Character Creation Challenge 2026 Day 29: Dungeon Crawl Classics Part 2

You’re no hero.
You’re an adventurer:
a reaver,
a cutpurse,
a heathen-slayer,
a tight-lipped warlock guarding long-dead secrets.

You seek gold and glory,
winning it with sword and spell,
caked in the blood and filth of the weak, the dark, the demons, and the vanquished.
There are treasures to be won deep underneath,
and you shall have them...

Grobland survived!  Mechanical statues, giant snakes, animated clay statues, he survived them all.  And even came out of it with with several weapons and a bit of gold.  Unfortunately, only a few of his 20 companions lived.  The village lost a large percentage of its population.  Through the terror and the pain, Grogland discovered he enjoyed smacking things with his shovel.  Crushing heads, breaking limbs.  He liked it.  When he returned to the village, digging graves just wasn't the same.  He wanted to fill them. 

 

So he sought out an old warrior to train him.  His companions sought mentors, too.  Soon they would be ready for another adventure.  But much better prepared this time.  Grobland heard that the village of Hirot and its jarl are having trouble with a savage beast.  They plan to travel north to look into it.

 

 

 

 

Character Creation Challenge 2026 Day 28: Dungeon Crawl Classics Part 1

Dungeon Crawl Classics is the oddball cousin to D&D and OSR games.  You know the one.  Part of the family but kind of askew and random.  But boy can it be fun.

 

DCC was the first place I encountered the character funnel.  Instead of creating a fully formed 1st level character and sending him off to his death, you instead create four of five average schlub 0 level characters and send them off to their (sometimes hilarious) deaths in what is called a character funnel.  Many go any, few come out.  If one of your characters survives, you fully flesh him out and he becomes your 1st level character. 

 

To create a 0 level character, you roll your six attributes down the line using 3d6s.  The Attributes don't match the classic six one to one.  Instead you have:  Strength, Agility, Stamina, Personality, Intelligence and Luck.  (I rolled well for this character!)  You then roll for Hit Points.

 

You then determine your Lucky Sign.  This only impacts your character if your Luck is high enough or low enough to have a modifier.  One of the Luck Signs is The Bull, which affects your melee attack rolls. 

 

You then determine your everyday, normal occupation.  This will also determine your race:  Human, Dwarf, Elf or Halfling.  It also determines your starting weapon.  Usually something like a shovel or a pitchfork..

 

Choose an Alignment.  Law, Neutral or Chaos.  Most people tend to be Neutral.

 

Roll to see how many coppers you have.

 

Get a bit of equipment with your paltry number of coppers.

 

Go off to die. 

  

 

 

Quickstarts I Like: Dungeon Crawl Classics

I think of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Quick Start Rules as the modern day gaming equivalent of the Basic D&D boxed sets of old.  Well almost.

You see, the core rules for Dungeon Crawl Classics are massive.  Over 500 pages!  That can be intimidating!!!  The Quick Start is 52 pages, including the covers.

So, what do you get in these 52 pages?  Well, as I mentioned, it reminds me a bit of on of the Basic boxed sets.  You get the 52 page booklet which covers character generation for your 0 level mooks who will die by the dozens.  (There is also an excellent online generator at Purple Sorcerer Games if you don't want to do it manually.)  It also covers the first two levels of character advancement including how experience points work. A list of appropriate level spell.  A list of weapons, armor and equipment. And two adventures.  A 0-1 level funnel and a 1st level adventure.  (So everything you need to get you up and running and playing for a while without having to invest in the full ruleset.  

So what are the downsides?  Obviously, you do get all of the rules or details you would get with the full ruleset.  One example is supernatural patrons.  Wizards get their magic from supernatural patrons such as demons or elementals.  This isn't covered in the Quick Start.

Another thing to be aware of is that there are a couple of different versions of the Quick Start.  There is a free version on the Goodman Games website.  This version has one adventure though, the funnel, and is 44 pages.  Before I discovered it I had purchased my copy at DriveThru and it is the version that has 52 pages and two adventures.

Whichever version you get I really think it's worth a look if you have even a passing interest in DCC.  Particularly since there is a free version.  I had kind of dismissed DCC until I read the Quick Start.  Reading it prompted me to buy the full rulebook.

Edit:

It turns out Goodman Games has several variations of the Quick Start on sale.  Each has two adventures but the second adventure varies.