Free RPG Day - First Playtest Adventure

[TwystedSpyder]

I was prepared for the worst. There being several games scheduled to be run at the store on Free RPG Day, I was starting to think my DCC RPG would be lost in the shuffle. Luckily, that was not the case, as one of my regulars showed up asking about DCC as well as two players from my friend’s Wednesday Encounters group. We hooked another store regular into filling out a four player table and proceeded to roll up some mooks.

Each player created 4 characters and all enjoyed the random character generation process. There was no moaning to be heard and some laughter and excitement regarding some of their results. They all immediately understood that the ability score scale was not the same as 3.5/4e and there was no mention of any issues with the different ability terms (Agility and Personality).

After meeting up at a makeshift camp outside the stone mound, their motley group waited to see if anything happened when the star had risen. This being a Dungeon Crawl Classic, of course something happened. While some loudly questioned the wisdom of what they were doing and openly suggested that being a blacksmith really isn’t that bad of a life, the party descended into darkness, using the “table center” method for marching order.

The first obstacle brought about the first death, when the Halfling Trader, thirsty for profit, threw himself against the barrier with all of his might and forced the door open with a crack and a flash. Stepping over the charred Teabaggins, the rest hesitantly pushed forward towards destiny…

All in all, most everyone had a good time. Though, the one player we had wrangled to play did not seem to have as much fun. I think this was partially because he is relatively new to role playing in general and also because he lost a character in nearly each room they entered. He ended up having to leave before the game was done, but I’m fairly certain it was for legitimate reasons and not because he tried descending a spiral staircase in complete darkness and fell on his face. I am not kind when poor decisions are made.

Another player who had shown up late jumped into his spot for the rest of the adventure and played the poor pitifully weak scribe perfectly (Strength 3!), ultimately defeating the final encounter with a miraculous critical bulls-eye shot with his dart from above thanks to some slick reasoning from a bandit.

Although they all knew that two other characters had fled the statue room via the passage to the West and never came back, they decided to brave that corridor before leaving the War Wizard’s lair with their spoils. After they lost a would-be Cthulhu cultist to this final threat, it was felled by several deft strikes from both a farmer’s pitchfork and a squire’s blade.

While 16 brave souls stepped through that evening, the number of survivors limping proudly out through the portal onto soft grass as dawn approached and the stars faded was but 7.

I offered to run a follow up adventure for those character’s that survived after they had been leveled up and everyone jumped at the chance. There was a lot of interest in how class-level play worked and one player was especially excited about random and deadly spell-casting. One comment that I thought was significant was how attached the players had become to these character’s after just one short session, something that I know was part of the design intent but not something I was confident would resonate with all players. Luckily, it did so for my first group quite strongly. One player was simply flabbergasted that his dimwitted armorer actually survived the ordeal at all. I also think I was lucky to have a table of mature (figuratively) gamers, not necessarily in age, but in mindset.

Some general questions that came up, that may already have been discussed elsewhere:
1. Do helmets offer any sort of protection at 0-level play or beyond? AC bonus or defense against certain critical hit rolls?
2. Are Cleric spells generated randomly or does the player choose his spells?
3. If the Wizard’s spells are generated randomly and there are 23 available at first level, what happens when you roll 24 on a d24? I’m assuming you just re-roll as appropriate, but I figured I’d ask anyway.
4. Is there any official word on Demi-Humans becoming a different class upon reaching level 1? For instance, if a Dwarf-Miner is allowed to be a Wizard, I’d say that his long practiced Dwarven-abilities would fall by the wayside as he concentrated on mastering the arcane craft. The only thing that I would question would be any loss of infravision as that could be counterbalanced with his decreased speed. I think this has already been discussed somewhere on this Forum previously.

Fun was had by both the players and by me, though everyone is usually much more forgiving of a one-off game. The jury is still out with regards to the game's sustainability over the long run.

Any criticism of the Free RPG Day adventure itself? Well, the follow-up 5th level adventure is sort of useless without higher level spells available in the Beta and no magic item rules. Although I also wasn’t a huge fan of the first dungeon (I’m not really a “Tomb of Horrors” style adventure fan, though I like my players to believe that I am), it did its job well and inspired me to write a follow up adventure which I’m looking forward to running for my Free RPG Day group this Thursday, so I can’t really complain.

All in all, this game is getting me excited about running campaigns again. No small miracle for this cynical GM. Very much looking forward to what the final product has in store and how the core game expands over time. Good Stuff!

[finarvyn]

Is there any official word on Demi-Humans becoming a different class upon reaching level 1? For instance, if a Dwarf-Miner is allowed to be a Wizard, I’d say that his long practiced Dwarven-abilities would fall by the wayside as he concentrated on mastering the arcane craft. The only thing that I would question would be any loss of infravision as that could be counterbalanced with his decreased speed. I think this has already been discussed somewhere on this Forum previously.

I prefer the idea that demihumans stick to the demihuman classes because then it gets rid of the "racial abilities vanishing" problem. When my first playtest group leveled up I thought they could pick, and we discussed this very topic at great length. Eventually they agreed that picking human classes just didn't fit the tone of the rules so they agreed not to do it. After that, I've treated their precident as a guildeline for all of my playtest teams.

the follow-up 5th level adventure is sort of useless without higher level spells available in the Beta and no magic item rules.

A common concern, and one that hopefully can be corrected at some point soon. It is hard to run a full playtest with partial rules.

[mythfish]

1. Do helmets offer any sort of protection at 0-level play or beyond? AC bonus or defense against certain critical hit rolls?
3. If the Wizard’s spells are generated randomly and there are 23 available at first level, what happens when you roll 24 on a d24? I’m assuming you just re-roll as appropriate, but I figured I’d ask anyway.

1. Not officially, but I usually give helmeted level 0 characters a +1 AC. They need all the help they can get.

3. You can reroll, or let the player actually choose a spell if you want to be really generous.

[TwystedSpyder]

I prefer the idea that demihumans stick to the demihuman classes because then it gets rid of the "racial abilities vanishing" problem. When my first playtest group leveled up I thought they could pick, and we discussed this very topic at great length. Eventually they agreed that picking human classes just didn't fit the tone of the rules so they agreed not to do it. After that, I've treated their precedent as a guideline for all of my playtest teams.

I've been playing it by the book so far. One player ended up with a rather smart dwarf, but with no deficits in Strength, Agility or Stamina, so he should be fine.

My concern here is that with completely random character generation, removing that one choice a player has seems unnecessarily harsh. I would prefer other options for 0-level dwarf characters instead of picking from the human classes. I suppose I should make that a project. I'm thinking something like the Runesmith, Artificer and Scout.

1. Not officially, but I usually give helmeted level 0 characters a +1 AC. They need all the help they can get.

3. You can reroll, or let the player actually choose a spell if you want to be really generous.

1. Exactly what I did. Though as soon as they found some proper armor they lost that extra bonus.

3. I'll stick with the reroll. Perhaps let them choose if they roll a 24 twice in a row.

I'm really looking forward to really putting this system through its paces this Thursday. Hopefully I will be posting some happy thoughts which may or may not include a TPK.

[jmucchiello]

Remember you get to choose the gender of your characters. It's not a random roll.

[Tortog]

1. Do helmets offer any sort of protection at 0-level play or beyond? AC bonus or defense against certain critical hit rolls?

For helmets I offer conditional AC that protects the wearer from some types of critical hits. Depending on its type & construction, it might also make some "called shots" more difficult.

[TwystedSpyder]

1. Do helmets offer any sort of protection at 0-level play or beyond? AC bonus or defense against certain critical hit rolls?

For helmets I offer conditional AC that protects the wearer from some types of critical hits. Depending on its type & construction, it might also make some "called shots" more difficult.

Yes, I remember something like this back when I was running 2nd edition. Not sure if that was a rule in that edition or just something that I learned from another DM and continued to impliment. The game was so much more organic back then it seems.