Saturday, June 18th is
Free RPG Day ‘11 and with it comes a slew of new and interesting little releases. They can usually be divided between tasters for new games that will be released at Gen Con this forthcoming August and support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera. In general, the tasters for the new, “hot” games are highly anticipated and on the day itself, in high demand. One such title this year is the
Adventure Starter. from Goodman Games for its forthcoming
Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game., which will be released not at Gen Con in August, but later in November. It should be made clear that this not a “Quick Start” Rules Guide, but is rather a teaser for the RPG that comes with two ready-to-play adventures. In order to play them though, the Judge – what the
Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game calls the Dungeon Master – will need to download a copy of the
Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game beta rules. that Goodman Games has recently made available.
This then is a taster for what is Goodman Games’ retooled take upon playing adventures that take their cue from those published over thirty years ago. The publisher’s line of scenarios reached over fifty titles using the Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition. rules, with almost another twenty released for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition.. In re-launching the line and re-launching it with an RPG of its own, the publisher takes its cue from the “Old School Renaissance,” the first publisher to really do so, and probably the most appropriate, for Goodman Games has been keeping the spirit alive with all of those scenarios.
Physically, the Adventure Starter. is well presented. The internal look harks back to that of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition. rulebooks with both its looks and its choice of artists, many of whom who have also contributed artwork to Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics. line of scenarios, including Jeff Easley, Peter Mullen, and Jim Roslof. The maps for the Adventure Starter.’s two scenarios are also pleasingly evocative, done in a heavily inked style that would not have looked out of place in an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition. book. Yet the most eye catching aspect to the Adventure Starter. are the covers to the line’s future releases, all of them done in a luridly pulpy style.
From reading through this simple Adventure Starter., it is very clear that as much as the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. looks back to the way in which Dungeons & Dragons. was played during the first five years of the game’s history, it does not wholly adhere to the ideas of the “Old School Renaissance,” for it still draws from later iterations of the game. So whilst it does not differentiate between Class or Race – meaning that you play an Elf or a Wizard, not an Elf Wizard – elements such as Ascending Armour Class; attacks, saves, and skill rolls being made using a twenty-sided die; and there only being three saving throw types – Fortitude, Reflex, and Willpower, are all very modern. Further, casting spells requires a spell check that on high rolls means the spell is more effective and that the wizard might not lose the ability to cast that spell for the day. Clerics get to turn undead and other creatures according to their faith, and whilst they never lose the ability to cast a spell, they do get penalties if a spell is a cast again. Lastly, the game includes a critical hit matrix for deadlier and more entertaining results and characters can burn off ability scores to gain bonuses on dice rolls.
There is one fundamental difference between the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. and Dungeons & Dragons.. The characters start off at zero level, essentially as peasants hoping to gain enough experience to get to first level. For example, the first of the two given scenarios, “The Portal Under The Sun,” requires either a party of fifteen to twenty zero level characters or eight to ten first level characters. Rather than have twenty players involved in the one scenario – though this is no doubt possible – the intent is to have the players start with two or three characters each. After that, stupidity and Darwin’s laws prevail. Which is all a bit like taking a handful of slightly sticky things and throwing them at the wall in the hope that some might stick…
After explaining the ethos behind the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game., the Adventure Starter. presents two adventures, each of which could be played through in a single evening. The first is “The Portal Under The Stairs,” which has the would be adventures venturing into an ancient war-wizard’s tomb after its entry way becomes opn when the stars come right. The second is “The Infernal Crucible of Sezrekan the Mad,” which designed for a party of four to eight fifth level characters and in common with the first scenario, has the adventurers descend into a small complex, this time the laboratory of the fearsome diabolist, Sezrekan the Mad. Both adventures focus on puzzles, tricks, and traps over combat, and so are fairly detailed.
If there any negative issues to the Adventure Starter., they are more subjective than absolute. One is that the author does over do the reverence for the “Old School” style of play, over selling it in the process. Another is that in order to play the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game., extra, sillier shaped dice are required. In particular, the three, five, seven, fourteen, sixteen, twenty-four, and thirty-sided dice. Now it is possible to get around using them, but doing so is only slightly more cumbersome than having to really go out of my way to get yet more dice.
Overall, the Adventure Starter. is a very nice little teaser for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game.. It does a good job of evoking the “Old School” style and giving a taste of what the game itself can serve up.
Review Summary