First Game and Some Questions!

[LotharTheFellhanded]

Howdy everyone! First post!

So I've been in love with DCC for several months and finally got a game in, as one of our normal Pathfinder players just never showed, and I convinced my players to try DCC as character creation is so quick...

We played online (as is our custom since college ended and we all moved away) with Maptools. I usually use premade maps on maptools, scanned or created by those who are better at it than me, but I drew out the map this time, very simple black on white. Not quite pencil on graph paper but it'll do. We played The Portal Under the Stars, as I like it's flavor...and it's the only 0th level module I had. Now, scene set, how it went!

I did NOT give them enough 0th lvl peasants. I only had 3 players, and I'm not sure how many zeroes you should get. 1 to 6 is what the book says, so I thought I'd let the mighty and uncaring dice gods decide and had them roll 1d6.

They all rolled 3. That works out I guess. I would've had them shift it around to make it even at 1st lvl, but not an issue I guess.

But the intro to the adventure says 15-20...so yeah, 9 isn't enough. I figured screw it, it's a last minute pick up game, if they all die it'll be lesson learned. I was afraid that 5 each would take too long to run. Especially with the narrow spaces; 5 ft wide corridors make it pretty single file. I was pleased to see them start paying attention to the torches and light sources. The only demihuman rolled was a dwarf blacksmith who died second, so no infravision. Speaking of which.

Holy sh*t. The DOOR to the DUNGEON killed a character. And then the dwarf who opened the door ALSO DIED. Goddamn. That's just sadistic; there's pretty much no way of seeing the second death coming. The door is trapped if you force it so I guess don't brute force your way through is the lesson, but first person through the door gets 4 spears chucked at them. Talk about harsh; dwarf got skewered by 3 of them and died several times over, and was the player's likeliest looking zero. Maybe the lesson is the boldest adventurer gets pincushioned first. It was a lesson the players took to heart; at least two decided the best plan was to hang back and let the bolder party members eat it and get their gear and loot after. It was the Chaotic ones, of course. One of my players, who favors wizards and inventing new ways of torturing his enemies, rolled an intelligent fortuneteller and started stealing the show, coming up with ideas and getting other people to take the lead. Bloody devious. And he started doing Tarot readings to divine whether actions were a good idea, so I let him roll Luck for good/indifferent/bad divinations. Probably was a little too generous with it but I liked it, since it was thematic.

So they start stripping the statues of armor and weapons (and their dead) so they're suddenly looking better. Then they hit the fire statue room. They made a couple of guesses but they went for a door immediately, so it started shooting. One character got out and the other tried jumping under the statue so it couldn't point. I had it blast him anyway, which the player didn't like and might've been unfair. I dunno; it's clearly magical, at least partly, and the trap description doesn't say anywhere in the room is safe, so fried he was. The fortuneteller got the idea to cut the door down and use it as a shield, just like the adventure mentions, which I was proud of. Another player's new main zero spent the rest of the information carrying it around, using it and his scale mail to survive with a 19 AC. Statue fried another zero and the door wielding warrior in training soaked up a few blasts and it ran out. I had it keep tracking though, which made them paranoid it was playing possum. Probably should have just had it stop so they would just move on. I gave the statue a d20 initiative and had it act in order, blasting on it's turn, but I also felt it kinda let them maneuver around it too easily.

The fortuneteller decided to go left on his own, saw the snake, and immediately closes the door and walks away. Player was playing him way too cool and non plussed. I realized as soon as he did...the snake doesn't have hands so he can't open the door. That got a laugh. He had to spend a few rounds battering it down. They drew back into the first room and had the door-shield character plug the hole and fight around, thrusting with spears and using the holy water and oil flask that some of the zeroes got as their starting trade goods to great effect, the fortuneteller burning all his Luck on it (he'll regret that). The door-shield proved vital, but the Ssssiiiraaauugggg managed to get a few hits in, but did only 1 damage each time, which was enough to drop him, but I let him burn Luck to stay up, barely alive. They got him eventually though, and then went into the right room, but only one went in and they started brawling with the bone piles.

That is not a good encounter; the room is small and the entrance narrow, and they are pathetic enemies. They're hardly worth the effort of fighting, and there's bloody 7 of them. One player was bushed and only had one character left so he said she ran away (not happy with that). They finally got enough of their characters in to start smashing them and got halfway through when the player bailed, so I was going to handwave that they won, as the combat was getting tiresome and going to take too much time. The only real high point was two characters scored criticals and thus got to roll on the awesome Crit Table I, and one fumbled. The crits weren't as fun as the enemies are pretty bland and the descriptions don't apply very well to them, and they're just mooks at best. They dided to every hit anyway. There was one fumble, but it was a 2, so I just made everyone laugh at the player (in good fun, of course). I was hoping to run through the whole module tonight, but we stopped there instead.

I am disappointed that we couldn't finish the module in one session; I think we really only played for like 2-2 1/2 hours. Character creation took longer than I thought but I'm the only one with the book giving them the results of table rolls, so that's probably it. I've also noticed that modules are rather short and small compared to what I'm used to, and rooms are clearly modeled as a singular encounter to overcome before moving onto the next. They're also designed to be completed in a single session, which is nice since you get the real feeling of accomplishment with each conclusion. I guess, haven't gotten there yet.

I was also a little lost in trying to separate DCC from my d20/3rd Ed. upbringing and viewpoint. Since we were using Maptools, the 5 ft grid is enforced, which made it familiar for the players, but maybe too familiar. I know we don't use attacks of opportunity, but what about movement? How should you handle moving through spaces and suchlike? I think I ruled too closely to d20 to keep enemies from passing each other, which made the bone piles fight slow to a crawl, since one character moved into the room by himself.

Luck is also a complex mechanic I don't think I have down pat, and I'm not sure how you should use it for zeroes. Should a zero get to burn Luck to survive? Should that be encouraged? The fortuneteller burning all his Luck to slay the demon snake seems a desperate move, and he said his character doesn't believe in Luck...so I think I should explain the setting concepts a bit more before next time. I gotta read up on the Luck rules more.

I feel the funnel also lacks magic entirely; nobody can cast any magic at all. All that awesome magic fun stuff I love is absent for zeros. I feel it's one of the most attractive parts of DCC and there's no chance to show it off. Not sure how I could work it in. Maybe have them find a grimoire or a scroll and try to cast from it, but with slightly better chances.

Looking to the future; the players mostly seem interested in playing again, so that's awesome news. I do not think they are going to survive, as there are only 5 zeroes left and they're only halfway through. I think by defeating the bone piles the crystal warriors are bypassed though. I might have them start over with another module, and try to find a better number of zeroes. Can't run this one again as they'll see the first half coming. Might write a new adventure of my own, something classic and less horrendously cruel than the beginning of this one. I mean, characters will die anyway, you don't need to start by just bumping two off. The starting number of zeroes is a big question mark for me though; how do you judge that? Do all the 0th lvl modules have a recommended spread of zeroes to use, and does that help gauge lethality level?

[finarvyn]

Welcome to DCC. A couple of random thoughts:

1. I print off a couple of key pages for character generation. Stuff like the occupation chart. It'll go faster in the future, although certainly doing it online will slow you down a little compared to tabletop play.

2. Offhand, I can't recall seeing any official guidelines as to how many zeroes to give to each player. My rule of thumb is typically three, with possible places to replenish their supply along the way. Zeroes die. A lot.

3. The dungeon door killed a character? I've had characters die on the way to the dungeon.

4. When I run DCC, I try not to get too hung up on length or mass or time. In other words, while gridmaps may be great for 3E, they tend to get in the way of DCC. DCC is really more of a "loose" game where you don't need to spend the time counting squares.

5. Rules like luck can be brought in slowly if you like. Zeroes don't ever really get much chance to use specialized rules becasue they die so suddenly, so don't stress the details early on. As you get more used to the rules, the players will as well.

Sounds like you had a lot of fun with the game!

[cjoepar]

Great write up, Lothar. I'll give some perspective based on my experience as well.

As far as number of starting zeros, I usually have the party start with 4 each. Once we only had 3 players and I had them use 5 each, but usually a minimum of 4. Sounds like a lot, and the first encounter or two might get bogged down a little, but as you've seen the numbers thin out pretty quickly. In the end, I have found that at higher levels parties of 6-8 characters tend to be the sweet spot for me, so if I had a group of 3 or 4 players, I'd let them advance two characters to 1st level, if there were more players then I would only allow one to advance (and maybe advance one of their zeros as an NPC to help fill out the party if there were only 5 of them playing). Any other zeros that survive, I keep at zero level and they become henchmen. I have found that within an adventure or two, they are all gone, either from advancing to 1st level to replace a character who died, meeting an untimely end, or they eventually fail their morale check and decide to go back to pig farming.

Yes, DCC is brutally unforgiving at the start. It is a big shock when you are coming from 3E or Pathfinder, but the early deaths really set the tone, and the lethality of the system is simply part of the game. This risk/reward dynamic is one of the things that sets DCC apart from D&D. As you noticed, the magic system is another part. If you want to see it in action, by all means throw a few scrolls in early on and enjoy the results. You can do whatever you want, so just tell the party that the scrolls were specially prepared by their author and can be read by anyone with just an INELLIGENCE modifier, if you like.

LUCK is an interesting aspect and I think you and the players will get the hang of it quickly. If I have characters who let their LUCK drop below 5, I start having random bad things happen to them. And sooner or later someone in the party will drop in a fight and they will see how important LUCK is for the roll-over check and they will start to recognize it's value and probably won't squander it so readily.

I went through all the same processes and confusions when I started, but after a session or two everything begins to fall into place and you will be able to "wing it" pretty easily when something comes up that you're not sure about. I generally design all my own dungeons and game worlds, but there are some good modules available for DCC if you prefer that route. I actually just bought 4 modules from Purple Sorcerer that are pretty nice for less than $15 (they are just .pdf's, so no printing or postage costs involved). Purple sorcerer also has a fun online tool for generating 4 zero level characters that's convenient if you need them quickly, check out their website.

I hope some of that was worth the read!

[cjoepar]

... I actually just bought 4 modules from Purple Sorcerer that are pretty nice for less than $15 (they are just .pdf's, so no printing or postage costs involved)...

And by "pretty nice" I mean very nice.

[ragboy]

Lothar --

A couple of points, suggestions:

Character creation speed -- go here, do this, done: http://purplesorcerer.com/create.htm

Various rules and magic and other stuff for 0-levels -- the Good news is that you did it Right. The game should be fun, uncertain, and deadly. If you want a 0-level to burn luck to survive, do it. If you want one to pick up a scroll and cast a spell from it, do it. The rules are there, but it's your game. Now, you should make it difficult (not every spell can be cast, rules say a d10 for the Spell Check for untrained, but for certain dramatic situations, do what you think is best. Luck burn has its own reward (for the DM) with unlucky occurrences down the road that will have the fortuneteller suddenly believing in Luck. The rules guidelines are that when an attack, trap, bad effect, etc is in question, choose the character with the lowest Luck. And then there's the escape from death that the Luck roll enables once the characters are of level.

Having the fortuneteller read Tarot to figure out what to do next is Amazing roleplaying. Don't discourage it with rules or thoughts of breaking them.

Finish the Adventure! The characters can retreat and regroup. You may even rule that they've attained enough experience to level up. Whether you handwave this process or have it take some time, that strange place will niggle at their ego and sense of adventure -- the important thing in my campaign has been to let that be the players' choice. Present them with a world of choice and let them decide. When/If they go back, there are a number of things you can do to spice it up --

- Something else takes residence -- Anytime there are powerful artifacts/shrines, etc laying about, they attract the strangest folk.
- Nothing has changed -- a layer of new, but undisturbed dust lies over the already explored areas. Continue adventure...
- The place is looted -- someone else came in and finished it up...but what's this? An item, note, or other maguffin that could lead to the next adventure... Or, the second party has just finished looting the place, and here come the PCs. Are they enemies?

Your write-up was fun and illustrates why the funnel hooks everyone that plays this game...especially the Judge.