Goodman Games

Hey, I've got a game that we're starting the characters off in college, where they'll start off playing Div IV for the first couple crawls.....Does Div 4 pretty much mean lvl 1 with starting levels? And I'm still kinda fuzzy on on what counts as nonlethal spells.....pretty much if it doesn't do any sort of damage or harm at all, its cool?

I hate to sound like such a newbie, but this is my first attempt at running a game, so I wanna make sure I get some of this right. (i also have some humorous ideas for "boffer spells" created by nerf).

I'm sure Brendan can answer more of the specifics than me... but, have you played Dungeonbattle Brooklyn? It's intentionally designed as a "newbie crawl" for players making the jump to full lethal, and can serve as a model for the kinds of encounters appropriate for barely-lethal type crawls...

Hey Brain Goblin,

Congrats on running your first game!

Okay, Div 4 starting characters would definitely be first level. They could be a college team or a professional non leathal crawl team, possibly with a sponsor.

The non-lethal spells allowed would be all the normal non-attack spells that one might find useful in a dungeon (detect magic, mending, expeditious retreat, etc) and sleep.

Be prepared: players often will try to go for something "semi-lethal," such as grappling, hitting with the hilts or pommels of their boffer weapons or with lethal foreign objects (If we ever meet remind me to tell you the one about the refrigerator door) - be prepared to say no. Remember that there are Referees around who are monitoring their moves - feel free to make "from the floor" judgment calls on what constitutes leathal.

I hope that helps, and I hope you have a blast playing Xcrawl!

take care,

Brendan

That is a pretty awesome idea for those Division 4 crawls, though.

Is there any chance that Div IV will go full lethal in the future?

Yes. It's called Division III.

Well, in Xworld Gold Talks and BS walks - and the Div IV Brooklyn Crawl, the first ever full lethal Div IV event, had the highest ratings ever. So who knows . . .


Hope all are well,

Brendan

In our home campaign, I did a riff off the Brooklyn Crawl (which, incidentally, I have heard about but have been unable to find anywhere-- must have missed it, can't see it at RPGNow or any place like that). I started the players off in Division IV at L2 (with max hit points). The premise was that, after the success of Brooklyn, an Apprentice DJ is trying to make a name for himself by staging a "full contact" XCrawl in a convention centre/arena. The crawl is actually designed very compactly, so that it could fit into a convention centre of the sort you see used for major gaming cons. It is also designed for maximum viewing by a live audience-- the backstory is that he's getting as much funding as he can from making good live seats available to the nobility and to corporations. It also allows for a lot of grandstanding attempts and audience reaction and so forth. The DJ also had a "Don Pardo"-style prize announcer doing the adverts for the sponsors.

The big "surprise prize" at the end, as part of the winning prize package, was an invitation to The Show-- that is, to participate in a "real" Division III Xcrawl season opener-- for which I then used Memphis. As I had worked it out so that the L2 characters would get just enough XP to make it to L3 by the end of the crawl, they then started as they would have in a "regular" campaign.

The Apprentice DJ got confirmed as a Div III DJ in our campaign and will be making the occasional reappearance.

I would also think that a straight boffer dungeon in Div IV would be a good way to get new XCrawl players used to some of the other, noncombat aspects of the game, like the world background, Grandstanding, Mojo and so forth.

Of course, if they are eager to beat down monsters...

That sounds good - I like the idea of the Apprentice DJ:

"Two-headed ogre you disappointed all of us. You didn't even score a single hit. And you fell for that stupid illusion. Ogre . . . you're fired!"

(Ogre bursts into flames)


hehehehehe

be well,

Brendan