Goodman Games

My favorite house rule I swiped from Crawl #1.

I have no thief class in my games. Everyone can use thief abilities! Everyone can be dishonest and most thief abilities have been moved to the everyone can do list.

Handle Poison and Backstab are not used unless by chaotic's,and I don't allow chaotic pc's! Backstab is limited to daggers.


Love that anyone can search for traps,sneak and steal!

If you use this make sure to use armor check penalty!


What are your house rules?

The Shattered Shields (and Helmets) rules from CRAWL! (#2 or #3, I forget which).

I don't really have a favorite per se, but here are the house rules I'm using, just in case anyone is curious about such things:

Character Generation
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PVb ... Irl54/edit

Outland Races
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qGC ... 3G4Ng/edit

DCC House Rules for Outland
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cmG ... 7nPvU/edit

I tried no clerics out this past week. I made a Wizards use Black Magic and created White Wizards who used clerical magic.

It was a lot of fun but the White Wizard didn't have as much fun as I thought he should have.

Still thinking on it

I'm working on "no clerics" for this weekend, for a game I'm running for Doug and some kids. Right now it is looking like a "stoicism check" (Personality check, resulting in healing) that can be attempted 1/day per level. You can burn a permanent Luck point to make an additional check. Conan pulls out the arrow, ties on a bandage and is ready to go again.

So basically, something similar to a 4e healing surge ... am I a heretic?

//H

Heretic indeed.

Or it could involve a Save... Fort or Will (for pulling out your own arrow)? DC variable...

Yeah, I'm liking the idea that it is the "will" portion of your hit points, so mental focus / a Will save makes a lot of sense. You suck it up, decide that you need to carry on no matter the pain, and power through ... or something like that.

//H

The other ideas I'm knocking around are:

Healing 3+level+con bonus per day, I got this idea from the Conan rpg but have not tried it. I guess it would help with healing over all but not a whole lot in the middle of a adventure.

Heavy Alcohol drinks heal 1d4 hit points/or a set amount of hit points 1/10th max? The idea is to give heroes reasons to drink up like they do in the stories! Not to keen on the percentage of healing so if I do it 1D4 will prob ne the limit.

Natural healing enhancements like Bandages 1d4,poultices 2d4,and elixirs 3d4 that can be bought and used per wound. My issue with this is it doesn't reflect the books and then the heroes have to lug around bags and bags of bandages?

The ideas from Crawl 1 having to do with letting the heroes heal his HD per day by taking rests ect. So a 3rd level warrior could heal 1 HD after every fight for three fights simply by taking a break and resting up a few min.


Not thrilled by these but they do let me axe the cleric and I'm really aiming for that.

Priests will be in game but they will not be classed cleric. Instead the Priest of the god of war will be a warrior with some divine enchantment on him, like all bladed weapons turn from him(half damage) or The Priest of the God of Spiders and Magic might be a wizard who is covered in spiders who spins his own webs and can call on a army of giant spiders.

The White Wizard was pretty cool and a lot safer for the character but seemed to lack the UMPH the Black Wizard player had. By the end of the game the White Wizard was looking at the black wizards spell list and drooling.

It might be the player though,he loves to play the bad guy who is on the good side. In pathfinder he just had to play a Drow NE who hated the evil guys of that campaign so sided with the party.

The death rate is quite high in DCC. Me & my players want to give the characters a better chance of survival and get a bit of a campaign going. I let my players have 2 Fate Points at 1st level as per the WFRP rules and I let them add their character's Stamina score to their hit points.

Warriors without armor can use their Agility score in lieu of their armor class. Warriors in armor have damage reduction based on the armor type (in the range of 1-3 h.p.), but damage reduction is per round, not per attack.

Clerics get a new spell-known customized by the Judge/player to reflect the purview of their deity. (In our campaign, the cleric of St Oswald inspires bravery and alacrity; the cleric of the jötunn calls down lightning and thunder; the cleric of Pelagia controls the wind and animates water.)

Thieves may burn luck to negate damage taken. The roll on the luck die reduces the damage from any one source, though no single source of damage may be reduced by more than 50% in this way (excess luck die results is lost.)

Wizards can swap out a known spell for another known spell that they have learned of equal or lesser level. This requires a casting check of DC 15+spell level, and generally takes at least 1/day per spell level to make one attempt, though the caster can try to do it in less time at a DC penalty. Mercurial magic effects stick with spells learned. There is a chance for corruption.

Halflings get a limited list of thief abilities (excluding backstab) at one level below their halfling level. We've gone back and forth on whether to let the player just pick a few, or to have the available skills keyed to the character's alignment.

Dwarves get +3 saving throw bonuses to poison and magic saves.

Elves get a +2 skill check bonus to forest-related skill checks (looking for herbs, tracking, hiding in the forest, etc.)

I'm trying not to deviate from the RAW too much, but I am giving all characters an extra 2 hit points at first level.

This idea is money!

I've allowed characters to "bind wounds" (for 1d4 hp after each battle) for years and never bothered having them buy and carry bandages. I guess I assume they might rip a strip from a cloak or tunic or something like that.

I agree that having to carry crates of bandages doesn't seem very Appendix N....

House rules I've stuck with for a while...

[*] Birth augur is a straight +1. It doesn't adjust up or down with Luck.
[*] I also use jrients' Shields Shall Be Splintered rule.
[*] I prefer using a more granular turn system. But... haven't officially moved in that direction (yet).


Fortunately, I'm working on TATG (when I can). That's collected many of my rules hacks in one place, including:

[*] Alternate wounding and bleeding out rules for "no cleric" games
[*] Alternate benefits for Luck point expenditure.
[*] AC per character class for "no armor" games

Those with an advance copy can feel free to promote/discuss (or not). Thus far, the changes have worked well in play.

Some great house-rules here. I am gonna have to pinch a few of these for my game!

I'm sooooo nicking that!

To encourage campaign play in my game & limit the deadliness (a bit ) here are 3 of my houserules that kick in once a character reaches first level.

1. From first level, characters can bind their wounds after a battle. This will recover 1d3 hit points.

2. First level chacters add their Stamina score to their hit points.

3. First level characters get Fate Points. These can be spent to avoid death. Roll a d3 when reaching first level. This is the Fate Point total for the character. If a Fate point is spent, the character avoids death & recovers d7 hit points (adrenaline rush, divine intervention, near death experience).

I've been doing almost the exact same thing but without the chance for corruption. I'm curious how you determine that, if the wizard rolls a 1 while swapping the spell?

House rules I've been using:

0-level characters always start with 4 HP, modified by Stamina.

If three of your 0-level characters die during their first adventure you can immediately level up the 4th remaining character, but they must take the Warrior class. (I don't use the demihuman classes.)

Your Birth Augur is always a minimum of +1 regardless of how low your starting Luck is.

Minimum ability score is always 3, anything less makes the character disabled in some way. Maximum ability score is always 18, unless augmented through magic.

Wizards may avoid corruption by "taking 10" when casting spells outside of combat. Clerics may not "take 10" to avoid deity disapproval!

A character may use a full-round action to sprint (some might call it "running away"). This requires the permanent loss of 1 point of Stamina but quadruples the character's Speed. A character may sprint as long as their Stamina is higher than 3.

Yep, on a natural '1' we treat it as though the caster had rolled a '1' while trying to cast the spell he is swapping-in.

The jump from level 0 to level 1 jars me (at least the fiction behind it - wizards suddenly learn 4 spells - what?), so I was going to test out these rules:

At 0 Level, characters choose their future class. This represents apprenticeship or training they’ve received to-date. Each class gets additional benefits:

• Warriors and Dwarves get a +1 to hit and damage.
• Clerics and wizards can cast a single spell with a d16 action die.
• Thieves can select 5 thief skills, and perform them with a d16 action die.
• Elves gain the infravision, immunities, vulnerabilities and heightened senses abilities.
• Halflings gain the infravision ability, and double the bonus of Luck checks.

When a character gains 5 XP, they become ½ level. The character gains an additional +2 HP (not modified by Stamina), and gain more benefits according to their class:

• Warriors get a +1 to initiative, and roll a D10 on Crit table III.
• Clerics and Wizards can cast two spells with a d16 action die.
• Thieves can perform all thief skills with a d16 action die.
• Dwarves gain the sword & board ability.
• Elves can cast a single spell with a d16 action die.
• Halflings are always considered to have a minimum agility of 16 when fighting with two weapons (they don’t gain the other two weapon abilities, however).

I almost always time jump a year after the 0 level funnel. It helps explain the class abilities.

Wizards can learn a maximum of 4 + Int modifier spells at 1st level; that does not mean that they have actually learned them. I do not allow wizards to cast these spells until they have taken the time to learn them....by then, they might have learned off spells in addition to their random starters that they may wish to learn instead. That seems to me to be the intent based on the writing in the Core Rulebook.

I also have a house rule for learning spells on the fly, if the wizard simply cannot wait to study the spell properly: http://ravencrowking.blogspot.ca/2012/0 ... ls-on.html

I heartily agree. I really like the idea of slowly allowing the wizard and elf to learn a couple spells at a time until they have their full repertoire. It's the perfect adventure hook.

I have a few...

Because of the straight rolling of stats i allow a one time stat adjustment for any level 1 characters who survive the funnel xping from level 0 to 1.
This simulates the massive jump from level 0 to level 1.
I don't allow this jump mid-adventure or in a dungeon.
They have to travel to a town and train.
When they level up to 1, they can either change any stat that has a negative adjustment to a 9
(lowest that has no penalty) or they can add 1 to their main stat.

Healing from rest
Assuming PCs can get confortable for the night, (a comfortable bed (non lice ridden))
8 hours sleep = 1 hp per level restored.
adventuring/camping = 1hp per 3 levels per night.


If a player has a strength of 16 or more he/she can use 2 handed weapons
in one hand.(This works for enemies as well)