My son is now 11 and is running a deathbringer game for me for Father's Day. After running many many games I finally get to PLAY Deathbringer. I'm super amped to play as a plague doctor. Best father's day ever lol.
The Deathrbringer Dice are blowing my mind. Such a simple mechanic to give power to players outside of specific class abilities. I'll definitely be borrowing them going forward.
You can really hear the pride in his voice as he's presenting, and he has every right to be. My only quip is that this game lets you do anything at the cost of being anything. But you could always just mod the mod and be a Owlin-changling hybrid in a grim dark neighborhood.
The deathbringer dice is such a good idea. Not only for PCs, but also for monsters for quick variants. For instance an ogre who tanks one or two hits without taking damage, or a kobold assassin doing more damage for one focused attack while getting advantage from its allies.
While I'm fine with the hard-to-kill aspect of 5e, there are times I want to get together with friends and capture that old-school feel on a weeknight. This looks perfect!
I used an even simpler method for my OSE type game, roll 1d6-3, this generates ability modifiers of -2 to +3, then upon each level up the player can add a +1 to one ability , to maximum +3 for OSE or +4 for 5E type systems.
I remember binging all your episodes and creating my own 2 page cheat sheet, then I created 1 page rules character sheet combo. It is so nice to have this die fold available! The Runehammer layout is like the cherry on top!
Looks amazing! The longer gamers play- the more home and quick hack “alterations” You end up making to the “complete rules” - more rules don’t make games any easier
I agree...but I do like having more rule options for when I need them. My biggest issue with 5e is how much I have to find homebrew content or homebrew myself. Functional magic item creation, potions, castles, armies. It doesn't all need to be "core" rules, but I wish WOTC put more time and effort into giving comprehensive rules and systems for DMs to use at their discretion, instead of making another cool looking but functionally generic race or subclass. And don't even get me started on their "settings". Latte's anyone?
I see this myth a lot in GMing circles, and it’s pure utter arrogance. It’s hubris. Game systems with less rules only work if you and your players have already accumulated a vast amount of RPG experience and know how to run and play these games like the back of your hand. For everyone else, rules help to provide the structure of the game and informs both the GM and the players how to play the game. Don’t believe me? Throw a new player into Deathbringer. Give them no guidance whatsoever and see their reaction when their character horribly dies. They’re going to quit and never play RPGs again. If you’re a new player or GM, you don’t have the backlog of experience to inform you of what to expect as a player and how to run the game. Many rules-lite systems are terrible game systems for new GMs because they provide no guidance whatsoever of how to run the game. I think Deathbringer is an excellent product. A great hack of 5e that I have attempted to run (with modifications of my own). It makes running 5e easier - if you already know how to run 5e - and if your players already know what they’re getting into.
I have to disagree with Justin. Hubris (self confidence) kinda goes hand in hand with being a DM. I’m totally in the camp that more rules doesn’t make the game simpler. Its just more to memorize and can be overwhelming or intimidating. There’s a lot of truth to players limiting themselves to only whats shown on their character sheet. It’s happened at my table more often than not. I want the players to get creative and define their characters abilities as they go/grow. If I’m introducing the game to new players, I’m running BX using ascending AC. No defined skills or feats. Get creative and tell me what your character is trying to do. Hubris is part of the job. That confidence helps to set the scene, encourage creative thought and adjudicate the action. But this is just my opinion.
@@johnross1048 Erm. You’re actually both missing my point, and proving my point at the same time. It’s a fallacy for GMs to think that just because they are personally able to run a rules-lite game system, that such a game system will work well for all GMs. My assertion is that a completely new player who has never GM-ed before won’t know heads or tails and hence will not know how to run the game system properly, and it will be a terrible experience climbing that learning curve, compared to a more structured game system where the rules are more readily accessible. You mentioned self-confidence, which is indeed important. But how do you gain that self confidence in the first place? By running games. And how do you learn how to run games? By reading the rules. If the game system doesn’t provide you with sufficient rules to learn how to run games, you will not be able to pick up that self-confidence you need to run games down the road. That whole shtick you mentioned about setting the scene, encouraging creative thoughts, adjudicating the action? All that stuff doesn’t come naturally. All that stuff has to be learned. It has to be taught. Hell, even players need to learn that stuff. Throw a brand new player that has never played RPGs before with a Deathbringer’s stripped down character sheet and ask them to be creative. They won’t know heads or tails how to play the game either. There’s a reason that rules exist. There’s a reason why skills, feats, actions, and spells exist. They exist to guide new players with options of stuff that they can do, a handicap if you will, to play the game while they’re picking up all those soft skills you mentioned. Once they become experienced, yes you can cut them out just like Professor did with Deathbringer - but it doesn’t necessarily make it a better game either.
I love that you emphasize that GMs can pick and choose parts of the rule set as desired. I bought the Deathbringer rules and really liked some of it but some of the bits not so much. It's still a great resource for ideas for my game. Some newer players and rules lawyers types seem to think you can only play an RPG following the "rules as written". That's never been true.
Congratulations and thanks for the walkthrough. I've been following the development of this here and on Patreon and keeping up with your videos for a very long time. Awesome job by you and by the mad alchemist Hankerin' on the layout! I've already added it to the suggested games area on our little website.
Great video. I love that spellcasters have to find spells. My first DND character was a 2nd Edition Bard and the only way to learn spells was to find them. It made killing that wizard and getting his spellbook such a great treasure!!!
Wonderful game. The deluxe rules available on the his Patreon are an incredible resource I’ve been using at the table. I’m particularly fond of the advice on handling massive battles and siege scenes.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 you're very welcome sir your efforts are always appreciated. I also picked up the Eldritch hack and I'm looking forward to digging in there as well. I'm in the middle of doing the audio recording for the new issue of "Lovecraft: Paranormal Investigator" as a tie in with the existing comic series, and I am honored to be the voice of Ward Lovecraft in said Audio Drama so perhaps your rules light COC variant will help get me deeper down the inspired tentacle hole as it were.. wait, that sounds hentaiesque. Well anyway, you know what I mean. Cheers. Mars.
It’s really cool to see this game come together! My main question: is this THE game your group plays? I know you’ve done a number of videos describing your house rules, and how it ends up like a mix of 5e, DCC, and other games-is that Deathbringer?
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 awesome! Now if I can try to just convince my players to release their clutched pearls and try a slightly different version of D&D beyond 5th edition... Wish me luck!
Wow! I cannot wait to check this out. My biggest complaint in playing 5E since before it was called 5E has been the lack of character death, the lack of a challenge. This really sounds like a good solution to that problem.
@DUNGEONCRAFT1 apologies for grave digging. I’m loving running Deathbringer. I’m planning on using it alongside Barrowmaze. Would you recommend I picked up the 5e or OSR version (I guess I’m asking which system you think Deathbringer best fits into)
Bloody awesome! Thanks for the homebrew, I'd certainly like to incorporate this into my own. Hit Points are all set and you never gain any more--you just have to get BETTER! Love the idea of the Deathbringer Dice, I think that's mainly what I was missing.
This is helfpul, thank you! I'm about to start this with some new friends so I'm excited to get this rundown ahead of time (also I've played RPGs like twice before so I still consider myself new).
Love this video and I love me some deathbringer, especially the critical hit, the magic system and the tattoos are your spells features. It REALLY is worth being a patreon just to get the deluxe version of Deathbringer.
There are a lot of really great ideas in here, packed in a very condense package. I am quite impressed at how many of these ideas are system agnostic as well, and hackable into many existing d20 systems.
Bought it, love it. I could see a whole line of these. I know you have eldritch hack, which I got as well, but this is so small and digestible. You could have a western themed one, an even more pared down horror/lovecraft theme, a pirate theme, a "kids on bikes" theme, . Each brochure could have a one page "Gm guide" if needed. Some themes may require a specific monster or two or quick setting breakdown. But again, probably not necessary.
I'm confuserd. @2:13 when the basic abilities and build points are shown, why is the sum of all the bonuses in the example 9 and not 8 per the rules above it?
I had been hoping to get a better look at Deathbringer as it piqued my interest. Thanks to this walkthrough I'm now going to purchase it and look forward to running it. Deathbringer is also killing it with the humor, and I love it.
Huge fan of the tweaks you've got here and thanks for going through the logic! I'm a big fan of 'designer commentary' on games (like the special edition of Chris Bissette's "The Dragon Game")
Some cool ideas that I definitely want to test out. One thing I’d mention is that in normal 5e anyone can do anything. Some characters are just better at it than others. Pretty much only the armour proficiencies are a major pain if you don’t have them and try use that armour
Been prepping Barrowmaze the last few days and paging through potential rulesets to run it, so the timing for this is perfect! Gonna check it out right away.
8:15 I do something similar, the largest kingdom is powerful theocracy and magic is considered a sin. Only licensed paladins and clerics can use magic, any schools of magic are very very secret or are on another continent and even then it frowned opon.
Look at you working that side-hustle. I dig it. I genuinely like this concept. When I was a kid, I loved the splatbooks and the monstrous manuals for the lore. The stats were always secondary. With your concept, you could easily continue creating product simply by producing lore. You know--in case you want more of those ducats. The world needs more grimdark.
What a journey. I remember only a few years ago when ProfDM had almost 10k subs and now almost 100k! The long awaited Deathbringer, thank you for creating this! I am looking forwarding to purchasing on DriveThru and supporting your high quality content
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Oh you betcha! I have a very small TH-cam channel I'm which I talk about TTRPGs. I've reviewed a few things in there and YOU CAN BET I'll talk about it there too.
I like the bloody cut of your gritty game's jagged jib. Simple, yet rich and perilous. A game for adults, and other mature people, definitely not for those whiny little theater majors. Excellent work! I have two minor notes. 4:06 Those are some awesome dice! Where'd they come from? 1:54 I'm sure someone's pointed it out, but in the Build Points block, the Example adds up to 9, not 8.
Professor, excellent video as usual. I’m a huge fan of deadly DnD but instead of applying lower hp totals (although I think that’s an superb idea for deadlier and faster combats) I generally increase difficult class for the encounters, saves and traps my players will run across. They get to feel undiminished and the sense of danger is increased. I applaud Deathbringer’s use of meat shield NPCs. From this you can really tell he’s a seasoned professional.
I really like the part where you want characters to not feel limited by their sheet. Some of the houserules I have that pretty much make or break whether players want to join in on my game is that I remade armor proficiency in such a way mages can wear it- at a price, weapon proficiency impacts damage instead of hit probability- because it's kind of goofy when a wizard is better off punching an orc than using a sword he's not proficient with, no magic items have class restrictions, and any class can attempt an intelligence check to use scrolls.
I have a whole deathbringer DM manual I hobbled together out of an od&d 74 pdf, Knave, and a bunch of hand typed home brew. The deathbringer pdf was the best 5 bucks I ever spent. My whole family and our friends are having a blast getting chopped to pieces and blown up lol. My ten year old son has killed himself accidentally like 4 times and he dies laughing every time lol
I am a long time follower of Dungeon craft and an avid player since 1989. I like the hack presented here and for those seeking a grim dark feel it may make 5e worth playing; but due to 5e's inherent easy mode feel I have long since returned to Ad&d and a game like into what your Death bringer rules seek to emulate. It has been a refreshing experience. My opinion- Just one guy reviving the ancient ways. Try it, Thaco is a breeze.
This is a very nice system (especially character creation); however, I feel that the Critical Miscast Table is the wrong way round. With every other D20 roll in the game, a high roll is good for the character; so I'll swap the table so that 1 = Catastrophe, 2 - 5 = Disaster, 6 - 10 = Backfire, and 11 - 20 = Fizzle. I think that making the Disaster result the source of spell casting corruption could be worth trying out. Thanks for the walkthrough; you give a great set of pointers.
It’s a throwback to XDM, where if you roll a nat 1, you roll a straight d20 to see how badly you fail. You’re rolling to see the severity same as when you succeed higher means bigger effect. I don’t see a problem with it personally and actually like it even if it isn’t perfectly streamlined.
Ive done something like deathbringer dice but a little more involved with the character’s status. Im personally not a big fan of detached metacurrencies that pile up, so instead a player can lower their ac and saving throws by 2 during an encounter in order to use a deathbringer like die. So there is an immediate consequence for using it. You are essentially “letting down your gaurd” to do something extra. You are just as capable, but now more vulnerable.
I am a huge fan of PDM and his gaming philosophy. I have learned so much about gaming, game mechanics, and DMing watching PDM's videos. The Deathbringer system is a great OSR inspired TTRPG. PDM offers an extended version of Deathbringer on his DungeonCraft Patreon site (yes, this was a cheap shill, sadly no kickbacks for me). The great thing about the DB RPG is you can modify the Classes or anything else the way you like, it is encouraged!
Every player starts with 1 DB die per session, per level. At first level a PC has 1 DB die and at 5th level a PC would get 5 DB dice to start the session. Also they can be awarded by the DM like inspiration in D&D 5e.
love the system, and I think combining it with player facing rolls will make the perfect, the players fate is in their hands game. My one question is about spell levels. The Grimscribe has no spell slots, but you still refer to spell level and a set DC. So does that mean if they get their hands on a fireball they can cast it with DC 10 as much as they like until corruption and/or the miscast? Since miscast and corruption happen on a nat 1 regardless of what spell you cast, feel like it just incentivizes casting you top spells only, even with the miscast and corruption? I'm love to hear you thoughts on this and/or your experience with this at the table.
Yeah I noticed that too. I'm using the following in my solo test game: Casting spells. Cantrips are cast with advantage. All spells are DC 9+(spell lvl/2 rounded up). Ritual cast takes 10mins (and if in an area where it matters roll for random encounter as first aid) and gives advantage to the cast roll. A failure means the spell is not cast and a nature 1 on the die means a point of Corruption and a roll on the Critical Miscast table.
@@WarplaneStudio Hmm I may do that, don't think it will change things too much. The other change I made if the spell needs to be targeted (like a Firebolt) the caster also needs to hit the AC of the target in the same roll.
At first I was skeptical because I don't like 5e, but then you went into more detail and I was like "okay I know this is a commercial but I'm buying and running this game."
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Good to have some at last - but of course I'll probably be dead soon. While I'm here...in the most general terms, how do you handle unarmed combat Prof? Hard to represent this concisely and well, I think. So many different outcomes to try to incorporate without arriving at something tangled and unplayable.
Fantastic streamlined game. However, I’d contend that it’s more akin to Warhammer than Leiber or Howard. Conan, Fafhrd, and Mouser are super-heroic. They wade through scores of opponents.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Yes, they do, but they are able to sustain massive wounds wading through hordes of Picts. These are pulp heroes, of course. They are a cut above your typical OSR PC. Not trying to split hairs, mind you. Love your channel and your contributions to the hobby.
Bought this recently because I was curious and wanted to support you after watching for so long. I also got Knave after you made a video about it a while back. While I think I prefer Knave as a whole, Deathbringer die seem amazing and I'd love to bring those into future games.
Little confused by your description of how magic works, "Roll to Cast, it's a 10, plus your intelligence bonus, 15 to save" is it d20 plus int, DC of 10? Where does the save of 15 go? Also, does spell level affect the DC at all? If anyone knows, thanks.
The standard difficulty check for casting any spell is 10, i.e. DC10 (wizards can only cast spells they know and appropriate to their level no level 1 wizards casting Meteor Swarm). Deathbringer has no spell slots or limitations to how many times a caster can cast a known spell. For example, a wizard wants to cast Flaming Hands, the DC is 10, the player rolls a D20 and adds their Intelligence bonus, if the die roll result plus bonus is equal to or great than 10, the spell succeeds. Apply other mechanics as appropriate e.g. saving throws, damage/effects etc. Said another way, assuming your wizard character's INT bonus is +3, the effective DC is 7 any roll of 7 or greater on a D20 succeeds. The standard Saving Throw in DB is DC15, plus appropriate ability score modify e.g. CON for Poison, DEX for Fireballs, etc. Note, rolling a natural 1 always results in automatic spell failure, the accumulation of +1 corruption points, and a roll on the spell miscast table. Note also, DB allows for the use of any magic user spell from any 5e or OSR product.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 thank you for your response. In several of your videos you mention you feel spellcasters need to roll to hit like other classes, so I thought maybe you'd roll against targets Def, but I see how a fixed DC with a SV would speed spellcasting up.
I know it should be simple but I can be stupid at times……..anyways I’m confused on character creation. I know im just using 8 points to build but does that mean I still roll to get the modifiers then add the 8 build points on top of that?
My fiancé does not like D&D, mostly because she likes her RPGs dark and nasty, and thinks D&D is LOTR written by Marvel. But this... this I could see her liking. Same with my other group of gamers. Well, I purchased Dark Places & Demogorgons two weeks ago (and love it). Guess I'm getting this next. Update: Purchased Deathbringer and it radiates serious grim fantasy. Taking the rules and pairing them with the random character tables from Knave. Been rolling up characters via Knave, then building their stats with DB and basing the build on the character rolled.
So wonderful to hear the Professor speak so highly of his favorite child.
Don't let the others know!
My son is now 11 and is running a deathbringer game for me for Father's Day. After running many many games I finally get to PLAY Deathbringer. I'm super amped to play as a plague doctor. Best father's day ever lol.
"Wizards are like milk: it's only a matter of time before they go bad!"
Never change, Deathbringer. 🤣
The Deathrbringer Dice are blowing my mind. Such a simple mechanic to give power to players outside of specific class abilities. I'll definitely be borrowing them going forward.
A great epitaph: "Because every character has a right to kill someone with a leg of mutton."
Bravo.
One of my favorite lines!
I love Deathbringer. Streamlines so many of the clunky parts of D&D and makes a faster, more fun, and deadlier game.
Glad you're enjoying it!
Hi Eric!
You can really hear the pride in his voice as he's presenting, and he has every right to be.
My only quip is that this game lets you do anything at the cost of being anything. But you could always just mod the mod and be a Owlin-changling hybrid in a grim dark neighborhood.
Hack away!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Indeed, them Owlins ain't gunna kill 'emselves! 🪓🪓🪓🪓
@@euansmith3699 lol
The deathbringer dice is such a good idea. Not only for PCs, but also for monsters for quick variants. For instance an ogre who tanks one or two hits without taking damage, or a kobold assassin doing more damage for one focused attack while getting advantage from its allies.
Moldvay + Deathbringer = Pulp-hero good times. Love this toolbox, Professor.
Thanks!
While I'm fine with the hard-to-kill aspect of 5e, there are times I want to get together with friends and capture that old-school feel on a weeknight. This looks perfect!
Enjoy!
I'm gonna adopt it !!
Love love deathbringer - I’ve been trying a few different simple rules sets but this is the best … thank you
Thank you so much!
Just got my copy! Excited to pick it apart for my game!
Enjoy!
Very cool ideas! Looking forward to bringing this game style to my table. Thanks Professor!
Enjoy!
The Grimscribe class concept is so neat. Love the chaotic , corrupting rules for magic.
I used an even simpler method for my OSE type game, roll 1d6-3, this generates ability modifiers of -2 to +3, then upon each level up the player can add a +1 to one ability , to maximum +3 for OSE or +4 for 5E type systems.
I remember binging all your episodes and creating my own 2 page cheat sheet, then I created 1 page rules character sheet combo. It is so nice to have this die fold available!
The Runehammer layout is like the cherry on top!
He did an awesome job!
Looks amazing! The longer gamers play- the more home and quick hack “alterations”
You end up making to the “complete rules” - more rules don’t make games any easier
I totally agree.
I agree...but I do like having more rule options for when I need them.
My biggest issue with 5e is how much I have to find homebrew content or homebrew myself. Functional magic item creation, potions, castles, armies. It doesn't all need to be "core" rules, but I wish WOTC put more time and effort into giving comprehensive rules and systems for DMs to use at their discretion, instead of making another cool looking but functionally generic race or subclass.
And don't even get me started on their "settings".
Latte's anyone?
I see this myth a lot in GMing circles, and it’s pure utter arrogance. It’s hubris.
Game systems with less rules only work if you and your players have already accumulated a vast amount of RPG experience and know how to run and play these games like the back of your hand.
For everyone else, rules help to provide the structure of the game and informs both the GM and the players how to play the game.
Don’t believe me? Throw a new player into Deathbringer. Give them no guidance whatsoever and see their reaction when their character horribly dies. They’re going to quit and never play RPGs again.
If you’re a new player or GM, you don’t have the backlog of experience to inform you of what to expect as a player and how to run the game. Many rules-lite systems are terrible game systems for new GMs because they provide no guidance whatsoever of how to run the game.
I think Deathbringer is an excellent product. A great hack of 5e that I have attempted to run (with modifications of my own). It makes running 5e easier - if you already know how to run 5e - and if your players already know what they’re getting into.
I have to disagree with Justin. Hubris (self confidence) kinda goes hand in hand with being a DM.
I’m totally in the camp that more rules doesn’t make the game simpler. Its just more to memorize and can be overwhelming or intimidating. There’s a lot of truth to players limiting themselves to only whats shown on their character sheet. It’s happened at my table more often than not. I want the players to get creative and define their characters abilities as they go/grow. If I’m introducing the game to new players, I’m running BX using ascending AC. No defined skills or feats. Get creative and tell me what your character is trying to do.
Hubris is part of the job. That confidence helps to set the scene, encourage creative thought and adjudicate the action. But this is just my opinion.
@@johnross1048 Erm. You’re actually both missing my point, and proving my point at the same time.
It’s a fallacy for GMs to think that just because they are personally able to run a rules-lite game system, that such a game system will work well for all GMs.
My assertion is that a completely new player who has never GM-ed before won’t know heads or tails and hence will not know how to run the game system properly, and it will be a terrible experience climbing that learning curve, compared to a more structured game system where the rules are more readily accessible.
You mentioned self-confidence, which is indeed important. But how do you gain that self confidence in the first place? By running games. And how do you learn how to run games? By reading the rules.
If the game system doesn’t provide you with sufficient rules to learn how to run games, you will not be able to pick up that self-confidence you need to run games down the road.
That whole shtick you mentioned about setting the scene, encouraging creative thoughts, adjudicating the action? All that stuff doesn’t come naturally. All that stuff has to be learned. It has to be taught.
Hell, even players need to learn that stuff. Throw a brand new player that has never played RPGs before with a Deathbringer’s stripped down character sheet and ask them to be creative. They won’t know heads or tails how to play the game either.
There’s a reason that rules exist. There’s a reason why skills, feats, actions, and spells exist. They exist to guide new players with options of stuff that they can do, a handicap if you will, to play the game while they’re picking up all those soft skills you mentioned.
Once they become experienced, yes you can cut them out just like Professor did with Deathbringer - but it doesn’t necessarily make it a better game either.
This is already my favorite ttrpg.
Thanks you so much.
Great game! Great video!
I feel like an opportunity was missed… “Dallas: The RPG. YOU shot JR!” LOL 😆
Maybe Deathbringer can be written into the dream!
I love that you emphasize that GMs can pick and choose parts of the rule set as desired. I bought the Deathbringer rules and really liked some of it but some of the bits not so much. It's still a great resource for ideas for my game. Some newer players and rules lawyers types seem to think you can only play an RPG following the "rules as written". That's never been true.
I hack rules for every game!
This is awesome, it reminds me of a time in which you feared for your character, and if you survived you were a very proud player.
That's how I like to roll.
Congratulations and thanks for the walkthrough. I've been following the development of this here and on Patreon and keeping up with your videos for a very long time. Awesome job by you and by the mad alchemist Hankerin' on the layout! I've already added it to the suggested games area on our little website.
Great video. I love that spellcasters have to find spells. My first DND character was a 2nd Edition Bard and the only way to learn spells was to find them. It made killing that wizard and getting his spellbook such a great treasure!!!
I'm glad you liked that. Thanks for watching ad commenting.
In the case of Deathbringer, you'd want to be very careful how you kill the wizard; as you won't want to damage their tattoos. 🤪
Ehh dunno about that. Sounds like it turns playing spellcaster into Mother May I with the GM.
@@euansmith3699 Agreed! LOL
@@euansmith3699 Deathbringer cares not of Wizards
I love the simplicity and concept!! I have created a similar world, but lacking a well rounded system like this, thank you for bringing this up!
Thanks. Hope you enjoy it!
This ep was awesome, Linked it to some friends and now the friday is booked to play!
Wonderful game. The deluxe rules available on the his Patreon are an incredible resource I’ve been using at the table. I’m particularly fond of the advice on handling massive battles and siege scenes.
Thanks you so much for your patronage. I'm glad you found them useful.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 deluxe rules you say...what sort of additional stuff is there
I just went and subscribed to the Patreon
@@MOTARACTUAL Thanks so much!
@@MOTARACTUAL Thank you.
Outstanding. Just purchased over a drive-thru ... looking forward to digging in. Thank you professor
Thank you so much for your support.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 you're very welcome sir your efforts are always appreciated. I also picked up the Eldritch hack and I'm looking forward to digging in there as well. I'm in the middle of doing the audio recording for the new issue of "Lovecraft: Paranormal Investigator" as a tie in with the existing comic series, and I am honored to be the voice of Ward Lovecraft in said Audio Drama so perhaps your rules light COC variant will help get me deeper down the inspired tentacle hole as it were.. wait, that sounds hentaiesque. Well anyway, you know what I mean. Cheers. Mars.
@@MARSHOMEWORLD Thanks for your purchases. My players had a ball with Cloque House, no hentai needed!
As a game designer I had to pause at 2:15 because you get 8 build points and the example has 9 build points +5, +2, +1, 0, 0, +1 = 9
Hmm, checks out as legit. Normally in DB PC ability scores are capped at +3 for OSR, and +4 for 5e.
It’s really cool to see this game come together! My main question: is this THE game your group plays? I know you’ve done a number of videos describing your house rules, and how it ends up like a mix of 5e, DCC, and other games-is that Deathbringer?
We have switched over to Deathbringer rules.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 awesome! Now if I can try to just convince my players to release their clutched pearls and try a slightly different version of D&D beyond 5th edition... Wish me luck!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 LEVEL UP YOUR GAME WITH MORE GRIT !!
@@azuretigers5562 The grittier the better!
@@sonicexpert986 LOL good luck. Deathbringer approves.
Wow! I cannot wait to check this out. My biggest complaint in playing 5E since before it was called 5E has been the lack of character death, the lack of a challenge. This really sounds like a good solution to that problem.
@DUNGEONCRAFT1 apologies for grave digging.
I’m loving running Deathbringer. I’m planning on using it alongside Barrowmaze. Would you recommend I picked up the 5e or OSR version (I guess I’m asking which system you think Deathbringer best fits into)
OSR. Just because there are fewer stats.
Bloody awesome! Thanks for the homebrew, I'd certainly like to incorporate this into my own. Hit Points are all set and you never gain any more--you just have to get BETTER! Love the idea of the Deathbringer Dice, I think that's mainly what I was missing.
My players enjoy them, too. They are my lab rats!
This is helfpul, thank you! I'm about to start this with some new friends so I'm excited to get this rundown ahead of time (also I've played RPGs like twice before so I still consider myself new).
I've always liked the way you view and -- by extension of Deathbringer -- handle the unstable power of a magic user.
It has created some hilarious outcomes in my game.
Deathbringer is great. Thanks PDM! Using a bunch of the ideas in my current campaign.
Enjoy! Glad you like it.
As an old school DM I approve this video!
Thanks!
Love this video and I love me some deathbringer, especially the critical hit, the magic system and the tattoos are your spells features. It REALLY is worth being a patreon just to get the deluxe version of Deathbringer.
Thanks for your support!
There are a lot of really great ideas in here, packed in a very condense package. I am quite impressed at how many of these ideas are system agnostic as well, and hackable into many existing d20 systems.
Wanted to reach a wide audience. Hack away.
This seemed pretty interesting but the Corruption Chart sold me on it. That's so cool.
Bought it, love it. I could see a whole line of these. I know you have eldritch hack, which I got as well, but this is so small and digestible. You could have a western themed one, an even more pared down horror/lovecraft theme, a pirate theme, a "kids on bikes" theme, . Each brochure could have a one page "Gm guide" if needed. Some themes may require a specific monster or two or quick setting breakdown. But again, probably not necessary.
The Deathbringer Game Engine
I'm confuserd. @2:13 when the basic abilities and build points are shown, why is the sum of all the bonuses in the example 9 and not 8 per the rules above it?
Because I goofed.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 "Now the student has become the master!" Just kidding. Thanks for explaining.
I had been hoping to get a better look at Deathbringer as it piqued my interest. Thanks to this walkthrough I'm now going to purchase it and look forward to running it.
Deathbringer is also killing it with the humor, and I love it.
DB is a funny guy, he cracks me up too! ... Wait, no DB, no, no, not funny like a clown DB... 🤣
@@mrgunn2726 LOL good save!
Thanks for your patronage.
This sounds like it'd be a really fun one shot or mini campaign.
Try it. Once your players have a great time, they won't want to go back to crunchy D&D.
Huge fan of the tweaks you've got here and thanks for going through the logic! I'm a big fan of 'designer commentary' on games (like the special edition of Chris Bissette's "The Dragon Game")
Just what I need, thank you sir!
It's been fun playtesting this on Patreon
Thanks, Bill! See you soon.
What a great system, prof.! Well done!
Thank you so much.
8 build points, but at 2:10 there are STR+5, DEX+2, CON+1, INT+0, WIS+0 and CHA+1 = 9. Do I miss something?
Probably not. I mis-speak in videos all the time.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 well, it's in the rules PDF too ;)
Deathbringer + Basic Fantasy is my game from now on.
Some cool ideas that I definitely want to test out.
One thing I’d mention is that in normal 5e anyone can do anything. Some characters are just better at it than others. Pretty much only the armour proficiencies are a major pain if you don’t have them and try use that armour
Been prepping Barrowmaze the last few days and paging through potential rulesets to run it, so the timing for this is perfect! Gonna check it out right away.
Thanks for your support!
8:15 I do something similar, the largest kingdom is powerful theocracy and magic is considered a sin. Only licensed paladins and clerics can use magic, any schools of magic are very very secret or are on another continent and even then it frowned opon.
Cool to see you working with Hank. I got his book on your recommendation some years ago. Great work Professor!
He does awesome work.
Look at you working that side-hustle. I dig it. I genuinely like this concept. When I was a kid, I loved the splatbooks and the monstrous manuals for the lore. The stats were always secondary. With your concept, you could easily continue creating product simply by producing lore. You know--in case you want more of those ducats. The world needs more grimdark.
Some things in the making....will take quite some time, but eventually.
What a journey. I remember only a few years ago when ProfDM had almost 10k subs and now almost 100k! The long awaited Deathbringer, thank you for creating this! I am looking forwarding to purchasing on DriveThru and supporting your high quality content
Thanks you so much for your kind words and your patronage. Enjoy the game!
How did I miss this? I’ve been wanting this for years.
I really love these rules, that corruption rule is great! Going to have to try this out. Thanks professor!
Thanks for your kind words.
Thank you for this explanation. I was very interested in it but now I'm DEFINITELY getting it!
Thanks so much! I hope you enjoy it.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 I bought it. I read through it. This is a hidden gem!
I wish everyone ever would play this.
@@f.a.santiago1053 thanks! Spread the word.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Oh you betcha! I have a very small TH-cam channel I'm which I talk about TTRPGs. I've reviewed a few things in there and YOU CAN BET I'll talk about it there too.
@@f.a.santiago1053 Much appreciated. Good luck with your channel.
I just got this today, I can't wait to play it!
I like the bloody cut of your gritty game's jagged jib. Simple, yet rich and perilous. A game for adults, and other mature people, definitely not for those whiny little theater majors. Excellent work! I have two minor notes.
4:06 Those are some awesome dice! Where'd they come from?
1:54 I'm sure someone's pointed it out, but in the Build Points block, the Example adds up to 9, not 8.
Professor, excellent video as usual. I’m a huge fan of deadly DnD but instead of applying lower hp totals (although I think that’s an superb idea for deadlier and faster combats) I generally increase difficult class for the encounters, saves and traps my players will run across. They get to feel undiminished and the sense of danger is increased.
I applaud Deathbringer’s use of meat shield NPCs. From this you can really tell he’s a seasoned professional.
Lol thanks
The captured pictures of Hankerine are hilarious!
He is great to work with.
I really like the part where you want characters to not feel limited by their sheet. Some of the houserules I have that pretty much make or break whether players want to join in on my game is that I remade armor proficiency in such a way mages can wear it- at a price, weapon proficiency impacts damage instead of hit probability- because it's kind of goofy when a wizard is better off punching an orc than using a sword he's not proficient with, no magic items have class restrictions, and any class can attempt an intelligence check to use scrolls.
Cool ideas.
Reminds me of everything I like from the OSR.
Deadly. To the point & fast. Elegant. Uncluttered
Subbed.
I have a whole deathbringer DM manual I hobbled together out of an od&d 74 pdf, Knave, and a bunch of hand typed home brew. The deathbringer pdf was the best 5 bucks I ever spent. My whole family and our friends are having a blast getting chopped to pieces and blown up lol. My ten year old son has killed himself accidentally like 4 times and he dies laughing every time lol
Thanks, Allen. I award your son an extra Deathbringer Die for the next session.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 you made a little boy endlessly happy. Thank you professor.
Love the way you replace Cleric with Plague Doctor and Witch Hunter. An excellent solution.
The rules have got a real "Darkest Dungeon" feel for me; which I approve of.
Plague doctor masks are just cool!
Plague Doctor masks are just cool.
Just purchased it! Love the rules!
Thank you Michael. I am very grateful.
Looks dope, I will probably use this for one of my next games!
Love the kill shot table! "Dies in d4 rounds" is very Rolemaster!
Put the M back in DM.
Looking forward to your review of Dallas, the grim dark edition
FAN TASTIC! Bought on Drivethru and looking forward to the playing with the family. This is 10x easier than 5e to introduce to players.
Thanks for your support. I hope your family enjoys!
Thanks, Professor! I just bought this on Drive Thru. Can't wait to give a try
Thanks for your patronage. Enjoy!
The most inspiring thing I have heard all day, "Real Heroes don't whine or complain!"
I am a long time follower of Dungeon craft and an avid player since 1989. I like the hack presented here and for those seeking a grim dark feel it may make 5e worth playing; but due to 5e's inherent easy mode feel I have long since returned to Ad&d and a game like into what your Death bringer rules seek to emulate. It has been a refreshing experience. My opinion- Just one guy reviving the ancient ways. Try it, Thaco is a breeze.
Thanks for your support and comment.
This is great. Like Knave but for 5e rather than B/X.
This is a very nice system (especially character creation); however, I feel that the Critical Miscast Table is the wrong way round. With every other D20 roll in the game, a high roll is good for the character; so I'll swap the table so that 1 = Catastrophe, 2 - 5 = Disaster, 6 - 10 = Backfire, and 11 - 20 = Fizzle. I think that making the Disaster result the source of spell casting corruption could be worth trying out.
Thanks for the walkthrough; you give a great set of pointers.
LOL, Totally, agree I have been telling PDM the exact same thing on Patreon!
It’s a throwback to XDM, where if you roll a nat 1, you roll a straight d20 to see how badly you fail. You’re rolling to see the severity same as when you succeed higher means bigger effect. I don’t see a problem with it personally and actually like it even if it isn’t perfectly streamlined.
I can see your point, but as Star points out, 20 is an EPIC fail.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 EPIC FAIIIIIIIIIL!!!!!! 🤯
Love this stuff. Reminds me a bit of DCC, but with your own flavor added to taste. Looks like it would be fun to run and/or play.
Ive done something like deathbringer dice but a little more involved with the character’s status. Im personally not a big fan of detached metacurrencies that pile up, so instead a player can lower their ac and saving throws by 2 during an encounter in order to use a deathbringer like die. So there is an immediate consequence for using it.
You are essentially “letting down your gaurd” to do something extra. You are just as capable, but now more vulnerable.
Now this needs to be in Foundry VTT folks
Have them make me an offer! lol
Now I can finally play d&d like a badass. Thanks professor!
Deathbringer approves.
Enjoy!
Hey Professor! Just bought the PDF... any chance the Deathbringer Deluxe you mentioned will be released on Drivethrurpg anytime soon?
No. It’s a Patreon only thing. Eventually it may be a physical book, but it’s years away.
I am a huge fan of PDM and his gaming philosophy. I have learned so much about gaming, game mechanics, and DMing watching PDM's videos. The Deathbringer system is a great OSR inspired TTRPG. PDM offers an extended version of Deathbringer on his DungeonCraft Patreon site (yes, this was a cheap shill, sadly no kickbacks for me). The great thing about the DB RPG is you can modify the Classes or anything else the way you like, it is encouraged!
Thanks for your patronage and the push!
I picked up Deathbringer on Drivethru and I really liked it. Definitely worth the price for the inspiration.
Thank you so much for your support and kind words.
Seems cool if it’s what your group is interested in
Did I miss how Deathbringer Dice are distributed? Whenever the DM feels like it?
Every player starts with 1 DB die per session, per level. At first level a PC has 1 DB die and at 5th level a PC would get 5 DB dice to start the session. Also they can be awarded by the DM like inspiration in D&D 5e.
A certain amount of dice at each level. GMs can hack it anyway they want though.
A certain amount at every level, although the GM can hack it any way they want.
love the system, and I think combining it with player facing rolls will make the perfect, the players fate is in their hands game. My one question is about spell levels. The Grimscribe has no spell slots, but you still refer to spell level and a set DC. So does that mean if they get their hands on a fireball they can cast it with DC 10 as much as they like until corruption and/or the miscast? Since miscast and corruption happen on a nat 1 regardless of what spell you cast, feel like it just incentivizes casting you top spells only, even with the miscast and corruption? I'm love to hear you thoughts on this and/or your experience with this at the table.
Yeah I noticed that too. I'm using the following in my solo test game: Casting spells. Cantrips are cast with advantage. All spells are DC 9+(spell lvl/2 rounded up). Ritual cast takes 10mins (and if in an area where it matters roll for random encounter as first aid) and gives advantage to the cast roll. A failure means the spell is not cast and a nature 1 on the die means a point of Corruption and a roll on the Critical Miscast table.
@@sectorbob Try adding 10+Spell lvl = DC. So a 1st lvl spell has a DC of 11
@@WarplaneStudio Hmm I may do that, don't think it will change things too much. The other change I made if the spell needs to be targeted (like a Firebolt) the caster also needs to hit the AC of the target in the same roll.
At first I was skeptical because I don't like 5e, but then you went into more detail and I was like "okay I know this is a commercial but I'm buying and running this game."
Thank you so much. I hope you enjoy it.
'Hank can't be with us today as he's drunk. Get well soon, Hank.'
+200xp for you!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Good to have some at last - but of course I'll probably be dead soon.
While I'm here...in the most general terms, how do you handle unarmed combat Prof? Hard to represent this concisely and well, I think. So many different outcomes to try to incorporate without arriving at something tangled and unplayable.
Thank you for reminding me that Dallas had an RPG I thought I'd lost that nightmare
lol
Picking this up when I get home from work!!!
Thanks for y0our support. Enjoy!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 got it and going to use these rules for a solo rpg. Thank you for putting in the time for us to enjoy!
@@johnsantillano6528 you're welcome
The budget is a little tight this week, but I’ll be damned if I don’t buy this on Friday! This system is so awesome looking!
Thanks for your patronage. Enjoy!
Can I ask what FONT did you use to type the bold text in the DeathBringer manual ? I've been obsessed by it !!
So many brilliant ideas! Thank you
Thanks for your support.
Fantastic streamlined game. However, I’d contend that it’s more akin to Warhammer than Leiber or Howard. Conan, Fafhrd, and Mouser are super-heroic. They wade through scores of opponents.
But they bleed. And their friends always die.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Yes, they do, but they are able to sustain massive wounds wading through hordes of Picts. These are pulp heroes, of course. They are a cut above your typical OSR PC. Not trying to split hairs, mind you. Love your channel and your contributions to the hobby.
@@oldercloudify Thanks!
deathbringer is still the best collab between my fav rpg youtubers
Thanks!
... Just got a mental image of Deathbringer after hours relaxing in his armchair watching 80s prime-time soaps ...
lol
LOL
Bought this recently because I was curious and wanted to support you after watching for so long. I also got Knave after you made a video about it a while back. While I think I prefer Knave as a whole, Deathbringer die seem amazing and I'd love to bring those into future games.
Hope you. like it! Thanks for purchasing!
Little confused by your description of how magic works, "Roll to Cast, it's a 10, plus your intelligence bonus, 15 to save" is it d20 plus int, DC of 10? Where does the save of 15 go? Also, does spell level affect the DC at all?
If anyone knows, thanks.
The standard difficulty check for casting any spell is 10, i.e. DC10 (wizards can only cast spells they know and appropriate to their level no level 1 wizards casting Meteor Swarm).
Deathbringer has no spell slots or limitations to how many times a caster can cast a known spell. For example, a wizard wants to cast Flaming Hands, the DC is 10, the player rolls a D20 and adds their Intelligence bonus, if the die roll result plus bonus is equal to or great than 10, the spell succeeds. Apply other mechanics as appropriate e.g. saving throws, damage/effects etc. Said another way, assuming your wizard character's INT bonus is +3, the effective DC is 7 any roll of 7 or greater on a D20 succeeds.
The standard Saving Throw in DB is DC15, plus appropriate ability score modify e.g. CON for Poison, DEX for Fireballs, etc.
Note, rolling a natural 1 always results in automatic spell failure, the accumulation of +1 corruption points, and a roll on the spell miscast table.
Note also, DB allows for the use of any magic user spell from any 5e or OSR product.
Yes. Roll the d20. Add your Int. Try to roll 10+ to cast. Saves against spells are 15+. Spell level has no effect. Whoosh!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 thank you for your response. In several of your videos you mention you feel spellcasters need to roll to hit like other classes, so I thought maybe you'd roll against targets Def, but I see how a fixed DC with a SV would speed spellcasting up.
@@mrgunn2726 thanks for the reply, it been helpful in figuring out how I want to run a rules light game. 👍
I know it should be simple but I can be stupid at times……..anyways I’m confused on character creation. I know im just using 8 points to build but does that mean I still roll to get the modifiers then add the 8 build points on top of that?
No. The 8 points are the modifiers. Distribute them among the six ability scores.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 thanks Professor! Looking forward to pairing with my UDT 2.0
My fiancé does not like D&D, mostly because she likes her RPGs dark and nasty, and thinks D&D is LOTR written by Marvel. But this... this I could see her liking. Same with my other group of gamers. Well, I purchased Dark Places & Demogorgons two weeks ago (and love it). Guess I'm getting this next.
Update: Purchased Deathbringer and it radiates serious grim fantasy. Taking the rules and pairing them with the random character tables from Knave. Been rolling up characters via Knave, then building their stats with DB and basing the build on the character rolled.
OMG 'LOTR written by Marvel', what a great quote; get to the alter quick, this one is a keeper. 😃
Thanks. Hope she enjoys it!
She laughs at the four winds of DnD.