Can someone tell me how Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG's "unpredictable magic" aspect functions?

Wizards make a spell check.
D20 + Intelligence modifier +caster level. Possibly other modifiers.
Then you roll on a chart. Each spell has a chart.
Low roll and the spell fails , possible misfire, corruption.
Corruption are mutations. Height change. Forked tongue. Tentacles. Beast face. Gills. Feathers. Fun.

High spell rolls can be devastating.
Compare Magic Missile.
14-17 one missile does d4 + level damage, must have line of sight, but automatically hits.

30-31 2d6+1 missiles that do 1-8 + level each and may be directed at separate targets.

Instead of having hundreds of different spells, DCC has less than two dozen. When you cast a spell, you roll D20 plus modifiers and the higher your roll the more badass your spell might become. The effects of a basic spell can become quite impressive. AKA, instead of having a dozen versions of healing spells, you roll for the Healing spell which could heal everything from one point to curing them entirely.

As your wizard gains levels, your D20 bonus rises which makes the range of results a tad "safer", but you can always roll a 1 and suffer all sorts of bad stuff.

I'm not a DCC fan, but many players are quite happy with the randomness.

I've played a good bit of DCC and not seen much 'corruption' at all. It's much more common to just fail and lose the spell.
More common is rolling high and getting some result far more powerful than intended/desired. I had a near TPK with a sleep spell that hit top rank... and the same with Flaming Hands.

You can get a sense of it by downloading the free Crawler's Companion, tap/click Spell, and pick a spell.
https://purplesorcerer.com/crawler.php

Spell Selection
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3519[/ATTACH]

Spell Result in this case I rolled a 33 on a Fireball.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3520[/ATTACH]

The crawler's companion is nifty in that not only it roll the result, but also has a lookup mode where you can just tap the number corresponding to what you or the player rolled and it tells you the result. It is the best utility for any RPG ever made.

To anyone who's actually played magic-users in DCC: How often does magic use turn out to be counterproductive, under this system?  How counterproductive does it turn out to be, when it does -- has anyone ever had an experience of a spell misfire getting a party member killed?

Quote from: Simlasa;1092399More common is rolling high and getting some result far more powerful than intended/desired. I had a near TPK with a sleep spell that hit top rank... and the same with Flaming Hands.

When I ran a playtest of the Emerald Sorcerer for Goodman Games, the wizard used his single 1st level spell Enlarge to expand a locked door out of its frame. He rolled too well and it popped like a bat out of hell. I roll to see if the wizards was in the line of fire (3 to 4 on a d6), he was. Then he failed his save, got nailed by the door and died.

Quote from: estar;1092403When I ran a playtest of the Emerald Sorcerer for Goodman Games, the wizard used his single 1st level spell Enlarge to expand a locked door out of its frame. He rolled too well and it popped like a bat out of hell. I roll to see if the wizards was in the line of fire (3 to 4 on a d6), he was. Then he failed his save, got nailed by the door and died.

Oh, that was you! I remember reading about that incident when I was first looking into the game.

I wouldn't say the magic is 'counterproductive' all that often, just unpredictable enough that it's entertaining. Some spells will let the caster choose lower level effects but othertimes you don't want to be standing too close to the caster. You can also burn Luck or do some blood magic to put oomph into your spell (my wizard was covered in scars).

I did kill another PC once when a spell went wild... but it was one of my alternates so no one got bent about it.
At about 4th level my wizard started shutting down some confrontations before any melee could happen. That Sleep spell I mentioned truncated the dungeon we were in, taking out all the final big-bads (as well as our party of PCs).


I love DCC, particularly for its magic... but if you're someone who cannot stomach any randomness... or have fits when you lose a character... pick another game.

Quote from: Simlasa;1092411I love DCC, particularly for its magic... but if you're someone who cannot stomach any randomness... or have fits when you lose a character... pick another game.

Oh, I don't object to randomness or to losing a character; I just object to losing a character because of sheer randomness, especially when the randomness is introduced explicitly to nerf the effectiveness of the primary function I chose the character for.

Fizban from Dragonlance is very entertaining to watch, but I don't want to play him (without the hidden backstory factors that ensure what he does always turns out to be for the best in the very end, however much short-term inconvenience they cause).

Quote from: Stephen Tannhauser;1092414Oh, I don't object to randomness or to losing a character; I just object to losing a character because of sheer randomness, especially when the randomness is introduced explicitly to nerf the effectiveness of the primary function I chose the character for.

See, I don't see DCC's casting rolls as a 'nerf' on caster powers at all. IMO they make playing a caster a LOT more fun, and let magic feel strange and unknowable... scarier. That feeling of engaging with something weird and dangerous is primary reason I want to play a magic-user.

Thank you all for the info!

Quote from: Spinachcat;1092302Instead of having hundreds of different spells, DCC has less than two dozen.

There are 716 spells in the world.  No more, no less. ;-)
Only around 80 are listed in the book.

Besides failure causing corruption or nasty side effects, they have mercurial magic.  
When a wizard learns a new spell, they have to roll on a table for how the spell manifests for them.
I had a wizard with very poor luck roll the affect that "someone they know dies every time they cast" the color spray spell.

You can also acquire a Patron.   A very cool part of the game.   More spells too.   There is also a DCC Companion- more spells, coming soon.

A Wizard with a Patron of Bliddleglop the Lord of Slime will be very different than a Wizard who's Patron is Glinlelith the Elven Queen.  Very cool.

Patrons are probably one of the best parts of DCC.

Seriously- look up some Patrons. Pretty neat stuff.

This all sounds pretty neat, my local comic/gameshop actually has some DCC books in stock, I'd probably pick one up if I didn't already but ACKS just a few days ago. Maybe on payday. Then again, I have more games to play than I really have time to play them.

Quote from: Slambo;1092630This all sounds pretty neat, my local comic/gameshop actually has some DCC books in stock, I'd probably pick one up if I didn't already but ACKS just a few days ago. Maybe on payday. Then again, I have more games to play than I really have time to play them.

There is a short quick start book around. They had it for free last Free Rpg Day 2018.