Goodman Games

4. My most recent thought was to trim down the number of spells to a “core” list (if you look at OD&D, they didn’t have many spells per level) and provide spell charts for those. Then, we can make some general rules as to how to create your own spell charts ... I favor this option. I have an an...

JediOre wrote:

Ravenheart87 wrote: How are dragons solved?

I'm wondering if dragons larger than a horse will exist. I'm not sure how many D&D style dragons exist in Appendix N.

One. Smaug.

One of the important things about new monsters is that they utterly avoid the problem with players dealing with any given monster as a known quantity: "Oh, a medusa is giving you trouble? Let's go to the adventurers' shop, boys, and buy each of us a mirror, then we'll go take care of her. We've...

No Old Monsters Joseph’s first design mantra. Or better put, no known monsters. The world of the DCC RPG is the world of the unknown. As blacksmiths, woodsmen, squires, beggars and slaves, the 0-level PCs in our games are ignorant of the wider world, its mysteries and threats. We’ve all run games i...

The last designer's blog was nearly 10 weeks ago on March 8th.

Here's an idea: Initiative is rolled on a d6, to this roll the players add their Armor Class value and the highest roll at the table attacks first. This helps simulate how cumbersome armor can be during combat. The lighter the armor the better, as the higher AC value adds more to the Initiative roll...

If wizards in some stories wear armor and use swords, but in other stories they do not, then why ? Are they really wizards acting like warriors, or warriors who can also cast spells? This is true also of warriors: some wear armor, some don't. Some are heavily armed. Some aren't. I think that the se...

I just finished reading Lord Dunsany's 17-page story "The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth", which is collected in The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories . In this story, the magician Gaznak wields a sword as he fights in a full suit of armor that leaves only his wrists, face, an...

The Imaro stories by Charles Saunders would fit well in Appendix N.

I'm not sure which board or blog I was reading recently, but the poster made a strong case for focusing on Fighters, Spellcasters, and Thieves as the core classes. I like to take it one step further: Every single character can attempt anything that a person can attempt in the real world: put on arm...

Right now the equipment list is REALLY short. And no plans for illustrations. I think we all know what a backpack looks like at this point. :) I'd rather spend my art budget giving Easley and Holloway and the rest of them some awesome ideas for dungeoneering scenes... Good. The equipment list in th...

mshensley wrote:Isn't it past time for a new designer's blog post?

Yes. I want #4!

More and more, I am seeing level 6-10 play as distinct from level 1-5 play. Remember the "level scale" here -- unlike 3E and 4E where the game is supposed to go to level 20 or 30, DCC RPG is a throwback to 1974 play where accomplishing 6th level was a huge deal. As such, I'm now inclined ...

DCC RPG is aimed at experienced gamers, with no specific attempt to broaden the RPG audience. I certainly have no objections to new players joining, but my belief is that most of the new gamers exposed to DCC RPG will be children who are taught the game by their thirtysomething parents who buy DCC ...

the wizard had *very* low Hit Points Or Conan got a good critical hit. In DCC RPG terms, it might have been that the two were pretty evenly matched, but Conan got lucky. Part of the "balance by randomness" philosophy. Or remember that one critical hit in "Iron Shadows in the Moon&quo...

IMO, one of the most "Appendix N"-feel published setting is Judges Guild's Wilderlands. It is sparsely-detailed and was released piece-by-piece over a span of years.

Skills kill a game for me.

That's a good point.

goodmangames wrote:Agree in theory, though in practice it's hard to keep that kind of information from players.

Alas, that is true. We need more poor players with no internet connections and who live far from game stores.

There have to be planes. Lots of them. Appendix N is chock full of multiplanar travel. But I'm not sure I need to define that in much detail. Exactly. The diagrammed "Great Wheel" cosmology that Gary first had published in The Dragon #8 (July 1977) is considerably different than the unsys...

I agree with you both in regard to DCC RPG specifically, and in regard to D&D in general.

We are indeed hated by all publishers.

I would not be opposed to a basic setting being added to the rule book. There are multiple reasons for that and a few of them are: It helps to provide a context to the game. It serves the same thing as an example paragraph describing a rule. It lets people see how the game designers intended the cl...

I think there should be NO setting information in the main rulebook.

If my eyesight fails not, then it looks like:

Sailors on the Starless Sea is for 0-level characters.
The People of the Pit is for 1st-level characters.
The Emerald Enchanter is for 2nd-level characters.

I love the vivid colors on those covers.

I'd leave resurrection out of the rulebook. How many times in an Appendix N book did somebody cast a resurrection spell? The best thing for resurrection is for it to be handled on a (very rare!) case-by-case basis via DM fiat.