“You’re no hero,” asserts the first page of character creation in Dungeon Crawl Classics by Goodman Games, “you’re an adventurer.” DCC promises a return to the classic flavor of first edition Dungeons & Dragons — brutal challenges, frequent death, and hordes of treasure. Politics and world settings and the machinations of NPCs take a backseat to fast and deadly combat and dungeon exploration. You may not be a hero in Dungeon Crawl Classics, but if you can survive you will find enough monsters and adventure to play the system for a very long time.

If you survive. …