Tags
Advice, DCC, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Fantasy, Goodman Games, OSR, RPG
So it is 90% settled. Tonight’s game will be short one player (my girlfriend got the shaft from her employers and has to be up at 4am tomorrow morning, so no night gaming for her tonight), so instead of pulling out our usual 3.5 game, I’m finally going to run a Dungeon Crawl Classics “character funnel” game.
Most of you probably know the basics of the DCC RPG, but for those that don’t, a funnel game is where each player makes 4 characters using the classic 3d6 in order mechanics, but they are all level 0 characters like glove makers and farmers. The survivors of the adventure (usually 1-2 per player) get to level up and become level 1 characters)
After flipping through what modules I have, I settled on the Halls of the Minotaur adventure (by the awesome Harley Stroh) which was included in the DCC 35 boxed set. It’s designed for 4-6 level 0 3.5 characters, so I’ll run it with 12 level 0 DCC characters and maybe throw in a few extra kobolds along the way if things look too easy. I ran this adventure back when DCC 35 first was released, but none of this group was gaming with me back then, so it’ll be fresh for them.
I’ve printed out Kirin Robinson’s excellent DCC Funnel character sheets and a page of torch sheets too, just in case. I’ve got my rule book and my module at the ready.
So, DCC fans, anything in the game I should “watch out for” as something I’ll forget is different when running this instead of my usual B/X D&D games or 3.5 D&D games?
I don’t have the mighty zocchihedrons available, so I’ll be faking the d16 and d24 rolls with d12s and d8s. And spellcasting isn’t something I have to worry about for this game since level 0 characters don’t have that ability yet.
Dyson's Dodecahedron 
Be generous in allowing them to leverage their occupations to be skilled at things. My experience (YMMV) is that far from being abusive about this, the players are actually very reticent about claiming their occupation gives them anything.
Definitely do the one-initiative-roll-per-player thing.
The odd dice come up far more often after characters level, so that shouldn’t be much of a problem.
Use the XP system as written….when they hit 10 XP, they become 1st level! Email me and I can send you some sheets to help the levelling process go smoothly & quickly. ravencrowking at hotmail dot com.
What else? Change the monster descriptions so that the players do not necessarily know what they are. There are some charts on pp. 380-381 that will help you make those kobolds and skeletons seem like they might be something else. Use them! And then jot down a note or two about how you have changed them.
The DCC treasure economy is different. Generally, reduce all treasure to 10% of listed values, and make magic items unique. Where there is an over-abundance of magic, change the item to a valuable begemmed sword, etc. Remember that for these characters, a longbow is a better prize than the value of 10 longbows….at least, it is if they have any arrows!
Print off a few of these: http://purplesorcerer.com/0_charts.pdf
Most of all, have fun with it, and let it take you where it goes!
Thanks for the level 0 charts, hadn’t seen those before.
As for treasure, my feeling was that there was a lot more magic items in DCC than in D&D based on what I saw in Doom of the Savage Kings.
Consider it to be “no generic items”, then, if you prefer. That might, in fact, be fairer to say.
Perfect, thanks.
For the dice, u can use the Dice! App from google store, it has every zochi dice
yes get the crawler companion app for the dice and the crit tables. also dont forget to keep track of players luck. players get to spend luck and they need to pay with misfortunes. dont roll a die to see who triggers the ricketty bridge collapse, it was the character with the least luck points.
Indeed, the Crawler app is essential, mandatory, and well-designed.
I really dig the DCC idea of the character funnel adventure. It’s a fun way to intro a new campaign.