Tor is reading Appendix N

"In Advanced Readings in Dungeons & Dragons, Tor.com writers Tim Callahan and Mordicai Knode take a look at Gary Gygax's favorite authors and reread one per week, in an effort to explore the origins of Dungeons & Dragons..."

Tor's Advanced Readings in D&D

Starts off with my favorite Appendix N author Robert E. Howard. Interesting commentary. Nothing shockingly new for old grognards.  But, I'm happy just to see "press" about gaming and sci-fantasy.

DCC RPG Opinions Part 3 (Holy Edition)

Clerics

The cleric and patron systems (including wizard bits) are probably my favorite parts of DCC RPG.  The appreciation is no doubt enhanced by my "not completely satisfied with" attempts at creating divine magic / class that is stylistically and mechanically different than arcane magic, is thematically driven by faith / granted divine power, doesn't pigeon hole clerics as walking med kits, and is not dramatically "alien" to D&D. DCC RPG Clerics are very close to this ideal.

First, from the Law / Neut / Chaos alignment system much excellence flows.

Second, DCC RPG Clerics are squarely in the militant servants of Gee-Oh-Dee camp.

"you will persuade, convert, or destroy ... You adventure to find gold or holy relics, destroy abominations and enemies, and convert heathens to the truth. ... wields the weapons of his faith: physical, spiritual, and magical."

I always wondered wtf Paladin?  Clerics are clearly holy warriors, don't need none other, jump back on your fancypants warhorse and go be chivalrous elsewhere.  Paladins led to the wussification of Clerics into "priests".  Priests are the pansy boys and girls blathering sermons in the temple, burning incense and similar namby-pambyness. Clerics bring the holy whoop-ass unto non-believers.  Who, conveniently, may be found clustered together in dungeons.

Decent to-hit progression, crit tables.  Any armor, unclear if this includes shield but I say, yes.  Clerics use the weapons of their god.  Standard stuff.  Blunty things for Law. Sword (others, but everyone will use sword cause it does most damage) and sling for Neutral.  Axes, bows, dart (feeling some poison up in here), and flail.  Deity specific weapon choice is obvious and easy house rule.

Thanks for visiting the Temple of Set, here's a complementary black widow.

Divine Magic

Limited number of spells known... I can find no mention of how these are determined.  I assume randomly same as Wizard's spells.

At it's core DCC RPG Cleric magic is a "fatigue" system.  There's no hard limit (spell slots) to what you can cast.  Rather, the more you cast the harder and/or riskier it becomes.  Systems, like this, that let you "push your luck" lead to the awesome moments people talk about forever.

Spell check; d20 + Stat mod + Cleric level, look roll up on spell chart.  Each spell has it's own chart.  A spell check > (10 + 2x spell level) results in increasing levels of effectiveness, otherwise fail (god too busy to be bothered by your prayers).  Natural '1' is divine disapproval.   Each failure increases range of disapproval by one.  Disapproval means roll on table (of course). The more you fail by the greater the divine discontent.  Sacrifices may be made to reduce disapproval range.  It resets to one each morning.

Dig that very damn much.  Clerics don't generally lose spells when cast.  Way more spells per day than I'm use to, I'm fine with that.  And, as you will see everything "divine" cleric does is keyed off this same disapproval increase for failure, keep pushing your luck mechanic.

It's not explicitly mentioned (that I could find) that Clerics can use Ritualized Magic, multiple casters increasing power (spell check modifier), but they damn well should.

Turn Unholy

Each alignment turns different types of creatures, they way turning should work and how I house rule it.  Turning checks work off same disapproval system as spells.  Turn all you want pious punk, only risking perturbing your patron.

My god will bitch slap you into next week unholy abomination!

Lay on Hands

Healing is not a spell. [this is huge]  Healing works off same disapproval system as spells. Number of "dice" healed based on success of check.  The dice used are same size as target's hit dice, i.e. fighters are shafted for being meat buckets (I house rule this way already).  All other healing effects (disease, poison, broken limbs, etc) are worked in as needed a minimum number of dice to heal.

Flippin elegant. 

One reason Clerics suck to play is that unless all your spells are cure this or that your party bitches.  And spells is what makes Clerics more than just "weak fighters".  Healing not a spell wipes that away.  Now you can be a walking med-kit and wielder of holy vengeance. 

Divine Aid

Is like a scaled wish, that you have to pay back.  Cleric can ask for anything via direct intervention of their deity.  DM ad hocs a DC.  Deity requests a favor in return, table provided. Go raid my rival's temple. Sacrifice me some loot.  That sort of thing.  It is to be used rarely, imparting a +10 to disapproval range.

Sinful use of Divine Power

It's clearly stated and reinforced by flavor and mechanics that the magic a Cleric wields is not his own.  Clerics are conduits for their god's will. The magic granted to them is a privilege, that will be revoked if used without thought to it's grantor's desires.

We all know this is how divine magic should work, it's rarely enforced.  DCC RPG provides a nice, scaled "punishment matches transgression" hammer for DM to beat players with.  And, interestingly it seems, would allow players to make calculated, tactical abuse of divine gifts.  Count me as a HUGE fan of player choice.  Really, a RPG session is nothing more than a series of player choices.  And with choice there can be failure and only with chance of failure does success taste so sweet.

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.

DCC RPG Opinions part 1

Omg this game is so awesome I don't mind
being chewed on.

I'm predisposed to like DCC RPG, I'm biased, Troll and Flame was mentioned in Appendix O! [Thanks for that!  I hope my blog has actually been worthy of honor].  As stated in this post's title these are my opinions, not a review and certainly not a fair or balanced one.


I very much like the phrase "Appendix N Gaming".  It will not, but, I wish it would supplant "OSR" as a tagline.  It is narrower in scope and far less vague.  Leaving little space for endless arguments over its meaning and whether this or that blog/game/foo is part of it or not.  Less baggage around "old", "nostalgia", and other connotations rightly or wrongly piled on OSR.

First Bits

The DCC RPG is aimed more or less exactly at me.  That is, at gamers who like a particular type of RPG (they may not know they like it yet and it's probably not the only type they enjoy).  DCC RPG is not universal.  It has style, it oozes atmosphere, it is opinionated.  What I'm trying to get at is, if you don't like dead cow it doesn't matter how awesomely delicious a steak is, you won't enjoy it.  But, if you've never had good beef, you should try it.  At least once.  DCC RPG is Kobe Beef and oh so juicy.

• Holy 450+zillion pages! I'm firm adherent of the cult of "less rules is better rules".  Any ruleset should be 32-64 pages.  The bulk really put me off. [Although it's amazing and kudos for staying $40, a bargain for such volume and production quality]  I was mollified by; so much art proly adds 50-75 pages, ~175 pages are spell charts, minus other charts, included adventures, appendixes, monsters, magic, and mayhem. Really ~100 pages of PHB rules.  
• I have a new appreciation of several artists.  Of the many featured in this book, only one has a style that is not to my liking.  But, none of it is even close to bad.  It all works, fits in, and supports the atmosphere of the game.  Overall superlative art direction.
• Color end sheets are keen.  Proof, above detail.
• The qualifications, pg 10;  I dig the intent (and need) and I'm a demanding and harsh guy.  Still, for the first text presented to reader this was too (the right word escapes me... harsh/elitist).  The facing artwork of party being incinerated is apt.
  Book be flamewarring the reader.
• The next page "How is this game different from what I have played before?" is heaps better.  Excellent in fact.
• When first exposed to DCC RPG (beta or some preview) I thought "Hey, stuff to steal for my own game."  Now, I'm absolutely wanting to play this thing, as itself, in totality.

That defiant guy with the fist, "Damn you, damn you all to hell!"

Chapter 1 Characters

The very first words of chapter are "You're no hero."  Nailed it.  The foundation on which Appx N Gaming is built. It's the core differentitor of this style.  Hopefully avoiding any author aggro, I'll quote the remainder in its entirety, as it's excellent.

You're an adventurer:
a reaver,
a cutpurse,
a heathen slayer,
a tight lipped warlock guarding long-dead secrets.

You seek gold and glory,
winning it with sword and spell,
caked in the blood and filth of the weak, the dark the demons and the vanquished.

There are treasures to be won deep underneath,
and you shall have them...

Bam! you are gonna be this, you are gonna do this, and you are gonna get this.  Who, what, where, and why.  I read (I think at B/X Blackrazor) about how Basic D&D told you what you were suppose to be doing and some other RPG didn't.  Or, maybe other way round.  Whatever.  Point is, this kind of prose mixed with evocative art is far superior to the boring and probably confusing "What is roleplaying?" / "What is an RPG?" drivel so many weaker games start with.  Even when I *am* roleplaying, I give a rats ass about roleplaying.  I'm too busy reaving, man!  Grabbing that sweet EHP headdress before the damn thief gets to it.

Multiple 0-level, classless schmucks. Aka untrained, uneducated peasants.  I can get behind that!  In most my campaigns "untrained and unemployable" is my excuse for not having a "skill system" and why people with little more than a sharp stick go poking around dungeons.  The explanation of how random character generation works and enjoining to try it are good additions.

Dice chain. I dig it. But why, oh why fuck it up and have modifiers too.  Don't be a flip-flopper choose one or the other.  Yes, yes I know there's not enough granularity, who cares!  Does it make game more fun?  Does it make it more Appx N? +1 ain't worth the math.  But, shunt me up to d24, I get to use the funky die and I could roll awesome! You expect me to remember that invisible is +2 to attack, but squeezing through a tight space is -1d, blinded is +2, entangled is -1d, many others.  Or, even worse break game flow to look it up.  A'never gonna happen, Joe.   I play too many different games and have much more interesting things to remember than how their fiddly bits differ.  Bad thing, -1d.  Good thing +1d.  Done.

Renaming abilities, sure, whatever, the old names aren't that clear.  I already use Charisma very much as Luck is described.  Favor of the gods and all that.  Luck is extremely important element of Appx N stories.  B/X style modifiers, the same for all stats.  Logical and consistent.  Not that I care about those they just make it easy to remember ;)

Very keen on Table 1-2 Luck Score which gives players a unique and random bonus/penalty.  This is the kind of detail / rule that adds flavor and fun without bogging down game (as it's only done once, it's not a min-max tool's tool.).  Like Jeff Rients' deck of starting equipment and the various "Some fighters have..." tables.

Burning luck, I'm against it based on experience with similar mechanics, but, will reserve final judgement until after running several games.  The trope, "thieves are lucky", bugs the poop outta me (thieves and halflings renew burnt luck).  This proly only pertains to me. I'm rather down on thieves and halflings.  Firmly of the view that thieving is what all the players do and is not a class, Conan was a non-thief thief.  Do not argue with Conan. And, halflings are just short!

Saving throws: after much running of 3.5, Labyrinth Lord, OSRIC, and homebrew that is closest to Swords and Wizardry I firmly believe that more than one saving throw is superfluous complexity.  Which has been dragged along for nostalgia (the five) or misguided attempts at balance and/or simulation (the trio).  I was outraged at and claimed, possibly on this very blog, I'd never use S&W's one save system, ludicrousness!  Having used it (and the others), all recently, righted me of my wrong ways.  I'm leaning towards running DCC RPG as written, which means using the extraneous trifecta (Fort/Will/Ref).  It will be hard.

Roll for starting equipment and starting equipment is meager.  Both correct.  Fast start, immediate need to go 'venturing, clawing a character up from nothing is the ultimate accomplishment.  Trade goods and the other bits (I've read ahead) reinforce medieval peasantry milieu without straying into historical pedantry.

XP for surviving encounters.  I've not seen this elsewhere.  It is massively elegant.  The optimal reward to guide "smart" and "natural" behavior.  Players have been trained to kill everything that moves (by computer games, ill-conceived rewards (XP for slaying monsters), life).  XP for treasure, I see now, is a half measure.  I'm very curious how well strictly encounter based pass or fail XP will work.  I fear not totally.  Players are very obstinate in their belief that slaughter == XP.

In DCC there is no incentive to stick around until TPK.  Run like the wind as soon as encounter tilts south.  No incentive to slaughter to the last orcling.  Players may still do it but it will be a choice, and a choice as DM I'll feel less douchey applying consequences for.  A (good) reason, same reward for less effort/risk, to figure out how to sneak, fool, non-frontally assault, etc. an encounter.  It cleanly works for tricks, traps, puzzles, even NPC encounter / roleplay if that's your thing.

I can imagine whole series of encounters "at the King's court".  You can, of course, provide "roleplay" awards with other systems. But, it always seems a bit wonky, too arbitrary, hacked on.  Or, like the only choice of someone's precious, pretentious, story telling game.  And always, lurking in the back's of players mind is "Sure if we 'correctly' parley with the King we'll get some xp. OTOH we could just wack the geezer for a ton more."

Chaos, Law, Neutral pick your pleasure.

Chapter 2 Skills

Oh noes! A whole chapter on skills.  I hate skills.  They're never complete and always fiddly.  Only three possibilities exist:  Can do it, it's done.  Can't do it, sorry come up with another idea.  Chance of failure or negative consequence would be interesting, roll and we'll see.  That's called adjudication, don't need no stinkin book telling me how it's done.

Oh snap!  Chapter 2 is all of two pages long.  Not both sides of two pages, just two pages.  Each of which is a third art. No lists of skills. No skill points. No gobs of synergies, and modifiers, and min-maxerisms.  Having noop skill chapter is sly.

DC based, d10 if you haven't a clue, d20 for trained, ability modified.  Meh.

The Difficulty Level descriptions are Appx N appropriate and seem more useful than I remember from elsewhere.  DC 10 tasks are a man's deed, weak and unskilled step aside. DC 15 are feats of derring-do.

I appreciate the section "When not to make a skill check." But, it doesn't go far enough.  Mentioning "Only make a skill check when practical description by the players will not suffice." e.g. MacGuffin behind curtain will be found when player says character is looking behind curtain and not cause some dice got rolled.  Good.  Next "... attempting to sieve the floor [of dirt floored cave] until they find a dropped dagger, a search check may be perfectly appropriate..."  No.  If dagger is there, characters just find it.  Unless they have to find it before the Ogre returns or some otherwise interesting hoodoo.  Then, yeah, roll.  Maybe even taunting the players.  "You hear the Ogre's thumping foot steps, you may have time for one more roll before he sniffs you out."

Ok, I should probably break this up into a few blog posts.

But first, go read this astute article on zero level adventures.. http://ravencrowking.blogspot.ca/2012/04/devising-initial-adventures-for-dungeon.html

Get your own gang of four starting schlubs http://purplesorcerer.com/create.htm

Some DCC RPG resources http://peoplethemwithmonsters.blogspot.com/p/dcc-rpg-resources.html