Initial Review of Dungeon Crawl Classic RPG & the Sailors of the Starless Sea

I recently had the chance to try out Goodman Game’s Dungeon Crawl Classic (DCC) RPG and their module “The Sailors of the Starless Sea” using a Zero-Level Funnel

What is DCC?

Per Wikipedia 

“In 2012 Goodman Games released the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game (DCC RPG). The company describes it as "an OGL system that cross-breeds Appendix N with a streamlined version of 3E", referring to Appendix N of the original Dungeon Masters Guide, which listed fiction that was an influence on Dungeons & Dragons.”

I would describe it less like cross-breeding and more like Appendix N grudge-fucked 3^rd Ed D&D into submission all while branding the lyrics to Holy Diver into its skin.

The game requires Zocchi dice set, meaning d3, d5, d7, d14, d16, d24 and d30 are required in addition to the standard set of 7 polyhedrals (d4, d6, d8, d10, tens ten, d12 and d20).

Goodman’s idea to make this game even funkier, use some really funky dice. The general idea is in some instances instead of adding a modifiers all of the time, you upgrade a die to the next higher one.

Neat idea, right?

Technical you can use standard dice to get the same results, but the freaking mental gymnastics to remember what does what would drive most people to buy the Zocchi Dice Set.

That folks is what we call in marketing a built-in sale.

We did not get too deep into a lot of the mechanics. The most interesting one was the ability for characters to “burn” ability points to add bonuses to their dice roll. I had never seen this before in any game, it was a novel concept. 

The book itself is one part rulebook and one part art book. There is more art in this one book than 10 other retro-clones combined. The Table of Contents page alone is a two page panorama piece. The art itself evokes that old school late 60’s & 70’s vibe. The art of Frank Frazetta and Boris Vallejo would not be out of place here.

What is a Zero-Level Funnel?

A "funnel" is a metaphor for the shape of the PC pool: large at the entrance, small at the exit.

Each player creates and plays four 0th-level PCs during the adventure. Due to the fragility of these starting characters and the relative deadliness of DCC RPG, many are expected to die. From the survivors you advance one to 1st level. The result is that your "starting" 1st-level character has a bit of a history, some stories to tell, and a connection to the other PCs that's forged.

Each of the characters starts off with an occupation that runs the gamut of traditional jobs you would see in a fantasy setting. These occupations provide the character with some kind of weapon and one trade good that is related to their occupation.

If you roll a farmer, you get a pitchfork and a live chicken.

What am I going to do with a goddamn chicken, eat it?  

Luckily the book makes a suggestion to use them to test rooms and hallways for traps.

One of the players rolled a gong farmer.

What the fuck is a gong farmer? How do you grow a gong?

I was quickly educated that it was someone who dug out and removed human excrement (night soil) from privies and cesspits. Their starting equipment was a bucket of night soil.

A bucket of poop……….

That chicken is looking pretty useful.

Basically the whole things plays out like Mad Max meets the Hungry Games set in the world of Beastmaster, characters dying left and right and the survivors picking their corpse clean for their gear.

The Sailors of the Starless Sea (spoiler free)

This is an adventure written and designed as a zero-level funnel.

Since time immemorial you and your people have toiled in the shadow of the cyclopean ruins. Of mysterious origins and the source of many a superstition, they have always been considered a secret best left unknown by the folk of your hamlet.

But now something stirs beneath the crumbling blocks. Beastmen howl in the night and your fellow villagers are snatched from their beds. With no heroes to defend you, who will rise to stand against the encircling darkness? The secrets of Chaos are yours to unearth, but at what cost to sanity or soul?

This thing drips with flavor, right?

After we rolled up our victims characters we trudged up to the adventure sight. What proceeded was something akin to a 80’s horror-slasher movie, you know the ones I am talking about.

“Hey guys let’s check out that spooky, creepy castle. We can smoke pot, drink beer and make out with some hotties. What could possible go wrong?”

*Cue Music, Chainsaws, Screams, and lots of Blood Splatter

As a veteran gamer, my experience worked against me. This adventure does not award cautious role play. This adventure rewards massive brass ball level risk taking; my natural veteran aversion to risky situations caused me to miss some key point that could have led to items that would have greatly aided in the final battle of the game.

I don’t know if the writer Harley Stroh did this intentional, but there are very few clues in this adventure. Literally in order to find some things, characters have to fucking die. I don’t know what Mr. Stroh’s design philosophy is or his thought process when writing his adventures. My initial take is at some point in Mr. Stroh’s life he was an Outlaw Biker or a Viking or a member of the Spanish Inquisition because he seems to enjoy butchering characters and torturing players.

Overall Impression

The production quality and art in this book are top-notch. The rules mechanics are familiar yet different enough to make this game stand-out from the glut of retro-clones out their.

The adventurer on the other hand, can either be a good adventure if tweaked a bit or a vehicle for DM's to hate-fuck his players.