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I haven't purchased any Goodman Games' Dungeon Crawl Classics but with the pdf sale and their impending disappearance I was wondering what are the best ones to buy? I would be looking at up to 10th level adventures and probably buy about 8-10 pdfs. Thanks for any recommendations.
For pure bang-for-the-buck, you pretty much have to get The Adventure Begins (DCC 29) and The Adventure Continues (DCC 48), which have 15 and 20 mini-adventures respectively.
DCC 1 Idylls of the Rat King (1-3) gets my vote for best.
Other good ones are:
DCC 44 Dreaming Caverns of the Duergar (1-3)
DCC 46 The Scaly God (4-6)
17 Legacy of the Savage Kings (4-6)
10 The Sunless Garden (6-8)
5 Aerie of the Crow God (7-9)
30 Vault of the Dragon Kings (10)
13 Crypt of the Devil Lich (15)
Honorable mention: #35A Halls of the Minotaur(from Gazeteer of the Known Realms boxed set) - for 0 level characters. The only reason this isn't #2 on my list is it comes as part of a boxed set (which is totally worth buying, but the adventure is a very small part of it).
There are many others that are really good, but if I include them, it would hardly be a best of list anymore.
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Monte Cook's post alerted me that all these PDFs would be $5 until the 31st and then gone forever. He also said, "This is what the World's Largest Dungeon should have been." Do you agree? And do you think it would be feasible to run an adventure that large out of a PDF?
Speaking of Monte Cook, he co-wrote #50, Vault of the Iron Overlord, with Soren Keis-Thustrup. An excellent adventure with a really neat rotating dungeon and a cool returning villain.
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Monte Cook's post alerted me that all these PDFs would be $5 until the 31st and then gone forever. He also said, "This is what the World's Largest Dungeon should have been." Do you agree? And do you think it would be feasible to run an adventure that large out of a PDF?
I pretty much ONLY run adventures from PDF's now. If I cant get it as a PDF it's pretty much useless to me.
I print out the portions of the adventure that I plan to run and mark up the print outs with notes or with whatever alterations that I need to make. I'm also not someone who gripes about the fact that I have to print something out. I take into account that when I spend money on printer toner that I'm actually buying toner so that I can, well, PRINT THINGS OUT.
Also I find that it's easier for me to run an adventure with loose sheets than it is from a bound or spine stapled book.
But hey, maybe that's just me.
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IMO, DCC 34 Cage of Delirium and DCC 38 Escape from the Forest of Lanterns are the best DCCs that I own.
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Also I find that it's easier for me to run an adventure with loose sheets than it is from a bound or spine stapled book.
This. I started to run RPGA events and would print them out as little stapled booklets. Till I ran one off the cuff that was printed single sided. It made a huge difference. That flipping around in an adventure took up more time than I could afford, and I never realized it.
Sorry, but it is a bit on topic, I love this aspect about PDF adventures. So it is a plus for the DCC ones, or any you can get in this way.
This isn't exactly about DCCs, but I was looking through some of the sale PDFs and noticed also the "Complete Guides" to various monsters and things. How are those? Any good, or is it better to spend the money on the adventures?
IMO, DCC 34 Cage of Delirium and DCC 38 Escape from the Forest of Lanterns are the best DCCs that I own.
Good enough to port to another edition or gamesystem?
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Good enough to port to another edition or gamesystem?
Yes.
Cage of Delirium is a ghost story that is fairly combat lite, very moody, and full of interesting NPCs. Its set in a ruined sanitarium and works for fantasy, victorian, or modern horror. (Lvl 6-8)
Forest of Lanterns is a Dungeonland style faerie tale. You're turned into a 8 year old kid trapped in a Hansel & Gretel style world of mischievous fey, wicked witches, and grubby trolls. It makes good use of the sizing and conversion rules in 3.5, but you could easily sub in appropriate monsters (since most are re-skins anyway). (Lvl 6-8) It has a gateway, so it can work in any setting.
Having run the former and played the latter, I give them both high, high marks.
For pure bang-for-the-buck, you pretty much have to get The Adventure Begins (DCC 29) and The Adventure Continues (DCC 48), which have 15 and 20 mini-adventures respectively.
Absolutely. Add Castle Whiterock and the Gazetteer. Everything after that is just frosting on the cake.
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Cage of Delirium is a ghost story that is fairly combat lite, very moody, and full of interesting NPCs. Its set in a ruined sanitarium and works for fantasy, victorian, or modern horror. (Lvl 6-8)
To add to Remathilis's comments, when I was reading it, I thought that the adventure would be perfect for Ravenloft and Call of Cthulhu.
__________________ Veronica: Where's your brother?
Dick: I think he took Ghost World up to his room. They're probably up there making love. Or playing Dungeons and Dragons. Or both, at the same time. They're both, like, 12th-level dorks. I'm just sayin'
Cage of Delirium is a ghost story that is fairly combat lite, very moody, and full of interesting NPCs. Its set in a ruined sanitarium and works for fantasy, victorian, or modern horror. (Lvl 6-8)
Forest of Lanterns is a Dungeonland style faerie tale. You're turned into a 8 year old kid trapped in a Hansel & Gretel style world of mischievous fey, wicked witches, and grubby trolls.
Wow, you can see the usefulness of reviews over recommendations here. I would have bought them before, but now I don't think I have the skill to run them or the group to enjoy them. Sorry that your recommendations had the opposite effect on me!
I went back through the other two threads Psion linked to and added up the recommendations. I am too tired to add this thread in.
Keeping in mind that one person said "I would recommend #5 Aerie of the Crow God to a fan of DCCs. I wouldn't recommend DCCs at all to a gamer about whose taste I know nothing," here are the DCCs ranked by number of recommendations:
9:
34 cage of delirium (haunted house)
7:
5 aerie of the crow god
29 adventure begins (1st level adventures anthology)
4:
crypt of the devil lich
50 vault of the iron overlord
adventure continues (anthology)
51 castle whiterock (huge megadungeon) (includes monte cook's recommendation)
3:
11 dragon fiend pact
Anything by the author Harley Stroh
2:
legacy of the savage kings
, sunken ziggurat (unique monsters),
31 transmuter's last touch
talons of the horned king (scifi),
51.5 Sinister secret of whiterock
0 legends are made not born
15 lost tomb of the sphinx queen (boss battles)
1:
revenge of the rat king
idylls of the rat king
vault of the dragon kings
palace in the wastes
chronicle of the fiend
halls of the minotaur
secret of smuggler's cove
16 curse of the emerald cobra
12 the blackguard's revenge
12.5 iron crypt of the heretics
0:
mysterious tower (puzzles) (one positive, one negative)
-1:
bloody jack's gold (one positive, two negative)
legend of the ripper (one negative)
One person suggested,
Quote:
I think the ideal 3.5 campaign would be:
#28 Into the Wilds
#3 The Mysterious Tower
#7 The Secret of Smugglers Cove
#10 The Sunless Garden
#5 Aerie of the Crow God
#30 Vault of the Dragon Kings
and the adventures are sorted for party level here.
Monte Cook's post alerted me that all these PDFs would be $5 until the 31st and then gone forever. He also said, "This is what the World's Largest Dungeon should have been." Do you agree? And do you think it would be feasible to run an adventure that large out of a PDF?
Yes and Yes. It's very well sectioned into different regions, making it really easy to find what you're looking for and keeping the rest to one side. And because it's pdf, you can just cut and paste and use what you need at any given time. Castle Whiterock is by far the best mega dungeon out there. IMO and all that, of course.
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