A few rules questions...

[Stretch]

I am new to DCC and have been going through the book in preparation for running a game soon. Hoping to get a few clarifications on items I noticed during the readings I have made so far.

1) Spells....For mercurial magic systems we roll when they learn the spell to see how it manifests. Each spell also has a manifestation listed as well. How do those two systems work? Are they used in conjunction with each other? Or is that for cases in which there are no blatant effects on the mercurial magic charts?

2) Spells again....I probably missed it but what is the roll used to see if you can learn a spell? And I assume that is used at the start of the research time but that even if it comes out you can't learn it you still have to spend the time.

3) Crit tables. All of the tables have a listing for '0 or less.' Again, I probably missed it, but when you crit you roll a die ( 0 lvls rolling a d4) to see what you get. So how do you roll a 0 or less?

Those are the main rules questions I have. I also have a few questions on a few issues that will most likely come up and thought I might see if anyone has had these issues and how they were dealing with them.

4) HP's. The current campaign I have been playing in we roll hit points. One of the other players who is also a really great DM always ran with max hit points but it was known that if you get max then the people/creatures you fight will have max as well. From looking through a couple modules that I have picked up, Savage Kings and Sailors....is that a viable option to run that way if the players would prefer that? Or am I going to need to scale back the HD of creatures to give them even a base chance?

5) Limits on mighty feats...I honestly don't think this may come up but I did read on the boards here that a few people placed limits on these....why and what type of limit?

6) Rolling in front of the players....this is something that I have never done before but I am going to do now. I am all about letting me live or die by the dice as a player and would honestly feel cheated if I found out my DM was fudging rolls for me. I don't want that to even come up. With that being said, are there any roles that need to be hidden? Since this uses a DC I can't imagine even a thieves skills needing to be hidden so as to keep the tension up as to whether they are hiding well or not. I know the first issue of Crawl had an option for random DC checks and I kinda like that but I am assuming I should roll those checks prior to us playing so they don't know what they are....

And one last thing of note...something that I have never done before but am thinking of doing is multiple random encounter rolls. I like random encounter rolls to break up the we go here and then here and then here routine that happens from time to time. I don't always make these encounters bad. Sometimes it's just a fellow traveler on the road that wants to share a meal and a little gossip. With that being said, as a player I hate knowing I rolled an encounter. It takes me out of the game. So I am thinking about having the players all roll three different colored dice with me selecting the color (writing it down on my notepad) prior to rolling so that they have no idea which die is "magic." Has anyone else tried something like this and did it work effectively enough?

Anyway, thanks for any feedback. I have been trolling the forums for a couple of weeks now and really enjoy the community that is going on here.

-Stretch

[Raven_Crowking]

1) Every wizard and elf has a mercurial roll when they learn each spell. Manifestation is separate, and also modifies cleric spells. Between the two, each caster should have unique (or, at least, unique-seeming) spells.

2) For wizards and elves, an Intelligence check after study for at least 1 week per spell level, DC 10 + spell level. Failure means that you cannot try to learn the spell again this level.

3) Luck modifiers. Remember that a Luck bonus reduces fumbles.

4) Do what works best for your table. I roll hit points, both for PCs and monsters.

5) Use the examples as guidelines for what a successful Deed should be able to do. A Deed cannot normally insta-kill or do additional damage, however.

6) Roll in front of the players so long as the players would be able to instantly know the outcome. Where information is hidden, roll behind the screen. That's what I do, anyway. Likewise, rolls to determine if there is an encounter, and what the encounter is (if so) I roll concealed, because not every encounter is obvious right away.

[Stretch]

Thanks for the reply Raven.

2) For wizards and elves, an Intelligence check after study for at least 1 week per spell level, DC 10 + spell level. Failure means that you cannot try to learn the spell again this level.

So for a first level spell roll a d20 adding Intelligence bonus aiming to get over 11.

3) Luck modifiers. Remember that a Luck bonus reduces fumbles.

I had forgotten about this. The luck modifier adds OR subtracts from crit tables as well as fumble tables and such which would be how you end up in a battle rage and hitting one of your allies. It makes sense now.

As to rolling randoms. I really like giving the players as much control over their own fate as possible. We are all superstitious about our dice and such. I may ask them to see what they prefer between me rolling it and them rolling it. I even thought about having them roll up several random rolls at the beginning of a session and as randoms come up I roll against that selection...that way they have a bit of their own luck mixed in with a bit of mine and no one knows when/if anything is coming up. I agree with you that not all encounters are obvious right away. And I know as a player myself when I roll that one and see an encounter is occurring I tend to react a bit differently then when I see it's a six and smooth sailing. It makes it harder to stay in character when the mechanics are so obvious.

-Stretch

[hivemindx]

Actually I don't think that information about Luck and Crits is correct. As far as I can tell PCs do not apply any modifiers to the crit roll so they cannot get the '0 or less' result. The players Luck mod affects crits rolled against them, so monsters can get to 0 and go in to battle rage. Players Luck mod does affect fumbles, but not crits. If I'm wrong I'd appreciate someone correcting me and a page reference would be very helpful!

The footnote for Battle Rage specifically mentions what PCs can do when they get this result though, so I am confused. <edit> Actually I found that there are Battle Rage entries on Crit IV and Crit V that PCs can get to without negative DMs so this is not a useless note after all</edit>

It seems that I am missing something or there is an error in one place or the other. I guess it is possible that there are monsters out there which have a property like "-10 to all crit rolls".

[BanjoJohn]

Actually I don't think that information about Luck and Crits is correct. As far as I can tell PCs do not apply any modifiers to the crit roll so they cannot get the '0 or less' result. The players Luck mod affects crits rolled against them, so monsters can get to 0 and go in to battle rage. Players Luck mod does affect fumbles, but not crits. If I'm wrong I'd appreciate someone correcting me and a page reference would be very helpful!

The footnote for Battle Rage specifically mentions what PCs can do when they get this result though, so I am confused. <edit> Actually I found that there are Battle Rage entries on Crit IV and Crit V that PCs can get to without negative DMs so this is not a useless note after all</edit>

It seems that I am missing something or there is an error in one place or the other. I guess it is possible that there are monsters out there which have a property like "-10 to all crit rolls".

Page 19 of the rulebook when its talking about your characters luck modifier says luck modifies fumbles, criticals, and some other rolls as well.