DCC/Rules Summary

This campaign uses the 8th Edition Dungeon Crawl Classics ruleset with the occupations and classes of the Death Slaves of Eternity module.

Changes from regular DCC that are motivated by the Sword & Sorcery theme of the campaign (as opposed to "regular" house-rules) are noted using this icon.

Races
All characters are humans.

The Dwarf class is renamed Soldier. The Elf class is renamed Cultist. The Halfling class is renamed Raider.

Minimum hit points per level

 * Level-0 characters, Magi and Witches replace a d4 roll of 1 with a 2 when rolling for hit points.
 * Cultists, Raiders and Thieves replace a d6 roll of 1 or 2 with a 3 when rolling for hit points.
 * Shamans replace a d8 roll of 1, 2 or 3 with a 4 when rolling for hit points.
 * Soldiers replace a d10 roll of 1, 2, 3 or 4 with a 5 when rolling for hit points.
 * Warriors replace a d12 roll of 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 with a 6 when rolling for hit points.

Note that a negative Stamina modifier can still reduce the hit point gain per level below these numbers. The DCC rule that a character earns a minimum of 1 hit point per character level regardless of Stamina remains in effect.

Birth Augur
Characters with a starting Luck modifier of zero have no Birth Augur.

Txez0-8tlz6.png Gender

 * See DCC/Character Generation.


 * Strong brawny characters are more likely male than female (but all sizes and shapes do exist).
 * Adventurers are more likely male than female (unless you decide otherwise)
 * Monsters and men alike generally perceive males as bigger threats.
 * Female characters find Strength just as irresistible as Personality.

Equipment
Regular weapons are made out of iron, not steel. Metal armor is unusual and costly. Actual statistics remain unchanged for simplicity.

To avoid having to minmax choice of weaponry: warriors and clerics may use a d8 damage die even if normally lower. This allows the character to keep using a familiar or thematic weapon without worrying it makes such a bad choice mechanically.

Shields
Warriors, Shamans, and Soldiers may sacrifice their shield (if they wield one) to reduce damage from an incoming attack to 1. For particularly massive attacks, the damage reducing is "half" only. The shield is permanently destroyed.

The shield can't modify effects of critical hits.

Keeping track of Score changes

 * This is a clarification, not a rule change.

Characters have two values for each ability score.


 * Your permanent or maximum score. Despite the name, this *can* change, but only in rare and exceptional cases. The minimum permanent score is 3 and the maximum permanent score is 18. If you would gain points above 18, they manifest as temporary points. In other words, your current score can be 19 or higher even though your permanent score is only 18. While your modifier goes no higher than +3, this is useful since you keep that +3 even if you lose a point or two. Such a current score lasts as long as it lasts.
 * Your temporary or current score. When you burn ability points or take ability damage, your current score sinks below your maximum score. When you reach 0, bad things happen (see Ability Loss, page 96). When you heal back up, you regain ability points up to your maximum but no higher.

Exception: Luck.


 * For most classes, you only have the one Luck score. When you burn Luck points, your score is lowered. In the rare case the Judge rewards you Luck points, your score is increased. You do not keep track of a temporary score since there is no Luck healing.
 * Thieves and Raiders do track Luck just like the other scores, since they do heal Luck damage and burned Luck points. If the Judge rewards you Luck points and this would take you over your permanent maximum, not only do these points manifest as temporary points above your maximum, your maximum does increase by 1 (up to 18).

Mercurial Magic
The core rules make, on average, four out of five spells you learn "mercurial" (=with strange side effects). I suggest casters are ensured to have at least one "standard" unmodified spell to make mercurial magic a bit more special. Also, less book-keeping.

The simplest rules proposal is that you may pick the "No change. The spell manifests as standard" result instead of rolling on the Mercurial Magic table once when you generate your first spells. Generate one spell at a time, and decide whether you want to invoke this rule for that spell before you generate the next one.

Some Mercurial effects fit Magi better than Witches or Cultists, and vice-versa. If your spell gains a random Mercurial effect you feel is a poor fit, you may re-roll. The re-roll is made unmodified by your Intelligence and is final.

Txez0-8tlz6.png Non-magical healing
"Pure" Sword & Sorcery would not have easy access to any form of healing, and instead simply assume characters start each adventure at full hit points. To avoid changing the DCC ruleset too much, the campaign is a "hybrid" approach, that does not change the original rules too much. The Lay on Hands ability of Shamans (the DCC Cleric class) remains, but new ways to heal "naturally" are introduced, hopefully freeing up the Shaman to do other things beside just heal their friends!

When this section refers to healing a hit die; roll your class hit die, add your level and apply your Stamina modifier. You heal that many hit points (minimum 1), up to your maximum.

The DCC rules for Bleeding Out, Recovering the Body, and Healing applies as normal (pages 93-94); the following three rules adds to the core rules. These additions only helps you heal hit point damage, not ability point damage.

Examine your wounds
Once per encounter in which you have suffered damage, you may spend your action to examine yourself and find your wounds weren't as bad as you feared. You heal a hit die.

You cannot examine your wounds before taking damage in an encounter. Once you have examined your wounds, you cannot do it again in that encounter, even if you suffer further damage.

The Judge is discouraged from penalizing a player who "forgets" to examine their character's wounds before an encounter ends. Assuming the player do remember their character is wounded before the next encounter begins, simply heal the hit die.

Recuperate
If you are able to complete a full turn just resting, you may spend 1 Stamina point or Luck point. You heal a hit die.

Thief and Raider abilities have no effect on the Recuperate activity.

This activity is repeatable (until you run out of ability points...)

Personality is good for morale
Any character with a positive modifier to Personality can inspire another character to regain their fighting spirit. This requires the pair to spend an evening in each other's company. For instance, carousing together.

The inspired character heals one d4 for every point of the inspiring character's Personality bonus in addition to the regular 1 hp for a good night's rest. ''Example: Lydia decides to spend the evening with Thrullgar, so that he can better protect her tomorrow. Her Personality 16 (+2) means Thrullgar heals 2d4+1 for that good night's rest. The opposite would not have worked, since Thrullgar's Personality is only 6 (-1).''

This activity is entirely voluntary (for both parties involved). In fact, coaxing or pestering a character into helping you pretty much ruins the mood (consider their Personality modifier to be zero for that evening)...

Restoratives
There exists special or exotic draughts that effectively act as if they have a Personality score. You can quite literally spend your evening in the company of a bottle to heal your wounds!

Starting Potion
Each player (not character) is given a magic Potion by the Judge. As you might expect, it is single-use only. Do not expect to ever be given more.

Until the player decides to determine which character holds the potion, this remains undetermined. One character holds the Potion, you just don't need to determine who just yet. This way you cannot easily lose the Potion when you unexpectedly lose your characters to accidents.

Note: you are free to give it away to another player's character, or even a NPC if you want. The Potion is enchanted to appear worthless, so you can never sell it for more than 5d12 copper pieces.

Each player gets one out of three Potions, determined randomly. Roll 1d3:
 * 1) Strength Potion: restore one attribute (imbiber's choice) to its maximum. Only Thief and Raider characters can choose Luck.
 * 2) Vitality Potion: increase your maximum hit points by 1d6, then restore your hit points to this new maximum.
 * 3) Luck Potion: reset a character's Luck score. Set imbiber's Luck score to a roll of 3d6. If your new Luck modifier is non-zero, remove your old Birth Augur (if you have one); then randomize a new one.

Movement and Positioning in Combat
It is important to realize that simple, quick combat rules deserve simple, quick movement and positioning rules.

As far as possible, try to resist the temptation to mandate exact placement on combat maps, and exact counting of feet during movement. The game flows much smoother if situations where "you're 5 ft too far away" are avoided. The game will have enemies pop up to attack male characters and unlucky characters, and you are encouraged to accept this natural order.

Marching Order
Still, players need some say over which characters expose themselves to danger. As a variant suggestion to the rulebook, each player appoints one character to "take the lead". The remaining characters are assumed to form the main group, with individual placement mostly being offered to any Thief characters.

If a threat arrives clearly from the front, only the lead characters are considered when choosing targets. For other types of situations, all characters might be targeted. In all cases, Luck and gender plays a larger role than tactical placement.

All players should normally contribute one character each to take the lead. While this is a matter for the players and not the Judge, all players should agree to any exceptions made.

Movement
Your Speed should be considered approximate. You are encouraged to ask the Judge "can I get there" or "can I reach it", and the Judge might simply say yes, or ask for an Agility Test, rather than to measure distance on a map.

Each round, you can move up to your Speed. In addition, you can move more by giving up all your actions for the round. If you spend your action(s) on movement (in other words, you don't attack) you can move twice your Speed and do one of the following things: draw or sheathe a weapon, equip or drop a shield, or open a door. You may also sprint: moving three times your Speed, provided you run chiefly in a single cardinal direction only. You also suffer a -2 AC penalty until your next turn.

Repositioning vs Disengaging
Let us distinguish between movement intended to leave combat, and movement intended to spice up combat.

If you simply move with no stated intention or goal, the Judge will assume you want to leave combat, and the core rule of Withdrawal remains in effect: your melee opponents get one free attack each.

However, if you describe your movement in swashbuckling terms, explaining your goal, you should certainly be allowed to attempt it. Examples: trying to lead your foe over to your allies, or swinging in a chandelier, or jumping onto a ledge from where you later hope to throw your enemy.

Warriors most easily achieve this through Mighty Deeds. Other character classes will have to declare their attempt, and make an attack. If the enemy is particularly nimble, or quick-witted, or simply very large, the Judge will impose a penalty to your attack roll.

If the attack hits, you deal no damage, but you may reposition yourself (moving up to your Speed). The enemy is given the opportunity to follow along to maintain the melee combat. (If it does not wish to do so, both it and you are out of that particular melee)

Most foes will want to block you from reaching past them - they have a direction in which you cannot move in this manner (unless you are a Warrior successfully pulling off a Mighty Deed).