Heya, does anyone else here take part in ENworld's 7-day rpg contest?
My entry is "Follow the Leader" and somewhat in the spirit of a DCC funnel in that you play meager henchmen that have to survive the dungeon in the shadow of their "Heroic Leader". The characters must overcome their shortcomings by testing their inabilities (Weakness, Clumsiness, Confusion, Stupidity, Cowardice, Desperation) and the GM will occasionally make things worse by handing out temptations, dangerous courses of action that the characters cannot refuse if they want to win the game. I added a short dungeon to the entry that could also work as a funnel for DCC.
One other entry I saw is "Peasants... in a World of Monsters" a game of "fantasy survival horror, dark comedy and unlikely heroes". Looks fun and like it might be inspired by DCC as well.
Entries and voting are here.
7-day rpg contest
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Skyscraper
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Re: 7-day rpg contest
Hello Sir Robilar,Sir Robilar wrote:Heya, does anyone else here take part in ENworld's 7-day rpg contest?
My entry is "Follow the Leader" and somewhat in the spirit of a DCC funnel in that you play meager henchmen that have to survive the dungeon in the shadow of their "Heroic Leader". The characters must overcome their shortcomings by testing their inabilities (Weakness, Clumsiness, Confusion, Stupidity, Cowardice, Desperation) and the GM will occasionally make things worse by handing out temptations, dangerous courses of action that the characters cannot refuse if they want to win the game. I added a short dungeon to the entry that could also work as a funnel for DCC.
One other entry I saw is "Peasants... in a World of Monsters" a game of "fantasy survival horror, dark comedy and unlikely heroes". Looks fun and like it might be inspired by DCC as well.
Entries and voting are here.
Having seen this thread, I got curious and went to read the three RPGs that received most votes, yours included. And last weekend, I presented all three of these home made RPGs to a few friends for a one-shot, and yours was finally picked for our nigth's entertainment. We had loads of fun with your game!
The concept of the temptation really makes for funny moments. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but I'm sure if you playtested you've had yours too.As GM, I admit that this is almost jubilatory as not only will you kill off tons of PCs, but also you have an in-game character who can continuously brag about being better than them (while doing nothing) and complain about their inefficiency.
We rolled for everything (possessions, backgrounds, etc...) and this got the ball rolling. The player who got "dental protheses" as the reason for his henchman needing money, made a memorable representation of a poor toothless chap. And the lever that needs to be pulled... Well, let's just say I could barely tell the player of the consequence of pulling said lever, so much I was laughing.
Anyway, this game was a blast for a one-nighter. Recommended for those who are looking for a light-hearted evening.
Thanks for sharing!
p.s.: the only thing is... The game is pretty darn lethal. Takes time to roll characters all evening long. A character generator would be welcome
Maledict Brothbreath, level 4 warrior, STR 16 (+2) AGI 7 (-1) STA 12 PER 9 INT 10 LUCK 15 (+1), AC: 16 Refl: +1 Fort: +2 Will: +1; lawful; Armor of the Lion and Lily's Blade.
Brother Sufferus, level 4 cleric, STR 13 (+1) AGI 15 (+1) STA 11 PER 13 (+1) INT 10 LUCK 9, AC: 11 (13 if wounded, 15 if down to half hit points), Refl: +3 Fort: +2 Will: +3, chaotic, Robe of the Faith, Scourge of the Maimed One, Darts of Pain.
Brother Sufferus, level 4 cleric, STR 13 (+1) AGI 15 (+1) STA 11 PER 13 (+1) INT 10 LUCK 9, AC: 11 (13 if wounded, 15 if down to half hit points), Refl: +3 Fort: +2 Will: +3, chaotic, Robe of the Faith, Scourge of the Maimed One, Darts of Pain.
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Sir Robilar
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Re: 7-day rpg contest
Can't believe I completely missed your message - thousand thanks for writing about your play session and for your kind words about the game! To my knowledge yours must have been the first test run of the game. The first time I got to run it was three days ago during a camping trip with my brother and a pal. After the playtest I was unsure if the desperation/temptation mechanic worked as intended, so I'm thrilled to hear it at least added to your group's fun.
I've reworked the game to make character creation much quicker (roll inabilities and hit points, then pick one card each for class, possession and background trouble). I also want to refine some of the other concepts and if things go well I'll self-publish at some point in the future.
Thanks again, your message really made my day!
I've reworked the game to make character creation much quicker (roll inabilities and hit points, then pick one card each for class, possession and background trouble). I also want to refine some of the other concepts and if things go well I'll self-publish at some point in the future.
Thanks again, your message really made my day!
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Skyscraper
- Steely-Eyed Heathen-Slayer
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- Location: Montreal
Re: 7-day rpg contest
Maybe it's my DCC deformation, but rolling dice for class, possession and background trouble was really fun. It made for funky results, shall we say. It's not that long rolling a new PC anyway - 5 minutes or so?
As for the temptation mechanic... I have to share one particular story in our game. Bear with me, it's a bit long but we found it quite amusing.
The PCs, who have just battled the medusa, are now on the point of entering the necromancer's lair. I tell them that they face a wall that apparently stretches infinitely towards the north and south, and a door is in front of them. I also tell them, through the (annoying) heroic leader - the paladin - that this is the necromancer's hall where people do not age. He tells about his valliant order having vanquished the necromancers thousands of years ago, blah blah blah, and now he wants to loot the place for his personal gain and glory (with his henchmen will do all the work, of course).
So they want to open the huge door to enter the evil lair. The door is heavy, so the less weak character takes it upon herself to push the door, which is kind of stuck, but she succeeds in overcoming her weakness and the door yields and opens. However, there is a 10-foot wide chasm of infinite depth and length immediately on the other side of the door, so as she was braced against the door to push it open, she falls into the chasm when the door yields (failing to overcome her clumsiness). They hear the character scream as she falls, and I make the scream incredibly long and sloooowly weaker and weaker until it's barely audible. After, like, one minute of this, the players are laughing because of the interminable fall I now get PCs to roll for desperation, and sure enough one fails and gets a temptation: why not push someone else into the chasm to see if he/she screams longer than the first? He holds on to the temptation for now.
This said, they had previously lost another character to the medusa, so since the area beyond the door is the first area they reveal on the map since that death, they find another character to replace the dead-to-the-medusa one (the dead-in-the-infinite-chasm one would be replaced later). Per the rules, this new character is chained in the first area immediately revealed, namely immediately next to the door, over the infinite chasm. That character has been chained to the wall by the previous occupants, the now long-dead necromancers, so he's been chained there for thousands of years, a mere few feet from escape, prevented from aging due to the magical nature of the place. Haha. This got the ball rolling and we had a bunch of fun creating this new character. His possession ends up being a 10-foot pole, and we decide that this character has been balancing the 10-foot pole for thousands of years, hanging over a cliff of infinite depth, without dropping it. He is now the best 10-foot pole handler that the world has ever seen: he has been balancing it on his feet, holding it between his teeth, catching it with his hands, then throwing it back to his feet, etc... for thousands of years! A real prodigy. Before freeing the pour soul, the heroic paladin leader of course lectures him on his god (the god of light, justice and social equity (read social equity as: everyone knows where they stand, the nobles at the top and the others in the mud)), then asks whether he pledges to follow said god or if he prefers to remain chained to the wall for the next millenia until someone else frees him, and finally has him sign the contract as his henchman before unchaining him.
On the other side of the 10-foot wide chasm of infinite depth, is a 2-foot wide ledge along a wall of infinite height and length. (I was into superlative mode in that game ). So they need to jump across the chasm onto the narrow ledge, or fall into the chasm. The first henchman crosses with a barely successful roll to overcome his clumsiness (or was it his weakness? No matter) and reaches the other side, rebounds on the wall, barely catches himself before falling and remains lying on the ground, scared of accidentally falling. Then, the newly arrived PC, the 10-foot pole wielding PC, presents himself to jump. The player says that her PC will pole-vault over the chasm. Wait a second, I say as the player is preparing to roll the d20. You have this PC who has been balancing a 10-foot pole for millenia over a chasm of infinite depth on her feet and with her teeth and head, you are the paragon of 10-foot pole handling, you do not even need to roll the die. You pole vault over the chasm and elegantly land on the other side on your feet, just barely rocking towards the chasm to regain your balance. Then: "I push him into the hole while he's slightly off balance". That was the PC who had the temptation, the first one who had already landed on the other side. Haha. That got us laughing until we were almost crying. I mean, we had that incredibly talented pole-handler, who overcame the challenge of jumping over the chasm with such ease, that person had survived for millenia and was finally free, and moments after that, he's pushed into the chasm! Plus, we had had so much fun creating him, and then just like that, he's done for Well, so be it: the 10-foot pole vaulter gets an opposed weakness roll against the temptation-PC, he fails and falls. I give him a last chance: 10 feet below the ledge are two rocks jutting out of the wall about 8 feet apart, maybe he can catch himself with one extremity of his 10-foot pole on each rock. Roll to overcome clumsiness: fails again. I rule that the pole breaks in two, and for eternity that new PC falls in the chasm of infinite depth, holding his beloved now broken pole.
Ah, temptation.
As an epilogue to this short story, another anecdote about our game. That character that pushed the other one into the hole was a "veteran" (that was his class). We had determined through the short background discussion that this one had not had to go through the one-week preparation class that the heroic leader made the others do (including crawling in the mud while the heroic leader insulted them, like in old boot camp army B-movies), because the veteran had already been a henchman for the heroic leader. The heroid leader was vain and disdainful, but he developped a liking for the veteran who became his favorite when, in-game, the veteran luckily rolled his dice to succeed on a few tasks where others failed. So he started comparing everyone to the veteran, saying "why are you not more like him instead of being so useless?" and that kind of stuff. So when the veteran pushes the pole-vaulting chap into the chasm, the veteran puts his hand to his ear to listen if the pole-vaulting henchman screams longer than the first one who fell (that was his temptation after all), and after a moment while he's still listening to the scream, he turns and sees the heroic leader also with his hand to his ear and their eyes meet in an almost romantic glare, and the heroid leader says, admiration for his favorite in his eyes: "you were wondering about that too?"
As for the temptation mechanic... I have to share one particular story in our game. Bear with me, it's a bit long but we found it quite amusing.
The PCs, who have just battled the medusa, are now on the point of entering the necromancer's lair. I tell them that they face a wall that apparently stretches infinitely towards the north and south, and a door is in front of them. I also tell them, through the (annoying) heroic leader - the paladin - that this is the necromancer's hall where people do not age. He tells about his valliant order having vanquished the necromancers thousands of years ago, blah blah blah, and now he wants to loot the place for his personal gain and glory (with his henchmen will do all the work, of course).
So they want to open the huge door to enter the evil lair. The door is heavy, so the less weak character takes it upon herself to push the door, which is kind of stuck, but she succeeds in overcoming her weakness and the door yields and opens. However, there is a 10-foot wide chasm of infinite depth and length immediately on the other side of the door, so as she was braced against the door to push it open, she falls into the chasm when the door yields (failing to overcome her clumsiness). They hear the character scream as she falls, and I make the scream incredibly long and sloooowly weaker and weaker until it's barely audible. After, like, one minute of this, the players are laughing because of the interminable fall
I now get PCs to roll for desperation, and sure enough one fails and gets a temptation: why not push someone else into the chasm to see if he/she screams longer than the first? He holds on to the temptation for now.This said, they had previously lost another character to the medusa, so since the area beyond the door is the first area they reveal on the map since that death, they find another character to replace the dead-to-the-medusa one (the dead-in-the-infinite-chasm one would be replaced later). Per the rules, this new character is chained in the first area immediately revealed, namely immediately next to the door, over the infinite chasm. That character has been chained to the wall by the previous occupants, the now long-dead necromancers, so he's been chained there for thousands of years, a mere few feet from escape, prevented from aging due to the magical nature of the place. Haha. This got the ball rolling and we had a bunch of fun creating this new character. His possession ends up being a 10-foot pole, and we decide that this character has been balancing the 10-foot pole for thousands of years, hanging over a cliff of infinite depth, without dropping it. He is now the best 10-foot pole handler that the world has ever seen: he has been balancing it on his feet, holding it between his teeth, catching it with his hands, then throwing it back to his feet, etc... for thousands of years! A real prodigy. Before freeing the pour soul, the heroic paladin leader of course lectures him on his god (the god of light, justice and social equity (read social equity as: everyone knows where they stand, the nobles at the top and the others in the mud)), then asks whether he pledges to follow said god or if he prefers to remain chained to the wall for the next millenia until someone else frees him, and finally has him sign the contract as his henchman before unchaining him.
On the other side of the 10-foot wide chasm of infinite depth, is a 2-foot wide ledge along a wall of infinite height and length. (I was into superlative mode in that game
). So they need to jump across the chasm onto the narrow ledge, or fall into the chasm. The first henchman crosses with a barely successful roll to overcome his clumsiness (or was it his weakness? No matter) and reaches the other side, rebounds on the wall, barely catches himself before falling and remains lying on the ground, scared of accidentally falling. Then, the newly arrived PC, the 10-foot pole wielding PC, presents himself to jump. The player says that her PC will pole-vault over the chasm. Wait a second, I say as the player is preparing to roll the d20. You have this PC who has been balancing a 10-foot pole for millenia over a chasm of infinite depth on her feet and with her teeth and head, you are the paragon of 10-foot pole handling, you do not even need to roll the die. You pole vault over the chasm and elegantly land on the other side on your feet, just barely rocking towards the chasm to regain your balance. Then: "I push him into the hole while he's slightly off balance". That was the PC who had the temptation, the first one who had already landed on the other side. Haha. That got us laughing until we were almost crying. I mean, we had that incredibly talented pole-handler, who overcame the challenge of jumping over the chasm with such ease, that person had survived for millenia and was finally free, and moments after that, he's pushed into the chasm! Plus, we had had so much fun creating him, and then just like that, he's done for Well, so be it: the 10-foot pole vaulter gets an opposed weakness roll against the temptation-PC, he fails and falls. I give him a last chance: 10 feet below the ledge are two rocks jutting out of the wall about 8 feet apart, maybe he can catch himself with one extremity of his 10-foot pole on each rock. Roll to overcome clumsiness: fails again. I rule that the pole breaks in two, and for eternity that new PC falls in the chasm of infinite depth, holding his beloved now broken pole.Ah, temptation.
As an epilogue to this short story, another anecdote about our game. That character that pushed the other one into the hole was a "veteran" (that was his class). We had determined through the short background discussion that this one had not had to go through the one-week preparation class that the heroic leader made the others do (including crawling in the mud while the heroic leader insulted them, like in old boot camp army B-movies), because the veteran had already been a henchman for the heroic leader. The heroid leader was vain and disdainful, but he developped a liking for the veteran who became his favorite when, in-game, the veteran luckily rolled his dice to succeed on a few tasks where others failed. So he started comparing everyone to the veteran, saying "why are you not more like him instead of being so useless?" and that kind of stuff. So when the veteran pushes the pole-vaulting chap into the chasm, the veteran puts his hand to his ear to listen if the pole-vaulting henchman screams longer than the first one who fell (that was his temptation after all), and after a moment while he's still listening to the scream, he turns and sees the heroic leader also with his hand to his ear and their eyes meet in an almost romantic glare, and the heroid leader says, admiration for his favorite in his eyes: "you were wondering about that too?"
Maledict Brothbreath, level 4 warrior, STR 16 (+2) AGI 7 (-1) STA 12 PER 9 INT 10 LUCK 15 (+1), AC: 16 Refl: +1 Fort: +2 Will: +1; lawful; Armor of the Lion and Lily's Blade.
Brother Sufferus, level 4 cleric, STR 13 (+1) AGI 15 (+1) STA 11 PER 13 (+1) INT 10 LUCK 9, AC: 11 (13 if wounded, 15 if down to half hit points), Refl: +3 Fort: +2 Will: +3, chaotic, Robe of the Faith, Scourge of the Maimed One, Darts of Pain.
Brother Sufferus, level 4 cleric, STR 13 (+1) AGI 15 (+1) STA 11 PER 13 (+1) INT 10 LUCK 9, AC: 11 (13 if wounded, 15 if down to half hit points), Refl: +3 Fort: +2 Will: +3, chaotic, Robe of the Faith, Scourge of the Maimed One, Darts of Pain.