OSR How is Dungeon Crawler Classics?

[Ralif Redhammer]

I would kill for a huge Quarmall box set...

If only... that would have been glorious.

DCC looks great, and I've played a funnel, but not a long term campaign.

I dunno, I ran a year+ long DCC RPG campaign. In hindsight, the only thing I would've done differently is to do more up-front work detailing the world out. I was trying to emulate the pulps, but what works for fiction doesn't always work for gaming.

I love the approach to magic since I'm so tired of D&D style magic systems where it works the same every time and nothing can really go wrong. Its simple in some ways and heavy in others, mostly in terms of magic. I'd love to get in a regular campaign of it. I have the Lankhmar and Dying Earth sets as well and they look great, but have some changes to fit the settings. If I ever run another game it will be with this....or Warhammer FRP 2e.

The randomness of DCC RPG's magic system also has an added benefit in that you pretty much need to look up the results every time. In my experience, this means that people pay more attention to what the spell says it does, making it less likely for them to miss a detail like Concentration or "target a living creature you can see" or any other of the very specific language of current D&D.

 

[Schmoe]

I'm glad I found this thread. I picked up the DCC rules a while back, mostly because so many of the adventures look great and I was looking for a system that's more lethal and hearkens back to old-school. I was hoping, especially, that it would be great as a 1-shot with folks who may be new to the game to introduce them to a different style of gaming than what they were used to.

However, after reading through the rules I came away with the feeling that it would be really complex to run, especially after the 0-level funnel. There are so many individual tables and sub-systems, it seems like it would be a real chore as a DM. I mean, every spell has it's own custom table. I'm now thinking just going to Basic would be better, but that's a shame, because I love the DCC adventures.

For those who have played it, how difficult is it to run or play? How complex is it? Is it hard to keep track of all the different rules?

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I'm glad I found this thread. I picked up the DCC rules a while back, mostly because so many of the adventures look great and I was looking for a system that's more lethal and hearkens back to old-school. I was hoping, especially, that it would be great as a 1-shot with folks who may be new to the game to introduce them to a different style of gaming than what they were used to.

However, after reading through the rules I came away with the feeling that it would be really complex to run, especially after the 0-level funnel. There are so many individual tables and sub-systems, it seems like it would be a real chore as a DM. I mean, every spell has it's own custom table. I'm now thinking just going to Basic would be better, but that's a shame, because I love the DCC adventures.

For those who have played it, how difficult is it to run or play? How complex is it? Is it hard to keep track of all the different rules?

DCC's spell list intimidated me at first. But one thing I discovered in play is that it runs pretty smoothly. I found there was actually less back and forth about what a spell does, fewer mistakes as to what a spell does. Because every time the caster has to roll and check their result, rather than relying on what they remember alongside a quick read that might miss details. The descriptions are straightforward without being overly detailed.

Still, if you wanted to run DCC's adventures with Basic, it would be pretty easy to do, other than having to flip AC.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm glad I found this thread. I picked up the DCC rules a while back, mostly because so many of the adventures look great and I was looking for a system that's more lethal and hearkens back to old-school. I was hoping, especially, that it would be great as a 1-shot with folks who may be new to the game to introduce them to a different style of gaming than what they were used to.

However, after reading through the rules I came away with the feeling that it would be really complex to run, especially after the 0-level funnel. There are so many individual tables and sub-systems, it seems like it would be a real chore as a DM. I mean, every spell has it's own custom table. I'm now thinking just going to Basic would be better, but that's a shame, because I love the DCC adventures.

For those who have played it, how difficult is it to run or play? How complex is it? Is it hard to keep track of all the different rules?

If you like DCC minus the spell tables, take a look at Shadowdark. It also has the low hit points, high lethality (especially at low levels), level zero funnels, and casting checks to cast spells, but has simplified consequences for those spell checks. You should be able to run DCC adventures under Shadowdark without much work.

 

[Schmoe]

DCC's spell list intimidated me at first. But one thing I discovered in play is that it runs pretty smoothly. I found there was actually less back and forth about what a spell does, fewer mistakes as to what a spell does. Because every time the caster has to roll and check their result, rather than relying on what they remember alongside a quick read that might miss details. The descriptions are straightforward without being overly detailed.

Still, if you wanted to run DCC's adventures with Basic, it would be pretty easy to do, other than having to flip AC.

Cool, thanks for the info. I'm still hoping to organize a 1-shot with some relative novices at some point, so that's encouraging!

 

[Schmoe]

If you like DCC minus the spell tables, take a look at Shadowdark. It also has the low hit points, high lethality (especially at low levels), level zero funnels, and casting checks to cast spells, but has simplified consequences for those spell checks. You should be able to run DCC adventures under Shadowdark without much work.

Nice! I've heard a lot of good things about Shadowdark, and it seems to be pretty popular. This might be what it takes to get me into it