I think DCC is the best OSR system, it's a real blast. And playing a funnel solo or with friends is one of the best experiences an RPG fan can have, in my humble opinion.
@@TheDungeonDive I think that the biggest issue for you is that you don't play with casters, and this game's book it's like 40% spells, haha. It has the coolest casting system in any game, in my opinion. Other than that's it's a really minimalist system, it doesn't even have skills.
I don’t like all the different dice and combat modifiers. I also don’t like how unheroic my characters are. I like the heroic side of S&S. With DCC I never want to do anything fun with a character because they just die from sneezing wrong! :). Just not a system for me. That’s fine. :) There are hundreds of other systems I like more. I do love the magic tables. Those are super fun.
@@TheDungeonDive haha I totally get what you say! I do love feeling like a helpless peasant way over his head. In any case, the main reason I play DCC is Lankhmar, which is such an awesome setting, and very well translated into DCC.
I agree. I do solo funnels...I don't bother to name them until or if they survive....lol. I just number them for funnels. Do you use any Gong Father's Almanacs?
That's weird that I hadn't come across a lot of his books in most all the times I've been to nice used book stores,as ive somehow been ignorant of his works and haven't really come across a lot of discussion about him in reading about scifi/fantasy writers and works. My great uncle was really big in collecting those types of books, and even all the books I got from him I don't recall there being even one Vance novel. So this is like discovering something all new to me. Lol Well, I knew of the author, recognize the name, but for some reason I just haven't hardly ever come across his books. Funny I kept thinking of a favorite Saturday morning animated series I really liked, "Thundarr the Barbarian", the people who come up with that must've been fans of Vance and the Dying Earth stories as Thundarr show fits pretty well into that world.
Wooot! What a glorious haul!!! I want that too. I love the books forming that panoramic picture as you pointed out. I only do solo stuff these days for a lot of reasons. I do a lot with the DCC Gong father's Almanacs and even though I've enjoyed DCC for years I've never had anything to mess with but the Almanacs which are totally awesome for expanding or just short runs. I also have been working on Scooby Doo DCC homebrew for over a year. Honestly in the last 3 years I've done most work with DCC and Starfinder. My Starfinder obsession borders "unhealthy" lmao. I can ignore housework and human interactions for days being absorbed with my own solo stuff in that. GREAT video. Love it
DCC definitely isn’t for everyone-especially if you prefer to limit the magic in your game. I also think their marketing of being “The Deadliest RPG” does the game a disservice, as outside of the funnel, characters in DCC are generally stronger and more durable than those in other old-school styled games.
I think the art of Richard Corben would've been a perfect match for Jack Vance book covers. His stuff has the perfect amount of strangeness to compliment Vance's themes and humor.
I didn't know this was a thing. Dying Earth is awesome - and I'd totally keep that box for the covers alone if I were you. Did you not notice the metallic foil in the logos? :D
DCC is my main system for fantasy RPG sessions and I was looking for a copy here around Europe but it's almost impossible to get it. Anyway, I'm giving it a second thought based on your first impressions. How about the adventures included? Cheers!
Thanks for the video and flip-through, Daniel. I love Jack Vance books, especially dying earth and planet of adventure, soI had to give this video a viewing. At one point I owned many of the paperbacks, But eventually sold them off. I still own that dying earth collection you share here and a hardbound library discard of fantasms and Magic’s. Never did read Lyonesse though. Thanks again Daniel.
I absolutely love DCC. I use the Lankhmar boxed set rules but for settings I use the excellent World of Xoth. I'm a huge Sword and Sorcery fan. I realize the system isn't for everyone, but finding it was like rediscovering RPGs for me.
Nice! That was Scarlet Heroes and Mork Borg for me. I just don’t don’t a S&S vibe from DCC because it’s so focused on balanced party play. But hey, we all love what we love! And I recognize that DCC is super well made! :)
Yeah, I kind of feel the same about DCC. There are some great adventures and source books, but the rules can get a bit clunky. We tend to use it to play Old School Essentials, with a bit of DCC, like the crits and clerical healing, added in. I may try to run a full DCC campaign with the upcoming Dark Tower set. As for Vance, he's okay, not great IMO. I prefer the Planet of Adventure books to The Dying Earth series.
If I'm not mistaken Gene Wolfe actually said Book of the New Sun is a Dying Earth series. I also have issues with DCC and don't play it at all. That said I think Goodman games has good intentions with their games and I always liked that they made magic dangerous.
Not played DCC before, but thought the books looked cool - but are they $60 a box?! Or was the Kickstarter cheaper? Didn't seem like a whole lot of content for $120 plus shipping etc.
Man this art is killer but not sure I’d enjoy this one. Have you had a chance to try or look into the Shadowdark RPG? Their recent kickstarter just crushed it and was wondering what your opinions were. Still new to the rpg thing but thought that set may be a good intro into the genre but it’s all kind of over my head at this point.
Worth mentioning I backed the Hexplore it for the season 1 mad king campaign to try out solo and with the group for a more structured adventure/rpg style game
Agree with you! The art is so freaking cool in those DCC book but the system is so much complicated for no reason. Like, you need a special set of dice to play !?!? Its just not intuitive and hard to apply solo. Anyway, thanks for the presentation of Jack Vance and his books! Gonna dig in those and continue to wish that DCC get streamlined at some point while appreciating the art of the franchise!
"Read fiction". Should be more "Read classic fiction" since whatever fiction newer players are reading is of today's. I mean if more people read the classics stuff, they would not be so defensive on how great and original stuff like the Warhammer 40k lore is. They would see all the influences.
There is already a excellent rpg of Dying Earth... It sounds weird to put this universe into the DCC system. Why ? Because the Dying Earth universe is essentially based on verbal interactions, pun on words, speech confusion etc. Cugel is not a fighter... The first rpg (with a well dressed man on his knees on the cover) seems for far better. Yet, those new products could have a certain artistic and lore interest. Dunno...
I'll be honest, ive been avoiding the ttrpg community to a degree than i used to due to being alienated by what's going on and my experiences with other systems (namely pf2e and osrs) alongside my impressions of other systems as well, but i feel not as alienated when i visit you and geek gamer's vids. Maybe i should check on the backlogs. Regardless of my thoughts, that's a fine collection of dying earth works.
@@TheDungeonDive Controversies im the community and the fallout from said drama, also admittedly not really vibing with the rpg systems people suggest which is compounded by experiences with rpg systems similar to what people recommended (which sadly includes some of the OSR).
Interesting. I don't know of any drama / controversies, and prefer to keep it that way. :) I've been playing RPGs since the early 80s, and have never had more fun than I'm having now. We're truly in a golden age of quality and quantity.
Ah, that's a shame - although if you're into narrative games, mechanical generation, and solo play, and not into magic, then DCC _is_ quite a poor fit. I love it - and _MCC_ is one of my favourite things from gaming this decade ("What? The characters are so underpowered!" - yes, they _really_ are; you're a stack of untrained future-peasants lugging around a junk-pile of dangerous artifacts, what's not to love?) - but the mechanics are _intentionally_ lopsided; running a game of DCC procedurally would be like running _Call of Cthulhu_ procedurally, just grinding forwards to a point of inevitable failure. Except in DCC it's supposed to be _possible_ to win an adventure, whereas CoC is more of an exercise in seeing if you can keep any part of your character intact until the epilogue. Which means you're losing out on major parts of the game by playing it that way, and that sucks.
Not a shame really. Just not a game I like, nor is it a game for me. For those of us who prefer a more S&S / heroic fiction vibe like Conan, Elric, Fafhrd & Gray Mouser, Elak, and such, there are games like Scarlet Heroes.
@@TheDungeonDive Oh, yeah, I just meant 'it's a shame' in terms of backing a kickstarter that turns out to be something not quite what you were looking for. I'm not saying it's a shame not to like a game; that's personal taste, and the amount of variation in that between people has made gaming a far more interesting hobby to be part of. Which I was thinking about while I wrote that comment, and looking back, that pretty clearly derailed it into an analysis of my own perspective on the games in question, which may not have really been helpful (sorry about that) That said, I do like sword and sorcery as well, so - thanks for the recommend, I will check out Scarlet Heroes.
Ah, I got it. Sorry. :) I totally get where you're coming from. Although, I should have known. I think my opinion on DCC shifted a little more negative between the time I ordered this and the time when it arrived.
The art for all DCC stuff is off the charts.
Sure is.
I would love for them to do a book of art of all the modules.
I think DCC is the best OSR system, it's a real blast. And playing a funnel solo or with friends is one of the best experiences an RPG fan can have, in my humble opinion.
Right on! I know a lot of people love it! I just don’t happen to be one. :) I prefer simpler systems like Scarlet Heroes and Mork Borg.
@@TheDungeonDive I think that the biggest issue for you is that you don't play with casters, and this game's book it's like 40% spells, haha. It has the coolest casting system in any game, in my opinion. Other than that's it's a really minimalist system, it doesn't even have skills.
I don’t like all the different dice and combat modifiers. I also don’t like how unheroic my characters are. I like the heroic side of S&S. With DCC I never want to do anything fun with a character because they just die from sneezing wrong! :). Just not a system for me. That’s fine. :) There are hundreds of other systems I like more.
I do love the magic tables. Those are super fun.
@@TheDungeonDive haha I totally get what you say! I do love feeling like a helpless peasant way over his head. In any case, the main reason I play DCC is Lankhmar, which is such an awesome setting, and very well translated into DCC.
I agree. I do solo funnels...I don't bother to name them until or if they survive....lol. I just number them for funnels.
Do you use any Gong Father's Almanacs?
1:09 that's what happens to me with every DnD game I have played...
i read the same collection with that crap cover. I was glad to have the book to do a deep dive on his works.
That's weird that I hadn't come across a lot of his books in most all the times I've been to nice used book stores,as ive somehow been ignorant of his works and haven't really come across a lot of discussion about him in reading about scifi/fantasy writers and works. My great uncle was really big in collecting those types of books, and even all the books I got from him I don't recall there being even one Vance novel.
So this is like discovering something all new to me. Lol
Well, I knew of the author, recognize the name, but for some reason I just haven't hardly ever come across his books.
Funny I kept thinking of a favorite Saturday morning animated series I really liked, "Thundarr the Barbarian", the people who come up with that must've been fans of Vance and the Dying Earth stories as Thundarr show fits pretty well into that world.
Have you read any of Michael Moorcock's Elric books?
I have started reading them a little time now...
Yes! It used to be my favorite fantasy series. A recent re-read was a little unkind. I still love books 1 and 2, but not much after that.
I've been trying to find a DCC in-person group for ages with no success and love Jack Vance. Cool to use the books for other systems.
Wooot! What a glorious haul!!! I want that too. I love the books forming that panoramic picture as you pointed out.
I only do solo stuff these days for a lot of reasons. I do a lot with the DCC Gong father's Almanacs and even though I've enjoyed DCC for years I've never had anything to mess with but the Almanacs which are totally awesome for expanding or just short runs. I also have been working on Scooby Doo DCC homebrew for over a year.
Honestly in the last 3 years I've done most work with DCC and Starfinder. My Starfinder obsession borders "unhealthy" lmao. I can ignore housework and human interactions for days being absorbed with my own solo stuff in that.
GREAT video. Love it
Agree with you re: the Gollancz Masterworks lines. Absolutely phenomenal, not a single dud in the dozens and dozens I bought.
If only the covers were better. ;)
Dang! Bummed I missed this one!
Thanks for the review!
DCC definitely isn’t for everyone-especially if you prefer to limit the magic in your game. I also think their marketing of being “The Deadliest RPG” does the game a disservice, as outside of the funnel, characters in DCC are generally stronger and more durable than those in other old-school styled games.
The magic is super cool, and such a huge focus, so yeah....if you're not into magic there are simply better systems out there.
loving the art
They always have such great art.
I think the art of Richard Corben would've been a perfect match for Jack Vance book covers. His stuff has the perfect amount of strangeness to compliment Vance's themes and humor.
Especially for the Dying Earth stuff!
I didn't know this was a thing. Dying Earth is awesome - and I'd totally keep that box for the covers alone if I were you. Did you not notice the metallic foil in the logos? :D
Oh yeah! The boxes and art are amazing.
DCC is my main system for fantasy RPG sessions and I was looking for a copy here around Europe but it's almost impossible to get it. Anyway, I'm giving it a second thought based on your first impressions. How about the adventures included? Cheers!
Thanks for the video and flip-through, Daniel. I love Jack Vance books, especially dying earth and planet of adventure, soI had to give this video a viewing. At one point I owned many of the paperbacks, But eventually sold them off. I still own that dying earth collection you share here and a hardbound library discard of fantasms and Magic’s. Never did read Lyonesse though. Thanks again Daniel.
My pleasure! :)
I absolutely love DCC. I use the Lankhmar boxed set rules but for settings I use the excellent World of Xoth. I'm a huge Sword and Sorcery fan. I realize the system isn't for everyone, but finding it was like rediscovering RPGs for me.
Nice! That was Scarlet Heroes and Mork Borg for me. I just don’t don’t a S&S vibe from DCC because it’s so focused on balanced party play. But hey, we all love what we love! And I recognize that DCC is super well made! :)
Yeah, I kind of feel the same about DCC. There are some great adventures and source books, but the rules can get a bit clunky. We tend to use it to play Old School Essentials, with a bit of DCC, like the crits and clerical healing, added in. I may try to run a full DCC campaign with the upcoming Dark Tower set. As for Vance, he's okay, not great IMO. I prefer the Planet of Adventure books to The Dying Earth series.
Hot take on Vance coming in!
I'm a black belt in Judo. When I'm practicing with kids, I shout out the throws anime style! Ippon seoi nage attaaaaaack!
Hahah!
What is your favorite ttrpg for group play?
I enjoy Mork Borg but payed co-op.
Have you tried Forbidden Lands? Its an RPG but has probably the best hex Crawl rules I've played.
I have. It’s too complex for me, but it’s well made.
Agree with your opinion on this one unfortunately
It's pretty disappointing.
"Servants of the Wankh" - LOL 😂
Right? Lol. Love it.
If I'm not mistaken Gene Wolfe actually said Book of the New Sun is a Dying Earth series. I also have issues with DCC and don't play it at all. That said I think Goodman games has good intentions with their games and I always liked that they made magic dangerous.
Not played DCC before, but thought the books looked cool - but are they $60 a box?! Or was the Kickstarter cheaper? Didn't seem like a whole lot of content for $120 plus shipping etc.
One box is stretch goals.
@@TheDungeonDive Got you! I was confused because both boxes had $59.99 on the back. Both for that seems better value.
Man this art is killer but not sure I’d enjoy this one. Have you had a chance to try or look into the Shadowdark RPG? Their recent kickstarter just crushed it and was wondering what your opinions were. Still new to the rpg thing but thought that set may be a good intro into the genre but it’s all kind of over my head at this point.
Worth mentioning I backed the Hexplore it for the season 1 mad king campaign to try out solo and with the group for a more structured adventure/rpg style game
I passed on Shadwodark. I already have so many OSR-style fantasy games.
Evidentially, most (all?) Of Erich Bouchard's 4AD books pay homage to Vance's novels.
Interesting! I’m not sure I’ve picked up on that.
Agree with you! The art is so freaking cool in those DCC book but the system is so much complicated for no reason. Like, you need a special set of dice to play !?!? Its just not intuitive and hard to apply solo. Anyway, thanks for the presentation of Jack Vance and his books! Gonna dig in those and continue to wish that DCC get streamlined at some point while appreciating the art of the franchise!
If the meatgrinder playstyle doesnt deter you, the zocchi dice would.
Idk if DCC would be streamlined, it seems fine by those who love the system.
I’ve preferred dcc over dnd 5e the way it plays and the settings are way better
That's awesome! The right game is out there for everyone. I prefer Mork Bork, Scartlet Heroes, White Box, Fallen, and others.
"Read fiction". Should be more "Read classic fiction" since whatever fiction newer players are reading is of today's. I mean if more people read the classics stuff, they would not be so defensive on how great and original stuff like the Warhammer 40k lore is. They would see all the influences.
I don't know who these are made for but definitely not for me. I can't comprehend trying to wrap my head around this
There is already a excellent rpg of Dying Earth... It sounds weird to put this universe into the DCC system. Why ? Because the Dying Earth universe is essentially based on verbal interactions, pun on words, speech confusion etc. Cugel is not a fighter... The first rpg (with a well dressed man on his knees on the cover) seems for far better.
Yet, those new products could have a certain artistic and lore interest. Dunno...
I agree.
I'll be honest, ive been avoiding the ttrpg community to a degree than i used to due to being alienated by what's going on and my experiences with other systems (namely pf2e and osrs) alongside my impressions of other systems as well, but i feel not as alienated when i visit you and geek gamer's vids. Maybe i should check on the backlogs.
Regardless of my thoughts, that's a fine collection of dying earth works.
What’s been alienating you?
@@TheDungeonDive Controversies im the community and the fallout from said drama, also admittedly not really vibing with the rpg systems people suggest which is compounded by experiences with rpg systems similar to what people recommended (which sadly includes some of the OSR).
Interesting. I don't know of any drama / controversies, and prefer to keep it that way. :) I've been playing RPGs since the early 80s, and have never had more fun than I'm having now. We're truly in a golden age of quality and quantity.
Ah, that's a shame - although if you're into narrative games, mechanical generation, and solo play, and not into magic, then DCC _is_ quite a poor fit. I love it - and _MCC_ is one of my favourite things from gaming this decade ("What? The characters are so underpowered!" - yes, they _really_ are; you're a stack of untrained future-peasants lugging around a junk-pile of dangerous artifacts, what's not to love?) - but the mechanics are _intentionally_ lopsided; running a game of DCC procedurally would be like running _Call of Cthulhu_ procedurally, just grinding forwards to a point of inevitable failure. Except in DCC it's supposed to be _possible_ to win an adventure, whereas CoC is more of an exercise in seeing if you can keep any part of your character intact until the epilogue. Which means you're losing out on major parts of the game by playing it that way, and that sucks.
Not a shame really. Just not a game I like, nor is it a game for me. For those of us who prefer a more S&S / heroic fiction vibe like Conan, Elric, Fafhrd & Gray Mouser, Elak, and such, there are games like Scarlet Heroes.
@@TheDungeonDive Oh, yeah, I just meant 'it's a shame' in terms of backing a kickstarter that turns out to be something not quite what you were looking for. I'm not saying it's a shame not to like a game; that's personal taste, and the amount of variation in that between people has made gaming a far more interesting hobby to be part of. Which I was thinking about while I wrote that comment, and looking back, that pretty clearly derailed it into an analysis of my own perspective on the games in question, which may not have really been helpful (sorry about that)
That said, I do like sword and sorcery as well, so - thanks for the recommend, I will check out Scarlet Heroes.
Ah, I got it. Sorry. :) I totally get where you're coming from. Although, I should have known. I think my opinion on DCC shifted a little more negative between the time I ordered this and the time when it arrived.