Goodman Games Dungeon Crawl Series

[Ahzad]

I'm looking for some opinions on the Dungeon Crawl Classic's by Goodman Games. I don't have a real stable group at the moment, but still want to keep gaming. I thought about just doing an old school dungeon crawl for a while with the remaing group until we can get some replacements. They haven't been playing for a whole lot of years and missed all that old school stuff, and they love the hack & slash in KoDT. So I figured this might be kind of fun for a while, and something I don't have to put a lot of effort into, or switch game systems. I've been seeing these Dungeon Crawl's and have loved seeing Erol Otus's art again, but hadn't picked up any yet. So are these what I'm looking for? Sell me on them guys

 

[Teflon Billy]

Sounds like they are absolutely what you are looking for. Like, no question whatsover.

They are really, really well crafted takes on 1E Dungeon Modules.

My favorites are Aerie of he Crow God and Bloody Jack's Gold.

 

[DarrenGMiller]

The Dungeon Crawl Classics by Goodman Games are indeed good old-fashioned dungeon crawls, complete with retro D&D-style artwork, maps and covers.

So... why did I not choose any for my current "old school 3.5E" campaign while I recommend them to others? Quite frankly, I think Necromancer Games has a slightly more authentic old school feel in actual game play/mechanics. The Goodman Games adventures (I own two and have leafed through more) are more innovative in terms of taking advantage of the new ruleset (mechanically speaking), so some of hte encounters feel more 3.x than old school.

Either way, Goodman Games, or Necromancer Games, these two companies have the best old school products I have seen so far.

DM

 

[Abraxas]

I am currently playing in two games and we are working our way through the first twelve of these adventures/modules. They definitely have an "old school" D&D feel which is both good and bad.

They are, for the most part, lotsa fun. Depending on what the players do you can get nearlty any level of hack-n-slash you want. They are quirky in an entertaining way and things are always just a little bit stranger than you expect.

On the other hand they have a number of WTF? moments, such as including random powerful (and really valuable) items hidden in really stupid locations - and once the players figure this out, they begin searching EVERYTHING. Some of the map scales are really wonky, lairs with 5 foot wide corridors and 10 x 15 foot rooms inhabited by 10x10 creatures. Item destroying creatures/traps in just about all of them.

 

[Pyrex]

Good: Lots of interesting battles, interesting uses of terrain features, unique tactics for specific groups of monsters. Excellent "old-school" dungeon crawl.

Bad: Big-time meatgrinder. First scripted encounter in one of the modules for 1st level characters is with an Ogre. (not an orc, not a half-ogre, an Ogre. Against ~4 1st lvl PC's...)

 

[Yair]

The only one I actually DMed (or participated in) was a good dungeon crawl: innovative use of monsters, templates, terrain and tactics, and so on. A little short on "monster X is in room Y", i.e. not too much of advice on how to keep the dungeon alive and responsive to the players' actions. And long - too long for me and my players, we decided dungeon crawling is a bit much for us after that. I don't think it's the module's fault, however - it does what it does very well, and if you like dungeoncrawly then I'd recommend it.
This module was the one with the ogre in the beginning, the Lost Vault of Tsathar Rho. It's a tough encounter, I fudged it a bit to let the players START the adventure. I also changed a few things, some of them not to the best in retrospect. Oh well.

 

[Dirt]

If you don't mind running your group with pregenerated characters, I'd pick up their latest release, "Crypt of the Devil Lich". I know that I've been singing the praises of this module A LOT lately, but I'll do it again. I played all 3 rounds of this adventure at GenCon...I haven't had that much fun with a tournament dungeon crawl in YEARS.

 

[Ahzad]

Cool thanks for the replies this definately sounds like what I'm looking for. A DM Holiday Something I can kick back and coast thru while the players hack & slash their hearts out in the tradition of KoDT. I'll have to pick some of these up then.