Skull & Crossbones Classics - Issue 1

Skull & Crossbones classic is the new Age of Piracy DCC zine by Bob Brinkman. Like DCC Lankhmar, it’s intended to be used as it’s own setting separate from the typical fantasy of DCC. However, it’s fully compatible with the original game, so you can drop it into you gonzo campaign with no problems.

There is a brief, but informative section about character basics for the setting. Alignment, AC, cultural backgrounds, firearms (very briefly, basically saying they’ll be covered later, but nearly all characters can use the basic ones), gender, languages, sexuality, and skills are all discussed. These two pages really give you what you should expect with characters and what sets this version of DCC apart from others.

Standard DCC birth signs are replaced with traditional Western, Chinese, and Polynesian zodiacs (with others potentially coming in the future). As a Pisces I have bonuses to heal checks, but penalties to Will saves... seems legit to me.

How do you hook people with a new zine, give them a cool class! Bob gives us the living bad luck charm, the Jonah. Unlike most classes, a Jonah wants to keep their “talents.” Their negativity affects the luck of their allies and realign the stars and use their zodiac signs. However, they also always positively use their luck for their own armor bonus and their luck replenishes each night. It’s definitely an interesting trade off and I’d love to play one.

Speaking of luck, one of the setting rules is for luck. It’s similar to fleeting luck form DCC Lankhmar, but more superstitious and Devil-centric. It’s a fun mechanic and seems to favor the sinful and those down on their (normal) luck.

There are a few mechanic free pages that discuss sailing superstitions. This is a nice bit fo flavor and could easily be given mechanics if you’d like.

There is an ill-fortune table for when characters run out of luck (whether that means a score of 3 or even 0). The results are random and flavorful. I really like this rule.

The Sea Beggar’s Bestiary presents us with stats for barracudas, sea devils, sea serpents, and tiger sharks.

Finally, to get inspiration, we’re given Appendix S. It’s a good section but I would have called it appendix N(autical), personally.

If you like pirates and DCC, this is a must have. I like the idea of taking the rules out of the typical DCC setting (if that’s a thing). You can order your copy here.