As I look more at the design philosophy behind the game, I'm more inclined to believe that wanting it to be "another D&D" is going to be misplaced. This is its own game.
It's also a game that is quite at odds with the form of D&D that Gary Gygax seemed to promote through his tales and adventure modules. One of the strongest features about those tales was this: they were for high level characters. Consider his Gord books: the first one gets Gord up to about 9th level, and then the remainder of the series deals with his "name" level adventuring. Likewise, almost all of Gary's adventures are in the 9th-12th level range, with the exceptions being the beginner modules of Keep on the Borderlands and The Village of Hommlet.
Yes, life was brutal and short at the lowest levels of D&D, but the bulk of play took place at above those levels. The DCC RPG seems to glorify these lower levels, where luck trumps all.
The system is also keyed to those lower levels: apparently it was intended only to be levels 1-5 before customer feedback suggested otherwise. I wonder how well the system will expand (the cleric, as noted, doesn't very well). The Wizard wanders into the quite random... rolling badly and forgetting how to cast magic missile for the day in your first combat isn't a great start to the adventure.
All of this randomness is likely to be extremely entertaining in the short term. I'm sceptical of it in the longer term. Is the game meant to be played over the longer term?
Cheers!
It's also a game that is quite at odds with the form of D&D that Gary Gygax seemed to promote through his tales and adventure modules. One of the strongest features about those tales was this: they were for high level characters. Consider his Gord books: the first one gets Gord up to about 9th level, and then the remainder of the series deals with his "name" level adventuring. Likewise, almost all of Gary's adventures are in the 9th-12th level range, with the exceptions being the beginner modules of Keep on the Borderlands and The Village of Hommlet.
Yes, life was brutal and short at the lowest levels of D&D, but the bulk of play took place at above those levels. The DCC RPG seems to glorify these lower levels, where luck trumps all.
The system is also keyed to those lower levels: apparently it was intended only to be levels 1-5 before customer feedback suggested otherwise. I wonder how well the system will expand (the cleric, as noted, doesn't very well). The Wizard wanders into the quite random... rolling badly and forgetting how to cast magic missile for the day in your first combat isn't a great start to the adventure.
All of this randomness is likely to be extremely entertaining in the short term. I'm sceptical of it in the longer term. Is the game meant to be played over the longer term?
Cheers!
