Mutant Crawl Classics is Part of Free RPG Day - Kickstarter Around the Corner

Five Different Covers ?!?

This year's Goodman Games Free RPG Day release has a DCC RPG Lankhmar Adventure and the very first Mutant Crawl Classics Adventure with quickstart.

Oh, and it comes in five different covers.

Whle the Lankhmar stuff is really cool, it's the Mutant Crawl Classics that has me excited. I've listened to +Jim Wampler talk about it on various podcasts an it's something I'm really looking forward to snagging a copy of the free releases and the impending Kickstarter.

How impending is the Mutant Crawl Classics Kickstarter? I don't know and Jim isn't telling, but I'm damn close to giving him my cell phone number to speed dial when it goes live, both so I can back it early and let my readers know ASAP.

In any case, time for a one hour trip to see if I can snag a copy of today's release...

Kickstarter - Dungeon Crawl Classics: The Chained Coffin (With a nice bunch of stretch goals under it's belt)

It's rare that I give a Kickstarter s second posting here at the blog - at least the good ones. For the most part, the good ones are "one and done". No snark, no gripping, just solid projects.

The Chained Coffin is different. Here's the basic summary:

- Level 5 DCC RPG adventure module to be manufactured with a puzzle on inside front cover that consists of 3 spinning wheels.

- Spinning wheel edition to be produced with limited edition silver foil cover, at $30 price. "Regular" color cover edition is also available (featuring the wheel graphic without the moving parts) at a price of $10.

- Written by Michael Curtis with inspiration from Appendix N author Manley Wade Wellman. Includes additional mini-adventure "The Rat King's River of Death" by Steven Bean.

But with the additional stretch goals, the $30 limited edition foil cover will also include:

"The Almanac of the Shudder Mountains, which is packaged separately with the silver and gold foil editions, will now be expanded to include a Magic section. This is in addition to the Bestiary and other material from prior stretch goals: the gazetteer, patron writeup, random encounters, and 7 additional variations on “the cover art monster.” Plus the extra player handouts in the main book. And all of this is IN ADDITION to the 0-level module that will also be included! Next up is stretch goal #9 to expand the Almanac from digest-size to normal 8.5"x11" size, with even more gazetteer material!"

Free Pantheon of Gods - Circa 1986

I can't believe I had both the time and the inclination to write up a whole panthon of gods. I'm putting this at around 1986, as by that time I was pretty much a full time GM for my High School / College group, and I was working on my own setting.

Yep, that's also around the time I got my hands on hexagonal graph paper and decided to try my hands at world design. I apparently didn't get very far. It's also a photocopy of the original, which was done in color pencils if I recall correctly.

My issues with world design were that my vision was always much larger than either my ability or my free time. I never completed a world / setting / major geographical area. So I generally found an area in Greyhawk or the Forgotten Realms that was out of the way and pretty much did whatever it was I wanted to do - but with pre-drawn maps and pantheons.

Still interesting pieces from my own collection. I'm half tempted to make the dungeon maps into a new mega-dungeon of sorts for my players. i still have a few more I need to post ;)

Mini Review - Crawl! First Issue (Dungeon Crawl Classics Fanzine)

I think you can tell I'm a fan of RPG fanzines.  I'll take them in print and I'll take them in PDF.  I almost always grab the first issue of a new one for fear of missing out on something really good.  Besides, one issue is often enough to weed out the good from the not so good.

Crawl! is most certainly in the good column.

I'm pretty sure the cover shot of Crawl! #1 is not going to do it justice as it's black ink on black paper.  Trust me when I say the effect is much better in real life compared to my piss poor photo.

How about the inside?  Twenty pages of Dungeon Crawl Classics goodness.  See, I'm still working my way throughout the tome that is DCC and this little booklet helped kickstart me to decide to complete the journey (well, that and the DnD Next Playtest Materials being released today reminding me how much the smaller publishers are pushing the envelope regarding Old School Style play, but I digress.

Some quick and dirty rules for turning your DCC game into a more Swords & Sorcery type of game.  Simple enough guidelines and very useful, even if I don't decide to use them immediately.  They are effective in showing how simple it is to house rule, and how a house rule doesn't have to be huge to have an fairly large effect on flavor.  Interesting use of Hit Dice Pools as one of the house rules.  If you've been following the D&D Next talk, it is pretty much what Mearls was talking about.  In this context, if the campaign lacks clerics and magical healing, it is almost a necessity.

The article on Patrons I couldn't quite grasp - need to get further along in the core rulebook it seems.

Variable skill check difficulties was interesting.  Think I need to read more on that section of the rules to determine if I'd want to use it.

Converting OSR style spells to DCC was pretty interesting.  Two pages covered a lot of ground. If I ever kick off a full campaign of DCC I'd probably want to keep this handy if I wanted to throw the players some non-standard DCC spells.

So, can you tell that I think it's a steal for $3.50?

How about the idea that I ordered this before I'd decided to actually give the DCC rules a complete read through?  I'm damn glad I have a habit of picking up the first issues of RPG fanzines in general.  Crawl! is yet another one I'll be subscribing to.

Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG in Hand!

I had read on the Goodman Games Forums from those that already got their copy of the DCC RPG that is was a solid book, but I had no idea how solid, how big, until mine arrived today.  So of course I hard to take picture of both it and it's accompanying free module.  As the rulebook also includes a 1st level adventure and a 5th level adventure, they start you off pretty well.

I really can't see myself running this on a regular basis, but it might be a lot of fun for a one-shot or a short story arc.

Still, I expect there are some things I can steal for my ACKS campaign.  Let my players beware ;)

Dungeon Crawl Classic RPG is Delayed to February 2012

Yep, DCC RPG is delayed until early winter of next year (Feb '12).  I'm neither surprised nor disappointed.  When it comes to computer RPGs / MMORPGs, they are never released on time.  Well, at least not the successful ones.  Why?  Because they go through many layers of beta testing, which leads to rewrites and more beta testing, but even more importantly, a more solid game.

So, I applaud Joseph Goodman for taking the play test / beta test feedback to heart and tweaking the game to make it better.  I'd rather wait 3 extra months for a tighter product then get something that isn't quite ready for prime time.

Besides, I'm still waiting on lots of RPG goodies I preordered to ship - Xplorers Boxed Set, Delving Deeper, Tome of Horrors Complete... not including the Kickstarter Projects I joined.

I'm much better at waiting now that I'm older ;)

DCC RPG Free RPG Day Adventure Starter PDF Released - For $4.95

Goodman Games has released their DCC RPG Free RPG Day Adventure Starter for $4.95 as a watermarked PDF from their website.

5 bucks isn't a huge price, but for 16 pages it certainly isnt cheap. Then again, they did release the DCC Beta for free, but that free beta is also a huge free marketing gimmick for the final product.

I'm buying a copy of the DCC RPG Free RPG Day Adventure Starter PDF because I really want to see what the mob of peasants are expected to overcome.

Still, if GG knew they were going to be charging $4.95 for the PDF, they could have told us ahead of time.  If they did, I certainly missed the announcement.

Coming Off the DCC High

Now that I've had a chance to read thru most of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Beta RPG Release, I find it is neither as as great as I had hoped, nor as bad as I feared.

I still have issues with the 0-Level mob of starter characters, as it reminds me of the Paranoia (1st Ed) RPG's use of disposable clones. But, as I read later, there are rules for starting characters at level 1, or even higher (up to level 3). Clone-mob may be fun once or twice, but after that, the novelty (and the joke) will wear off.

I like the use of skills based upon previous (pre adventuring) training. We used something vaguely similar back when I ran AD&D 1e games.

Spells. I'd have to see this in play, although some high roll spell effects are great, they won't come into play much with certain spells, as the hight roll benefits will only benefit if you cast the spell assuming you'd get that benefit. Okay, that was confusing. In any case, some of the spell charts could default to one basic spell chart, which would lessen the need to constantly look crap up.

Criticals. Is it just me, or did others have a RoleMaster flashback? Personally, I've seen criticals do more harm then good, as sooner or later a crit is going to take PC out.

Dice. I have 'em. I foolishly ordered a set in the same color. The d24 and d20 look damn close, as do the d14, d16 and the d10s. Sigh.

I'll play a game or two of DCC (I better, I preordered), but I haven't fallen in love with it. It may be good for a one nite stand. Heck, it may even look better with beer goggles ;)

Dungeon Crawl Classics Beta - More First Impressions

Goodman Games must be enjoying the hell outa all the hype they are getting on the DCC Beta release. Personally, I LOVE the art. There, I've said it. No, I don't know of any High School friends that could have done better back in the day. Art can set the tone, and this art does.

Is DCC aimed at the RPG newbie? I doubt it. I think they would be both overwhelmed and not get many of the "Old School" references that the game includes. This seems to be more like a reinvisioned Hackmaster then anything else. Not that it's Hackmaster, but it seems to be aimed at a similar audience.

Race as class. Not my preferred method, but I can deal with it. My issue - from my reading of the previous professions table, the only way to have an Elf, Dwarf or Halfling is to have rolled it on the profession table (Dwarven armorer or Halfling gypsy and such). I don't like the idea of taking that much choice out of the players' hands.

Zero level characters. I ran them in AD&D once or twice (was it Under Ilfarn or something like that?) and while fun or novel as a change of pace, I'd hate to use it more then once. The novelty wears off fast, and how does a zero level peasant turn into a 1st level magic-user over nite? Doesn't make sense.

Zero level swarm parties. 15 zero level characters thru attrition become a 5 character 1st level party. Why are these untrained adventurers adventuring? Why, if 2 outa 3 are going to die, are they stepping into the unknown? This seems more like Paranoia then D&D. I might swallow it better if Goodman Games can supply the right backstory, but I doubt that is going to happen. Instead, it seems like a piss poor game mechanic. It really pushes my suspension of disbelief that is necessary to immerse myself in a RPG.

Wacky Dice. I'm mixed on this. I suspect when the Original D&D Boxed Set was released, folks were damn annoyed and confused by the "wacky dice". I've ordered my set of "wacky dice". I'm willing to give it a shot. The D7 that I found doesn't match any other dice in color or markings. What a PITA.

That's all for now. Back to the grindstone

Dungeon Crawl Classics Beta - Its All the Rage!

The frickin' thing is hotter then hot cakes!  Every blogger and their younger brother has something to say about the Dungeon Crawl Classics Beta that was released today - some good, some bad, some bad / good, some good / bad.  The simple fact is people are talking about it, more-so then any recent RPG release that I can recall.  Heck, I preordered sight unseen when it was first announced, and ordered my funky dice this past weekend.

I'm sure that  everyone is waiting with baited breath for my thoughts on it, but that will have to wait.  My initial impression, having virtually thumbed thru my digital copy is that the art rocks and the game definitely has multiple roots - Dungeons and Dragons, Tunnels & Trolls and Rolemaster immediately come to mind, but there might be more.

My thoughts come later ;)

Dungeon Crawl Classics Beta Coming on Free RPG Day

Goodman Games is releasing the Beta Rules for the DCC RPG in digital format for Free RPG Day.  They will also be releasing a free print Adventure Starter, which will include one low level and one high level adventure.

I'm actually excited about this year's Free RPG Day now (basically because I have no idea what anyone else is releasing).  All that and a look at the rules in Beta.

You can read more about it at Goodman's site here.