Goodman Games

There's not a whole lot talking about when a wizard needs to have verbal or somatic components for his spells, so in DCC, can a wizard cast while bound or gagged? It was never really clear in the books.

It's an element that's down to how you want to handle things in your campaign.

Some spellcasters might be all about the rhyming incantations, others need to do a little dance or some tai chi... Might just take a thought for others.

Just as some folks don't worry about tracking "material components" too much when playing D&D, some DCC players may prefer not to worry about how exactly a spell gets cast, thus allowing the wizard to "find a way" to do it while bound.

Then again, maybe it's something a group does want to go into detail on, and they could just "steal" from D&D and pin down that spell X is just a verbal thing, while spell Y requires freedom of movement to get 'er done.

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Gnome Boy • DCC playtester @ DDC 35 Feb '11. • Beta DL 2111, 7AM PT, 8 June 11.
Playing RPGs since '77 • Quasi-occasional member of the Legion of 8th-Level Fighters.

Link: Here Be 100+ DCC Monsters

I see. Just a little background on what sparked the question. Last night, my wizard defeated a much higher level wizard by spellburning ropework for 20. There were a whole lot of arguments for why that could or could not be done. Even with this question answered, from my cheese point of view, with that high a check on ropework I could also just use the rope to drag the other wizard face down across the floor so she couldn't actually see anyone (thus, not target them with a charm person), but I had totally flustered the DM with that play. The other half of that play, is that she did get a charm person off on my cleric, and ordered the cleric to kill the wizard. The cleric simply said, I refuse, because turning the cleric into a good friend of the enemy wizard, still doesn't mean that he is no longer a good friend of the first wizard, also sparking a debate on the power of charm person.

My Judge-ment call:

Bound and gagged? No.

Hands bound in rope? Caster has to use a d16 for his/her spellcheck.

Bound head to foot w/ rope (but not gagged)? D14 or less, depending on how generous I'm feeling.

Bound in irons? Elf - No. Wizard - d12 or less, depending on how generous I'm feeling.

And to add to that take, those allow the Wizard to burn Luck and or Spellburn to make up the shortfall of a smaller die. Which is a pretty darn neat feature of DCC.


As for the charm situation... I dunno. It uses the term "complete control" an awful lot, which leaves me with the idea that it's like the controlled person sees the caster as their ONLY friend... Like their whole world is reoriented. That certainly echos plenty of tv/movies where that sort of thing happens, e.g. Spock is ready to beat Kirk to a bloody pulp for getting between Spock and his new lady-friend. Not to mention all those high school story tropes of getting in with the cool kids and turning on your former friends. A common fiction trope in the 60s and 70s, prime for the basis of the antecedent spell in D&D.... I'd probably run it that way out of nostalgia.

But spells or effects that take away a player's choices are tricky. I'm fine when it happens to my own characters, but plenty of players only feel like they're "winning" if they can counter anything that might change or affect their characters...

Personally, I'd play it myself as if the character would obey the caster, but then as a player try to find in-game reasons to fail or get distracted. The character is ready to kill his friend, but as a player I'm going to try to stop it through play.

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Gnome Boy • DCC playtester @ DDC 35 Feb '11. • Beta DL 2111, 7AM PT, 8 June 11.
Playing RPGs since '77 • Quasi-occasional member of the Legion of 8th-Level Fighters.

Link: Here Be 100+ DCC Monsters

The other fun about that is that it also says that charm person can not change the nature of the target, or make them do something a good friend would not otherwise do. The cleric did indeed carry a weapon, but throughout the the characters entire career (including the funnel) he has not yet struck any target with his weapon. Made it a lot easier in my mind, to refuse.

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Gnome Boy • DCC playtester @ DDC 35 Feb '11. • Beta DL 2111, 7AM PT, 8 June 11.
Playing RPGs since '77 • Quasi-occasional member of the Legion of 8th-Level Fighters.

Link: Here Be 100+ DCC Monsters