Dungeon Crawl Classics What is cool to you from a player perspective?

[Parmandur]

Had our first game last night, we got partway through the funnel.

I had fun with my group.

I am familiar with a bunch of modules and the 70s gonzo S&S tones but not the specifics of the rules and had not read the core book pdf beforehand.

The DM had a stack of predone four by four starting character sheets from which I drew a sheet randomly. He explained how it is close to simplified 3e with luck added and we picked names and started to work on characterizations.

He was using a print module and reading the boxed text straight.

The setup was unclear on if it was telling us we were all naturally motivated to jump into crazy danger or supernaturally prompted to do so and if so when that would drop or to what extent it should be there for roleplay and purposes of making choices.

I was a bit annoyed that it started off with us buying rations for an unknown duration journey, I was ready to go with just the starting gear and making things work with just a chisel and a torch.

Some random death from die rolls, no decision making on our part. My two characters I had built up roleplay characterization for in play died this way. Alberto the dwarven chest-maker and Alejandro the guild beggar. My friend Albert’s dwarven chest maker inherited Alberto’s 10 pounds of good wood and swore to avenge his brother’s death.

My woodcutter Andrew, with the best stats, died from scouting, poking just his head into a sleeping giant’s room looking for guard beasts before entering he saw one who grabbed him, yanked him in, and consumed him before I could act. No save to spend my 14 luck on.

This left me with my hunter Aaron who is dumb (int 5) and not personable (personality 8) but started with six hp while my others started with one or two.

As Aaron I kept suggesting terrible plan ideas that would never work.

That's about how a funnel works: the initial scenario is pretty much a series of luck based save-or-die effects, so regardless of play skill any given character has about 33% odds to make it to Level 1. The idea is to discover in play a character you would not have built. Level 1 and on it becomes a much more standard D&D setup.

 

[mamba]

If anyone is getting curious about the game, there is a bundle going on that gets you the game and all adventures (#66 to #108, 65 and before are for 3e and 4e) as PDFs for $18

Humble RPG Bundle: Bob's Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG Megabundle Presented by Bob World Builder

Instantly upgrade your next Dungeon Crawl Classics game night with the Skrym: Wilderness Sites, Encounters, & Loot collection and more!

www.humblebundle.com

 

[Voadam]

Do you happen to remember the name of the adventure, @Voadam?

I did not catch it.

It had a seven foot statue woman quest giver who spoke through severed heads held in her hands.

Pustule covered skanky birds attacked us on an invisible bridge over the ocean.

It had a 500’ spiky tree hollowed out to be a giant’s home, the front door is 50’ tall. The guard beast is a giant Jack o lantern with eight vine tendrils. There was a cool rat hole network system within the walls big enough to accommodate people.

All of those had illustrations we saw.

So lots of cool elements.

 

[Voadam]

If anyone is getting curious about the game, there is a bundle going on that gets you the game and all adventures (#66 to #108, 65 and before are for 3e and 4e) as PDFs for $18

Humble RPG Bundle: Bob's Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG Megabundle Presented by Bob World Builder

Instantly upgrade your next Dungeon Crawl Classics game night with the Skrym: Wilderness Sites, Encounters, & Loot collection and more!

www.humblebundle.com

Yeah, I mentioned this to my group, the core pdf is available there at the one dollar level.

Fortuitous timing for our group.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I did not catch it.

It had a seven foot statue woman quest giver who spoke through severed heads held in her hands.

Pustule covered skanky birds attacked us on an invisible bridge over the ocean.

It had a 500’ spiky tree hollowed out to be a giant’s home, the front door is 50’ tall. The guard beast is a giant Jack o lantern with eight vine tendrils. There was a cool rat hole network system within the walls big enough to accommodate people.

All of those had illustrations we saw.

So lots of cool elements.

Based on your description of the quest-giver, it appears to be Hole in the Sky.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Shadowdark also features the funnel, although it leans toward everyone just starting at level one by default. (On the other hand, the quickstart books feature a level 0 funnel, so it's like a 50/50 split on what Kelsey is pushing at the players.)

What sets the expectation for lethality there is the torch going out mid-battle and the three goblins who were about to get slaughtered by the party instead TPKing them.

I'm confident that most DCC groups that start playing at level 1 will find themselves in real trouble early on enough to learn their lesson as well.

The first time I played Shadowdark, the torch going out outside of combat was still terrifying and thrilling. In the middle of combat would be a disaster.

Had our first game last night, we got partway through the funnel.

I had fun with my group.

I am familiar with a bunch of modules and the 70s gonzo S&S tones but not the specifics of the rules and had not read the core book pdf beforehand.

The DM had a stack of predone four by four starting character sheets from which I drew a sheet randomly. He explained how it is close to simplified 3e with luck added and we picked names and started to work on characterizations.

He was using a print module and reading the boxed text straight.

The setup was unclear on if it was telling us we were all naturally motivated to jump into crazy danger or supernaturally prompted to do so and if so when that would drop or to what extent it should be there for roleplay and purposes of making choices.

I was a bit annoyed that it started off with us buying rations for an unknown duration journey, I was ready to go with just the starting gear and making things work with just a chisel and a torch.

Some random death from die rolls, no decision making on our part. My two characters I had built up roleplay characterization for in play died this way. Alberto the dwarven chest-maker and Alejandro the guild beggar. My friend Albert’s dwarven chest maker inherited Alberto’s 10 pounds of good wood and swore to avenge his brother’s death.

My woodcutter Andrew, with the best stats, died from scouting, poking just his head into a sleeping giant’s room looking for guard beasts before entering he saw one who grabbed him, yanked him in, and consumed him before I could act. No save to spend my 14 luck on.

This left me with my hunter Aaron who is dumb (int 5) and not personable (personality 8) but started with six hp while my others started with one or two.

As Aaron I kept suggesting terrible plan ideas that would never work.

While DCC RPG is a gonzo game that you learn quickly to be cautious in, you also sometimes just have to throw caution to the wind, do something daring and potentially epic if you succeed. And if you fail, well, people will still tell stories of that time your character died spectacularly.

 

[MacDhomnuill]

I found nothing worth while in DCC that hasn’t been done better by other games like shadowdark. Funnels are the worst idea to come out of the OSR crowd, magical mishaps pull me right out of any kind of immersion as who would study magic (how do any apprentices survive more than a week?), and any game that claims to be gonzo isn’t. All that combined with goodman games virulent racism (first game they ever published was about confederates riding dinosaurs to run down and kill mutant unionists and is the source of their corporate logo), and support to antisemitic publishers (judges guild, do I need to say more?) makes it not worth my time, or money.

 

[Parmandur]

first game they ever published was about confederates riding dinosaurs to run down and kill mutant unionists and is the source of their corporate logo

...

I'm sorry, WHAT?!?!

I do like the funnel as a character generation method (I also like OG Traveler charge, so I might just be nuts), and magical mishaps do make sense to me in terms of encouraging genre-faithful play: a DC Wizard is going to behave more like Gandalf than a D&D Wizard does, or even more like a mage from Lieber or Howard for that matter. But I'm done with Goodman.

 

[MacDhomnuill]

...

I'm sorry, WHAT?!?!

I do like the funnel as a character generation method (I also like OG Traveler charge, so I might just be nuts), and magical mishaps do make sense to me in terms of encouraging genre-faithful play: a DC Wizard is going to behave more like Gandalf than a D&D Wizard does, or even more like a mage from Lieber or Howard for that matter. But I'm done with Goodman.

Oh yes it’s something alright:

Dinosaur Planet: Broncosaurus Rex Role Playing Game

From the publisher (Goodman Games): In the year 2202, dinosaurs have been discovered on the planet Cretasus. But these dinosaurs are just as smart as the humans now flocking to their home. Velociraptors trade in alien weapons, leptoceratops guard their desert secrets, and T-rex dynasties...

rpggeek.com

 

[Micah Sweet]

It looks like my face to face game group is going to shift from our current modern xfiles ish Cypher system game to a straight Dungeon Crawl Classics one.

I love the gonzo fantasy feel of a ton of DCC modules and have gotten a lot for possible use in other systems but I have not played the DCC system itself.

I have a bit of an issue, I do not like the idea of funnels and high lethality, I generally want to play pulpy characters who explore and interact and fight and continue throughout the campaign, not play disposable doomed characters and constantly be at risk of actually dying randomly and trying to focus my play just to avoid that result as long as possible. When I played Paranoia I had a similar issue of taking it seriously and getting into a character who was living in such a situation and trying to survive and subvert the computer which was not really a great match for cartoony slapstick black comedy where you die frequently in comical ways. In D&D I enjoy the experience of a lot of combat, more so in more modern systems, less so with older edition energy drain and save or die type threats. I don't generally want to be an old school low level dungeon crawling skulker who tries to avoid combat as a top priority where if I am successful I avoid a big part of the game that I enjoy. I have made this clear, but we as a group are going this way. The new guy in our group who will be DMing is of the opinion that without actual death of PCs being on the line there is no stakes for combat and so it is pointless and the current Cypher GM is completely down with switching to be a player and trying DCC with a funnel.

I recognize these aspects as counter to my preferences but also that funnel type stuff is only a temporary part of play and I am willing to give it a go with the group.

So I have the DCC core book PDF but have not delved into it. What are cool aspects of player mechanic stuff that I should explore and focus on? What should I know about how funnels actually work?

What are people's experiences as a player going through DCC funnels and playing DCC in general? What was fun for you and how would you suggest I approach playing to maximize fun and be in the spirit of things?

I have played and run DCC, and for me the fun parts are the weird visuals and creatures, the dangerous magic system, and yes the high risk. I have zero problem losing a PC, and I love the funnel. You have to be ok with losing characters u til one sticks, or you're not going to enjoy the funnel IMO.