this is a very minor question but I am curious about it. if you roll wainwright on the occupation table you get a pushcart. you roll 1d6 to determine what’s in the cart and if you roll a 4 it says “your dead”. what does that mean? the other results are like rocks and dirt and stuff.
What would you say the point of MCC is? Killing stuff? Looting stuff? Exploring? What does the game system reward?
So basically, I've never run MCC before, but I'm currently tossing up between MCC, Ashes Without Number and Atomic Shadows (post-apoc Shadowdark hack) to run a campaign with a weird basis...
I want to run 100 characters through a super-abstracted funnel, and have the survivors be the basis for a new settlement, from which parties go out and explore the new wasteland. It'll tie everyone together and have them invested in the settlement's survival.
Is MCC good for this? Something like The Mutant Epoch is instantly too complex in terms of rules and character creation, Atomic Shadows seems a bit too rules-lite, Ashes Without Number is kinda complex but also has good Bastion rules... but MCC or Umerica? That could be the sweet spot...
What do you think? If I went the MCC/Umerica route, which books should I get?
Cheers!
Delve into an ancient elven labyrinth at the behest of a mad sorcerer in this puzzling level-2 adventure zine compatible with #DCCRPG! Part 3 in the Saga of Sorcerer Verrükter and the Rükstau Rejects from Nerdronomicon.
Follow for FREE VTT Tokens!
https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/nerdronomicon/the-sorcerer-s-conundrum-dcc-rpg-adventure-zine
u/GoodmanGames #ttrpgs #osr
People Of The Pit recommends 8 players not including the judge. I cannot imagine gathering 8 people together to play.
I’m creating some race-specific classes for dwarves, elves, and halflings. To keep a certain degree of consistency, I want to rename the existing dwarf, elf, and halfling classes. For example, elves might be Elven Warlocks. Do you have any suggestions? I’m not keen on any of the given level titles, with the possible exception of Thegn for the dwarf class. Thanks!
The Fantasy Grounds Summer Sale currently includes select Dungeon Crawl Classics titles from Goodman Games through July 9.
If you've been waiting to pick up the core rules or add another adventure to your collection, it's worth a look.
For the DCC veterans here, which adventure do you always recommend to someone running the game for the first time?
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/?sys=28&pub=-1&typ=-1&search=&sort=1
Hello friends! The time has finally come, I am joining the ranks of these awesome indie publishers! My first adventure's teaser page is live on backerkit! It would mean the world to me if you gave it a follow! You will also now get a free PDF preview of the adventure as well!.
https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/79d93bae-116b-4389-afe5-a524322b2868/landing
Step into a world of wonder! Come and see the greatest exhibit of monstrous mulipilicity and beastly bewilderment in all the realm! For the first time ever, villagers have become tourists leaving the safety of their homes to see the monsters that only live in stories to scare their children, live and in person. Except, not all is as it seems! Visitors have enjoyed their trip so much they never came home, and the towns-folk are scared silent! Can you and your allies find the missing guests and discover the true secrets that lie beneath or will you meet your ancestors sooner than expected?
Mr. Ringtail's Menagerie is a level 1 adventure for DCC RPG 100% fully written and illustrated by myself.
I'm prepping to run a Shudder Mountains campaign and I had a question for players and judges. For those less familiar with the setting, if the funnel uses characters unique to rhe Mountains and have a specific deep background that explain some latent magic abilities, use of music for magical means, etc. Would you share the full ancient history of the people with the players or just recent history? I go back and forth.
Many of you know me for classes like The Canine and The Balladeer (links are to the Sorcerous Scrutinies reviews of both). This year, I complete my 14th class for Stennard, The Witch. I felt like that was enough variety, and some might argue its too much! But for what I intend for Stennard, it feels just right.
Going into 2026, the new focus is spell books focused on making the adherents to different deities and patrons feel different and unique. In the past several months I released spell books for Luzael (light, truth, knowledge - substitute Delvyr if you use Aerth gods) and Minaelia (chance, excess, fortune - substitute Myna). Currently, I'm working on priests of a yet unnamed god simply referred to as the Helm, (originally Gorhan the Helmed Vengeance in Aerth). The Helm embodies valor and vengeance, and the write up in the Gazetteer of the Known Realms from the 3.5 era of Goodman Games has Gorhan as being all "justice" and not "vengeance" as the name would imply, so when I envisioned this god in Stennard, I really doubled down on the "we cut off your hand for stealing" interpretation of Gorhan and the application of law.
Each of these books has a unique form of Lay on Hands, Disapproval, etc. Today, I am showing off two new spells for priests of the Helm: Scars of Bravery (Lay on Hands) and Righteous Blade (Blessing). The goal with these spells is never to make them "more desirable" than the existing book spells. Instead, it is to replace them with spells that reinforce themes. Scars of Bravery is not nearly as effective as Lay on Hands, and it can only be used on Lawful characters - enough to patch the brave champions of law and get them back into the fight, but not effective enough to encourage a PC faithful to the Helm to sit in the back. Whereas, Righteous Blade imbues a weapon with serious hitting power, encouraging even a meek priest to potentially charge into battle.
Click the links to check them both out. Over the next week I'll begin working on the Helm's Disapproval table, and finishing out 3 more spells. I know, I dropped one called Blessing of Resilience a year ago that I need to review. I recall that one being a form of spiritual PCP. 😂
Comments are welcome!
-Nick
Check my channel for other DCC reviews and more!
Hello. I'm not a very experienced DCC player. I played the Jeweler module at a con and really enjoyed it. I wanted to try running it with friends. From what I can tell, it was just made for cons and isn't available for purchase. Am I incorrect? If there is a way to obtain it and someone could tip me off, I would be gracious.
Hello everyone, I'm back from a little hiatus with another class supplement scrutiny! Nobody told me how shocking summer is once your kids are full-time in school haha, what happened to all my glorious writing hours?! Preschool starts again next week, at least, so the Scrutiny will resume. Hope you enjoy reading, I found this class to be a great change of pace-
The Balladeer
A Player Character Class for DCC RPG
2023 Breaker Press Games
Johnny Mitchell stood alone on the creaking rope bridge, his throat dry, his heart hammering in the barrel of his chest. Massive buffets of wind stirred his long hair and forced him to grip his lute to keep it from flying backwards. He adjusted the high G string’s tuner; it was always the one to go flat.
The Moon-Dragon landed with a massive crash on the far side of the bridge, and an otherworldly roar erupted from the silvery menace. It was time to perform.
Johnny played an enigmatic minor chord, and the creature locked eyes with him. The distraction was working. “An ode to the moon, O ye silver loon; your home beyond the black gloom…” Johnny watched his halfling companion climb silently behind the beast, his long dagger clenched between his teeth. The Wizard hid nearby and muttered to his dark patron, gathering his arcane energies for a massive attack, while Caligula the Fighter hung from a rope in the chasm mere feet from the Moon-Dragon.
The beast remained captivated by his improvised song, and he ended with a flourish and a bold smile. “You have been a most attentive audience, ye cynthian cancer of these caverns. But now, you must die.”
The Moon-Dragon tilted its head in animalistic confusion, a murderous halfling dropped from above, and hell unleashed. Johnny grinned, and began feverishly plucking his lute, a wild look in his eyes.
What It Is
The Balladeer is a class pamphlet written by Nick Baran of Breaker Press Games for the DCC system that calls back to the Bard classes of old. The pamphlet is slim but packed with interesting features and abilities for aspiring Balladeers. I find there to be something immensely collectible about these Breaker Press class pamphlets, and I love handing a stack of them over to players after a funnel to try and entice them away from the core classes!
As you may suspect, the Balladeer is a support class derived from the Thief base class that bolsters allies through musical performance. Baran has given us a number of tools for players to enjoy, rather than the blanket +1 bonus to attack rolls AD&D offered in the original class description (p. 42 of my ‘89 PHB). In combat, Inspiring Presence allows Balladeers to enhance their allies' deed dies as an aura effect, Words of Inspiration lets the Balladeer trade their action die to create a pool of party luck that anyone within earshot can draw upon. Baran added a more specific boost of the ability as a single target variation, potentially super-charging one member of the party.
Out of combat, Baran offers players a skill list that includes several new entries alongside a handful of our Thief staples. Balladeers can use Convince Person to manipulate social encounters, Distraction to keep a crowd occupied, or Know Lore to recall facts about both the familiar and unfamiliar. These skills have so much flavor, and give a creative player so much to work with in non-combat situations.
At The Table
The Balladeer is an excellent choice for someone like me, often the ‘forever DM’, who in play wants to focus on supporting newer players and helping to push the adventure forward by befriending NPCs and providing valuable lore. The class is offensively limited, without a doubt, which may frustrate a newer player expecting some offensive ability to rival the deed of arms, the critically devastating backstab, or the Wizard’s frightening capacity to spellburn a 20+ result on Magic Missile or Burning Hands. In a larger party of 4+, I find that the Balladeer really shines, establishing a new niche that doesn’t overlap with any of the core classes, and in fact synergizes with each of them in interesting ways.
Conversely, I also like this class for an absolute beginner’s first foray into levelled play, perhaps in a one-shot module. I gave my friend a level 2 Balladeer to join us in the last leg of a one-shot weeks ago, and he was delighted by his ability to hang back and boost his friends from a safe distance, provide interesting tidbits of info to the group, and generally help in almost every encounter in some way without having to be the star or make big shots on his own.
Play Highlights
Johnny Mitchell definitely saved the day when he critically succeeded on an attempt to distract the Moon-Dragon of the Shudder Mountains while his allies prepared a devastating ambush! The player was delighted to see that he was instrumental in the setup, and had a great opportunity to ham it up.
Another Balladeer joined forces with a Halfling and a Thief, and provided them with ample opportunities to run wild with their luck burning abilities with Words of Inspiration. This ability also becomes a healing battery of sorts in a Lankhmar campaign without Clerics.
The new player who joined mid-module as a Balladeer discovered real stakes in the deed dice he was enhancing with Inspiring Presence. When the Warrior rolled a natural 5 on his enhanced deed die and deftly decapitated a vexing, floating foe, the Balladeer’s eyes widened and he sang, “He lost his head, and now he’s dead, he won’t be up in the morning.” The party rejoiced over his medieval stylings on the nursery rhyme. He told me afterward that the mechanic gave him a reason to actually watch every roll, not just wait for his turn.
Art Spotlight
Carlos Castilho’s cover is fantastically evocative of the class and its general vibe; the balladeer creeps forward with her instrument, wearing a look of coy curiosity. No weapons needed when you’re wielding the six-string!
Judge Takeaways
Consider Casting
Really the only feature that Baran didn’t include from the original concept of the DnD Bard (which I tracked down to Doug Schwegman’s article in Strategic Review, February 1976) is the delayed and lessened arcane casting ability. On one hand, he gave the Bard wonderful uses for inspiration to both the group, individuals and to deed die users, but on the other hand it would feel right to offer Balladeers some delayed spell progression table (perhaps to add to the offensive capabilities of the class). Consider giving the Balladeer one random level 1 spell at level 2, modified by their INT modifier and cast at a d16? We don’t want to overpower the class, but could offer this little bit of versatility to nod our heads toward the elders.
Instrumental Arsenal
Alternatively, what if we gave Balladeers an Instrumental Mastery table rather than a diluted Arcane spellcasting one? My four dusty volumes of the AD&D Encyclopedia Magica are filled with interesting instruments that could be flipped to DCC and sprinkled into your adventures. A Balladeer could command a number of these equal to the number of spells an Elf can cast, and they could be separated into power levels just as spells are. Rather than a full spell table, the items could have static PER DCs for their use, and perhaps a critical success and failure entry to spice things up? Maybe each instrument could be activated one time per day, per level of the Balladeer.
Just using Wind Instruments as an example; Level 1: Horn of Waking, Horn of Fog, Pipes of Pain. Level 2: Horn of Blasting, Horn of Sleeping, Horn of Voices. Level 3: Brass Horn of Valhalla, Pipes of the Sewer, Horn of Blasting.
The Horn of Waking could have a PER DC of 12 to awaken every creature within 60’, or 120’ on a roll of 20+. A roll of >1 could damage the instrument and cause dire insomnia to each nearby creature, denying them restful sleep for 1d3 days.
Overtaxing the Voice
Just as the Wizard can spellburn, how the Halfling and Thief can use their luck as a resource, what if the Balladeer could burn down their personality score to add oomph to their performances? The singer overextends his range, the guitarist breaks a string with a massive strum, perhaps the Balladeer could burn Personality to add to any skill or performance roll, regaining one point per level each night of rest.
Conclusion
As a semi-pro musician and career music teacher myself, the Bard has always been near and dear to my heart. I am delighted to have found the Balladeer, which I will offer my players after each funnel I run moving forward. The class is versatile, supportive, and filled with flavor for players to enjoy. I may tweak things a bit to offer a more offensive punch in combat (I’m leaning towards the instrument table rather than the delayed arcane table at the moment), but the class definitely stands on its own without those modifications. Tune your lutes, apply resin to your bows, and prepare your mouthpiece for adventure; the legendary exploits of your allies need to be immortalized in song!
I'm making a home setting based on the Midwest Rustbelt for MCC. I thought I would share the map and write-up I did.
This game clearly is NOT about optimization.
understanding that,
2-handed weapons seems to be taking a "hit" for flavour
Am i missing something?
Check out the latest printed zines and adventures... Stennard Character Record Sheets, Corpses on the Stennard River, The Icon Bearer 2.0, and Wide-Eyed Terror (Revisited).
Maybe grab some merch if you are inclined. Questions about the various zines, pamphlets, adventures, apparel are all welcomed!
Check it all out here: https://breakerpress.storenvy.com/
Maybe I just won't ever use this spell...
MM (17) Stolen knowledge. The formula for the spell was stolen from a powerful extraplanar being. Each time the spell is cast there is a 1% chance per spell level that the being emerges to take back its occult knowledge...the hard way. Roll 1d7: (1) Grand Sultan of the Efreet; (2) the great Cthulhu; (3) a Grand Prince of Hell; (4) an elephant-faced godling of the Outer Dark; (5) the spirit of a long dead archmage; (6) a mechanized brain from the distant future; (7) an elemental prince.
Although this is targeting 5e it applies to almost all ttrpgs. I couldn't help but think about how this could improve Mighty Deed of Arms.
Even my veteran DCC players struggle to use them effectively, much less theatrically. The comment about the completely open problem space really struck me as a cause for why so many players have lack luster deeds, if any at all. If there isn't a immediate or obvious problem to solve (beyond he presence of hostile forces) the problem space is just too large and people blank. I am going to talk to my players about it and see if having them identify problems to solve during combat, even if its just as simple as affecting the action economy of the battle, increases the number and quality of deeds they come up with. Much like the thief in the video, having fighter identify a problem they like to solve during combat instead of a style might yield better results.
35. Joe Average. Instead of a d20, the caster rolls 2d10 for spell checks on this spell. If his check die is another type, he rolls two “half-dice” instead (i.e., 2d7 instead of 1d14, 2d8 instead of 1d16, etc.).
does that mean no chance of critical failure or two chances?
Is there a consensus in the community?
Link to session 1 recap here: r/dccrpg/comments/1tgmupj/music_of_the_spheres_is_chaos_session_1_report/
Here is another recap of my campaign playthrough of The Music of the Spheres is Chaos. I will break this up into two parts, since half took place in the monastery and half took place underneath.
The party is the same as last time and all level five. It consists of a dwarf, a fighter, a cleric of Amun Tor, a halfling, and two elves: a male neutral elf and a female chaotic one.
Last session we ended with the players right outside the monastery gates. There were ten prayer wheels outside these gates, but last session, the players were feeling weary after their close calls with death. This time, at the start of the new session they were feeling much less risk adverse. Only one of the players in our group is chaotic, the female elf, and she started the spinning. There are identical pairs with five wheels on the right and five on the left, telling the story of monks taking godly power into their own hands, and eventually making the gods bow to them. Some of the party started to help, but then everyone chickened out before one wheel of each type was spun, except the chaotic elf. While the rest of the party hid right inside the monastery doors, she spun the last wheel and had a horrific vision of a chaos entity overtaking the sky. Being chaotic, she was the only player that could get something positive out of the vision, but as she failed her save she was only traumatized instead.
The monastery is composed of very small rooms which players can search for random items and encounters, and bigger pre-set rooms with more serious lore, risks and rewards. My players deemed the small rooms safer, and decided they wanted to search every small room before moving on. This led to them finding some items, often just sleeping mats, but also one jar containing a strange ointment. Dipping a bit of a ration in, the dwarf discovered the ointment could turn any object to gold. With his gold strip of beef jerky he saved the other two doses for later and packed the jar away (now encumbered).
Several small monster encounters were rolled as well. These started to get irritating for me as a DM as the monsters were quite insignificant compared to the party, yet the battles took quite a bit of time, and the players hadn't seen any of the main rooms in the monastery. They fought some monkeys, avoided some more of the ice spiders they encountered last session, and fought some worms. They did end up using more resources on these encounters than I expected. The monkey encounter was extremely unnecessary as the monkeys were not originally hostile, just scared. After being watched for a long time by the halfling who slowly kept creeping closer, the dwarf later lit up a big fire in their room, and terrified, they attacked. The combat was very loud, and I decided a giant worm, who is set to appear when the players make noise in another chamber, would come to investigate and eat some adventurers. That combat was not as insignificant. The party had just decided to rest in the chamber filled with dead monkeys when the worm burst through the floor. The dwarf and fighter got swallowed, and the dwarf ended up using a one use item he found in the last adventure (Beyond the Black Gate) to shock the worm into spitting them out before the party finished it off. They decided to not rest here again.
With no more small rooms to investigate, the players could go down the main hall, which leads to most of the interesting rooms of the monastery, or take one remaining passage over to the side. Taking the smaller passage led them to the first scripted encounter inside the monastery. Steps lead up to two elephantine statues flanking a doorway which was barred shut (from the outside where the party was) by two braziers placed in front of it. Rolling these down the stairs is the noise that normally triggers the worm, but since they had killed it, they were safe. Three corpses that had been leaning up against the door fell into the room when the doors were opened. These each had a stone key.
They also had a magical artifact: an alembic disk. Manipulating it causes entire regions of the dungeon to move. The chaotic elf, not knowing what it was, immediately started manipulating it before reading any of the easily decipherable runes on it. The inner circle of the disk contained symbols for fire, earth, water, and chaos, whereas the outer wheel contained symbols for the constellations of the wolf, the goat, the lion, and the worm. After turning it, the sound of screeching stone indicated something enormous was moving.
The hallway behind the corpses of the monks came to a dead end, though the dwarf could tell the wall there slid. By manipulating the alembic disk two more times, they rotated things so they could take the passage ahead. With that done, they left the monastery, having totally ignored all but one of its major rooms, and moved deeper into the mountain.
Edit: Two misspellings. Edit 2: Added a link to session 1.
