Dungeon Crawl Classics
You’re no hero. You’re an adventurer: a reaver, a cutpurse, a heathen-slayer, a tight-lipped warlock guarding long-dead secrets. You seek gold and glory, winning it with sword and spell, caked in the blood and filth of the weak, the dark, the demons, and the vanquished. There are treasures to be won deep underneath, and you shall have them. Return to the glory days of fantasy with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role-Playing Game. Adventure as 1974 intended, with modern rules grounded in the origins of sword & sorcery. Fast play, cryptic secrets, and a mysterious past await you.
Originally created by Joseph Goodman
How to play Dungeon Crawl Classics
Dungeon Crawl Classics is a fast-paced, open-feeling rules set allowing for epic game experiences without unnecessary tethers. It uses modern game-play while paying homage to the origins of role-playing and the fun that it inspired.
Frequently asked questions about Dungeon Crawl Classics
Explore Dungeon Crawl Classics Classes
Cleric
An adventuring cleric is a militant servant of a god, often part of a larger order of brothers. He wields the weapons of his faith: physical, spiritual, and magical. Physically, he is a skilled fighter when using his god’s chosen weapons. Spiritually, he is a vessel for the expression of his god’s ideals, able to channel holy powers that harm his god’s enemies. Magically, he is able to call upon his god to perform amazing feats.
Thief
You are a hulking, skulking thug waiting for your next victim, a dexterous wall-climber cozening treasures from ostensibly impenetrable vaults, a fleet-footed cutpurse outrunning shouting pursuers through a crowded market, or a brooding killer stalking a difficult target.
Warrior
You are a mailed knight on a king’s errand, a greedy brigand loyal to no man, a wild bear-skinned wanderer with an empty stomach, or a stout man-at-arms armored by a merchant’s gold. Of all the classes, warriors have the best attack bonus, the highest hit points, and the most potential for extra attack actions.
Wizard
Wizards control magic. At least, they attempt to. Mortal magic is unpredictable and wild but powerful. Unlike clerics whose faithful service is rewarded with divine powers, wizards wield magic through mastery and dominance of forces in which they are not always voluntary participants. Wizards are sometimes trained in combat, but are rarely a match for warriors or clerics in a clash of worldly weapons.
Dwarf
Dwarves live far beneath the ground and rarely set foot above it. Dark caves and deep cities were once your home, but now you live a wandering life: you are an exiled defender selling your martial might, a curious craftsman trading your talents, or a bitter renegade unwilling to settle for your lot in life. You are an object of suspicion to surface-worlders as well as other dwarves.
Elf
Elven longevity, combined with their skill with magic, has created many legends about their racial roots. Whether elves really have traffic with demons and gods is for them to know and the other races to discover. Elves can cast spells as wizards do. An elf of the same power level as a human wizard also has many decades of combat experience. As such, elves typically cast their spells just as competently as human wizards and also have martial skills.
Halfling
Halflings are un-ambitious country-dwellers who live in well-ordered peace and quiet. Their small stature and modest goals let them escape the notice of most major powers. They keep to them selves and make contact with others only when they are inadvertently drawn into the affairs of “the taller races,” as they call elves, dwarves, and humans. Halflings prefer lives of farming, gardening, beer-brewing, and other simple crafts. The few that take up adventuring are usually traders or ne’er-do-wells who have somehow been thrust outside the ordered nature of their normal lives.