Dungeon Crawl Classics: My First Impression

I had a chance to play Dungeon Crawl Classics two Sundays ago with a local gaming group I found while online. This was the second time I've done this and like the first (although a different system), it was an absolute blast.

Although the DCC rules are modern compared to what I'm used to, they didn't play modern. Instead, it was like slipping on an old, comfortable sneaker.

We started out with 0 level characters, which is way more fun than you'd imagine. With 4 or less hit points (if a character had 4 hitpoints we labeled them "tanks") being creative about combat is key. And we were. 

Although I think we had an unnatural obsession with lighting things on fire.

My game record keeping is mostly bad sketching (as I am not an artist) but I have discovered that looking back at the sketches helps me remember a lot more than my chicken-scratch scribbles do. I've shared two below that I think capture some events from the game well enough to jog my memory sharply:

Ragar, my Dwarf mushroom-farmer (or does he farm dwarf mushrooms?) died in a well - note the tattered end of the cut rope on the lower left. He was the second of my characters to die and it was my idea to go down the well, so it served me right. The other characters, my own included, were right to take him out:

In the survival of the fittest, those who purposely court danger are bound to die

Here's a scene from further along in the adventure:

I started drawing before the GM finished his description and then I realized we had no sail. Hence the  crossed-out mast.

My wizard's apprentice (a chaotic and cunning character I named "Alister C.") made it as far as the big battle scene, and was the last character of our party to die. Not a bad showing for three hit points. Of course, it didn't hurt that he had looted some of his dead comrades along the way for better weapons.

Speaking of the dead, of the 12 characters who went in, 1 survived and could go on to become a 1st level something or other. Now that is awesome!

Even with the player character carnage, it was a great deal of fun for all involved - new and old schooler alike.

So, would I buy DCC? 

I don't know. I love the black with gold foil 70s metal skull edition but I doubt I'd have any luck getting to play this regularly - I don't sense that many people have the rule book, let alone the desire to play.

I spoke with the GM quite a bit afterwards and he seems of a similar bent as me when it comes to gaming but he has other commitments that prevent him from running any kind of campaign. 

This has me thinking about running a Labyrinth Lord or Lamentations of the Flame Princess game at some point in the future: first as one shots ,and then if enough interest, as a campaign, since both rule sets are freely available for download.