DCC RPG is Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, a ruleset from Goodman Games that’s D&D-adjacent in terms of playstyle with modifiers and saving throws and that kind of thing, but the fundamental differences come from the ability to move up and down a dice chain as you have a higher propensity to succeed as opposed to rolling with advantage, and the general gonzo-ness (Gonzo: Exaggerated, over the top, outlandish (e.g. cartoon physics are gonzo)) of the games that comes from SIGNIFICANT amount of it being done through rolling on tables.

The description from the Goodman Games website: DCC RPG 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.

There are several settings - from the core fantasy setting to post-apocalyptic mutant wastelands to sci fi … but they all start with something called a funnel.

The funnel is really what I want to talk about today. 

A "funnel" is an adventure designed to take in a large number of 0-level characters and spit out just the survivors, if any, who then go on to be level 1 adventurers. So your level 0 guys have just decided to stop being cobblers and candlestick makers and have decided to become adventurers. The funnel is their story.

So first, that’s the ‘what’. The ‘how’ is that each player, usually 3-4 at the table like a standard game, has 4 0-level characters and you all are taken through a dungeon of some kind. The characters roll completely random ability scores, random occupation, random Luck modifier, and random equipment. The dungeon is pretty lethal, and funnels are affectionately called meat grinders because of the mortality rate of your characters… well it’s pretty close to 100%. So at any given time, up to 24 PCs can be on the map, which unless your GM - who in DCC is called a Judge - is a particular kind of masochist, will probably be theatre of the mind, or just show you a map without having you have to navigate tokens for players.

So here’s where I want to be very explicit about something - if you cannot embrace chaos and randomness, DCC funnels are not for you. Which is honestly why, in more serious campaigns, your Judge may opt to skip the funnel and go straight to level 1 characters that you design through a more traditional character generation method. 

Once you get to first level, it is still kind of gonzo but it plays a lot like ‘standard’ RPG experience. But the funnel experience can and should be, in its perfect form, pure chaos. It’s also, interestingly enough, something that rewards the players’ ingenuity as opposed to character ability because your characters are literally nobodies with rocks, not fledgling superheros. That’s incredibly rare with more modern games and personally, feels to me like a vestige of old wargaming where you had to think really strategically about your real and limited resources.

The why of this: Well mainly, it’s the result of the funnel - you are left with one, maybe two, PCs, who you are weirdly fond of because they survived all kinds of bullshit, and now your "starting" 1st-level character has a bit of a history, some stories to tell, and a connection to the other PCs that's forged in fire.

Honestly, it’s a lot of fun and a lot of folk play funnels just as a standard thing rather than as a way to start campaigns but I’ve kind of gotten over that and unless a Judge tells me its a particularly good module they specifically like for some reason - like, for example, a few have told me they really enjoy running Sailors on a Starless Sea, and i’ve played that and really enjoyed it.

But I just love the concept for character creation. It gives you a bit of shared backstory with your group in a pre-hero capacity. That’s pretty cool. And like, there’s something weird in the universe about this but you’ll want to try to protect your ‘best’  character but inevitably they end up dying and you are left with some corn farmer who can barely tell the bad guys to fuck off. I don’t understand it, it always happens. 

But ultimately, it’s a process that embraces chaos, levity and lots of laughs. It’s a carnival of character death. It’s really not for someone who prefers a more serious approach to gaming because they may feel there is entirely too much randomization. Like I said though,  from Level 1 onwards, it’s a much more ‘standard’ experience and you could skip the funnel without it impacting any part of the campaign play. 

Also, just in case it wasn’t already clear - its called a funnel because you get a bunch of characters at the top and entrance and only a literal handful at the end.

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So I’ve not seen this in any other system but I’ve been told it exists in Mothership. Troika and Mork Borg. There is also a D&D 5e version in Matt Colville’s MCDM magazine, Arcadia in Volume 9. I have no idea whether any of those are any good, I just wanted to share what other systems I’ve heard about funnels in so you have options if you want to check it out.