Shipped: Ashes Without Number

I have the Ashes Without Number PDFs, and wow, what a fantastic game. This is also up on DriveThruRPG now, so you can order, too. The books are on their way from Kickstarter.

I love old-school gaming; everything works so well together, and you can focus on playing and having fun. There isn't any drama here, and we can all have fun and focus on our stories, characters, and worlds.

And the games are simple, allowing you to focus on fun instead of the complex action types, rules, death saves, multiclass combos, and the next player trying to break the game rules. The games here are fun, easy, and drama-free.

And in this case, completely amazing.

Comic Crawl Classics

I like Comic Crawl Classics. 

This game doubles as a pretty handy generic universal system using the DCC rules, if you ignore the superpowers and just use the "power dice" to increase ability scores, weapon skills, or general skills. You can use this for modern-day, science fiction, or even non-powered fantasy settings pretty easily.

This is also a pretty fun DCC compatible game as well, where you can run superheroes through DCC adventures. One "hero class" does it all, and you do not need character archetypes.

This lacks vehicle combat and rules, so that is one weakness. The equipment and armor is also pretty generic, but it is really all you need. The powers are rated on effects, ranges, and damages - so a lot is left to common sense and judgment calls. This is pretty standard for DCC, since there is no need for a science and physics based simulation for these types of things.

The power level goes up to 14d6 damage for direct damage energy blasts, which is pretty hefty for a hero in a B/X reality. You don't really want to say, "well, 4d6 is a shotgun, so that is only a few times more powerful." This is on-average about a 50 hit-point strike, which is enough to blast a dragon out of the sky. In a comic-book sense, this should knock out a tank. If "tank equals dragon" you could rate vehicles on a B/X scale and just give them a high AC and a ton of hit points pretty easily.

• Car = 10 hp, AC 12
• Jet or Truck = 20 hp, AC 14
• Large Plane or Tractor-Trailer = 30 hp, AC 16
• APC = 40 hp, AC 18, 7d6 damage auto-cannon
• Tank = 50 hp, AC 20, 14d6 damage tank gun

There, this is DCC, this stuff is NOT hard. This is what I love about this game, I could hack together a starship combat system in five minutes. With other games, it is a year of waiting, eighty dollars, tariffs, and a Kickstarter project for a 300-page book that sits on a shelf and rarely gets used.

This is B/X and a little bit of 3.5E, this stuff isn't hard. You don't need to live in Seattle or be a game designer to figure this stuff out. We love to over-complicate things when "good enough" is actually "great."

Comic Crawl Classics is a great generic system for DCC, and a pretty fun set of superhero rules. Recommended, and it can act as a "glue" for characters you want to play, but really don't have a DCC system to cover them.

Video: Bankruptcy SCANDAL rocks TTRPGs!

Professor Dungeon Master is a great channel. Please watch his video all the way through, like, and subscribe. This one is good information on the Diamond bankruptcy and how it will devastate some companies. What can we do?

For the companies affected, now is the time to step up and buy direct from them. Pre-order any of the affected releases from them now. If you see cheap books being liquidated, do not buy them, regardless of how great a deal they are. They were wrongly taken from the publisher, so blacklist them from your purchases. As a community, we don't buy stolen books. I can wait a few weeks or months if the company that makes the games I love pulls through this mess.

This is not about getting a great deal.

This is about helping the companies we love survive.

If you're interested in other books from these great companies, purchase them now. Support those you love. Every direct sale helps. Do not purchase through Amazon or any other seller, except on the company's website or at your local game store.

Step up.

Now is your time.

Video: Alignment Isn’t Outdated. It’s at the Core of D&D.

Alignment is not in D&D 2024 or Tales of the Valiant. They removed this concept from the game. Today's video discusses this topic, and it's a good one. Please watch it all the way through, like, and subscribe to this channel.

If anything will be the nail in the coffin for "new 5E," it will be this one fact. Classic fantasy worlds do not work without alignment systems. They become modern, nothingness, relativism, and mush. The concepts of good and evil disappear, and the call for heroism is silenced.

Once you remove alignment, there is no reason to play these games.

Shipped: Caverns of Thracia Legendary Adventure DCC

I finally got my shipping notification for Caverns of Tharcia! That took a while. Goodman Games appears to have been overwhelmed by the shipping of so many books, which is a good problem to have, and I am happy for them.

These adventures and DCC itself are just fun, and nowhere can you get so many tributes to the old-school, recreations, and re-published classics in one place.