Ring Side Report- RPG review of Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror: Return of the Ripper

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Product– Dungeon Crawl Classics Horror: Return of the Ripper

System- DCC RPG

Producer– Strange Quark

Price– $9.99 here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/497675/dungeon-crawl-classics-horror-return-of-the-ripper?affiliate_id=658618 

TL; DR-Want “From Hell” in DCC that becomes Dreamquest of the Unknown Kadath? 99%

Basics– Only the legend will survive. Return of the Ripper is a gothic adventure set in Punjar.  Women are being killed,and the players are on the case trying to stop more murders and figure out why women are being killed at night.  Who or what is causing these murders and what is their goal?

Mechanics or Crunch–  This has classic gothic horror DCC mechanics all over it.  It’s a festering city where crime means random encounters, corrupt cops mean fights you need to avoid, and an investigation where your abilities will be put to the test.  It’s got city exploration, social encounters, all kinds of fights, and even hexcrawl!  VERY IMPORTANT!  This is a campaign.  Characters will progress and grow as they explore Spittle-Fields.  And there is a lot to explore.  The book presents all kinds of encounters for the characters to have.  It’s balanced or as balanced as the OSR and DCC can be.  This book has solid crunch for the players to sink their teeth into. 5/5

Theme or Fluff– This is a long engaging story where it starts with Jack the Ripper and moves into crazy places, different dimensions, and navigating the politics of the undercity.  It’s not a mess, and that’s the most important thing. There is a lot here, and the authors present it in a way where you can follow it and present it to your players.  Players can do all kinds of crazy things, and those options are presented.  Some of those are bad ideas, but bad ideas never stopped players before!  Honestly, this is a sprawling city and eventual dimension hoping adventure where the GM and players get a bunch of fluff and story to dig into and enjoy. 5/5

Execution–  This is a solid adventure with a few minor issues.  This book has amazing maps, arts, and tables to make the reader able to get what they need semi-easily.  I have heard criticism of DCC books being a bit word heavy.  It’s got the standard DCC RPG two column layout with art along some of the pages’ sides.  I kind of wish there was more art to some of the pages.  The good thing is this book has an absolute TON of materials for the GM.  The bad thing is there is so much it’s hard to break it up, and a bit more art on some pages would help.  The art that is there is awesome, and the maps are amazing.  But, breaking up the text in all the DCC books would help.  The second minor criticism is the order.  It’s about 30 pages into the book before we get to the plot.  That’s the amount of background, random tables, and encounters that are presented.  I would like story first and extras second, because after the story there are more appendices.  So, moving all the awesome extra stuff to more appendices might help a bit.  But, what is here is fantastic.  Solid art, maps, and diagrams to help the players know where they are, and the GM be able to follow the action and where different things happened.  It’s a murder mystery, so it’s paramount that the GM knows how things are happening.  This book doesn’t confuse the GM so that the players won’t get confused either.  Solid stuff in this book!  4.8/5

Summary– I loved the movie “From Hell.”  This is the DCC RPG adaptation of an older module with massive additions that expand it from a one-night adventure to a multiple-month campaign.  There is a lot here, and the players have places to explore, plots to foil, and a major evil to end. The crunch is fair and what I expect for DCC RPG. The story and fluff are fun, and the execution is good with a few things I would possibly change.  If my problems with the book are not enough book, then this is a good adventure if you want to stop the ripper in Spittle-Fields.  99 %

Ring Side Report- RPG review of Oath Hammer Quick Start

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Product– Oath Hammer Quick Start

System– Oath Hammer

Producer– Broken Blade Publishing

Price– free here  https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/511285/oath-hammer-quickstart?affiliate_id=658618

TL; DR-Want Shadowrun rules in The Hobbit? 87%

Basics– Time to take back our home! In Oathhammer, players take the roles of dwarves, elves, humans, and many other fantasy races as they attempt to take back the dwarf home island long ago seized by the orcs.  Let’s get into the basics.

Base mechanics- Oathhammer is d6 pool based system.  For any action, a player takes an attribute and a skill, adds them together, adds penalties, and then rolls that many six sided dice.  The novel part of this system is the dice colors.  Different dice colors are assigned based on skills and abilities, with the least skilled dice only succeeding on a 4 or better and the best dice succeeding on a 2 or better.  These are small dice pools where a single success is needed for really simple actions and five successes are needed for really difficult actions.

Combat– Combat is teams based.  When combat happens, one character on each side makes a leadership check.  Going from high to low, that side decides if they will go before or after any group.  Combat is much like other dice pool games.  A character rolls an attack and a defender rolls a defence pool.  If the attacker wins, the net difference is carried over as damage.  The attacker then rolls weapon damage dice with any successes being carried over into more damage.  Lastly, the defender will roll armor dice, with the weapon reducing the number of dice the defender rolls.  The defender’s successes reduce the damage, and any remaining damage reduces grit or the hit points of the character.  When a character is reduced to 0 grit, two six-sided dice are rolled and a chart determines if it’s just a flesh wound, or if the character dies.

Magic– Magic is cast till you can’t.  Magic is a basic roll as above, and contested effects are determined by spell.  When you roll a 1, you build up stress.  Too much stress, and you can’t cast any more.

Character building– Characters are built by choosing a race, class, and oath.  The race gives you some bonuses and penalties to your attributes.  The class gives you some basic abilities and skills as well as what dice you roll for each action.  Finally, your oaths give you roleplaying opportunities and if you follow them, you gain experience points. 

Character advancement–  When you complete adventures and follow your oaths, you gain experience.  Those points are spent to increase your attributes, skills, and even buy new skill features.

Ok, thats the basics, let’s get into my thoughts.

Mechanics or Crunch- This is an interesting system, if a bit fiddly.  I love d6 dice pool systems.  It’s satisfying to throw a bunch of dice at a problem.  That said, the different dice colors are a tad fiddly.  Nothing too crazy, but you need to keep the different dice separate, and that’s not as much fun.  But it works, and it’s still fun to do.  4.5/5

Theme or Fluff-  Honestly this world feels like The Hobbit, in all the right ways.  You have dwarves who are fighting to get their homeland back.  You start as just random dudes, and can end up wielding huge armies who conquer the orcs to reclaim your homeland.  It’s a solid world to explore. 5/5

Execution– The book works, but it’s got some major flaws.  It’s beautiful and easy to read.  The sections are well laid out and enjoyable.  The big things I hate are for a quickstart are it’s not realy a quick start.  There are no pregens nor is there an adventure.  It’s an advertisement for the system-which is good, but it’s not a thing I could give my friends and jump in in 20 minutes.  We have to build characters and an adventure.  I couldn’t even find pregens on the website. I’d prefer almost no rules if you give me a game in 20 minutes. 3.5/5

Summary-I like The Hobbit and Shadowrun, and this is the mix of them.  The base mechanics work here, if they are a little bit fiddly at times.  The setting is pretty and well defined.  The only thing I don’t like is the lack of a real quickstart.   What’s here will draw you in, so it does its job. But, you won’t be able to play this game without more products and more work.  Aside from this, I love what I see.  87%