Dungeon Crawl Classics vs Old-School Essentials
Compare Dungeon Crawl Classics and Old-School Essentials side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Dungeon Crawl Classics | Old-School Essentials | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Tags | Dungeon Crawl, Deadly, Random Character Creation, Roll to Cast, Random Tables, Corruption, Gonzo, Exploration, Sword & Sorcery, Strong GM Support | Dungeon Crawl, Exploration, Hexcrawl, Deadly, Sandbox, Resource Management, Inventory Management, Random Tables, Vancian Casting, Strong GM Support |
| Core Mechanic | Roll d20 plus modifiers to meet or exceed a difficulty or Armor Class. Circumstances shift the die up or down a chain from d3 to d30. | Attacks roll d20 against an attack matrix or an optional ascending Armour Class target. Saving throws meet a category target on d20. Ability checks roll at or below an ability score on d20. |
| Dice | d3–d30 | d20 |
| Complexity | High | Low |
| Availability | Free quickstart | Free core rules |
| Runnability | 5 of 5 book tools | 5 of 5 book tools |
| License | Open Game License 1.0a; DCC Indie Publisher license | OGL 1.0a |
| Third-Party Publishing | Commercial publishing allowed — Publisher-approved compatibility license | Commercial publishing allowed — Open license |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Publisher | Goodman Games | Necrotic Gnome |
| Year | 2012 | 2019 |
| Languages | English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Italian | English, Italian, Spanish, French, Czech, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean |
| Best For | Groups who want dangerous dungeon expeditions with randomly generated adventurers and risky magic. Campaigns can begin with several peasants per player and follow the survivors into classed adventuring. | Groups who want treasure-driven dungeon expeditions and open wilderness campaigns with fragile starting characters. |
| Highlights | The character funnel lets survival determine the starting adventuring party. Mighty Deeds let warriors and dwarves attempt improvised combat maneuvers alongside attacks. Spell checks scale magical effects with the casting result. | Treasure recovered from adventures provides most experience points, rewarding successful exploration over fighting alone. Reaction and optional morale rolls let encounters lead to negotiation or flight instead of automatic combat. Stronghold construction and taxation let accumulated wealth support a growing domain. |
| Considerations | Random starting attributes and occupations limit planned character builds. The default funnel puts several fragile characters under each player’s control. The dice chain uses unusual die sizes with ordinary-dice substitutions. | Characters die at zero hit points, and failed poison saves are usually fatal. Demihuman characters combine ancestry with class and have lower level limits than human classes. Declared spells are lost if the caster is hit or fails a saving throw before acting. |