Your thoughts on 'Xcrawl"?

[Teflon Billy]

I've loved XCrawl pretty much since it came out.

People seem to either really like the fluff, or hate it; I am in the former camp. The Fluff is written so well that virtually any "tone" you want to impart to your game is supported...

D&D as Pro Wrestling? Check.
Religious/Political Intrigue? Check.
Behind the scenes life of Media Stars? Check.
Straight Up Dungeon Crawling? Check.

The game is a ton of fun, we got a lot of use out of the Sellout supplement, but I'm not sure it would be needed for everyone's game.

One thing though is that prepared adventures are pretty important. With a lot of D&D I can just make it up on the fly...not so with XCrawl.

 

[Crothian]

X-crawl is a grand idea for conventions. An ok idea for one shots. Not so hot for an ongoing campaign.

I disagree with this. I think they have done a great job for having people play an X Crawl team that goes from dungeon to dungeon to compete. The game does a great job for campaigns.

 

[Capellan]

I loved the basic "extreme sports" concept behind X-Crawl.

But I got very little use out of the book. I wasn't fussed on the setting, which I thought completely missed the boat, and never used any of the mechanics at all.

This didn't stop us playing quite a bit of "X-Path" (X-Crawl meets the 3e Adventure Path, with a story hour on these boards), but we did it with our own rules and our own setting. Only the "extreme sports" element was the same.

 

[carmachu]

Love it. Getting all the books.

I mean, extreme sports, rock star/hollywood style characters for competive dungeoncrawling? pro-wrestling of D&D so to speak.

Some of the background is a....much to handle, but overall, a big thumbs up. Its nice and refreshing....

 

[Jadasc]

We tend to run it as a series of loosely connected one-shots featuring modern-day celebrities translated loosely into D&D classes and races. It's all sorts of good fun.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I have the original core book (it has since been revised to 3.5e) and a couple of splatbooks and adventures in PDF. The game sounds like a lot of fun. At the moment I just don't have time to run it. Maybe someday in the future, along with Feng Shui, Paranoia and Toon! (although not in the same game obviously! )

Olaf the Stout

 

[FATDRAGONGAMES]

Brendan was nice enough to run two games last Gen Con for the FDG crew at night and we had a blast. I can honestly say that those two games were the funnest con games I have ever played in and the rest of my group agreed (so much we're doing another game at GC this year). We got the books at the con last year and while we don't do a regular campaign of it for time reasons (we barely have time to play regular D&D), we do get it out every few months and play to take a break from the regular campaign (this Friday we're going through the Dungeonbattle Brooklyn module). I loved it so much that FDG is working on an E-Z Dungeons expansion pack that gives you accessores to convert your E-Z Dungeons basic set for use with X-Crawl (No Go doors, etc.) If any of you have the chance to sign up for an X-Crawl game at Gen Con with Brendan go for it-you have no idea how much fun you will have!

 

[Wombat]

X-Crawl is a lot of fun ... and it is honest about itself.

When you stop to think about it, most dungeons don't make much sense, but they are the core of D&D. Who would bother to build them? Why is there so much treasure in them, so many different kinds of monsters neatly divided by CR? How could people devise, much less execute, most of the traps placed in dungeons, not to mention have them still fully operational after years without maintenance? Yet D&D, for all intents and purposes, is a highly tactical small-unit miniatures game, thus the dungeons provide neat, orderly parameters for testing and using various character and tactical combinations.

X-Crawl explains most of these problems very simply -- the dungeons are not long-abandoned treasure-scapes, but purpose-built areanas for mass entertainment. It takes all the "givens" of the rules, pretty much RAW, and then gives them a reason to exist. And then it adds the modern spin, in that your character can win a car or gain corporate sponsorship.

In many ways, for me and my group, X-Crawl represented an honest and fresh approach to the tropes we all accept in D&D.

 

[Melsenschlap]

X-Crawl is a lot of fun ... and it is honest about itself.

Hi all, Brendan LaSalle creator of Xcrawl here. I am happy to answer any questions that anyone has about the game, setting, whatever.

It is true that Xcrawl really shines at conventions but it can be a fully realized campaign setting. My home game is about 80% dungeon adventure, 20% other. That other includes outside adventures, dealing with fame and fortune, participating in movies, hunting down free-range monsters and getting into general mischief. My players have fought tribes of road bandits, explored real world dungeons and performed secret black ops for the Emperor himself. It has the world of professional dungeon crawling, a darkly dystopic political landscape, the perils of fame and fortune and a huge underground region filled with all sorts of horrible stuff. But I do understand if people only ever play dungeons - it is certainly the most unique aspect of the game and by far the best supported.

I also understand reservations some people have about the setting itself. People tend to react very strongly to the setting whether positively or negatively. Fans tend to be people who have played a long enough time to really have fun with the way it spoofs the old secret door and trapped chest treasures of yesteryear. And like Wombat said above, it answers the age old question - what do these owlbears eat when they cant get any 6th level human rogues?

Thank you all for your interest and criticism. Feel free to post any questions/ comments you have here and I will try to respond to them.


Be well,

Brendan

 

[Storyteller01]

WOOHOO!!! Celebrity guest appearance!!


I love what I'm reading of the core book so far (the joys of working for the FLGS; I gets to read my stuff before I buy!! ). I'm really interested in how the other source material compares. How it effects the story and background, that sort of thing.