Does DCC get a bad rap?

sethdrebitko · November 12, 2013, 12:01:25 PM

I personally never even got to the strange dice thing. I read the blurb for it looked at my collection and went, "meh another OSR thingy." I think so many little osr systems have come out that clinging to the old school vibe as your marketing thing sort of makes you fade into the background of the plethora of choices at this point.

Arduin · November 12, 2013, 12:03:40 PM

Quote from: sethdrebitko;707428I personally never even got to the strange dice thing. I read the blurb for it looked at my collection and went, "meh another OSR thingy." I think so many little osr systems have come out that clinging to the old school vibe as your marketing thing sort of makes you fade into the background of the plethora of choices at this point.

Same here. It was a kind of, "What's the point of purchasing it? What does it do that my other games don't that would make it worth the investment of time & money?" Mostly time.

And then I forgot about it until I saw this thread...

Haffrung · November 12, 2013, 12:49:24 PM

I almost bought the DCC core book. Had it in my hands. But I was already unimpressed with the amateurish layout and design. And once I discovered my FLGs doesn't carry the dice, it went back on the shelf.

Haffrung · November 12, 2013, 12:53:44 PM

Quote from: CRKrueger;707384Yeah in this world, the dice can be had online with two clicks and appear magically at your door in two days. Depending on manufacturer, some qualify for Amazon Prime shipping for Christ's sake. Not exactly hard to get unless you live in the 80's.

Or you live outside the USA. The soaring cost of international shipping has made online purchases of anything under about $70 uneconomical. I'm not spending $18 to ship $30 dice.

Simlasa · November 12, 2013, 01:29:15 PM

Quote from: Haffrung;707477I almost bought the DCC core book. Had it in my hands. But I was already unimpressed with the amateurish layout and design.

You might not like the style of art or the lack of full color plates and half-tone backdrops on every page... but it's hardly 'amateurish' if the look has been chosen purposefully and came out precisely as intended.
It's not hard to find your way around in the book... there's an index, an appendix of charts.
Not to mention multiple free resources available online.
And again, there are simple workarounds for the dice.

Bobloblah · November 12, 2013, 01:39:35 PM

The index was added after the first printing. I believe there was a lot of grief given over its initial absence.

As for, "Why bother? It's just more OSR..." this isn't really true. Beyond very broad generalities (fantasy, class list like B/X, levels, D20, etc.) the game has a significantly different feel in actual play.

Arduin · November 12, 2013, 02:15:49 PM

Quote from: Bobloblah;707526the game has a significantly different feel in actual play.

In what ways?

Haffrung · November 12, 2013, 02:46:05 PM

Quote from: Simlasa;707518You might not like the style of art or the lack of full color plates and half-tone backdrops on every page... but it's hardly 'amateurish' if the look has been chosen purposefully and came out precisely as intended.
It's not hard to find your way around in the book... there's an index, an appendix of charts.
Not to mention multiple free resources available online.
And again, there are simple workarounds for the dice.

It's not the artwork, it's the layout. When your book has pages with text spanning a single column and a 9 pt font, you're telling me you either don't understand readability or you don't care.

Margins, columns, spacing, fonts, white space, text boxes, headers. It's pretty easy to tell whether a book is laid out by a professional or by a hobbyist. I find enough quality RPG content published by professionals that I have no need to spend money on books that are hacked together.

baran_i_kanu · November 12, 2013, 03:05:08 PM

it has a few interesting bits but with weird dice and almost 500 pgs of stuff i can already do with original and retro-clones it does not appeal.

FickleGM · November 12, 2013, 03:13:21 PM

It never hit my radar and I know little about it. I will probably dislike it, however, if it hits any of the following:

Classes
Levels
Skills
Hit Points

There is more, but I would leave it at that for now.

Arduin · November 12, 2013, 03:15:43 PM

Quote from: Haffrung;707594It's not the artwork, it's the layout. When your book has pages with text spanning a single column and a 9 pt font, you're telling me you either don't understand readability or you don't care.
.

Now, single column is ideal for PDF/e-reader. Not for large printed rule books.

Mostlyjoe · November 12, 2013, 03:15:48 PM

I'd say the dice but FFG sold me on custom dice for Star wars. I think it's not doing enough as a line to stand out so looks more like yet another osr thing.

Haffrung · November 12, 2013, 03:33:03 PM

Quote from: Mostlyjoe;707613I'd say the dice but FFG sold me on custom dice for Star wars. I think it's not doing enough as a line to stand out so looks more like yet another osr thing.

WFRP 3E has custom dice, but A) they really are unique dice necessary for that system, and B) they come with the game.

jcfiala · November 12, 2013, 04:23:54 PM

Quote from: Arduin;707612Now, single column is ideal for PDF/e-reader. Not for large printed rule books.

Personally, I prefer two-column for my nook - I can blow up the text a little and still scan one column top to bottom before going to the top of the second column.

Arduin · November 12, 2013, 04:26:32 PM

Quote from: jcfiala;707644Personally, I prefer two-column for my nook - I can blow up the text a little and still scan one column top to bottom before going to the top of the second column.

Most RPG books have pages are too big/long for that. You can't see the whole page without scrolling. Unless the type is set around 3 point. So, no, you can't without scrolling.