Great piece!! Love how it tackles that notion of "pre-corporate" fantasy when the magic felt all the more mysterious and enticing for being incomplete and makeshift.
Aug 2, 2023·edited Aug 2, 2023Liked by Clayton Notestine
I think DCC has so many problems, some of which extend past bad design. I can't get past that it says heathens on the very first page for example. Is killing heathens a standard part of the pulp genre? If so, I guess I'm out.
But I understand critique. I like the way you see the game and I'm glad you're letting us see along with you!
There's a lot I would change in DCC. The pulps and AD&D have a lot of baggage. Are they standard to the genre? Not exactly. A lot of the stories have "savages" and "heathens" and [REDACTED], but a lot of the time it's white, racist writers articulating mystery and adventure in white, racist ways.
My theory is that DCC is already doing so much with its visuals and game design, that it could excise those antiquated ideas and still evoke that emotional core of the genre.
But, yeah, it's not there yet. I'd love to take a red pen and cross out all the gender-bending spells and replace them with something wilder and less normative.
Great piece!! Love how it tackles that notion of "pre-corporate" fantasy when the magic felt all the more mysterious and enticing for being incomplete and makeshift.
Really enjoyed the "design delve"! Looking forward to future ones.
an excellent read, subscribed!
Love it when folks leave a comment. Thank you.
I will read anything you write, Clayton. Love your commitment to electric sentences.
I think DCC has so many problems, some of which extend past bad design. I can't get past that it says heathens on the very first page for example. Is killing heathens a standard part of the pulp genre? If so, I guess I'm out.
But I understand critique. I like the way you see the game and I'm glad you're letting us see along with you!
There's a lot I would change in DCC. The pulps and AD&D have a lot of baggage. Are they standard to the genre? Not exactly. A lot of the stories have "savages" and "heathens" and [REDACTED], but a lot of the time it's white, racist writers articulating mystery and adventure in white, racist ways.
My theory is that DCC is already doing so much with its visuals and game design, that it could excise those antiquated ideas and still evoke that emotional core of the genre.
But, yeah, it's not there yet. I'd love to take a red pen and cross out all the gender-bending spells and replace them with something wilder and less normative.