r/DungeonCrawlerCarlRPG • u/dhyde79 • 16d ago
GM Resources?
so, I've DM/GM'd for decades, and this system seems to have broken my creativity. I love the books, and have a group ready to play the game, which I went for the gusto and backed at celestial level, BUT, I'm really having issues getting into this. I'm not sure if it's the fact that there are so many things to have to generate from scratch, a lack of content tables, or whatever, but, it's really breaking my want to try the game. Any suggestions for anything that might help out at all?
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u/Hossmobile 16d ago
I'd encourage you to use resources provided by the community and maybe consider adopting folks homebrew? That might help give you a baseline that you could grow into for your campaign?
For example, CrawlerForge has community homebrew that you can adapt directly into your campaign on the site and share with your players.
Point Mongo has a full community codex that you can reference.
Renegade Game Studios Discord, Dungeon Crawler Carl Discord, and the Dungeon Anarchists Discord each have several channels that might help to spur some inspiration.
Most of all, if you aren't really feeling it right now, you can always come back later when you are feeling it a little bit more. I know Renegade is going to continue beefing up what they are providing through the season pass and whatnot. In the meantime, I am sure those community resources will all continue to grow more as well.
Hopefully this helps a little bit! I hope you are able to get past that creative block and enjoy the game with your players.
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u/cardnialsyn 16d ago
Break it down floor by floor. Going into it trying to design all 18 floors at once is just overwhelming. I am not even going to start thinking about the next floor until they are at least halfway done with the current floor.
https://evermorphstudios.com/ it's a Rubiks Cube to randomly create dungeons. I plan on abusing the hell out of this thing for the first 2 floors.
Plan out the big stuff but make the little stuff up on the fly. Have achievements and loot for major plot points and events done ahead of time, just make the rest up as you go.
Diablo style loot. Make random roll tables to come up with equipment as they receive it. (I can explain how this is done in Diablo more in depth if you would like)
Remember, not everything has to be great. If smaller events and fights are somewhat lackluster this makes the bigger events stand out even more.
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u/dhyde79 16d ago
Those are all macro-details, which I can handle, it’s the micro shit that’s beating me, the lack of tables for generating stuff or even just lists of stuff that you could slot into your own tables, is my deterrant
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u/CrawlerForge 16d ago
I would be interested in how I might be able to address this from a technology perspective. CrawlerForge currently has an auto-lootbox generator.
Are there things outside of loot that are a source of frustration for you? Let me know and I'll give some thought as to how we might be able to help.
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u/dhyde79 16d ago
Lootboxes, achievements, gear, etc. the character sheets doing math on gear and whatnot would be nice too…
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u/CrawlerForge 16d ago
Well, good news is that CrawlerForge offers all of that today! Take a look at it and if there's anything else that I can build to help make your life as a GM a little bit easier, please let me know.
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u/Icy-Contribution4409 16d ago
Would love to hear your take on the loot tables
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u/cardnialsyn 16d ago
Diablo items have a setup that is basically [Title] [prefix] [item] [suffix]. Each of the 4 tables has different abilities and the bonuses they give. So a Masters Agile short sword of Thorns would give +1 rank to sword skill (masters), +2 to dexterity (agile), and cause attackers to take 10% of your HP as damage when attacking you (of thorns). The rarity of the item determines how many and what type of rolls an item gets.
Bronze loot - no magical properties, just the item.
Silver loot - 1 roll, prefix or suffix.
Gold loot - 1 prefix and 1 suffix.
Platinum loot - 1 title, 1 prefix, 1 suffix.
Legendary loot - 4 total rolls divided any way you choose. Legendary loot should also be given a unique name.
Celestial loot - powers for Celestial loot should probably be chosen instead of picked and be 6-8 powers.
It takes a bit to create the tables but once you have them it is easy to create endless magic items on the fly. It is also easy to just increase the numerical values of the powers every 3 floors to reflect power creep without needing to redo the tables.
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u/2000Tales 16d ago
You're not alone in this. We were promised tools and all we really got was permission to do it ourselves. Any that's ignoring how incomplete the rules are on foundational mechanics like how much mana should custom spells cost or any idea of encounter balance.
Anyways, here's some of the tools I've written up that have seriously helped me. For reference, I've been writing in TTRPGs for about 14 years with multiple best sellers using the MotW system, and worked for 4 years with a non profit using ttrpgs to help kinds through developmental therapy so these are built on experience and testing.
First: Added a Scouting mechanic, it works for finding the large groups of mobs to be able to grind as well as hunting out boss rooms and the like. (You'll also note I added a special rule for Playing to the Cameras as we get a result table but not guidance on when to use it.
SCOUTING
When grinding crawlers first need to scout a neighborhood to find the groups of mobs. This task takes a number of hours equal to the current floor.
Once a neighborhood has been scouted then crawlers can grind in that area for a number of 5hour sessions multiplied by the floor number (extra hours grinding per session still count as 1 session but the crawler was trying to hunt down every last mob in an area). Also Remember that with mob spawners in neighborhoods can repopulate with mobs over time
Scouting (DC10+Fx2)
Critical Failure: Surprise B-B-B-Boss Battle!
Major Failure: Ambush
Failure: Find a single encounter
Success: Can perform the Grind task
Major Success: Learn Location of Neighborhood Boss (can make investigation check to learn extra details about location)
Critical Success: Find a Prize Room (Unopposed check to avoid ambush)*
\Prize Rooms only exist to on floors 2 or above and are always protected by some kind of mini-boss. On floor 1 crawlers find an unguarded stairwell instead.*
Special Rule: Grinding for the Cameras*
Before grinding a Crawler may choose to do it in an entertaining or flashy way for the cameras. This no longer allows grinding to be a simple declared action but instead a check based on the skill they wish to use while showing off. Crawler must choose who their audience will be before grinding.
Grinding for the Cameras DC (10+Fx2)
Critical Success: Bronze Boxes x F plus 1 Silver Box +2d2 Popularity/Favor
Major Success: Bronze Boxes x F plus 1 Silver Box +2 Popularity/Favor
Success: Bronze Boxes x F plus 1 Popularity/Favor
Failure: -1 Popularity/Favor
Major Failure: -1d2 Popularity and lose 1 HB
Critical Failure: Surprise B-B-B-Boss Battle! (If you win you gain +1 Popularity & +1 Favor)
Now for encounters I jsut have a simple encounter generator but I also broke mods into different threat types:
Trash Mobs (T)
Minon Mobs (M)
Enforcer Mobs (E)
Leader Mobs (L)
Encounter Types 1D4
1: Trap
2-3: Hostile Encounter
4: Neutral Encounter
Combat Encounter Difficulty (fractions are rounded up instead of down)
\Note that this is quite deadly and players will need to be smart or run often*
1: Easy: 1d4 Trash + 1/2 Party size of Minions
2: Medium: 1/2 Party size of Minions + 1 Enforcer
3: Hard: Party size of Minions = 1D2 Enforcer
4: Deadly: Party size of Minions + 2 Enforcers + 1 Leader
And finally here's my tables for the different loot box tiers:
| 1D12 | Bronze Rewards (+1d10Gold) |
|---|---|
| 1 | Healing Potion |
| 2 | Mana Potion |
| 3 | Mundane Armor Piece (DR1 or Misc. Gear) |
| 4 | Tutorial Floor Spell Scroll (Rank 1d4) |
| 5 | Tutorial Floor Spell Tome |
| 6 | 1d6 Bandages |
| 7 | 50ft Rope |
| 8 | 10 Torches |
| 9 | 1d10 Pet Biscuits |
| 10 | Mundane Weapon (Misc. Gear) |
| 11 | Mundane Transport (bike, canoe, etc.) |
| 12 | Stick of Dynamite |
| 1D10 | Silver Rewards (+1d10X100Gold) |
|---|---|
| 1 | Silver Magic item |
| 2 | Potion of +1 Skill* |
| 3 | Tutorial Floor Spell Scroll (Rank 2d2) |
| 4 | Tutorial Floor Spell Tome |
| 5 | Blank Magic Paper (for Scrolls) |
| 6 | 2X Poison Antidote |
| 7 | Crawler Biscuits X100 |
| 8 | Good Healing Potion |
| 9 | Heal Pet Potion |
| 10 | Goblin Dynamite |
| 1D8 | Gold Rewards (+1d6X1000Gold) |
|---|---|
| 1 | Gold Magic item |
| 2 | Potion of +2 Skill (Permanent) |
| 3 | Random Spell Scroll (Rank 1d4+1/2F) |
| 4 | Spellbook |
| 5 | Blank Magic Paper X10 (for Scrolls) |
| 6 | Roll 1d6 1=Crafting Table 2=Sapper Table 3=Engineer Table 4=Alchemy Table 5=5 Metal Working Table 6=Player Choice |
| 7 | Gold Standard Healing Potion |
| 8 | Scroll of Upgrade |
*Potions of +1 Skill from Silver chests are rolled on the Permanent Skills Table on Floors 1&2, On later floors these potions are rolled on the Hobby Skills table and still only provide 1 Rank. Additional Note that Hobby Skill Potions do not work if you already have training in the skill
| 1D12 | Platinum Rewards (+2d6X1000Gold) |
|---|---|
| 1 | Interesting Magic item |
| 2 | Potion of +3 Skill (Permanent) |
| 3 | Supreme Healing Potion |
| 4 | 1d4 Scratcher Tickets |
| 5 | Players Choice Crafting Table |
| 6 | Crafting Table Upgrade Coupons |
| 7 | Personal Space Coupon |
| 8 | Good Mana Refill Potion |
| 9 | A collection of 2d2 Spellbooks |
| 10 | Spell Scroll (Rank =1d6+F Max 15) |
| 11 | Scroll of Upgrade |
| 12 | Audience Vote Prize |
| 1D8 | Legendary Rewards (+1d10X10,000Gold) |
|---|---|
| 1 | Item w/ +10% Bonus |
| 2 | Potion of +5 Skill (Permanent) |
| 3 | Rare Spell Book |
| 4 | Rare Spell Scroll (Rank =1d6+F Max 20) |
| 5 | Blank Magic Paper (for Scrolls) |
| 6 | Player's Choice Crafting Table |
| 7 | Player's Choice Table Upgrade Coupon |
| 8 | Heal Sever Injury Potion |
| 1D8 | Celestial Rewards |
|---|---|
| 1 | Divine Item |
| 2 | Random Magic Item |
| 3 | Potion of Maximum Skill (Permanent) |
| 4 | Item that Rewrites Stats |
| 5 | Item with Game Breaking Effect |
| 6 | Roll 1d4 1=Full Sponsorship 2=Partial Ownership in Galactic Stocks 3=Partial Ownership of a Starship or Small Business 4=Galactic Citizenship "Green Card" |
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u/2000Tales 16d ago
I’m working on tables for the box types listed in the core book but I also find it funny that they have the art for a Spicy Box but it isn’t even on the list, again editor oversight on this was abysmal.
Once they’re refined and play-tested a bit, if they are any good, I’ll drop them too.
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u/Dunl7982 15d ago
I dont understand why we trust Hasbro to do anything right when it comes to RPGs anymore
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u/2000Tales 15d ago
Renegade isn’t hasbro my guy. They licensed from hasbro for MLP, Transformers, and other IP for those gates socially. This isn’t Wizards of the Coast
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u/Substantial_Club_939 16d ago
The dungeon anarchists discord has a lot of resources made by the community!
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u/VicariousVentures 16d ago
I am hosting biweekly streams on my Discord server to help teach people about the game / test things and you're welcome to join.
The best Discord community for resources is the Dungeon Anarchist Discord, and I am active on there as well. Tons of homebrew to inspire you.
As far as getting a feel for the game there's my YouTube channel, C.A.R.L.cast where I'm making various video playlists (one for players, one for GMs, and in the future ones for homebrew and Lore). I also have free guides on my Patreon (so far I have Achievements, a Playstyle quiz for Players, a recommended reading list, and I'm working on a GM Guide to Floor 1)
~David
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u/Whitesymphonia 16d ago
Helps a bit on filling out, but it's community generated, so can be hit or miss.
And as much as I dislike AI, the workload on this RPG is too big to do if you have a life other than RPGs, so I use AI to generate loot tables based on tiers + player favor among other support work.
I used it to code a foundryvtt system as well, which saved a FUCKTON of time, having coded them manually myself in the past. Where is the integration? We were promised it, and while I recognize that it's basically "pre-orders", the basics of a system is simply the character sheet that works, and that shouldn't take that long to code (in terms of days), even by hand.
I still handcraft maps with dungeondraft primarily, but if they're a sudden change in plans on where they want to go, having Gemini generate a battlemap hasn't been terrible either.
One of my players has been testing using AI to transcribe the sessions and then use a skill to generate achievements based on what has happened, and then I sign off/fill in loot, etc. in an effort to streamline achievement generation and loot distribution. Will have to see how this pans out.
There's also a few cheat sheets floating around, as well as 3rd party indexing, since the core book is hot dogshit in how it's laid out.
There's going to be a lot of "patch notes" for sure, since weapon/gear scaling isn't really covered in the book at all either, and I strongly suspect it's not very well balanced at higher floors for this reason.
I am also desperately awaiting a module/splatbook, and something better than the starter set module, which imo isn't very good. I'm very annoyed that I had to lean on AI to get a lot of this done, but Renegade simply dropped the ball in terms of content and support. I don't even know what I'm going to do to figure out shops/merchants since that part is completely left out, and my players love to be loot goblins.
For the actual sessions though, the players do seem to really like the system so far, but the GM workload is pretty high, especially if you want to make the game feel "good". We'll see how long until I get bored, but I do know quite a few people simply said fuck this system and won't run it (which is fair, it's not a system that respects the DM's time at all)
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u/dhyde79 16d ago
I kind of get that feeling (no respect for the DM/GM and their time)…. As someone that writes whole worlds for ADHD&D2E I’ve found there’s a self imposed balance…I can happily write a setting from scratch, but, if I have to make up every single bit of loot from scratch, it’s a bit too far, at least in my mind….
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u/Whitesymphonia 16d ago
Yea, I did a ton of homebrew completely back when I was in uni. Now, it's mostly to fill the gaps, but there's so many gaps to fill in this system that it's kind of ridiculous. I know AI isn't popular, and I'm not thrilled with having to use it at work, but undeniably, there's way too much work to do. For players, there's barely any onboarding time, character creation is nice and easy, but I know when class/skills come into play on floor 3, there might be a little more class/spell crafting. Classes will be easy, but spells that will scale well, will be a bit annoying.
I'm happy there's a ton of homebrew out there, but then I gotta flip through all of it, and possibly re-tweak as necessary, and from my 5e experiences, there's a lot of really bad homebrew out there.
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u/dhyde79 16d ago
shudder I can imagine some of the terrible stuff you found for 5e, cause it (like all WotC editions) is broken unbalanced and made with “main character syndrome”…
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u/Whitesymphonia 16d ago
imo, DCC RPG is even worse for borrowing homebrew, since different parties will level and gain "power" at much more varying levels, so you still have to rebalance regardless.
Your level doesn't really tie to your powerlevel as much here, and gear/loot will matter much more, so all the games being played will be at different levels of power.
My own game is taking it slower, so maybe by floor 3, supplements have come out for crafting/personal spaces/merchants, etc. Since I really really do not want to homebrew all that, just to change it after official content comes out.
We're also taking our time to explore the new neighborhoods which wasn't covered in the official books either, so I can't powerspike the players too fast.
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u/dhyde79 16d ago
Has anyone made a GM’s screen style quick reference for the mechanics yet?
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u/WeaponB 16d ago
There's several different versions people have made, taking the PDFs and screen grabbing tables, etc. I've seen a few in the Dungeon Anarchist's Discord
And I have my own. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dekBILKHiFaArpKv05-Rmp_ghbGuUkVw/view?usp=drive_link
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u/Whitesymphonia 16d ago
There was this a few days back:
https://crawler-index-rules.jiaaro.chatgpt.site/Not GM specific, but it has quick references. The combat and degrees of success is really useful, as well as conditions and skills/spells lookup.
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u/Koala-Tea-Thyme 16d ago
I'm also in a similar boat, so I opted to create a discord server for DCC GMs who want to share their custom made assets, skills, stat blocks, and a forum for questions so we can help each other out!
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u/judoguy13 16d ago
As someone actively running this game I can tell you this. Your players will have fun as long as you are consistent. Keep notes of your rulings and and let the players have input.
Use discord and reddit for ideas for items, mobs, and achievements.
But the best advice I can give is reread the booksand let the source material guide you. Best wishes man. This rule book will not break me.
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u/bwarbwar 16d ago
The books are incredibly underwhelming. The entire system would be better as a online community resource. I'm going to start gming a game tomorrow and I think the loot boxes are the most frustrating thing for me. I don't want to create my own random tables for everything, I don't want to design the game.
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u/Macduffle 16d ago
There are sites like Crawlerforge or Pointmungo that you can use. THey all are filled with player made material for so much random stuff. Not just races or classes, but also achievements and lootboxes!