From Turnip Field to Tomb: Three 0‑Level Souls for a DCC Funnel

In Dungeon Crawl Classics, you basically try to keep your hero alive. Funnel play doesn’t care about your plan. It cares about dice, dirt, and bad decisions. Meet three 0‑level peasants, Alric, Beatrice, and Cuthber, as they step from turnip field to tomb.

You do not design a 0‑level character in Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC). You survive one.

A funnel is a threshing floor. The dice and your worst ideas will blow the chaff from your table until only a few stubborn stalks remain. Try to sculpt perfection, and the game will gleefully carve it off. So we begin with open hands, cold dice, and three villagers: Alric, Beatrice, and Cuthbert.

Then we see who lives.

You roll straight down the line: Strength, Agility, Stamina, Personality, Intelligence, Luck. What you get is what you get. It’s less “build” and more weather report. Don’t curse the storm. Decide whether to plant or run.

Stat snapshots:

• Alric: STR 12, AGI 15 (+1), STA 9, PER 8, INT 13 (+1), LUCK 10
• Beatrice: STR 7 (−1), AGI 12, STA 16 (+2), PER 11, INT 5 (−2), LUCK 14 (+1)
• Cuthbert: STR 18 (+3), AGI 6 (−1), STA 6 (−1), PER 13, INT 9, LUCK 3 (−3)

After you roll Luck, you roll a Lucky Sign, a birth augur that forever ties your Luck score to one area. It never changes, even if your Luck does.

• Alric: Speed of the Cobra (Initiative), but with +0 Luck, it’s flavor, not fuel.
• Beatrice: Bountiful Harvest (+1 HP/level) and LUCK +1? That’s funnel gold.
• Cuthbert: Pack Hunter (+atk/dmg with starter weapon) + LUCK −3 = a blowgun that actively hates him.

Occupation in DCC means background, weapon, gear, and sometimes species. Demi-humans can’t hide in the crowd for long.

• Alric: Dwarven Miner (pick, sack of coal, infravision, move 20')
• Beatrice: Gongfarmer (trowel, slop bucket, human, smells like survival)
• Cuthbert: Elven Glassblower (blowgun, colored sand, elf traits, fragile grace)

The funnel gives each villager a single, random item; the kind of thing that becomes a story if you live long enough.

• Alric: Crowbar (praise the gods)
• Beatrice: One torch (a deadline, basically)
• Cuthbert: Hand mirror (ominous)

• Alric: 32 cp, gear within reason.
• Beatrice: 51 cp, everyone's quartermaster now.
• Cuthbert: 17 cp, scraping by already.

This is where the funnel shows its teeth.

• Alric: 3 HP
• Beatrice: 6 HP (STA +2, Lucky Sign +1)
• Cuthbert: 1 HP (rolled 2, −1 STA)

INT modifies bonus languages (or takes them away), and alignment sets your cosmic camp—and secret passwords.

• Alric: Lawful, speaks Common, Dwarvish, and Lawful cant
• Beatrice: Chaotic, Common and Chaotic, INT 5 = illiterate
• Cuthbert: Neutral, speaks Common, Elvish, Neutral

All 0-levels:

• Attack: +0
• Saves: +0
• Crits: d4
• Movement: 30’ (dwarf: 20’)
• AC: 10 + AGI mod + armor
• Alric: AC 11, Init +1
• Beatrice: AC 10, Init +0
• Cuthbert: AC 9, Init −1

Cuthbert’s Lucky Sign actively ruins his blowgun. Drop it fast.

Lawful Dwarven Miner

HP 3 | AC 11 | Init +1 | Move 20’

Carries a pick, a crowbar, and a sack of coal. He’s steady, not special, and that just might be what saves him.

Chaotic Gongfarmer

HP 6 | AC 10 | Init +0 | Move 30’

Trowel, slop bucket, one torch. She’s built to endure. She’ll light the dark because someone has to.

Neutral Elven Glassblower

HP 1 | AC 9 | Init −1 | Move 30’

Carries a cursed blowgun, a mirror, and bad odds. He’ll live only if he hides behind someone braver.

Alric will be a Dwarf because the stone remembers his name. He’ll take the deed die and learn to use a shield like a promise. His little edge in Agility will keep him a half‑step ahead of rockfalls and spears.

Abilities in play: Required dwarf class on survival; AGI +1 plays into AC/initiative; underground senses and martial tricks to come.

Beatrice is well cut for a Thief (Chaotic), the kind that survives by nerve and night‑healed Luck. Her strong Stamina makes the falls survivable; her low Strength annoys her less than it annoys doors, which she will learn to open other ways.

Abilities in play: Nightly Luck recovery fits LUCK +1; backstab and skills play around STR −1 and INT −2 just fine.

Cuthbert must be an Elf, and if he is wise he will lean into steel instead of reeds. Put the blowgun away and hand him a longsword to let STR +3 speak. Dress him in mithril when the story can afford it so iron doesn’t sour his days, and never ask his Luck to bless a spell.

Abilities in play: Required elf class on survival; martial focus uses STR +3; avoid assigning his Luck to spellcasting; beware AGI/STA penalties.

• This is a Dungeon Crawl Classics funnel, not a build-a-hero tutorial.
• Stats are rolled 3d6 in order. No swaps, no mercy.
• Everyone starts with 0-level hit points, one occupation, one weird item, and a birth augur.
• Most characters will die. That’s the point.
• Survivors reach 10 XP and level up, carrying scars, trinkets, and bad augurs into the world.

• Roll 3 more villagers. Then throw them into the grinder.
• Use Quest Portal’s no-code DCC Character Sheet templates to track funnels.
• Get the DCC Core Rulebook and more on the Quest Portal Marketplace
• Join our Discord and talk DCC in #goodman-games

Q: How many 0-level characters does each player run?

A: Usually 2–4. You’ll need the redundancy.

Q: When do they become first-level?

A: At 10 XP. If they live.

Q: What if my Lucky Sign sucks?

A: That’s the game. Turn it into a story.