I don’t know about you, but I actually used
to believe that most other RPGs besides D&D (and maybe Pathfinder) were too hard to
learn, or they were only good for oneshots! Or that you couldn’t REALLY make a unique and
customizable character in “those other games”! And I seriously used to think that
ALL old school RPGs were like, “you play a wizard with one spell and one
hit point and they get killed in the first dungeon and you LIKE IT” because that’s how some
people talk about these games! But all of those misconceptions were shattered when I ran my first
one shot of what is now my current favorite RPG… …Dungeon Crawl Classics! My players and I
laughed harder than I’ve seen in a session since my earliest days of D&D, back when we really
didn’t know what we were doing! But this time, we were playing by the rules of this
book! DCC has built-in the kind of fun I like to have at the table, and I want to
share this fun with you! Because I’m Bob, this is where we learn how to have
more fun playing RPGs together… And right here at the top of the video I’d
appreciate it if you leave a comment sharing something you’re curious to learn about DCC,
or just like the video! Because that support is how we’re gonna boost other RPGs, and
get more players curious about the wide world of tabletop games outside of just Dungeons &
Dragons--which as a game, I still love by the way! And since most of us are more
familiar with Dungeons & Dragons, why don’t we start exploring DCC with
its extremely convenient opening section: “How is this game different
from what I have played before?” If you want to follow along, I linked the free
PDF quickstart rules down in the description! But this introduction in my more recent printing
of the core rulebook, compares DCC to 5e! It says this game also uses a d20
vs a DC for most rolls, but instead of 5e advantage and disadvantage,
you roll a bigger or smaller die, like a d24 or a d14! We’ll talk more about
these weird dice in a minute, but don’t worry, you don’t necessarily need them, and this
game does still use flat modifiers as well! Along with the funky dice, a common theme
of DCC is to rely more on randomization over memorization, which I really appreciate as a
GM! In fact the default method of character creation is for each player to roll up
3-4 random characters! Then run them all through an adventure, and stick with the
most powerful and the most lucky survivors! Surprisingly, that trial by fire turns
those random characters into beloved, hard-fought characters that you’ll
enjoy playing as much as ones you had spent days and days planning out, but
CAN still customize these characters, and of course, you CAN create
characters however you want! One other difference for character creation that
I initially wasn’t so sure about, but have totally grown to appreciate is, quote: “Classes and races
are one in the same. You are a wizard or an elf.” So think about this, the human character classes
of DCC--wizard, warrior, cleric, and thief--ARE the CORE classes of D&D! Wizard, fighter, cleric, rogue! Every other D&D class is just a variation
or combination of these iconic fantasy archetypes! However, some of those modern variations are
just as awesome as these fantasy archetypes! And in DCC, each class takes the most powerful
and most thematic abilities of related classic and modern character concepts, and
condenses them into a single rich class that feels intuitive and easy to learn
because it taps into what you already know! Then together with your background and a
few freely customizable character features, you CAN still create incredibly unique
and memorable characters that you’ll love to play! We’ll break down all 7 classes’s core
features in another video, but know that the 3 non-human character classes of elves, halflings,
and dwarves--again, only the most iconic fantasy peoples going all the way back to Tolkien and
the folklore before him--are just as thematic! Elves in DCC are immune to magical sleep,
can sense if there’s a nearby secret door, and have a slight aversion to iron;
dwarves can smell gold and gems and naturally detect hidden structures in stonework;
and halflings are sneaky, small, and very LUCKY! This might be that last foundational
difference to the character mechanics of 5e: Luck is its own ability score! And every
character is created with a unique lucky sign, almost like a zodiac sign or like the blessings
in Skyrim that you can get from shrines! In this case, that lucky sign lets you apply your
luck modifier to a certain kind of roll! And you know what, I was wrong! The last huge
difference from 5e is the epic magic system of Dungeon Crawl Classics! Spellcasters
can have spell duels! And burn points from ability scores to boost their rolls!
Because exactly like martial classes make a check whenever they attack, spellcasters
make a check whenever they cast a spell! And each spell has a huge table
of possible effects with fun and sometimes dangerous things that happen
if the spell “misfires” as well as increasingly POWERFUL spell effects
for rolling high on your spell check! It’s very cool, and that’s really gotta
be its own video or two at some point, but along with spellcasting, the relationship
between clerics and their deities, and wizards and their patrons (like
5e warlock patrons) actually matters! Partially because your alignment can specialize
your character abilities, but mainly because these deities and patrons more often provide new
quests, and awesome roleplaying opportunities! So that’s the foundation of Dungeon Crawl
Classics, now I’m gonna try to build on a bunch of those cool things and just tell
you about the exciting ideas behind DCC’s unforgettable character creation process, so even
if this is the only DCC video you ever watch, you’ll be inspired to at least borrow a little
something from this game! I really think it has that much to offer, and I’m kinda shocked
it doesn’t get more attention on YouTube! Okay, you probably have a standard set
of 7 RPG dice: d4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 20, and percentile! Maybe you even have the
limited edition Bob World Builder metal dice--only 500 sets made and only like
200something left! Save 18% with the link below to support the channel--and you CAN
play DCC with just those 7 dice, but for the full Dungeon Crawl Classics experience,
you will want to get the weird dice too! Conveniently, there is rollfunkydice
dot com for free digital dice, or you can buy physical dice of what’s
called the “special 7” (basically, just the weird dice) to supplement your
awesome Bob World Builder set, or you can get a complete set of DCC dice with a d3, 4,
5, 6, 7, 8, 10, %, 12, 14, 16, 20, 24, and 30! The complete set is also called the dice chain, and I recommend looking into it because just
breaking out one of these weird dice in D&D for a homebrewed magic item or spell
or weapon feature feels really cool! Like I described earlier, rather than
advantage, some bonuses in the game will tell you to add +1d or even +2d, as
in, roll a higher die up the chain, or -1d or 2d to roll a lower die on the
chain! It’s a fun way to mix things up, and that’s about everything you need to
know about DCC dice! Let’s talk about stats… The character abilities of DCC should be
very familiar: Strength (you know that one), Agility (same as Dexterity),
Stamina (same as Constitution), Personality (same as Charisma AND Wisdom
too), Intelligence (you know that one), and Luck which you totally remember from
earlier! See you’re already learning! The Luck stat is one of my favorite
innovations from DCC! For one reason, you can call for a luck roll
whenever you’re not sure what else to use! “Is the bad guy standing
directly beneath the chandelier?” Maybe! Roll luck! Then the player typically has
to just roll under their own Luck score, such that luckier characters who have high luck scores,
will naturally perform better on those rolls! You can also sacrifice points from your luck
score to give yourself a one-time bonus to ANY roll. But outside of divine intervention,
only the naturally lucky halflings and thief characters can regain spent points of luck
by resting. Halflings can even spend luck to grant their fellow adventurers
a bonus, similar to 5e inspiration! Your luck modifier also changes the nature of
your character’s critical hits and critical fumbles!...which yeah, critical fumbles have a
mixed reputation, and you don’t have to use them, but I think DCC handles them well, and at the
very least, the critical hit and fumble tables are filled with ideas for exciting things that
can happen during combat in any fantasy RPG! (Crit Table IV - 3) “Strike sweeps foe to the
ground! Inflict +1d12 damage with this strike and make another attack on prone enemy!”
…and dozens and dozens more cool moves! One more cool thing about Luck is that
each character gets a random “lucky sign” which determines a specific kind of roll to
which your character adds their luck modifier! For example, the Harsh Winter lucky sign
lets your character add their luck mod to all their attack rolls! That’s
amazing! With the Speed of the Cobra sign your character adds luck to
all their initiative rolls! Nice! The funny part here is that your unlucky
characters with a negative luck modifier could become worse at this roll, or your lucky sign
might grant you a bonus to a roll that doesn’t matter for your class, like “add your luck mod to
all melee attacks” but you’re a wizard (harry). Personally I would homebrew that with enough
adventure or perhaps divine intervention, these unlucky characters could someday
change their stars and get a new lucky sign during the campaign--pretty much
like how those shrines work in Skyrim! Now by default--so you don’t have to do this, but it’s fun and normal for Dungeon Crawl
Classics--you roll completely random stats: 3d6 in order and you do it for multiple characters
per player because you typically start with 3-4 LEVEL ZERO characters--we’ll
talk more about that in a minute. Just like D&D, scores have modifiers, but
in DCC all the DCs and Armor Classes and really all the numbers including these modifiers
have been reigned in! So from a score of 3-18, you can only get a modifier of -3 to +3
without some special bonus. For example, when you roll a saving throw to dodge a trap, you might roll 1d20 + your Agility modifier +
a Reflex bonus based on your class and level! Yeah! Saving throws will be familiar to 3.5e and
Pathfinder players! There are only three kinds: Fortitude (based on Strength), Reflex
(based on Agility), and Willpower (based on Personality). I love the simplicity of
using only three types of saving throws, because let’s be honest, there’s no actual
concrete difference in 5e between most charisma saves and wisdom saves or
wisdom saves and intelligence saves. And again, in DCC as your character levels
up, they get bonuses to these saving throws from their class table in addition
to their ability score modifiers, and for most important class specific rolls
(like warriors and their weapon attacks, casters and their spells, thieves and
their sneaky skills), the character uses that ability score modifier, plus their
level or some other class-specific bonus, so don’t let those lower modifiers make you
think DCC characters are a bunch of weaklings! Well, like I hinted at earlier, they do start
out as literal level 0 peasants! No class, hit points equal to only 1d4+Stamina modifier,
usually wielding one trained weapon and some other piece of incredibly basic equipment
that is sometimes hilarious! One character in my first session had a staff and a crowbar
and a goose! And the goose…died honorably. Remember, if that’s too goofy, you
can make characters however you want, but my group and the vast majority of groups
who give it a try find this default method to be super entertaining! So you roll your random
stats for 3-4 characters, roll their hit points, roll for a couple copper pieces, roll one random
piece of equipment, then for their occupation. This occupation is not only their job as a
peasant, but it comes with that one trained weapon and one other piece of equipment related
to their job, and it technically determines their race too! For example, if you roll for
occupation and get Blacksmith, you’re a human who is a blacksmith, but if you roll and get Dwarven
blacksmith, you’re a dwarf who is a blacksmith! So this occupation is also like the characters
“background” in terms of 5e, but only part of that background. The rest of their background is
really this first adventure that they're going to face at level 0! And if they survive, they become
a level 1 adventurer! I love that because it means you get to play through and experience the most
pivotal moment in your character’s backstory! By the way, there is a level
0 adventure included in the quickstart rules and the core rule book,
but the most popular level 0 module is: Sailors on the Starless Sea--and
that’s the one my group really enjoyed! Anyway, there are 100 character occupations
listed in the core book, and GM-willing, you can totally pick whatever occupation
you like, especially if you want to be a dwarf or an elf for example. And you
could even make up your own occupation really easily since they’re just a name,
a weapon, and another piece of equipment! And if all that random generation feels
tedious to you, it’s actually a quite fast and entertaining process, but if you want
the process to be even faster you should use purple sorcerer dot com to instantly
create entire parties of level 0 characters, or higher level characters, or just automate a
bunch of the otherwise random elements of DCC! Also, this feels like a good point to ask for
your opinion in the comments, like, how are you feeling about this game based on what you know
so far? Does it feel fun? Does it feel funny, maybe too funny for your taste? A lot of
that might be my personal filter because this is still an old school RPG that can
be as gritty as you want! So let me know! Ah yes, the part of your level 0 character
that you are actually supposed to choose…your alignment: Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic. In other
words, you choose whether your character stands for unity, order, and civilization; or for
disrupting order, undermining authority, and seeking power over the people around
them! Or do they stand somewhere in between? For classes like cleric, wizard, elf, and
thief, your choice of alignment is almost like your 5e subclass because it comes with
certain abilities for your character. For the spellcasters it affects what deities or patrons
you can bond with, for clerics specifically it also affects what creatures you can heal most
effectively and which types of monsters are considered unholy for the purposes of “turning
unholy” which we’ll bring up in a bit. For thieves it affects which of their many
sneaky skills they are expertly trained in! So like I’ve been trying to emphasize,
DCC classes feel incredibly thematic and intuitive because each one is built on just two
or three iconic features that evolve with the character as they gain levels! And
most of them allow for a good deal of customization to make your character
as unique or specialized as you want! And if you like the sound of that, please like
this video so I know to make more videos about DCC! Share this with your game group to get
them interested! And consider subscribing, maybe getting the Bob World Builder
dice, or even joining my Patreon all as great ways to support the channel! Thanks
for your support, and keep building! :D
