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Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Yet Another Dungeon Crawl Classics First Impression

Unless you've been hiding under a drunken dwarf, you've probably heard that Goodman Games has released a free, open-beta set of rules for their upcoming entry into the OSR genre: Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. After downloading the .PDF I took spent the afternoon browsing through the rules. My thoughts:

  • The game is a heavily stripped-down version of D20 with an "Old School" flavor. It shouldn't bee too hard for D&D (version 3.0 through 4.0) and Pathfinder players to pick this game up.
  • The artwork is fantastic and captures the feel of classic RPGs. The game also has a bit of a sense of humor that sets it apart from the dryly written rules found in most games.
  • The rules feature one of my least-favorite concepts from OD&D: Races (e.g. Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings) as classes. 
  • At the start, players are recommended to create 2-4 0 Level characters with no skills or powers and run them through the Darwinian gauntlet of game play. Any PCs that make it to first level get to choose their class and go on from there. Personally, I'm not really sure how popular this rule will go down for experienced players who might not want to wade through their first few games as a talentless nobody. 
  • The game is very table-heavy. Critical hits, fumbles, and even spell trappings, are rolled on tables. 
  •  Great Cthulhu... as a "neutral" deity???
I'd like to give the rules a whirl, but right now it's very hard for me to get any of my friends to take a chance on something new. If anyone knows of any online games going on, please let me know.

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