Goodman Games

Is it RAW to have NPC wizards burn luck on spellchecks, NPC thieves to backstab and use their special luck ability, NPC warriors to do mighty deeds?

Depends. Are there such things in your campaign?

Arguably, page 432 says no. For all but the most powerful opponents, I would agree with page 432. For example, NPC magic users get a few spells with perhaps multiple uses. Myself, I might even go so far as to predetermine the result of their spell check as a fixed number.

My preference would be to avoid NPC Wizards, Thieves and Warriors, in favor of magic users, rogues and fighters. Leave the player characters their uniqueness.

It is RAW that your NPCs can do whatever you designed them to be able to do.

Yep, "Do what thou wilt." is the approach you need to take, though yeah, if you look at the big selection of NPCs on pages 432-434, you'll see examples of how NPCs wizards et al. are statted up, and you'd note:

DCC RPG wrote:As noted previously, “monsters break the rules”—and that applies to men as well. When sending your players to face a magician or warrior, you need not spend the time to create a complicated leveled-up player character according to the class rules. Make it fast and make it interesting!

Fast is the key. Keep in mind that the NPCs, like monsters, are generally designed to be killed in 2d4 rounds. So, don't spend hours lovingly crafting one -- because that's the one that will get critted in a surprise attack and be dead before the initiative dice stop rolling.

ragboy wrote:Fast is the key. Keep in mind that the NPCs, like monsters, are generally designed to be killed in 2d4 rounds. So, don't spend hours lovingly crafting one -- because that's the one that will get critted in a surprise attack and be dead before the initiative dice stop rolling.

That's good advice generally, but I would instead say, "Don't do so much that it is a chore. If you want to craft an NPC, craft that NPC. If not, not. It's all good." DCC is not like 3.x; i.e., you cannot get the stats "wrong".....the major homework factor has been removed. But, for special NPCs, do whatever feels right. Remember the goal is that for every minute you spend in prep, you need to get a minimum of 2 minutes play value. More is preferable.

The Purple Sorcerer generators can create higher level characters for you, BTW, which you then merely tweak to turn them into exactly what you want.

The "big names" in Shanthopal will be fully realized, but not fully compliant with the DCC character creation rules. This is fine; I expect mid-to-high-level PCs to diverge from the base rules quite a bit as well!

Raven_Crowking wrote: The "big names" in Shanthopal will be fully realized, but not fully compliant with the DCC character creation rules.

Don't be a tease and decide not to go through with that project!

cthulhudarren wrote:

Raven_Crowking wrote: The "big names" in Shanthopal will be fully realized, but not fully compliant with the DCC character creation rules.

Don't be a tease and decide not to go through with that project!

Well, it is going to be the focal point of my home campaign milieu, so I have to work on it!

After deciding how large the city was, I used the DCC core book to determine how many "classed" characters (NPCs) there should be, and then determined their class and level. I used a percentage system based on how frequently I wanted each class to represented on average, but then let the dice dictate each specific character above the level 3 threshold, so as to surprise me.

So, yes, while I am putting more effort right now into other projects, Shanthopal is still very much in my sights!

Raven_Crowking wrote:
After deciding how large the city was, I used the DCC core book to determine how many "classed" characters (NPCs) there should be, and then determined their class and level. I used a percentage system based on how frequently I wanted each class to represented on average, but then let the dice dictate each specific character above the level 3 threshold, so as to surprise me.

Hey -- I have a Tablesmith generator that I built that you may want to see....or anyone -- PM me if you want it.

I do a "short hand" for any non-critical settlement that basically generates the settlement (village, town, or city) and give me an outline of the settlement in html format. Each size of settlement has a different percentage to have anything other than the basics -- so for instance, there's a 1% chance of a military installation in a village, but higher chance in a town and city, etc. Same with Equipment/Weapons/Armor/Commodities, Henchmen and Hirelings, etc.

• Settlement name
• Settlement Leader's name and if he has any rumors
• Population
• Wealth and Security factor (which I'm not really using yet)
• Marketplace -- Food, Rumors, Recruits, Henchmen (NPCs), Equipment/Weapons/Armor available, Commodities (crazy table), Medical Services (not using yet) and Special Equipment (not using yet)
• Lodging -- Name, Rumors, Cost, Hirelings, Henchmen,
• Military -- Commander+Rumors, Security/Wealth, Alignment (Regional, Religious, etc), Garrison size, and then services (much like the greater town), Henchmen and Hirelings,
• Guild -- Much like the larger town -- Guild Official+Rumors, Services, Recruits/Henchmen
• Temple(s) - High Priest+Rumors, Followers, Ceremonies, Priests, size, etc (based on Wilderlands generator)

May be useful, maybe not -- it's been useful for me and I'm happy to share. The scripts for Tablesmith are super easy to modify for your own campaign.

Raven_Crowking wrote:Remember the goal is that for every minute you spend in prep, you need to get a minimum of 2 minutes play value. More is preferable.

+2d!

ragboy I would love to check out that little town generator. My PM's aren't working I think it might be since I just signed up onto the forums.