Libertad
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Goodman Games store page.
During the early Aughts, a third party setting for 3rd Edition D&D was released. Its production schedule would be sparse, interspersed with long periods of time between system updates. In late 2014 it got an update to the Pathfinder system as Maximum Xcrawl, and several adventures would be released for it under that system as well as Dungeon Crawl Classics under new ownership by Goodman Games. Even just going by the title, Dungeon Crawl Classics (or DCC for short) seemed like a match made in heaven for Xcrawl. So Goodman Games sought to revive Xcrawl once again, this time as a standalone rulebook and setting using the DCC ruleset.
Xcrawl is set in an alternate history Earth where not only did monsters and magic exist, dungeon-crawling evolved into the most popular televised death sport known as Xcrawl. And given that this Earth’s antiquity had all the classic fantasy tropes such as legendary swords and monstrous evil overlords, Xcrawl is also a sort of historical reenactment. Many tournaments emulate the deeds of heroes and villains of old in a gladiatorial obstacle course format.
The setting is also a satire on contemporary America. The United States doesn’t exist, insteading being an aristocratic North American Empire (NAE for short) that worships the Greco-Roman pantheon and is ruled by Emperor Ronald (Reagan) I.
Politics Tangent: Given that it’s in the pre-Introduction artwork, I should get this out of the way for readers, especially given the USA’s recent presidential election. The parodic elements of Xcrawl Classics make reference to real-world political groups and movements, along with many copyright-friendly brand products, albeit given in-setting twists. In the first two-page spread portraying an Xcrawl event in a colosseum, there’s a banner saying “Make the Empire Great Again.” In the following two-page spread at a bar filled with humans and various fantasy creatures, there’s a guy wearing a baseball cap with MEGA on it, and his tee shirt says “Our Pillow.”
Although I haven’t really seen any other overt political references in the book besides an anthropomorphic rat waving a Soviet flag, a lot of racists and fascist types like to use dog whistles to fly under the radar, so that can be understandably concerning to would-be readers. From what I’ve seen of them, Goodman Games is on the progressive end of the political spectrum. They’ve supported Black Lives Matter, criticized Trump for sabotaging COVID relief efforts, support vaccination, and retconned racist and problematic elements out of their own products. Unless there’s some massive political shift that I’m unaware of, the people at Goodman Games are a far cry from the kinds of people who’d get punched by Captain America in Golden Age comic books.
XCC starts off with a two-page Introduction covering the setting’s main pitch, its core mechanics, and how it differs from earlier 3rd Edition versions. For those not familiar with Dungeon Crawl Classics, it’s an Old School Revival style RPG, but its ruleset is less faithful to TSR-era Dungeons & Dragons Editions and instead goes for a nostalgic feel of 1970s tabletop gaming and pulp fantasy media. For instance, classes have more dramatic randomness, such as Wizards risking spiritual and physical Corruption via spell rolls, charts of devastating Critical Hits and Fumbles, and Luck is one of the six ability scores which can be spent to empower die rolls.
Chapter One: Characters
The first chapter of Xcrawl Classics covers how to make PCs, along with related rules such as the oddly-numbered Zocchi dice Goodman Games is known for. Anyone who’s read Dungeon Crawl Classics would recognize a lot of things here, but there’s some notable changes that it’s still worth giving a read. First off, Xcrawl has six ability scores which closely map to D&D, such as Agility being akin to Dexterity. Personality more or less doubles the roles of what Wisdom and Charisma would do in other games, and notably is vital for the new Mojo Points metacurrency and the sole spellcasting score,* as every caster class in this game uses that. Luck is the most unique in that its modifier applies to rolls where pure chance would be a factor, one’s Birth Augur (an astrological sign a PC’s born under which applies their Luck to a particular action or activity), and certain attacks and actions based on one’s class. Luck can be spent to add a bonus to a roll on a 1 to 1 basis, and the score, and the stat can be regained/increased over the course of adventures. The saving throws are Fortitude, Reflex, and Willpower, the latter of which is modified by Personality.
*A big departure from DCC, where the Elf and Wizard use Intelligence for determining spell power, and the Cleric uses Personality.
One other thing that separates the ability scores from other OSR games and D&D Editions is that PCs who have particularly low scores in certain abilities suffer additional consequences. APC with a Strength of 5 or less can wield a weapon or a shield, but not both, regardless of their weight. PCs with a 7 or less Intelligence can only speak one language even if they’d ordinarily get a bonus language due to their race, class, or occupation, while those with 5 or less cannot read or write. Those unlucky characters who have a Stamina of 5 or less take double damage from all poisons and diseases.
While modifiers to rolls based on circumstance are still a thing, Xcrawl makes use of the Dice Chain to represent particularly dire or ideal conditions. What this means is that d20 rolled to resolve most tasks is replaced with a die type one step lower or higher. For instance, a warrior who finds their accuracy with a weapon impacted might roll a d16 instead of a d20, while a mage channeling a ritual when ideal supernatural conditions are fulfilled might roll a d24 for their spell roll.
Xcrawl uses the three-axis Alignment system of Law, Neutrality, and Chaos, each one representing a side in cosmic struggles between gods and universal forces. But while Dungeon Crawl Classics more or less had Law being a reflavored Good and Chaos as Evil, Xcrawl is different. Law encourages charity, honor, and community spirit, but it can also give rise to oppressive institutions, xenophobia, and bigotry. Chaos can champion the ideals of destruction and selfishness, but also freedom, equality, growth, and adaption. Neutrality can include people prizing a balance between the ideals just as much as someone who doesn’t wish to involve themselves in cosmic struggles.
PCs start at level 0 in a process known as the Character Creation Funnel. Each player rolls up and controls multiple PCs (usually 3 to 4) and runs them through the first adventure. Survivors typically level up to 1st, and the player picks a single PC to bring into future adventures. PCs at this point are classless, with their randomly-rolled Occupation determining their starting equipment. But unlike DCC, they can choose their starting weapon from a club, dagger, sling, or spear and also purchase starting equipment with any of their starting gold. The available occupations are a d100 chart, focusing on more modern world ones such as call center rep, firefighter, and truck driver. As the PCs are contestants hoping to become the next big name in Xcrawl, they also start play with one of five starting Adventurer’s Packs labeled A to E, representing a collection of armor, weapons, and common gear. One occupation in particular, Nobility, is particularly good in that it grants the highest-quality pack, a monthly income of 100 gold, and begins play knowing Latin as a bonus language. Of course, you have to roll for that, so you can’t just choose it. Overwise, the occupations are relatively balanced against each other in that they all at least give something of use to a PC.
When it comes to character classes, this book dispenses with the common Warrior/Cleric/Thief/Wizard of its predecessor, instead drawing upon ones that existed in the 3rd Edition version of Xcrawl. They reflect specialized training regimens for sportsmen seeking to compete in the games. For example, various kinds of mages exist in the greater world of Xcrawl, but the Blaster class reflects a specific tradition focusing on flashy, offensive magic. Like many OSR games, race is class, although the Specialist class is a subversion of this in having a variety of subclasses, several of which are restricted to certain races.
Lastly, while this doesn’t apply to most classes, some classes are less socially accepted in the setting. For example, half-orcs aren’t legal citizens of the North American Empire, preventing them from buying real estate, having a driver’s license, or leaving their homes. Or the Crypt Raider subclass for Specialists, who aren’t popular among XCrawl fans due to being too uptight and morbid vs the more “blood and glory” contestants. Generally speaking, these cause penalties on certain social rolls on the Dice Chain, but such penalties can eventually go away during play, such as the Half-Orc obtaining legal citizenship or a Dwarf Mechanic earning grudging respect for their skills from other dwarves once they get high enough level.
The Athlete is one of Xcrawl’s two Fighter/Warrior equivalents, being someone who focuses on physical training to overcome obstacles and enemies. They have the best Hit Die at d12, can automatically inflict damage and drag around opponents they grapple, reduce subdual damage by an amount equal to their class level, and also get bonuses to Armor Class and increased movement speed as long as they’re not wearing armor that’s too heavy.* For DCC veterans, they have a mechanic similar to the Mighty Deed of Arms where they can add a Training Die to attacks and damage for grappling, athletic maneuvers, and performing specific wrestling moves known as Techniques of Wrestling Prowess. They aren’t proficient with all weapons, having a more limited set plus some sportsman equipment as improvised weapons.
*Generally speaking, if armor has an armor check penalty of -4 or worse, it can negatively impact class features that call out being limited by armor.
Blaster is the Wizard equivalent. While spellcasting is a common art throughout history, a lot of the time it doesn’t make for showy displays of crowd-pleasing eldritch might. Emperor Ronald I didn’t want to risk talented mages dying in the sport, but wanted gladiators who could accurately mimic the mighty spellcasters in the legends of old. In the late 90s, an obscure Greek school proposed the art of spellweaving as a viable alternative. Spellweaving is a talent where one uses sheer force of will to summon and reshape magical energy, and is popular in poorer societies given that arcane magic typically requires a great deal of formal education and expensive material components. Spellweavers were quite good at battle magic, and so became the most common kind of Xcrawling mage, nicknamed Blasters.
The Blaster class is your typical unarmored spellcaster who knows a limited set of spells. They have a D5 Hit Die and use a Blaster Die which they add to their d20 spell rolls. They can sacrifice pieces of their soul to empower spells via a technique known as Spellburn, which has its own set of rules later in the book but can be summed up as sacrificing points of your physical ability scores to add to your spellcasting rolls on a 1 for 1 basis. Finally, Blasters may optionally take on a supernatural being known as a patron. Those who do so gain the spell Invoke Patron, which allows the Blaster to call upon their patron to enact unique themed magical effects.
The Brawler is Xcrawl’s other human martial class. Whereas the Athlete has Monk and Acrobat-style defensive and movement features, a Brawler is much closer to the standard Warrior. They are proficient in all melee weapons, bows, and crossbows, have a d10 Hit Die, deal 1d4 to 1d12 damage when fighting unarmed, reduce melee damage dealt to them by their base Fortitude save, and have Mighty Deeds of Arms. Mighty Deeds are one of DCC’s most popular mechanics, and they work pretty much the same in XCC. Basically, in addition to a standard attack, the Brawler calls out a particular maneuver, such as pushing over an obstacle or furniture onto an opponent, kicking a monster’s shins to hobble it, or some other dramatic action. The Brawler rolls a Deed Die ranging from 1d3 to 1d10+3 based on level, which adds to the attack and damage roll. If the attack roll hits and the Deed Die is 3 or higher, they also successfully perform the Mighty Deed of Arms. As Mighty Deeds aren’t limited-use or apply penalties to the basic action, PCs are more or less encouraged to use it as often as possible.
The Jammer is a modern-day Bard, using the power of music to inspire their allies to new heights of success and sap the morale of their enemies. They have a d8 Hit Die, are trained with a meager assortment of bladed weapons, and they can choose one kind of weapon they’re trained with to be their Chosen Weapon which adds their Armor Class to their level when wielding it as well as a bonus on damage rolls ranging from 1d3 to 1d16, provided they aren’t wearing heavy armor. The bulk of the Jammer’s class features revolve around performances. Performance makes them skilled in one type of performance specialty per level, which can range from electric guitar to poetry to comedy. When engaging in skill checks with a specialty, they add their level on top of their Personality modifier when rolling.
For abilities of more direct use in adventuring, Disrespect is an audio-based debuff where they roll a contested Performance check vs a target’s Willpower, imposing a penalty to various rolls based on level. Lionize is the main ally-buffing ability, where the result of the Performance check determines the magnitude of bonuses to their allies, which last a number of rounds equal to the Jammer’s level.
The Messenger is the Cleric equivalent, but like the Blaster represents a more specific magical tradition that is relatively new. The descendents of one or more Olympian deities, Messengers received divine visions from their ancestors to compete in Xcrawl. By participating in the grandest game of the North American Empire, they bring glory to their god/dess. They are humans but can otherwise come from all walks of life, which has caused no small amount of concern among the Empire’s political establishment. The class has a d8 Hit Die, can use any armor without hindering their class abilities, and are proficient with their deity’s signature weapon but otherwise are limited to daggers, clubs, staves, and slings. They must match the alignment of their deity, which determines what creatures count as unholy for turning checks and add to the damage rolls against said enemies when hitting them. Messengers also need an appropriate holy symbol to make use of their powers, but in lieu of the latter they can sacrifice their own blood by dealing one point of damage to themselves to gain the benefits of a holy symbol for one encounter.
Unlike Blasters and other magical classes, Messengers do not learn spells of the Vancian variety. Their supernatural powers are Holy Acts, whose resolution is based on a d20 roll that adds the Messenger’s class level and Personality modifier. As the Gods can be fickle and want champions who know how to handle themselves, failed rolls can result in the deity’s Disapproval. Disapproval is measured in points that increase the chance of an auto-failure based on the number of points. For instance, 5 Disapproval causes Holy Acts to auto-fail on rolls of natural 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Disapproval is cleared after one hour of religious rituals performed during the morning. There are five different types of Holy Acts which cover the major Cleric abilities: Lay on Hands which can heal those with a touch (and when doing so they gain a free melee attack during their turn with a d14 rather than a d20 attack roll); Turn Unholy which can frighten, damage, and/or kill enemies deemed unholy; Bless which is a general-purpose buff on a touched target that grants allies a bonus to attack rolls, and also damage rolls and other broad rolls on higher spell check results; Summon Weapon, where the Messenger can materialize their deity’s favored weapon in their hand, whose specific properties are based on the spell check; and Divine Aid, which calls upon the deity to intervene in a major way that causes 10 Disapproval for the act alone, but if successful can cause a variety of open-ended effects based on the result.
The Specialist is the Thief equivalent, but is a bit of an odd bird. First off, it can reflect a variety of archetypes beyond the stereotypical criminal, generally being people who make use of a variety of roguish skills with further focus based on a Specialization. Being much like 5th Edition D&D’s subclasses or Pathfinder’s archetypes, they have a Specialty starting at 1st level which adds or modifies class features to make that particular Specialist stand out.
The Specialist by default has a d6 Hit Die, is proficient with daggers, short swords, slings, shortbows, hand crossbows, and armor check penalties apply to Specialist Skills. Speaking of which, Specialists have a variety of Skills they can use, which is generally a 1d20 check adding a relevant ability modifier and a bonus based on their level and Specialty. They more or less cover your typical OSR Thief stuff such as Climb Sheer Surfaces, Pick Lock, Find and Disable Traps, Handle Poison, and so on. Backstab is different in that they add a bonus to their attack rolls and damage based on level when they strike a target who is unaware of them.
The Specialist has 9 Specialty subclasses, 4 of which are restricted to particular nonhuman races. In fact, they’re the only one of two ways to play as a nonhuman in XCC, the other being playing the racial class of the same name such as Dwarf or Half-Orc. The Specialties are Acrobat (can perform feats of agility in and out of combat such as reducing fall damage, bonuses to Armor Class and Reflex saves, leaping far via pole vaulting, etc), Commando (more martial Specialists who have a d7 Hit Die, more weapon proficiencies, and more powerful backstabs), Criminal (social-based subclass where you have a network of underworld contacts to provide goods and services via an appropriate check, can forge documents and make convincing disguises), Scout (has a sixth sense that can detect hidden creatures via a flat d20 check, but can only Backstab with shortbows and slings), Crypt Raider (undead/demon monster hunters who get free rolls to detect secret doors, add one step up the Dice Chain to identity and backstab undead and demonic monsters, speak Latin as a bonus language, and can turn said monsters like a Messenger can), Dwarf Mechanic (have typical dwarven race features such as infravision and reduced movement speed, proficient with hand axes, have additional skills such as detecting architectural oddities, add one step up the Dice Chain when finding and disabling traps), Elf Trickster (hybrid mages who can cast a limited set of spells from the gnome spell list, have elven racial features such as immunity to magical sleep, but due to lack of training cannot spellburn or voluntarily take corruption to gain bonuses on spell checks, and take damage over time when wielding iron weapons and armor), Half-Orc Slayer (d10 Hit Die, infravision, wide variety of weapon proficiencies, better backstab results, add their base Reflex save to initiative, better resistance from disease and poison and naturally heals faster) and Halfling Rogue (reduced speed, has infravision, can backstab with ranged weapons which also increase the base weapon damage when doing so).
Much like DCC, Dwarves are one of the primary demihuman classes. In the setting, they are much like their Tolkien inspirations in being mountain-dwellers who have a penchant for artisanship. Dwarves settled in the mountain ranges of the North American Empire when its founding Emperor George Augustus sought to attract their skills. Dwarven culture looks down upon Xcrawl, viewing it as a dishonorable trade, although those dwarves who participate often justify it as being something their ancestors would approve of for exemplifying their warrior prowess. Most of them live in Colorado, but small groups can be found throughout the Empire where they are relatively integrated but are faced with the problem of fading cultural traditions.
When it comes to classes they are the closest to their DCC/OSR forebears, being heavily martial with access to Mighty Deeds of Arms and gain a shield bash as a bonus d14 attack roll. They have infravision, a slower movement speed, and Underground Skills such as being able to smell gold. Dwarven Mechanics don’t get this last one, for some role protection.
Gnomes are short fey beings with innate magical powers, whose history in the North American Empire is similar to the dwarves in being sought-out immigrants being promised economic opportunities and self-rule. They are pretty much integrated into human society, being well-accepted but still retaining their own cultural traditions. Although many trade guilds restrict the amount of gnomes that can join, as a means of minimizing human unemployment rates.
As a class they can be summed up as a thief/mage hybrid with a d6 Hit Die, a variety of mildly-damaging weapon proficiencies, choose spells from a distinct gnome spell list, can distract enemies with Draw Agro which is a contested Personality vs Willpower rolls that forces a failed target to attack the gnome even if it’s disadvantageous or illogical (or suffer one Dice Chain reduction on relevant rolls if they cannot target the gnome), gain a limited set of Specialist Skills, and as a Team Mascot they can generate additional Mojo Points when the gnome rolls a natural 20. Additionally, if a team member loses all of their Mojo Points by rolling a natural 1, the gnome gains 1 Mojo Point.
If the gnome is a thief/mage hybrid, then the Half-Elf is something of a jack-of-all-trades. Half-elves are rare due to human and elven cultural incompatibilities, to say nothing of radically different lifespans. Half-elves tend to have difficulty in being fully accepted in either society, and perhaps as a result of that make up a disproportionately large number of Xcrawlers. As a class they get a d7 Hit Die, are trained in a small variety of bladed weapons and bows, draw their spells from the Blaster spell list, have a 1d2 to 1d7 Charisma Die that they add to skill checks modified by Personality, have a limited number of Specialist Skills known as Adventuring Skills, get +1 on the Dice Chain vs magical paralysis and sleep effects, and suffer -1 on hit rolls and Armor Class when wielding cold iron weapons and armor.
The Half-Orc is our final class, and all of them come from the Zura’ah’zurah, the setting’s Underdark equivalent. They do not start play as citizens of the North American Empire, with Xcrawl participants being recruited by talent scouts and sponsored by the Adventurer’s Guild.* Most orcs and half-orcs live in Orc City 1 or Orc City 2. The cities have formal names, but their violent and unstable political structures cause their names to change so much that outsiders use the numbered titles instead. Ordinarily, most orcs and other Zura’ah’zurah inhabitants lack the means or desire to immigrate to the surface world, and traditionally Emperor Ronald I was against legal immigration from such places. But given that half-orcs are an iconic fixture in the legends of old that popularized Xcrawl, there was a demand for them as contestants. So the first Xcrawl DJ,** DJ Herobane, slyly got the Emperor to grant visas to half-orcs by running tabletop games for his nephew that featured a sympathetic half-orc NPC.
*The chief regulatory body for Xcrawl.
**Dungeon Judge.
As a class, Half-Orcs are heavily Warrior-inspired. They have the best Hit Dice in the game at 1d14, are proficient in all weapons and armor, have infravision, can do Mighty Deeds of Arms,* gain +1 on the Dice Chain when saving against disease and poison, recover more hit points and physical ability scores from natural healing, and can perform a Wild Attack where they forego defense in exchange for greater offense. This last feature grants an opponent a free attack against the Half-Orc in melee, but in exchange the Half-Orc gets an additional attack that uses their Deed Die but cannot perform a Mighty Deed of Arms with this bonus attack.** However, they have a better chance of scoring a critical hit with a Wild Attack; normally critical hits occur on a natural 20, but depending on their level a Wild Attack can range from 19-20 to 15-20.
*The Brawler has a better progression, for some role protection.
**A character can only attempt one Mighty Deed of Arms per round.
Thoughts So Far: Say what you will about the setting, Xcrawl is a clever twist on the dungeon-crawling aspect by turning it into a literal sport. Placing the setting in the “real world” as opposed to a completely fictional yet modern setting is something I think detracts from the concept rather than adds to it. Mainly in that it ends up raising all sorts of worldbuilding questions. The ruleset is close enough to Dungeon Crawl Classics, a system that has been extensively playtested, so it will be familiar enough to those players to easily pick it up. Being a self-contained book means that one doesn’t need anything else in order to run a game with it.
The classes have narrower roles than the broad archetypes as seen in DCC, but they still cover enough ground to have something for everyone. The Messenger’s lack of spells may take some getting used to for newcomers, and the simultaneous use of race-as-class but Specialists as the exception can also be a bit confusing. You might also note that there’s no default Elf or Halfling class in Xcrawl Classics, which means that the only way you can play them as a PC in the game is to be a Specialist. I find this a bit odd, but as this RPG already has 10 classes I can understand the designers not wanting to make this chapter too large.
I am not so fond of making all of the spellcasters use Personality: this more or less turns that stat into being important for all PCs much like Stamina/Constitution, as it also is useful for Grandstanding which is vital in the generation of Mojo Points. Intelligence then becomes more of a dump stat, as its only explicit benefit is additional bonus languages.
Join us next time as we get into the nitty-gritty of the rules in the chapters for Skills, Equipment, and Combat!
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