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 Gunslinger for DCC

(Oct. 1, evening)

I have this DCC Weird West Barrowmaze thing, ostensibly starting up a couple of weeks ago and creaking to life slowly.  Spurred forward by the arrival on the scene of the Black Powder, Black Magic zine by Stormlord Publishing and also my grokking of the terrific Shudder Mountain Boxed Set.  It set in motion some hankerin' for some 1870's-era quick draw things, and so I present to you a rudimentary version of the DCC Gunslinger.  I found a couple of different systems for Wild West games, namely 2nd edition Boot Hill (which is clumsy and needs patching but has a distinct merit about it), a little free thing called Go Fer Yer Gun! which I have linked to in the past, and obviously Carl and Eric's stuff in BPBM 1.  That is shoehorned on top of Transylvanian Adventures' fumble/crits/fear/general play system and further sprinkled with Autarch's Ravenloft book for d20, as well as Barrowmaze Complete.  Why?  I don't know.  Why not?

If you choose to be a gunslinger, what you sort of are is a base Warrior from DCC core book, but you take away the mighty deeds with various weapons and specialize with a pistol of some kind (in my brain imagination zone there are different flavors of pistols, but we'll see how it plays out) or pistols, generally.

You get a d10 fast draw die, which you add to your initiative with pistols (and maybe to Reflex saves in a pinch), in addition to your Agility initiative bonus and level.  For shots or trick shots with your pistol, you also get your Agility and level.  You get the fanning feat from BPBM 1, which is cool, and all your shots with pistols count as short range, within the normal range of the pistol.  You can burn a Luck point to avoid jams and fumbles with your pistol, and your crit range is equal to your Level (so 20 at Level 1, 19-20 at Level 2, etc).  You do get a Trick Shot die with pistols, same as a regular Warrior but you lose deeds with other weapons.  Further, you can burn 1 Luck to move your critical hit result up or down 1 as you like, whichever suits you best.

NPC's banditos/bad guys/Cowboys are generally going to have the quick draw die, and an agility mod, HP and that's it.  I mean, no need to get complicated with stats etc.  I have been working on a Rogue's Gallery thing with 100 Western NPCs, but it's more an experiment in Excel than anything else (note I did this once before for vanilla DCC).  A pretty cool thing about Boot Hill is that it has stats for all kinds of thugs and luminaries from our actual (regretably gun-violence oriented) Mythical American Past, and some of these cats were really sunsabitches of the worst sort.  Even the Earps and Doc Holliday were prone to casual murder...  (Funny, I examine this last sentence here, and maybe I don't need to post a thing about gunslinging today, owing to all the horrible news... I just took the wind out of my own sails with reality.  Gonna park this one here and come back to it tomorrow or something.)

Let me tell you later about the Dalton Gang and Coffeyville, the Death of Johnny Ringo, the Le Mat 9-shot pistol, and some other things.  But not today. Also, following Boot Hill 2.0 I think everyone probably ought to have a Gambler Rating

More later

3rd Party Classes for DCC List

DarioFish's Fantasy Races

What you should see here below is an easier-to-manage list of 3rd party classes and race/classes for DCC. If you have a suggested update or I have missed credit where credit is due, please let me know however you can.

If there is an entry without clear information, it's because I know of the class but haven't had access to it yet owing to it being a purchasable thing that I haven't got. Other than that, I try to update it when something is brought to my attention on the DCC G+ community.

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.

A Plethora of Alternate Classraces for you To Crawl through Dungeons In

So, I really dig Realms of Crawling Chaos (hereafter RoCC) for Labyrinth Lord - it was the purchase of this item that prompted me to start the DCC campaign, together with a smattering of play in Dave Younce's and Jason Paul MacCartan's games and Daniel Bishop's Christmas module from last year ("The Thing in the Chimney" - adroitly run for me and Jurgen Mayer by Josha Petronis-Akins).

Since DCC is kinda my rules-set of choice these days, and I've been poring over interesting ideas in the never-ending quest to keep the folks coming to play, I have been much pondering over the White Ape, White Ape hybrids, Voormis, and Deep One hybrid ("Sea-Folk") in RoCC.  As I have argued in other fora in the past, in DCC there's really no reason IMHO why you couldn't slap any "race" you wanted on a bunch of stats and wing the skills etc. from there (provided the class is right for you).  So, if I had a high Strength and Stamina Warrior and wanted a White Ape, then hey, call him "Gruthorn the White Ape", have his occupation be "Banana Warden" or whatever, and off you go.  Some approaches to occupations outside of the traditional medieval ones are simply outstanding, to my mind, and the core rules sort of encourage with a sly wink that characters should go with the mood that moves them.  Hey, read it how you want to.

Anyways, with this in mind, and my eye on several neat posts on the DCCRPG community on G+, here are links to a bunch of alternate classes or races that have utility and could show up in a game near you, soon.  Or not - I've noticed a good deal of puritanism so far although my circle of DCC gamers is small.

Serpent-Folk, Deep-One, and Orc

Centaur

Drunken Monk

Wild Mage

Kenku (note: several other races hidden in nearby links wink wink)

Lizardfolk

Monk

Ninja

There's even a campaign  around there somewhere where here, in which the Judge allows a motley crew of races culled from a wide variety of TSR stuff from way back.

Also, don't forget about Crawl! fanzine #6 which has a Gnome, a Ranger, a Paladin, and a Bard.

I only link these because I hate elves.  I hate them.  At least, the Tolkienish elves, except the ones from the Rankin-Bass Hobbit movie.   The Magic Candle had interesting bald, weird looking elves.  Anyways, I don't judge you elfy types.  It's all good.

If you know of more, please feel free to add a link in the comments.

Also, I just saw this which I like to think about. A method to generate non-standard races for play during the funnel.

Thus came the Mole-Man

My own race, the Deep One Hybrid

The Robot re-coalesced into demireality.

Warforged

The Samurai is lost in the aether maybe returned to us, with honor and much wisdom gleaned from the nebulous realm of non-existence

Thanks to you, sir, for your Tiefling

There's a thing called Transylvanian Adventures on RPGNow, includes a bunch of new classes.

A pretty cool Druid for you

My very own Tomb Rustler

A loose framework for the anti-halfling Tcho-Tcho Marauder! It eats all your white ganglion paste and Long Pork Short Ribs

My own list of Star Frontiers races conversions for DCC use

Mystic Bull's Tokar - shaggy maned stout hunter gatherers from THE GOD SEED AWAKENS

I saw a Weird Scientist happen the other day

A Talislantan Thrall Warrior

My own Skate Hero, zipping around and olly-ing over stuff

The works of +Daniel Bishop are rife with  new races; I think maybe it's a point of honor for him to include new ones in the things he publishes.  The Creeping Beauties of the Woods series is now in its second installment and has a Faerie Animal that is chock full of potential!  I want to play a chaotic Fox Spirit heavily corrupted by plague in memoriam to the rabid critter I killed to death with a coffee mug last year, but I digress

Crawljammer #1 has a Lizardman Mercenary and the requisite occupations

I have it on good authority that the Crawljammer! #2 has a Technomancer (it's now in my RPGNow cart)

Also, rumour has it that Crawling Under A Broken Moon  fanzine has a Technologist class, and it can be had for purchase over at THIS LINK.  Lords of Light!  Let's Ride!

Tales from the Fallen Empire is a setting book for DCC, including 6 new classes and a revision of the Wizard - on the wishlist but soon to be picked up.  It includes a Man-Ape, so it's a must-buy next paycheck for me.

Daniel Bishop posted another race on his blog which looks fun, The Zariah

My toil is unceasing, far from home, I present The Moon Dweller Psionicist

Behold the coming of The Scrappler!

A thewsy Barbarian

Age of Ruins has a Henchman set up for second-string survivors (not a full write up)

If something's not on here, it's mostly because I don't own it yet (for example in the case of the Tales of The Fallen Empire source book)

I am gratified that this list is evidently useful - spread the word to all yer friends! (also, it may need a break down and rebuild as it's getting unwieldy and may become a print thing also)