Dungeon Crawl Classics: Still Amazing

AI Art by @nightcafestudio

I have a lot of favorite fantasy games, but the sheer range from crazy to terrifying with Dungeon Crawl Classics is unmatched here. Games like OSE and Shadowdark are great packages, C&C is a faithful 2.5E, and Shadow of the Demon Lord is fantastic.

But DCC does one of those things that I have only seen GURPS do: it reflects the personality of the person playing the game. I love it for many of the same reasons; plus, when you begin to realize that the random charts you bring to the game - and create for it - are just as much a reflection of your personality, the game takes on an entirely new light.

I want random Diablo-like magic items, including some complete 'WTF do I do with this?' creations built by a chart of chaos. I find a PDF that does that and add that to my game. I can have a chicken that can be used as a wand of fireballs now. Great! Can't do that in 5E!

I want custom corruption tables? Find them or write them! Random chaos effect? I got a fun book to get the ideas flowing. Custom traps? Find a devious book, or write them myself. Patrons? Make my own! Gods? The same thing, make some up and make them insane! Or serious. Or terrifying.

And the tables make interacting with all of this unpredictable. I can't tell you how many times I got excited by a game and then quit because I figured out what would happen, and the game felt limited and on-rails.

Cypher System uses the game's cyphers (random, one-shot magic items) to introduce the X factor into the game. DCC is a complete X factor, depending on what you are dealing with. Some people do not deal with that much randomness well, but I see it as exciting.

AI Art by @nightcafestudio

GURPS and fantasy settings go together well, but I lose that unpredictability I get in DCC. The characters are very mathematical and precise and get this well-defined feeling to them - but they feel like a "sim" character. I would pick GURPS over Shadowdark, Warhammer, or even Zweihander if I want that gritty realism. I would get the best 'bang for the buck' when designing that type of character.

GURPS only surprises me when I allow it. I build in my disadvantages and expect to operate in that envelope. Surprise and unpredictability are built into DCC's world, magic system, combat system, gear, and monsters. There is a 'campaign math' with GURPS where character designs control the chaos present in the world. I can put a lot of 'rando stuff' into GURPS, but DCC uses your wits and resources to prevent the 'rando' from killing you.

Big difference. Can I simulate a spear charge against a shield wall between bandits and royal guardsmen in the dark forest? GURPS all the way. Do I want to explore the 'mysterious tomb of the eye of ziggurat' full of 'rando death and treasure?' - DCC is my go-to game.

Plus, in GURPS, too much rando will make the point of some disadvantages pointless. External factor disadvantages, like enemies, will suffer since they will feel very 'pile on' after the sixth random chart event of a goblin ambush hits. Then, the character's enemies decide to pay a visit, and it all feels like a messy game of Skyrim with too many enemy mods, and you are hiding in the inn to avoid mass bloodshed. This is probably why Dungeon Fantasy removed all of these 'external disadvantages' and stuck to internal ones based on motivations.

In GURPS, if I did 'World Rando' like that, I would force everyone to buy 'Enemies: The World and Rules Hate You' and then just give it a 3d6 or less number. It's like an unlucky, but tag it to a number and roll when it matters. Leaving the dungeon with armfuls of gold? Yep, roll for the world hating you now, please.

The charts I add to DCC enhance the experience, and I can shape the world using them to suit my tastes. This can happen in GURPS, but DCC is built on that model - everything great in the game has a random chart attached. And the game allows you to override the charts or use your own.

AI Art by @nightcafestudio

Do I want 1980s Satanic Panic themes in my game? Make some charts. Do I want '1990s extreme comic book themes' like Spawn, Heavy Metal, or Lady Death? Do I want a 'deathtrap dungeon' sort of 'Tomb of Horrors' madness and insane traps and unfair fights in my game? More charts. Make some charts that reflect those themes. Or include them all. Or not. Your game!

Sometimes, I feel the prudes have chased all the fun out of 5E and Pathfinder, and it is time to move on. D&D is a Wall Street brand now, and Pathfinder feels like it wants to follow that model. How long will safety tools be allowed since they are a back door for mature concepts to enter the game that Wall Street wants complete ownership of?

Don't laugh.

Someone on the board will ask why they are in the game, and they will get removed because of what they imply could happen. They will be pushed to the website, then the memory hole.

And I am a pro-safety tool gamer for those who find them useful. To each their own.

The range that DCC can capture, from silly to terrifying, to old-school tribute, and much more, is like a singer with an impressive dynamic range, and every time they sing, you hear something new. GURPS also does this for me, but not in the randomness - every time I design a character, I discover something new and incredible. The player characters I 'sculpt' in GURPS grab me, and I want to play using them. I use the word sculpt because this is the best way to look at character creation in GURPS.

You aren't creating a character; you are designing a game that happens to also be a character.

DCC is like that but in play. You aren't playing a game; you are watching the world's systems create a game. The game simulates a world and allows you to include your ideas.

5E doesn't do that for me. I am buying books and praying they aren't broken all to hell with game balance issues. I play A5E because the team that made it felt 5E was an incomplete mess.

GURPS? The balance is mine. If I mess it up, I know better next time.

DCC? Who cares? Put it all on the charts, and hope you roll well. It will balance out. Maybe in another life, but it will.

Some versions of B/X out there seek to control your ideas as tightly as 5E does. The designers can copy and paste and make a game that looks and plays like B/X, but when you begin getting into the game's philosophy, you realize the games were not meant to play outside of the tiny sandbox the designers intended. The designers come from the 5E mindset, where you should never leave the B/X cave, just like 5E teaches you to never leave the 5E cave.

B/X was never like that, not back in the day. It was a framework where your game started. It was never the endpoint and the last set of rules you needed. This is why the rules were never 100% well defined. Many things you hacked in and added. The rules were never supposed to be complete, and things like the Rules Cyclopedia were terrific - but full sets of rules also felt like the game was dead, and there was nothing else to be said. B/X was always best left to the primary and expert books and for the rest to be filled in by your imagination.

But both DCC and GURPS give me something very few other games do. It is a way to put my creativity into the game and have the things I create reflect me.