Roadworthy: Alexandre Bourdin, Custom DCC Screen Creator
We recently sat down with Alexandre Bourdin to talk DCC, rebinding your favorite RPGs, and his amazing custom made Judge’s Screens! Visit our Roadworthy page for more great stories from DCC fans!
Who are you?
I’m Alexandre “Corshclaw” Bourdin, people usually call me either Alex or Claw. I work as a software engineer, and on my free time, I like to play music (metal), craft stuff, read and collect piles of RPG books, and of course massacre tons of level 0 characters in DCC!
Where are you from and where do you live now?
I was born and raised in Tours, France. This is right in the middle of the Loire Valley, which is, I think, fairly famous internationally for its countless medieval and Renaissance castles. Names like Chambord may ring a bell! I’m really grateful for growing up in this environment which is really soaked with history and legends, and highly contributed to building my imagination as a kid. I now live near Lyon, which
besides history, food and music, is also a major hub for French RPG authors, publishers and enthusiasts!
How did you first discover Dungeon Crawl Classics?
I was hearing a lot about DCC when Akiléos released the French edition a couple of years ago, and watched a review video from the YouTube channel Rôliste TV presenting the game. I remember what Mathieu (the host) said in his review, that stroke me: he explained with tangible emotion and nostalgia that DCC was recreating what people felt discovering D&D in the 80’s, with all the weird dice, crazy rules and unforgiving traps. I wasn’t born in the 80’s, so I immediately went to get my copy of DCC. And Mathieu was right! If the d20 and dungeon crawling became quite mainstream through their decades of existence, DCC redefined all that in a way that even seasoned gamers get surprised and rediscover
how fun a d20-based system can be. I think this is something most of other OSR games didn’t get right, as they just tried to replicate the classic experience, without adapting it to today’s players. If I may attempt a music analogy: if D&D was your good old rock, DCC is heavy metal with allthe knobs set to 11.
What is your favorite DCC/MCC adventure to play or run?
That’s a tough one! I think level 0 funnels are my favorites, because they’re so fun to run. The look on the players face after you killed 2 of their characters in the first 5 minutes. It’s also amazing to see their unheroic characters struggle, survive and become adventurers; I love seing roleplay emerge out of randomly generated profiles. I’ve seen some of the most random starting objects become gimmicks or even core assets in a campaign.
So I’d say the Portal under the Stars gets my vote – it’s a great introduction and also a great sandbox campaign starter! My personal tip for judges using that scenario as a campaign starter: when players come out of the portal, I have them discover that 50 years have passed in their world since they entered. Wouldn’t that make a great movie plot?
What is your most memorable Road Crew in-game moment?
I ran Sailors on the Starless Sea at the Octogônes convention a couple of weeks ago, and one of the players rolled a farmer who started with a chicken. That chicken quickly became the group’s mascot, so much that its owner sacrificed his last character to save the chicken from the Chaos Leviathan. So we created a character sheet for the chicken for him to play, rolling 1d6+2 for its attributes. It fought to the end, holding a knife in its beak, flying around and stabbing beastmen. That chicken is now level 1.
Ranch, Ketchup, or Mayo with French Fries?
Pepper sauce, for Bobugbubilz’s sake!
How did you become interested in creating your own Judges Screens?
I think at some point, planets aligned. Ironically, COVID played a big part in that story. First, a couple of lockdowns were a good reminder that living around nature is important. My wife and I decided to move into a countryside house, which came with a garage that I could turn into a workshop and start working on all kinds of DIY projects. Another factor is that I’m not a big fan of virtual tabletops, for me it’s all about gathering with friends around a table (I spend enough time in front of a screen during my work hours). During all these lockdowns, curfews, social clubs being closed, that was very frustrating not being able to gather with friends to play. So I wanted to have something to look forward to, and to keep myself busy with projects I enjoyed working on. I had seen nice wooden GM Judges screens on some actual plays on Youtube and decided to build one of my own. When I could finally go back to playing at my club, I wanted to bring something special to the table.
What are all the features and details you built into your amazing Judges Screen?
Probably way too many! It’s made with 2 dice towers, one facing the Judge, one facing the players, to be able to do both public or confidential rolls. On the Judge’s side, there’s a foldable book holder, to hold mighty rules tomes vertically. The side panels are covered with magnetic sheets, to pin game aids or maps. In each tower, there’s a speaker, powered by a bluetooth amplifier module, so I can play music and sound effects from my phone. On the players side, I wanted to recreate an enchanter’s lab decor, so I made small bookshelves and filled them with books, potions, scrolls, artefacts, … For good measure, I threw in a few LED lights, and a smoke machine is also built in the screen, that makes smoke come out the dragon skull’s eyes and cauldron. On the Judge’s side, I’ve built a small control panel with buttons to individually turn on the speakers, the LEDs and the smoke machine. I’ve also added a battery level indicator and a USB-C charging port.
How did you build it and how long did it take to build your Judges Screen?
I drew the design, and then very optimistically started by making the mini-books, haha. I worked on the different parts in parallel: the electronics, the wooden structure, all the decoration elements, … and then pretty much assembled everything at the very end. There were definitely times when I thought I would never finish this project. Overall, I estimated that I spent between 200 and 300 hours working on this Judges screen, over the course of 5 months. I figured along the way that I had to solve some design issues, some ended up very time consuming. For example, I couldn’t find any hinges that would fit what I needed, so I had to make the hinges and clasp myself, by cutting brass sheets, which is something I had never done before. I also learned a lot about electronics, and toasted a couple of components in the process. It also took 3 attempts to make covers for the speakers that I was finally happy with.
What advice do you have for someone wanting to build their own Judges Screen?
I had one epiphany a few years ago, which may be completely obvious to some, but has been invaluable for me not only for this project, but almost everyday since: never stay blocked thinking that you can’t do or don’t know how to do something. I used to think that to do carpentry, you had to be a trained carpenter. I’m now convinced that anyone can learn anything. Ask yourself “What do I need to learn to
achieve this, that I don’t know how to do yet?”, and get to it. Many things could have stopped me in this project: I had never worked with metal before, nor had I built complex electronics wirings (electricians may laugh at me calling this complex, but it is the most complex system I have ever built!). Luckily, we can now find tutorials online that can teach you pretty much anything. Not being afraid to fail also helps a lot. Trying, failing and learning from my mistakes has been a huge part of the process.
What I find most interesting in such a project, is not knowing how to do it before you start, learning while you build it, and finally contemplating what you’ve accomplished.
Your custom leather-bound DCC RPG book is awesome, how difficult was it to rebind the book? Where did you learn how to bind books?
That was an intense and scary experience! It was the first book I ever rebound, but I didn’t do it alone. I spent a week at the Reliures &Grymoires bindery with the bookbinder Steve Servaes. Steve is a gamer himself and has built a solid reputation among French gamers for rebinding and transforming RPG tomes into works of art. Every year, he also runs 3 one-week internships where 4 book enthusiasts can bring their favorite book with them and spend a week rebinding it and learning the process. Mine was my DCC rulebook! It was a very intense and demanding week, but also absolutely amazing. Steve is a master craftsman and an amazing human being, very generous with his knowledge.
Steve’s work is accessible on his Facebook page, but be careful if you fail on your willpower saving throw, you may drool yourself to death!
What advice do you have for someone interested in changing their RPG books into tomes of awesomeness?
If you try this on your own, I’d very much recommend practicing on books you don’t care about first, before ripping apart your favorite RPG book! After the week at the bindery, I practiced on a few notebooks and books of low value before moving on to binding other RPG books. Another solution is to simply send them over to Steve for a guaranteed masterpiece!
What cool project is next?
I wish I knew! Haha. I just finished making a leather-bound spell cards box and a dice lamp. I will probably be in the process of rebinding my RPG books collection for the rest of my life. I also definitely have to make a sci-fi screen that fits the MCC vibe! Maybe the players side could look like an old and rusty starship’s cockpit. I’ve received tons of suggestions, like adding a projector, a touchscreen, a coffee
machine, a mini-fridge …
Anything else you would like us to know?
I have very recently created some social network pages to publish pictures of my crafts. As I recently got this question a lot: nothing is for sale (yet), but who knows, maybe one day! I think a pillar of the worldwide TTRPG community is to share ideas and inspire each other, so feel free to take a peak: CorshCrafts (@corshcrafts)!
