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Blasphemy! Separating Race and Class

Posted: Fri Dec 04, 2015 9:30 pm
by Shingen
I know this is a touchy subject for some, so please don't maul the messenger.

Since DCC is all about houseruling, I'm curious how people who have separated race and class have done it in their game. I like to get feedback from other judges on their experiences before tinkering myself, so I'd love to hear what people have done.

Yes, I know some comedians are going to say, "The best way is not to do it at all!" and I support your interpretation. But for those who HAVE done it, or considered doing it, what are the thoughts?

It seems to me that two major missteps in the races separate from classes originally was (1) attaching stat bonuses and (2) making all beings of one race (especially humans) so similar. Stat bonuses seem to necessarily attract min-maxing, while blanket racial abilities seem to make humans, as the "default race," sort of vanilla in comparison. I don't think "can be any class" is a good enough racial bonus, especially as it doesn't help someone who only wants to play a class everyone can be. Infravision, also, seems an issue to me in a game with so much time in darkness.

Is it better to go by culture instead? So make, for example, a Viking cultural choice with abilities that would suit both Nordic-flavored humans and dwarves designed to hail from a culture with similar values?

Re: Blasphemy! Separating Race and Class

Posted: Sun Dec 06, 2015 5:01 am
by Ravenheart87
I gave each race a few bonus abilities and some penalties, eg. dwarves had infravision, the underground skills of the dwarf class, plus slow movement speed. Each race had its own zero level profession chart too. Characters could increase a single attribute every third level. The human racial bonus was the ability to increase a single attribute on zero level, and on every even level. It wasn't a balanced campaign, but who cares, it was an awful lot of fun, plus good abilities and bonuses don't guarantee survival thanks to DCC RPG's chaotic nature. Strangely all my players wanted to roll for race, and they've kept this habit during the whole campaign.

Re: Blasphemy! Separating Race and Class

Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2016 6:09 pm
by rawlkeer81
I guys! I hope this isn't hijacking the thread. but it seemed as though this might be a good place to ask this. We are just getting started with the game, and just had our first group of characters make it to 1st level. Yay us. :) Anyway, I am just wondering, if a o level character is rolled up as a dwarven mushroom farmer, when he makes first level does he HAVE to become a dwarf, or can he instead select warrior or thief or whatever. I thought you could, but our GM says no, if you are rolled up as a dwarf, you must select dwarf when you make 1st level. Is this true? Thanks

Re: Blasphemy! Separating Race and Class

Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2016 7:53 am
by Raven_Crowking
It is true by the Rules As Written, rawlkeer81....but your judge can change the rules in any way that he likes to better fit his vision of the game.

Re: Blasphemy! Separating Race and Class

Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2016 11:33 am
by rawlkeer81
I'm sure he doesn't want to go in for any changes, like I said we just started and it's much too early to begin tinkering with RAW. Thanks for the response!

Re: Blasphemy! Separating Race and Class

Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2016 5:16 pm
by ProdigalWilliam
Your GM might be persuaded to use some additional materials that have come out since the RAW was created. There is, for instance, a zine, Crawl, that has introduced a number of new classes like the Dwarven Priest, to give players more options with classes.

Re: Blasphemy! Separating Race and Class

Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2016 5:37 pm
by Gameogre
I have separated race from class several different ways.

The first way was to just start off with a zero level character who was a dwarf shoemakers (or whatever) and just pick warrior (or whatever) for him and just make being a Elf part of the fluff. This way seemed to work pretty well but had no mechanical backups for the Elven warrior.

The second way was much more a pain in the arse and it had ben sit down with the book and take out everything that made Dwarf feel like a dwarf ect.. and make those things race abilities and then just let them pick class like normal.

Now this made it so human was a clearly weaker race. So I then toned each race back a ways and just left the core abilities there. Humans were still the weaker race but it wasn't THAT bad off.

Then I gave humans a extra benefit to make up for it. I gave them the ability to swap out any two ability scores. For instance if my 12 strength and 15 Int fisherman made 1st level and wanted to become a farmer when I leveled him up I got to make his Str 15 and his Int 12.

Re: Blasphemy! Separating Race and Class

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2016 7:38 am
by GnomeBoy
rawlkeer81 wrote:I'm sure he doesn't want to go in for any changes, like I said we just started and it's much too early to begin tinkering with RAW. Thanks for the response!
Bullet point four on page 314 says it's never too early. :wink:

Re: Blasphemy! Separating Race and Class

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 11:52 am
by Tokage
Mostly just fluff, in my case. Elves and dwarves get to see in the dark and live for a really long time and such, halflings get to be small and lucky, humans get the bonus of being bloody everywhere and not subject to racism or wonder or stereotyping or anything else like that. Peasants can be so prejudiced.

If I were to ever add any stat bonuses then humans would get to have a point wherever they like.