Dungeon Crawl Classics is a Tabletop RPG by Joseph Goodman originally released as a series of adventure modules across Dungeons & Dragons 3rd and 4th Edition in 2003 and 2008 respectively by Goodman Games, but primarily known for the standalone iteration of the system released in 2012.
It bills itself as a Spiritual Successor to early editions of D&D, but taken in a darker and wilder direction, while reducing the overall complexity of the rules to encourage homebrew and smoother play. As part of this, it opposes having an internal or supplemental canon regarding world lore. After all, that's what the Judge and the players are supposed to build as they play. In general, it encourages fair play, using randomness, while not hesitating to kill players. After all, its completely fair that 75% of characters don't survive their first adventure and reach level 1. Those characters clearly weren't qualified.
Alongside the Low Fantasy setting of this game, there exists a Science Fantasy post-apocalyptic Spin-Off by the name of Mutant Crawl Classics.
Dungeon Crawl Classics provides examples of:
- Anyone Can Die: Openly encouraged. Characters are relatively fragile and generally replaceable. Level zero characters are expected to die early and often.
- Critical Hit: There are tables and tables of effects to make them feel special and give a chance to knock a higher power foe down a peg.
- Critical Failure: As expected for a D20 RPG that wants to ocasionally make players feel weak. And that's not even getting into the reams of ways in which spells can go wrong.
- Darker and Edgier: In comparison to Dungeons & Dragons explicitly. While D&D promotes a level of power fantasy, DCC attempts to make players feel fragile and be cautious, particularly thanks to the use of level zero meatgrinder dungeons that players are expected to bring multiple characters into.
- Dungeon Crawling: As the title implies, albeit to a much more deadly extent thanks to the game's brutal level zero funnel dungeons.
- Low Fantasy: The chapter on worldbuilding generally specifies that characters aren't supposed to have much information beyond a day's walk from their homes when they start, and what they do have comes from rumors at best. Monsters are to be feared, and magic is unreliable.
- Luck Manipulation Mechanic: You can spend your luck attribute to improve your rolls in exchange for being permanently less lucky, unless you're playing as a rogue or halfling. While this might seem like a good deal, the luck stat is used for many rolls and situations that have basically no player input. For example, the Judge is encouraged to spring traps and hazards on the player with the lowest luck if there is no other option.
- Magic Misfire: A critical failure always backfires, with possible permanent downsides for messing up a casting to such an extent. Low rolls often act nearly as bad. Other situations, such as duelling with another caster, can also cause spells to fail in a spectacular fashion. The more powerful the spell, the more easy and intense the failure.
- Power at a Price: Wizards can sacrifice physical attributes to make their spells more reliable. More ambitious or foolish wizards can seek a supernatural patron to bargain for more power and an occasionally better deal.
- Random Effect Spell: Every spell has one or more pages of tables detailing the effects it can produce, to make magic feel less reliable. And that's before adding an entire table devoted to modifiers that apply to how different casters' spells function.
- Random Number God: The system encourages this with lots and lots of tables. After all, if something is arbitrary, it might as well be very arbitrary.
- Retraux: While made in the spirit of independent fantasy RPGs, the aesthetics of the book are meant to invoke the fantasy trappings of early fantasy RPGs.
- Shout-Out: The Neon Knights adventure gets its title from a Black Sabbath song, and the cover art references Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.
- Spiritual Antithesis: While billing itself as a Spiritual Successor to early editions of Dungeons & Dragons , it's this trope to the franchise in its current state, showing how differently it would have turned out had it doubled-down on its Early-Installment Weirdness.
- Survived the Beginning: Enforced with the "Funnel" system of character creation. Each player begins with two to four zero-level commoners, and it's expected that most of them will die in their introductory adventure. Those that survive get to pick an actual class and become real adventurers... not that it'll get any easier for them from there on.
- Wizard Duel: Enter The Dagon has a given magic-using player in the party invited to a last-man-standing wizardry tournament. The other players work to sabotage the other contestants between duels.
