Gunslingers and Galoots

Listening to the Sanctum Secorum Halloween Episode whilst on the ole stationary-bike-in-the-basement (as a Florida native I am not interested in doing exercise when it's chilly).  It's chock full of good stuff and you ought to check it out if you like Appendix N Book Club-type situation and also free DCC content and ideas (since the time I wrote this, they put out another episode or two!)




Cimarron Rose here was associated with George Newcombe in the real world!

Meanwhile, I release the Gunslinger to you in easy-to-read, plain n' simple 6x9 no frills format. Sometimes, you gotta have a guy or gal who will kill people with a gun and by definition these folks ought to be better at it than your average schmuck.  So there you have it.





As for average schmucks, I kin offer the following:




The way Boot Hill does it, it separates all characters into a couple of different stats, those being things like tracking (superfluous for me in DCC), horsemanship (also superfluous), bravery (DCC doesn't do morale too much/well but for me it varies and I use the Moldvay way), and drawing speed (LOOK OUT NOW!) and accuracy (VERY IMPORTANT WHEN A PERSON HAS A BEAD ON YOU).  I think it's easier to keep accuracy and speed as a single thing but YMMV.  I included a rudimentary morale and fleeing system in my own DCC rules lite solo book, and I believe in these things in my heart.




Now, since there's no demi-humans, mostly, and no goblinoid or orky bad guys n such, but there are a great number of apathetic men of low character who would like to shoot you, I offer a very simple and no-frills stat block - suitable for a wide range of games - to pepper your Old West with gun-toting thugs and desperadoes.  Assume Neutral or Chaotic alignments, as you like, since it seems to me law-abidin' folks don't go about shooting up citizens, but hey your dog may hunt otherwise.  Things like Personality/Wisdom and Strength are superfluous but can be generated on the fly


I assume knives, bowie knives, clubs, pistols (1d8), shotguns (2d6, 6s explode another die), carbines (1d12), and rifles (1d12) for gear.  If you use Transylvanian Adventures rules, then you can steal Ruin points to give these folks an edge that would likely let a party cruise right over them.  Maybe an occasional fool would have a boomerang, sword, or staff but for the most part in the West, if you're not packing heat then you're not a viable opponent.




Common Thug
HD: 4 HP
AC: 9
Morale (Low: 6-7)


Other Scores (2d6+2)


Bandito/Desperado/"Cowboy" (note "cowboy" in the pejorative sense of 1880s)
HD (Average Party level -2) or 1, whichever is more.  I figure about 6 HP each, and a good clean shot with a small arms, or a knife blade, ought to finish these folks off or prompt an immediate withdrawal or surrender...
AC (12)
Morale (Average: 7-8)
Other scores (2d8 when needed)


Gunfighter
HD (Average Party Level) I figure about 6 HP per HD
AC (10+d6 - assume these folks to be taking cover, crouching, relatively quick)
Morale (High: 9-10)
Other Scores (2d6+4 when needed, a focus on Agility for DCC)
Arms and equipment will be slightly better.  Can critical hit like Warriors or Thieves/Specialists/Valiants
In terms of Boot Hill 2, these folks will have survived 2d6+2 gunfights, and killed 1d10 men or women.  Gunfighters ought to have attack bonuses for high Agility when shooting, IMHO


Star Bad Guys
HD (Average Party Level +2) again at about 6-8 HP per HD depending upon the needs of the thing
AC (10+d8 skilled killers would be deft and survive owing to Luck)
Morale (high to fanatical, so about 9-12)
Other Scores (3d6 as PCs, maybe one ability at 15 or above)


Kellri has put out a terrific rip of the Boot Hill 2 stats blocks, and with his permission I might do a little conversion with his document so as to make some of the historical gunfighters and the in-system fictional ones.  At the link you'll find a PDF of a good number of the things, but mine would be a rough approximation with some spreadsheet calculations to put the dudes (almost all dudes, IIRC maybe Calamity Jane the exception) into a DCC or d20 stats framework.


Hmm.  Seems to me we could use some fairer-sexed gunslingers in this Weird West world.  +Doug Kovacs has it locked on Catastrophe Jane, and +Brenda Wolfe may soon advance her professor of phrenology (I think it was phrenology) into the adventuring classes.  I envision Head Acolyte +Jen Brinkman as some sort of Galadriel spooky-fast sea-faring pirate gunslinger but that's just me.


Keep your powder dry, cowpokes!

The Scrappler for DCC - Meaty, Bandity, Brawling PC Class

Let me start with the answer to the perennial question "What is Scrapple, Mr. Dungeonmaestro?"

O JESUS ANOTHER MEAT BASED OSR POST

I hear that there is good scrapple to be had in my area, and for some reason it used to sell like hotcakes at the place I used to cook at.  Scrapple is a bunch of pork byproducts and trimmings - the stuff you wouldn't regularly eat by itself.  You take that stuff, grind it up, throw it in with some porridge of boiled grains, season it, and then make it into a loaf.  Then, chill it, slice it, and fry it.  Simple enough.  It's originally a thing that the Pennsylvania Deutsch (not Dutch but German-speaking immigrants) did, but the idea is likely as old as eating pigs and farming grains.  They called it pan haas - or pan rabbit, maybe 'cause it's like poor man's food.  I hear that it can be good, but most of the times I've tried it, it's been rather flat and gray/grey and it smells like a pig's armpit.  Essentially, the commercially available kinds are two of my favorite breakfast things - sausage and grits - combined and fried in easy-to-eat slices.  Haven't found anybody around these parts that does it well.

As a follow up to my long-dead post about Iron Rations, and the one about desperation in Low Fantasy games, I was thinking about what kinds of things adventurers usually eat around the fire.  Probably crummy rations and scrapple, if they are lucky.  They fight a lot, and need healing.

The premise is that the Scrappler (and a vegetarian/vegan alternative the Tofukin) are walking, brawling, thinking meat golems that have the ability to give of themselves to help their comrades with tasty, healing protein.  Yes, that's right.  You see, I've been reading a lot of L. Frank Baum lately and I picked up this charming RPG system called Adventures in Oz: Fantasy Roleplaying Beyond the Yellow Brick Road.  One of the central premises is that death and permanent injury are no-nos in Oz (I guess the thing is geared toward children, although in the Wizard of Oz there seems to be a good deal of brutal murderhobo-ery).  The "coming up with scenarios" portion of the thing mentions that situations ought to be funny and non-threatening and unique, and that fights ought to resolve into friendships and friends added to your list are a tangible asset to be used later to change the course of the narrative.  Fun ideas to consider as alternatives to wanton slaughter, even if when I think of possible games of this I try to turn it into Dark, Low Fantasy.

Brah, do you even lift?

When +Doug Kovacs prompted me to write up a "Meat Bandit" class the other day, I visualized the thing from uh - John Dies at The End.  Loopy but fun.  Others have proposed Meat Golems in the past.  But then I saw some Scrapple in the store and remembered how desperately hungry I would need to be to eat it again.

So, you encounter a Sentient Golem of Meat, go round for a bit (insert wet slapping sounds like in Fight Club), become friends, and then Mr. Meat never leaves your side.  In the course of your travels, you are often starving and of course, you agree you'll just take a little off here and there, and by the end of the adventure he's a little dirty and piqued and smells a little off, but hey, he's your pal Mr. Meat Golem and he'd kill and die for you if it were possible in this horrible place. Stupid faeries and their ridiculous banishment of Death!

I'm not clear if I will do a write-up of this one all sparkly like the last couple.  Maybe I will.  It's a fun exercise.

I DID IT FIND THE PDF HERE, MEAT THING

Moon Dweller Psionicist (inspired by David Brawley and Daniel Bishop)

Okay, here goes.  A PDF of the first of several new classes for DCC, based on prompts from friends and passers-by.  Congrats to +David Brawley and with special thanks to +Daniel Bishop.  Daniel's method of generation for Lunar People is included within, from The Revelation of Mulmo, which is surely the most hateful swindle of a group of PCs a power mad minor entity could ever hope to commit.  It is sure to provoke some gnashing of teeth in a too-trusting party, that's for certain.

This is the Moon Dweller Psionicist, a Selenite Refugee stranded on Aereth by his own mental tinkerings with space-time, forever wishing only to return home and/or to violate the known laws of physics and existential norms.  Possibly to lay waste to the masses, and find bliss in the arms of a delicate or burly alien.

Possibly a little over-power'd, maybe, but certainly less so than the normal Wizard.  Also, the presence of these timid and delicate power-vortexes is very likely bring about an inevitable Phlogiston Disturbance - to my mind shamefully underused.  At least, underused in my own games.

Enjoy!

New Races for DCC Prompts - I Double Dungeon Crawl Dare You

In a last-ditch effort to procrastinate on my own publishable project, I hereby call you out, reader.  You have a twinklin' of an idea for a playable race?  Fingers too tied up with legerdemain, or possibly you already build dangerous wooden and brass Lamentation Configurations in your spare time?  Engaged in high treason, or listlessly wooing a stunning enchantress from the time in Earth's future right before the Beetle People arise?

Spellvexitus knows the Vancian Operation of Clone Vats - at Skill Level 7, and how to paste an image URL

Well, worry no longer!  We here at The Hapless Henchman can take those unused and abused alpha- and beta-waves and put them into our cogitators on site, giving you real, 3rd dimensional (possibly plus or minus a dimension with a 22 percent alpha) access to your own idea, on paper, and in-game.

Submit in the comments your own feeble whispers of an idea for a NEW PLAYER CHARACTER RACE OR CLASS, and me and my own shoulder imp Spellvexitus can do the hard thinkin' for you!  He's mildly dyslexic, but he knows the Dewey Decimal System inside and out, so he's good for helping in library research when we're jaunting around in the early 1990's before they pulled all the skin-bound codices from the Widener...

As a gesture of goodwill, I offer the first 5.75 people or entities who/that post an idea for a new class or race in the comments here a copy of my very own thing when it comes out.  That would be the DCC Solo Module THE HOUNDS OF HALTHRAG KEEP - shooting for late summer, still.  The first three (3 - an integer) people to post a thing, I'll get them a copy of either Crawljammer #1, or Crawling Under a Broken Moon #1 as a downloadable PDF from RPGNow and we can compare notes.  If you already have it, then good - but maybe we can figure something out.  Don't try to canoodle me, either.  I've got a thousand wyrd spirits imbued in my fridge, just waiting to be set plaintively loose to spite someone/something

BE WARY!  For those who post a thing that exists ALREADY will be harshly dealt with and derided, and Spellvexitus will have first crack at your plainly withered soul when you're done with it, soon.  How will you know? Well, look at the sidebar on your right and it'll show you a way to see what's been elucidated and illuminated before you, you conniving gong-farmer, you...

Take that interwebs!  Spellvexitus, get your Mystical Third Eye and crowquill all revved up!

Don't let me down, you malicious little hobgoblins!  Maybe when I'm done I can make it into a sweet little PDF and give it freely to the cold and unfeeling universe to stave off inevitable heat death.  If more than I can use at the start arrive, then I will do my best to trickle them out as I can - absolutely no promises implied, BTW

Psionic Moon Man - received!

a new DCC Class, the Skate Hero

You know, lately I've been thinking a great deal about Christian Slater.  Not that guy that you may have seen in, uh, that movie based on that game.  The young one, the one that lives forever in your memory as Happy Harry Hard-On, or the brain-damaged monkey heart dishwasher that loved Vinnie's girlfriend so tragically, or the one that blew up around all those stuck up twats.  Yeah, that one.

That's only coincidental to my post, and merely tangentially interesting for you, but here, I will throw you a picture of the penultimate moment, the practical climax, of a bullshit skate movie that was a formative influence for me in my yutes.  Observe:

Maybe a video clip woulda been better.  It's better.  Let me describe - seeing his romantic interest, the old man with the gun, held hostage by a young foreign Communist radical girl, young hair-empowered Christian Slater flings himself wildly off the top of a LA off ramp, hurtling through the air to a 3 point touchdown onto the face of everyone involved, breaking his neck and ending a promising career in demagoguery and minor hooliganisms...

That's not that great, is it?

I'm about to let you in on my secret little stash of nostalgia happiness, that tided me over between my early forays into Moldvay D&D and C64 gaming, and upon which I wobbily glided through my early teen years and suffered many, many road rashes.  I skate boarded really badly, and my family was really into roller-skating, and thus my knees are toast and I have trouble squatting down to pick things up.  MOAR importantly, though, I read a great deal of comics, and for a very brief time in the mid and late 1980s, these things coalesced into a skateboard comic known as Thrasher.  Much of it was drek and terribly written, and then, separate from that, is THRASH GORDON.

Somehow, they got this person (a man? a woman?  a mad cyberpunk prophet?) to pen and ink and write a story of an oppress'd young man, driven to surreptitiously practice the thing he loves against the law and the wishes of the corporate overlords, undermining with his skateboard the very fabric of society and controlling robots with his mutated skater-brain in a bleak, post-apocalyptic future sort of like Max Headroom crossed with Mad Max but with many more killer robots.  I KNOW!  It's as terrific as it sounds.  I have a personal quest to find all 9 issues of Thrasher comics VERY SLOWLY, so that all of the story can be revealed to me in a full flowering of perfection, but I have a couple now and vaguely remember being blown away at 13.  Here's part of a panel, and let me tell you, I don't easily share much more than this because as far as I am concerned, it's mine GODDAMIT (except this one guy here knows, also):

Thrash, shortly after his capture and transformation from regular skate punk into (pre-Internet!) supercyber skate punk

I scanned that for you myself, young' un, and don't you forget it.  Since I am wildly, frothily excited about DCC and the ALL UP FRONT modality of powers and class-as-race-as-class thing, (but I like to do away and hand-wave race and all the crappy trappings therof), I submit for your enjoyment the Skate Hero class, which if I get around to it (probably never!) I can draw up and illustrate a proper handout supplement thing.

A simple group of suggestions for play as a Skate Hero, if you so desire it, subcreature (sort of ripped off from the d20 Athlete):

Fucking hoods.  Eh?  Eh?  See what I did there?

Skate Hero (highly mobile angry yutes)

• a skate hero depends upon high Stamina, Strength, and Agility, as well as a low level of cunning and a good deal of Luck
• a skate hero without something to skate on is merely a Hero.  Have a deck/plank/stick/board/magic liftwood plank/flumph/hoverdrone.  No skatey thing, no Radical Deeds, and no modifiers to the following:
• The Skate Hero adds his or her level AND the most pertinent stat bonus to DC checks that could be classified under other systems' (ahem d20 modern or whatevr) Balance, Tumble, or Jump.  In addition to whatever normal distances/heights/whatever a Skate Hero would get for size/shape/ability scores, he/she/it adds 5' horizontal and 2' vertical jumping distance per level if moving at speed on the board, and suffers half damage from falls or crashes on a failed save, and none whatsoever on a successful save (usually Reflex or Fortitude but the player may choose).  These apply only on the board, and only while skating/flying/awesome-ing
• Allowed weapons include pipes, bats, chains, knives, clubs, whips, spears, staffs, pool cues.  Improvised weapons found and used while skating incur no penalty to attack or damage rolls but attack as the closest rulebook analog.  On a fumble, the improvised weapon is destroyed or otherwise lost.  Knives and chains and staffs are allowed always (but a staff might get kinda boffo and interfere with cool tricks, depends though)
• Radical Deeds:  a Skate Hero can do all kinds of cool shit while skating - can you imagine grinding sarcophagi and hand-planting to deflect poisonous darts off the Mithril Board of Ages?  Well, you don't have to 'cause I just did it for you.  Every combat round or turn, the Skate Hero can name a Radical Deed as an attack or movement action - if an attack, the Action Die and the Radical Deed die (effectively the same as a Warrior's Mighty Deed) apply.  Name the awesome trick move you did and get the same benefit as a Mighty Deed/Sword n Board/Whatevr.  You add whatever your stat modifier is (depending upon the move) to the attack/action die, agreed upon by you and the judge depending upon your totally radical description.  Obviously, terrain and conditions must permit skating (local laws do not necessarily prevent this)
• Armor can be used but negates the stat modifiers for attack bonuses during Radical Deeds - you might get away with leather.  A slick cape or poncho would be sweet.  Since I am now a parent, I insist on head protection but it may reduce your street cred (OSHA approved)
• Hit Dice: roll 2d6 per level, take the best.  Stamina bonuses apply
• Action Die progression, same as the Fighter of the same level
• Saves as a thief of the same level

As a bonus, I offer you Thrash Gordon himself:

Thrash Gordon, Neutral Level 5 Skate Hero

(in a OSR system I might say Chaotic Good but he does have a penchant for vengeance)

Str 14, Int 14, Agi 17, Per 8, Sta 7, Luck 15

Thrash was already an accomplished Skate Hero of the Earth's near future before being nearly killed by mindless corporate robots and experimented upon by evil corporate surgeons and scientists.  They hoped to find use for his corpse's brain and nervous system and transform him into a cyborg, but unwittingly his high Stamina and will to Skate returned him from the brink of Death's halfpipe to crush his captors and his people's oppressive regime.

Somehow, he has acquired the ability to Regenerate Serious Damage when exposed to the right cocktail of mutagenic chemical byproducts and junk foods, (up to 3 dice per day).  He is almost, but not quite, undead but cannot be turned by Clerics.  He can also Influence Robots: if he encounters a hostile robot and is able to make "eye" or physical contact, Thrash can attempt to subvert its programming on a successful DC 13 check.  A non-hostile electronic system or robot can be subverted automatically given 1d3 turns of concentration, but a DC 13 check can reduce this by 1 turn.  Particularly cryptic or elaborate systems may take more time at the discretion of the Judge.

Finally, Thrash's eyes and optic nerves were damaged and nearly destroyed by the mutagenic goo that saved his life.  He is nearly blind but heightened senses make up for the loss well enough for him to skate extremely well; bright lights will daze him for a full game turn or 1d3 combat rounds if he is not wearing protective lenses or glasses.

There!  In one fell swoop, I satisfied my radical anti-corporate hate-filled heart, appealed to my youthful nostalgia, and gave back to the community to which I identify myself sort of.  It's WORKING ITS WORKING

Hurray for internets.

  

DCC Alien Races lifted from Star Frontiers - Perk Buy System Method

Since I don't have an original bone in my body and everything I write is stolen from something somebody else already did 30 years ago, here is a breakdown of new races one might try if one is so inclined, taken from the wide-eyed and optimistic Star Frontiers (much of which is available in PDF format from a variety of fan sources out there).  The tone of it is so much more fun than, say 40K.

These are from the Alpha Dawn boxed set expanded rulebook (which I had as a child but never played!).  The allowed weapons and alignments are dependent upon your campaign setting, obviously.

Androidarts' renderings - my favorite versions

http://androidarts.com/misc_stuff.htm

Dralasites (Amorphous Funny Blobs)

• They only see in black and white, but can smell well enough to recognize people by smell alone.  Disguises generally do not work upon them.  They gain a +3 bonus to track a known target by smell (the DC moderated by the judge) but environmental factors may affect this.
• Elasticity - can have a number of limbs equal to Agility divided by 3, rounded up.  Any combination of "arms" and "legs" applies.  For each arm above the second, they gain 1 attack per round, at the end of the round.  For each leg above the second, they gain 10" to move per round.  They take half damage from blunt and impacting weapons, but half again as much damage from piercing and cutting weapons.  Each limb takes a full turn to grow or absorb.  Any number of fingers or manipulators may be grown from each limb.
• Empathic Lie Detection - If a lie is told in the Dralasite PC's presence, it (he? she?) has a DC 14 of detecting the falsehood, modified by Intelligence, rolled secretly by the Judge.
• Base AC 11, HD d8.  They can squeeze into regular bipedal armor, and gain full benefits from it.
• Saves, Crits, and Action Die as a Thief of the same level

Vrusk (Thri-Kreen/Phraints/Bug-Men)

• Vrusks are mostly Lawful.
• Ambidexterity - Multi-jointed arms and two thumbs per hand give them the ability to attack with two weapons without any penalty - they always get two attacks per round, at the same time.
• Move at 40" per round, owing to their 4 walking legs.
• Comprehension -  Vrusk get their Personality bonus to a DC 14 check to understand any cultural interchange that the player him-/her-/itself cannot.  This includes understanding the casting of a spell, a bartered exchange in a market, a religious ceremony - whatever.  With a full turn spent in observation, the Judge can give extra information to the player in secret about what the purpose of the ritual/ceremony/exchange was.
• Base AC 12, HD d8
• Saves, Crits, and Action Die as a Cleric of the same level
• Normal armor for humans and even elves will not fit Vrusk and must be made especially for them.

Yazirians (Tree-Gliding Ape-Men - could also be Phanatons from X1 Isle of Dread)

• Glide - Yazirians have membranous growths that stretch between their arms, legs, and body.  On their homeworlds, where gravity is somewhat less than that of Aereth, they are able to fly upon thermal wind currents for great distances.  On Aereth, they are able to glide short distances, and take -1d damage from falls on a DC 10 check, modified by Agility.  They may move their Agility score in feet for every 5 feet loss in altitude.
• Night Vision - Yazirians can see in what humans and other demihuman races take for complete darkness.  However, in sunlight or bright light, they attack at -1d unless their eyes are shielded by special goggles.
• Battle Rage - Yazirians may use Mighty Deeds as a Warrior of the same level.
• Base AC 10, HD d10
• If a Yazirian wears armor, they may not take advantage of the Glide ability.  They can wear Human armor with a little modification - they derive -1 bonus to the AC owing to armor worn (except shields, bucklers, and helmets)
• Saves, Crits, and Action Die as a Fighter of the same level

Sathar (Evil Sapient Worm Creatures)

• Sathar favor Chaos
• They may not wear armor made for demihumans or humans.  Their bodies are somewhat limp and are held upright by hydraulic forces.  They receive half damage from blunt attacks.  They may travel on their bellies as a snake at half speed, and squeeze through small openings at the discretion of the Judge
• They receive no damage from electrical attacks, and are immune to sleep spells.
• They may see in a 270 degree arc around them, and so are harder to surprise.  Backstab attacks do not work as well on Sathar, and only the normal amount of damage is done to them.
• Hypnotism - by modulating psionic energies in tandem with the sussuration of their voices, Sathar may attempt to hypnotize any creature with whom they may converse.  This acts as the first level Wizard spell Charm Person, but they suffer no ill effects from a failed casting.  This may be attempted no more than 3 times per day before their psionic stores are depleted.  In addition to their level, they add their Personality modifier to the Action Die roll.
• Sathar may learn and cast one Wizard or Cleric spell per level (the level of the spell is of no consequence - if they find a level 5 spell they may learn and attempt to cast it in the usual manner)
• Base AC11, HD d4
• Action Die, Crits, and Saves as a Wizard of the same level

The following are from Zebulon's Guide, an expansion for Star Frontiers that I saw but never had or played:

Humma (Kangarooish Warriors)

• Iron Guts - they suffer no drawbacks from eating rotten or poisoned food, and never need to make a saving throw to escape the ill effects of ingested poisons.
• Spring! - A Humma may leap up to 50 feet into combat with an opponent, and will gain an initiative bonus of +5 if it does so.  They may leap this distance out of combat, or leap 20 feet straight up into the air, assuming normal gravity conditions.
• Prehensile Tail - a Humma may hold an extra melee weapon in its prehensile tail, and thus gain an extra melee attack per round.  They may use the tail to steady themselves or to lift themselves up, slightly.  Simple operations can be completed with the tail but they cannot e.g. type using a keyboard or paint brush strokes this way.
• Saves, crits, and Action Die as Warrior of the same level
• Base AC11, Hit Die d10

Osakar (Multi-limbed, budding, Smooth Talkers)

• Amibidextrous - Multi-jointed arms that rotate within biologically unusual sockets enable them to attack with two single-handed weapons each round without penalty
• Adapted Speech Organs - Their fluted throats and double tongues allow Osakar to learn 3 times the number of spoken languages allowed by their Intelligence modifier.  Half of these may be held in reserve until such time that they come into play.  These are not necessarily the written forms of the languages; they will know the spoken forms of the written languages they know (as determined by their Intelligence modifier as usual)
• Highly Developed Smell - With a DC 12 check, modified by Intelligence, the Osakar may track or recognize a target through normal conditions, or detect the presence of previously-encountered poisons or compounds.  Environmental conditions may improve or reduce the DC (e.g. rain, smoke, gasses)
• Their weird anatomical forms (4 multi-jointed arachnoid legs terminating in hand-like manipulators) allow movement at 40" per round, and they receive the ability to climb as a Thief of the same alignment and level
• Saves, Crits, and Action Die as a Thief of the same level
• They are unable to use most armor but may use shields and helmets.  They may purchase modified armor at 3 times the usual cost.
• Tough scaly hide gives them Base AC14, with d8 Hit Die

There are other races in Zebulon's Guide, the Ishfnit (pretty much space Dwarves with fancy eyeballs) and Mechanons, which are essentially Robots.  There are plenty of cool robot classes for DCC out there, already, and if you need a link to one, try --- WHOOPS  -- the Robot class is vaporized like maybe its plasma cannon backfired or something.

The Robot Lives!  +Paul Wolfe sent the space-time-informational-reference coordinates

Hmm.  Stand by on that issue, readers.  I'll see if I can fix it.  Meanwhile, the class stuff from +Patrick Wetmore 's ASE fits nicely into DCC, in my opinion, but they would need a little twerkin'.  There's even a Robot!  Keep an eye out for the ASE Player's Guide that Patrick teases Labyrinth Lord fans with (I'm unsure if it's cool to link to it at the moment).  If you haven't yet found the amazingness that is ASE, then I abjure you to check it out at Patrick's blog over thisaway.  It gleefully and lovingly smashes many old school gaming conventions in the way that people must have felt when they first encountered the Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.

It has guns AND robots!  And a dungeon that generated itself!

Thinking of Perk Buy for DCC Characters

My presupposition, of course, is that if it's not broken then there is no need to fix it. I think that mixing and matching of skill sets is against the spirit of vanilla DCC - in which humans are humans and everybody has their niche.  All the easy old skool niches are covered, and any of the weird ones can get squooshed into the pre-existing class.  The Barbarian DEATHRAGEFURY is a little gauche, if you ask me, but I think it could be admirable done with a regular old Mighty Deed.  Same for Paladin shit (just be a cleric already - they get swords), and rangers are available with gnomes and bards in Crawl (maybe it was number 6).

Some folks don't like to play that way.  I offer you a link somewhere to see a list of a bunch of DCC Character Classes that might get you closer to where you want to be.  Go read it - I'll wait.  There, that's a lot of classes to think about, and I bet a good couple of handfuls have sprung up since that thing started to collect cobwebs on the internweb pipes.  Okay, thanks for coming.  I hope you stumble here again, sometime.

A selection of races that are, on the face of it, better than ELF or HALFLING

...

Eh?  What's that you say?  You want a Merman Warrior or an Elven Cleric or a Minotaur Thief?  Something like the original DCC classes but MOAR cool?

Allow me to scrutinize you askance, sir or madam or whatever, as it seems that what you want is all the cool stuff from DCC in addition to feats and perks and shit from 3.75 edition or whatever the Hel it is.  No offense, but why do you need all these lists?  Couldn't you just say "I'm a Dwarf essentially, but instead of stonework skills and gold-smell I have fangs and tree-travel" and have you a Mok?  Couldn't you and the other players and your DM just be like "Cool - eff it, I like it, let's play!"?

No - you persist in your need for a firm framework so everything is 'fair'.

Hmm. Alright.  You sure you don't want to just use DCC as a reference book and continue to play d20 or Pathfinder or whatever the kids play these days?  There are a vast number of modules that you can kludge into any form you want.  You could even use the DCC as a loose framework!

No?

Alright. Let's see what we can bubblegum-and-tape together, shall we? Essentially, you take some base character class that exists already and plop down some things and take some things away.  (except maybe the Wizard - the Wizard can already be weird enough to provide an almost infinite variation  DONT FUCK WITH THE WIZARD is a good rule of thumb)

I'm of the opinion that halflings are great in DCC mechanically, but sort of tedious for RP.  Dwarfs, also.  Elfs, ick.  Now, I'm getting back into Clerics after groking ASE and Petty Gods and all that good stuff, and so that leaves Warriors and Thieves.  Understanding the general DCC philosophy of open access to all the abilities at the start, as opposed to incremental improvements at levelling, blow a good wide selection of the things you want your character to do, right from the get-go, blow it all over the place.  If you want mighty deeds and spells, I say (hear me on this), just play a demigod and have all the powers and play some other game, already.  You will notice that elves are fighty and have full access to the spell list - but they got a neat limitations/mechanical problem to work around vis a vis iron problems.  I take this as a model - get a spare framework of stuff, drop something good on it, and then to even it out drop a problem to work around in play.  Clerics and Wizards already have this in spades.  It's my opinion that Deity Disapproval and Corruptions are good things - NAY GREAT THINGS - because it tacks on something weird and fun to roleplay through and drive your character with aside from all the KILL SHIT GET TREASURE RINSE REPEAT

So mighty deeds AND spells - Not in my campaign, bub, but maybe your 3.5 friendly Judge will allow it for a HJ or something.  Or, if you want mighty deeds and spells, then maybe mighty deeds on a ten sided die roll of 10, and a 1 or 2 is a critical fumble (this is a combat tumble mechanic for a Jester class).  Also, you get a limited selection of spells chosen by me, or the corruption range is like 1-8 instead of 1 or 2.  I mean, if you get greedy you need to pay a price, yeah?  My very own Deep One Hybrid class, which to my knowledge is a mere exercise in page layout and thinking about these mechanics which no one has ever actually played, has stealth skills and magic from cleric list and wizard list, and also the Innsmouth Look which is a sort of Tax.  The healing in water thing is a limitation - gotta get back to the ocean, or a murky pond, or whatever, Fishman...

Column A - Fun stuff

1) Luck mechanics (gain, regenerate, trade)
2) Attacks (claws, bites, squirts of insect semen, whatever (note - just seeing if you're paying attention))
3) Movement stuff (flight, levitation, tireless running, leap, swim, climb)
4) shape changing
5) a single spell, or a level of spells
6) wonky adventuring senses (gold smell, infravision, super duper hearing, spot-a-secret)
7) fun miscellaneous mechanics (tracking, bard song, monk type stuff from 1st ed.)
8) any of the perks from, say +Scott Mathis's Transylvanian Adventures

For Column A, a wide range of fun powers, feats, whatever - a jillion jillion sources could inform your choices.  Mutant Futures, Gamma World, Psionics, Robotics Charts,

Column B - Trade Offs

1) Any kind of corruption, minor, permanent, roleplayable
2) madness of any kind, things that compel a player to RP a thing
3) obligations (religious, ethical, whatever e.g. don't eat meat, never kill except in self-defense)
4) slow healing
5) limited but high number of hit points (I think GW did this with robots and androids)
6) any number of drawbacks mutations
7) for bigger awesome powers, the bigger kinds of permanent corruption
8) Decrease the Hit Die

I don't like to play GURPS much anymore, but I did as a kid, and I think you could take a couple of rules o thumb from the GURPS chargen process to design your class.  Forget about the stats and crap and just think about what kind of stuff you could have with a smorgasbord of GURPS books and, say, 50 points of Perks and Drawbacks.  Sky's practically the limit, here!

My opinion, though, is that you don't need any rules of thumb for this, you can kinda eyeball it and agree informally with the Judge on what is fair.  We've done it (me and Evan and the Mok).  Just remember the basic philosophy to get the whole gamut up front without any of the bullshit leveling mechanics other systems offer (let's be Frank shall we Frank, you want the perks to try we all know it, Frank, you want all teh Perks at Level 1).  "I'm  a fighter with four arms so 2 attacks per round, lots of Hit Points, and my skin is green and I have tusks!"  (A Thark)  "Okay, Thark - you can't wear armor better than AC 12 and your Agility and Personality can never be more than 12, either.  You're very big and you take up a whole rank in the dungeon rank and file by yourself, and you sure can't squeeze through any trapdoors."  Fair?  I think so.

this Thark and his mates are going to cut you, Homes

One really cool thing about a good number of the DCC module authors is thay they offer you ways to redo a funnel full of wonky weird character options when your regular party bites it.  +Daniel Bishop and +Jon Marr, in particular.  I can think of three different modules by Daniel that have weird races to play as just casually strewn about the text.  Just like regular humans plus X, minus Y.  Here is one - by the by - it's worth the price of entry just for the extra patrons, but the Moon Men are cool, too.

What are you doing, there, just reading?  Plumb the skeezy depths of the internet and give this dog some hunting room - I think this dog can hunt, I really do.

Tomb Rustler for DCC/Transylvanian Adventures

Tomb Rustler for DCC and Transylvanian Adventures

Anywhere the dead are interred with grave goods, there are those who do the work of the Cthonian gods by collecting those goods and spreading them again through the land of the living. Murderhobos, tomb-robbers, defilers – these terms carry serious negative connotations and sometimes sizable legal penalties. It may be that curses and fines and the occasional death by poisoning or trap are well-merited, but these hard-working men and women do not call themselves by the monikers so casually strewn like mud. Among themselves, they are “specialists”, “adventurers”, very rarely the more highfalutin’ “archaeologist”. They can be generous and free-spirited, taciturn and business-like, or miserly and cruel just as other men and women can be, but (as most professionals of any class) they all have a specific set of skills that come to bear on their circumstance.


Tomb Rustlers poach the goods of the dead and buried – sometimes on a small and parsimonious scale, sometimes in grand fashion. To do so, they often must defend themselves from danger and also be able to cope with the mechanical and physical challenges that face them. Further, a good Tomb Rustler knows which goods to take or leave, and the more long-lived ones know a little bit of the sorcerer's tongue so as to avoid curses, poison, and the magical methods by which treasures might be secured.

Action die progression – as Thief

Saving throws - as Fighter of the same level

Hit Points – they get d8 Hit Dice per level, hit points modified by Stamina. Any 1’s are rerolled – the lifestyle does not permit those of ill health and low fortitude.

Alignment: Any

Weapons: Club, mace, short sword, hammer, pick, spear, staff, lasso, crossbow, sling. Tomb Rustlers prefer one handed weapons that can be put to multiple uses besides murder e.g. bashing, prodding, poking, climbing, and setting off traps from a distance. In settings in which they are allowed, a pistol may be used.

Abilities:

Tempt Fate (optional): At any time, if the Ruin system is used, the character may opt to add a Ruin point to recover one Luck point, up to the character’s starting Luck score but not over

Favored save: pick 1 save at character creation, always add the character’s level to the save in addition to any other modifiers.

Pick 3 of the thiefly skills and progress in them as a thief of the same level and alignment of choice (not necessarily the same as the character’s – so for the best modifiers)

Lucky Strike - A Tomb Rustler may declare an attempt to Lucky Strike on any attack – essentially a Mighty Deed roll, on a 1d4 roll of 4 the strike described performs as a Mighty Deed does, although in order for it to take effect the Tomb Rustler must burn a point of Luck. The d4 roll _does not_ add to the to-hit roll but is merely a matter of chance. The attack occurs at the end of the combat round if successful, otherwise it is resolved in the usual fashion. If the Lucky Strike does not occur, then it is still possible for the attack to succeed, and it will not succeed if the Attack roll is insufficient to hit (but at the Judge's ruling other interesting events may unfold from the efforts)

Sense Danger – once per game session, the player may opt to re-roll an initiative roll, re-roll a missed strike, re-roll a saving throw, or re-roll a damage die rolled by an enemy against the character. This costs no Luck, and the better of the rolls (for the character!) is kept – so if the player opted to ask the Judge to reroll the Dragon’s d10 damage die which was originally a 9, and the second die roll was 2, the 2 would stand.

Use magic from item – for the purposes of using a magic item, the character’s alignment and class is considered the necessary one, if the player rolls _over_ the character’s current Luck score on the Action die. This is checked at every use of the item.

Use scroll - The character may cast a spell from a scroll at -2d from the Action Die. This does not impart any protection and may place the character unduly in harm’s way in certain situations.

Sense magic – the character may sense the presence of magic on an item held or touched with a successful Intelligence or Personality check (player’s choice). This imparts no protection and may activate certain items!

Appraisal – The character may determine within an order of magnitude the approximate value of an item with a successful Intelligence check by handling or inspecting it for 1 full turn. If two or more similar objects are appraised, one successful check will determine the more valuable of the two.

Tcho Tchos as Player Races in Dungeon Crawl Classics

I proposed this DCC rules tweak some months ago, and it's been waiting in my "drafts" since then, another unfinished thing that weighs on me on a tiny way every time I look at the list. To prove it's entirely possible to crank bloggery out without recourse to fluff and Groupthink, here's what you get on my lunch break

I had a discussion about alternate character classes that could be used to muck over the Tolkien-y Token Hobbit/Halfling that drips from fantasy roleplaying. Frankly I understand neither it nor the elf - for some reason I'm not big on dwarves but I like 'em better than the others.  With a literally infinite number of bookmarks for "small/cute/quick/deft", why do people want one that is essentially a little human?  Dwarves have their thing and gnomes have theirs - one good thing that DCC gives halflings is the Luck thing so every party wants a token halfling to keep them alive when the chips are down.

Dave allows skaven/ratlings in his iron canyons thing

I also thought about froglings, bug-folks, Yazirians and Dralasites a la the Star Frontiers game.  Speaking of Thri-Kreen and Vrusk, they make good elf replacers. Just me.

I'd find a copy of Talislanta if I could.

Anyways - back to the original premise. Tcho Tcho!  Evil halfling cannibals!  Steeped in magic and madness and white ganglion paste!

My idea was to have the Luck burn work in a manner opposite from the Halfling's - that is, burn a Luck point and get double the amount to reduce rolls that impact the player character or party members, e.g. attacks by enemies/spell rolls. You have to have a by-the-book DM and pretty good trust and the agreement that once the roll is known you can reduce it with the burn and purchase.

I haven't drawn up a document like I did with the Deep One Hybrid - that was sort of a "whole cloth" thing and this is just twerkin'

Maybe I could throw in a "quick regeneration of Luck points with the consumption of human/demi-human flesh" mechanic but I think I just did it.  Maybe access to one bad spell every couple of levels and some way to add a greater amount of corruption associated with casting (increase the corruption threat to include successes and not-disastrous failure)

Blow guns, garrotes, sacrificial knives, poison (needs poison skills, obviously)

I even went so far as to draw a thing for this when I was thinking of it... It's around here somewhere. Will add captions and fun links for later.

Scratch off "Tcho Tcho" and add Yazirian and Dralasite and Vrusk. Me and Evan worked out a Mok already

They file their teeth down, those Tcho Tchos, for bitin'

Edit: add on (possible halfling alternates) Robear-berbils, any of the shorty races from the Fiend Folio, mephits (if you're adventurous), goblins/kobolds/redcaps/kappa/Tenku

Ewoks

Gummi bears (duh!)

I proposed a couple of anthropomorphic animals a couple of weeks ago (Otter, fox, raccoon, possum, armadillo)

I don't know, these aren't even particularly creative ideas but they beat the endless parade of Frilbo Saggville-Hagginses

Your mileage may vary, of course.

Burnt Offerings for your enjoyment. Flavour: Dungeon Crawl Classics

Here is a link to a Word 2003 DCC spell template, as close as I could come to the actual formatting of the book without nanometer rulers and laser-kerning calipers.  I have a couple of spells I'm fixing to convert so it's better than muckin' it up over and over.  You'll need the Duvall package and Adobe Garamond Pro to swank it up like I do, but hey.  There are alternates.  Also, Duvall is free - much love to Mr. Paul Lloyd who makes the things we read so classy.

note:  Between when I started this post and when I finished it, I sorted out Adobe Acrobat Pro and made an editable field-filled .pdf version for your happiness and general amusement.  If you use it, include #newdccspell and describe it in action or something.  That'd be cool.

Also, the finished Deep One Hybrid DCC player class.  Perform Dagon and Hydra's will on Aereth before you don your new form and take to the depths!

Working on game-system emulation, since I want to see some older games in action.  Nostalgia!  Mostly Atari 2600 stuff, (ahh Pitfall 2) but some other things.  Bushido Blade from the PSX.  I've got a fancypants desktop system from a couple of years back that'll run just about anything, so I'm excited about giving it a spin.

Below the Root.  Yeah.  I'll crank that up, too.  From the C64.

I think my eyes are bleeding from all this internetting and layout-laying.