Thursday, April 7, 2022

DCC Classics #0: Legends are Made, not Born

These are the D&D 3.5 modules made by Goodman Games before the Dungeon Crawl Classics game was a thing. There are a little more than 50 of them (and they have their own world), and they are all wonderful throwback adventures, every bit as cool and interesting as the original A-series, S-series, B-series, and the classic AD&D adventures. The layout looks the same, the art comes from some of the same artists, and everything about them feels old school and authentic.

The only fault to them is they are all statted for D&D 3.5, which just goes to show you when in doubt, make it OSR. These were written during the D&D 3.5 boom days, so it is hard to fault them, but would I love to see these re-done for OSR? Yes, but there is no real reason to (unless they were expanded and collected together in a series, and I would love that). But with Goodman games doing DCC and some very cool work recreating official AD&D adventures, I can see how a project like that would not be a high priority.

Part of me feels this series, especially with the talent involved in creating them, are becoming cool retro-historical adventures in their own right. Right now, they kind of feel like they are in their "forgotten" phase, kind of like how the original AD&D modules were when AD&D 2e came out.

Oh, no reason to play those old AD&D 1e adventures! We have modules written off the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance novels now!

It is trivial to convert these to the OSR game of your choice, such as Labyrinth Lord, Old School Essentials, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Swords & Wizardry, Basic Fantasy, ACKS, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Castles & Crusades, and all the other greats. If you wanted, conversion to D&D 5 and Pathfinder 2 would also be not terribly difficult.

There are a few D&D 3.5-isms in here, such as giving monsters class levels, but again, to give a monster class levels in OSR just ...give them class levels, add a few class hit points, give them the "better of" attack modifier, add a few spells if needed, and you are done. If this is a "boss monster" it should be a little tougher, a unique one-off anyways, and it won't matter if one monster in one module breaks the rules a little. 

All monsters in the world are different, and there are unique specimens everywhere. Who cares if there is one kobold with three levels of a wizard class, an extra 3d4 hp, and a few spells? Things start breaking if you are giving orcs 5 fighter levels, but then again, by the time characters reach that power level - they will be able to deal with them. Just be mindful of throwing too many of them at the party at once, since once you start throwing class levels around it is easy to do it all the time. D&D 3.5 exists in this parallel universe where they threw a few class levels on everything to toughen them up, and that is a different philosophy you see in a lot of OSR games.

Me? Throw a few class levels on them to toughen them up, and don't do it all the time. Either that or consider all humanoids as a base game race and ...throw a few class levels on there to toughen them up.

Now, these aren't the Dungeon Crawl Classics adventures you see today in the modern sense, with the DCC game and the zero-level funnels - though you can play them that way if you would like. These are pre-DCC "the game" but great old-school adventures just written in that old-school style.

This module is sort of a precursor to the DCC "funnel" adventure. Monster does a bad thing. Townspeople rise up and say "enough!" Those who survive discover there is more here than meets the eye. There are a few encounter locations, and they are not giant, so you could probably play this in a night or two and not overwhelm a new group. It is more of a simple starter adventure, with encounters balanced around a party, with a few smaller dungeons; than an expansive "Caves of Chaos" style of map, giant unbalanced encounters, and keyed adventure with dozens of areas.

If you are a fan of the original AD&D 1e adventures, these are highly recommended to pick up, since the maps, stories, encounters, and adventures are quick and easy conversions to the game of your choice. And since there are over 50 of these published, they are great if you start to get tired of some of the same old AD&D 1e standards and want something a little different. As great as the classic modules are, there are times when I want new adventures in new places, and these do the job nicely.

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