Goodman Games

Hey Guys

Ive just run my first DCC game the classic "sailors on the starless sea".. the surviving characters escaped on the long ship were pushed through subterranean caverns.. and was gong to have them wash out of the mountains... and go straight into "Doom of the savage kings" as LVL 1 adventurers.

The only thing I realized is that from a roleplaying point of view this gives no room for them leveling up... especially wizards who have to learn spells.... ect...

How have other Judges handled the step up to level one from a roleplaying point of view - did you have a training cutscene, maybe some kind of stop off in a village or city to allow them time to grow into their new characters...

Any help/ advice appreciated!

Panzerfaust101 wrote:How have other Judges handled the step up to level one from a roleplaying point of view - did you have a training cutscene, maybe some kind of stop off in a village or city to allow them time to grow into their new characters...

I think you have pretty much answered your own question. Usually I just tell my players "hey, you leveled up so update your character sheets" and don't bother to worry about how it happens. I explain it in terms of simply growing better instead of having to train.

However, you asked about trying to role play it out. Your examples are great answers. A stop off for training is good, and it could happen at a village or city, or perhaps a nearby Lord's castle, or you could have a school for adventurers to justify the magical tomes and such. Heck, any of these sorts of stopover could lead to their own adventures if you want to take the campaign in that direction. Perhaps the wizard training apprentices needs magical supplies and the characters need to go to acquire them in order to "pay" for training. Fighter characters might need to joust with some of the local knights to prove himself worthy. Just spending days in a city could prompt some teaser events that could cause the characters to react. Any of these options would work just fine if you want more depth to the campaign, or if you want things to happen in between modules.

I think it's mostly a matter of GM style and based a lot on how focused you want the campaign to be regarding getting from one module to the next. Welcome to the boards, by the way!

It's also possible to worry less about "training". It's not a prominent feature of books and movies about fantasy/fantastic characters.

It's also possible that the Wizard was training all along. They hadn't been able to make magic work before the funnel, but living through that has changed their perspective on everything... Things have 'clicked' and now they've figured out how to cast spells. Similar thoughts can justify the other character Classes; you get in enough intense fights and survive, you know better how to fight/defend yourself, etc.