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Nice article! I remember this one - it was one of the first Dragon mags I ever had, part of a stack of magazines I picked up at Half Price Books sometime in the late 90s. I have always found it interesting how Gygax went from encouraging people to make up rules and mix and match games with D&D...

Much, much too long ago.

Same thing that interests me in any adventure: an actual plot and defined things for the characters to do. If I have to provide all of the above myself, I can do that without buying anything. You can even just provide it as a "potential sequence outline" or whatever. But for all the gods...

I've said it before: that drawing illustrates (ha!) the difference better than any article possibly could.

Makes me sad. I've been patiently waiting on a PoD Champions of Mystara forever.

The 3.0 DMG has a sidebar on creating 1st level multiclass characters. It didn't make the cut for 3.5 and hasn't been seen since, but I really miss multiclass characters that felt like a combination of the two classes from the start and not just a mix and match.

My personal favorites are 1) Court of the Necromancers from the Al-Qadim Cities of Bone sourcebox; though it's tricky to run, it's an amazing adventure overall and 2) The Portal Under the Stars, which is IMO the absolutely perfect introduction to the Dungeon Crawl Classics game.

But the list of DCC modules (which inexplicably isn't linked to that main page) is really useful. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dungeon_Crawl_Classics_modules

First: Petal and Thorn Rose, psychically bound human twins in an Earthdawn campaign. Latest: an elf in a DCC campaign, who had quills and a tail and who was aside form that amphibious and needed to keep their head surrounded by water at all times or suffocate. Weirdest: see "latest," above...

The 2e Secrets of the Lamp sourcebox has been the single most consistently used item in my collection since I bought it back in like 1996. Invaluable information not only on genies but on the elemental planes in general.

What you're describing is pretty much what I landed on. IME it's easier/better to assume characters have been practicing, studying, or researching stuff in their downtime, and gaining a level more or less just marks the point where they can do [skill X] consistently enough for it to be reliable...

I tried it back when we were playing 2e, and again with a different group playing 3.x. I love the idea, but in my experience it leads to a bunch of time where one character is hauling the rest of the part from place to place for stuff that doesn't involve them at all. Didn't quite work at my...

I believe that was also true of the 9th Printing (I know the adventure was in it, not sure about the language), but for whatever reason they don't release every printing on PDF. The new PDF also lists "DCC# 104: Return to the Starless Sea" amongst the modules and has a photo of what I assume is...

System overall, as in how the mechanics of magic operate in the game? DCC RPG, easy. I'm not a fan of magic being a reliable 'technology,' and DCC has a system in which your magic does SOMETHING at least most of the time, but it doesn't always do what you expect. This approach helps quell any...

If you start with one of the NPCs from the Monster Manual, it doesn't take too long. It's very easy to just make minor adjustments, and the 5e DMG has a table of easy stuff to change if you want the character to be an elf or a goblin or whatever. And the real question to ask is how much a given...

Something nobody has enough up here yet is that the whole crew at Goodman Games seems to be made up of just fantastic people, from Joe Goodman himself to Jen Brinkman and all the way down. I kind of had a sense that was true, but volunteering at their booth last Gen Con just really brought it...

I got mine already, too. Super fast turnaround and shipping, especially for Goodman's tiny crew, and I appreciate it. I spent a few years, on and off, working on an update of the Rules Cyclopedia for a modern presentation and new game. Then, by chance, I happened across the DCC core book in a...

I really wish more people understood this fact. Many folks seem to flock to DCC (especially coming from 5e) because they REALLY want PCs to die more often. I've seen some vicious Judges, and seen many players put off by them. A high body count is definitely possible, but it isn't necessary. I...

It's amazing how a minor change makes such a huge difference, isn't it?

If so, it does a real sh*t job at it, and similar classes (like the 3.5 Beguiler) have been just as bad. Firstly (and least importantly), I don't like the name. I don't want my character to be a "trickster." Secondly, limiting a character to the "spells known" mechanic kneecaps it to an...