NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="goodmangames" data-source="post: 5496707" data-attributes="member: 7259">Hi everyone,A couple quick answers to some of the questions raised in this thread:Spellcasting and page flipping: Legitimate point based on reading the description of the game, but not an issue in play. I guess I should point out again that this game has been in "stealth playtest mode" for well over a year; all the issues being brought up here have been hashed through in actual play, not just some "design document." Wizards typically have 4-6 spells, maybe a couple more if they have high ability scores, and slightly more as they advance in level. Each "spell table" fits on one 8.5x11 page (and that's only because they're in MS Word format; they'll probably be smaller in final published form). I hand out those pages before the game (in the final book they will "permission granted to photocopy for personal use," etc.). There's no "page flipping"...the wizard just rolls a d20 on the page in front of him. After a couple combat rounds the wizard is usually on top of it. (That's not to say the tables are perfect; I still need to improve a couple things, but it's not a game-slower.)Actually, to give a point of comparison...DCC RPG runs about 2x-3x as fast as any 3.5 game I ever played in, and is an order of magnitude faster than 4E. In a four-hour session we'll usually complete multiple combats involving many opponents, as well as solve a puzzle or two, complete some simple NPC interaction, etc. Modules that would take 3-4 sessions under 3.5 rules typically take 2 sessions under DCC RPG rules. This is one of the things I am striving for; my best memories of D&D are fast-moving sessions where everybody is constantly engaged, not the modern games of "I'll go get a beer while you figure out the exact combination of tactical moves that maximizes your next action." I'm also a big fan of board games, and I particularly like designs that keep every player constantly engaged (Puerto Rico is brilliant!) - in my opinion, D&D needs to get back to that.It's definitely not for everyone, and there will be some of you who walk away unsatisfied. But I think there will also be many of you who find you really enjoy it.High powered casters / tactical strikes with magic missile: I'm still debating maximum level in this game but I'll probably end up at 10th being the highest. I am striving for a style of play comparable to what I recall from the early 1980's. In your OD&D and AD&D games from the 1980's, how many of you had a PC that legitimately made it past 6th level? Anybody? It was incredibly rare. 10th level characters were unheard of. Even getting to 6th level was a big deal. Keep this power scale in mind as we discuss spells...a caster with a modifier of +10 is extraordinary. Even getting an unmodified +6 on the table (e.g., without spellburn) is extraordinary. And, with that noted, recall that (a) every spell is cast with a d20 roll, so even if a wizard spellburns 10 points of ability scores to end up with, say, a +16 on the table (+6 base and +10 from the spellburn), he can still roll a 4...or even a natural 1... and (b) arcane spellcasting is dangerous! Wizards tend to become corrupted over time, and may have to, ahem, negotiate their way to power with supernatural creatures that have their own agendas. A 10th level wizard in DCC RPG is like the wizards in any REH Conan novel or the heroes of Moorcock, Merritt, Lovecraft, and Vance: the wizards have power, but at a cost...So, to cast the "tactical strike" magical missile with a 30+ result is not something any wizard can do consistently -- or even predictably on a one-time basis.Lots of RPGs on the market: Can you find me one written by someone who has read almost everything in Appendix N? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> DCC RPG is attempting something I have yet to see in any published work: it is NOT a retro-clone, but an attempt to re-imagine what D&D could have been, if the original inspirations were expressed in a modern rules set. Even the OSR retro-clones do not reach as far back into the origins of the game as I am attempting to do. DCC RPG may or may not succeed in its task -- time will tell -- but the attempt at "pre-D&D swords & sorcery" is not something I have seen any other published product attempt. Dragons At Dawn is probably as close as they come, and that's an attempt to look at only one half of the origin point. DCC RPG explicitly attempts to build a game that captures the ability to play adventures corresponding to the original inspirations of Gygax and Arneson, portrayed with a modern rules set. There's more on the subject in my design diaries on my forums: <a href="http://www.goodman-games.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=7663" target="_blank">Designer's Blog #2: Pre-D&D Swords & Sorcery</a>Hope that helps.</blockquote>

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