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.

Races
All characters are humans.

Available Classes

 * The Warrior class remains unchanged with a small exception: Warriors may add their Stamina modifier (if positive) to AC if wearing light/no clothing.
 * The Thief class remains unchanged.
 * The Cleric class is renamed Shaman.
 * The Wizard class is renamed. Male characters may call themselves a Warlock or a Magus. Female characters may call themselves a Conjure-Woman or a Witch.
 * The Dwarf class is renamed Soldier. Soldiers move at normal Speed, do not have Infravision or any special Underground skills, and can choose any Alignment. Only males are eligible for soldier training. Females need to have pretended to be male, in the style of Mulan - Warrior Princess.
 * The Elf class is renamed Cultist, do not have Infravision or any Immunities, and uses Personality instead of Intelligence for spellcasting. Mithril items do not exist. Cultists must Sacrifice to regain spellburn.
 * The Halfling class is renamed Raider. Raiders are normal size, move at normal Speed, do not have Infravision, and can choose any Alignment.

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

Gender

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

The following rules interact with gender:
 * Roll 1d7 + Strength modifier after generating your character's Strength. If the result is 5 or higher the character is male. If the result is 4 or lower, the player decides.
 * Male characters are often targeted before female characters. Heavily armored characters are assumed to be male. A secondary consideration is Luck. Characters with negative Luck modifiers are often targeted before characters with positive Luck modifiers.
 * Any character may choose to add their Personality modifier (if positive) to AC if wearing light/no clothing.
 * In addition to Personality, Strength can be used to influence female characters.
 * If you play a female soldier you have hidden your true nature during training, and perhaps you are hiding it still.

Equipment
Regular weapons are made out of iron, not steel. Metal armor is unusual and costly. The traditional full plate Knight's armor does not exist.

Weapons
Weapons with a long wooden shaft and a small metal head can be made out of bone or obsidian. This reduces the damage die from d10 and d8 to d8 and d6. Example: Dagger†, Battleaxe, Polearm or Warhammer. The damage of smaller weapons are unaffected. Example: Dagger†, Mace. †) A dagger with a bone handle and an obsidian blade remains a d4 weapon in general use, and is reduced from d10 to d8 in the hands of a backstabbing Thief.

Other weapons can can still be made only out of metal. Example: Longsword, Short sword.

Armor
Unarmored AC +0 Light/no clothing AC +1 Regular clothing

Light Armor AC +2 Padded clothing AC +2 Leather armor AC +3 Studded leather

Medium armor (-5 Speed) AC +4 Hide armor AC +5 Breast plate AC +6 Scale mail

Heavy armor (-10 Speed; no Agility modifier to AC) AC +6 Ring mail AC +7 Chain mail AC +8 Banded mail

AC +1 Shield. Can be destroyed to avoid critical hit.

Warrior. Can add Stamina modifier to AC if wearing light/no clothing. Cleric >> Shaman, Druid, Oracle, Seer.... Cannot wear heavy armor. Wizards >> male Wizards (Warlock, Mage...), female Witch (Conjure-woman, Enchantress...). Lawful wizards specialize in enchantment. Neutral wizards specialize in elemental magic. Chaotic wizards specialize in black magic. If you don't like a newly randomized spell, you may randomize a new spell from your specialization. This result is then permanent.

Dwarf >> Soldier. Only class that can wear heavy armor. Halfling >> Raider (Pirates, Nomads...) you are bow-legged (20 ft Speed) except in your element (on horseback, on a ship, in dense jungle etc) Elf >> Courtesan. Can add Personality modifier to AC if wearing light/no clothing.

To avoid having to minmax choice of weaponry: warriors and clerics may declare they are experts with their random start weapon or their god's favored weapon. Experts use a d8 damage die if normally lower. This allows the character to keep using a familiar weapon without worrying it makes such a bad choice mechanically.

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Luck rewards:

When the Judge awards you more Luck points, what happens if you're already at maximum?

You get to keep the extra points, but this is not a permanent increase.

19 and higher: +4

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DCC how to make Clerics less essential.

A night's rest restores one hit die's worth of hit points, not just 1 hp. Resting for a whole day, means you get the maximum result from the following night's rest (4 if your hit die is d4).

Personality is good for morale.

A character with a positive modifier to Personality can choose to accompany an injured character during an evening and/or night. The injured character gets to add his accompanier's Personality modifier when restoring hit points for that night.

Roll 1d3: 1. Strength Potion: restore one attribute (imbiber's choice) to its maximum. 2. Vitality Potion: restore your hit points to your maximum. 3. Luck Potion: restore your Luck to your maximum, then add 1d4 extra Luck points.

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Clerics

Druids, Oracles, Warlocks... just ask the player to call him- or herself something other than Cleric...

It's not Gods, it's Idols.

There are no lawful idols - at least none that grant access to magic... Neutral Idols are distant and uncaring - the DC for divine aid is increased by +5. Chaotic Idols can be active (which explains their appeal)

Spell failures increase disapproval range. Sinful acts increase disapproval range.

Lay on hands increase disapproval rate only on failed checks. Drop the idea that differences in alignment can be considered a sinful act (because otherwise every healer would be Neutral). Differences in alignment still make the healing less effective.

Disapproval range is NOT automatically reset each day. You improve your disapproval range by your level (so only one step at level 1). This assumes continued sacrifice in the form of time-consuming chants or prayers, personal hardship (solitude, abstinence, flagellation, or similar).

Sacrifices! Allow blood sacrifice as an alternative to valuable goods. Remember - Your own Stamina can be burned to reduce disapproval on the spot (burn 1 point to reduce disapproval by one step). You are encouraged to only do this for personal reasons, and only when you decide you really need to.

You can also sacrifice others:

To regain 1 step of disapproval range, cause 1d6 ability burn to the victim. (This is normally not enough to kill the victim) To regain up to 3 steps of disapproval range, cause 1d12 ability burn to the victim. (This can kill the average villager or cultist, as well as the unlucky hero) To regain up to 9 steps of disapproval range, cause 1d20 ability burn to the victim. (This can kill just about anyone)

A victim can then not be reused until its ability burn has healed. The idea here is not to use your friends, but hapless bystanders and NPCs. Even if you use only the smallest sacrifice, your friends might still become debilitated, and what's more - they might become unable to use for the rest of the adventure.

If a sacrifice makes the ability reach 0 that character is irrevocably dead, claimed by the God. That is, unlike regular ability burn you can be killed. There are no luck saves.

Neutral gods: you may only sacrifice natural animals and willing men. Ability burn is either Stamina (blood) or Luck (fortune); make a permanent one-time decision when you first do this.

Chaotic gods: You must sacrifice men, not beasts. However, targets need not be willing. Ability burn is applied to any two scores; make a permanent one-time decision when you first do this. For instance, if you sacrifice Stamina and Personality, victims shrivel to a husk. If you sacrifice Strength and Agility you curse them with old age. And so on. You might consider it mercy to slit the throat of the victim once you see the results...

Turn unholy: undead and demons are always unholy! Then choose one out of: devils, legendary beasts (basilisk, hippogriff...), mundane beasts (hyenas, tigers, great apes), perversions of nature (slimes, otyughs), primitive humanoids (apemen, goblins, etc)

Allowable weapons: any blunt weapon, small slashing or piercing melee weapons

To avoid minmaxing weaponry: warriors and clerics may declare they are experts with their random start weapon, letting them use a d8 when rolling for its damage. This allows the character to keep using a familiar weapon without worrying it makes such a bad choice mechanically.

Mercurial magic:

Reduce the frequency of mercurial spells.

Each time a wizard character levels up (including level 1), the player and judge each selects one spell. Roll on Table 5-2: Mercurial Magic for those two spells only.

Each time a cleric character levels up to an odd level (including level 1), the player selects one spell. Each time the character levels up to an even level, the judge selects one spell.

The judge is recommended to choose spells the player are likely to use, preferring black magic over white and high-level spells over low-level spells. The player is free to choose however he or she wishes.