ORACLE

6/03/2011

Playtest Madness

This week, I have been fortunate enough to receive playtest copies of two games I have been following very closely these past few months. I am very excited to have gotten my grimy hands on both of these games, and hopefully will find time in the near future to try them both out.

The first is the "beta draft" of Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, being produced by Goodman Games. DCC RPG is a d20 variant that is being designed to emulate the Appendix N suggested reading list from the Dungeon Masters Guide for 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Everything I have seen and read is a strong indication that Joseph Goodman has succeeded in this goal. The public beta version of the game will become available on June 18th, which is Free RPG Day.


The other is Crypts & Things, from D101 Games. C&T is a Swords & Wizardry variant, tailor made for dark sword & sorcery adventure, a genre that is very close to my heart. Newt Newport has told me his biggest influences for this project have been Clark Ashton Smith and Michael Moorcock. Reading through the rules and setting ("the dying world of Zarth") it is obvious that Newt has a real love for the genre, and is well on his way to publishing a great game.

In the coming days, time willing, I would like to share more information about both of these games and hopefully have a couple of playtest reports for everyone.