Goodman Games

Hi - I'm a bit of newbie to DCC so bear with me.

Two interrelated queries about monster stat blocks in the adventures. NPCs don't seem to have their 'levels' listed, so you're just going on hit dice; but how do you know which crit tables to use in these cases? If a NPC that uses magic has 2 HD, do I just assume he's a second level wizard, for example?

As a suggestion, I think it would be really handy if a monster's crit table and dice were included in the standard stat block. Just putting in, for example, "Crit: III/d6" would save a lot of mucking about and pauses in the action during combats when a monster rolled a 20.

I would use either the Zero-level Crit table or the generic Monster Crit table. The Class tables should be saved for the PCs, and for Classed NPCs.

IMHO.

NPCs generally don't have Levels -- that's a PC thing.

They just kind of are what they are...

GnomeBoy wrote:NPCs generally don't have Levels -- that's a PC thing.

They just kind of are what they are...

That's tough, man, being a NPC.

UniversalHead wrote: ...

As a suggestion, I think it would be really handy if a monster's crit table and dice were included in the standard stat block. Just putting in, for example, "Crit: III/d6" would save a lot of mucking about and pauses in the action during combats when a monster rolled a 20.

Welcome to the adventure!

I agree with you wholeheartedly... Not everyone seems to be comfortable with the "make-it-up-as-you-go" or the "because the Judge says so..." memes. It's one of the reasons I wrote Critters, Creatures, & Denizens as well as the up coming Liber Arcanum. Are they perfect solutions, no, but I think they work well enough so that folks can quickly modify things more to their tastes if they feel the need.

But then, I'm one of those ardent 'tinkerers' when it comes to game systems. So if the module says the PCs are up against a 5th level wizard, then I don't even blink at the idea of editing the NPCs to follow all the rules that the players are using. Because making the NPCs wizards and clerics deal with the quirks of their classes makes for interesting and unique twists to the running of every module. Keeps things fresher longer. Allowing NPC warriors access to the MDoA tables makes encounters with even a small band of NPC dwarves a terrifying experience for the players. And then there is the fact that if my NPC thief makes their stealth check... one of the PCs is going to die, because I use the thief's backstabbing bonuses and critical tables. If player reactions are anything to go by, I've had really great results thus far.

Here's a link to an NPC that I used as the familiar for one of the players using the ideas from the CCD, and the dragon construction tables in the DCC Core Rules. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8iHPun ... sp=sharing

This served several of my goals...
1- it gave me a strong NPC voice that could occasionally be used to goad the players into action,
2- added depth to an NPC which drew the player even further into the milieu,
3- allowed me to artfully disregard some aspects of how magic normally functions, and thus stimulating the player to delve further into the workings of magic... which led to the formulation of longer term goals and unique role play situations,
4- I was also fully prepared to let the player step into the role of playing Sythrixis as a back-up in the event of character demise.

(Sorry for the shameful product placement, but small time publishers like me need to jump on any opportunity available.)