Goodman's Dungeon Crawl Classics - Which Are Best?

[The_Gneech]

There are some battles that will be extremely tough, however, and I would not be surprised if there were a few party fatalities. In one battle, the PCs will catch a lightning bolt from a 5th level Goblin Wizard! Furthermore, the party may face a vampire provided they discover its extremely-hard-to-find resting place. If the PCs stumble across the vampire’s lair, there will certainly be a party death.

Keep in mind that if they clear out the dungeon room-by-room, they'll probably be at least 2nd and possibly 3rd level by the time they hit these encounters, tho. The group I'm running through it has only done about half of the upper level, and they're at something like 600 XP now...

-The Gneech

 

[Quasqueton]

Wow. Several people have said the Aerie of the Crow God is good. It's the only DCC module I bought, and I hate it. I think it is horrible. I posted my review of it several weeks ago, but it was lost with the recent board collapse.

I'm really amazed. If people say AotCG is one of the best DCC adventures, I definitely won't bother even looking at other DCCs. I mean, I thought it flat out stunk. I won't even use a part of it -- the ultimate insult. (If I can't find something to steal and insert into my own adventures sometime, the material is worthless.)

Quasqueton

 

[Teflon Billy]

I'm really amazed. If people say AotCG is one of the best DCC adventures, I definitely won't bother even looking at other DCCs. I mean, I thought it flat out stunk. I won't even use a part of it -- the ultimate insult. (If I can't find something to steal and insert into my own adventures sometime, the material is worthless.)

Wow, tastes differ I guess. :\

I'm a big fan of the whole line. Dungeon Crawl Classics seem to remain on my shelf every time I do a "Product Purge", which places them in the same vein as Nemorens Vault, Maze of Screaming Silence and Tomb of Abysthor.

And yes, Aerie of the Crow God is definitely in the running for "best" of the lot.

What I mostly like about them is that (And I am probably showing my age here) they actually seem to deliver about the level of detail that I want.

At only 30-odd pages long each (on average) the Dungeon Crawl Classics get mostof the grunt-work of adventure prep done for me: Broad Concept, specific encounters, maps and suchlike.

The fact that they lack complexity is one of my favorite facets of the whole series. Honestly, the more complex a module background is (with either NPC's, political situations or what have you) the less able I am to slot it into my game. So the fact that Goodman Games proudly tout features like "no NPC's you aren't expected to kill" on the cover is music to my ears.

If I want "Campaign Specific No-Kill NPC's" I'll put them in. It's a hell of a lot harder to remove them from a prepared plot than it is to add another level of plot to an adventure.

Anyway, I've strayed a bit. Here is my list in no particular order...

• Aerie of the Crow God
• Bloody Jack's Gold
• The Dragonfiend Pact
• Lost Tomb of the Sphinx Queen
• The Secret of Smuggler's Cove (which I haven't run yet, but is on the "to do" list

 

[Stormborn]

Wow. Several people have said the Aerie of the Crow God is good. It's the only DCC module I bought, and I hate it. I think it is horrible. I posted my review of it several weeks ago, but it was lost with the recent board collapse.

I'm really amazed. If people say AotCG is one of the best DCC adventures, I definitely won't bother even looking at other DCCs. I mean, I thought it flat out stunk. I won't even use a part of it -- the ultimate insult. (If I can't find something to steal and insert into my own adventures sometime, the material is worthless.)

Quasqueton

Given that your review got eaten, care to tell us why you hated it? Saying somethign is horrible and explaining why it is horrible are two different things. One man's trash and all that.

 

[catsclaw227]

Wow. Several people have said the Aerie of the Crow God is good. It's the only DCC module I bought, and I hate it. I think it is horrible. I posted my review of it several weeks ago, but it was lost with the recent board collapse.

Do you have your review text still available? You should post it in this thread, I'd like to hear your reasons for hating it.

 

[Teflon Billy]

Do you have your review text still available? You should post it in this thread, I'd like to hear your reasons for hating it.

Ditto

 

[JoeGKushner]

I've bought the following...

> Aerie of the Crow God (good)

> The Sunless Garden (very good concept)

> Curse of the Emerald Cobra (no real opinion, yet)

I've heard good things about "Idylls of the Rat King", but I can't even find a copy of the v.3.5 reprint. I'm definitely going to get "Shadows in Freeport" and, maybe, "Into the Wilds", but not right away.

Cheers!

KF72

It's going for a 3rd printing.

Good to see that nice, simple adventurers can still sell.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Add me to the chorus that sings the praises of Aerie of the Crow God. Idylls of the Rat God is a good module.

Bloody Jack's Gold is very cool. The Sunless Garden is also interesting.

 

[Quasqueton]

I don't know if the text of my review is still around, but I'll look. I'll post my detailed review in a couple days.

Quasqueton

 

[Teflon Billy]

I don't know if the text of my review is still around, but I'll look. I'll post my detailed review in a couple days.

Quasqueton

See if Google has it cached from before the big crash