Review: Portal Under the Stars (Dungeon Crawl Classics)
The quintessential DCC funnel that is part of the core rulebook and the free Quick Start Rules. I played this a while back with strangers via the Dungeon Crawlers discord server, as I really wanted to try my hand at running DCC. The following are the thoughts that stuck with me since, so this will make for a little bit different of a review. The module is somewhat verbose, but still manageable at the table. You might want to take a textmarker to it to highlight some keywords. The read aloud text is a great help for new GMs, but I would have been happy with some keywords to reduce the verbiage. The map is gorgeous but sadly not intended for the players to see (secret doors etc). Using Owlbear Rodeo it was manageable to draw the fog in such a way that it could still be used with the players. It was fine, but not ideal. The first puzzle was a bit tedious but everything thereafter was a great mix of ingenuity and mayhem. Especially plucking the diamonds from the pool and realising it drains made for a great moment of gameplay. Perfect. The story about some sort of inter-dimensional wizard stuff didn't really do much for me or the players, so there is room for improvement on that front, but it did have a bit of that DCC gonzo feel. Having completed this, I am not sure in how far running a DCC funnel is actually running a DCC game, as most of the notable idiosyncrasies of the game are locked behind the classes. Nonetheless, it was a lot of fun and a very different flavour of fantasy TTRPG than my regular D&D diet. I want more! Easily completed in a single session by the way! 8/10