DC20 has some serious problems

I’ve backed the Kickstarter for DC20, the new TTRPG in the making by The Dungeon Coach. In my current stage as a DM (seven or eight years of experience, only played D&D 5e, watched and listened to all kinds of TTRPG’s via live plays) I’ve grown tired of playing the same system that doesn’t actually support the DM very well. DC20 proved to be something in the same vein as 5e, but different enough. I tested an early version with my players and they enjoyed it quite a bit. “A little crunchy for level 2 characters” was the main feedback, but otherwise a welcome change. Though I now fear that DC20 is in danger of becoming a slogfest that won’t appeal to players outside the current fanbase.

DC20 versus D&D 5e

DC20 aims to be a system that rivals D&D 5e in offering the ‘class fantasy’ of the player’s desire. It does this by removing limitations and offering more options, whilst trying not to overcomplicate things. For example: the damage numbers are as low as can be. Most regular weapons do 1 damage, and two-handed weapons usually deal 2 damage. This means a bonus of +1 damage is a big deal. And since players have 4 action points to spend during their turn (instead of a predetermined action economy), they can use this resource to try and maximize their damage output in interesting ways.

Another simplification: there are no damage dice. Because The Dungeon Coach explained that gathering your dice and rolling and performing the addition all takes up time, unnecessary time. Fair enough. So in DC20, if you hit the target’s defensive score (‘armor class’ in 5e), you deal the set amount of damage of your weapon. But for every ‘5’ that you surpass the target score, you deal +1 damage, and a crit adds another +2 to that. So rolling high matters, and rolling higher will always mean you deal more damage (as opposed to D&D 5e, where a crit can do less damage than a well rolled regular attack).

Combine this with a system that allows martial characters to perform interesting ‘maneuvers’ and ‘techniques’ instead of simply bashing their target with their weapon, and you’ve got quite a robust system that provides plenty of freedom to players. Even the weapons add another layer of freedom and potential to the combat, since a weapon has a ‘style’ and ‘properties’ that will have specific effects, depending on the situation. All of this makes the game a little crunchier in some respects, sure, but if that’s the price of awesome martial combat, I (as a DM) am willing to pay it.

Unnecessary crunch

But… since the last update, there are even more layers of complexity that determine how much damage you deal. And this is where The Dungeon Coach is losing me. There are two types of ‘armor class’ (single target AC called ‘Precision Defense’, and AOE AC called ‘Area Defense’). There are 29(!) conditions. Players have class features that may influence their damage output. And then there’s damage resistance (either an absolute reduction or halving of a specific damage type, like ‘fire’), then there’s damage reduction (which isn’t an absolute reduction but a halving of damage categories, like ‘elemental’). But then the damage reduction can be ignored by heavy hits, but not the resistance (which are the absolute reductions). And if a target is ‘bloodied’ or ‘well bloodied’, this may influence the damage output as well.

Now imagine a player performing an attack with two damage types, and the enemy has several resistances, reductions, and vulnerabilities; and when performing heavy or critical hits, the player can decide the damage type of the bonus damage. It’s an arithmetical mess.

DC20 damage calculation

All of this could be worth it, if the result is better immersion or more engaging gameplay. But these layers of ‘choice’ only provide ways of mitigating or allowing damage. It’s arithmetic, not combat immersion. Giving martial classes maneuvers and techniques also creates complexity, but this allows players to perform different feats. One player can throw him- or herself in front of another player, taking a hit, preventing that player from dying; this creates drama and stakes. But these layers of pure damage mitigation don’t do any of this. They only stretch out the process of calculating damage for the sake of ‘tactical choices’

So now when a player makes an attack, we need to calculate it using the following:

• Determine the type of attack the player is doing (PD vs AD)
• Base damage
• Is it heavy or brutal or critical?
• Is it adjusted by weapon style?
• Is it adjusted by weapon properties?
• Does the target have any conditions?
• Does the target have damage reductions?
• Does the target have damage resistances?
• Is the target bloodied or well bloodied?
• Are there any player features activated due to one of the prior bullet points?

Below is an example of a monster attacking a player, and how quickly it becomes a complicated arithmetical mess. Mind you, this might seem as if I’ve created the most complex case possible, but we’re not even touching ‘conditions’, the bloodied and well-bloodied feature, and other specific player features.

DC20 Attack: Arithmetic Example

Monster: Level 2 Venomous Construct (Medium Construct)

• Attack: Poisoned Spike Fist
• Base Damage: 3 Piercing + 2 Poison damage
• Attack Check: +4

Player Character: Level 2 Dwarf Champion

• Precision Defense: 12
• Physical Damage Reduction (PDR): From Heavy Armor
• Poison Resistance (1): From Dwarf Ancestry Trait “Toxic Fortitude”
• Piercing Vulnerability (1): From a cursed item worn
• Elemental Resistance (Half): From a magic ring

Attack Resolution

Step 1: Attack Check

• Monster rolls d20 + 4 = 18 total
• Player’s PD = 12
• 18 vs 12 = Hit!
• 18 is 6 over the PD (12), so this is a Heavy Hit (+1 damage)

Step 2: Initial Damage Calculation

• Base: 3 Piercing + 2 Poison
• Heavy Hit: +1 damage (player chooses which type) → +1 Piercing
• Total before mitigation: 4 Piercing + 2 Poison

Step 3: Damage Modifications (following page 36-37 rules)

For Piercing Damage (Physical category):

1. Adding/Subtracting step: Piercing Vulnerability (1) = +1 damage
   • 4 Piercing becomes 5 Piercing
2. Doubling/Halving step: PDR provides Resistance (Half) against non-Heavy Hits
   • BUT this was a Heavy Hit, so PDR is bypassed!
   • No halving occurs
3. Final Piercing damage: 5

For Poison Damage (Elemental category):

1. Adding/Subtracting step: Poison Resistance (1) = -1 damage
   • 2 Poison becomes 1 Poison
2. Doubling/Halving step: Elemental Resistance (Half) = damage halved
   • 1 Poison halved = 0.5, rounded up = 1
   • But Resistance (Half) has minimum 1 damage reduced, so: 1 – 1 = 0
3. Final Poison damage: 0

Attack: Final Result

Total damage taken: 5 Piercing + 0 Poison = 5 damage

Excuse me, but what in the flying fuck is this? Calculating damage like this isn’t ‘crunch’, it’s accounting, it’s ‘video game-styled damage calculation’ placed in the hands of the players and the GM. It’s just a lot of work, but to what end? This doesn’t create depth in gameplay (like free-form spending of action points, giving players maneuvers and techniques, et cetera). All this creates is a bloat of options on damage mitigation, that are layered and hierarchical. None of this adds anything to the game, other than extra math.

DC20’s Original intention

This doesn’t help players role-play better. Worse yet: it actively pulls players and GM’s out of the scene with a checklist of potential damage mitigation options that they have to work through. And it doesn’t speed up or simplify gameplay, like The Dungeon Coach has claimed he aimed to do. This takes more time than gathering and rolling dice, and determining resistances/vulnerabilities. If we’re flattening the action economy by creating action points, because players always take time to determine whether or not they can do something with their bonus action, then why are we doing this? Honestly, none of this is conducive to quick action and character driven role-play.

Removing damage dice was such a big part of DC20. Not just because it’s different from D&D 5e, but because it contracts the resolution. When you know the target number, rolling a number equal to or higher than that target, automatically tells us it’s a success. And we also know that rolling higher results in higher damage (potentially).

For example: if the target is 10, rolling a 19 is evidently better than rolling a 14, even without performing the exact math. And on a character sheet or monster stat block, you can easily display the regular target number (10 in this case), the ‘Heavy Hit’ number (that would be 15), and the ‘Brutal Hit’ number (in this example 20). All of this is to solve several problems: create a better flow by removing extra steps, to solve the problem of ‘rolling to hit’ not mattering other than hitting/missing/critting, and compacting the resolution to create a more tense moment.

Lack of clarity

So keep in mind this quick and fluid system. A player knows their target number to hit, they roll, it’s almost instantaneously clear how heavy the hit is… but then we have to look at PDR. 

“Physical Damage Resistance?”

No, ‘Reduction’.

“So subtract the number?”

No, I know, it says ‘reduction’, but the reduction is always fifty percent. Like resistance in D&D 5e.

“Right, so the damage is halved.”

Actually, no, it was a Heavy Hit.

“But my Poison Resistance still works?”

Yes, reduce the number of poison damage by the number next to your poison resistance.

“Two, minus one, equals one.”

Now halve it, because of the Elemental Reduction–

“–Reduction, that actually functions like ‘resistance’ in 5e, got it.”

Yes, I know I’m being a little facetious. But it just irks me that DC20 had such a clear aim. Create a simpler, more straightforward game, whilst maximizing the options for players. Now it’s becoming a mechanically bloated game, yet the fans keep cheering it on during the livestreams. And we haven’t even discussed the enormous narrative incongruence caused by ‘Precision Defense’ (the defensive score against single target damage) and ‘Area Defense’ (defensive score against AOE damage). Because what type of armor is especially effective against a precision strike from a sword, but not effective against a hail of arrows?

The Dungeon Coach said DC20 will be released somewhere in the first half of 2026. This gives him about a year to course correct. Because DC20 has some serious mainstream potential, due to its intended ‘straight forwardness’ and wide appeal. Yes, it’s fairly generic in several aspects, it doesn’t hold strong or interesting opinions like certain games or creators. But that’s fine for a TTRPG that aims to be the Labrador of the market. Sadly though, if it continues down this road, those hopes will be smothered in the crib, making it just one of the many niche indie games.