DCC RPG BETA, June 8th

[Alaxk Knight of Galt]

Who is the target market for this RPG? Who does it appeal to?

It appeals to me. I like wildly cinematic or grim and gritty games. This falls into the grim and gritty catagory for me. I like the character funnel, random character generation, the simple rules, and cheap deaths.

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

You'd think if they wanted to hype the character funnel thing so much there'd be, you know, actual rules for it. It doesn't say how many guys you start with, or what you're supposed to do if all of your guys die but two of your buddy's guys live, or anything. It's just like "yeah, make a bunch of dudes, and see who lives."

 

[1Mac]

In my experience at cons, it actually plays very quickly. Quicker than traditional 3.5 or 4e, for sure.

I mean this in a spirit of frank and genial curiosity: How it this possible? I'm unable to try it myself at this time, but I can't imagine how that mess of tables could do anything but drag gameplay down. How does it actually work in play and move briskly?

 

[Filcher]

I mean this in a spirit of frank and genial curiosity: How it this possible? I'm unable to try it myself at this time, but I can't imagine how that mess of tables could do anything but drag gameplay down. How does it actually work in play and move briskly?

If you get a chance to play at a con playtest, it is worth your time.

The charts are mostly fire and forget. Outside of spellcasters, they didn't really come up.

I played a wizard. The DM gave me a one sheet for each of the 5 spells my PC knew. I'd cast a spell (one die roll), consult the table and do what it said. Compare to my other con games were we'd be consulting the PHB to review spell dmg, resistances, etc. Even as complete neewbs it just wasn't a big deal.

 

[nedjer]

I mean this in a spirit of frank and genial curiosity: How it this possible? I'm unable to try it myself at this time, but I can't imagine how that mess of tables could do anything but drag gameplay down. How does it actually work in play and move briskly?

Tables are good and fast for data retrieval; providing they aren't stuffed with dense data and they're sorted sensibly/ intuitively. 1e used them all the time.

The 'modern' table with multiple paragraphs stuffed into a row, watermarked backgrounds and a random order are as slow as any other paragraphs - but arranged in tight, vertical columns.

The DCC tables seem more the first than the second.

Otherwise, I'm not sure what's on offer that isn't in say free White Box D&D?

 

[Treebore]

You'd think if they wanted to hype the character funnel thing so much there'd be, you know, actual rules for it. It doesn't say how many guys you start with, or what you're supposed to do if all of your guys die but two of your buddy's guys live, or anything. It's just like "yeah, make a bunch of dudes, and see who lives."

Create 3 to start, and if you run out, create 3 more.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Um yeah I am not sure what you are reading but it is quite explicit

First, each player generates at least two, and possibly as many as four, 0-level characters.

Begin play with a properly sized party (at least 15 PCs),

But I admit he should mention that survivors that make it to 1st level should be given out to those without PCs. Still not many games mention that sort of stuff.

 

[MerricB]

It's taking the original game and making it cool again. Or at least I hope so.

I hope you find it so!

One of the things that struck me from reading the preview was how un-D&D it was. Yes, it's obviously derived from D&D, but there are some significant differences.

The other element was how much it seemed to weight play against high levels (which were a very big part of Gygax's original game). Magic-user and cleric players need to carry around actual spellbooks of all the look-up tables of their spells, which isn't really that convenient, and clerics - in particular - get a lot worse at casting spells the more they do.

Clerics - oh, wow. The cumulative penalty for spell-casting means that a high-level cleric will be unable to cast more than one or two good spells in a day before needing to go home to rest. It's a spell-point system in all but name. (And, if I might say so, a very punishing one).

Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

You have a 0-level character that goes on an adventure. Great, they survive and become a 1st level Wizard. Is the gap between 0 level and the first adventure suppose to be years? Did that farmer study magic with his hen (or randomly determined farm animals) for years before going on his 0 level adventure? Perhaps the farmer's hen is his patron!

To be fair, this is a question that has bemused players since they first saw the dual-class rules in AD&D.

Cheers!

 

[mach1.9pants]

One thing you need to remember Merric, is that most Clerics won't be casting high level spells. There is only the small 3d6 chance that they have a high enough Personality. Also that all spells scale with the result of your roll. SO a high level cleric will be getting a lot more bang for his first level spell buck.

But, not being great at statistics, I wonder how many spells a cleric can cast in a day at, say, 5th level on average? My gut says the same as you, no CoDzilla here!