Free RPG Day: Pod-Caverns Under DCC RPG Rules

[Aplus]

play report here:

Free RPG Day: Pod-Caverns Under DCC RPG Rules

(I tried pasting it here, but the formatting was lost, making it nigh unreadable. Sorry to send you away from the forums to read it, but that's just how it's gotta be, I guess!)

[Machpants]

Great report, sounds fun.

But, with no experience in play, I think that spell burn and luck are going to be the hardest thing to stop min-maxing and more thought needs to go into the rules of it. Or at least how to handle it.

[Aplus]

Yeah, if your lucky roll is something meaningful, then it makes burning luck sting a lot more. But if it's something completely meaningless, it's almost an invitation to burn it all.

But again, I see this being managed entirely differently by campaign players versus one-shot players. I would just like some guidance on how to account for those different approaches, since the solution doesn't come to mind easily for me.

Just a quick brain dump, but maybe I would impose the following limits in a one-shot:

Thieves and Halflings can burn a number of luck points equal to their level per in-game day.
Other classes may burn only one luck point the entire session.

Wizards can spellburn one point off each physical ability once per in-game day.

Dunno, I'll have to try it to see how it would work out in play.

Also, I don't want to give the impression it's horribly broken or anything like that. All things considered, the game was fine. Something about it just didn't "feel right," if that makes any sense. Maybe it's simply because I wasn't expecting it, I have some bogus perception that it must be powergaming or something like that, and I just need to adjust my attitude about it.

[finarvyn]

I nice write-up overall. I see what you mean about the formatting.

I noticed that you generated 4 sets of character stats, then picked the best to simulate the funnel process. Remember that the guy with the best stats isn’t always the one to survive the funnel. Not a bad way to do pre-gens, but it might not quite give the same feel as having a 3rd level character with more average stats. It occurs to me that it would be sweet to have some decent rules in the book for creating above-level characters from scratch.

Nice to hear about the love of the funky dice. I’m convinced my local game store would sell some, if only they carried them.

I love your observation that some elements of the game (luck and spellburn) play very differently than they read. I’ve been trying to encourage folks here to actually try a game before they try to change it, and your story mirrors mine. I had a list of things I thought were not so good, and most of those things got crossed off once I got a chance to play. While it's fun to debate theory, play it and then come back to chat about it!

Nice that you found that 1E materials work well for DCC. I’ve used several 1E products in playtest and all are easy to convert so far, so my conclusion mirrors yours.

Great feedback!

[numenetics]

Remember that the guy with the best stats isn’t always the one to survive the funnel.

I don't remember the exact numbers, but so far in my games the guys with the best stats have usually been the first to die in the funnel, because they get put in the front but aren't actually that much stronger than anyone else.

[meinvt]

Remember that the guy with the best stats isn’t always the one to survive the funnel.

I don't remember the exact numbers, but so far in my games the guys with the best stats have usually been the first to die in the funnel, because they get put in the front but aren't actually that much stronger than anyone else.

This. Despite my immediate recommendation when I hear a player got a good set of rolls that they should "Hide in the back! But not too far back..."

I've also found that players need encouragement to burn luck. Remember it modifies, at the least, crits and fumbles, and I also use it as an ability check when they have a plan that just requires things to work out. For example, suspecting crocodiles in the water a hen is placed on the bridge and they step back. Does the crocodile take the bait or show itself? Roll your luck!

These really need to be experienced in play.

[finarvyn]

I think that the natural instinct seems to be "the strong fight and protect the weak" which is exactly why the strong die out and the weak survive.

Reminds me of the American Civil War, where it was bad luck to be a Sergeant? Why? Because the sergeants were the ones expected to lead the charge and show grunt soldiers where to go. So if you made it past sergeant to higher ranks you had a decent chance of surviving, but you had to survive sergeant first.

The funnel is like that.

[goodmangames]

I don't think I wrote this anywhere in the beta rules, but I penalize low-Luck characters with, well, unlucky events. For example:

* When they encounter the unintelligent animal in the dungeon, it always charges the character with the lowest luck.
* Every so often they trip and fall on a flagstone. No damage but some sort of minor penalty: -1 to attack rolls for the next day due to a sprained wrist.
* If there are traps triggered by "the first character through a hallway," well, that character happens to bypass the trap if he has a high Luck, and the low-Luck character is the one who sets it off.

It's also important when you die -- a Luck check is involved in recovery rolls. The character with a high Luck can die and have his body recovered by his allies -- and most likely survive. When the low-Luck character dies, he's most likely not going to survive the body recovery roll.

And so on. Low Luck should be punished...

Hope that helps. In my games, the characters who burn a lot of Luck eventually feel the burn!!

[Aplus]

I don't think I wrote this anywhere in the beta rules, but I penalize low-Luck characters with, well, unlucky events. For example:

* When they encounter the unintelligent animal in the dungeon, it always charges the character with the lowest luck.
* Every so often they trip and fall on a flagstone. No damage but some sort of minor penalty: -1 to attack rolls for the next day due to a sprained wrist.
* If there are traps triggered by "the first character through a hallway," well, that character happens to bypass the trap if he has a high Luck, and the low-Luck character is the one who sets it off.

It's also important when you die -- a Luck check is involved in recovery rolls. The character with a high Luck can die and have his body recovered by his allies -- and most likely survive. When the low-Luck character dies, he's most likely not going to survive the body recovery roll.

And so on. Low Luck should be punished...

Hope that helps. In my games, the characters who burn a lot of Luck eventually feel the burn!!

Awesome. That is very helpful.