Review: Dungeon Crawl Classics

Last week I finished my read-through of "Dungeon Crawl Classics". As I've mentioned before, this was a somewhat odd experience, as I concluded part way through that I would most likely never run this game. Still, it's worthy of a review.

This is a black-and-white hardback book of some 466 pages of text (plus a detailed index and some adverts in the back matter). It presents a complete RPG in those pages - at present there are actually no supplements for this book, at least from the original publishers, although there are many adventures and a setting available for use. That's pretty cool.

The book really is a work of art, with lots of illustrations throughout, all geared to give a very particular atmosphere. In that regard, this is one of the very best RPGs I've seen - so many of them follow the standard fantasy glamour aesthetic (which is fine, but gets rather same-y).

The rules material is presented clearly and with a minimum of fuss. And, despite the obviously love of the designers for Gygax's work, the language used throughout is nicely clear and comprehensible - no High Gygaxian text on offer here! That's all to the good. The mechanics are a little table-heavy for my tastes, but that does allow a lot of information to be presented concisely.

All in all, this is a great book and well worth the money, if you're going to actually play the game. As noted, this game is very much not for all, and indeed is very much "not for me". So the reader is advised to consider carefully whether they'll actually play it - and indeed should seek out the free Quickstart rules if in doubt (these give a good taster of the game, so are well worth a look).

(One thing I would be really curious about: this game very clearly states that it derives its influences from Appendix N. Which is cool. It also starts the PCs are level 0 nobodies, raw newbies off the farm with no skills to speak of. That's also cool, although a definite instance of "not for me". However, I would very much like to know where that particular bit of inspiration comes from - it's certainly not a feature in the Appendix N works I have read, where Conan, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, and Elric are all badasses when we first meet them, while the Fellowship of the Ring is positively heaving with warriors and wizards. Is it just the hobbits, or is there some other antecendent for that design choice?)