or REMNANTS OF HUMANITY. 

 

In case you were wondering what has been going on behind the scenes, there it is...     

 

 

 

 

 

 

More About Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG

In my recent post, Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG = D&D Perfected, I gave my initial reaction after browsing through the core rule book for the DCC RPG.  I had planned to explain my reasons a bit but life was extremely busy and demanding at that point.  Things have calmed down now so I will present the reasons I always intended to include in my original post. 
 

The Artwork

The cover of the DCC RPG grabbed my attention as soon as I first saw it up close.  I immediately flipped through the book to see how the rest of the art looked.  I was relieved to see a complete lack of the dungeonpunk style of art that bacame dominant during the third edition era.  I do not think that dungeonpunk was bad BUT I never felt like it represented the kind of fantasy I was interested in playing with all of the spikes, pockets, chains, and other unnecessary accessories and trinkets attached to the armor of the people in the illustrations.  I had high hopes after just a quick flip through of the rule book.

 

 

The Back Cover Text

After flipping through the rule book I turned it over to read these words:
 "You’re no hero.  You’re an adventurer: a reaver, a cutpurse, a heathen-slayer, a tight-lipped warlock guarding long-dead secrets.  You seek gold and glory, winning it with sword and spell, caked in the blood and filth of the weak, the dark, the demons, and the vanquished.  There are treasures to be won deep underneath, and you shall have them." 

I immediately started thinking of the day that my uncle David passed down his Holmes Basic Set and all of his AD&D rule books to me.  It was the summer of 1980 and it was quite a bit for an 8 year old kid and his buddies to take in but we did get up and gaming shortly after.

The Funky Dice

In addition to the standard range of polyhedrons, the DCC RPG also uses the d3, d5, d7, d14, d16, d24, and d30.  It seems that people are divided on these funky dice; some people are dead set against them while others really dig them.  I was a little skeptical of them at first but I really do think the funky dice add an extra dimension to the game.  They are not a gimmick but are actually used in a cool way to assess penalties to tasks.  For instance, your character might suffer a -2 die step penalty under certain circumstances so you would roll a d14 instead of a d20 on the attempt.  The DCC RPG brings back the sense of wonder we all felt when we first learned of the other sizes of dice outside the d6 found in Yahtzee, Monopoly, Risk, or other such games.
 

The Character Creation Funnel
Each player generates as many as four 0-level characters.  The funnel is the process of separating the wheat from the chaff and determining which chbaracters will go on to adventure further.  It is expected that atleast some, if not most, of your 0-level characters will not survive.  I have always wanted to use 0-level play in my games and now I have official rules for it.

My Campaign
I noticed as I was flipping through the rule book that my ideas for my campaign are actually better represented by the DCC RPG system so I am going to use it to power my campaign world of Toldara.  The start was delayed by a bit but it will begin soon.  This post is just the timp of the iceberg and I will put down more thoughts about DCC RPG in future posts.

More later...

[Mobile Post] Funky Dice Arrived in the Mail

The final ingredient for my Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG campaign!


Sent from my HTC Inspire™ 4G on AT&T

Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG = D&D Perfected!

I actually went to the local game store to look into getting the Shadowrun 20th Anniversary core rulebook.  It was in stock at the store along with several of the supplements.  Before I make a purchase I always like to look around to see what else is available and I decided to do that real quick just to make sure I was not missing anything.  I walked around the display and looked down when my attention was drawn to the cover of the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG.

I was surprised that it was out but I admit that I had not follwed the development closely.  I knew there was a Beta playtest release done in pdf.  I was under the assumption that Goodman Games was still working out some of the kinds from that.  I also remember reading some of the designer notes that Goodman posted on their website and it made me interested to see the final design .

I picked up the DCC RPG core book and started flipping through it. The thing I noticed first was the small price tage - only $39.99 - for a massive tome that approaches the 500 page mark.  As I held it and started skimming through random sections of the rules I began to be completely captivated by what I read as I slowly made my way from cover to cover.  A few short minutes later I found my way to the counter to make my purchase.

I have had the DCC RPG rulebook for a week now so I have had the opportunity to read through it with a little more attention to detail.  There is a lot to like inside the covers of this game.  I am not devoting this post to a full review because I am still neck deep in my summer college courses but I give this game my highest recommendation.  I have messed around with most of the retroclones but I have never pulled the trigger on buying one; I do own C&C and also Pathfiner.  I believe that DCC RPG is exactly what many old school players have been waiting for because it is not just a retroclone or restatement but a game derived from the same inspirational material but the focus is on recreating the feel and tone of the early days and not just the rules;  that makes a big difference.  I can honestly say that if DCC RPG plays as well as it reads then it will be my new game of choice.