Goodman Games

This is not really a house rule, or even a rule itself. But rather a time-skip I came up with as a means to add a little realism to my game. In Dungeon Crawl Classic, going from level 0 to level 1 is quite a leap. It's quite outlandish for a character to gain skills associated with his class only because he survived a meat grinder the previous night and gained the appropriate amount of EXP. Instead I've come up with the rationalization that after surviving 0 level, characters split up for a time and go their separate ways for about five years, where they go on to do greater things. Your characters in DCC are probably in the mid to late teens when they take on their 0-level adventure. And with the coin they earn, they have the means to leave behind peasantry and seek training to acquire their first class level. After five years, they agree to gather together again to begin their next quest as older, wiser and stronger men and women instead of mere children. Elves who are Immortal and age slowly return to the realm beyond the twilight, where their apprenticeship under the wise council takes decades to complete but only a few years in the mortal realm. Halflings buy a big cozy home and live comfortably for a time before longing for another adventure. Dwarves are still young and brash, only just now growing their beards and eager prove their worth to their clan by bringing back riches, baubles and the heads of giant-kin.

Going back to the first edition AD&D books, Gary mentions that characters should only spend a few weeks out of the year actually questing. The rest of the time they live their lives. Reflecting this, DCC characters still have their normal lives. Whether they give up their former occupation altogether or not, they probably have things they want to do and have lives that need to be lived. And if you're too busy adventuring, you're never going to be able to research that undiscovered spells, build your own castle or join a thieve's guild. I give my players a healthy amount of time between adventures to let them do what they please, usually between six months to a year (in-game of course). It's much more satisfying for them to have their characters actually be able to do things they want rather than being always on the road to the next adventure.

I do the same thing, to a lesser extent - but not between 0-level and 1st level.

I have months or years pass between each adventure so that the campaign doesn't end up being "remember that one month when we [insert giant list of extremely disparate activities that culminated in some grand effect upon the campaign setting]" when the characters look back on the tale later.

...between 0-level and 1st, however, I adopted a different view - the characters are PCs rather than NPCs because they are the few from their hometown that have been trying to make their life something "more", and the 0-level adventure is the moment when those efforts culminate in noticeable gains - the aspiring warriors finally get the confidence and bravado to let their meager skills shine, the thieves finally get the hang of it all, the pious finally pique the interest of their worshiped deity and become clerics, and the occult students finally get their first tenuous hold on true power (I should note: Wizards only get one of their known spells automatically upon reaching 1st level in my games, the others require at least a week of time available to spend doing not much else besides putting the last touches on a few more ideas they've been working on for years)

Reasoning behind it all: The way my group has done with 0-level adventures thus far leaves 3 possible outcomes; 1) TPK, 2) a large party (2-3 characters per player) remaining at the end of the 0-level adventure made up mostly of reinforcements, 3) they level to 1st when there are characters = players remaining, or they finish the 0-level adventure, whichever happens first.

I like the idea, too. But I am more like Noble Drake, I typically put a few months or maybe a year between adventures. If they have brought back even a few gold pieces worth of treasure from the funnel, they have enough to live on comfortably for a year or so and pay for some training. From the point of realism, I definitely agree that it is a far stretch to think that the jump in ability from level 0 to level 1 that the system provides is something that can happen in a moment. For example, as an experienced martial artist, I can tell you that it simply takes time, no matter how much natural ability you have, to get any good.

TheNobleDrake wrote:"...2) a large party (2-3 characters per player) remaining at the end of the 0-level adventure made up mostly of reinforcements..."

I had this happen with my first game I ran and with 6 players (and 24 0 level characters) playing in the second one I am starting up, I anticipate that it will not be uncommon to have at least some of the players end up with multiple survivors. I handled it by letting them level up one character, and all the others became hirelings, stuck at 9 xp's. This worked out well becasue after the first adventure about half the 0 level guys called it quits (failed their morale check) and then when a 1st level character bit the dust on the second adventure, they already had a few guys available to potentially level up to 1st so the player could keep playing without skipping a beat.

I've kind of liked this approach ever since I read the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser books, and got that feeling that the books jumped head months if not years between their adventures, and it wasn't uncommon to mention how bored they had gotten in between when they were risking their lives.

You sort of get the same thing with Conan, except that the stories weren't published (or written) in a linear manner, so Conan's adventures clearly jump around months and years away from each other.

My last long running 3.5 campaign, in the Realms, I had several times when the campaign jumped forward six months to a year at a time when the PCs "settled in" to their status quo.

If I ever ran the campaign I wanted to run in DCC, there is definitely a planned time jump of about a year or so between the funnel and the first 1st level adventure.

I am still in the funnel of my first adventure both as a player (online) and DMing (tabletop) so I have no actual experience yet of the in-betweens. For the game I DM, I don't know what I'll do yet because I want to see how the funnel adventure ends before deciding on anything; but my initial idea is to let a few years go by between the two.

To the OP: I'd consider letting the players decide their PC's age. I agree that it might seem intuitive that a 0-level might be young, but I don't see a reason why an older person might not suddenly ascend to one of the adventure classes, just like in real life some people change professions after years doing something else. Personally, I also like to give the players some additional storytelling control on other stuff: I might ask them to describe their training, their trainer, the place where they trained, how long it took, what other stuff they did, and so on.

I tend to run length, mass, and time in a pretty loose manner.

Distance from point A to point B isn't as important as the fact that it takes "several days" and a few encounters to get there. When I use a hex-map I tend to be a little more exact. When I do dungeon maps I don't tie myself down to exact lengths if I can avoid it.

How much mass is carried in encumbrance doesn't bother me much. If you start to carry along too much stuff I'll just let you know that you are moving slowly. I don't like to count GP weights much.

And, more to the topic of the thread, I don't like to get too hung up on time, either. I don't keep track of the age of characters and don't worry about whether one adventure is a year later or the next day. Once you're healed and rested you can go back into the adventure, and I don't worry about if it took you ten minutes or ten months to "level up"; when it's time to be better I give you the extra HP and spells and such right away.

On the other hand, if it bothers you to have characters go from zeroes to 1st level overnight, then have a few weeks or months pass. I doubt that it will impact your campaign much either way, unless you like to count GP and calculate living expenses....

I have just started DMing the DCC RPG game I'm in and was confronted by this very problem. My solution was to roll 3d6 to represent the value of silver the group as a whole might have picked up along the way (i.e. looted). Looking back, I think I might do it differently. Of course the DCC way would be a table, so here's my very quick attempt at one. Suggestions and correction appreciated!

SO... Roll for each character. Roll one up the dice chain for each level. Burn luck to improve your roll:

In the intervening period the following has befallen your character:

1: Times have been tough. Lose 1/2 of your wealth.
2: You've been getting by, stretching every penny. Lose only 1/4 of your wealth.
3-4: With another source of income, you have been able to keep hold of your loot. No change.
5: Through hard work or connivance, you've managed to make a modest profit. Increase your wealth by 1/10th.
6: Frugality has been your middle name. Lose 1d6 worth silver pieces only and repeat this roll for the next two occasions when you might otherwise have had to roll on this table.
7: You've found a rather lucrative day job. Retain all your wealth and gain 2d6 silver.
8-9: Swindled! Someone has been pilfering your loot from behind your back. Roll a d100 and this is the percentage of your wealth you lose.
10: Old uncle what’s-his-face has died. Lose 1/10 of your wealth but roll once on the Occupation Table (table 1-3) and gain the relevant trade goods. This can happen up to 3 times, after that you just lose 1/10 of your wealth.
11: You were beset by bandits! Lose 9/10th of your wealth
13: You've married well. Double you're wealth. However, henceforth retain only half of your wealth after each adventure. Your new partner has expensive tastes!
14: In the intervening period either you or a loved-one were kidnapped. You lose 3/4th of your wealth
15: You’ve picked up an expensive habit, such as gambling or buying the finest clothes. Lose 1d10x10 percent of your wealth now and on all subsequent occasions you might have to roll on this table
16: You've managed to pick up a pension from a well-to-do fellow or organisation that had need of your services. Roll 1D6 and gain that amount of silver each month for the rest of your character’s life (or until they manage to anger this person or organisation sufficiently). If you are on the road and unable to claim the pension, it will be held for you to collect on your return (unless, of course, you are gone so long that they think you are dead)
17+: You are now, either literally or metaphorically, a prince among men. Retain all wealth and, unless far away from your source of wealth, start each adventure with up to d30 gold.


ADMIN EDIT: Fixed a few "loose" versus "lose" typos.

A couple of thoughts come to mind:

1) What if you roll a 12?

2) Some of the options, such as "swindled" would seem to actually lead to potential adventure. Nice!

3) I'm curious as to how this might work when one person in the party rolls high and another rolls low. Often my players assume by default that they all hang out together in between adventures, but clearly the fates of each could be quite different.

4) There are a few places where rolling high isn't always as good as rolling low. (E.g. a 10 looks better than an 11.) It might be worth re-arranging the results a little so that higher is always better.

Nice table overall, though!

Thanks for the feedback finarvyn. Yikes, I do need a 12 don't I?! Good point about changing the order too. I will edit in due course.

As for whether the characters are working together or fending for themselves, perhaps those that choose to can club together, roll once and muliply the wealth gained or lost by d6 and then split it by their number? Where, like in 13, the result applied only to one person, you’d randomise who this applies to.

Personally, I like the idea that adventuring is the main thing that brings everyone together, and if they aren’t adventuring, they have to fend for themselves or become dissolute. At low levels some become labourers or artisans, returning to their level 0 profession, others become tramps, thugs and vagabonds. At high levels some become pillars of their community, others libertines. This is possible because I'm a fan of the The Return of the Musketeers!

Cool table but could be abused by Thieves and Halflings if you allow luck burning. I think you should leave that out.

I was thinking of doing something similar, by going through the Appendix N stories (esp. the serials, like Conan), and seeing where the stories start out. I.e., "Pursued by enemies", as a percentile chart.

Now I have to think about whether or not I still need to.

Raven_Crowking wrote:I was thinking of doing something similar, by going through the Appendix N stories (esp. the serials, like Conan), and seeing where the stories start out. I.e., "Pursued by enemies", as a percentile chart.

Now I have to think about whether or not I still need to.

Still an awesome idea, however.

I suppose it comes down in part to whether the intent of the table is to start off an adventure or to supplement a module or to just give the passing of time.

If it's to start off an adventure, entries like "pursued by enemies" are a lot more useful than "lost loot to drinking" might be, so a table such as what you propose might really be helpful.

To supplement an adventure such a table could still be nice. If a character is on a quest or in a dungeon, having someone hot on their trail lends a sense of urgency to the adventure.

As a passing of time thing, Rythwold's table serves just fine as it tends to be more passive and relates financial status more than specific plot elements.

I guess what I'm saying is that the best of both worlds is a good thing. Ryth's table is devoted to economic status and your idea is more about the in-between adventure activity, so rolling once on both tables would be uber-awesome!

"Going back to the first edition AD&D books, Gary mentions that characters should only spend a few weeks out of the year actually questing."

Of course, King Arthur Pendragon makes this a central feature of the game. But you don't need to be running a manor, or attending court, to make the 'Winter Phase' useful. In an Old School game, the time between adventures, whether performing mundane duties, carousing, or whatever, can be used to allow the game world to 'live' - events happen, which the PCs can then react to, get involved with (or ignore).