Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC): OSR DnD Book Review
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- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
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I got this book strictly for the artwork. I can't get enough old school fantasy art.
I am a big Mullen fan. The latest Cthuhlu Alphabet from Goodman Games has a lot of his work in. Excellent book! :)
That's ultimately why I bought the physical copy. The quantity and quality of the art, not to mention the sheer girth of the damned book makes it worth the price of admission.
Hopefully you can build an amazing group to play a long term campaign
I just now bought the hardcover book on impulse after watching this video. I'm years late to the party, but thanks!
lollin at those prog-rock striped trousers on the back cover
The adventure modules written by the DCC staffer Harley Stroh are metal af
DCC is what a roleplaying game that existed before Dungeons and Dragons would have looked and played like.
The OSR artwork and OSR attitude drew me in, the inspired game mechanics and zine support keeps me a fan of DCC and Goodman Games, forever.
I envy your hard cover, mine is soft. I bought it today, looks awesome! Reminds me of the gold old days of the TSR red box.
Great review! It convinced me to buy into this game. Unfortunately, I find D&D gets all the spotlight so it's difficult starting a local game. But I've set-up two dates on the gaming store Facebook group and on Meet-up. I should be good to start a funnel in 2 weeks. Wish me luck!
Totally agree, its been hard to convince my regular group to switch. They feel that they only get "real" DnD with the standard 5e release. I will keep trying to beat DCC into them :)
Just tell them it's basic D&D with some fun twists - 100% true statement - they don't have to know it's DCC. :)
Love Dungeon Crawl Classics. I've ran the 0 level adventure in the book for two different groups and had a blast.
Have you managed to continue into a campaign with DCC, it certainly works for me as they level up and characters get a lot tougher.
@@RottenMechGaming No. Been running a 5E campaign that seems cursed not to continue. Things just keep happening. Afterwards I can test the waters and see what the group ants to do. At this rate Fall of 2021. :(
Redfeild RE good luck getting things off the ground. It’s tough starting and keeping a group going.
I’ve added so much info to each chart and chapter over the years thanks to so many players trying new things
After I wrap my Zweihänder campaign (1 session left) we are starting up a DCC campaign.
Wow, this is practically Warhammer D&D! Chaotic magic, mutations, and a lot of art has the icon of Chaos... I might pick it up and run it like that xD
You definitely could.
All ya'd need is to homebrew an ork class and you'd be havin' a ball.
I love this series of OSR book reviews, keep them coming!
Goodman Games are bringing out DCC Lankhmar box set which is going to be incredible after the Kickstarter campaign. You should definitely check that out. They've done the same for sci fi with Mutant Crawl Classics. They also did a MASSIVE book of all the old Judges Guild material and reprinted their scenarios. Now they will be reprinting and updating all the old AD&D modules for DCC and 5e
They're converting AD&D modules to DCC?? Holy shit! That's the first I've heard of that. Let us not mention the sacrilege of future D&D editions though (5e).
two years later and people "almost" got their books :D
The funky dice sizes are not a big deal anymore. You can get dice rolling apps for your phone. The one I have lets me make a die roll of any size. I can roll a 1d31 if I wanted to.
The Magic system and critical hit system sound awesome. The extra dice are a pain in the arse. DCC does to magic what GG Allin did to rock and roll. Make it dangerous again. 😈
Thank you for looking at this book. DCC is starting to get a lot of videos on CZcams, but this one is my favorite, because you actually get to look inside the book.
Now my curiosity has been peeked, and I want this game now more than ever. xD
*piqued
OSR and the NWOTHM go together like airbrushed vans and mullets.
I found one of these at my local BAM! (poor man's Barnes and Noble; Books A Million!) and was enthralled by the entire je na sais quoi of the volume I was holding and looking at. I bought it immediately and then went online to Amazon and bought three more of these beautiful books. It is an amazing RPG and is on the Mount Rushmore of TTRPGs for me with Pathfinder/3.5, D&D 5th, and Basic RPG.
Been thinking about getting DCC and seeing the old-school art, I think I need to do so (maybe even in - *gasp* - physical form).
Listening to what excited you about the system made me chuckle a little bit. Rolemaster was born out of modding D&D/AD&D with some of the elements that you mentioned. For example, if first came out with Arms Law and then Claw Law to add detail to the combat system - mainly an interesting division between concussion hits and criticals. There were tons of wonderful (and sometimes hilariously flavorful) entries, and the damage was realistically matched with the armor. You have plate armor - you are easy to hit but only take a little concussion damage... until that mage uses electricity against you and the bolt fries you; meanwhile the guy in padded cloth or robes is hard to hit, but if you connect you will get to roll a crit and probably go down quickly. It actually balanced out characters a bit.
For fumbles, we used to chuckle at the 2 handed one where you pull your groin and are out 1-4 days - but your foes are out 1-3 rounds laughing. Okay, childish, but what are the odds? Yes, what indeed... it happened to my war troll. It helped us win the battle, but boy was is embarrassing to have happen.
Magic isn't quite as good. All I remember are the many lists that went up to level 50, each spell building up. First you can boil water, then you learn to make a simple fire bolt, then you learn to create a fire wall, then a triple fire bolt, then a fire ball, then a fire bolt that can make a right angle turn, and eventually tri-bolts that can go around corners. An expansion added ultra-high level spells, where mages could summon magic. You had tons of base classes with 6 spell lists to learn, 3 realms of magic (essence, channeling, and mentalism - ie, traditional magic, cleric magic, and mind-magic) with closed lists only for casters of that realm, and open spell lists that anyone could learn. The latter two were often weaker versions of base spell lists, allowing characters to duplicate magics of others. I loved some of the classes - you had the classic healer spells, lay healer spells where you transfer wounds onto your body then heal them, evil spell lists for those willing to consort with darker powers, and a spell list for making magical artificial limbs! Oh, the curses of those evil guys - curses that are annoying to curses that kill immediately. How would you like all the bones in your body turned to jelly? That is a high level curse, and you basically collapse and suffocate if you fail your save.
They then came up with Character & Campaign Law, and thus their own RPG was born. Many great source books eventually came out. Get the Elemental Companion and incorporate some of its ideas - dragons become beyond deadly, and Elementals something to fear. In the book the example is a white (ice) dragon who uses his breath weapon on a hero. The raw elemental poisoning (as dragons are tied with the elemental planes) permeated the flesh of the foe, and they were transformed to an ice sculpture. No healing that character as they literally became ice, not merely taking some cold damage and being frost bitten.
Another thing Rolemaster did that I loved was weapon bonuses. When D&D existed you had nice magical weapons. Rolemaster had weapon bonuses based on quality of workmanship, quality of material, and magical enchantment. A well forged high steel blade with a low level enchantment could be as good or even better than a poorly forged copper blade with a high level enchantment.
Overall, Rolemaster has a lot of rich ideas for incorporating into other games, much like DCC - but it unfortunately isn't D&D so requires hacking to get it to work.
Still, you did a good job selling DCC. I'll have to look more seriously into it.
I didn't know Rolemaster had all of this? I remember someone giving me their copy of Critical Hits tables back in the 80s. Whatever happened to it? Did it get revised & brought back alive? I'm not sure anyone needs it though if they already have DCC though. :-) Unless they're just trying to add additional flavor.
RM brings back a lot of memories. Yes, it had a LOT of interesting random results that elevated combat and spell casting and made playing far more exciting than AD&D, but it did have some drawbacks. I remember RM being a bookkeeping nightmare. As a GM, I had to keep track of an absurd amount of details regarding physical injury, stun, blood loss, penalties, , etc. Keeping track of XP was equally complicated as well. Rolling all that detail also slowed the game down to a crawl. Overall, I guess it was worth it because my friends lost interest in AD&D and just wanted to keep playing RM.
@questing_beast did you ever end up playing DCC? It's kind of the best! I'm running it, with a smidge of BECMI dungeon crawl rules glued on, and having the time of my life.
Thanks for the review, I recently picked this one up based on this video....excited to add this one to the OSR collection and get my group playing it soon.
So how'd it go so far?
Reading through both books which are excellently done. Once my group finishes up the current campaign we're on I'll be starting this one fresh in 2018.
Excellent to hear. My current dilemma with it is all the page-flipping to the various tables & wondering how best to deal with that. Maybe all of it is in the index. I haven't read the main DCC cover to cover yet.
it would be amazing if you did a more in-depth review of this game, that goes deeper in looking at the various chapters and mechanics.
A recent game that shares certain traits with DCC is Crypts and Things Remastered. It doesn't have quite the same devotion to fun random tables, but it does have a big-time Appendix N sensibility, chaos magic, critical hits, and luck as an ability. It's more indebted to classic British RPGs like Warhammer FRPG and even Fighting Fantasy.
DCC is my favorite system today. Amazing. Wizard here are next level.
Ok!Bro I’m gaming again thanks too you. Love your stuff...you rock ol’ bro!!!!
The funky dice is a deal breaker lol
Based on the games you've reviewed so far, I think that Beyond the Wall would also be something you would enjoy.
Also, on a technical note, it would be nice to have the camera zoomed out just a bit more. Some of the character's depictions in this video are missing their heads (which is appropriate enough for DCC) :)
Thanks for the feedback! If you check out my more recent reviews, you'll see that the camera situation has been rectified.
Yes, I've noticed the new ones got better actually. I've been looking at them all, just in a random order. For some reason I though DCC was a new review...just noticed is 7 months old.
@Stefan M - 'Beyond the Wall' is my favorite OSR rpg. It's simple and streamlined. Using the playbooks (lifepath system) to roll your character adds a lot of depth and you end up with a background that is flavorful, makes sense, and ties the other PCs together.
Oh man have you seen the gold foil one? I have it, it’s sooooo awesome
Unrested I have one; love it, too!
I like the random damage tables it's a good idea to spice up the game.
Appendix N in Gygax's AD&D DM Guide (1979) is the shit. I have not read every book in it, but I have read a lot of it and enjoy reading it -- and stories like it such as "The Pyrdain Chronicles" -- even more than playing D&D! The DCC Appendix N mentions the Vincent Price/Boris Karloff movie "The Raven" (1963). Watch that movie and then thunk about the DCC Wizard duel rules.
Do an MCC or mutant epoch episode please :D
You should check out Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2E. It has some tables for fumbles and the like but the benefit of it is extreme simplicity. All you need to play is a few d6 (2 or 3 is fine). You can make a character in a couple of minutes and learn to play in no time. You can easily layer on DCC or whatever to it since its so barebones (I found a way to make mighty deeds work for me) and community folks have pretty good house rules for crits. The best thing about it is the setting though. The world (Titan) is VERY Appendix N.
I’m considering picking this up. Especially after watching this! I saw on Amazon that there’s a hardcover and a softcover. Do you happen to know if there is any difference in these releases beyond just the covers? I know sometimes hardcovers include additional content. Thanks for the flip through!
Can you play this solo? I have really enjoyed this video thanks for covering this!
Did you cover DCC's Peril of the Purple Planet? I supported their kickstarter campaign & finally got around to reading it last month (nearly a year after I received it). It's basically a Hex Crawl Classic & then I guess MCC was inspired after that. One thing about DCC's PotPP is that it includes a new race called the Kith that are very prevalent in the game, but PCs can also run them in the game. I've still yet to try out this game as I've spent most of my time studying Numenera...which doesn't quite lend itself to the complexities of OSR gaming.
Still an excellent game and the art is amazing. I do wonder if they might anounce a new updated version in 2021.
I don't know about a second edition or anything, but they did recently release an expansion book, DCC Annual Vol. 1, which just adds more tables, and patrons, and gods, and magic.
Gary Guyjax 😄
I really like that few people know of Dave Arneson.
Who is Gary “Guy Jacks?”😂
Check out Hackmaster 5th Edition! It's another great OSR game that's famous for having amazingly beautiful books.
could you maybe make a tutorial how to present snow and icy regions on a map
What's your favorite DCC module?
His name is Gygax. Not Gyjax
as a beginner in rpg role playing what game would you suggest me to start with . I thought starting with dnd but since we dont have a Dm and personally watched enough videos on how the game works but im planning on inviting some friends over for a rpg game and thought what would be easy to learn and easy to Dm so we can enjoy it and see if we want to go deeper into the world of tabletop !
I wrote an RPG that fits your description. questingbeast.itch.io/maze-rats
looks great definitely will try !
Absolutely love this RPG.
Yeah yeah...4 year old video but I have to say: @0:22 It's NOT "guy-JAX"....it's "guy-gacks"...well, unless you want to pronounce it in the original Swiss tongue. Then Gary said it's said "Ghe-gox" (yeah, Swiss...they're nutty! ;) ). But he said that most people in his family use the "guy-gacks".
Just fyi. :)
Thank you
What "original" Swiss tongue? We speak French, German, Italian and Romansh.
@@SebastienlovesCookieswirlc "Original", when used in English in the way I used it, just means "authentic" or "primary". I could just have easily not used "original" and it would have virtually the same meaning. So I could have said "...well, unless you want to pronounce it in the Swiss tongue".
..
I'm currently..slooowwwlllyyyy... learning Swedish, Cantonese, French and Japanese. (I find learning multiple languages at the same time easier than one at a time...well...so far anyway!). Mostly Swedish, but spend a few hours every week on the others as well. ... ... I have to tell you...I do NOT envy people trying to learn English! I knew my mother-tongue was messed up, but dayum! I mean, "Hey, go over there, they're talking about their own languages"... talk about confusing to a non-native English speaking person! Ouch! :)
Questing Beast: Which game do you prefer? DCC or OSE?
OSE overall
@@QuestingBeast Would you say OSE is your favorite OSR game overall?
This looks pretty great! Tempted to pick it up, though it might be a little while before I'd get around to playing it I suspect. This would probably have been a better place for me to start, seeing as my first encounter with the system was picking up an adventure module called "Moon Slaves of the Cannibal Kingdom" which had some really neat and interesting stuff in this... after all the horrifically racist shit at the very beginning. Talk about a bad foot forward, I guess. Still, nothing a little GM magic can't fix I'm sure.
Sailors on the starless sea
Zweihänder My dude
Hey, thanks, great review! Sorry for my numerous questions but what is the difference between this product and the : Old-School Essentials: OSR Basic DnD Ruleset ? Should i use one and not both or are these two rule sets complementary?
DCC is based on 3e DnD while OSE is based on B/X DnD. So they both have DnD lineage, but their rules are different enough that some conversion would be necessary.
Aside from being a staple of earlier edition, what does races as classes actually do? Why can't Dwaves and Halflings cast spells?
I think you can play a dwarf. With the dwarf class. Otherwise you can`t play a dwarf. That`s what they do.
@@TheAlwaysPrepared But you can't be a Dwarf spellcaster or a Halfling Spellcaster.
@@The482075 character as class. But you can just be a dwarf wizard you just don’t get the dwarf extras like night vision
How "compatilbe" is it with the 1983 Basic D&D editions? Could you run the modules for that with a tad of adaptation work?
Very and yes.
Five Torches Deep
So since this is a modified D&D 3.5 basically, does that mean I could use these rules with 3.5 modules & settings without issue?
@@midnightgreen8319 gotcha. I was thinking the rules were close enough tonorigimal that monster stat blocks in a module (if they even have them) would just plug right into these rules, no converting or mess at all. Oh well
Their dice better be about as expensive as normal polyhedrals, 'cause shit, man.
The only problem with the game is the unwieldiness of the book and that this is a system where you HAVE TO look things up in the book constantly, slowing down the pacing and action. It's a very cool game system but it's so slow as a result of its design and the reliance on hundreds and hundreds of tables being necessary to play.
Would Dolmenwood work well with this system?
I have both DCC and Winter's Daughter (OSR version) which is set in Dolmenwood. Mechanically, you should be able to run Dolmenwood with the DCC rules without much difficulty. The real challenge is if DCC's heavy metal attitude will support the tone you are going for. If a combat that results in "Strike severs larynx. Foe is reduced to making wet fish noises" fits in the fairy tale themed setting of Dolmenwood, then DCC is a good option.
Could you please review Blade of the Iron Throne?
+allluckyseven Afraid I don't own that one!
***** Would you be interested in doing it if I bought you a PDF? (it's only 6 bucks on dtrpg -- the book is almost 400 pages long, though.)
Sorry, I'm only planning on reviewing physical books. I have a hard time reading digital products.
***** Oh, that's okay.
But anyway, if you're curious about that system, there's an interesting post on Reddit about it here: m.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/303h7p/long_post_blade_of_the_iron_throne_a_breakdown/
DTRPG has printed books too, by the way. But I couldn't send you those, unfortunately.
+Questing Beast You're not alone there. I also have a really difficult time sitting down and reading pdfs unless they are on a tablet-style device. Even then it just isnt the same. I think part of it has to do with the scale, I hate having to move around and zoom on the page to read the book. It definitely changes the overall vibe of the product.
The URL has changed for the product: it seems to be now goodman-games.com/dungeon-crawl-classics-rpg/
Ever heard of "The Fantasy Heartbreaker RPG?"
There's an RPG called that? Fantasy Heartbreakers are more of a genre.
Yes there is, a badly written one at that.
That's a sexy looking tome
Who's Gyjax? i've only heard of Gygax....
hahaha. I thought maybe I'd been saying GG's name wrong all these decades.
X-plus Kaiju Collectors Crew do u know what year this book was?
Are you still playing this? I am having trouble finding active games these days.
Jonathan Baldridge We are about to play it every Saturday at my game store. It’s my shops “official” RPG game (along with 5e on Thursday nights). If it so happens you live near Jasper Texas, come join us. 😎
Good luck finding it cheap!
Yes, the standard hardcover is $40. This game is interesting because it has multiple covers you can buy. I have the $40 hardcover, the $30 softcover, and a special $40 alternate softcover. You may even notice that some of the art inside the different versions of the book are different! It's a neat gimmick that I love.
But what about the price overall in comparison to the current big dog, 5E Dungeons and Dragon? Well, 5E is a great game. If all you ever want to do is play then your basic $50 players handbook is all you'll ever need. Want to run the game? Then drop a couple more 50's on the Monster Manual and the Dungeon Masters guide. Great game. Me and my players LOVE it. However, you have in Dungeon Crawl Classics a Players Handbook, a Dungeon Masters Guide, AND a Monster Manual all in a single tome for $40 if you get ye olde standard hardback. WHAT A BARGIN! And it's a great game on top of that! Worth it. BUY IT!
Er Ho I sell DCC in my shop and we have it in stock most of the time; Goodman Games keeps their stuff in print. Great company!
Found mine at Half Price Books. I feel fortunate.
if someone never played ANY roleplay like this before, would it be hard to get into this one for example?
a bit. the game clearly speaks to D&D players, that already know a lot of the mechanics. But from a player perspective, this is the EASIEST game ever. Players start with the funnel: they make no decisions in character generation (so, system mastery is not involved and it's super fast). Also, the funnel is like a tutorial: all characters in the funnel are equal from the mechanical perspective, so basically you start learning the game after the first session, when you also decide what class you'll be if you are not a demi-human.
Also, playing is very easy. In other games tactics is much more involved. In D&D for example you got to precisely remember how long is the range of the spell you have cast. Here you just have to remember that Fireball is at page 256 (for example) and you can write it on your character sheet!
History time: Lots of charts is not nor will ever be 'old school' D&D. If you know of any D&D books that rolls on charts for magic, please cite what books. I been playing since the red box. Now then lots of charts is an old school RPG thing, but it is called Role master. Hell the combat book for role master 3rd edition even has charts per weapon. Chart for bolas, spears, daggers, etc.
the fact the game uses odd dice that arent standard in a polyhedral set is what makes it a no-go in my book. Why the developers would choose to do this is beyond stupid.
Doesn't seem to have hurt the game. DCC is quite popular and has a very active and productive fan community. Lots of spin off books, fan zines, modules, and the recent kickstarter for Mutant Crawl Classics made $200,000.
You can buy the dice from their website
"Beyond stupid" seems a bit harsh and extreme, especially considering how successful this game already is. Remember, the standard polyhedral dice were once extremely non-standard. I'm sure more than one person predicted that would doom it from the start. There are A LOT of board games out there with custom dice, which are much rarer than the DCC "funky" dice.
You can now get a 12 die set of Gamescience dice for DCC RPG. Yeah they are pricey (about $36 US) but once you have the rulebook and a set of dice the modules are typically $10 or $15 each so in the long run it might be far, far cheaper than something like Pathfinder or 5e.
I wouldn't use the words "beyond stupid", but I think this is a valid point. I know the odd and pointless dice are turn off to me. Enough of a turn off to not sink serious money or time into the game.
The dice thing is a HUGE downside to this game.
Why would anyone want to play this terrible game?
At first all this randomness looks horrible, I know, but trust me: give it a try and you'll discover why. The amazing thing is that all this randomness always brings you in unexpected situations and super weird things happen. Also, it's far far easier to run than D&D. In D&D you still have to look through the manual for tons of things (what is the range of fireball? what does this spell do? etc), while in this game you just write "Fireball, page 190" on your character sheet, and when you cast it you roll on the table, and amazingly weird things happen. The cool stuff is the unexpected: you never know what will happen.
Because it’s random nature makes playing an RPG feel much more organic and the DCC RPG rules have an inherent logic that creates a more authentic roleplaying experience. Table-top RP gaming as originally intended.
Why would anyone want to play? Simple. Combat is much more varied and entertaining than D&D. It doesn't become dull after the 2nd round of combat. Unlike D&D, magic is mysterious, unpredictable, and dangerous. You can roll a character quickly (instantly by pressing a button at purple sorcerer games) and playing a simple flawed villager who becomes a hero is far more satisfying.