Minor Birth Augurs for Luck 8-12

[Archade]

Hey folks,

I was thinking, wouldn't it be good for the +0 Luck modifier folks to get some small effect from Birth Augur? I am trying to come up with a d12 table with 6 very minor bonuses and 6 very minor penalties. Here's what I have so far, anyone else have some suggestions? I need 3 more negative effects, or suggestions to replace a couple minor benefits ...

1d12 Minor Birth Augur Effect
1 Soul of the Lake +1 to attack rolls with thrown rocks
2 Born Under The Bottle +1 to save vs ingested poisons or liquor
3 Midwife’s Boon +1 hit point (only bestowed at 0-level)
4 Forest Childhood +1 to climb tree rolls
5 Not Seen Or Heard +1 to Sneak Silently rolls (non thieves or halflings use 1d10)
6 Rough and Tumble +1 to subdual damage rolls
7 Club Fingered -1 to checks to hold on to things
8 Near Sighted -1 to attack rolls with missile weapons at medium or long range
9 Stubborn Soul -1 hp healing received from lay on hands

[BanjoJohn]

I can understand that a +0 bonus from your luck score can make the birth sign a little underwhelming, but that's just because most people in the world are unremarkable and untouched by the hands of fate, so to speak.

[pulsemeat]

This is a great idea. I just started a campaign with The Hole in the Sky, and the players with +0 luck were pretty underwhelmed by their star sign changing. I wish I'd seen this post first!

Maybe I can retrofit something hmmm...

[Pesky]

An alternative to a fixed modifier for the augers is to use 1d7-4+Luck Modifier. If your Luck mod is 0, then your auger’s “bonus” ranges from -3 to +3 and is 0 on average. If your Luck mod is +2 then your auger bonus ranges from -1 to 5 and is 2 on average. Etc. Admittedly it makes things more swingy but it ensures that the auger always makes an impact, regardless of Luck score.

[Jim Skach]

I've told this story several times, the point of which is to remove the stigma associated with Birth Augur....the stigma that says it must be of some mechanical benefit.

One of the surviving characters in our years long campaign had a birth Augur of Raised by Wolves. Stormpunter was one of two original zero-level characters (there were other "resupply" farmers) that survived Sailors, at the end of which they were tossed, aboard the long ship, 1000 miles from home. Now one of Stormpunter's goal was to get back to Dunsq.

Fast forward years and three more levels and the Stumblebums (my affectionate name for this group of characters) finally get within 30 miles of Dunsq. They settle in for one last camp before getting home. Before they can even light the fire, a random encounter comes up (on the die). Sure enough, it's a pack of hungry wolves (randomly generated). Without pause, even though his Luck modifier to Raised by Wolves was 0 (NO MECHANICAL BENEFIT), the player says, "I was raised by wolves..in this area! Do I know these wolves, is it my pack?"

I asked how he would find out. So he tells me how he's going down on all fours and using a series of barks and howls to communicate. I ask for a luck check (always roll under at my table). He rolls a critical failure - 20. Not only is this not your pack, but this is the enemy pack - the one you grew up hating and fighting all the time. They seem overly emaciated, desperate. And now you've pissed them off....

There is an entire line of possibilities I made up on the spot, which I'm not going to get into here because they haven't engaged them yet, literally within seconds of this pronouncement. Aside from that, Stormpunter now had this amazing back story we'd never discussed nor was it written down pre-campaign. He was a hunter raised by wolves. This came up dozens of times over the subsequent months while the events unfolded around their return to Dunsq. It still reverberates in the campaign, and we haven't even really touched on the possibilities that came up in the moment. All of this driven by a Birth Augur that had...and I'll say it again....NO. MECHANICAL. BENEFIT.

Let go of the rules. Let go of the modifiers. Not everything is about mechanics.

Here endeth the lesson.

[GnomeBoy]

An alternative to a fixed modifier for the augers is to use 1d7-4+Luck Modifier. If your Luck mod is 0, then your auger’s “bonus” ranges from -3 to +3 and is 0 on average. If your Luck mod is +2 then your auger bonus ranges from -1 to 5 and is 2 on average. Etc. Admittedly it makes things more swingy but it ensures that the auger always makes an impact, regardless of Luck score.

I can see using this when you have someone new who feels cheated that they have a Birth Auger, but it's a no change Auger. Teaches that, hey, let's just do something that's not in the rules thang that DCC is good at. Address the concern, keep moving.

I've told this story several times, the point of which is to remove the stigma associated with Birth Augur....the stigma that says it must be of some mechanical benefit.

One of the surviving characters in our years long campaign had a birth Augur of Raised by Wolves....

Let go of the rules. Let go of the modifiers. Not everything is about mechanics.

Here endeth the lesson.

I'm always open to people inventing things like this, taking some detail on their sheet and turning it into a whole motivation or hidden past of their character. But it's odd to me that some folks only ever think of the game in mechanical terms, even though to get to those mechanical situations, we're talking about (re)quests, travel, exploration, mysteries, friends, enemies, kings, beggars, and other story elements...

I've never had anyone try to rush things past that to "get to the dice rollin' already!" but I half expect it sometimes. I've had folks at convention games say "I don't know what I can do" as they stare at their character sheet, as if we're playing chess and they are looking at the rules for the first time. I often reply with "you have two eyes, two arms, two legs" etc. "...how is that person you're in charge of reacting to what's happening? Fight? Flight? Something else?" The mechanics are there to support the ideas, when we need them, if we need them.

[Pesky]

Let go of the rules. Let go of the modifiers. Not everything is about mechanics.

Wisdom!

[pulsemeat]

I feel like DCC RPG is actually very mechanics-focused and that's what I like about it. While D&D has encouraged GMs to cheat for decades now, DCC tells its Judges to roll out in the open. Good, simple mechanics like a bonus for your birth augur can be a springboard to creative gaming, which is why it's a bummer when the player gets only a roleplaying suggestion on a chart full of somethings.

The OP's idea could definitely encourage roleplaying and fun table stories with bonuses that, while not obviously more beneficial in combat scenarios, are more flavorful than the original table.

[Archade]

Jim, great story! I agree that character creation should be a platform for roleplaying.

We had a character in our group, background was a slave, with a strange black rock. The young gamer, weaned of Pathfinder rules and learning how to play old school, decided half way through Sailors on the Starless Sea that he was a slave for a chaos temple, and those damn paladins came in, wrecked the place, killed his best friend Nulb, and shattered the statue of the chaos god he had spent years polishing. But he kept a piece and escaped, and occasionally the rock whispers to him …

I totally get that.

But if other players are getting mechanical benefits from the table, I want to throw them a very small bone to not feel left out, and potentially give them a role playing hook. However, you have inspired me to go rename the titles of these Augurs with more role playing hook-like titles ...

[jblittlefield]

I've told this story several times, the point of which is to remove the stigma associated with Birth Augur....the stigma that says it must be of some mechanical benefit. [snip] Let go of the rules. Let go of the modifiers. Not everything is about mechanics.

Yep, same advice I was giving back in '77 with D&D ...