This is the set-up for the Xcrawl Classics Roleplaying Game, a roleplaying game which combines the fantasy and play styles of Dungeons & Dragons and World Wrestling Entertainment, turns it into a blood sport, televises it, and throws in celebrity culture in an alternate dystopia of the noughties shot through with a knowing black humour which realises just how ridiculous it all is. Published by Goodman Games, this though is not the first iteration for the Xcrawl setting. It originally appeared as Xcrawl: Adventures in the Xtreme Dungeon League in 2002 for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition, before being reimplemented as Maximum Xcrawl for Pathfinder, First Edition in 2014, and it is not even the first for Xcrawl for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. That would be with the Dungeon Crawl Classics 2017 Holiday Module: Xcrawl New Year’s Evil. This is history is not only acknowledged at the beginning of the book, but the differences between the versions highlighted so that prior fans can pick up on the new rules changes. The Xcrawl Classics Roleplaying Game combines the setting with the mechanics and rules of Dungeon Crawl Classics to make it an official Dungeon Crawl Classics setting, the most modern setting—even an alternate modern setting—for Dungeon Crawl Classics, and arguably the most gonzo of Dungeon Crawl Classics settings.
As a Dungeon Crawl Classics variant, the Xcrawl Classics Roleplaying Game is a Class and Level roleplaying game, the Player Characters—or Xcrawlers—as they are known, climbing their way up the increasingly deadlier and more dangerous Divisions of Xcrawl as they also rise in Level. The main focus of play is in the arena, effectively a sport, and thus it comes with hard rules about what an Xcrawler can and cannot do in the arena, all laid down by the Xcrawl League. Yet an Xcrawler will have a life away from the arena. Much of it will have to do with dealing with his agent and his sponsors, doing publicity, and the kinds of activities that fame and celebrity from success in the arena can bring. Yet there are also real dungeons, not just in the feudal nation of the North American Empire, but also around the world, many of them in Zura’ah’zurah, the ‘land beneath the land’, home to a number of squabbling Alfar city states, one of which is under Montreal. (Most of the monsters and creatures used in the arena come from Zura’ah’zurah, purchased via brokers.) Of course, since there is no such thing as a professional dungeoneer, who better to explore them than a professional Xcrawler? This was effectively the story in ‘Tucson Death Storm!’, published as part of the DCC Day 2024 Adventure Pack.
As a Dungeon Crawl Classics variant, the Xcrawl Classics Roleplaying Game provides everything necessary to play. Thus, it includes all of the new Classes, core rules—old and new, including magic, a detailed setting that covers the Xcrawl Games and how they are run as well as the wider Xworld, a guide to the Olympic Pantheon and Gods and Non-Gods of America, how fame and fortune works in the Xworld, a bestiary, advice for the Judge, and not one, but two adventures, ready to play. One of these is a Character Funnel, a scenario specifically designed for Zero Level Player Characters in which initially, a player is expected to roll up three or four Level Zero characters and have them play through a generally nasty, deadly adventure, which surviving will prove a challenge. Those that do survive receive enough Experience Points to advance to First Level and gain all of the advantages of their Class. The Character Funnel is a signature feature of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game and now the Xcrawl Classics Roleplaying Game, and whilst they are challenging to play, they are also both fun and wrought with emotion as players often become highly attached to the poor four unfortunates. The other adventure is for First Level Xcrawlers, ready to play after they survived the Character Funnel.
An Xcrawler is defined by his attributes, Race, Saves, Birth Augur, Occupation, and Alignment. There are six attributes—Strength, Agility, Stamina, Personality, Intelligence, and Luck—which range in value between three and eighteen. The Races are Human, Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Half-Elf, Half-Orc, and Halfling. Whereas Humans have access to a wide range of Classes, the Races have access to their Classes, as the Xcrawl Classics Roleplaying Game does ‘Race as Class’. The Saves are Fortitude, Reflex, and Willpower, and the Birth Augur indicates when an Xcrawler and if his Luck is high enough, if he gains any benefit from it. There are numerous Occupations, representing what the Xcrawler did before training for the arena. During play, a player can draw upon them for types of skills he might have learned whilst working as his Xcrawler’s Occupation. There are three Alignments in the Xcrawl Classics Roleplaying Game, Lawful, Neutral, and Chaos, none of which are necessarily good or evil. Lastly, an Xcrawler will be trained with a single weapon like a sling or a spear.
Xcrawler creation involves rolling dice for the attributes and rolling for an Occupation. Beyond that, a player can choose his Xcrawler’s Alignment, weapon, and so on. All of this is to create a Zero Level Xcrawler. The book also advises choosing the actor who would play the Xcrawler if it were a film, essentially as a quick shorthand to describe who the Xcrawler is and what he is like.
Name: Milton Waddams
Race: Human
Occupation: Office Assistant
Birth Augur: Late March, Toasted by Bacchus (Stamina-based Skill Checks)
Alignment: Lawful
Level: 0
Armour Class: 9
Hit Points: 4
Strength 11 (+0) Agility 08 (-1) Stamina 11 (+0)
Personality 13 (+1) Intelligence 16 (+2) Luck 07 (-1)
SAVES
Fortitude +0 Reflex -1 Willpower +1
LANGUAGES
English, Latin
EQUIPMENT
Spear, Adventurer’s pack A, stapler (red)
In terms of Classes, the Xcrawl Classics Roleplaying Game provides eight to choose from. They include the Athlete, who is in peak physical condition and specialises in grappling and wrestling with monsters and creatures of all sizes. The Blaster is a natural spellcaster, trained in battlefield magic, but with limited access to spells—only up to Third Level—and who cannot scribe scrolls, create magic items, or have familiars. The Brawler is a warrior who specialises in unarmed combat, able to use it alongside the use of weapons as well as fight unarmed. The Jammer is a performer, whether that is singer, musician, rapper, or comedian, who can lionise his fellow team members to grant them bonuses or disrespect an enemy to demoralise them and then hit them with a devastating attack. The Messenger is descended from and serves one of the gods in the arena, able to scourge his god’s unholy enemies, commit Holy Acts such as bringing an ally back from the dead, cleansing an area of the unclean, and unleash his god’s holy weapon, but can gain his god’s disapproval and so lose the gifts grant by his god.
The Specialist is the equivalent of Thief and in fact, the first Specialists in Xcrawl were actual criminals or trained by criminals. However, Xcrawler Specialists have taken that training and developed into a number of specialities. These include the Acrobat, the Commando, the Criminal, the Scout, and the Crypt Raider. Yet, this is not all. The various Races of the North American Empire and beyond have also developed their own versions of the Specialist. These include the Dwarf Mechanic, which focuses on traps and locks; the Elf Trickster who can cast limited magic; the Half-Orc Slayer is a backstabber extraordinaire; and the Halfling Rogue is good with ranged weapons, including backstabbing at a distance. What this means is that it opens up the options for non-Human Xcrawlers, if only a little.
As to the ‘Race as Class’ Classes of the Xcrawl Classics Roleplaying Game, the Dwarf is a warrior who specialises in a single weapon and shield use, but is looked down upon by his fellow Dwarves. The Gnome has limited magic, can taunt an opponent to attack him, a few Specialist skills, and tends to serve as the team mascot, gaining extra points of Mojo. The Half-Elf can cast arcane spells and has some of the skills of the Specialist. The Half-Orc comes from Zura’ah’zurah—either Orc City 1 or Orc City 2—and has an athletic visa to participate in Xcrawl, and may even earn North American Empire citizenship. They are warriors who can fight like a Brawler, but also make an extra wild attack. This leaves the Half-Orc open to a free attack, but the wild attack has a greater chance of inflicting a critical attack. There is no Halfling specific Class, which instead becomes a Halfling Rogue as per the Specialist.
Mechanically, the Xcrawl Classics Roleplaying Game is a d20 System roleplaying game, the player rolling a twenty-sided and adding any bonuses, including dice bonuses for specific actions according to an Xcrawler’s Class, and aiming to roll equal to or higher than an opponent’s Armour Class or a Difficulty Class, which typically ranges between five and twenty. In general, then, the Xcrawl Classics Roleplaying Game plays very much like the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, at least mechanically. There are differences though. This starts with Grandstanding, a Personality check used to impress the crowd to gain one or two Fame points. What Grandstanding also makes clear is the fact that Xcrawl is about performance as much as it is surviving a Dungeon Judge’s dungeon. Fame is a measure of an Xcrawler’s celebrity and status, and chance of being recognised. It can go up and down, and with ‘Fameburn’, an Xcrawler can spend Fame to make sure a story in the media has a positive spin or the police to look the other way for a minor infraction. As an Xcrawler’s career develops he can create a signature move and bring that into play to gain bonuses.
The biggest change is Mojo. Mojo is like Luck as grants bonuses to rolls, but although it can be earned for rolling a natural twenty, successfully completing an encounter, or from an Xcrawler’s Class Mojo feature, an Xcrawler cannot spend it on himself. Rather, it must be given to another Xcrawler, about to attempt a task and apart from the Jammer, who can give it after a roll, for everyone else, it must be done beforehand. If a one is rolled on any roll, everyone loses their Mojo! Mojo is designed to encourage team play and co-operation, as it also cannot be asked for, and even further, the Judge can even encourage wild stunts by offering Mojo to do it!
One of the features of Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game—and also of Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic with its mutations list—is a lengthy list of detailed spells. The same is of the Xcrawl Classics Roleplaying Game, which has over a quarter of its page count devoted to spells, primarily for the Blaster, but also the Gnome. There are some fun spells here, like Pixelization Evocation, which pixelates the caster or an ally to obscure them, Quicksand to immobilise an opponent, Villalobos’ Attack Outta Nowhere which strikes a target from any direction, 7 Agents of Fate which summons a character out of a blockbuster film to aid the Xcrawlers and was originally created to promote a blockbuster film, and The Arcane Collection, By Terry Paris©, which creates the perfect Terry Paris fashion for the caster who cannot take any other sponsor except Terry Paris!
In terms of setting, the Xcrawl Classics Roleplaying Game provides a good overview of Xcrawl and the Xworld outside it. This also includes the various gods whom a Messenger can worship and be descended from, all drawn from the Roman pantheon. Similarly, the Patrons for the Blasters are drawn from the Roman (and consequently, Greek) pantheon. They include Medea, whose followers become instruments of her vengeance against those in the world who have wronged her. The standout Xcrawl specific Patron is Barzodi, the immortal un-dead spirit of necromancer Antonio Barzodi, who served revolutionary General George Washington, who would later declare himself George Augustus I, first Emperor of the North American Empire. Later assassinated by the Emperor’s allies, his rage enabled him to come back as a Patron to American Necromancers everywhere. (Necromancers have to join the Necromancer’s Guild, show their Guild Card if they create any undead creatures, and complete the mandatory three-hour safety course in the proper creation, use, and destruction of undead creatures before they are allowed to cast any of Barzodi’s patron spells.) There is a new bestiary of creatures to populate the arena and advice on how to use them given that the Xcrawl League actually has professional monsters (one of which actually become a Dungeon Judge!), and lastly good advice for the Judge on running the game.
Penultimately, the Judge is supported with two adventures. ‘Xcrawl’s Got Talent!’ is a nicely done Character Funnel, entertainingly designed as a talent show, but Xcrawl-style. The set-up is really well done, all hustle and the staff getting the job done. It is followed by ‘Showdown In Grind City’, designed for First Level Xcrawlers, which serves as a decent continuation of the Xcrawlers’ career after the previous funnel. The Xcrawl Classics Roleplaying Game comes to a close with more advice for the Judge, an idea of how an Xcrawl event comes about, some suggested curses and poisons, some ideas for adventures outside of the arena, and a guide to writing Xcrawl events. Finally, there is a short bibliography.
Physically, the Xcrawl Classics Roleplaying Game is well done. It is an entertaining read and it really brings the world of Xcrawl to life. It is liberally illustrated to great effect.
The Xcrawl Classics Roleplaying Game is a reinvention of a reinvention. It is a reinvention of a roleplaying game that reinvented how the first roleplaying game was played. Not only reinvented it, but radically updated it for the modern day, even if an alternative modern day. The Xcrawl Classics Roleplaying Game is Dungeons & Dragons, but instead of delving deep underground, its heroes now delve in front of mass audiences and for fame and fortune. Theirs is no longer a slog down dark and dank tunnels, to confront intermittent threats whilst hidden from the world, but to face those intermittent threats without the slog in overengineered encounters and under the blazing bright lights of the cameras. And playing this is great fun, because each player is not just roleplaying a character who is dungeon delving, but also roleplaying a character who is giving a performance as well. And a character whose motivation is simple, but easy to understand—fame and fortune! Plus, the Judge gets his own character—at least for each Xcrawl event in the form of the Dungeon Judge, as well as the Xcrawlers’ agents, and in search of that fame and fortune, the characters can have interesting lives outside of the arena too. And whilst the Xcrawl Classics Roleplaying Game is not new, it feels right at home as a Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game.
The Xcrawl Classics Roleplaying Game is the biggest, boldest, and most modern version of Dungeons & Dragons-style play, you could ever imagine, all played out like the biggest sport you could ever think of. It is bright, glitzy, and fun, so make your prayers at the Temple of Apollo, give thanks to Emperor Ronald I, thank the Xcrawl League, and hope your agent has got you the best deal he could, because the Xcrawl Classics Roleplaying Game lets you perform no other Dungeons & Dragons-style has ever done.
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