Goodman Games

Over on another chat board we have been having some discussion about DCC. Basically it is the "have you tried it and if not, why not?" One point that was made was having to look up the spells/charts in general and the fact that some of them are printed over more than one page. I don't see it as that big of a deal because the casters only have so many spells available. But if you have multiple players playing casters and limited copies of the book, it can get frustrating at the gaming in practice.

But.. it made me think of a product idea I would like to see...

What about a small booklet release the size of a module that contained all of the spells from the core book and maybe some new ones or ones that have been in modules. That's it. Just a small book of the spells. I would probably include some of the patrons and their patron spells. But I wouldn't add too much more because the idea is to make it easily accessible and relatively cheap.

I think it would help alleviate the fears of people that don't like to look up charts. It would be a cool set-up for some annual releases too. It would isolate the most commonly looked up material in the game into a smaller digestable chunk.

thoughts?

Half of the main rulebook is spells. If you have the PDF you could print the spell section to keep handy.

I have considered fitting them to a single sheet, printing them off, and then laminating them for easy reference.

MonsterSlayer wrote: What about a small booklet release the size of a module that contained all of the spells from the core book and maybe some new ones or ones that have been in modules. That's it. Just a small book of the spells. I would probably include some of the patrons and their patron spells. But I wouldn't add too much more because the idea is to make it easily accessible and relatively cheap.

Small booklet? I just can't see how you could physically do that. I printed all the spells from my PDF and it's h-u-g-e. I used a Universal Economy View Binder (20981). It's 3.2 x 11 x 11.6 inches and with printed pages weighs 5 pounds. Sure I can see how you could save space here, cut some corners there, but I still think it'd have to be a decent sized book to fit 'em all in.

MonsterSlayer wrote:Over on another chat board we have been having some discussion about DCC. Basically it is the "have you tried it and if not, why not?" One point that was made was having to look up the spells/charts in general and the fact that some of them are printed over more than one page. I don't see it as that big of a deal because the casters only have so many spells available. But if you have multiple players playing casters and limited copies of the book, it can get frustrating at the gaming in practice.

But.. it made me think of a product idea I would like to see...

What about a small booklet release the size of a module that contained all of the spells from the core book and maybe some new ones or ones that have been in modules. That's it. Just a small book of the spells. I would probably include some of the patrons and their patron spells. But I wouldn't add too much more because the idea is to make it easily accessible and relatively cheap.

I think it would help alleviate the fears of people that don't like to look up charts. It would be a cool set-up for some annual releases too. It would isolate the most commonly looked up material in the game into a smaller digestable chunk.

thoughts?

While I can empathize with the concern, this really is no different than most games. Spellcasters _always_ have to look up the specific wording for the spells. Sure the entries are smaller in other games, but the act of having to set aside time for the "rules lookup phase" really isn't new to RPGs. The needing to own the book is really not all that different and mostly a personal taste issue for the Judge as to whether players can reference books at the table or not...

In the meantime, just print out what you need, which ends up being just a few sheets.

Economical copies of the rulebook, for use at the table: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dungeon-Crawl-C ... 1e80ca625d

I have no connection to the seller -- just happen to think that's a helluva price.

I do a grimoire at my table, where the player _writes down_ the result of the spell when they actually achieve that result. It's a little weird, but I like it that way.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-DsHl ... sp=sharing

I've asked the spellcasting players at my table to print out a copy of their spells and bring it to the game, with their character sheets. Because there are two things that are time-consuming: looking up spells and, to a lesser degree, fumbles and crits. For the second we also printed quick reference charts (taken on these boards).

For the wizard, printing the spells is like creating a spellbook, so it's kind of neat. This idea (the spellbook) also came from a post I read here I think.