I'm starting to come around on the upcoming DCC. There's a lot of 3E in it but not enough to hurt the game. I think it cuts out enough to keep it Old School. But here's my dilemma, I've never been married to the idea that race and class should be one and the same. I actually prefer the option of having both. I realize this is easy enough to do with house rules, but why do it again?
Labyrinth Lord took care of this with it's Advanced Edition Companion which is the best meshing of D&D and AD&D in my opinion. I wonder if DCC will eventually release an Advaced version with this option? Who knows?
Here's my poll question:
Do you think race as class is necessarily "Old School" and is it a deal breaker if it is or isn't part of the game?
I know it's not very "old school", but I don't think - except maybe the first couple of times I played back in the late 70s - that I've ever used the "race as class" (possibly because I jumped straight to AD&D after a few months with the Holmes edition).
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely not necessary (since it's not in the original rules,) but it's not a deal breaker if it's part of the game. I do feel that certain class abilities should be forbidden to non-human races -- it gives them a more distinctive feel. So, I'm against magical or clerical dwarves or halflings, which other people might interpret as "race as class" in a campaign with a limited variety of classes.
ReplyDeleteI dont think you need to include race as class to a game to have it considered old school.
ReplyDeleteI hate race as class! Even when I began playing D&D in 1980 I hated it. It never felt right, and I could not come to terms with the concept. I hated it then, and hate it even more now. I was disappointed when I realized DCC RPG was going that route.
ReplyDeleteSign me up for another who dislikes race as class! It's pretty close to being a deal breaker for me.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE race as class. There's something about the archetype of the non human races that I really dig. When I DM D&D, It's race as class all the way, although I prefer to allow halflings to have thief abilities. That said, I kind of wish the DCC game did not have it, especially the halfling two weapon fighting abilities. I like the rules concept, but can't understand why it's given to halflings.
ReplyDeleteRangers are my favorite class, so I get turned off when they're not included. Although I'll probably still be getting DCC for the art alone.
ReplyDelete