I have PH, DMG, MM, XgtE, VgtM and MtoF+some third part books. I also have two kids under 4, a wife, a house and a full time job.. I really like 5e. But man I don't know why I even have all these 5e books, I do not have time to implement them. Its just a hassle to start a group for 5e. I just ordered DCC core rulebook, seems like it will be way more fitting for me and the amount of time I can give it. Seems like it works much better with one shot type sessions then 5e. I mean just making a fucking character for 5e takes hours. I am really considering selling most of my 5e books and just buy some cool sounding/looking adventures for DCC. Also seems like DCC have some really nice alternative setting (non medieval fantasy). I don't have time to play 3-4 different systems so this really speaks to me.
This adventure is absolutely brutal. I quite literally just finished my first Judging of DCC and I had to bend the rules and the story in order to end the adventure with every Player having 1 PC. I had 4 players and 16 PCs in total. If I followed the book then I’d have a complete TPK. It created some really great experiences for my Players and a party of mostly chaotic PCs. This adventure is an absolute meat grinder and it’ll make a 16 PC game into a 4 PC game easily.
Thank you for this video. My friend group has only ever played one session of D&D and enjoyed it. I picked this up during the recent WotC OGL fiasco and told my friend about he. He told me he wants to play this all day for his birthday so I'll be their Judge very soon! Very excited for this funnel!
@@ravener96 It's been a while now but we had a couple of survivors (due to tweaking the leviathan encounter for a smaller group). The survivors rode the tidal wave of the collapsing cave in the dragon ship out into a river which led them into Doom of the Savage Kings (one of my favorite DCC modules).
Awesome vid, and some great ideas in here, I’m hoping to DM this module for my 5e group (in which I am a player) and I’m super excited! Thanks for the tips and tricks my guy
My pleasure! Fun sidenote: Harley Stroh is a very approachable guy and would likely respond to e-mails if you have any questions for him. He responded to me!
Only thing worse than being a level 0 character is being a level 0 character's farm animal companion. We tied rope to a goose to figure out what's up with the well.
I have and very much like DCC. Now I finally found a game system I love that combines 4AD, DCC, Dungeon World and D&D called D100 Dungeon, by Martin Knight ! D100 Dungeon Mapping is awesome!
I ran this online for a group at Goodman Games' Spawn of Cyclops Con. My first time running DCC. There was a TPK at the tower with the beast men. The party almost made it. If only one would have survived there were plenty of level 0 townspeople prisoners that could have been used to fill their ranks. Still, everyone said they had a good time.
I feel like there is something missing for that final fight. A few remaining villagers vs 20+ enemies including a Boss. There could be more GM Guidance for how the characters can stack it in their favor.
I started this funnel last week with four players and 16 PCs on Roll20. Love it so far. They only got so far as the entrance to the courtyard. The vine horrors killed one person and a few were injured. I did let the PCs have max hit points, although I still fully expect most to die.
I prefer MCC to DCC (just due to personal taste, no other reason), but I have a complete lack of funnel adventures for either. I think you may have convinced me to spend a few coins on this.
I picked up this module last week. It is the eighth printing and the map is on page 4 now. Maybe they watched your video and moved it. I also see you have a new video up where you are a player in this funnel; I'll check that out after this.
Oh, nope! I’m running it in the new one. 😅 When I refer to the map page, there may be a difference as I may be referring to the PDF page number rather than the actual print page number.
Love this system. I've been RPing for like 17+ years and my best friend wanted to try real RPs over Sonic fanfic crap and I tried pulling a group together to DM but it didn't work out so I found us dudes who wanted to play DCC and I was gonna play a do'rf and he decided an elf and the dynamic is like an old married couple arguing. Me: Why you gotta be so mean to the humans?! Christ calm your ears elf Eric: They're just gonna walk right into cave? Not check for traps or anything? How did these bipedal monkeys make it past the second age hmmmm? You're only defending them to spite me. Me: Yep. Eric: Well their stupidity is gonna get US killed so stop enabling them. Me: Maybe you. Not me... I'm too stronK and cunning. Eric: You suck. You're just not as dumb as these guys. Those human players: JUST F*CK ALREADY
Funny; I will be running this later this week. I gave my players a choice between this and Carnival of the Damned and this was the clear winner. All the characters have been rolled up and we're ready to go. Will post a follow-up.
@@AaronthePedantic Well, we ran through it today and it turned out to be a meatgrinder, starting with the vines outside the keep, which killed one PC. Another got impaled on the portcullis. They only got past the leviathan on the way back by pushing some beastmen off the boat as a "sacrifice." All told only 6 of the 16 characters survived the funnel, but the players still loved it. Looking at stats and equipment it looks like they'll end up with 2 warriors, an elf, a thief, a wizard, and a cleric. So not bad at all.
How do the lv0s win the final fight? 20+ beastmen + Shaman + Chaos Lord. It feels impossible even if there isn't enough room at the top for many beastmen to attack at once...
It doesn’t feel like third edition to me at all. Third and 3.5 were precursors to pathfinder (UGH).DCC is old school with hot sauce and the funnel is designed to kill characters ... you have to try and kill characters with modern games like 3rd Ed, 3.5 pathfinder and Disneyland 5e
I don't really understand the point behind dying to cheap deaths. Doesn't the players just feel betrayed by the game/judge? If you go into a situation where you have 0 chance of knowing the true danger and also 0 chance of success, doesn't that just break the idea of fair game? I have played D&D 5th ed where one character died every other session. It really was super fun. But we died fair and square. It was Deadly X3 or even X4 but not impossible. Or if it was impossible, we could at least try to escape.
Cheap deaths are only really acceptable when that's what the players signed up for. Funnels should be thought of more as an extended character creation process, where only the survivors are fully realized characters. That's the spirit of the funnel. They tend to be kind of railroady and very brutal, but it's a great spectacle that creates a shared history for a new party and offers them a chance to earn their status as level1 adventurers.
If you give each player four characters they’re going to game the system to keep their favorite alive. It’s better to roll up the entire pool of characters and let the characters pick one. The remainder become NPCs. When a character dies the player gets to pick one from the pool.
Gaming the system is part of the funnel, yes. It’s an interactive character creation process that provides a fun mini game that provides a shared backstory. Perfectly skippable, and not at all appropriate for anyone to take more seriously than a beer n pretzels romp.
In linearity? This is an issue with the design of many DCC adventures, I will admit, funnels especially. SotSS is better than most in that it has many secrets with several ways of handling things. But, at the end of the day, there are only a few branching paths.
After playing DCC, I sold all my 5e books and never looked back.
I have PH, DMG, MM, XgtE, VgtM and MtoF+some third part books. I also have two kids under 4, a wife, a house and a full time job.. I really like 5e. But man I don't know why I even have all these 5e books, I do not have time to implement them. Its just a hassle to start a group for 5e. I just ordered DCC core rulebook, seems like it will be way more fitting for me and the amount of time I can give it. Seems like it works much better with one shot type sessions then 5e. I mean just making a fucking character for 5e takes hours. I am really considering selling most of my 5e books and just buy some cool sounding/looking adventures for DCC. Also seems like DCC have some really nice alternative setting (non medieval fantasy). I don't have time to play 3-4 different systems so this really speaks to me.
There's a bunch of helpful things in here. Great video! Thanks for making it.
I'm glad you found some use in it! :D
This adventure is absolutely brutal. I quite literally just finished my first Judging of DCC and I had to bend the rules and the story in order to end the adventure with every Player having 1 PC. I had 4 players and 16 PCs in total. If I followed the book then I’d have a complete TPK. It created some really great experiences for my Players and a party of mostly chaotic PCs. This adventure is an absolute meat grinder and it’ll make a 16 PC game into a 4 PC game easily.
I'm doing this funnel for the first time in a few weeks for my group for my birthday! I can't wait I'm so excited to play through it.
Heck yeah! Happy early birthday and best of luck on the funnel!
Thank you for this video. My friend group has only ever played one session of D&D and enjoyed it. I picked this up during the recent WotC OGL fiasco and told my friend about he. He told me he wants to play this all day for his birthday so I'll be their Judge very soon! Very excited for this funnel!
I hope you guys enjoy it!
How was the birthday game?
I played this adventure at my LFGS. I’m HOOKED.
Looks like a great introduction to the system.
I've sold a couple of my players on the system by describing it as "Dark Souls as a TTRPG".
Gearing up to run this tomorrow at my FLGS, super stoked!
Best of luck! Show no mercy. 😜
How did it go?
@@ravener96 It's been a while now but we had a couple of survivors (due to tweaking the leviathan encounter for a smaller group). The survivors rode the tidal wave of the collapsing cave in the dragon ship out into a river which led them into Doom of the Savage Kings (one of my favorite DCC modules).
Awesome vid, and some great ideas in here, I’m hoping to DM this module for my 5e group (in which I am a player) and I’m super excited! Thanks for the tips and tricks my guy
My pleasure! Fun sidenote: Harley Stroh is a very approachable guy and would likely respond to e-mails if you have any questions for him. He responded to me!
Only thing worse than being a level 0 character is being a level 0 character's farm animal companion. We tied rope to a goose to figure out what's up with the well.
Genius! Haha
Poor goose!!
I have and very much like DCC. Now I finally found a game system I love that combines 4AD, DCC, Dungeon World and D&D called D100 Dungeon, by Martin Knight ! D100 Dungeon Mapping is awesome!
I ran this online for a group at Goodman Games' Spawn of Cyclops Con. My first time running DCC. There was a TPK at the tower with the beast men. The party almost made it. If only one would have survived there were plenty of level 0 townspeople prisoners that could have been used to fill their ranks. Still, everyone said they had a good time.
I feel like there is something missing for that final fight. A few remaining villagers vs 20+ enemies including a Boss. There could be more GM Guidance for how the characters can stack it in their favor.
I started this funnel last week with four players and 16 PCs on Roll20. Love it so far. They only got so far as the entrance to the courtyard. The vine horrors killed one person and a few were injured. I did let the PCs have max hit points, although I still fully expect most to die.
Still lots of fun to be had if they only made it to the courtyard! Just wait til they get to the ship. 😁
I prefer MCC to DCC (just due to personal taste, no other reason), but I have a complete lack of funnel adventures for either. I think you may have convinced me to spend a few coins on this.
Hole in the Sky is also very cool, but I haven't had the chance to run it.
MCC looks awesome. Another game on my shelf I want to run. 😁
I picked up this module last week. It is the eighth printing and the map is on page 4 now. Maybe they watched your video and moved it. I also see you have a new video up where you are a player in this funnel; I'll check that out after this.
Oh, nope! I’m running it in the new one. 😅 When I refer to the map page, there may be a difference as I may be referring to the PDF page number rather than the actual print page number.
I have a player that loooved pbta who quit all his pbta games to try and get into more OSR stuff cause of this funnel
This popped up in my Timeline
I have been running DCC for years and I still haven’t played or ran this module
…well I haven’t used any modules for that matter except the portal under the stars one
MISS YOU AARON
Love this system. I've been RPing for like 17+ years and my best friend wanted to try real RPs over Sonic fanfic crap and I tried pulling a group together to DM but it didn't work out so I found us dudes who wanted to play DCC and I was gonna play a do'rf and he decided an elf and the dynamic is like an old married couple arguing.
Me: Why you gotta be so mean to the humans?! Christ calm your ears elf
Eric: They're just gonna walk right into cave? Not check for traps or anything? How did these bipedal monkeys make it past the second age hmmmm? You're only defending them to spite me.
Me: Yep.
Eric: Well their stupidity is gonna get US killed so stop enabling them.
Me: Maybe you. Not me... I'm too stronK and cunning.
Eric: You suck. You're just not as dumb as these guys.
Those human players: JUST F*CK ALREADY
Sure useful. Thanks!
Just gonna run a homebrew funnel, that's how I... . . . . . roll
Do it! :D Let me know how it goes.
@@AaronthePedantic will do, rolling up the stack of characters in a few weeks here
Que sunglasses and CSI Miami music, YEAAAAAAAAWWW
Does B-1 connect directly to 1-1? (Sailors On The Starless Sea)
Funny; I will be running this later this week. I gave my players a choice between this and Carnival of the Damned and this was the clear winner. All the characters have been rolled up and we're ready to go. Will post a follow-up.
Heck yeah! Looking forward to hearing about it.
@@AaronthePedantic Well, we ran through it today and it turned out to be a meatgrinder, starting with the vines outside the keep, which killed one PC. Another got impaled on the portcullis. They only got past the leviathan on the way back by pushing some beastmen off the boat as a "sacrifice." All told only 6 of the 16 characters survived the funnel, but the players still loved it. Looking at stats and equipment it looks like they'll end up with 2 warriors, an elf, a thief, a wizard, and a cleric. So not bad at all.
@@sunsin1592 sounds like a perfectly glorious run. 😁
How do the lv0s win the final fight? 20+ beastmen + Shaman + Chaos Lord. It feels impossible even if there isn't enough room at the top for many beastmen to attack at once...
Is this the module I'm playing in?
Nope!
@@AaronthePedantic Good, will watch the vid then.
Hole in the Sky
😏👍
It doesn’t feel like third edition to me at all. Third and 3.5 were precursors to pathfinder (UGH).DCC is old school with hot sauce and the funnel is designed to kill characters ... you have to try and kill characters with modern games like 3rd Ed, 3.5 pathfinder and Disneyland 5e
I don't really understand the point behind dying to cheap deaths. Doesn't the players just feel betrayed by the game/judge? If you go into a situation where you have 0 chance of knowing the true danger and also 0 chance of success, doesn't that just break the idea of fair game? I have played D&D 5th ed where one character died every other session. It really was super fun. But we died fair and square. It was Deadly X3 or even X4 but not impossible. Or if it was impossible, we could at least try to escape.
Cheap deaths are only really acceptable when that's what the players signed up for. Funnels should be thought of more as an extended character creation process, where only the survivors are fully realized characters.
That's the spirit of the funnel. They tend to be kind of railroady and very brutal, but it's a great spectacle that creates a shared history for a new party and offers them a chance to earn their status as level1 adventurers.
Dull
If you give each player four characters they’re going to game the system to keep their favorite alive. It’s better to roll up the entire pool of characters and let the characters pick one. The remainder become NPCs. When a character dies the player gets to pick one from the pool.
Gaming the system is part of the funnel, yes. It’s an interactive character creation process that provides a fun mini game that provides a shared backstory. Perfectly skippable, and not at all appropriate for anyone to take more seriously than a beer n pretzels romp.
A bit too much like a Disney Ride.
In linearity? This is an issue with the design of many DCC adventures, I will admit, funnels especially. SotSS is better than most in that it has many secrets with several ways of handling things. But, at the end of the day, there are only a few branching paths.