House rules

Differences between 5e D&D and Dungeon Crawl Classics

You start off at zero level with 3 characters. Zero level characters die immediately if they hit zero hit points. For each stat you roll 3d6 in order. Your characters are ordinary people who become extraordinary by what they do.

The character classes and races are from 1978 basic D&D. You roll your background and this also indicates your race. Non human races are classes. If you're human you choose your class at first level.

This is a game about low level play. The rulebook states reaching 5th level is a significant achievement. Advantage or disadvantage means you roll a bigger or smaller dice, not roll additional dice. Advantage and disadvantage stack.

If a character is dying they need a healing potion or spell to save them.

You can burn luck to affect your die rolls.

There are critical and fumble tables.

There's no such thing as a bonus action. It takes time to draw weapons, search for items in your pack, and drink potions.

You need to roll to cast a spell. Not making the DC means the spell didn't go off. High rolls have greater effects.

Wizard spell duels are a thing and have their own rules.

House rules

All house rules can be rescinded or iterated on by the GM as play progresses. This will only be done between sessions and notification of updates will be given.

General play

1. In combat you start speaking immediately when it's your turn. Otherwise you are doing nothing but defending that round. Speaking means you're either talking to me stating what your character is doing or you're asking me for a clarification about what's happening on the battle field. Conversation with other players is not allowed when it's your turn.
2. You start with 3 zero level characters. Beyond zero level a maximum of 10 characters can be in play at any one time.
3. If you get down to your last character, you can roll up a new 0 level character.
4. In order to recover HP, spells, disapproval and luck, you must rest and have rations to eat overnight. The only exception to this is hobbits, they recover luck even with no rest. They're good in a tight spot.

Movement

1. You can only move orthogonally.
2. You can only move and take an action. You can't take an action and move.
3. You can't convert actions into movement.
4. You can buy an extra point of movement by burning a luck point. Hobbit and thief luck bonuses apply to this. I.e. a hobbit could burn a point of luck and move 2 extra spaces.
5. There's no zone of control. You can move freely around monsters. You can move freely through allies.
6. You can move through monsters but it counts as difficult terrain and provokes an opportunity attack.

Missile fire and magic

1. You can't move and make a ranged attack. You can't make a ranged attack against somebody standing next to you. However the first friendly between you and a target does not count as blocking line of sight and if they're in combat then you have no chance of hitting the friendly. You can burn a point of luck to move and make a ranged attack at disadvantage or attack somebody standing next to you. All touch spells you can move and cast without disadvantage.
2. You need one hand free to cast a spell.

Combat

1. You can defend as your action. Attacks against you are at disadvantage. You must move 1 square away from your attacker to take advantage of this defensive bonus. Defending only applies to missile attacks if you are facing your attacker and have a shield.
2. At first level and above, if you hit zero hit points then you can only take defensive actions. In the hit that took you to zero any additional damage beyond that that takes the character to 0 hit points comes off a random statistic as temporary damage. If this takes the stat to zero you are immediately dropped. While you're on zero hit points any further hits will drop the character.
3. Heroic last action. If you are on zero hit points then you can take a final offensive action at advantage. After the action is resolved the character drops.
4. At any point in a combat you can declare you're legging it. Even if it's not your turn. You get an extra free move but if you're next to any enemy it gets an opportunity attack. Once you've decided to leg it you need to make a DC15 will check to stop retreating and take further part in the combat.
5. Facing matters. If someone attacks you from behind then they get advantage on the attack roll. If you're aware of them and are not already engaged then you can turn to face them.
6. Hobbits can burn luck on attack, spells and damage cast against them.
7. If an action doesn't require a die roll to complete, you can rush the action. Succeed on a DC10 agility check and the action takes no time. Fail and you've wasted your action.
8. Initiative. We no longer roll for initiative. The first person to state a violent action goes first. Initiative stays with that person's side until somebody fails an action. Then the initiative switches to the other side. Unless everybody on the other side has already taken their action this round.
9. We roll for initiative at the start of each session. The person with the highest roll can chose to take an extra action once in that session. For example they could attack twice or move double.

Levelling up

1. When you level up your luck resets to your starting luck.