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This is a recruitment for up to 5 players using the Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC) system.
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?
An introductory adventure for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, Sailors on the Starless Sea pits a mob of 0-level adventurers against the legacy of the Chaos Lords and their corrupted hordes. Delving beneath the crumbling ruins, the characters discover ancient crypts, a starless sea, and an ancient ziggurat, where death and treasure await in equal measure!
This adventure is designed for up to 5 players controlling 10 to 15 0-level characters. Each player should have 3 characters.
You are not required to be familiar with Dungeon Crawl Classics to play. The links below will get you started.
DCC Quick Start Rules - Free PDF Download
DCC Reference Sheets - Free PDF Download
DCC Core Rules (PDF)
About Dungeon Crawl Classics
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.
Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC) is an old-school style RPG based on a streamlined version of D&D 3E. Characters are randomly rolled and start as 0-level ordinary people. If they survive what's called a "funnel" adventure, such as this one, they advance to level 1 and become adventurers proper. There are no feats (though there are Mighty Deeds starting at level 1), there is no optimization. You build and go, and hope one of these plucky upstarts survives to adventure on into greatness.
Character Creation
Follow the Quick Start Rules to generate 4 0-level characters. Drop the one with the lowest stats. You may determine gender and name. Everything else is rolled. Create a 1-3 sentence description for each character (seriously, keep it short and quick).
1. Roll ability scores (3d6 in order).
2. Determine 0-level occupation (1d100).
3. Calculate saving throws and choose an alignment.
4. Determine randomly determined equipment.
Gameplay
For this 0-level funnel you won’t create custom profiles. Since you’re controlling multiple characters, use the OOC tag around the character’s name to indicate which one is speaking or performing an action.
Gameplay will begin when there are enough players and characters generated. Posting Frequency will be around once per day.
I will explain these as gameplay goes on.
Combat
- Attack rolls use d20 + modifiers.
- Rolling a 1 causes a fumble. Roll an additional 1d20 and subtract your luck modifier (lower is better)
- Rolling a natural 20 is a crit. Roll an additional 1d4 and add your luck modifier
Saves
- DCC uses 3 types of saves, Fortitude, Reflex and Willpower. These might be affected by your Luck Score.
- Ability scores are described below
Strength: Physical power for lifting, hurling, cutting, and dragging. Your Strength modifier affects melee attack and damage rolls. Note that a successful attack always does a minimum of 1 point of damage regardless of Strength. Characters with a Strength of 5 or less can carry a weapon or a shield but not both.
Agility: Balance, grace, and fine motion skills, whether in the hands or the feet. Your Agility modifier affects Armor Class, missile fire attack rolls, initiative rolls, and Reflex saving throws, as well as the ability to fight with a weapon in each hand.
Stamina: Endurance, resistance to pain, disease, and poison. Your Stamina modifier affects hit points (even at level 0) and Fortitude saving throws. Note that a character earns a minimum of 1 hit point per character level regardless of Stamina. Characters with a Stamina of 5 or less automatically take double damage from all poisons and diseases.
Personality: Charm, strength of will, persuasive talent. Personality affects Willpower saving throws for all characters. Personality is vitally important to clerics, as it affects the ability to draw upon divine power and determines the maximum spell level they can cast, as shown on table 1-1.
Intelligence: Ability to discern information, retain knowledge, and assess complex situations. For wizards, Intelligence affects spell count and maximum spell level, as noted on table 1-1. For all characters, Intelligence affects known languages, as described in Appendix L. Characters with an Intelligence of 7 or less can speak only Common, and those with an Intelligence of 5 or less cannot read or write.
Luck: “Right place, right time;” favor of the gods, good fortune, or hard-to-define talent. Players would be well advised to understand the goals of gods and demons that shape the world around them, for they are but pawns in a cosmic struggle, and their luck on this mortal plane can be influenced by the eternal conflict that rages around them. Luck affects several elements of the game.
Just learned about DCC when I saw their Lankhmar project. I'm a D&D 0 ed player and love the idea of what DCC is trying to do. I'm all in.
Character 1
Character 2
Character 3
Character 4
Dropping Character 1
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Character #2 -
Garwen the Apprentice locksmith
Big but quick for his size. Unhappy in his current work, Garwen spends his time bullying and stealing lunch money. So far he hasn't been caught.
Str 16 (+2)
Agl 12
Sta 06 (-1)
Per 08 (-1)
Int 09
Lck 13 (+1) (Seventh Son: Spell Check)
Alignment: Chaotic
Hp: 1
30 cp
Dagger, Fine Tools, Flint and Steel
Characteer #3
Sharyn, collector of brush piles
A bit overweight,simple and cross eyed, she has issues with some of the most mundane tasks.But she's a hard worker and gets her work done on time.
Str 07 (-1)
Agl 11
Sta 13 (+1)
Per 06 (-1)
Int 08 (-1)
Lck 12 (4 leaf clover, Find secret doors)
Alignment: Neutral
Hp:2
42cp
Hand Axe, Bundle of Wood, 1 pc Chalk
Character #4
Rosco the Shoeshiner
Everyone looks up to the boy until he opens his mouth and attempts to think out loud. A nice, handsome boy with a good build, the boy is just awkward.
Str 14 (+1)
Agi 11
Sta 16 (+2)
Per 11
Int 07 (-1)
Lck 08 (-1) (Hawkeye, Missle Damage)
Alignment: Lawful
HP: 4
30 cp
Awl (Dagger), Shoehorn, 50 ft Rope
Don't understand why there is no interest. I LOVE this system.
Unfortunately OSR-style games aren't really that popular around these parts.
Someone recently did post for another DCC game using the Black Powder, Black Magic western campaign setting, so I figured it might be worth a try.
I'll bump it every couple days to see if anyone else takes note.
This sounds quirky, and it has me interested. I guess I'm game.
Character 1
Character 2
Character 3
Character 4
Also dropping 1
So Character 2
Gillian the Elven artisan is tall and lithe but with a mean temper to boot. Her pet peeve is people bothering her while she's working and will not hesitate to let you know what you are doing wrong.
STR10(+0)
AGI14(+1)
STA8 (-1)
PER9 (+0)
INT10(+0)
LCK8 (-1)
Character 3
Boobar the Orphan is a large boy, much larger than the other boys and he uses his size to get what he wants. He doesn't understand humor or sarcasm.
STR17(+2)
AGI13(+1)
STA17(+2)
PER11(+0)
INT8 (-1)
LCK9 (+0)
Character
Valen the Shaman is a misunderstood man who lives on the outskirts of town. He is old, slow, sickly looking but he as somehow managed to live to the ripe old age of old. Most say its the herbs that he is always gathering that keep him alive.
STR6 (-1)
AGI9 (+0)
STA14(+1)
PER10(+0)
INT14(-1)
LCK12(+0)
Blood and Death, this is going to be fun. :)
Character 1
Character 2
Character 3
Character 4
Also dropping Character 1
Wipan the Scribe. His father figured Wipan could use some excercise, fearing he'd grow sickly if he spent too much time among his books.
Strength: 10
Agility: 13 (+1)
Stamina: 9
Personality: 12
Intelligence: 17 (+2)
Luck: 16 (+2, Speed of the Cobra: Initiative)
Equipment: Empty Flask, Dart, 10 Sheets Parchment, 46 copper
Bekore the slightly slow radish farmer. He knows one thing, and that's radishes. Radish harvests were thin last season and needs to earn some coin to keep his farm.
Strength: 10
Agility: 13 (+1)
Stamina: 11
Personality: 13 (+1)
Intelligence: 7 (-1)
Luck: 7 (-1, Raised by Wolves: Unarmed Attack Rolls)
Equipment: Chicken, Pitchfork, Large Sack, 45 copper
Storhan the Cutpurse. Until recently he had avoided capture by local guards through sheer dumb luck, literally. After a short incarceration, a paperwork mix-up saw Storhan released on condition of parole.
Strength: 9
Agility: 14 (+1)
Stamina: 13 (+1)
Personality: 10
Intelligence: 4 (-2)
Luck: 15 (+1, Pack Hunter: Attack and damage rolls for 0-level trained weapon(dagger))
Equipment: Dagger, Small Chest, Empty Flask, 34 copper
As a DCC fan myself, this deserves a bump. There's something really fascinating about this system, and the funnel is a wonderful concept once you embrace it. It's a little scary and crazy, but awesome!
Good luck storming the castle!
I'd join but I've got enough games on my plate. I'll keep an eye on this though!
Yeah... 9 Sacrifical Lambs, only 6 more to go...Woot!
Ahh, what the Hell? I'm curious as to what sort of meat I'd get to throw into the grinder. Let me see what I roll up.
CHARACTER ONE:
CHARACTER TWO:
CHARACTER THREE:
CHARACTER FOUR:
Alright! We've got four so far. We're getting closer, though if we don't get anymore bites, I could run this with 4 players / 12 characters. Things might get a little crazy though.
Yeah, I still need to roll for equipment. I think I'm going to go with the trend and use characters 2, 3, and 4. (Character 1 looked fine until I realized he had a PENALTY for using his bow thanks to the bad luck roll.)
Hopefully either characters 2 or 3 survive the process. One could make a decent cleric, albeit one that sits in the back far away from the fighting (5 stamina sucks). The other... Well, you can never have enough meatshields, can you?
Aw man I just came back to check on the thread and noticed that the work I had done on my characters was gone. I had written it up like Hyregoth had in the second post but paizo must have eaten it. Oh will I'll get it up soon. I'm going to make 1 alias and put the 3 characters under spoilers, if that's cool. Ir how would you want us to do it?
Uthraed, you don't mean this post, do you? Or did you have something else posted after that?
We can try putting the characters in spoilers. I had suggested just putting OOC tags around their dialogue/actions. We're probably going to have some trial and error with this since it's a bit different from your run-of-the mill d20-based game.
I had edited that post with the updated rolls for gear and such and when I submitted the edit it didn't go through. It's not really a big deal because the important information made it.
Alright, if you'll allow someone who's familiar with the AP, I'd like to throw my hat into the ring. (I don't intend to reveal any secrets, and am fine walking right past them or into them if we don't notice them as a group).
Peon 1
Peon 2
Peon 3
Peon 4
Mitsy Thistledown
Mitsy's caravan has just rolled into town and found it's prospects rather lacking. She's heard several stories of artifacts recovered from ruins and sees this as an opportunity to expand her show. The hex doll is of her husband, Cappi.
STR: 10
AGI: 9
STA: 9
PER: 9
INT: 17 (+2)
LUC: 10
Occupation: Halfling Gypsy
HP: 3
Equipment: Sling, Hex Doll, Small Hammer, 27 cp
Shyrin Reinhardt
Shyrin travels as guardian of Mitsy's caravan. She believes, with all her heart, that Mitsy knows the secret of her (Shyrin's) death. She's incredibly superstitious.
STR: 15 (+1)
AGI: 9
STA: 13 (+1)
PER: 9
INT: 6 (-1)
LUC: 8 (-1)
*Luck bonus: -1 number of languages
Occupation: Caravan Guard
HP: 4
Equipment: Short Sword, Linen (1 yd.), Rope (50'), 40 cp
Diego 'Smiles'
Smiles, as the caravan calls him, is always after a simple score. There's a lot of people signing up for this trek into the castle and he's eager to look valiant (and find opportunity). He's quite prideful and hates actually getting his hands (or especially clothing) dirty.
STR: 10
AGI: 12
STA: 12
PER: 13 (+1)
INT: 10
LUC: 11
Occupation: Cutpurse
HP: 4
Equipment: Dagger, Small Chest, Chalk (1 piece), 18 cp
Peon 4 was cut. A dwarf! The 1 HP killed him for me, and I feel like I play dwarves a lot.
Doing a few more rolls...
Character 2:
Character 3:
Character 4:
So, 1 HP, 3 HP, and 1 HP. My God, these guys are awful and will all die horribly.
And then there were 5. I'm opening the discussion thread if you want to dot in. I'm hoping to get the introductory gameplay post up tomorrow.
Garwen the Apprentice locksmith
Big but quick for his size. Unhappy in his current work, Garwen spends his time bullying and stealing lunch money. So far he hasn't been caught.
.
Str 16 (+2)
Agl 12
Sta 06 (-1)
Per 08 (-1)
Int 09
Lck 13 (+1) (Seventh Son: Spell Check)
Alignment: Chaotic
Hp: 1
30 cp
Dagger, Fine Tools, Flint and Steel
Sharyn, collector of brush piles
A bit overweight,simple and cross eyed, she has issues with some of the most mundane tasks.But she's a hard worker and gets her work done on time.
Str 07 (-1)
Agl 11
Sta 13 (+1)
Per 06 (-1)
Int 08 (-1)
Lck 12 (4 leaf clover, Find secret doors)
Alignment: Neutral
Hp:2
42cp
Hand Axe, Bundle of Wood, 1 pc Chalk
Rosco the Shoeshiner
Everyone looks up to the boy until he opens his mouth and attempts to think out loud. A nice, handsome boy with a good build, the boy is just awkward.
Str 14 (+1)
Agi 11
Sta 16 (+2)
Per 11
Int 07 (-1)
Lck 08 (-1) (Hawkeye, Missle Damage)
Alignment: Lawful
HP: 4
30 cp
Awl (Dagger), Shoehorn, 50 ft Rope