Roadworthy: Derrick Record|Goodman Games

Posted By billward on Jun 11, 2023 |

Welcome to Roadworthy! This is a chance to show off a Road Crew Judge and allow them to share their experience and wisdom. We provide these profiles to help provide insight into their personality and style, and maybe give up-and-coming Judges some advice on improving their game.

This week we chat with the prolific judge Derrick Record, about his DCC-origins and finding the synergy of your campaign!

What’s your name, where do you live (and game), and what should Goodman Games
fans know about you?

Derrick Record here! I live in Vancouver, Washington. The Vancouver by Portland, Oregon, not the one
in British Columbia although I do live right near the Columbia River (confused yet?). We have been
running Road Crew Games here in town at Dice Age Games, Mindtaker Miniatures as well as a few at
The Portland Game Store. We have built a strong enough local DCC community that we have started
having some more intimate sessions all local brew pubs such as Loowit Brewery and even playing
sessions at home, as close friends, the way it was always intended to be. Beyond that you can find me
on the Dungeon Crawlers Discord Server running and playing in as many DCC sessions as “real” life will
allow.

As of “right now,” how many Road Crew games have you run this year?

This year I have ran 24 Road Crew Games so far with many more on the schedule. In addition to running
at our FLGS’s and on Discord, I also ran 3 games at Gamestorm 23 in Portland, OR and 1 game for the
recent War of Cyclops Con. I am attending the upcoming Gamex in LA but got involved too late to host
any games… Next year!

How did you first discover DCC? / How did the quarantine/lockdown change your
gaming life?

I was forbidden to play D&D by my mom as a kid due to the whole 80’s “Satanic Panic” which my mom
obviously prescribed too whole heartedly. Gimmie a break Mom! As a result I played a lot of Battletech
as kid. I owned the Marvel Superheroes RPG as well as Star Frontiers. Those were allowed because they
weren’t “satanic” but I couldn’t find anyone to play with and the game system was way too complex for
my feeble fourth grade mind to comprehend. By the time I was old enough to stop letting MOM tell me
what to do (gimmie a break already) and acquire a full set of D&D 2e books, everyone had grown out of
RPG as we were now in high school doing the things that high schoolers do (I won’t go into detail here).
Fast forward about 25 years… I got inspired by Stranger Things to get back into RPG as an adult and
landed on X-Wing which I played weekly at the local game store for quite a few years. Along comes Free
RPG Day and the Goodman Games associated Quick Start Rules. Looks cool! I brought it home and it sat
on my coffee table just looking awesome for probably 3 years. Then like a lot of people, the pandemic
hit. I was stuck at home and bored to near death. LUCKILY this persuaded me to finally crack that DCC
Quick Start open and nobody had to do a “roll the body” check on me. I finished reading it and thought
to myself, this seems like something I can actually understand and play. Next thing I know I am hooked
and rolling up zero level characters for no reason and running Portal Under the Stars for myself at the
kitchen table. I quickly ran out and bought 3 sets of funky dice and 3 hard copies of the DCC core book.
I shoved 2 sets of those down the throats of 2 of my closest friends and now had everything I needed to
create my own little DCC party with just the 3 of us and a little help from Discord. Soon after that I saw
the first Cyclops Con advertised and nervously joined right up. I made new friends at the con that I still
play with to this day and actually got to talk with Joseph Goodman online! That last bit really impressed
me and is still one of the things I cherish about DCC so much. The community is awesome, and the
company is full of real people that you can actually interact with.

Coffee Tea or Soda?

Ice cold Northwest IPA (after 5:00 of course) but I gotta have my iced coffee in the morning followed by
a good hot cup and nothing beats iced tea with a slash of lemonade on a hot summer day.

What advice would you give to other Road Crew judges?

Find that synergy and plan ahead. Think about what’s coming next and try to anticipate what the
players want to do and think about where the party is headed. Keep in mind that our players want some
sense of free agency and be allowed to go where they wish and not always be dragged by the ear to go
where the adventure is taking them. Ask yourself, how do the events and PC’s relate to one another in
the world that is unfolding from session to session. Running one shot’s is great but it’s even more fun
when your players feel like the world and setting is growing and gaining definition around them as we all
partake in the exploration of looking over that infinite horizon line to see what strange and interesting
things may be there waiting there for us. I am currently running a homegrown DCC conversion of Into
the Borderlands which has turned into a long running campaign. We have completely explored the
stronghold of Quasqueton and having been diving deep into clearing the Caves of Chaos. I have been
dropping hints all along the way about the Wilderness Areas around the Keep in which there are a host
of encounters to get engaged with. Eventually the party decided it was high time to start exploring the
Wilderness and take a break from the brutal dungeon crawl that is the Caves of Chaos. What’s going on
with the Nixies down by the Goblinwater River they asked? This encounter has a small description in the book that was probably going to take 30 minutes to play out, but my party wanted a full session of fun. I had a hand drawn map ready from a previous MCC session that I was running which need some filler.

This looked like it could easily be adapted to the under water layer of the Nixies. And what’s this in
description about a head strong Nixie being held captive by a frog like race know as the Bullywugs? I
had prepped the Croaking Fane a few months back and been wanting to run it for quite some time. I
thought to myself, why not have the Nixie Queen be held captive by the Croaking Fane instead of the
Bullywugs? Afterall, they are both a frog like people so this really didn’t seem like much of a stretch.
Long story short (with what things a already had on hand) I took a 30 minute encounter and morphed it
into 12 hours of game play with no effort and about 30 minutes of prep time. Synergy! The story plot
deepened and players got to make some decisions that took the adventure in a completely new
direction. Although this turn of events was not included in the context of the adventure book, it felt
natural to the players and our little world just got a little bit bigger. It was really gratifying as a judge to
watch this unfold for the players whom I am sure had a great time. I know I did!

What’s your favorite Road Crew game experience so far?

Rather then tell you about my favorite Road Crew game experience, I would like to tell the story of how I
met my local DCC co-champion and got this whole Road Crew thing kicked off for myself in the first
place. DCC Day 2022, my FLGS wasn’t able to get the DDC Day package in which I was waiting at the
store for before opening time scratching at my neck like I have a bad habit. In a panic, I got on the
Goodman Games website and found that Mindtaker Miniatures was signed up. I’d never even heard of
this store before. I rush to the store to get all my DCC Day goodies and find a long haired freaky person
at the check out just in front of me cherishing an arm load of all the same coveted DCC Day publication
(along with a host of dice and other RPG related purchases no doubt to add to the hoarded home collection). I had to introduce myself! At this time we had no local or in-store gaming community and
everything was done on line. Enter into my life Spenser Ellsworth! We immediately exchanged phone
numbers and started spit balling ideas and getting excited about hosting weekly games in person at all
our LFGS’s. Within just a few weeks I was an official member of DCC Road Crew and we were running
our first session in-store before an audience of real people! Since then the weekly sessions and
subsequent brainstorming has not stopped and only gained momentum with more players and more
interest all of the time. It’s great to have a partner in crime to plan with and share the joy of building
this local DCC community! I couldn’t have found a better coconspirator and am blessed to have made
this new and dear friend. And guess what? It’s all because of DCC Day! How cool is that? As a result
we have a killer “DCC Day All Day” series of events planned to celebrate DCC Day 2023 which will mark
the anniversary of this monumental meeting. We are consistently backing each other up and bailing
each other out. In fact, just today Spencer had informed me that he has come down ill and will not be
able to run his scheduled Road Crew event and has asked I may run something in his absence. So… as I
rush to finish and write this, I need to saddle up and figure out what I am running today here in a few
hours. No rest for the wicked! Long live DCC!

PS, Never stop gaming! But also remember to take the time to care for yourself AND your loved ones. I
owe 100% of my creativity to my mom and it’s a 50/50 split between my mom and dad as to where I got
my weirdness. So without them I wouldn’t be here today getting recognized as a Roadworthy Road
Crew Judge. It’s always fun to poke at your parents when they aren’t watching but, in all seriousness, I
love you both mom and dad and thank you… for everything! And don’t worry mom, I am not satanic…