As of this writing the DC20 game system has raised over $1.6M on Kickstarter.
A new set of Dungeons & Dragons core books are due out in a few months. While many fans are excited by the concept of new rulebooks and changes to how they play, there are those who see the shift as a chance to see what else is on the market. Some of these fan might decide to stick with older D&D rules while others might shift to new games that better fit their play styles.
Many companies large and small are hoping to snag these role playing game customers looking for a new home. There are also individuals who see this moment in time as an opportunity to change how people play fantasy games. YouTube creator The Dungeon Coach decided to launch a Kickstarter for his DC20 rules set and so far the response has been very positive.
“Making videos on YouTube and establishing a following has helped me get traction and eyes on my game, but that is all” said Alan Bjorkgren, creator of The Dungeon Coach Youtube channel. “I have always been a game designer first, and making content was just showing other people those tweaks and changes to the game of Dungeons and Dragons. It has been great practice over the years to publish and produce projects and PDFs with rules and content in there, and that has been a great way to develop my craft, but the overall concept of being a content creator and game designer dont really overlap in that way. I am a guy who loves playing TTRPGs who is a game designer at heart who started to make videos on exactly that. I have now just ran with that to go create my own game.”
DC20 builds on many of the foundations that made Fifth Edition D&D the most popular edition of the game. Not only has it spanned ten years and released several books, it’s inspired game designers to create their own content for the game. Whether blogs, downloads, actual plays or even fully realized publications, there’s a vast marketplace for third party content.
“5e did an amazing job of making Dungeons and Dragons more accessible and popular,” said Bjorkgren. “But I think the years of homebrew content I produced, not to mention the vast amounts of community generated corrections, indicates that everyone is ready for something better.”
One of the central changes that DC20 makes is a four point action economy that characters get each turn. They can choose to move, make attacks, dodge attacks and cast spells in any combination of four choices during their turn. This speeds up play and encourages players to take more risks with what they do during a battle.
“I’ve talked to more TTRPG players than I can count,” said Bjorkgen, “And frustrations like slow combat and limited player options come up over and over again. I won’t go too into all the details, but overall the game rules-as-written is too clunky, static, confusing, and puts a ton of pressure on the DM to make it exciting.”
One of the most dynamic options available to magic users are spell duels. Rather than a simple counterspell, a wizard can cast one of their own spells to try and negate the effects of a spell targeting an ally. This offers spellcasters a chance to get in on the cinematic action as, for example, their cone of frost attempts to cool an enemy’s burning hands.
The Dungeon Coach made a sample rules document available so people can judge for themselves if DC20 appeals to them. An updated document will arrive at the end of the Kickstarter to allow backers to continue to refine the rules. He credits his team for the current document being as well-constructed as it is.
“I have no doubt that DC20 would not exist had it not been for my amazing team helping me out,” said Bjorkgen. “Eddie Blanton has been my sounding board and helps on how to present the rules clearly, Evan Bosco has kept things organized within the team and played devil’s advocate on certain rules when needed, Sky has cleaned up documents and helped take other things off my plate, and Mark puts it all together into the PDFs that everyone gets to read! I also have a small but mighty dev team that have come on more recently to really help dial things in! I may have the final say, but the back and forth dialogue has not only added necessary depth and details, but also moved up the release by at least a year!”
He also credits his fans for supporting him through his channel during the development process. In addition to YouTube fans can subscribe to his Patreon if they wish to support his efforts on a regular basis rather than a one time payment.
“Overall none of this would be possible without the support of DC20 through the early access purchases on the website and through the hundreds of Patrons who supported me while writing the game,: said Bjorkgen. “There were two times where the bank account hit [zero] and I was tetering on having to pull the plug on DC20. But now here we are with a Kickstarter going towards two million [dollars] in funding. So this whole game wouldn’t be possible without this amazing community!”
The DC20 Kickstarter runs until July 1st, 2024. Digital copies are currently due in Jone 2025. Physical copies are slated for an October 2024 release.