Dungeon Crawl Classics - like 'em?

[Dirt]

It's very much a mixed bag. Most of them are great 'classic' dungeon crawls, but like classic dungeon crawls they are at times somewhat 'immature'. But when they manage to merge a compelling story and a dash of play variaty with that classic dungeon crawling they are very good indeed.

For example, 'Into the Wilds' is an extremely well written module that everyone should play.

As for the tournament modules, they really aren't to my taste, but I can see why people like them.

I'm a big fan of the tournament modules, but that's probably because it's exactly what I'm looking for out of a dungeon crawl - good descriptions, drawings to accompany some of the descriptions, puzzles, riddles, traps, great combats, and interesting locales. I generally run the DCCs as a weekend one-shot module with the pregen characters. My group has always had a blast playing them.

 

[Kafkonia]

I had a mixed experience with the Golden Palace of Zahadran, but that was as much because of party make-up (evil) and the DM (me) as the module. There's certainly a lot of nifty ideas in it, and I found it good enough to spring for the $2.00 Transmuter's Last Touch, which is quite short but certainly worth the money for the superhuman kobolds. They often tempt me when I'm at the FLGS, but I find it hard to justify buying many of them when I know I likely won't use more than a fraction.

 

[Ourph]

The ones I've looked at have seemed much too linear to me (more like a Mario Brothers video-game with mooks and an "end boss" than the classic D&D adventures they are supposed to be emulating) but I have to admit I only bothered to purchase a few of the earliest ones. Dragonfiend Pact stands out as one that many people point to as good that I felt didn't live up to the hype.

 

[Prince of Happiness]

I ran DCC#2 once. It was almost a TPK (one dude ran away when he figured which direction the wind was blowing, or in this case, DM was rolling). Haven't had a chance to run any others.

Into the Wilds, I really want to run. Not very linear w/ a great big boss fight at the end to me.

 

[Dirt]

The ones I've looked at have seemed much too linear to me (more like a Mario Brothers video-game with mooks and an "end boss" than the classic D&D adventures they are supposed to be emulating) but I have to admit I only bothered to purchase a few of the earliest ones. Dragonfiend Pact stands out as one that many people point to as good that I felt didn't live up to the hype.

Quite a few modules have that "end boss" scenario, no matter who the publisher is. I'd also venture to say that A LOT of the classic adventures had that. The DCC has several in the line that don't follow that description (despite what their tag line says). For example: Crypt of the Iron Heretics, Legacy of the Savage Kings, etc. Neither of those have a linear feel in terms of "mooks and an end boss". I'm sure there are other examples, but I honestly only have a handful of DCCs (around 10 or so).

I haven't purchased too many of the earlier ones, so perhaps that is where we differ.

I thought Dragonfiend Pact was a neat concept, and for $2 it's hard to complain. It gave me enough to build off of, and I liked the idea of "shrinking" the adventurers. I combined that with some concepts of an early dungeon adventure (which also shrunk down the adventurers), threw in some of my own ideas, and I had a memorable adventure.

 

[EricNoah]

In that case, definitely check out the GoodmanGames website, if you haven't already...I'm fairly certain that Halls of the Minotaur has been completely mapped out in Dunjinni. Halls of the Minotaur came with the boxed set, right? I don't have that yet, but I've heard good things about it.

Yes, that's right. Thanks for the tip! And right you are...

http://www.goodmangames.com/presters.php

 

[Ghendar]

I own several.

LOVE them!

Hope to run a bunch someday.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

I think they are, by and large, superbly done. I wouldn't run them in a campaign, but they make great beer & pretzels one-shots. Also, I found the history of at least one (Tomb of the Sphinx Queen) tremendously evocative and built a whole world around it for my Spelljammer game.

 

[FATDRAGONGAMES]

I absolutely love them. They are great for filler adventures in my campaign and I have run a number of them over the last couple of years. My players always have a great time with them, but then again we all started playing 25 years ago with 1E ADD modules so if you like those you will be happy with these.

 

[Crothian]

We really like them. I just ran 12 and 12.5 and they were a blast. I've set up the next one but the group has some other things before we start on it.