Cleric spell casting table similar to DCC?

[bholmes4]

Anyone know of any house rules or published RPGs that have random casting tables for clerics similar to the Disapproval Table in DCC? Better yet would be one that has a mix of beneficial and negative results ie:

- the gods aren't listening: spell lost and no effect
- a light only you can see shines upon you: spell is cast as normal and cleric healed 1d4 damage

Is there anything out there like this?

[Jim Skach]

I first got a chance to play DCC at GaryCon a couple of years ago. I was enthralled - especially with the implications of the spell casting. So when our group wanted my to run an old school game, I started modifying Swords & Wizardry to add some of the things I liked about the DCC playtest.

I struggled with the tables, however. The little bits I saw (I did not play a wizard in playtesting...ever...) seemed to imply a sizable table for each spell. I wanted to minimize the size of the tables and keep things as generic as possible, not wanting to get too complex for this small game (and knowing that we were only expecting to be running this particular game for 6-10 sessions). So for both wizards and clerics I tried to whittle the tables down to a generic set of spell check results with the intention of letting the play drive the specifics of the descriptions. So for clerics, the last version of the rules I have has a table as follows:


3- Divine Wrath: Caster loses 1d4 HP.
4-8 Divine Apathy: No effects. Energy flows but only wipes the spell from memory.
9-15 Divine Consent: Standard effects; Energy wipes Spell from memory.
16-19 Divine Respect: Standard effects; Energy does not wipe Spell from memory.
20+ Divine Blessing: One effect is doubled; Referee choice or Roll 1d6:
Roll Result
1 Range.
2 Duration.
3 Number of Targets.
4 Area of Effect.
5 Other Effect (HP, etc).
6 Character Choice.
Energy does not wipe spell from memory.

The impact was fun, surprising, interesting...I'll see if I can get the individual who played a cleric to give me his recollections of how he thought it worked out.

[bholmes4]

Yeah that's kind of what I had going, with more options. I was hoping to find some that had more "fun" options as I see gods acting in odd and mysterious ways. The problem is trying to make a single table that will make sense for all the various types of gods out there.

There are lots of good magic-user charts for stuff like this but finding cleric ones has been very difficult.

[Jim Skach]

Yeah, that was kind of the reasoning behind the very generic titles like "Divine Wrath". It is really tough to have both a generic approach and a specific approach at the same time

My goal was to start with this as a general approach, and then as the gods were developed (or other methods of worship) different options/skins could be utilized within these general guidelines.

Sorry could not be of more assistance...

[finarvyn]

I'm always torn between having a standard table and a bunch of individual tables. The standard table has the advantage of simplicity, but the individual tables are probably more fun long-term since so many more things can happen.

3- Divine Wrath: Caster loses 1d4 HP.
4-8 Divine Apathy: No effects. Energy flows but only wipes the spell from memory.
9-15 Divine Consent: Standard effects; Energy wipes Spell from memory.
16-19 Divine Respect: Standard effects; Energy does not wipe Spell from memory.
20+ Divine Blessing: One effect is doubled; Referee choice or Roll 1d6:
Roll Result
1 Range.
2 Duration.
3 Number of Targets.
4 Area of Effect.
5 Other Effect (HP, etc).
6 Character Choice.
Energy does not wipe spell from memory.

The impact was fun, surprising, interesting...

That's a neat little table, and not at all complex. I may have my players try it out this weekend.