Tuesday, May 29, 2012

DCC RPG Opinions part 2 (Hater Edition)

I do like many things in DCC RPG.  But, this post isn't about them.

No Index

Really?  Am I missing it?  The back of the book is filled with stuff (full page art, advertisements, appx, two! sample adventures.  No index blows.

Equipment

Trade goods, awesome idea.  Not listing trade goods in equipment section, annoying, but understandable given their link to occupation and character creation.  Not listing some equivalent unit of value for trade goods, fail.  Does every DM really have to make judgement on how many trowels a sack of nightsoil is worth?  And in general (although it's hard to be sure without a flippin index) the trade goods / we're all medieval peasants is talked about various places.  But, little support is provided, e.g. one, just one treasure table of trade goods.  I suppose the excuse is that's been handled elsewhere.  Still, it seems a fundamental block of "a style of play" / appx N that book is pushing.  And 90% of DMs will just fall back to coinage cause book didn't make trade goods as easy.  Which is a shame.

No one will ever use a flail.  Cause it does 1d6. This is sad, cause flails are awesome. DCC RPG does better than most systems with varying damage. In that most 2-hand do d10 and most 1-hand do d8.  So close, why not just go all the way?  Also, not convinced +1pt of damage is worth not using shield.  either d6 1hand, or d12 2hand, or both.

Bows and Crossbows do pathetically low d6.  Missile weapons should be deadly.  Unless, you're wanting to discourage their use and encourage mixing it up face to face. Which, I rather like. Whoops this was suppose to be whining only post.

Failing to include "chicken" under mounts is fail.

Spell Duels

Holy crap these are complicated.  I mean they seem simple. The rules / explanation are complicated. I'm not sure I understand them after 2nd read through.  Bad.  Other sections (character creation) have really nice, concise listing of steps.  Actual steps are intermingled with commentary (untoward things can occur).   Then there is another list of 9 steps for actually counter spelling (which is part of and how duels start).  

Roll checks, increment momentum, cross reference spell checks on table 4-5, roll die, compare to table 4-6, modified by difference between momentum trackers, there's an exception and OMFG, seriously?  Yeah, I can figure this out.  And, yeah, doing it a few times will make it easier. But, do I want to do this, is it fun?  Is it worth stopping the game to look all this up, roll all these dice, spend all this time with one player while everyone else is confused as to what's going on?  Will have to see.

Pro-tip: using dice, esp rolly d20, as counters doesn't work with table full of books, papers, snacks, thrown notes, shared dice, and players (1/3 in my experience) who can't roll a die without it flying across table knocking into everyone's stuff along the way.

Tables

Really, really should of either;  1) made the spells fit on one or two pages each.  Yeah, wasted space, broken layout, even larger page count.  All of those are worth not having to constantly look up spell charts in this giant, heavy doesn't sit open / flat tome.  2) release a PDF with spells fitting on one or two pages each.  It could have been bad-ass, wizards's actually collecting and creating a real life book of magic spells.

Luck

Hmmmmmmmm.

Not so Bad

I thought I'd find more to dislike.  Play it some, maybe tweak a few things, and it'll be fine.

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