New player with some random rules questions

[klarkash-ton]

Hi guys and gals, I'm a long time gamer (AD&D primarily) but am just getting into DCC and had a couple of noob questions if you could spare a moment?

I was running my wife through portal under the stars (solo) to get a better handle of the rules and the following queries arose:

1) Do you normally allow 0 level characters to sell their starting trade goods/equipment to purchase weapons/armor/equipment or is it normally straight into the funnel with what you initially roll up?

2) Do you ever let 0-levels 'recover the body'? I was letting my wife attempt it but on re-reading p.93 it seems that you need to be 1st level or higher?

3) There is no missile range given for spears on p.71 but I'm assuming a AD&D range of 10/20/30 is a reasonable mechanic?

4) Do you give 0-level halflings a bonus to sneak and hide? The wife set off a flaming oil decoy in the clay soldier room and then attempted to sneak her halfling through the hubbub while the rest of her dudes engaged the soldiers. I went with the 'rule of cool' and gave her a +2 bonus to sneak.

Thanks in advance, its a damn cool game and I'm pumped to be joining the band!

[Raven_Crowking]

1) Do you normally allow 0 level characters to sell their starting trade goods/equipment to purchase weapons/armor/equipment or is it normally straight into the funnel with what you initially roll up?

Depends upon the set-up of the funnel. However, if the PCs should have a chance to prepare, I let them. I do not assume that goods can be sold for book value, though, and sometimes they are worth far less. A length of chain is costly, sure, but who do you sell it to?

2) Do you ever let 0-levels 'recover the body'? I was letting my wife attempt it but on re-reading p.93 it seems that you need to be 1st level or higher?

By the book, 0-levels do not recover the body. But, by the book, the judge is always right. The rules bend to you, not the other way around.

For what it is worth, I let 0-levels level up during the funnel if they reach 10 XP, because my soft-heartedness is legendary.

3) There is no missile range given for spears on p.71 but I'm assuming a AD&D range of 10/20/30 is a reasonable mechanic?

Sure. Why not?

I assume that the DCC spear is heavy, and not necessarily balanced for throwing, so 10/20/30 would work for me.

4) Do you give 0-level halflings a bonus to sneak and hide? The wife set off a flaming oil decoy in the clay soldier room and then attempted to sneak her halfling through the hubbub while the rest of her dudes engaged the soldiers. I went with the 'rule of cool' and gave her a +2 bonus to sneak.

I would give a bonus, or lower the DC, or bump her up the dice chain, for the decoy. I would not give the halfling bonus. HOWEVER, knowing that the halfling bonus is coming at 1st level, I would let her roll to sneak on 1d20 regardless of profession.

[GnomeBoy]

Raven's answers are largely overlapping with how I'd answer those.

The spear issue is a thing that was just discussed on the Google+ community, IIRC. The thing is, spears are things you hold and jab stuff with -- javelins are things you throw. But hell, you could throw a sword, if you want to -- your numbers for that look fine to me (the javelin has much better range).

Zeros could be allowed to use their starting money to get extra stuff (they might absolutely need it to survive), if they know they are about to do something dangerous. Even if your funnel scenario involves a group of villagers traveling through the woods or something, caught up into adventure unawares, you might still let them buy stuff that it'd be logical they might have with them (based on profession or not, as you see fit).

Page 21 has your Demi-Human abilities for Zeros. Logically a halfling might have a circumstantial advantage to hide, based on their size, even in a funnel context.

0 hp is dead in a funnel. The whole point is to winnow the crowd down to the few who have potential to be mighty. If one player loses all of their Zeros, another player can share one over, or there may be a point in the adventure to find other folks and thus give that player a new Zero or two. /2¢

Hope that helps.

[klarkash-ton]

Thanks for the clarifications guys