Goodman Games

I just bought the book today and I am in the process of reading and setting up my first DCC game. While doing so I came up with this.

Dungeon Crawl Classics' death mechanic is harsh. Characters will die. I have no desire to soften the blow as I am interested in how it plays out (for science!). I do however want to reward characters that have managed to stay alive throughout the campaign. To do this I have created “The Songs of the Bards” system.

We can, for the most part, assume that PCs make way to a town after completing an adventure. One of the key locations that most towns feature is a tavern, which is almost always a destination for a PC while in said town. One can also assume that almost every tavern in a quasi-feudalistic society will have a bard. These musicians most often sing tales of heroic deeds and the sagas of adventurers. The more dangers sung about the more popular the song. The more popular the song is the more popular the adventurer becomes and presumably the more the bard is tipped.

So, in game when a PC completes a quest he/she shall at some point stop into a tavern or feast hall. The PC will then encounter a noisy bard who will want to know all about their recent deeds. The bard, being an excellent judge of the truth, will write a ballad about the PC. The ballad will be spread from town to town, bard to bard, increasing the fame of the PC. When the PC next enters a tavern the bard will take notice and sing the PC’s ballad. The town will know of the PC’s deeds and he/she will benefit from this by spreading renown or fear. Also the bard will be tipped and he/she will be inclined to share a portion of that tip with the PC.

Every time a PC completes a quest he/she shall have a Bard Song written about their deeds. The Songs will vary in level based on the difficulty of the quest (level 1 dungeon completion will earn a level 1 Bard Song). The benefits will be as follows:

Title: (Song Level)(Character’s Name)(Description of Deed)
Social Bonus: Personality Modifier for skill checks while in town based on level.
Shop Discount: % based on level.
Tip Out: GP dice roll based on level.

Low level example after a level 0 dungeon is completed:

Rhyme of Shamus’s Journey into the Portal
Social Bonus: +1
Shop Discount: 5% off
Tip out: d10 +5 GP

These songs will stack on top of other earned songs and give bonuses every time a PC goes into town as long as he/she lives. If a player misses a game night but the PC is NPCed no song will be earned. New characters joining the campaign will not have had any song written about them regardless of level.

Has anyone come up with anything similar? Thoughts, comments, criticism?

Perma_Hexx wrote:I just bought the book today and I am in the process of reading and setting up my first DCC game. While doing so I came up with this.

Dungeon Crawl Classics' death mechanic is harsh. Characters will die. I have no desire to soften the blow as I am interested in how it plays out (for science!). I do however want to reward characters that have managed to stay alive throughout the campaign. To do this I have created “The Songs of the Bards” system.

You've got some cool ideas and they look like a fun tweak to the rules. However, my advice is always to try the game out as written first before you make significant changes.

Staying alive leads to level advancement, which is a reward of its own. Staying alive tends to go hand-in-hand with returning to town with sacks of loot and buying stuff, which is a reward of its own. There are rewards already built into the game and you may find that no additonal reward system is needed.

finarvyn wrote:Staying alive leads to level advancement, which is a reward of its own. Staying alive tends to go hand-in-hand with returning to town with sacks of loot and buying stuff, which is a reward of its own. There are rewards already built into the game and you may find that no additional reward system is needed.

Are you saying that if my party of five level 4's go into a dungeon and only two of them come out that I should end the campaign or start the dead player's back off at level 0? My impression of the rules is that death happens frequently so writing up new characters would also happen more frequently compared to some other rpgs. To handle that I will let dead characters be replaced by a new one at the parties' average level with non-magical gear and low gold. With the suggested randomness of character creation (which I plan on following) I anticipate my player's committing PC suicide just so they can have another crack at a roll-up, dumber things have happened in some of my DnD games.

To cover all of my bases in preventing the above situations I thought that there needed to be more incentive for my players to take their randomly generated poo-flinging ditch-digger with half a brain to level 10. Although I admit that I may be doing it wrong.

I'm not sure how you're getting from fin's comment to the idea of dead level fours being replaced by level zeros.

If I've got it right, your system gives the players extra, free stuff and a social bonus in town, as they level up. Whether that will keep players interested in keeping their characters for the long haul, regardless of perceived deficiencies, is going to depend on how much a role the "town" plays in your campaign. Hard to help evaluate it, without knowing that...

But the general idea of a 'reputation' mechanic seems worth considering -- but it might go down as well as up.

GnomeBoy wrote:I'm not sure how you're getting from fin's comment to the idea of dead level fours being replaced by level zeros.

Fin is suggesting that leveling up is a reward in itself. If I am letting my players replace a level 4 with a level 4 then that , to me, makes leveling up less of a reward and more of an eventuality.

GnomeBoy wrote:If I've got it right, your system gives the players extra, free stuff and a social bonus in town, as they level up. Whether that will keep players interested in keeping their characters for the long haul, regardless of perceived deficiencies, is going to depend on how much a role the "town" plays in your campaign. Hard to help evaluate it, without knowing that...

If my player dislikes their funnel survivor I want a system in place that will at least make them feel more epic as they level it. Town plays a very important role in my games. I find in other games that my players turn going to shop keepers into it's own haggling mini-game (I call it Shopcrawl). With this system a PC is not a total stranger when he arrives at a new town. A adventurer with many songs written about him will be a celebrity. He could even be sought out by the local lord to give him an audience. Town's folk with plot hooks will approach a famous adventurer before his unknown companions.

Well, it sounds like a well-suited system then.

But don't be surprised if your players become more attached to their funnel survivors just the way they are than you might think. It's a common report from folks running the funnel the first time (or the first few). Something alchemical happens when character death is happening right and left, and people become attached to their bakers and candlestick makers...

My solution for replacement (at least in AD&D) is the following: become the patron of someone. A relative, a friend, a talented young adventurer... Bring him or her with you on adventures as follower, or pay for his training. The more you invest, the higher level he becomes. He can inherit not only your place in the party, but your equipment, if you specified so in your last will.

First of all, keep in mind that mass-death of characters is typically common for 0-level intro dudes but is no more or less common for higher level characters than in any other RPG that I've ever played. Higher-level character death is a function of how nasty the DM and what choices are made by the players, with an occasional lucky or unlucky die roll thrown in as a wild card. DCC characters of 4th level don't die so quickly.

However ... one option would be to allow the revived characters to start out a level behind the others. That way the two surviving 4th level dudes can be joined by three new 3rd level guys. That way you can reward survival if you think that's an important aspect of the campaign.

Or don't worry about it. Depending upon how cooperative the group dynamic might be, survival or not might not be that important to handing out rewards. In my campaign, my players work together and are willing to put one character in harm's way in order to help the team accomplish the intended goal. I don't want to penalize them for their sacrifice, so even under your system I'm more likely to give everyone an equal reward even if their character doesn't happen to survive. Losing the character is painful enough for my players and I don't really feel the need to punish them further.

Just how I do it.

Thank you for the perspective and advice. I do not intend to use this house rule as punishment but if my players see it that way I will not use it. My goal as a Judge/DM/GM/ST is to tell an interactive epic story where everyone is contributing to get the same level of satisfaction. Never do I seek to "win" or lord over my players. Characters will always be able to gain songs after they finish a quest. I see this game element as a reward for being a key part of the story. This way there will just be a system of fame for being tied to the events going on in the story for a longer period of time.

Much like OD&D, DCC seems to encourage, strongly, hirelings and followers. Basically, your players should be leveling up a few chars, because as you point out, death can be frequent. Remember that the XP mechanic is much different from OD&D and AD&D, which helps deal with the frequent death. I like to call it FUN, after DwarfFortress, heh. Plus, you're already thinking about level 4 chars, and, uh... they gotta looooong way to go to get there! So, like others suggest, I'd keep the funnel constant and have players keep a stable of chars they're playing.