How DCC protects against railroading

[Johann]

I posted about DCC here around the time it came out and blogged about it for a bit (Three Things I love about DCC and some reviews). I chose DCC for my wargamey sandbox DCC-in-the-Wilderlands campaign which I've been running for eight years (150+ sessions and 80+ casualties, half of which are from funnels).

For many years, I played and ran campaigns which were on railroad tracks. This approach enables foreshadowing, dramatic reveals, awesome set pieces and more and I had many a great time.

For about a decade though, I've been rocking to the thrill of danger and unpredictability -- with DCC providing the backbone. You know what I'm talking about: creative Mighty Deeds of Arms, brutal critical hits, and the glorious spell tables.

I knew I had to suppress a long-standing habit of fudging, pulling my punches, and steering adventures. The spell tables in particular proved invaluable: Extreme results mean that the Judge can occasionally kiss his adventure goodbye -- and that's a good thing! For instance, a bunch of 1st-level PCs blew through the first couple of levels of Dyson's Delve after summoning a pair of 8 HD cave bears via animal summoning. A quarter of a mini-campaign in one evening!

Joe also provides plenty of good advice (e.g. "Always roll your dice in public.") and having plenty of adventure modules on hand to stock one's sandbox also helps: If I have put my heart into designing an adventure myself, I have a harder time letting go and allowing the dice and the players' choices to circumvent encounters, kill off major NPCs, and so on.

I modelled my campaign after Ben Robbins' West Marches and also soaked up a ton of advice on the (defunct) Story-Games forum. A lot of that is making its way into Muster: a friendly primer for old school dungeoneering, a crowdfunding project which I'm recommending in this thread. Promoting it (purely as a backer) has brought me to this forum again after so many years.

Anyway, what are your stories of DCC's rules truly wreaking havoc with an adventure?

[Raven_Crowking]

I can never guess what is going to happen, even if I have run the same basic adventure dozens of times before.

[King of Elfland]

Actually, the unpredictability is what attracted our group to DCC from OSE. We love a streamlined B/X style game, but it can get a bit too predictable, especially with the spells. The deed dice and flavor tweaks to the demi-human classes are also big selling points. We're running our first funnel sometime in the next week or so. Can't wait to see how it plays....

I've already written one of my own scenarios for level 3 characters and it's deliberately open-ended with a fair degree of player agency expected so again, we'll see if the players even get to that level. But I bought several modules and they've been a blast to read. Definitely a different vibe from most standard basic level D&D fare. After awhile slogging through kobolds and goblins gets a bit stale....

[Johann]

The deed dice and flavor tweaks to the demi-human classes are also big selling points.
[...]
After awhile slogging through kobolds and goblins gets a bit stale....

Agreed on both counts. Dyson's Delve, for instance, is free and easy to run even with no prep, but also a bit pedestrian (certainly compared to, say, The Sea Queen Escapes). The DCC line sure brings back that elusive pulp feel! I'm slowingly working my way through some of Howard's lesser-known stories and the vibe is often very similar...

[King of Elfland]

Cool; yeah I'm also reading or re-reading some classic fantasy for inspiration. I read Clark Ashton Smith and Jack Vance last year. I'm re-reading all the Conan stories, including the pastiches, in the order of Conan's life, as well as Manly Wade Wellman & possibly the Elric stuff, which I read way back in high school in the 1980s.

Another interesting thing about DCC is how they keep that fun pulp feel, even with the demi-humans. It doesn't have to be Tolkien just because you've got elves, dwarves and halflings. And don't get me wrong. I love Tolkien and my homebrew campaign setting is demi-human heavy, but I like the demi-humans to have a bit of an edge too.