The 2022 DCC Year In Review
by Michael Curtis
As the clock ticks down on what’s left of 2022, it’s time to take a moment to look back at the year that was. While 2022 was far from perfect, in many ways it felt like the most normal year we’ve had since 2020. Conventions returned, people began playing in person again, and the pervading sense of doom and gloom that covered our lives for the last few years lifted, leaving us with hope that maybe, just maybe, 2023 will be better and brighter.
This sense of a return to normalcy was felt all down the DCC line in 2022. The biggest news was that DCC #100 was finally Kickstarted and succeeded beyond our expectations. It turns out people love the core DCC line and not just all the offshoots that helped keep things moving since the world changed. Although we’re still putting the finishing touches on DCC #100 as I write this, it’s getting close to going to the printers. I ask your patience just a little longer since we want to make sure The Music of the Spheres is Chaos is the adventure that lives up to all the expectations we here at Goodman Games and the fans of DCC RPG hold for it.
While DCC #100 might not be on shelves yet, that didn’t stop us from charging ahead with the core DCC line of adventures, something that hadn’t happened since 2019. Both DCC #101 The Veiled Vaults of the Onyx Queen and DCC #102 Dweller Between the Worlds hit stores this year and both of them have since burned through their first print runs. Wow! You all were certainly hungry for DCC! That’s great news since we have more in store for you next year, with DCC #103 heading to the printers in just a short while. Stay tuned (and tune into Maw of Mike every first Monday of the month on the Goodman Games Twitch channel) for coming announcements on it.
It was exciting to get the DCC RPG adventures moving again, but we certainly didn’t lack any attention on the other DCC game lines. We continued to provide DCC Lankhmar campaigns with new adventures, publishing two new titles that I’m sure even Fritz Leiber would have enjoyed. DCC Lankhmar #12 Mercy on the Day of the Eel and DCC Lankhmar #13 Treachery in the Beggar City slipped into stores like the Twain, themselves, while DCC Lankhmar #14 Thieves of Cold Corner is up for preorder right now. Look for more Lankhmar adventures in the year to come as we continue to support this highly-popular setting for DCC RPG.
And speaking of supporting other settings, 2022 saw the first ever DCC Empire of the East adventure released. DCC Empire of the East #1 Hunt for the Howling God further expanded the adventure possibilities for campaigns set in the world of Fred Saberhagen’s stories, exploring that weird mixture of fantasy and science fiction that we here at Goodman Games love so much.
‘Weird’ is the word for the Mutant Crawl Classics RPG, which also received no small amount of love this year. MCC #12 When Manimals Attack! and MCC #13 Into the Glowing Depths, pitted parties of mutants against the pre-cataclysmic legacies of lost Zuu and plunged them into the irradiated waters of Terra A.D. Both adventures were enthusiastically received by our mutated fans, but not as much as the MCC RPG rulebook reprint that features a fantastically bizarre limited edition cover by Peter Mullen. If you’ve not expanded your MCC library yet, there’s still time before the ball drops on New Year’s Eve!
The year would not have been the same without the usual round of gamer holidays that we nerdier ilk love to celebrate. Free RPG Day 2022 came with Danger in the Air!, a DCC RPG 0-level funnel that involved exploring a monstrous alien jellyfish and uncovering its secrets. DCC Day 2022 arrived with a bevy of goodies. In addition to the usual DCC Day Adventure Pack, it also saw DCC Day #3 Chanters in the Dark, a possible sequel to fan-favorite Sailors on the Starless Sea. Still more awaited gamers at their FLGS on DCC Day: The Book of Fallen Gods brought seven new patrons to the gaming table, each tied to one of seven new dice sets. It was a great day to be a dice fanatic!
We also celebrated the DCC Road Crew in 2022 with an exclusive adventure for those hardworking judges who help spread the joy and love of DCC RPG. Van on the Run gave parties of adventurers the chance to acquire a legendary “phlogistivan” and cruise the multiverse in style—assuming they could get it running!
More ordinary holidays were also celebrated when our usual DCC Halloween (now known as the DCC Horror line) adventure slurped up out of the swamp in the form of Night of the Bog Beast, a spooky tale involving semi-dead godlike creatures, gators, ghosts, and a shambling bog beast of its very own. And we have a softer side here at Goodman Games too. We broke out the Hallmark cards and candy hearts for our very first Valentine’s Day adventure Love in the Time of Gongfarmers.
At the risk of expanding an already impressive list of publishing accomplishments in a single year, I’d be neglecting my duties if I didn’t mention the successful crowd-funding campaigns that were completed this year. The OAR line continues and for the first time we were able to provide a DCC RPG version of an OAR title: the legendary adventure Dark Tower by Jennell Jaquays became the most successful Goodman Games Kickstarter ever. We also experimented with Indiegogo for the first time as a way to make out-of-print titles available again. Two successful campaigns for The Dungeon Alphabet and Tome of Adventure #1, which reprinted several of the original DCC RPG adventures in one single book, happened in 2022 and they certainly won’t be the last.
Finally, although many had their doubts, 2022 was the year that the 2021 Yearbook (#9) and the 2021 Gongfarmer’s Almanac, that fan-created favorite, both finally made their way through the log jam of projects delayed by the pandemic, and out to long-awaiting fans. The wait was hopefully worth it and everyone has learned a bit more about supply chain issues and the problems that can plague small projects, even when they have the best of intentions.
I cannot believe how much DCC goodness we were able to deliver in 2022 after the leanness of the pandemic years. It was both an exciting and oftentimes frightening way to spend my first year as the Director of Product Development for DCC. At no point did I forget that I owed my role in the company to the devoted fans of DCC and I never wanted to let you all down. Hopefully, I succeeded. And if I did, it wasn’t by my own efforts alone. A huge amount of respect and love goes out to everyone else here at Goodman Games. The writers who brought their “A game” to the titles they were working on, the artists whose talent brought the black and white text to glorious life, the editors who made the writers look good, and that the fans got the adventures they deserved. All you folks were a vital part of making 2022 the success that it was. I thank you with all my heart.
Most of all, thank you to the fans who continue to show much love to DCC and Goodman Games. We couldn’t do what we do every day without you! You’re the best community and I’m honored to be responsible to you and your love for the game. May 2023 be joyful one and I promise to keep doing my best to bring you the gaming goodies you deserve.
PRE-ORDER – Dungeon Crawl Classics #100: The Music of the Spheres is Chaos – Print + PDF
