House Rules for DCC: Moving Towards DCC Lite
I think DCC is an awesome game. There has been a lot of talk recently about why it's so good and I agree with most of it. There are a lot of things, however, that I would change. I've tried to come up with rules that discourage some of the practices that I don't like in DCC and tweak some of the things I just find to be kind of obtuse. I think the core of DCC is great and I'd like to move the game towards a more OSR ethos. I've had the chance to run DCC again so I'm going to try my hand at implementing some rules to better refine my ideas for eventually making DCC Lite.
Advantage/Disadvantage: This 5e rule is just a good tool. The individual bonuses on the usual DCC table get very particular. Otherwise, I'd just give out +2s all the time because that's easier than looking at the table.
Shields will Shatter: Always a good rule. You can break your shield to negate a hit. Magic shields don't break but they can only do this once a day.
Reaction Rolls: 2d6 modified by Personality. Rather than doing Pers checks for persuasion, the reaction roll makes Personality useful without removing the need to talk to npcs in character.
Roll Under Checks: When doing just a basic check, it ought to be roll under I think. Luck spent increases the stat needed to roll under.
Item Slots: A Player Character can carry a number of items equal to 10 + Str Mod. Certain items like two handed weapons and heavy armor take two slots.
More Risky Spellburn: Spellburn always comes in d6s. The caster can assign a number of d6s from a single stat for a single casting. Losing 5 or more points of a stat is quite an important loss. You get an equal bonus to the roll but there is not as much certainty when using spell burn and it makes it harder to cherry-pick from your stats as the game currently incentivizes. Casters will take a little from this stat and a little from this one to make sure they don't do too much damage to themselves, often neutering the gamble that spell burn was meant to be.
Phlogistonic Entropy: Spells are attempting to control the raw chaotic power of phlogistons. To call upon a spell is to will a phlogistonic formation upon the phlogiston sphere. Due to the natural state of this entropic realm, with each casting spells become less stable. If a caster successfully casts a spell more times than their level, then subsequent castings of the same spell are made at Disadvantage.
Elves start with a Patron: What it says on the tin. It makes a lot of sense for this to be the case, but there is no rule saying so outright.
Patron Quests: There are few guidelines for Patrons besides their benefits. I would supply each Patron with a Quest that you would have to go on to take them as a Patron for Wizards or to gain more of their spells. So I would write up a quest to adopt a Patron and a quest to gain more of their spells. In the case of a spell-like Patron bond, the Patron overwrites the spell and gives the benefits of a roll of 20.
Patron Benefit: Patrons should bestow some minor benefit that would be of an appropriate flavor.
1d8 Patron Quests + Benefits:
Advantage/Disadvantage: This 5e rule is just a good tool. The individual bonuses on the usual DCC table get very particular. Otherwise, I'd just give out +2s all the time because that's easier than looking at the table.
Shields will Shatter: Always a good rule. You can break your shield to negate a hit. Magic shields don't break but they can only do this once a day.
Reaction Rolls: 2d6 modified by Personality. Rather than doing Pers checks for persuasion, the reaction roll makes Personality useful without removing the need to talk to npcs in character.
Roll Under Checks: When doing just a basic check, it ought to be roll under I think. Luck spent increases the stat needed to roll under.
Item Slots: A Player Character can carry a number of items equal to 10 + Str Mod. Certain items like two handed weapons and heavy armor take two slots.
More Risky Spellburn: Spellburn always comes in d6s. The caster can assign a number of d6s from a single stat for a single casting. Losing 5 or more points of a stat is quite an important loss. You get an equal bonus to the roll but there is not as much certainty when using spell burn and it makes it harder to cherry-pick from your stats as the game currently incentivizes. Casters will take a little from this stat and a little from this one to make sure they don't do too much damage to themselves, often neutering the gamble that spell burn was meant to be.
Phlogistonic Entropy: Spells are attempting to control the raw chaotic power of phlogistons. To call upon a spell is to will a phlogistonic formation upon the phlogiston sphere. Due to the natural state of this entropic realm, with each casting spells become less stable. If a caster successfully casts a spell more times than their level, then subsequent castings of the same spell are made at Disadvantage.
Elves start with a Patron: What it says on the tin. It makes a lot of sense for this to be the case, but there is no rule saying so outright.
Patron Quests: There are few guidelines for Patrons besides their benefits. I would supply each Patron with a Quest that you would have to go on to take them as a Patron for Wizards or to gain more of their spells. So I would write up a quest to adopt a Patron and a quest to gain more of their spells. In the case of a spell-like Patron bond, the Patron overwrites the spell and gives the benefits of a roll of 20.
Patron Benefit: Patrons should bestow some minor benefit that would be of an appropriate flavor.
1d8 Patron Quests + Benefits:
- Bobugbubilz: A demonic frog temple has been ruined and overtaken by monsters or humans unaligned with the Lord of Amphibians. Retrieve the Golden Idol of the Slimy One. Clear the temple for a 24 to your Patron Bond. Casters receive a bonus equal to their level for swimming checks.
- Azi Dahaka: The high walls of a desert city reduce most of the damage from Dahaka's sandstorms. Bring down their walls! Destroy the offensive city for a 30 on your Patron Bond. Casters are not hindered by storm winds, sandy terrain, and heat.
- Sezrekan: The Master Mage demands you recover an ancient and forbidden tome of arcane knowledge from one of his old ruined wizard towers. Sacrifice it to him to complete this task. Wrestle with its maddening knowledge and succeed for a 30 on your Patron Bond. Sezrekan's followers can sniff out books like Dwarves sniff out gold.
- The King of Elfland: A wicked old troll has kidnapped a fairy lady in Elfland. Go to a sacred grove, ancient tree, or mystical waterfall to the Dreaming Realm to save her. Do so with utmost knightly honor for a 24 to your Patron Bond. Followers of the King may manipulate their shadows as they wish.
- The Three Fates: The taint of chaos has quietly crept into a local town. Find it and put to death those that would meddle with the fell powers! Burn all the guilty publicly for a 24 to your Patron Bond. Followers of the Fates may remove their eyes at will and still see through them.
- Yddgrrl: An otherworldly presence is tainting the land! Drive it out so the land will thrive! Restore all the damage done for a 24 to your Patron Bond. Followers of the World Root are unperturbed by wind, rain, and underbrush.
- Obitu-Que: A demonic ally of the Lord of the Five has been imprisoned beneath a temple for eons. Free it! Take vengeance on those that imprisoned the demon for a 24 to your Patron Bond. Followers of the fiend may conjure a candle flame at will.
- Ithha: A mountain giant has been insulting Ithha to passing wind spirits. Slay the giant! Humiliate him to boot for a 24 to your Patron Bond. Followers of the Prince of Elemental Wind can conjure a powerful wind at any time. Creatures must make a DC: 10 Fort Save or be stunned or pushed 5ft by the gale.
My home game I run is DCC. I'm running it as written but I have added two things. I've told my players I am fully adopting the BX reaction rolls system as you mention because (outside of funnels) I want to encourage old school play such as faction manipulation, parley, subterfuge, and generally encourage whacky shenanigans as DCC can handle well. Who knows how those freaky ape men may react?
ReplyDeleteDCC mostly lacks an inventory system. I slotted in Matt Rundle's Anti Hammerspace (http://rottenpulp.blogspot.com/2012/06/matt-rundles-anti-hammerspace-item.html?m=1). I thought it would be cool to let my players doodle on their sheets and draw their items. So far, the seem lukewarm about. I'm having trouble remembering to use it as an "your equipment needs to make a save" mechanism which I like in theory. Oh wow, that griffon clawed at you during a fly by? Roll a d6 to see which one of your item slots may have gotten plucked away in its claws. Probably involve a luck check there. Could be great.
DCC has a couple of metagame mechanics that are useful because the game is so random. Without playing it a 100 times or more with a Wizard in every session, I'm reluctant to mess with stuff like Spell burn. DCC is very random by nature so the players have a few options to curb that element. I think it's up to the Judge to really tighten the screws on weakened characters.
I've played a lot of DCC and one of the things I have encountered again and again is Spells just being absolutely uber powerful. A PC actually using the Spellburn mechanics freely can just nuke a lot of things. Plus they pick and choose from their stats to really make sure that stat loss never hurts them too much, which I think is thematically ill fitting and also too powerful. The D6s change is meant to reign that in. Its an issue that apparently Goodman Games has taken note of during Tournament Play as well so I feel pretty good about the change in principle, but as you say it does add another level of randomness to an already very random game. Maybe it would be better for spell burn to give diminishing returns? I'm not sure.
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