Goodman Games

I am new to DCC and I noticed that its brutal at 0 level traps, monsters , anything can kill you . My question is when I am running a 4-5 person campaign and people die how do I introduce new characters to replace the dead?

What I do is look for a logical place to add in additonal characters. Perhaps they pass a village, or find some prisoners in a dungeon. Another (somewhat lame) way is to have the party discover another party (the new characters) already pursuing a similar quest and have the two groups join up.

If you're starting with a smaller group of just 4-5 characters, it might be easier to begin at first level. 0-level characters are mainly designed to die in droves in a funnel adventure since they are so vulnerable, but it's fun because you always have another character on hand. Replacement characters are sprinkled throughout most funnel adventures in case things go really wrong for a player, but it works well because you're just adding to the mob. Trying to simulate that with a small group would be a bit more jarring and disjointed...

I usually have 4-5 players. They have a 0 level funnel with 3 characters each, and after that they keep playing with one. Worked very well for us.

Oh, I thought he meant 4-5 characters!

Ignore my comment.

(And yes, most of the funnel adventures have optional replacement characters sprinkled about the place at logical points, and it's always worked pretty seamlessly for me in my sessions. If you're designing your own adventures, it's usually not difficult to spot areas where captures villagers or the shattered remains of a previous adventuring company, etc. could be discovered to help a struggling party.)

Who knows, maybe I'm the one who misunderstood.

Thanks I was surprised to get so many replies this has been very helpful.

On another question can the pathfinder bestiary substitute balanced monsters for DCC or is it better to just stick with the core DCC rule monsters. The reason I ask is because I was looking for a vampire and I just couldn't find it despite the monster being mentioned several times in the book.

Oh also, traps. They aren't in the core rule book either? Do I just make them from scratch?

GrandTitan wrote:The reason I ask is because I was looking for a vampire and I just couldn't find it despite the monster being mentioned several times in the book.

That's actually intentional; see below.
Page 394

You may note that certain iconic monsters are not presented
below. While there are statistics for demons, elementals,
and giants, as well as a randomization system for dragons,
there are no stats for devils, golems, fey, liches, lycanthropes,
treants, or vampires, as well as select other classic
monsters like the medusa, pegasus, sphinx, unicorn, wight,
or wraith. What follows is enough for the judge to have a
good sense of “benchmarks” for his own creations, as well
as a number of examples of atypical creatures appropriate
to a campaign inspired by the works on Appendix N. We
encourage the individuality of each campaign by not presenting
standardized versions of all monsters. Make your
own stats for werewolves, liches, and devils!

Page 442

The most powerful trait of Appendix N, insofar as influencing
fantasy adventuring, is what I call “pre-genre storytelling.”
In the current era, all gamers, and many laymen, have
preconceptions of fantasy archetypes: one knows what
an elf is like, and what a dwarf is like, and what powers
a dragon or vampire should have. Most of the authors in
Appendix N, however, were writing before “fantasy” was
an acknowledged literary category. The conception of an
“elf” as expressed in Tolkien is now “common knowledge,”
but the elves described by Lord Dunsany and Poul Anderson
were completely different creatures. The same is true of
dozens of other fantasy conceits. When you read Appendix
N, fantasy once again becomes fantasy; the concepts escape
modern classifications

.

That said, you've several options for quickly and easily cobbling together a vampire. "Re-skin" the "Man-Bat" monster on page 421 (use the Prime version mentioned at the bottom of the entry). Describe it (and tweak its abilities) using the Variety in Undead tables on page 381. And give it "The Curse of Goblin Sight" on page 438.

Or just decide what a vampire is, what it should be able to do, and how you would like to express that in game terms, stealing inspiration from any and all sources available to you. Then do the same thing for the next vampire, so that it is different.

OR grab The Winter Home from RPG Now, and examine smathis' take on vampires for Transylvanian Adventures (which is a DCC ruleset whose modifications from the core rules, in many or all cases, could be used as house rules with the core book).

Creating a Vampire for DCC RPG:
1, Choose the hit dice then make up his values. There's a nice chart for creating monsters in Crawl! fanzine, or you can use an already existing PC, NPC as a base.
2, Use Table 9-6 to give him undead abilities.

Et voilá! There's your vampire.

@ GrandTitan> Welcome!

I'd have to agree with the others, 'logic' and 'that which fits the story' are the best guides for how to get a new PC into the group...

One of my favorites is that the incoming character was the victim of a teleportation spell that went wonky. If the new character isn't a wizard, that's OK... they just happen to be too close to a wizard when something went wrong. "POOF" there here... but they have know idea where they are or even if the experience is real until the other PC's convince them of what is happening. Usually good for a few laughs and sometimes you get someone who plays along with the idea. In an old 2nd ed D&D game, I had a guy go through an entire level of a dungeon with his character convinced it was all just a freakish nightmare.

As for the first quote posted by Rick. That's how I ended up with Critters, Creatures, & Denizens; which has my take on vampires along with so many others. I figure that vampires are just suffering from a very powerful curse or disease so I wrote it up as a template/process that can be applied to any living creature. Same thing for were-creatures.

Raven_Crowking wrote:OR grab The Winter Home from RPG Now, and examine smathis' take on vampires for Transylvanian Adventures (which is a DCC ruleset whose modifications from the core rules, in many or all cases, could be used as house rules with the core book).

Thanks for the shout out, RCK.

The vampires in Transylvanian Adventures (featured in the Winter Home Intro Adventure) are very much in the same vein (ha!) as the vampires in the old Hammer movies.

They tend to go over well. Give them a shot.

Here's the vampire I drew up:

Vampire
HD: 10d10
Init: +4
Action Dice: 1d20, 1d20
ATTK: Slam or Weapon → +11 (1d10+2)
AC: 14 non-magical weapons deal -10 points damage
MV: 30'
F+8, R+6, W+10
-Once per round, Ability Drain Attack: First a WDC 16 save must be made. If this is successful, the character loses 1 temporary point each of STRENGTH, AGILITY or STAMINA. If the save is failed, the character must make a FDC 16 save for the affected statistic, saving results in 1 temporary point loss, failure results in 1 permanent point loss.
-Aura of Fear: Any creature within 30' of the Vampire wishing to attack it must first succeed at a WDC 13 save or lose the rest of their actions for that round.
-Can cast Charm Person, Word of Command and Curse with +7 to the Spell check. CL is 5.
-Can cast a Counterspell at +5 to the spell check
-3x per day can shapeshift into a wolf or bat. This action takes 1 full round.
-Direct sunlight causes 5 points of damage per round of exposure.

GrandTitan wrote:I am new to DCC and I noticed that its brutal at 0 level traps, monsters , anything can kill you . My question is when I am running a 4-5 person campaign and people die how do I introduce new characters to replace the dead?

The funnel (level 0) is really fun. It might seem a bit odd at first glance, but give it a shot. It's likely that most characters will die during the funnel. That's fine. Have a blast and good gaming!