A modest rant/proposal for DCC

One thing that DCC does wicked awesome is the scrubbing away of DM-side accounting; if you are a control freak or a world-builder or one of those minutiae oriented Judges, then I think the swingy-ness of DCC probably won't appeal to you.  Built into the system is a risky way to turn the careening of the narrative in the direction you like as a player, right down to 2 little factors.  Occupational vs. untrained skill rolls and the Luck system.  I have in mind a thing that will somewhat complicate that easy-to-run thing, but maybe it'll work nice.


1) the first part is built in to 3.5 or later D&D, I guess.  I'm not sure since those system are anathema to me.  I had Call of Cthulhu d20 and I never felt good about it - I don't know why.  It was a beautiful book but it was pulpy and action-oriented in a way that I felt did a disservice to the source material and those pages and pages of gun specs... I don't know.  Not my cup of tea.  Great book, but I digress.  The idea behind the occupational rolls is that there are things that you've done before you took up adventuring and you were skilled at it but maybe not GREAT or else you would have kept doing that Gongfarming thing and stayed safe.  So you have a lot of background in certain things, and if you can apply that background to a skill roll then it's a d20 versus a d10 skill check for untrained schmucks.  I try to use this when I can in my games, but for a front-end part of the system it rarely gets much play in most of the DCC games I've been in (running or as a player).


2) The Luck system will correct a great number of problems for players.  It's there as a feature and a lot of people don't like it or the Spellburn thing since it can make things hard for DMs... It's not a bug - it's a feature.  And once you embrace that, you really do get some great games, in my humble opinion.  Sure, as a DM a lot of your nefarious plans will get undone, especially in one-shots - BUT- I think it's a system for people who don't mind winging it.


That said, there is this:


http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?3076-Why-Aren-t-Designers-Using-The-GUMSHOE-System#.Vm712Eo4FG-


Which says a lot about how certain sub-systems and games fit in some games and not very well in others.  Implicit in most D&D-flavored games is that grinding push to get from nobody to somebody.  To bring your skills from lowly schmuck to world-shaking hero.  I think at the top end that some DCC games must surely fall apart - I tell you I enjoy the funnel on paper but I do a great deal of proselyzation and am growing weary of nervous, shattered cautious wimps.  I chuckle with glee, still, when they get that vibe going around, especially in the Barrowmaze, but I propose it would be better to instill that in some heavier-weight men and women and creatures...  Well, there you need to walk a thin line between the lowly little crumbs and the big meaty adventure tropes.


I usually get a mix of people who enjoy "I press the knob and turn it, and insert my gauntleted fingers into the eye sockets of the altar" and "WHATEVER: I SEARCH - ROLLED A 17".  Which is fine.  But reinforce the stuff you like and people will do it.  One easy way to do this is to award Luck if players are willing to haggle it a little, and another way is to reinforce for stuff they don't do, usually.  Why the preamble?  Well, in DCC, you're going to max out at 4 XP per encounter, RAW.  Everybody is going to get the same XP per session, also, RAW.  So, I propose to throw those 2 little rules away and here's why: it doesn't promote much except LET'S GET THROUGH THIS AS FAST AS POSSIBLE.  A good thing is that most folks I play with don't play this way and it's usually pretty informal.  But, it might drive a certain type of player away from the system entirely!  If you get bogged down in a lot of combat, the game is going to peter out in the middle game and really begin to (ahem) crawl at the top end... I have never played a 4th level or higher DCC character - mainly because I'm not into it, much, and mainly because it would take a very very very long time to get a character that high.


So, award XP or Luck for things you want to see in your game, things to teach your players how to play the game you want.  Want to handwave it?  Fine - use the RAW - but, I bet that you can shape a game by the rewards you give (It is my opinion that as an almost behavioralist I do this practically every day)

More in a couple of hours

Chimney Sweep World - Procedural Anti-Dungeon

Mary Poppins - my kid is obsessed with her.  A tedious early 60's movie with some weird message about family values that strikes us as tin-earred, now, since DUH - you shouldn't neglect your kids or make them miserable.  Which is why I see so much in the way of Poppins these days...  I said something very naughty about the state of her regenerative organs over on DSR a few nights ago.  With a pretty face, simple charm, a venomous tongue, and a vindictive sensibility full of snark and contempt for others, I imagine the reason why she's practically perfect in every way is that underneath the petticoats there's just like snakes and tentacles and eyes.  Snapping dentatas if you follow. At night I toss and turn and the sentiment of the movie invades everything and I find the most honey-dripping displays make me weepy and the spirit of Christmas returns and I have the urge to fly kites all the time...

These are scant notes that will never see the light but I offer them so that someone may redeem them from nihility

Bert the Chimney Sweep/Everyman (his occupation is literally whatever is needed at the time so he always gets a d20 plus 5 on skills rolls)

This suggests a late Victoriana/Edwardian/Georgian or whatever occupations list - I think there was one of these already floating around.  Screever, chimney sweep, horse racer, party band, french waiter, suffragette, kite salesman

Steppin time - a vicious dance-off/gang rumble between Mephits and redcaps in the rooftops of a soot-stained hell

D3x2 by d8, then a linear array/repetition of d8. These are all the same height in terms of stories, and the next set can go up (1-2) down (3-4) or stay the same height (5-8) on a d8. Buildings within a block will be relatively close together, but there may be alleys and parks and long perilous drops back to material reality. You can get sucked up to the Chimney sweep World anytime you investigate chimneys which are literal liminal zones between the prime and the smoke-lands

Related to: Margaret St. Clair's linear dungeon crawl which I never finished because in retrospect the hero of that Shadow People book had a tough slog of it and the principle was sound in terms of mechanics and simulation but maybe UN-fun overall

Smoke Form Spell - not for people but for using smoke to make semi-material objects. See the soot-city of Haon and Ylill in the Purple Planet boxed set. I still haven't played this chunk of the thing out despite my quantum-ogre-ing trying to kidnap, cajole, and seduce the PP party into it...

Smoke Mephits made from ashes and soot. Triple damage from wind and from brushes but nothing else affects them in the slightest. Unflappable and maliciously cheery.

Efreet Prince of Smoke like Yan C'Bin or that other one. A boss monster. Nattily dressed and imperious. Maybe a tophat

Mary has many wiles: charm, suggestion, levitation, animation of objects, extra-dimensional spaces, and planar step into pseudo-realities. She can speak to animals and see the future. BY GUM SHE IS A WITCH