I see the Dungeon Crawler Carl backerkit ended this morning with $13.3M USD raised. I just learned about it around noon today so I didn't back, but I did just watch the video connected to the campaign describing the mechanics and I have some thoughts.
First & foremost it's very straightforward. D20+skill of 1-20 vs target number, all dice player facing, degrees of success from fumble (roll of 1), fail, near miss, success, big & biggest success.
1/x
It's a very standard design, which is probably good if you're looking at a player base that either is all D&D5E, CRPG, or no RPGs at all. Minimize the onboarding. None of it screams DCC to me, but I understand the decision.
Skills seem to be player designed outside of a standard spread, which is an interesting touch given the incredibly granular skill list in the game. I'm guessing you'll have the choice for skills that increase chance and skills that increase output (kick vs. smush)
2/x
The Heath Bar design for HP is a legit good design; everyone has 10x their con mod in health, on a bar running from green to red, pucking up debuffs when you move into the red or run out of health (dying is a debuff). That nicely captures the series's terminology, and I haven't seen it in a TTRPG before (though it may well have).
Looks like the initative system comes from _Mothership_, which is a good design for dealing with horrors on player facing dice.
3/x
Level based advancement in the novels has rules that are completely opaque and incredibly complex, and they are replaced here with event based advancement, but with some rules for 'grinding' to allow advacement outside of boss battles and quests.
Skills are completely BRP designed, with each successful use giving a chance to increase at end of session. That matches the books, but the books also have plateau points that I wonder if they will emulate.
4/x
Interestingly it resolves the issue of experience per game session by mandating game session length: every 2 hours of play is a game session. Full stop. That standardizes experience curves and restoring once per session powers (if there are any). It's sort of the reverse of 13th Ages "I don't care how long it's been, what have you done?" recovery system - it's non-diagetic in a completely different way. I'm interested to see how it works, but it does kind of match the books....
5/x
Here are things I want to see that weren't covered in the video:
1) random treasure creation for the sort of loony stuff that comes up in the books. Ideally, I'd want Knave-like random tables that throw together random elements for things the players find.
2) Likewise the spells in the book lends itself to bunches of standard spells followed by random tables to come up with new ideas within set guidelines.
3) Guidelines for how to write DCC appropriate achievements that feel right.
6/x
4) really rules for structuring neighborhoods, foe levels, and the boss battle; each boss needs to have a Unique Method of Dispatch which is signposted for the players to possibly find. This last is stuff from Gumshoe... Esoterrorists, I think... but the novels have a LOT of CRPG construction which isn't the same as your average TTRPG. There needs to be strong advice on briding that gap.
Similarly, Quests and Elites need clear rules how to manage these.
7/x
I hope none of this comes across as negative: they are just observations from the video, and my hopes for what I think a DCC game needs.
And it needs some mechanics that make you go 'Heck Yeah, that facilitates a DCC moment' the way things like the vampire staking rules do in the Buffy RPG, or the way Force Dice work in WEG Star Wars.
I'll be interested to see the outcome.
Cypher system has a similar mechanic only those are called intrusions or some such
And they can literally be almost anything
Gas main explodes beneath your feet, knocking you and your opponent apart and both of you off your feet
One of you has a heart attack
A third-party intrude upon the combat
One of your opponents minions stabs them in the back, then throws down their weapon and goes to their knees in front of you with their hands behind their head
Or even simpler, you zig when you should’ve zagged in your opponent scores maximum damage on that round with no hit role needed
@BaronessWinter
Yeah, I wouldn't have gone with a d20 for the core roll; it's just too swingy and it doesn't quite feel like the book.
Especially since you can get skills up to +15 (the normal max in the books) and still fumble 5% of the time. At +15 you're approaching the 'breakdown point' on d20+ stat mod + skill where there's the PC who maximized x and everyone else complaint from 3.5. I don't know what steps they have to fix that, but I hope they have something.
Brian Rogers
Baroness Winter
Da_Gut