Valeria, Dungeon Crawl Classics Style

In DCC, character generation is done as a ‘funnel:

• A swath of 0 level characters are created.
• They are tossed into a meatgrinder adventure
• Those (few) that survive become level 1.

DCC also utilizes ‘race as class’, so if you are 0 level elf, and you advance to level 1,

your class is ‘Elf’.

We will create Valeria as a hapless 0-level, and then advance her to level 1 before

throwing her against two orcs as we did with the other systems.

0-Level Creation

• Attributes are rolled in order Strength, Agility, Stamina, Personality, Intelligence and Luck
• You use a 3d6 for each.

Valeria gets a Strength 10, Agility 12, Stamina 9, Personality 6(-1), Intelligence 8(-1), Luck 13 (+1)

       

• Now Valeria rolls a d30 to see what her ‘Luck Modifier’ is and gets a 14, which would give her +/- her luck modifier for spell damage. Probably not applicable given she will be a fighter.
• There are three saving throws: Fortitude (Stamina +0), Reflex (Agility +0), and Willpower (Personality -1)
• 1d4 hitpoints +Stamina bonus = 2hp at level 0.
• Occupation: Here we discover that Valeria was a cobbler… An odd start for our Viking..

1st Level - She’s a Warrior now!

• She rolls 1d12 for hp and gets 5 to add to her existing 2. 7HP
• Attack modifier: She rolls a d3 ‘deed die’ in addition to her d20 which gives bonus to attack and damage. Additionally she can try a ‘mighty deed of arms’ (disarming, leaping into a pile of goblins… craziness.) if her deed die is a 3 or higher (and you hit) this succeeds. At higher levels, you get a bigger deed die, but the threshold remains the same.
• Critical: She will critical on a roll of 19-20, and uses table III rolling a d12
• Saves: They are now Fortitude: +1, Reflex +1, Will: -1
• Initiative: She adds her class level to initiative.
• Luck: Her luck applies to one weapon type’s attack roll (good or bad). In this case she selects spear as that is suitable for a Viking
• We will give her some chainmail, a shield and a battleaxe as well…

Here is Valeria:

Warrior, Level 1    7 HP 30’ Move (25’ in armor)  Crit: 19-20, III, 1d12  16 AC

Strength 10, Agility 12, Stamina 9, Personality 6(-1), Intelligence 8(-1), Luck 13 (+1)

Fortitude: +1, Reflex +1, Will: -1

Weapon: Spear (Atk +1) Damage d8 (Double on a mounted a charge)

Armor: Chainmail AC+5, Check -5, Fumble d12

           Shield       AC+1, Check -1

How does she do against a pair of orcs?

As in the other example, we will assume she wins initiative, and charges towards the first orc.

She lunges in with her spear and wishes to duck and ‘kneecap’ the orc with her shield to make it trip as a followup.

She rolls a 16 on her d20 and a 3 on her deed die giving her a 19 which is enough to hit, and potentially knock the orc down. The orc fails his save and is going to fall, but given he takes 5+3 damage and had only 7, he won’t be getting up regardless.

The second orc rolls a 5 which is not enough to do anything, but Valeria rolls a 19 on her d20 and 1 on her deed die which will be a critical hit.

Valeria rolls a d12 and look at Crit Table III to see what happened: a roll of 11 indicates that she caused major internal bleeding and the orc will die within 1d5 hours without magical healing.

She rolls a 7 for damage, +1 for the deed die, and now the orc no longer needs to worry about a slow death.