Luck Regenration

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TheWizurd
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Luck Regenration

Post by TheWizurd »

I am sure this question has been answered, but how do classes, with the exception of Thief and Halfling, regenerate luck?
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DM Cojo
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Re: Luck Regenration

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Awarded by the judge...but how that is done varies with whom you ask. I give out 1-2 points max at the end of an adventure (not session)...but that may be a bit light. Because I don't give much out, my players tend to hoard it. I have seen it given out at the end of sessions, and even mid-session for good role-play or an idea that helps the party out of a jam.
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TheWizurd
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Re: Luck Regenration

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DM Cojo wrote:Awarded by the judge...but how that is done varies with whom you ask. I give out 1-2 points max at the end of an adventure (not session)...but that may be a bit light. Because I don't give much out, my players tend to hoard it. I have seen it given out at the end of sessions, and even mid-session for good role-play or an idea that helps the party out of a jam.
Ahh, thanks for the quick response.

I am running our group and none of us has played DCC RPG before. I am sure I will have many more questions. I appreciate all responses.

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DM Cojo
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Re: Luck Regenration

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For the record, I plan on handing it out more generously in future games.
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Re: Luck Regenration

Post by DM Cojo »

The chart on pg 361 of the core book may be helpful too.
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Re: Luck Regenration

Post by finarvyn »

Actually, I never was a big fan of luck until I saw how the advantage & disadvantage system worked in D&D 5E. Advantage has a player roll two dice and take the better one, disadvantage has a player roll two dice and take the worse one.

If a player acts in character, the 5E GM awards him an "inspiration die" which is used to make a situation in advantage. Essentially, a luck die.

I kind of like the idea that one can "earn" luck through good role play. 8)
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catseye yellow
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Re: Luck Regenration

Post by catseye yellow »

for me the luck stat was really the big draw. i really love that it answers a number of questions for me. that tentacled horror drops on party and attacks a player with the lowest luck score.
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TheWizurd
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Re: Luck Regenration

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catseye yellow wrote:for me the luck stat was really the big draw. i really love that it answers a number of questions for me. that tentacled horror drops on party and attacks a player with the lowest luck score.
Good idea we have just been doing a random roll to see who gets mauled.
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TheWizurd
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Re: Luck Regenration

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finarvyn wrote:Actually, I never was a big fan of luck until I saw how the advantage & disadvantage system worked in D&D 5E. Advantage has a player roll two dice and take the better one, disadvantage has a player roll two dice and take the worse one.

If a player acts in character, the 5E GM awards him an "inspiration die" which is used to make a situation in advantage. Essentially, a luck die.

I kind of like the idea that one can "earn" luck through good role play. 8)
Yeah I first used this mechanic in Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies. It makes for a good time when, the players get rewards for good RP and can give rewards for good RP.
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TheWizurd
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Re: Luck Regenration

Post by TheWizurd »

DM Cojo wrote:The chart on pg 361 of the core book may be helpful too.
I saw that table, but as you said in another post, I feel the need to be a little more generous with Luck than that.
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Re: Luck Regenration

Post by cjoepar »

I award luck pretty much anytime the party destroys undead. I also award luck for creative problem solving, particularly if the party is able to overcome/circumvent an obstacle that they would never be able to deal with via the standard frontal assault method. On a couple of occasions I have awarded a point for good role play, when doing so was disadvantageous to the character strategically, but the player stayed in character anyway.
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TheWizurd
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Re: Luck Regenration

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cjoepar wrote:I award luck pretty much anytime the party destroys undead. I also award luck for creative problem solving, particularly if the party is able to overcome/circumvent an obstacle that they would never be able to deal with via the standard frontal assault method. On a couple of occasions I have awarded a point for good role play, when doing so was disadvantageous to the character strategically, but the player stayed in character anyway.
All good ideas.

Luckily I am not running this session, for once, but I will pas these on to my Judge.
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Re: Luck Regenration

Post by celticgriffon »

I really like having Luck in a rpg. It reminds me of the simplified Fighting Fantasy games of my youth.

Luck giving advantage as it is used in D&D 5th Ed is a great idea. Also rewarding luck for great role playing is how I will lkely dole it out in my campaign.

The fine line between getting players to use it vs hoarding it seems like the hardest challenge.
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Re: Luck Regenration

Post by Weisenwolf »

I like to have a defined reason for doing so such as:

KARMA - Character does something purely for it's roll playing merits rather than profit. Ideally in fact at a material loss 8)
The RUNT rule - Players who cheerfully roll play the character with hopeless stats without complaining about it tend to get a point whenever they achieve anything at all. Fate loves a hopeless optomist and so do I :P
THE GODS - Character act succesfully either deliberately or accidentally in common with the current aims of a god/demon/deity etc :twisted:
EQUALIBRIUM - Characters with a current luck severely below their full luck score tend to earn more easily as Neutrality attempts to restore the balance while those at their maximum are less likely to get a boost
LUCK is LUCK - sometimes I randomly determine a member of the party and give them a luck point; sometimes I take one away, sometimes I take a point from one character and give it to another. That's luck for you :roll:
SERENDIPITOUS - Sometimes the party will achieve something difficult in a notable manner and share a collective happy momment. That's gotta be worth a point :D
UNDEAD - defeating them; just stolen from cjoepar above; great idea :lol:

I'm not too generous about this, I don't want them burning luck at the drop of a hat and I want it to be a medium term rather than short term loss but I don't want them crippled forever either.

I certainly use luck to determine who is the victim of attack when there is no other obvious criteria. This would certainly include undead, automotons etc. unintelligent and stupid creatures, traps, long range or poor light attacks and so on.
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Re: Luck Regenration

Post by SixSkullsSevenPits »

I'm a newbie as well set to run my first DCC RPG game in a couple weeks. Regarding Luck regeneration/loss; I'm a bit confused as to how much the original luck score matters. Are the awards in Table 7-9 meant to be able to exceed the original luck score? For example, a PCs original luck score is 12 and he burns 2 luck during an adventure. At the end of the adventure, he survives and is awarded 3 luck by the Judge. What is his new luck score, 12 or 13? If 12, what circumstances would allow PC to raise his "max" luck?
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Re: Luck Regenration

Post by GnomeBoy »

SixSkullsSevenPits wrote:...Are the awards in Table 7-9 meant to be able to exceed the original luck score? For example, a PCs original luck score is 12 and he burns 2 luck during an adventure. At the end of the adventure, he survives and is awarded 3 luck by the Judge. What is his new luck score, 12 or 13? If 12, what circumstances would allow PC to raise his "max" luck?
18 is your max Luck.

If you went through your hypothetical adventure, had 12 Luck at the start, didn't use any, and everyone was awarded 3 Luck for the game, you'd have 15 Luck.

If you're up to 18 Luck, and you don't spend some, you're kind of wasting it. It's there to be used. And if it's too easy to achieve an 18 Luck, you're probably not throwing enough danger at the characters (or giving out too much).
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Re: Luck Regenration

Post by Ravenheart87 »

I didn't have an upper limit for luck. We had a character with 19 Luck by the end of the campaign.
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Re: Luck Regenration

Post by Stretch »

In regards to high luck scores and incentive to spend, especially for halflings and luck, you might find this interesting:

http://ravencrowking.blogspot.com/2013/ ... ngeon.html
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Re: Luck Regenration

Post by GnomeBoy »

Ravenheart87 wrote:I didn't have an upper limit for luck. We had a character with 19 Luck by the end of the campaign.
I'm curious how that works when Recovering the Body? If someone has a 20 Luck, can they not die until they run out of Stamina?
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Re: Luck Regenration

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GnomeBoy wrote:
Ravenheart87 wrote:I didn't have an upper limit for luck. We had a character with 19 Luck by the end of the campaign.
I'm curious how that works when Recovering the Body? If someone has a 20 Luck, can they not die until they run out of Stamina?
Well, if someone's that lucky or could reach that high, he deserves to survive. That's still not a universal "get out of jail ticket" though, since there are plenty of other ways to die. Not only by the Stamina or any other ability score running out (don't forget, you can lose Strength and Agility during recovery and there are drain attacks), but it's also possible that the corpse isn't found within an hour, plus there are several ways to die which leave no recoverable body behind - like acid pit, desintegration, decapitation, explosion, or spending some time in a monster's belly. I also have yet to see a character whose player won't try to burn his luck for whatever he can to avoid death.

You could say these aren't common, but we have several examples from my Terminus campaign:
  • Lots of zero level characters died. They can't be recovered, naturally. Some of the below are also zero, but they would've died on any level.
  • An android was eaten by green slime crawling through the sewers.
  • Another android went kamikaze and overcharged his battery while fighting a ratling ninja.
  • A character got a magic missile in his back and was left behind because the others were busy running away.
  • The above happened to another character in a different dungeon. Magic missiles are too good to hunt down running PCs.
  • An amazon slipped on some slime fell into an acid pit. In a few minutes she was unrecognisable.
  • An undead amazon was was torn apart by zombies and there was no way to heal an undead.
  • A character ate some mushrooms and his head was torn down by a giant beetle while ha was vomiting in the cave's corner.
  • A kobold ate a can of troll meat. Later a troll ripped a new hole on her belly while crawling out of her body. Her stomach acid was too weak to keep it from regenerating.
And then we had a mediocre dude with mediocre luck, who fell from a drawbridge into a pit, but fell soft in snow. He shouted up to the others for rope, which made several huge icicles falling down, none hitting him. Then he catched the rope and climbed fast enough to avoid the gas breath of the stink dragon who was awakened by his shout.
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Re: Luck Regenration

Post by SixSkullsSevenPits »

GnomeBoy wrote: ...
18 is your max Luck.

If you went through your hypothetical adventure, had 12 Luck at the start, didn't use any, and everyone was awarded 3 Luck for the game, you'd have 15 Luck.

If you're up to 18 Luck, and you don't spend some, you're kind of wasting it. It's there to be used. And if it's too easy to achieve an 18 Luck, you're probably not throwing enough danger at the characters (or giving out too much).
OK makes sense, but what about thieves and halflings? Their "luck recoveries" are limited by the PCs current max luck, right? So if the hypothetical PC with the 12 luck was a halfling and didn't use any luck during an adventure, they couldn't use their luck recovery. If they did use luck they could gain it back during the session using their class-based luck recovery, up to max of 12. This seems to imply that thieves and halflings should be using luck all the time.

Also: Any luck awarded by the GM after the session modifies max luck and so is a completely different than thief/halfling luck recovery, right?

(Ran my first funnel, and coincidentally only halflings survived.)
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Re: Luck Regenration

Post by Ravenheart87 »

SixSkullsSevenPits wrote:OK makes sense, but what about thieves and halflings? Their "luck recoveries" are limited by the PCs current max luck, right? So if the hypothetical PC with the 12 luck was a halfling and didn't use any luck during an adventure, they couldn't use their luck recovery. If they did use luck they could gain it back during the session using their class-based luck recovery, up to max of 12. This seems to imply that thieves and halflings should be using luck all the time.
Of course it's limited by the max luck, it would be bonkers if they could go above the maximum. And it's their class ability, of course they should use the hell out of it, just like warriors should use some cool MDoA with every attack (which unlike luck, has no limits). But don't forget that thieves recover only one point of Luck a day, and on low Luck scores baaad things start to happen to the character.
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Re: Luck Regenration

Post by Ravenheart87 »

SixSkullsSevenPits wrote:Also: Any luck awarded by the GM after the session modifies max luck and so is a completely different than thief/halfling luck recovery, right?
Yep. It increases the maximum, at least at my table.
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Re: Luck Regenration

Post by GnomeBoy »

SixSkullsSevenPits wrote:Also: Any luck awarded by the GM after the session modifies max luck and so is a completely different than thief/halfling luck recovery, right?
Right, so if you had 12, burned 3 and the end of the adventure featured a reward of +1 Luck to everybody, then a Thief/Halfling could 'heal' back up to a 13 (their new total).

Very powerful foes might be able to 'attack Luck' and reduce a Thief or Halfling's maximum Luck. Why not? But then again, a feature of those classes is using Luck, so if they get to 18, that should just mean more opportunities to use a Class feature. You can be a little harder on the party, knowing they have the resource.

And don't forget, only 1 Halfling at a time can be the "Luck-battery" for the party.

An all-Halfling Party sounds like fun. 8)
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Re: Luck Regenration

Post by Weisenwolf »

The other interesting thing about halflings and thieves is that they are the only classes that benefit from burning luck to avoid dying (no point at 1:1 but 1:2 or 1:D4 etc. well worth it) and doing their thang is dangerous so whilst they CAN both use it all up I find that they are reluctant to do so. It's the only saving grace they have for the vulnerability of fewer hit points and generally lighter armour than the martial and semi-martial classes.
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