DCC Is Still My Jam

Games come and go, but DCC is still my jam. The game has that "fun factor" to it, where you get emergent play through the tables, your actions, spending lock, and random chance. This beats 5E for me eac hand every time, and even games like Nimble. The character sheets are far easier: you are not micromanaging a build, there is no multiclassing, and the zine culture ensures I have a wealth of adventures, classes, spells, and other material for my worlds and adventures.

The game is designed around table play, conventions, and making each class fun. Some 5E classes are just not fun to play. Every class in DCC is fun, even the cleric. I get a blast out of playing them, and they are awesome. There is something to a game in which the designers ask, "How is this class fun?"

Many games miss that, put the OSR too high on a pedestal, and don't think of "fun first."

I appreciate the attention to detail at Goodman Games. Watch any of their videos about their crowdfunding projects, and you'll see them talking about their boxes, paper quality, art, presentation, cover artists, and a commitment to quality and to getting it right. Some say Joseph Goodman comes across as a bit slick, like a guy who runs a used car lot, but I see someone who genuinely cares about what they ship every day, what goes out the door, how they look as a company, and their values. He is one of the good guys left in the hobby, easily on par with the crew at Troll Lord Games.

And DCC is fun. It stays out of the way. The game isn't about the rules; it is about the fun they can deliver. I think this is where 5E lost its way, the game is too focused on character power, loading characters up like over-decorated Christmas trees full of ornaments and flocking, and 5E characters are heavy and bloated - nobody is asking "is this power any fun at the table?" You will get a poorly-designed subclass you want to take, it will give you a power that is essentially a save modifier or some other minor stat adjustment, and it isn't any fun! It does nothing. The power just adds another paragraph to an already overloaded character sheet.

75% of the junk 5E throws at you is not fun, has little use at the table, and it is just another "thing to have." This is the collector's mentality, but brought to character sheets.

There is no power or ability in a DCC character that I don't use during play. 95% of them are useful and fun. The game drills down on the fun of the designs, makes them iconic, and it does not waste your time with fluff and pointless powers that you need but never use.

And DDC is weird, and it has managed to stay in the realm of strangeness even after 100 adventures. I get the feeling D&D has been stuck in its product identity IP for decades now, and can't escape it. Blah blah blah, another mind flayer with a displacer beast. The drow. A beholder. The githyanki are back with a cloaker. It is funny that all these "strange monsters" were intended to be "things no player has seen before" in the original Greyhawk campaign, and here we are, 50 years later, enshrining them on a pedestal as "definitive fantasy gaming."

See all those monsters on the DCC module covers? Those are the same thing. Strange monsters no one has seen before. Only in DCC do they not enshrine them, make them part of the product identity, and try to sell you nostalgia with them. One and done, and they move on to the next strange beast.

I am sick of the D&D product identity, and the team at Wizards is not committed to doing much of anything new. They are a nostalgia strip mine at this point. The current team does not have the ability to write a new adventure on the level of The Tomb of Horrors.

They do not have the commitment to quality.

Nor do they prioritize imagination and new things.

And they do not design for fun.

While Goodman Games & DCC? That is how they compete with a billion-dollar company. They enshrine those core values in everything they do and stay focused on delivery. Those values are what they sell. This is why they are the third-place company in the industry right now, right behind Paizo.

And the recent break between DCC and the OSR (the social media post featuring a sign reading "DCC != OSR" in the Goodman offices) was not a slight against the OSR, but a declaration that their values are what they deliver first. The OSR is a nebulous thing; there is one YouTube channel that can declare "X is OSR," and they will control your brand. If the current OSR-de-jour conflicts with the core values the company delivers, guess what? The game is not OSR and should not try to live up to outside values.

Goodman Games sells its values first.

Nobody controls who they are or what they sell.

And they have done an amazing job figuring out exactly what people want.

They sell fun based on the memories of a golden age.

Castles & Crusades Players Handbook – Collector’s Pack

https://trolllord.com/product/castles-crusades-players-handbook-collectors-pack/

Oh, this is beautiful. Troll Lord Games is coming out with a Castles & Crusades Players Handbook – Collector’s Pack, with a new cover and the 11th Edition printing. Nothing has changed, which is wonderful, but we are getting a new cover!

There are some other nice things in here, such as a coffee mug, canvas printing, a mouse pad, stickers, and a few other goodies to be revealed. The preorder is up now!

The best dungeon-crawling game just got better.

Dungeon Crawl Classics: Beloved

Dungeon Crawl Classics is gaining a cult following and a beloved status. There was one D&D YouTuber who criticized the game as a paragon of poor organization, only to eat their words after fans called them out. It is not poorly organized; the style harkens back to the original inspirations and the adventures' style. An apology was issued, and all is well, but the episode highlighted that the game is not like Old School Essentials and has sort of established itself as a different experience, catering to a different audience.

This is a game where you read the adventure rather than skimming it or just looking at bullet points.

While I like the condensed, OSE-style of clear organization and bullet-pointing of all the rooms' contents, that style is more their game, and I enjoy taking time to prep a level of an adventure and having enough flavor text to figure out what is going on, while also being entertained and enjoying the reading.

But DCC is an excellent game, and while some say it is OSR, I feel it has moved beyond the OSR and become something all its own. It is one of the best D&D 3.5E reimaginings, with Appendix N inspiration and a gonzo aesthetic.

DCC is less old-school and more gonzo science fantasy.

OSE is more OSR and traditional fantasy.

The OSR and the OGL

One of the best things to happen in gaming is the messy divorce between the OGL and the OSR. What Wizards did by attacking the OGL and destroying it forced the community out of their lazy comfort zone and fired up designers and players to create real alternatives.

Everyone knew how easy it was to use the OGL, clone SRD content, and rely on D&D's popularity to sell their games. After the OGL's death, people were forced to change.

And the games we have gotten since then are original, free from license issues, free for the community to support, and the entire event put a shot of sorely-needed energy into third-party publishers and those who play these games.

Wizards created their competitors.

Goodman Games has stepped up and become a major player. Troll Lord Games is incredible with Castles & Crusades, and this went OGL-free. Shadowdark became an overnight juggernaut. Games like Adventures Dark and Deep, OSRIC, Swords & Wizardry, ACKS, and Hyperborea all stepped up. Old School Essentials is going OGL-free. People got behind the alternatives instead of half-heartedly supporting them.

Even the 5E clones are doing relatively well. Paizo has benefited and is stronger than it was.

The 2d6 games under the OGL are moving forward, creating new concepts and ideas, and improving the game overall, rather than relying on familiarity and nostalgia. What the OGL did was tie us to the old ways, and now that we have broken free, the OSR can innovate and flourish. People were always too worried about "breaking familiarity," but now they have to innovate to survive.

The OSR benefited from this innovation once the OGL's chains were broken.

Even games outside of the OSR are using OSR concepts and gameplay.

It is a better world without the OGL.

Kickstarter: Book of Fell Wisdom (Adventures Dark & Deep)

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brwgames/adventures-dark-and-deep-book-of-fell-wisdom

I like Adventures Dark & Deep a lot. As an expanded and reimagined first edition game, it is one of the best we have outside of OSRIC. We are getting a new book this year: basically, everything that didn't make it into the ADAD tomes we have, plus some of the PDF-exclusive evil classes the creator put out. And here is a list from the notification pager:

• Clerical servants of demon lords
• Necromancers
• Witches
• Alchemy
• Ley Lines
• Demiplanes
• New spells
• Followers for high-level characters
• Courtly intrigue
• Generational play

I am looking forward to this one a lot, since ADAD is the de facto new standard of first-edition gaming, expanded and beautifully presented in two massive tomes of first-edition goodness. Outside of Old School Essentials, this is one of the best OSR games out there, well worth your attention, and it captures the 1E vibe perfectly.

The Kickstarter should be happening in the next week, sometime from what I hear, so put this one on your radar, and if you haven't checked this out, please do so!

Cleaning Up My DCC Library

I have too much junk!

The zine culture, small publishing, endless modules, crowd-funded mega modules, and all this other "stuff" for DCC have my game bloated and unplayable. The DCC bloat feels as bad as the Shadowdark bloat at this time, and I find myself having to pare down my collection to the absolute best of the best and put all the junk in storage.

I am there with 5E, and I found focusing my collection just on Tales of the Valiant, and using the Shard VTT to support it with character creation, is my best answer for the mire of junk I find myself stuck in.

All of a sudden, 5E feels playable again.

The mess of options and fluff is gone.

And I am left with a smaller, more focused, compelling game. It is so easy to get overwhelmed when a game reaches a specific size; you just quit playing it.

I am there with DCC right now, and I can't play the game and shy away from it since my shelf is a mess, crowded, filled with junk, and unplayable. I would play you more if I had less of you. I want a smaller, cleaner, more focused "fun center" and not one stocked and jammed with so many books it looks like a disaster zone.

Right now, I don't even have any room for my dice on that shelf, and it is a huge shelf. When a game gets larger than one shelf, it is too much game.

I get why some flock to one-book games, like the excellent Dragonslayer. One book is all you need. Not a library. I could play this and one of the megadungeons, and be set.

Off the Shelf: Hyperborea

Let's pull Hyperborea out of our storage crates and put the game back on the shelves.

Hyperborea is very similar to the classic first edition, and it's compatible with both Swords & Wizardry and OSRIC. It is a strange game meant for swords and sorcery and not high fantasy. Hyperborea is a better choice (for some) than Dungeon Crawl Classics, offering a more traditional experience that lacks much of that game's table-based play and randomness, while retaining an intense, gonzo, Conan-style feel.

I have not really gotten into Hyperborea, as I am more of a fan of first and second editions than I am heavily modified derivatives. Still, I see the strengths of a game like this, where the experience is more like savage sorcery than your traditional Arthurian knights. Modern Dungeons & Dragons tends to slip into a pseudo-Renaissance setting mixed with the Knights of the Round Table. These days, D&D is more an allegory for modern street adventures than anything in the fantasy genre. I like a heavily themed game that gives me a barbaric feeling, as this one does.

The game is contained in two books, one for players and the other for referees, and it is a tight implementation of the rules. It is 100% compatible with any first edition or even Swords and Wizardry, so you will not go without adventures or monsters.

The magic is more traditional and does not have spell failure or spell mishaps like Dungeon Crawl Classics does. The original game never had wacky spell failure, so I understand where they’re coming from. The gonzo and crazy nature of the world is where the focus is, instead of an internal focus where magic mutates you. Here, the focus isn’t on mutation and randomness. Referees and players, not the rules, enforce the gonzo, insane nature of the world.

This is the key difference between Hyperborea and Dungeon Crawl Classics. Hyperborea does not rely on randomness to convey its theme and feeling. The game will be as gonzo and insane as you make it. If you want something to happen, make it happen, and it does. There are times when Dungeon Crawl Classics feels like “gonzo with training wheels” when it is far easier to be less reliant on charts and tables and random results, and do it yourself, given what you know and like. You will always get the result and craziness that is closer to your heart if you do not use a table and let it tell you what happens next.

That is why some prefer Dungeon Crawl Classics as a game that you migrate from the fifth edition. The charts and tables tell you what can happen, and you need that level of training to understand what savage swords and sorcery all are about. For experienced groups and game Masters, it is far easier to say something crazy happens and then enforce the genre through direct rulings instead of chart results. I still like the tables in Dungeon Crawl Classics, but having played these games for decades, I don’t really need them. There are times when I find the results on the charts limiting and less imaginative than what's in my head. I suppose I would have more fun with the game like Hyperborea, where I can “say what happens just happens.”

This is going alongside my first edition collection and my second edition books, along with the grandmaster game of OSRIC, and joining my games on my living room shelf. A solid tabletop game, fewer books than my bloated DCC collection, and I look forward to reading this and having some fun.