Friday, June 10, 2011

How badly do I need another D&D?

Unless you've been hiding under a Galeb Duhr, your blogrolls have likely been pummeling you in the face with the previews and early reviews of the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. I took a quick peak at it, but felt strangely empty. Good and bad things jumped out immediately. Good - holy crap lots of awesome art! Bad - hey you creative GMs: you are never, ever, ever (did I mention never?) ever going to be creating your own spells. Ok, you might try it one time. But you'll never do it again.

The empty feeling I mentioned, though, is certainly not Goodman Games' fault. I've played the system, and found it to be enjoyable enough. No, the problem I think, is that I'm just not interested in any more versions of D&D. I've got quite enough of them already, thanks. $#!%, I've got a different one of choice for every occasion, I think.

My regular bi-weekly game is Swords & Wizardry. It is just rules-lite enough that the group of artists and writers I play with can be just as creatively involved in the game as I am.

My Forsaken Halls Megadungeon demos use B/X (or its nearly identical retro Labyrinth Lord), because, well, its the best and clearest dungeon crawling system ever designed.

If I was ever to get into a regular weekly game again, with long sessions, I would just dig out my old AD&D books. If you have the hours to put in, I think its still the king of all iterations of D&D, the perfect combination of undeniable flavor and rules complexity, and I don't even play it anymore.

"The Vault" (otherwise known as the closet my wife will not go near for fear of being crushed to death beneath an avalanche of decadent geek hoarding) contains at least another half dozen versions of D&D, as well as another dozen RPGs of various sorts. That will probably never, ever, ever, get played. I would probably give them all away to charity or something, but I'm still holding out hope that I'll spend my dotage in the coolest retirement home ever.

So, I fear the DCC RPG will just have to be happy with no more than a cursory glance from me. At least for now. I just don't have room in my life for another D&D. Maybe when we were younger, before I was so set in my ways, when I could start and end passionate romances with an endless stream of RPGs, running whole campaigns in less than a month deep in the bowels of USF's Business Administration building. But not now. Besides, what would the kids say if they found out?

No, definitely, no. Not happening.

At least not until my Gamer ADD kicks in again next week.

7 comments:

  1. Well said, I feel the same way. I currently play LL but would likely play S&W WhiteBox, the Original LBBs, or Raggi's LotFP WFRP before I'd turn to DCC.

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  2. I'm of the same opinion: I'm just not in the market for a new FRPG, especially another D&D variant, even though it departs greatly from traditional D&D in some ways. If I were to play a different FRPG, I'd want something completely different like RuneQuest.

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  3. Same here. DCC looks like it has a lot of cool ideas in it, but I don't think I'd bother to play it, rather strip the ideas I like and try to import them into my current D&D of choice (LL).

    I think the trouble is that it's similar enough to other flavours of D&D that it doesn't feel like a new game. So if I were ever to be looking for a new game, DCC wouldn't be it (I'd be looking for something really different, not just another slightly different D&D).

    I do think it looks really cool though, and hope they do well with it!

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  4. Here is my suggestion for D&D variant overload-related ennui: get Anomalous Subsurface Environment. It is good, good, good!

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  5. Yeah, like I've said on my blog, DCC is just not different enough. If I want different, I'll play Savage Worlds or even Rolemaster (the latter game has always intrigued me but I get scared off by the seeming complexity...and any games that aren't based on the D&D system are also intriguing to me).

    And sign me up for that retirement home, baby! I'm looking forward to returning to a period in my life where I have lots of free time to game!!!

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  6. I share the overall sentiment expressed in this post.

    (Despite that, I'm contributing to the production of a 'Swords and Wizardry' variant book called 'Crypts and Things'. Heh.)

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  7. Yet another in agreement. The art looks great! But I have enough D&D variants and for something else I have plenty of other games already. I am not understanding the rabid fanbase that is forming, but that is good for Goodman Games and I certainly wish them no ill.

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