my Athas/DarkSun DCC system hack
Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2015 5:44 am
Thought I'd share what I've been doing, since it's been a while.
Adapting the dying earth of DarkSun to DCC, I made elves the Sorcerer kings/queens, and primary defilers of the world through their magic. Wizards also use defiler magic, but are outlawed by the elves.
There are no clerics. For healing, I let hit points (which are abstract, not wounds) regenerate at d3*level/turn of rest; warriors/dwarves regen at d4*level.
You don't die at 0 hit points. Instead, you start taking wounds. (Which very well might kill you.) I have a d12 that has random hit locations, so unless it's clear from the attack what was hit, I randomize it. You have to make a Fortitude save at DC of whatever the negative hit points you're at from the hit or die; if you live you're Wounded in that particular location. (At table, I had a character get wounded in the leg, so now he's -5'/round movement and cannot run. This became a problem when they had to flee a town that was being overrun by shambling dead.) Assuming the body can be recovered, normal roll the body over rules would apply.
AC = your Agility score. You get a Dodge roll (Reflex save) for every attack that you're aware of and can react to (provided you're not flanked; haven't tested that part at table yet). The DC is equal to the to-hit roll of the hit. If you dodge, no hit. If you fail, burn hit points... OR, if you're wearing armor, and the hit was in a location with armor, you can choose to burn a piece of armor. Armor can take a certain amount of hits before it's destroyed, and can be repaired, etc. Basically this is the Shields (& helmets) Will Be Splintered rule from CRAWL!. Armor still has the standard armor check penalties for skills and also weight for movement. I will apply the armor check penalty to the Dodge roll.
Psionics: this is the big one. I was going to use the cleric powers and give them randomly to people but it just didn't work right. So I flipped through the AD&D PHB and Eldritch Wizardry and took some inspiration from there, and custom built my own system. There are 14 Powers: Detect Aura/thoughts, Mind over Body (endurance, holding breath, etc), Influence (others), Clairvoyance, Clairaudience, Medium (spirits/etc), Sacrifice (healing others with your life force), Telekinesis, Pyrokinesis, Equilibrium (flight, float, etc), Telepathy, Teleportation, Projection (astral/ethereal), Mind over Matter (meld into stone, pull out guy's heart, etc). You spend a hit point to activate a power, unlike defiler magic this is preserver and doesn't harm the environment. d20 roll (modified by Personality bonus), 1-10: failure, +1 self doubt (like deity disapproval, basically); 11-13 success, minimal; 14-16 success, good; 17-18 success, strong; 19-20 success, heroic; 21-22 success, divine; 23+ success, infinite.
Minimal success is basically the effect lasts 1d4 turns, affects 1d4 HD, goes d4*10', you can ask d4 questions, read d4 thoughts, etc. Good success is 2d4, strong is 3d5, heroic is 4d6, divine is 5d7 plus 1 permanent Luck, and infinite is 6d10 plus d3 permanent Luck. The more targets / area you affect, the shorter the duration, though.
I gave people psychic/psionic powers based on their personality modifiers summed with Luck modifiers. I also did it on the absolute value, so even somebody with negative modifiers would have access to the powers, they just probably wouldn't be very good at using them. I might not do it that way again, since I only had one player end up with no psychic powers. However, given that there's no clerics, maybe it's a good idea to be liberal with the psychic powers.
Adapting the dying earth of DarkSun to DCC, I made elves the Sorcerer kings/queens, and primary defilers of the world through their magic. Wizards also use defiler magic, but are outlawed by the elves.
There are no clerics. For healing, I let hit points (which are abstract, not wounds) regenerate at d3*level/turn of rest; warriors/dwarves regen at d4*level.
You don't die at 0 hit points. Instead, you start taking wounds. (Which very well might kill you.) I have a d12 that has random hit locations, so unless it's clear from the attack what was hit, I randomize it. You have to make a Fortitude save at DC of whatever the negative hit points you're at from the hit or die; if you live you're Wounded in that particular location. (At table, I had a character get wounded in the leg, so now he's -5'/round movement and cannot run. This became a problem when they had to flee a town that was being overrun by shambling dead.) Assuming the body can be recovered, normal roll the body over rules would apply.
AC = your Agility score. You get a Dodge roll (Reflex save) for every attack that you're aware of and can react to (provided you're not flanked; haven't tested that part at table yet). The DC is equal to the to-hit roll of the hit. If you dodge, no hit. If you fail, burn hit points... OR, if you're wearing armor, and the hit was in a location with armor, you can choose to burn a piece of armor. Armor can take a certain amount of hits before it's destroyed, and can be repaired, etc. Basically this is the Shields (& helmets) Will Be Splintered rule from CRAWL!. Armor still has the standard armor check penalties for skills and also weight for movement. I will apply the armor check penalty to the Dodge roll.
Psionics: this is the big one. I was going to use the cleric powers and give them randomly to people but it just didn't work right. So I flipped through the AD&D PHB and Eldritch Wizardry and took some inspiration from there, and custom built my own system. There are 14 Powers: Detect Aura/thoughts, Mind over Body (endurance, holding breath, etc), Influence (others), Clairvoyance, Clairaudience, Medium (spirits/etc), Sacrifice (healing others with your life force), Telekinesis, Pyrokinesis, Equilibrium (flight, float, etc), Telepathy, Teleportation, Projection (astral/ethereal), Mind over Matter (meld into stone, pull out guy's heart, etc). You spend a hit point to activate a power, unlike defiler magic this is preserver and doesn't harm the environment. d20 roll (modified by Personality bonus), 1-10: failure, +1 self doubt (like deity disapproval, basically); 11-13 success, minimal; 14-16 success, good; 17-18 success, strong; 19-20 success, heroic; 21-22 success, divine; 23+ success, infinite.
Minimal success is basically the effect lasts 1d4 turns, affects 1d4 HD, goes d4*10', you can ask d4 questions, read d4 thoughts, etc. Good success is 2d4, strong is 3d5, heroic is 4d6, divine is 5d7 plus 1 permanent Luck, and infinite is 6d10 plus d3 permanent Luck. The more targets / area you affect, the shorter the duration, though.
I gave people psychic/psionic powers based on their personality modifiers summed with Luck modifiers. I also did it on the absolute value, so even somebody with negative modifiers would have access to the powers, they just probably wouldn't be very good at using them. I might not do it that way again, since I only had one player end up with no psychic powers. However, given that there's no clerics, maybe it's a good idea to be liberal with the psychic powers.
