Level titles as DCCRPG quests

Thru henchmen, all things are possible, 
so jot that down.

So you've seen this idea from be before (when I did it for old D&Ds), but this time it is a DCCRPG flavored take.

In my upcoming game, I'll give an adventure credit per session a player attends. A PC can spend credits equal to a level to earn it, but first they have to finish a quest that matches with their level title (PCs or Judge can suggest different ideas, trying to weave quests into other PC's wherever possible).  

It's quite possible PCs will acquire quite a few credits between quest realizations, but that's fine.

There are a few entries where I came up with a couple ideas and put them in. Sometimes multiple ideas. I learned a lot about DCC doing this. Not only should you not feel restricted to the level up ideas here nor even the level titles. The book mentions that these are just the most common.

So let the player propose a title they are working towards. What could they do to get called that? Thus spoke Goodman: "Characters of 6th level and above are extremely rare, so much so that no generic titles exist. Players are encouraged to develop their own titles for such levels using Appendix T for inspiration as needed."

At other times, retroactive titles may be acceptable, based on level-appropriate exploits. "I am now Yak-friend!"

Cleric Title Quests

Lvl	Lawful	Chaotic	Neutral
1	Acolyte: Fetch an item that will serve useful in religious ceremonies to your gods.	Zealot: Slaughter a den of infidels. For chaos!	Witness: Observe a rare phenomenon and survive to tell the tale.
2	Heathen-slayer: Strike down a dirty cultist leader.	Convert: In a place where the gods must listen, reject the Law Lords.	Pupil: Seek and serve a hermit to learn their secrets.
3	Brother/Sister: Bring a small fortune to a monastic order and join it for a year and a day.	Cultist: Bring us three skulls; we need something to drink out of.	Chronicler: Travel to a ruin to record a name lost to time. •Witness a crazy ass thing your party gets into and write it down.
4	Curate: Find a relic of a saint--a foreskin or some-such that is purported to heal the sick. • Heal a sick community.	Apostle: Join a dark savior in their creepy pilgrimage.	Judge: Arbitrate a dispute between strange entities.
5	Father: Clear out and re-sanctify some ancient fane to house your flock.	High Priest: Gather your minions for a great ceremony. • Have a god-duel with another cleric, old testament style.	Druid: Kill the current druid title holder in mortal combat. Survival of the fittest!

Thief Title Quests

A lot of thief things feel urban and guild related to me. They might be good as play-by-post tasks done between games. Or maybe they can trick the other PCs into thinking they are in the guild too.
 

Lvl	Lawful	Chaotic	Neutral
1	Bravo: Win a duel in a public square to earn a spot in the thieves guild.	Thug: Bash some ponce and take their jewelry.	Beggar: Case and rob a temple that is foolish enough to let paupers in.
2	Apprentice: Accompany a elder-thievesman on a job.	Murderer: Garotte a guy that looked at you funny.	Cutpurse: Grab a bag and run.
3	Rogue: Take a job that uses your luck, guile, and charm.	Cutthroat: Lead a kidnapping of a high-value specialist.	Burglar: Steal 39 girdles from a high-security temple.
4	Capo: Discipline some underlings that snitched or killed the wrong noble.	Executioner: Someone pissed off the guild and you are taking them out.	Robber: Successfully hold up a noble's carriage: "Your money or life."
5	Boss: Take the reigns of a city's underworld; all the other potential bosses seem to have fallen out of windows.	Assassin: Kill a king or hero during a highly secure ceremony.	Swindler: Trick some nobles into investing in your sure thing.

Warrior Title Quests

Note that noble warriors should probably try out being part of a military order (p46). I say if you earn the title Knight then you are in!

 

Lvl	Lawful	Chaotic	Neutral
1	Squire: Save your mentor or a noble from a deadly threat.	Bandit: Raid a local outpost and escape with the pay-chest.	Wildling: Slay a predator with 2× your HD using primitive tools.
2	Champion: Deal the killing blow on a baddie giving a town trouble.	Brigand: Organize a gang and hold a strategic bridge for one week.	Barbarian: Crush your enemies. Hear the lamentations of their women.
3	Knight: Fend off those who disturb the king's peace!	Marauder: Search the land till you find something worth sacking.	Berserker: Defeat a monster 3× your size while naked.
4	Cavalier: Fucking joust to the death with mounted foe(s).	Ravager: Plunder a great hoard with your horde.	Headman: Slay the leader of a tribe in an honorable or brutal duel.
5	Paladin: Complete a mission for royalty or extra-planar big wigs. Check out Lankhmar DCC agents.	Reaver: Unleash the horde! Take out a settlement worthy of your military might.	Chieftain: Unite three disparate tribes under your banner.

Wizard Title Quests

Hey did you notice the rulebook has chaos first for wizards? Also, they share cultist with Clerics. 

Lvl	Chaotic	Lawful	Neutral
1	Cultist: Procure the heart of a monster to use for a cult party. •Make a pilgrimage to an entity's stronghold, and learn Patron Bond in the process.	Evoker: Get the components for a summon spell (Consult Spirit & Find Familiar counts), which you learn too.	Astrologist: Follow a supernova to witness a supernatural event. •Quest to change an ally's birth augur.
2	Shaman: Snort purple lotus. Deady, rare, and addictive! • Turn a family member into a magic servant.	Controller: Cow or boss around something with your arcane might.	Enchanter: Bewitch or transfigure an important creature or place.
3	Diabolist: Summon or manifest a creature from the seven hells.	Conjurer: Bring forth entities to fight for you. This could teach you a spell like Animal Summoning p129 or Monster Summoning p184.	Magician: Craft a magic staff or item (this teaches you a spell).
4	Warlock/Witch: Make a pact with a powerful entity for power. You know patron bond for this purpose.	Summoner: Call forth a great entity with a ritual-style spell.	Thaumaturgist: Warp a foe with your magic might.
5	Necromancer: Raise the dead for a great purpose (like a siege).	Elementalist: Specialize in elemental magic (this teaches you Arcane Affinity p162)	Sorcerer: Eat another mage's brain to absorb their power.

Dwarf Title Quests

Lvl	Lawful	Chaotic	Neutral
1	Agent: Recover a stolen clan item.	Rebel: Sabotage a king’s forge to protest unjust conditions.	Apprentice: Gather fine materials for your elders.
2	Broker: Negotiate a trade deal between two rival clans.	Dissident: Free political prisoners from a mountain hold.	Novice: Discover a new vein of metal in dangerous territory.
3	Delegate: Represent your clan to an supernatural entity or body.	Exile: Perform an act of greed so great you are kicked out of the clan.	Journeyer: Travel to the world's lowest depth and return with treasure.
4	Envoy: Deliver an important object.	Iconoclast: Destroy an ancient statue you believe is a "shackle."	Crafter: Forge a weapon using an extraordinary component. For this purpose, you have the ability to cast Sword Magic p229 until you succeed.
5	Syndic: Establish a new stronghold recognized by the Dwarf Kings.	Renegade: Lead a revolution that overthrows a corrupt Rune Pope.	Thegn: Lead a force of dwarves to reclaim a dwarven treasury*.

*: In my setting, hoarding treasure turns dwarves into monsters, so something big is waiting for ya.

 

Elf & Hobbit Title Quests

Elves and Hobbits have the same first level title. Odd. Also, the bookmark for the PDF has Elf as ELF and it bugs me. And I am also thinking we shoulda had a bit more Melnibonésé  in the titles.

Lvl	Elf (All Alignments)	Hobbit (All Alignments)
1	Wanderer: Visit a place not on any map; return with a strange plant.	Wanderer: Travel far and return with a new ingredient.
2	Seer: Get a patron (you learn the spell to bond) and get from them a vision of the coming end.	Explorer: Map a dungeon or wilderness. Gotta find all the rooms/features. • Visit another plane of existence.
3	Quester: Find visit three strange locations for three different purposes. • Make up an epic quest. It's in the name after all.	Collector: Acquire three impossible items (e.g. bottled moonlight). • Acquire a full set of something, such as The Rod of Seven Parts.
4	Savant: Research a new spell not in the book (you make and quest; Judge edits)	Accumulator: Amass a hoard so large it attracts a dragon.
5	Elder: Help one of the young kingdoms of the  with a great trouble.	Wise One: Win a riddle contest with a sphinx while pipe-weeded out of your gourd.

Online DCC Houserules

These are rules to keep it brisk and keep me sane when the table is digital.

• 
  Level titles=Level up quests. As per this idea. Some quests will be appropriate as solo PBP ordeals.
• No Luck-burning out of fumbles, except warrior combat fumbles.
• Using Steel and Fury Combat Maneuvers of the Mighty, which includes rules for might fumbles and mighty criticals that I want to use.
• Theater of the mind combat as much as possible.
• RAW DCC Luck (no fleeting), save for not burning on spell results. 
• Maps are mostly not shared by the judge, just described.
• Please don’t share screenshots of your maps. Everybody just get in the game and pay attention.
• Make sure you have the weapon that you want to use in the first round is equipped on the sheet before rolling initiative. Torch and shield-bearers can't use two-handed weapons.
• Mostly side initiative to encourage inter-PC talking, but the first round we roll to see who is ready vs an INIT DC. After you go, the baddies go, then you, ad infinitum.
• Change your spells' names to reflect its mercurial magic side effects and manifestation.
• Spells/Mercurials that are a pain to track are out. 
• Know how you are going to spellburn or abide by the table.
• Spellburn costs you a combat turn (your spell goes off a round late).
• No Luck-burning into higher spell results; fuuuuck, that slows the game down. You can Luck-burn your way out of forgetting and into the barest success result.
• We’ll be questing for new spells. So no auto-adds on level up. 
• More players equals longer rounds, so the first five people to join the call are in. Others can watch like a twitch stream if they desire. Give up your seat if you are drunk or sick.
• Absent/watching players’ PCs cannot help out. They are kinda there,  but all greyed out, and they will die too if there is a TPK unless they in game were established to be elsewhere.  
• If a player comes back after an absence and the other PCs are down some HP, they will be too; average the losses and make them suffer too. On the other hand, a rejoining PC may be healed up to the party average too.
• If you join a session, participate, and stay till the end, you get an adventure credit. Spend credits equal to a level to earn it after completing a quest (next item).

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Megadungeon Lingering Table Final Form! When you stay too long, what happens?

I started posting ideas about what happens if you stay too long in a megadungeon long ago, 2021 maybe. And I am still trying to thread the needle and square the circle. I think I got it this one on the player’s side, one or two the GM’s. And we keep it simple. 

Roll your luck score or less on a d20 (if you lack that stat, roll it!) when you end the session in the dungeon. 

If you fail, the Judge rolls a d20. 

If multiple players fail the roll, only one PC, the lowest of the lowly low rollers, suffers a fate from the table (we are rolling this last thing in the session and don’t got time for a million Chinese hells to be adjudicated here).

1. Bad roll. In the stomach of a dragon. Your foodie brother has to eat his way through the dungeon before your remain reach an unresurrectable state .
2. You catch the dungeon crud, which halves your HP for one outing. If you fumbled, you are diseased with something from the 1e AD&D DMG or that old Gorgonmilk table... anyone still got it?
3. Got wet and gear is all rusty.
4. Got lost. Other PCs have to find you where you are living like Lawrence Fishburn ( (roll your PC one up in the meantime).
5. Imprisoned somewhere in the dungeon. Roll up a PC to help rescue you.
6. Held for ransom. Roll up a PC to help pay for, rescue, or avenge you.
7. Someone stole something from you. You gonna let them just keep it? Well, it might already be on the goblin market (aka eBay). 
8. Appeared naked and in a fugue state in somebody’s barn.
9. It’s cold in those caves. Lot’s of sharp things too. Lost a toe. Will be a month till you walk at normal speed.
10. Charmed by a harpy, lamia, or sphinx. Roll up a new PC to join the group that has to find you and tell her that you cannot, in fact, fix her.
11. Took some bangs and bumps on the way out. Can you survive d30 damage?
12. Angered a faction. Negotiations, alliances, and deals will not work out with them if you are spotted amongst the party. Time for a disguise.
13. There is a price on your head. An AD&D assassin is rolled up by the GM and they start to stalk you.
14. Geased! You are compelled to perform a certain task (retrieval? message relay? be dinner?) somewhere in the dungeon and lost 1 HP for each day you don’t work towards that task.
15. Somehow you got stuck in charge of a monstrous child or a dangerous beast. It thinks you are momma or something. Don’t believe Gygax; it is not morally right to kill a child.
16. Saw something so horrid your hair went white and you lost d4 Wisdom/Sanity/Personality. If you go to 0 in your score this way, you are basically a drooling vegetable. Cure disease type spells might work, but you will be broken.
17. Had to join a faction or cult or cultish faction to survive. You live in the dungeon now. Roll up a new PC to go deprogram your old one.
18. Driven cray cray by your escape. Gain a dungeon madness.
19. A witch caught you. You are now a mundane-seeming animal the party has to find and kiss. Prolly a frog. Roll up a new PC while your party gets gross with every beast.
20. Little elf guys stole your treasure. No XP for gold till you go kick their asses.

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Level Titles as Quests

The old/basic D&D level titles are kinda pointless when divorced from their war-game roots. But we can repurpose them to be goals in the following super-short leveling system:

At session's end you will be awarded between 0 to 3 XP, depending on how metal things got. At 10XP, you are ready to quest. Your quest depends on the level title you are earning. 

Fighty types

2.  Warrior: Deal the killing blow on a biggie baddie that is giving a community trouble.
3.  Swordsman: Square off with an armed boss. No allies can get involved in the melee (the baddie needn't follow these rules).
4.  Hero: Save an endangered or jailed NPC, getting them back to safety.
5.  Swashbuckler: Be the decisive part of a sea-battle. Swashbuckling on airships or spaceships also allowed.
6.  Myrmidon: Join a group with a strong leader and mercilessly carry out their will.
7.  Champion: Go on a mission for the powers that be, either royalty, a khan, or extra-planar big wigs.
8.  Superhero: Defeat a monster that could be the stuff of myths, like a hydra.
9.  Lord: Take the reigns of a city or people. Heavy is the head, Conan.

 Mage types

2.  Seer: Visit a Delphic site to get arcane wisdom.
3.  Conjurer: Summon or manifest something (research a spell and cast it).
4.  Theurgist: Learn about lost history, perhaps by bringing a strange cult to light.
5.  Thaumaturgist: Do a great magical work in front of a crowd that will spread tales of your wonder-working.
6.  Magician: Craft a magic wand or staff that you will wield.
7.  Enchanter: Bewitch or transfigure an important creature or place.
8. Warlock: Make a pact with a powerful entity to gain some of its power.
9. Sorcerer: Eat another mage's brain. "I assure you it was necessary, my fellows!"
10. Necromancer: Raise the dead for a great purpose (we'll have to adjust the spell lists or something, methinks).
11. Wizard: Defeat a demon lord or trick a god.

Clerical types:

2.  Adept: Join in on a holy mission.
3.  Village Priest: If you build it, they will come.
4.  Vicar: Act as the hand of a higher cleric in a matter of some importance.
5.  Curate: Cleanse an area of all undead or evil spirits.
6.  Bishop: Guide several temples in a religious campaign.
7.  Lama: Perform a mission in the higher spheres, cleansing yourself in the process.
8.  Patriarch: Time to establish a new sect. Find a relic to build it around and prepare for a holy war.
 

The filchy type titles don't seem to lend themselves well to group play. Maybe play by post with the DM during downtime between group adventures would be more appropriate. Here are the titles tho. Make shit up; I ain't got time for dirty thieves. In fact, take all quest ideas in this post as mere suggestions. You propose a quest and the DM tries to work with it.

2. Footpad: Stab some ponce.
3. Cutpurse: Filch a McGuffin.
4. Robber: "Your money or your life. Please don't tell my paladin friend."
5. Burglar: Steal 39 girdles.
6. Filcher: Get those gems that are serving as idol eyes, no matter how bad an idea this is.
7. Sharper: Trick a powerful entity.
8. Magsman: Convince a big cheese that you won't stab them in the back, then stab them in the back.
9. Thief: Steal the royal jewels.
10. Master Thief: Steal Orcus's wand.

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What happens when you end the session in the Mega Dungeon

Staying in any megadungeon when playing a drop-in game is a risky enterprise (cuz sheeeet, I dunno if you are gonna show to play in a week or three months sometimes, ya crazy IRL players). Your character has to try and find their way safe and sound back to base.

Roll a die based on the judge’s surmization* of what the party make-up is looking like. Rolling low is good.

Party is fine, they have a well-thought route back: d16     
Party is a little worn down, deep, or laden: d20    
Party is low on HP or supplies, is carrying heavy junk, or lost: d24

Party is ragged, hunted, or pissed off the gods: d30

So when it is time for you to roll, roll once and compare that roll to your ability scores. If half or more of your scores were rolled at/under with the die, then you are fine. If the majority of your scores were not rolled at/under, we got a problem. 

Determine randomly among the failed-against scores, what will be your downfall and consult the below table:

Failed score            Problem (fumbles are rolling the highest number on the die)

• STR                Nearly starved on your way out. Ration needs doubled next outing. 
  
  Fumble: d4 STR dmg too, hungry Hank. 
  
  
  
• DEX                You dropped something, determined at random, down a hole. 
  
  Fumble: whole pack! 
  
  Equally likely fumble: An arch-enemy came across it.
  
  
  
• CON               Dungeon crud; start the next outing down half HP. 
  
  Fumble: Very bad crud. Save or die!
  Equally likely fumble: Catch a disease. 
  
  
• INT                 You got lost in the dungeon. Each room entered has a 10% chance of having your PC (your responsibility to check; play a backup PC while searching). We have [your lost PC's level] sessions to find you. 
  
  Fumble: You are stuck in a trap, enslaved, or jailed and will have to be broken out.
  
  
  
• WIS                You were robbed of something while unawares. A monster has it now. If it was your lucre, you don’t get XP for treasure until you get it back.
  
  Fumble: You also take the result of one more ability score failure, determined at random.
  
  
  
• CHA               You managed to piss off a faction. They know what you look like. 
  
  Fumble: Fatwa!

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*Look, maybe surmization is not a word, but surmise sounds weird as a noun, cromulent tho it may be, and judgement would have been redundant sounding in that sentence. I could have reworded it, but here we are.
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Old School Saving Throws as Milestone Advancement

 

Remember years ago when I talked about Barony/Conrad's Game? Today we're gonna mix the ignobles milestone advancement from that RPG with the old D&D saves. In never actually talked much about the ignoble deeds before. It’s a neat system. Maybe the first milestone system in RPGs! To advance from one job to the next in Barony, you need to check off the following things:

Adventure (Travel Exotic Lands, Danger and Intrigue) 

Bard's Tale (Fame, Triumph, Notoriety) 

Battle (Military Engagements and Strategy)
Crafty Deeds (Cunning Execution of Skills and Ingenuity) 

Desires Fulfilled (Profit, Revenge, Power)
Exercising Prudence (Forethought Plans or Precautions) 

Growth (Leadership, Comradeship, Political Authority) 

Heroics (Boldness, Courage and Audacity) 

Magical Events (Acquisition, Exposure, Use)

Each deed can only check off one thing. 

 

I could actually say to use this system and call it a day, but we are here to provide a slightly simple alternative to XP counting for old school D&D type games, or at least in the spirit of them. 

 

So, here comes my idea:

When, in the course of your wanderings, you character survives* something that falls under the following categories, check it off. If they are all checked, you erase the checks and you can level up.

□　Death Rays or Ray-guns

□　Poisons or Diseases

□　Mesmerism or Mind Control
□　Paralysis or Stonification
□　Dragon Breath or Explosions
□　Wands, Rods, Staves, Curses, or Spells

There you go, no need to count XP. 

You might have noticed that my old school D&D saves don’t match your rulespedia or whatever. That’s okay, none of the old D&Ds agree with each other. Just use yours. Mine are better tho.

Maybe undead can be slightly friendlier in this system; if you get caressed by a ghoul, you lose one of your check marks (not the paralysis one!) instead of a whole level. 

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*: Or is resurrected after experiencing.

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The Seventh Ability Score is Gold

Sometimes the seventh score is Luck, and that is a useful one to have, but this post is about starting gold. Many D&Dalikes have you roll 3d6*10 for starting gold. And many DnDs let you swap ability scores around or lower one score to raise another. In our Black Pudding game, I have let the players consider gold to be a score that these options are applicable to. Can't afford that helm? Maybe you can sacrifice your CON of 11 to get a little extra cash up front.

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HP Burn

Almost all games I run now use HP burn.

Sacrifice a couple HP to raise (or lower) the results of one of your rolls. Will that burn come back to bite you? Maybe! Risk vs Reward, baby!

HP works well as a meta-resource like Luck or bennies. After all, it doesn't make much sense as Health or Hit Points when you really look at it, but feels perfect as Hit Protection or Heroic Perserverance.

So what if a PC burns down to 0HP? Well, I'm also a fan of ill-advisedly fighting on when you should give up. I didn't hear no bell! 

When I run DCC, I let the PCs burn it just like in the Luck burning rules. They can still burn luck too.

If using CON or STR score as true health, HP burn works great. If using something like Dragonbane or 5e Deeandy, consider letting the PC fight while making death saves, but no more burn. If using VtM, I am really confused how you are burning HP...

Try it in your next game. Crom!

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Old School Fast 5e

I may try to advertise a 5e game the next time our Discord runs shallow. Behind the screen, I'd probably give monsters hits equal to their HD, less the PCs' average level (1 on damage=I don't let a killing blow happen with this strike).

Species allowed: Human, Elf, Half-elf, Kenku, Cyclops (Goliath), Dwarf.

Classes allowed: wizard, thief, barbarian, fighter, cleric.

Generation method: 4d6d1 down the line on Roll20, with all players witnessing your rolls. You see your stats and choose a species/background/class that will compliment them.

No feats. Take ability score increases. You wanna cleave or something, go for a gambit (roll with disadvantage or take consequence on failure). 

Can spend HP on rolls, including damage rolls.

1XP if you attend a session. [LVL to be gained]XP to level up (resets to 0). You have to spend a month in civilization to gain any level benefits before you jump back into adventuring.

d6 vs d6 group initiative. Match= simultaneous. Someone can spend HP to raise your side's roll.

Roll area/monster difficulty or better to intone your spell well enough to cast it this round. Awesome stuff if you roll a 20. 1 is a fumble.

No money survives carousing between adventures, so spend your treasure as soon as you get back into town. On the other hand, we shall hand-wave all room and board fees.

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DCC House-rules

Well, as happens so often, my players have ended up playing DCC again. I've posted DCC houserules before, but that was years back. Have a look at the new hotness.

Dave is my spirit animal

Ability/skill checks
Roll a d20 action die if you have an average or sucky score. If you have a 13 to 15, roll a d24 instead, and if you have a 16-17, roll a d30. D36 if you have an 18 in your score.

If you have a relevant background or species to the task, add your HD to the ability-skill roll.

Star sign: Everyone has a not-Luck based star sign. If you do a thing related to the star-sign, roll a +1 size bigger die, up to a d36.

Spell acquisition not guaranteed. Half the time the party will be searching for a spell rumor, then following its indications, then questing to learn how to actually cast found spells. The wizard will die at some point in this process…

To hit, roll your class HD with your action die. If you hit, you have already rolled the HD and dealt that amount of damage. Once the warrior or dwarf hits a level where their deed die would exceed a d12, they get to use it!

This means weapons are flavor, but, I got some concessions: Two handed weapons roll action die+2d𝓍kh1 (𝓍=HD size and kh1=keep highest 1) if you are kind enough to include it in your macro, but are slower too, so treated as if the HD doesn't exist for the initiative roll written below; one light weapon lets you roll with a DEX action die instead of STR.

Initiative goes to the entity that rolls higher to hit. Two versus one? Still goes to the highest guy of the three.

No Luck burn on level up HD rolls. You may burn d6 real Luck to reroll it tho.

We have an alternative to mercurial magic. Faster, simpler magic.

Please roll and record your spell-manifestation for use every time.

Spellburn always makes your spell happen last and you have to roll on the spellburn table. If someone hits you, you can’t cast until the next round at the earliest.

We use Lankhmarese fleeting luck rules. So don't roll until we're sure it's worth luck flux.

If a cleric is not present, we can use Lankhmar drunk heals too.

Help Finish someone’s quest? You level up if you were in the final session of that quest. If you are under-leveled, you gain 1.5 levels to help you catch up.


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ICRPG Gerblin Guns & Funky Flintlocks

This is attempt to patch a glaring hole in the rules of ICRPG, which probably shoulda had two more pages of weapons, one for gerblin gun priests, and another for all the polearms. Ew, my Gygax was sticking out.. We need old fashioned guns, that's for sure!

If you roll a nat 1 with any gun, you have exhasted an ammo slot unless you roll a second 1, in which case there is an explosion.

Trusty flintgerb: only does d6 effort at up to near range. Reload as part of a move.

Bermstick: d8 effort, 2 cartriges, one action reload.

Blerkperder Rerfile: d8 effort, easy to hit far targets, 1d4 rounds reload time.

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Of course, there are futuristic ray guns out there somewhere, with better stats.

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Thief-like skills for all

First, the D&D old school thief needs a quick fix. Instead of lousy percentile skills, give the thief a 2 in 6 chance to do thiefy things at first level (non thieves will have a 1 in 6 chance), and raise that chance by 1 for every two levels gained. All “skill” chances for all classes will max out at 5, BTW.

The Fighters and Magicers get skills now too though. They also start with a 2 in x chance (not necessarily 2 in 6, as you will see) to their idiomatics, and other classes get 1 in x.

Fighter skills are always checked for as part of an attack. When you roll the weapon’s damage (roll it at the same time as yer d20), the die used for that doubles as a skill check (only use the first die in cases where a weapon does multiple dice). The fighter’s player announces what they intend their skill to be after a successful roll. For instance, a called shot is a common skill. A cleave is another. Maybe use an ax to pull away a foe’s shield, making their AC or damage reduction retroactively lower. Basically, if your attack hit, you probably announce some inimical effect on the foe. If not, maybe you do a fancy stunt.

So now low damage weapons are more accurate, if you want to use them.  Incidentally, I would have backstab be allowed to thieves or fighters.

So magic-using guys. I think the game judge can adjudicate whether they are doing is using a class skill or not. A wizard is probably good at spouting lore or alchemy. A cleric probably knows who that demon lord mentioned by the scroll is. 

Maybe use the skills for bending the rules as written for spells. You want to cast hold person on a dragon? Okay, if you make your skill check, it happens. Wanna use Turn Undead on rabbits? Skill check, but only if they are really evil rabbits.

Incidentally, I just found this old post with a similar idea that some wizard wrote. 

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On the Spontaneous Generation of Porcs

Recently my group started playing FAGE RPG. And players were like, rolling my race herp derp I'm a gnome! Hey me too!  And I'm like, nah, you are just dwarves tho. And the book was like, be an orc too, and I was like, I don't know if I want that cuz orcs are kinda basic, but the players gnashed their terrible teeth and so here we are.

First off, orcs are porks. They have pig faces and lolling tongues. Second, porks are not a normal species per say; they are a phenomenon. They grow out of underworld dank. They bubble out of ritually-cooked elf corpses. They roll, unbidden, out of necromancers' shadows. They spawn with weapons that moulder away if the pork dies.

They have no souls, and are anthromorphosized expressions of evil in mankind's collective unconciousness. They don't have babies, love, or lust. No creedos, tastes, or art. They instinctively gather to further the aims of evil. They posses language only as a means to decieve and demoralize. They are arguably not even sentient, so they can't be tortured nor successfully negotiated with. You shouldn't feel bad about slaying them; they are humanoid viruses, and their resemblance to humans and pigs is a cosmic parody at best. 

But. Sometimes. One gains a soul. Who can say how. Afflicted with a mind and feelings, they wander off. They learn. They walk, blinking in the sunlight. They learn fire bad. They learn of gods and to curse them. 

Those that survive sapience might become adventurers.

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Retroactive theivin' in elfgames

You don't want to narrate tapping sticks throughout the whole tomb of horrors

 

This is not going to be a long post. It's just a little tip.

The following is usually my default rule. Instead of having the player declare that they are checking for traps, I just wait until a trap is sprung and have the PCs roll retroactively to see if they noticed the trap ahead of time and so were able to dodge it, roll to disarm it, &c.

When I notice that PC paranoia is slowing things too much, I often restate this procedure for the players.

This procedure is best for trapped chests, nefarious doors, cursed treasure, Arduinian hallways, and the like. It's probably good to have obviously dangerous areas in most situations. For instance, a swinging scythes hallway is something to solve, not to detect. Give big ol' clues. Players will die in entertaining ways anyhow, and it won't be the DM's fault.

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Feels good thief skills

One of my players of our Arduin hack said I should post about how the thieves work. As the rules are currently written, any class can attempt any mundane action within reason. To do so, they just have to roll their check number or higher (each class has one and it gets one smaller each level up)*. The thieves get +1d to do a litany of thievy things though. +1d means at least a d24, but species or whathaveyou can bump that up to a d30 or more.
Any class can try skullduggery, but thieves do it better.

And that's it. But actually, I have been thinking of doing something similar with the other three classes. For instance, fighters have the worst check number to reflect that they are mostly focused on killing. But I've been thinking that instead of a better Base Attack Bonus, maybe I shouldn't have BAB in the game and instead just let the fighters get +1d to combat... not to mention bending bars, kicking in doors, intimidating infants, and so on. 

Yes the temptation to hack my hack is rising. You'd best make a copy of the google doc before I do if you like it as it is.
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*: Think I heard this was a Swords and Wizardry thing. But maybe you roll low in that game? I dunno. This ABAM game is an unholy alliance between Dave Hardgrave's books, old DnD, and DCCisms. You can even find mighty deeds kinda hidden in the variant classes.

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Check-off boxes, not HP

Ran across this in a Roll20 note I made. I think it has great potential. I guess I was using it in my homebrew Quest Ferrit a few years back.

When you are hit, check off one of the following (replenish once per level each day, between fights):
☑ You're dead. Dramatically pulling the villain to hell with you optional.
☑ Your shield is splintered.
☑ Your armor, helm, or jaunty hat saved you this time...
☑ 'Tis but a flesh wound!
☑ Monster rolls on a crit chart (you take injuries; ignore damage rolls generated by this).
☑ Monster does something typical for its variety (melts your face off, burns you, ages you 7 years, etc.)
☑ You roll your HD & armor die; not rolling a one on either of them means you survived this blow (everyone has at least a d3 armor die).
☑ You suffer an injury of the Judge's choosing.
☑ Lucky dodge! Your luck score goes down by one.

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☑ (hobbits only) Another PC you name jumps in to save your bacon .
☑ (fighters only) The pain helps you focus; +1d to your next to-hit roll.
☑ (dwarves only) The foe tosses you into your allies, who toss you right back.
☑ (elves only) Demoralizingly deft dodge and dudgeon. +1d to next intimidation or taming check.
☑ (barbarians only) Rage! +1d to damage and crit charts this fight.
doesn't usually have one.

 

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Charismatic Party Leaders Houserule

Who's in charge here?

This idea might be best introduced in session 0 or one.

The PC with the highest Charisma or Personality score is the natural leader of the group, and should be role-played  as such. Maybe even have them be the one that recruits the other PCs.

If two people are tied for highest score, let there be a friendly rivalry. Emphasis on friendly. Maybe one should get the edge for achieving a heroic character arc.

If a new PC comes along with a higher score, there can be tension there too, but eventually, the lower character should realize that the new guy or gal is alright and cede the position (their player will probably like a break from the mental exhaustion of leadership around this point as well).

This is just the musing of someone who has seen a lot of TV shows and movies.

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Give and Take Initiative

Imma give a surprise round to the monster tho.

It's a simple idea: There are no rolls for initiative. First, the players are given a chance. Any one of them may come forward and try an action, such as attacking. When that player is done, the GM has a foe attempt an action. Then it goes back to the players.

I suggest if your elfgame allows multiple attacks or spells or whatever, you resolve them all at once as your action. I also suggest that any movement allowed you be done on your go.

There are rounds. Each entity in the fight gets only one action per round. If one side runs out of able bodies, the other side gets all of its agents that haven't gone yet squared away in whatever order they like.

Example
Three PCs confront a behemoth. The GM asks who's up. Ser Twitchy asks the other players if it's okay for him to go, and they nod. Twitchy has two attacks, and rolls them both now. The monster takes them like a champ. 

Now the GM will go. She only has the behemoth to worry about. It has three attacks, so she rolls all three now, one against each PC. Sheela the Forgotten falls dead. 

Now it goes back to the PCs. Bob the Resuscitative was going to go in for an attack, but decides to use his action to shove a life cookie into Sheela's wound. 

Usually, the round would be over at that, but the GM has a surprise up her sleeve: Dread Maggots are popping into play from a nearby corpse, and they are going to try to burrow into everyone's wounds. The round finally ends with everyone rolling maggot-saves. As you do. 

This system favors the players' side a bit, but they need a break sometimes. One merit of the this system is that it could be used in either DnDs or Dungeon World pretty easily.

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Why Vancian is Better Than Spell Points (and what to do about it)

First, let me lay out my credentials for my click-bait title.

Over on our Discord, (mail me if you want in on chances to play elf-games online), we have been playing a lot of Lodoss Companion, a game I translated from Japanese. It uses a stat called MP (magic points) to cast spells from. If you run out of MP, you faint.

About a couple years back I was in another RPG that uses spell points (run by Fear of a Black Dragon's Tom), Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying 1e. We played through the Enemy Within adventure path thing.

On the Discord, we also spent a few months going through my other big fanslation project, Double Moon. Dubmoon, being from the same publisher as Lodoss, shares a lot of its DNA, including the MP system, using Psychic Points called PPs, much to our amusement.

Finally, also on the Discord, we messed around with my hack of Arduin for a while. Uncle Dave "Killmepleasedaddy" Hargrave used a hybrid between Vancian and spell points back in the day. He also gave levels to spells because he was basically using 0DnD. I opted to just have spell points spent just be the level of the spell, let PCs cast any level of spell, and kicked Vancian restrictions out of there.

So all of these systems used points is my point. What is the problem I've noticed time and again? You are extremely incentivized to cast the same spells each combat. It was really bad in WHFRP. Once I learned Lightning Bolt, I would try to cast it each round. We could point out here that RAW material components would have ameliorated the problem, but like most groups we ditched those rules.

In Lodoss it's usually the same routine. Cast buffs on the fighter. Summon a spirit to fight. There is a bit of deja-vu each combat. My players do like the system though. One said they really dig not having to choose spells that they might use each game morning.

The Arudin games were a bit better, probably because of the sheer amount of gonzo spells the players wanted to try out. Also, without level restrictions, they could consider casting powerful, yet expensive spells.

 So, what's my solution to keep a game with spell points interesting? Well, I have a few.

• Spell points are still a thing, but whenever a player casts a spell, it is gone for the day (sneaky Vance). 
• Spell points are still a thing, but each additional time you cast a certain spell in a day costs one extra point per level of the spell (Vance tax).
  
• Use DCC-style Mercurial Magic, which may make the player prefer to cast different spells for different situations. You don't need DCC tho; I got a d60 list of crazy spell requirements and effects.
• Incentivize spell prep with Memorization Side Effects (using a Vancian hybrid or pure Vancian).
• Use those material components up. Boo. Hey, maybe have all your spell-casting based on material components to make it better?
• Seed a whole lot of situations that will require spells as tools. This one is hard to do, because utility spells are usually taken care of by equipment or the thief's abilities. 
• Spells are free-form, but you can never cast the same spell twice (the Barony/Conrad's Game method).
  

Got more ideas? That's what comments are for!

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Son of New Elfgame Rules

It had a baby!

I've refined my DCCish old school elf game rules since the last go around. Here's what we got now. If you want to see the old post, it is still full of 90s 'tude. DCC Lankhmar rules are mentioned a lot, because I am currently running a campaign on Nehwon.

Action Dice: When you roll, you do not add bonuses (+1 &c); we only make action dice bigger. If you have an ability score of 14-15, you roll a d22 to do actions with that score. 16-17 gives you a d24. 18 gives you a d30. We do not usually have a die smaller than a d20 (use a d16 only when dual-wielding). Saves don't exist per say; just make an ability check roll with an action die.

The hit/to-hit/class die: If you are rolling to attack or do something that fits the idiom of your class/race/background, you may add your hit die onto that roll. Roll to meet or beat an AC or DC. The DCs are 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, and so on (don't use DCC thief DCs).

Armor: Armor Class is your Agility score. Armor itself is ablative; for each plus it has, it can take one hit instead of you, negating one instance of damage. This damages the armor and it has to be mended. Shields usually give +1 armor. 

Damage: Arms* are flavor, for the most part, and don't affect damage. Maybe your implement of choice is important in some situations. Your HD from the to-hit roll is also counted--provided you hit-- as your damage roll.

Example: Thogar rolls to hit. His STR is 8 and his class is thief, so he rolls 1d20+1d6. He gets a 19 and a 2, for a total of 21 to hit. The 2 becomes 2 damage. The player shakes the Judge's hand for running such a fast system, but then they both get Coronavirus. 

Luck: You can burn Luck or Fleeting Luck to modify rolls up or down in your favor (you can spend Luck on someone else's roll to avoid being hit). Fleeting Luck follows the DCC L rules.

Spell-burning: Wizards can grow their hit die for one instance of casting. It grows one size for each point of ability score damage you take. Spell-burning is ritualistic, so it slows you down and your friends will have to be meat shields while you get it ready. If you know Lankhmareese black or white magic, the first point of spell-burn on those spells is free, but you have to burn more than one.

Magic: You have to roll to learn a spell (fail and you can try again next level). Lvl 1 spells are DC 10, lvl 2 are DC 15, and so on. So you might want to quest for a specific way to learn a specific spell at a lower DC (Lankhmar agent dice might work out too). When you first learn a spell, you have to roll on this table of quirks (no mercurial magic).

Initiative: If you roll higher to hit, you hit first. Most monsters are zaku (small fries). If you hit, you kill them and hit first and they don't get a counter hit. You're no hero, but you might be fit for a pulpy tale.

Deeds: Unlike in DCC where they have to wait for a precious 3+, Warriors in this house may declare a mighty deed each time they hit (don't declare, then roll; roll first) except when they roll a crit, in which case the crit becomes the deed. Tough monsters may get a save to resist the effects of a deed, in which case their DC is 10+the Warrior's level.

Get Gud: Every PC stops gaining HD after level 3, instead re-rolling all previous hit dice and taking the new score if it is higher. Thank you, Dave "Arduin" Hargrave. Another benefit of leveling is that you get to choose one ability score and raise it by 1.

Orizons, not spells: If we had clerics in DCC L, they would not have set spells, but would just beg their gods for help with a prayer roll. What a pointless bullet point this was though.

Star signs: On worlds that use them, we look at what the sign usually affects and give +1d to action dice involving that. No negative star signs, and Luck doesn't make it better or worse to have.

*: I might find a way to integrate arms into the crit tables in the future.
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