Over the past few months, my fascination with tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) has gone a bit wild. Though I've been a fan of shows like "The Adventure Zone" and "Dimension 20" for years, it wasn't until January that I committed to playing these games myself—and it's been so much fun. So far I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons, the most well-known TTRPG. But I'm intrigued by other systems too. What makes them different? Why would someone prefer one over another?
"Dungeon Crawl Classics" (DCC) is a system that's popped up consistently in various YouTube videos and podcasts. The praise for DCC in certain circles is pretty outstanding. Here's an example:
It is, in my opinion, a RPG masterpiece! Based on Goodman’s decades of experience in game design and drawing inspiration from the best of fantasy literature, Goodman has crafted what could be considered the definitive culmination of OSR.
Goodman has taken the essence of old school RPGs and blended them with the flavor of seminal works of fiction from authors such as HP Lovecraft, Edward Rice Burroughs and Jack Vance and distilled these into a potent and heady draft fit for even the hardiest of Dwarven brewers! Dungeon Crawl Classics is simple in all the right places and complex where it needs to be. It is low-fantasy at its best and most brutal!
from boardgamesbren.com
Now I'm not traditionally a big fantasy guy, but anytime I see folks who really love a field say something like this glowing about a work in it, I'm intrigued.
All this is to say that, today I discovered Dungen Crawl Classics is up on Humble Bundle where you can get the rule book and several adventures for only one dollar. If you want to pay more you can get MUCH more (up to 80 PDFs and a physical book), but I just grabbed the dollar version and there's a ton to dig into here.
For example, even if I never run the game, the book is just filled with art that evokes a very charming 1970s fantasy vibe. It makes the whole project feel like a time machine in the coolest way.
Look at this stuff! I feel like I'm rummaging through the back room of a used bookstore and found the most incredible treasure of a book buried under a stack of old newspapers, except this is folks making this weird amazing game today.
Seriously, there must be 500 of these in the core book alone.
So if you want a copy of a cool-looking passion project, a couple of adventures, and a 20% off coupon to buy anything else from their shop, go spend a dollar.
