# Why Is Xcrawl In This Collection? ![[XCRAWL (cover).jpg]]![[XCRAWL SE (cover).jpg]] tags: #thoughts #game/rpg/xcrawl I know what you're thinking: > "Lex, why do you have a copy of the new **[[Xcrawl|X-crawl]]** in the special edition cover nonetheless being given a pride of place position in your collection? > > You don't particularly like **[[Dungeons and Dragons|D&D]]**, you're not really into *fantasy* RPGs. > > This thing is neither about exploration nor construction. What the hell, man?" The answer to that question is more complicated than you might think, which is why this isn't just a straightforward post on social media but actually an entry in my digital garden. See, the thing is, I was exposed to **X-Crawl** a long time ago, back when it first came out. ![[Xcrawl Through the Ages.jpg]] At the time, and to a certain degree even today, one of the easiest ways to get me hooked into a concept is to make it as meta as possible, have it be positively recursive. Pop culture references are great, but have it reference pop culture references which then in turn reference whatever it's actually about, and I will be on top of that like white on rice. Anyone offering me meta humor gets a round of applause. **X-Crawl** is entirely about meta humor. Sure, it's also about social commentary on media consumption, reality TV, social media influencers, and modern politics. It has a ridiculous sense of fun in that it creates a context which makes it impossible to take itself seriously. And also, it's not really medieval fantasy; it's modernist fantasy with magical items replacing much of the infrastructure we think of as creating the experience of the day. That's a lot of weak points it exploits, and I am here for the setting. I am not here so much for the mechanics, which are very consciously and aggressively **D&D** retro, OSR ride-or-die kind of mechanics. They are very much the kind of game design that I really want nothing to do with, truth be told. I don't want it. I don't need it. Thanks, but I can do without it. But I can't do without the sense of fun, the setting description, some of the other bits that have gone into quite possibly the only old-school **D&D** derivative that is going to make it into a pride-of-place position on my shelf. Would I ever *play* **X-Crawl**? I suppose if somebody else wanted to run it and I had the free time, I could put together a character that I thought would have a great experience. I would lean utterly into the ridiculousness of the world and go completely gonzo. In a world where you can have parachuting velociraptors dropping in on the dungeon, there's nothing I can offer that can be more ridiculous than the thing itself, which is a very freeing feeling. Would I ever *run* **X-Crawl**? Absolutely not, at least not with those mechanics. It could be good fun to scrape the serial numbers off and import it into something else though. The problem is that it really demands something mechanically crunchy so that the players can exhibit system mastery in a way that mimics the way the characters are representing their ever-increasing ability to manipulate both their social systems and understand the way that dungeons are DJed for them. It might be fun to experiment with porting it to **Starforged**, but use the **Ironsworn: Delve** rules for the actual dungeons being generated on the fly. That could be kind of interesting. Either that, or lean really heavily into the over-the-top nature of what goes on in the dungeon and go straight into using **[[Wushu]]**. What would an **X-Crawl** character even look like in **Wushu**? > **Name:** Jeremy Lasanguin > > **Traits:** > > - *Occupation:* Body Mod Artist - 3 > - *Class:* Blaster - 4 > - Luck Out the Ass - 5 > - *Weakness:* Sworn Enemy of the Undead - 1 > > **Description:** > > Born in the North American Empire, Jeremy fully expected to grow up and go into the tattoo business like his dad. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you feel about what ensued, his father was murdered by some escaped zombies. > > While the DJ responsible was punished by the guild, and it's better not to talk about what the necromancers did to their fellow who screwed up, Jeremy was scarred forever. > > He swore revenge on undead wherever they may be found — and the easiest place to find them is in The Games. A certain level of insane obsession goes a long way when you start picking up spellweaving from scratch. > > Jeremy's come a long way, but can he survive his first level zero dungeon? Yeah, that'll work.