Goodman Games

I'm curious, using the DCC rules, how would you judge the following:

A player wants his fighter to push back an assailant, who is blocking entry through a door.

A player wants his thief to jump from a balcony onto a dangling rope at the room's centre

A player wants his cleric to calm an angry mob

A player wants his wizard to throw a flask of alchemist's fire onto a moving wagon of hay

Here are my suggestions:

Thane wrote:A player wants his fighter to push back an assailant, who is blocking entry through a door.

If the "pusher" is a warrior or dwarf, this is a good case for a Mighty Deed of Arms. (Pushbacks are one the specific types of Deeds covered in the rules.) If there are other classes involved, I'd go with opposed Strength checks.

Thane wrote:A player wants his thief to jump from a balcony onto a dangling rope at the room's centre

You could go the conventional route of a Strength check (for the jump, if there is any appreciable distance involved) followed by an Agility check (to grab the rope). But because this is DCC RPG - and there's a thief involved - I would instead give them a Luck check. Crazy stunts like this are exactly what Luck is for.

Thane wrote:A player wants his cleric to calm an angry mob

Probably a Personality check with a high DC, or a request for divine aid (if the cleric needs a miracle to pull it off).

Thane wrote:A player wants his wizard to throw a flask of alchemist's fire onto a moving wagon of hay

Good luck -- missile fire is not really the forte of a wizard! Just assign a high AC to the moving wagon and make a missile attack roll. But I'd say he should probably hand it to the warrior to make the shot...

Thane wrote:A player wants his fighter to push back an assailant, who is blocking entry through a door.

Mighty Deeds of Arms, Pushback Table (Pg 75, DCC RPG Open Beta)

Thane wrote:A player wants his thief to jump from a balcony onto a dangling rope at the room's centre

DC 15 skill check (Agility). Other classes, DC18.

Thane wrote:A player wants his cleric to calm an angry mob

Listen to the player's speech, assign a DC according to how much it amuses the judge, then a Personality skill check.

Thane wrote:A player wants his wizard to throw a flask of alchemist's fire onto a moving wagon of hay

Missile fire attack roll. Range of missile is player's strength in yards for short range, twice this for medium range and three times this for long range.

OR, GM fiat, and I ask the player to just roll a funny shaped die and take a look at his character sheet to decide if the roll is good enough.

Pretty much what I expected.

So easy to rule, this is the kind of game I'd enjoy running.

We got a response straight from the word of Goodman! Here's an important point, though. In DCC we need to get away from the idea that Agility/Dexterity is the prime score for thieves. In DCC it's definitely luck, and judges need to encourage thieves to try things that depend on luck and go ahead and spend luck.

Especially at 0-level, during the funnel, I like to turn a lot of the checks (around 60% of them) to Luck checks.

As a peasant in a dungeon, Luck is really what makes the difference to me: and having lots of Luck checks, presents Luck Burning as a double edged weapon; it might save you now, but sooner or later you're gonna pay for that 5 LUCK you're left with.

Hmmm. Theres a bit of a tension between calling fOr alot of luck checks and encouraging the burning of luck pts... Probably already discussed...