Alternative Zero-level Character Generator for DCC: Updated and updated again

I have updated the Alternative Zero-level Character Generator. I had a chance, last night, to test it out with the Metal Gods crew (Adam, Gabriel, Jason, Phil, and Wayne), and we discovered that it needed a bit of tweaking and just a little more explanation of some parts of the process. This is the result.

To begin character generation:

• Start with by rolling your character attributes, using 3d6, in order.
• Your starting age is 13.
• You may be of either sex.
• Roll on the Occupation Table of your choice, or use Purple Sorcerer's excellent character generator. This roll represents your parent's (mother's or father's) profession.

 After that, you're going to go through a process of determining what has happened so far in your life, before you decided to become an adventurer. Much of this material is left to your discretion. It's there to give you some ideas about what you might have been or might have done in your life, going beyond the notion of "occupation" and getting into "biography." The idea here is that you are shaped by your past, and not merely by whatever single occupation you might have pursued before becoming an adventurer.

Along the way, you will have a change to change your attributes (by rolling for them according to the circumstances you encounter). Sometimes the results might seem counter-intuitive. For example, you might find that your character has had formal schooling, but the resulting roll against the Intelligence attribute gives you a negative modifier. How can going to school make you dumber? Think about it: How many young people go off to college only to spend their first year (or more) carousing and more or less going crazy once they are out of their parents' supervision? As a professor myself, I can only say that the answer is "not a few." It's your job as a player to determine what the results of your rolls actually mean, as they are not elaborated in the tables. They are intentionally left vague so that you have that ability.

Here is the table you'll use later, when you are told to make a roll against one or more attributes. Roll 1d7-4 for swingy rolls) or 3d6 (for stronger central tendency) each time you are asked to make a roll. The resulting modifiers should be added or subtracted from your relevant current attribute scores. None of your attributes can go below 3 or above 18. Ignore any rolls that would achieve either of those results.

Modifiers for 3d6 Roll
3 (-3)

4-5 (-2)

6-8 (-1)

9-12 (+0)

13-15 (+1)

16-17 (+2)

18 (+3)

You will roll on the following tables, using the results as inspiration for your life's story prior to becoming an adventurer. Note that some results will ask you to enter the zero-level funnel or become an adventurer. This means that your character generation process is complete:

First, you should determine your origins. From what sort of place do you come?

Where are you from? (d16)

1-5 A farm

6-8 A village

9-10 A town

11-12 A city

13-14 A wilderness area

15 A war zone

16 Nomadic (land or sea)

Then, figure out what shaped your early development.

What did you do for the first part of your life? (roll a d24)

1-8 Just like Mom/Dad: You carry on the family tradition, following in the footsteps of your mother/father. Keep your original occupation and roll once against each attribute. Hereafter, ignore any result that makes you change your occupation. Add 1d10 years to your age.

9-10 A soldier shall ye be: You are press-ganged by a high noble for a war. Change your occupation to "person-at-arms." Make rolls against Strength, Agility, Stamina. Add 1d5 years to your age.

11-12 Runaway: You run away from your home to pursue a personal ambition (pick an occupation associated with that ambition). Make rolls against Stamina, Personality, and Luck. Add 1d5 years to your age.

13-14 Black Sheep: You are driven in shame from your home because of something terrible that you did (or are reputed to have done). Make rolls against Stamina and Intelligence. Add 1d5 years to your age.

15-16 Fall in with a Bad Crowd: You become a juvenile delinquent. Choose an appropriate occupation (e.g., Urchin, Pickpocket, Burglar). Make rolls against Agility and Luck. Add 1d5 years to your age.

17-18 Student: You receive formal schooling. Make rolls against Intelligence and Luck. Add 1d5 years to your age.

19-20 Acolyte: You get religion, becoming an acolyte in a temple. Make rolls against Intelligence and Personality. Add 1d5 years to your age.

21-22 Apprentice: You are apprenticed to a master. Change your occupation to reflect your apprenticeship (e.g., blacksmith, jeweler, apothecary, etc.). Make rolls against either Intelligence and Personality/Strength and Agility/Stamina and Luck, depending on the apprenticeship. Add 1d5 years to your age.

23 Brush with destiny: You are blessed or corrupted in some manner. Roll against all attributes, modifying each as warranted, and using the results to determine what might have happened. Add 1d5 years to your age.

24 Roll twice on this table.

Then, you determine what happened after the developmental years of your life.

What happened next? (roll a d24)

1-12 Adventure awaits! You decided to become an adventurer. Make a roll against one Attribute (as determined by 1d6: Strength, Agility, Stamina, Personality, Intelligence, or Luck). Character generation is done, and you enter the zero-level funnel.

13-16 Continue on: You carry on what you were doing last time. Make the same rolls as before and add 1d10 to your age. Character generation is done, and you enter the zero-level funnel.

17-18 Curveball: You encounter a crisis event. Make rolls against Luck and one other attribute (as determined by 1d6: Strength, Agility, Stamina, Personality, Intelligence, or Luck). Add 1d5 years to your age.

19-20 A new path: You change the course of your life. Roll on the previous table, ignoring repeated results, and add 1d10 to your age.

21 Marriage: You are wed to another. Make rolls against two of Personality, Intelligence, or Luck. Add 1d10 to your age.

22 Advanced learning: You study with a master. Roll twice against two attributes of your choice. Take the higher result of each roll. Add 1d20 to your age.

23 Junkie: You become an addict. Roll twice against two attributes (as determined by 1d6). Take the less lower result of each roll. Add 1d20 to your age.

24 Turbulent life: Roll d12+12 twice on this table.

Finally, provided that you haven't already become an adventurer and entered the zero-level funnel, you should roll on this table to determine what sort of precipitating event caused you to leave your old life behind to seek a life of adventuring. Some choose it and some are forced into it by circumstance. Use your life story so far, and the result of your roll to determine the particulars. For example, prior results may have told you that your character had married. Perhaps you roll 4 on this table—Death. In that case, your spouse might have died. Alternately, you might have had a brush with death that somehow changed you and made you want to leave your comfortable life behind.

What caused you to become an adventurer? (roll a d10)

1 Famine: Make a roll against either Intelligence or Stamina. Add 1d5 to your age.

2 War: Make a roll against either Strength or Agility. Add 1d5 to your age.

3 Pestilence: Make a roll against either Stamina or Luck. Add 1d5 to your age.

4 Death: Make a roll against either Strength or Luck. Add 1d5 to your age.

5 Epiphany: Make a roll against either Intelligence or Personality. Add 1d5 to your age.

6 Dream: Make a roll against either Stamina or Personality. Add 1d5 to your age.

7 Avarice: Make a roll against either Personality or Agility. Add 1d5 to your age.

8 Boredom: Make a roll against either Intelligence or Luck. Add 1d5 to your age.

9 Serendipity: Make a roll against two attributes of your choice. Add 1d5 to your age.

10 Roll twice on this table.

Now it's time to do some adventuring. Take these characters out into the world. Most of them will die, certainly, but those who survive may make names for themselves, or get stinking rich, or become insanely powerful. But that's another story. It's up to you to tell that story.

Ideas about Alternative Zero-level Character Generation for DCC

So, I was was thinking about something +Adam Muszkiewicz and I were discussing a while back: The character creation process for the original Traveler system. Stuff happened to your prior to your life as an adventurer. I'd like to do something similar for DCC. Here are the bones of it.

• Start with 3 character attributes at 10 and three at 11, distributed however you want them.
• You begin at an age of 13.
• You may be of either sex.
• Roll on the Occupation Table of your choice, or use Purple Sorcerer's excellent character generator. This roll represents your parent's (pick one) profession. 

After that, you're going to go through a process of determining what has happened so far in your life, before you decided to become an adventurer. Along the way, you will have a change to change your attributes (by rolling for them according to the circumstances you encounter) and using the following results. Note: This is also the table you'll use later, when you are told to make a roll against one or more attributes. None of your attributes can go below 3 or above 18. Ignore any rolls that would achieve either of those results.

3 (-3)
4-5 (-2)
6-8 (-1)
9-12 (+0)
13-15 (+1)
16-17 (+2)
18 (+3)

Then, roll on the following tables, using the results as inspiration for your life's story prior to becoming an adventurer:

Where are you from? (d16)

• 1-5 A farm
• 6-8 A village
• 9-10 A town
• 11-12 A city
• 13-14 A wilderness area
• 15 A war zone
• 16 Nomadic

What did you do for the first part of your life? (roll a d24)

• 1-8 You carry on the family tradition, following in the footsteps of your mother/father (roll once against each attribute). Hereafter, ignore any result that makes you change your occupation. Add 1d10 years to your age.
• 9-10 You are press-ganged by a high noble for a war. Change your occupation to "person-at-arms." Make rolls against Strength, Agility, Stamina. Add 1d5 years to your age.
• 11-12 You run away from your home to pursue a personal ambition (pick an occupation associated with that ambition). Make rolls against Stamina, Personality, and Luck. Add 1d5 years to your age.
• 13-14 You are driven in shame from your home because of something terrible that you did (or are reputed to have done). Make rolls against Stamina and Intelligence. Add 1d5 years to your age.
• 15-16 You become a juvenile delinquent. Make rolls against Agility and Luck. Add 1d5 years to your age.
• 17-18 You receive formal schooling. Make rolls against Intelligence and Luck.Add 1d5 years to your age.
• 19-20 You get religion. Make rolls against Intelligence and Personality. Add 1d5 years to your age.
• 21-22 Apprenticeship. Make rolls against either Intelligence and Personality/Strength and Agility/Stamina and Luck. Add 1d5 years to your age.
• 23 You are blessed or corrupted in some manner. Roll against all attributes, modifying each as warranted.  Add 1d5 years to your age.
• 24 Roll twice on this table.

What happened next? (roll a d24)

• 1-12 You decided to become an adventurer. Make a roll against one Attribute (as determined by 1d6) Enter zero-level funnel.
• 13-16 You carry on what you were doing last time. Make the same rolls as before and add 1d10 to your age, and enter zero-level funnel.
• 17-18 You encounter a crisis event. Make rolls against Luck and one other attribute (as determined by 1d6).  Add 1d5 years to your age.
• 19-20 You change the course of your life. Roll on the previous table, ignoring repeated results, and add 1d10 to your age.
• 21 You marry. Make rolls against two of Personality, Intelligence, or Luck. Add 1d10 to your age.
• 22 You study with a master. Roll twice against two attributes of your choice. Take the higher result of each roll. Add 1d20 to your age.
• 23 You become an addict. Roll twice against two attributes (as determined by 1d6). Take the less lower result of each roll. Add 1d20 to your age.
• 24 Roll d12+12 twice on this table.

What caused you to become an adventurer? (roll a d10)

• 1 Famine: Make a roll against either Intelligence or Stamina. Add 1d5 to your age.
• 2 War: Make a roll against either Strength or Agility. Add 1d5 to your age.
• 3 Pestilence: Make a roll against either Stamina or Luck. Add 1d5 to your age.
• 4 Death: Make a roll against either Strength or Luck. Add 1d5 to your age.
• 5 Epiphany: Make a roll against either Intelligence or Personality. Add 1d5 to your age.
• 6 Dream: Make a roll against either Stamina or Personality. Add 1d5 to your age.
• 7 Avarice: Make a roll against either Personality or Agility. Add 1d5 to your age.
• 8  Boredom: Make a roll against either Intelligence or Luck. Add 1d5 to your age.
• 9 Serendipity: Make a roll against two attributes of your choice. Add 1d5 to your age.
• 10 Roll twice on this table.

The People in Your Neighborhood

My frequent collaborator, +Adam Muszkiewicz, and I have been emailing back and forth about Golden Ur-Hadad, The First City of Men. My first impulse in that discussion has been to try to draw maps (and boundaries) around the First City, while his has been to make it inclusive of... well... anything and everything. It's led to some interesting discussion, and it's been very productive for me. One of the more interesting things that's come out of it (for me) has been a reconception of what exactly is the basis of a campaign location. In this post, I'm going to discuss a somewhat different way to talk about the development of campaigns and the locales where they unfold.

Let me start by saying that good campaigns, like good stories, are not about where you are, but about whom you are with. In most RPGs a tavern is just a tavern, for example. The things that make a particular tavern unique or interesting has a lot more to do with who owns it and frequents it than where on a map it is. For example, if we want a tavern that's the proverbial "den of scum and villainy," the first thing to do is think about where to put it. However, where it is does not matter. It could be anywhere. It's not a den of scum and villainy because of where it is, but because of who you find when you enter it. It is what it is because of who is there and what those people do.

So, the cantina at Mos Eisley is not interesting because of where it is. It looks to be a pretty nondescript area. Once you enter, though, there's the band, the bartender, the various NPCs (both named and unnamed), and--very importantly--the relationships they establish (or already have) with the PCs. The guy whose "friend doesn't like you" is an interesting character because of his interaction with you, and the brawl that ensues as a result of that. The interaction itself revealed the presence of the Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi. The fact that Greedo was there (and did not shoot first) is why Han Solo became a fugitive, and he got caught up in the rebellion because of who he met there (e.g., Luke, Leia, etc.).

Do you see where I'm going with this? With interesting people in your neighborhoods, you don't need to think so hard about the places. They are certain kinds of people, with motivations, tastes, affiliations, etc. Those facts of character tell us a lot about what the particular places they inhabit will be like. Mos Eisley is not a den of scum and villainy because of its location (an out-of-the-way agricultural planet) but because of who is there. The cantina is a rough place because of who frequents it. The droids are important to Luke because of the Jawas. Luke becomes important to Obi-Wan because of the Sand People.

This goes back to an earlier set of posts I did about Factions and Domain Play. In retrospect, though, I'd like to amend my thinking. Domains matter because of Factions. Factions matter because of characters. Story emerges from the interactions of characters in light of their essential natures, their affiliation with factions, and only later does domain/location even become a concern.

So what do I do with this? I begin writing a setting by ensuring that there are interesting people there, and then let the rest of it unfold as it will. Sure, it's fine to have a sense of place, but putting place first is a mistake. Putting the people first is a better way to go.

The Character Class Conundrum and the Axes of Awesome, Part 2

In my last post, I explored, in general terms, a mechanic for flexible character generation, one that makes the assumption that the basic character archetypes each descend from either Fighter or Magic User. Now, for my next trick, I will try to figure out how it might be implemented.

I suggested the virtually any playable character could be conceived across three axes: Power, Skill, and Divinity.

The Power axis is about how the character does what he or she does to achieve in-game effects in large terms. That is, it's the character's ability to use force(s) of some kind(s). At one end of the spectrum, I put brute force (i.e., combat) and at the other I put arcane power (i.e., magic), because I'm thinking in terms of fantasy RPGs. Arcane power could, though, be changed to something else if need be.

The Skill axis is about the character's adoption of in-game knacks or capacities to do routine, in-world tasks (e.g., thieves' skills, any other skill checks based on the assumption of practical knowledge and ability). This would not apply to things that just about any character should be able to do--things based on ability scores like lifting heavy things (Strength) or jumping out of the way of a charging yak (Dexterity/Agility). Instead, these are "advanced" skills like lock picking, blacksmithing, animal handling, things like that. They are useful skills that are separate from the character's core damage mechanic (Power axis), but which could, conceivably be used to supplement it at times.

The Divinity axis is about the character's connection to the forces of the Unseen World, to gods and patrons, to the aether, to Nature, or whatever. This is, for me, the trickiest one to define. It's tricky because in some cases it seems to get into the first axis (Power) when we're dealing with arcane magic, but that problem is avoided if we make the assumption that part of what this axis brings is a way for the character to relate to the universe, rather than to his or her own personal power. Even with something like Nature or the Winds of Magic, for example, the character must commune in some way with an external power or potential. This is more clearly evident when we make that external power or potential a deity or supernatural patron of some sort.

So, then, how do we make this work? I think at the lowest levels, it would be something like a generic modifier in that category. At higher levels, it would be more powerful, and potentially better defined. Maybe it would apply to what I said in a post I wrote a couple months ago, which proposed creating a DCC character "menu" off of which one could select powers or capacities (e.g., spell casting or thief skills or ability to use a Deed Die in combat). I think that's a good framework for this purpose, but we needn't tie it to DCC characters, certainly.

Now, to be clear, the way I'm thinking about this system for character generation only really applies at the time of creation. We're talking about characters' basic potential. Advancement through levels (if that's what is determined to be how characters get better, and if that's something that we are concerned about) would require additional thought and development. I'm not going to tackle that here, at least not yet.

So, here's my first stab at using this mechanic. At character creation, the player would have a pool of points to spend (say, for example, 4 points). He or she may spend up to 3 points on any one axis. Those points could reflect more generic advantages (i.e., modifiers to rolls in that category of abilities) or more specific skills that are members of the category captured by that axis. The player needn't spend points in every category, but would be required (if there are 4 points available) to pick two axes to which to assign points. Another assumption I have here is that the number of points used would not result in a linear result. That is, spending 2 points in something is worth more than twice as much as spending just 1.

Let's take a stab at creating a character in this way. Let's say I want to make an assassin with some arcane powers and some fighting ability.

The Power Axis: This is fighting skill and magical powers. Let's say I decide to put 1 point in fighting and 1 point in magic.

The 1 point in fighting could be a generic modifier that affects both offense and defense (+1 to hit, +1 AC), but doesn't really provide much flavor to the character. It could, alternately, be the Warrior's Deed Die. This has, potentially, a great deal more power to hit and to damage, but wouldn't apply outside of that specific mechanic. If you chose a Deed Die, you couldn't just say, "I apply my +1 modifier to this other thing that isn't the Deed Die." So, greater power for particular effects, but more range of application for less specific effects. Alternately, something like the Deed Die might require at least 2 points buy-in, because it is very powerful, potentially.

The 1 point in magic is pretty weak, but useful. Let's say that 1 point would grant me the ability to cast a particular spell type (e.g., healing, fire, illusion, etc.), but it would be limited in some way. I only get to cast it once per day, for example, or maybe it comes at some cost (e.g., spell burn).

For my one point in fighting ability, I would get a generic +1 modifer. For my magic power, I get one spell. Had I spent more, I could have gotten a more powerful version of that ability. I'm not going to specify what that might look like in this post.

At this point, I would have 2 points remaining at this point to assign to one or both of the other axes.

The Skill Axis: This has to do with things my guy can do that are like skills. I'll spend 1 point on this. I could spend 2, but then my example wouldn't get to the other axis, and I want to do that.

For my 1 point, I would select "Thief Skills." These would be the typical skills one gets as a thief, and I would have an advantage that someone who doesn't select them would not have. That's not to say, for example that someone could not attempt to climb sheer surfaces. This character, though, would be able to accomplish routine versions of the task automatically, with no roll. More challenging tasks would require a roll, but the character would make that roll with a modifier (+1 to start, and maybe it could improve later). [Note: I'm going to assume, here, that the +1 modifier is to a d20 roll].

The Divinity Axis: This character spends 1 point on the Divinity Axis. This might mean, for example, that the character is more in tune with the universe in some way. Maybe he or she can "feel" the probabilities and potential outcomes of certain actions, or whatever. As a mechanic, that could be reflected in the character's ability to re-roll a missed to-hit roll, or to negate a successful attack against him/her. This is pretty powerful, so we'd have to limit it. Maybe that's a skill you can use once per day or once per combat (Hmm... starting to sound like 4th ed. D&D... not sure I like that). In any case, it's pretty generic and fairly weak, but it's potentially very useful. At higher buy-in, this connection to the universe (in whatever way one is connected) would have other, more powerful effects. I'm not quite ready to figure out how that might work, but I imagine this would be a bit more like having a diety or patron (as per DCC rules) or the ability to do things like lay on hands to heal (instead of using a spell), or something like that.

So, there you go. The first pass at a mechanic for the Tri-Axial Character Creation system. I'm not sure what I think about it yet, but I think it may have some potential.

The Character Class Conundrum and the Axes of Awesome

Recently, I've been thinking a lot about character classes in RPGs. Classes are useful, in that they help to codify archetypes, and those archetypes help to provide conceptual cues related to game genre, power relationships among different classes, and so forth. They are, in effect, shorthand ways to speak of the applied, practical power of any particular character. They are the character's capabilities in short form.

So, if you've got a cleric, you know his powers derive from a relationhip to the Divine, however it might be conceived. Maybe it's a set of magical capabilities (spells) or the power of faith (turning undead). It's also about the characters relationship to combat. A cleric gets armor, or example (a wizard does not), but does not fulfill "fighting man" in the same way as a straight fighter. The paladin, of course, is the bridge between them, and a bullshit class in my opinion, but that's a fight for another day.

Then you have thieves. Thieves wear light armor, creep around stealing and backstabbing and doing all kinds of special thief stuff. They advance in their thievery and get better at it. They can also do some other things well, but the thing that makes a thief a thief is his or her unique skillset. And they're fun to play, so there's that as well.

Here's the thing though. Outside of the fighter and the wizard, the rest of the character classes are kind of bullshit. Wait! Hear me out!

When we think about the power of characters, part of what we're trying to say is, how does this guy (or girl) put a hurtin' on the bad guys? Only the fighter and wizard are purely what they are, simply by doing what they do. The fighter hits things until they die, and the wizard zaps them with arcane energies to do Bad Things to them. A cleric, well, that's sort of a fighterish, wizardlike, hyper-religious dude who hates skeletons (like a lot). A thief? Well that's sort of a fighter who attacks from hiding really well, and has some tinkering skills. Oh, and after a while the thief can use scrolls. Pretty cool, huh?

Here's the thing about clerics and thieves, though. Who freakin' needs 'em? I can do the same thing with just two classes, provided that character generation and development framework provides me with a way to do it. Games like Lamentations of the Flame Princess and Stars Without Number, for example, have specialists and experts to take the place of thieves, and provide a skill-driven conception of that character class. It makes them more flexible. Some systems don't have clerics, but instead have wizards who do healing magic.

Here's what I'd like to consider: All characters could conceivably be derived from the fighter or the wizard classes. From there, we can put them into a triaxial system to vary from the purity of those two archetypes.

The first axis is a continuum of power effects, from brute physicality to arcane magic. This represents how the character does big things in the world, how he or she kills the baddies (among other things). Very few characters would be purely one or the other, but doing so should allow him or her to enjoy benefits for doing one thing really, really well.

Add in a second axis where the continuum goes from Specialized to Eclectic. This represents how the character focuses his or her skills. At the specialized end, the Archetype is very pure; at the eclectic end, it is muddied by other influences. So, a player could have a wizard who specializes in arcane magic, but also is a scholar of relgion, has some tinkering skills, is excellent and interaction with NPCs, and you have the makings of a wizard with a healthy dash of the rogue in him. That's a playable character. At the specialized end, the character gets what goes with the wizard/fighter archetype, in terms of fulfilling each of those archetypes it the expected ways. He or she would be able to do things that less specialized characters could not, but would sacrifice the flexibility less specialized characters could do. For example, a specialized wizard might be able to keep spells after casting them, or learn more of them and at higher levels, or get Read Magic and Dispel Magic more or less as a freebie. There are a lot of ways you might approach that. I'm just spitballing some ideas here.

Finally, the third axis has to do with the characters relationship to the Divine, Spirit, the Winds of Magick, or the influence of the Hidden Realm, or whatever else you want to call it. At one end you have the Realist. This sort of character has no truck with gods, demons or other such creatures. Perhaps the character doesn't believe in them, perhaps he or she doesn't trust them. It literally doesn't matter why. As a result, perhaps the character is resistant to the effects associated with such things (effect: enhanced saving throws versus magic), or something of that nature. However, that character would never have a chance to get bailed out by those things without a significant life change. At the end of alignment with such powers, he or she is able to draw upon them in significant ways, but also is subject to the whims of whatever fates govern them. The end of the spectrum, I'll call the Idealist. So, I am in touch with the Winds of Magic. This gives my magic-attuned character the ability to detect such forces, or to more easily modulate them, or whatever. It also makes it more likely that he or she will get corrupted by chaos energies and grow tentacles, for example.

I think that there are a variety of games that take a very open approach to doing these things (SFX! and FATE are some good example systems for that kind of open approach). What I'm attempting to do here is to stay more constrained and limited to the fantasy roots of my original example. That said, there's no reason this couldn't open up into other genres, or that it wouldn't be a good way to mix up genres.

Anyway, there's a basic framework. Three axes related to Force, Skills, and Hidden Powers. Sometime soon, I'd like to develop mechanics for creation and development. In doing so, I'd like to avoid as much as possible the min/max problem. I'd also like to allow for further development of the character based on what happens in game play (i.e., development based on play, not plan). You start with a certain cluster of capabilties. Those can change over time. They can also develop and become more powerful.

DCC, the Minor Leagues, and Some Ideas for Domain Play

So, I mentioned (several times) in my last post that there were too many PCs in too small a space. The corridor in which they fought their largest (and longest) battle to date was too tight to allow any real maneuvering. This resulted in having too many characters with too little to do. This is a problem, but one of our own device. And it is fixable by another such device. This will result in fun. This will be good. So what is it, then?

We're going to institute a new rule for our game: No more than two characters for each player. No zeroes unless it's a funnel game. We may fudge this to some extent, depending on who's playing, but this is going to be the way of it going forward. When you have five players in the game, each with four characters, and you ram them into a narrow tunnel... well, let's just say this is a suboptimal gaming experience.

What I'd rather do is have fewer characters, but the DCC system really kind of relies on having a pipeline of characters to rely upon. When you get 1st level guys, you still worry about death, and about (to put it in baseball terms) the "minor leagues." This is where your up-and-coming talent is recruited, trained, honed into the weapons of your heart's desire. I'm thinking that I want to do something with +Adam Muszkiewicz' Winos and Wastrels rules for PC down time. I'm starting to think that could be turned into a Long Game sort of thing.

Here's the thing. I'm not certain, to what extent I want to leave "domain-level" stuff up to the whims of the dice. Sure, it's fucking DCC (Hells yeah!). I get that part. But I think having a mechanic be player-driven adds a level to it that helps people like me-- i.e., guys who fight ADD with OCD. I like to tweak on the details like this. This is about narrative. This is about My Story. The fact that I write a lot of stuff for my campaigns, pretty much a whole, playable module (beta version at least... okay, maybe gamma), means that I do get pretty invested in story, as such. So, I want the characters to be a part of it and, very importantly, to have my players make their own places in it. I don't say "to let them tell their own stories," because I mean to say something a bit different. I mean that I like to see them work within the context of the game I present. I like to see them use things in the game-as-presented to do shit they want to do. Yeah, that's the definition of "sandbox play" pretty much. It'll be nice to have a way to do it more systematically, with a "system" and dice and whatnot.

So, I was thinking about just plowing ahead with it in narrative. Fuck that, though. Let's do something that at least involves dice and strategy. I want something a bit more complex that Winos and Wastrels, and probably something that uses a common deck of cards as a randomizer. A lot of people have done stuff with those. So, both dice and cards. A gambler's wet dream. That sounds fun.

I also think that Stars Without Number (from Sine Nomine) has a neato faction system that could be examined for its possibilities. It's got some ways, mechanically, to do some things I want to do. It helps with creation of factions, a mechanic to have them "compete" for influence and resources and whatnot. It has a turn system to manage that sort of meta-play. Those are all good things. But notice that I'm keep this description in terms of how the system functions instead of what it is. I'd like to see it work more like DCC and less like SWN. Blood and Treasure might also be a place to look (Yeah, and ACKS, but I don't own it, and don't want to spend any more money.).

Some observations about DCC:

The emphasis that the rules put on things like guilds for fighters and thieves, particularly, suggests that they are aware of the impact of zero level entry on longterm play style. Essentially, these give the player the possibility of running a stable of PCs. He or she might have a whole bunch of characters to play, but uses the one(s) he/she wants to. That's pretty cool. You can find a way to keep your characters together, make a story about why they're together, etc. It helps to tell the PCs' story. That's the bottom line. It's the longterm answer to the "Why?" of PC motivation.

In the Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad campaign, they players have decided to form a mercenary company. I may have suggested it when Adam was running the game, but I could just have well have done it while GMing. In any case, I really love Glen Cook's series of books about the Black Company. I love them a lot. I've probably read them all at least 8 times. At least. (BTW, it's all just a romance in the end, and a good one at that.) Anyway, that's about a mercenary company over the course of about 30 or 40 years. It's such an incredible source of ideas about things like how a Company interacts with patrons. It talks about lore and people and legends from the Company's history. It gives them a symbol, and a wyrd. That results in some compelling fantasy. Well, I really like it at least.

We also will probably start doing zero level funnels separately from regular campaign stuff. It's the minor league game that gets those PCs ready to compete in the "big leagues." Also, having a stable of players allow us to make use of more modules, especially to mold a party to match the module in term  of level and number of players recommended. Now, mind you, I'm willing to run a higher level thing for lower level characters. Not so much the other way around.

So we need to make Winos and Wastrels work for domain play. We need to consider the notion of factions and faction interaction. We should make the players drive the formation of their faction. We should make that a Thing in the campaign, and use it to talk about what players on their "downtime" are doing. Hell, maybe we can even use their stats to make things happen. A high Personaility could be crucial back in Ur-Hadad, but may conflict with the players' need to have a cleric in the party. There's a lot of ways to leverage individual player powers against the adventuring party's needs.

So, following that, we need some way to incorporate the PCs' stats into something related to faction play. I don't think it need only be Personality. We could also think about how many are Warriors or what the total mods for Strength or Agility might be, and how we could incorporate them into Toughness and Espionage, or some other variables in a faction mechanic.

Finally, and this is important, I think, to managing the stables, domain play should be a feature of DCC from the point where a Zero levels the very first time. It shoud be on players minds for their PCs. It shoul drive the story of the campaign. Most importantly, it should be really, really, fucking fun.

Anyway, this is the preliminary sketch I have in my head.

Where do they go when the dungeons are closed?

Oh, where do they go when the dungeons are closed,

And the lich's crypt stands stark and untenanted?

Do our heroes of might like to drink, fuck, and fight,

Or keep confidences with demons and other dark denizens?

Does each warrior have a hobby, 

And each cleric a vice?

Does the wizard like sailing, 

And does the thief breed show-mice?

Does the dwarf lay abed, 

Just a hirsuit sleepy head,

His axe put aside for the nonce?

And what does it cost?

How many silvers are lost,

On games of chance,

On ale and whores and feasts?

Are our dungeoneers civilized,

Well-kempt, well-bred, and polite?

Or are they just beasts,

Like the ones that they killed,

Who finance these revels each night?

Adam M. and I were discussing what happens to adventurers between their adventures. It's my thought that such people would be inclined by nature and by chance to spend some or their loot. Maybe they're slowly acquiring a lair of some sort. Surely, one must have bed and board to keep fit. Perhaps such folk have a pastime or interest of some sort over which they obsess. Or maybe they have vices trifling or troubling toward which they gravitate when there's nothing to stay their hands. Idle hands and all...

I want something mechanical to help players flesh out their characters in some way. I'm tempted to emulate Joshua Macy's approach in the SFX! mechanic for "shticks," which is to say let the player decide, within a certain set of parameters, what the thing is that he or she is doing. These are "typical" actions for that PC, and things that cater to their strengths, usually. It's a very flexible mechanic, I think I'd like something a little crunchier, with random tables and so forth. Unfortunately, I'm too damned lazy to create those, so am back to something a bit more flexible. That's just fine. My players are pretty high-imagination/low-maintenance.

This particular mechanic, though, is not really about strengths and capabilities, though certainly they could be in the mix. It's not about what you can do, necessarily. It's more about your motivations, both long and short term. It encompasses your habits, both good and bad. Some general questions could be asked to get started. A lot of RPGs do this, but usually just to add flavor to the character. Here are some flavor questions which could conceivably lead to something more crunchy, mechanically.

What do you want out of life, in a permanent sense?
What do you want right now?
What do you really love?
What do you love maybe a little too much?
How are you living when you're not on the road?
What are your habits and what do they cost you to support?

So, for example, let's consider my DCC character Berzerker Joe. Joe's a warrior (naturally, with that moniker). He's strong and agile, but not above average in any other way. Maybe he likes to go to the gladitorial pits. Maybe he likes to drink, wench, and brawl. Maybe he has a little lady (or man). Maybe he's saving up to buy a bit of land. Certainly he has daily expenses. What does he do to satisfy them?

So, as Joe's player, I see him (a chaotic warrior) as very much living in the now. He's a serious Conan of Cimmeria fanboy, but that's another matter. Let's answer those questions, above, to see what we can figure out about Joe.

For long-term goals, I could see him wanting to found a mercenary company, and have a chapter house in Mustertown. Just a place where he and his company could crash at night, with a lock on the door and maybe some guards (0-level guys who are looking to advance in the company). He'd like to have a reputation as a badass. He'd like some great stories to tell, eventually, should he survive. He'd like to make that one big score, and be set for life. Hell, maybe he could get a place inside the walls of Ur-Hadad if he gets lucky, and settle down with a hot shield maiden.

What does he want right now?
Joe wants a beer. (Carousing tables!)
Joe wants to get laid. (Nope. Not going all FATAL on you. This is getting handwaved.).
Joe wants to get some new armor and maybe a horse. He wants to maybe go hunting tomorrow. (And these things cost money. They can also be used as mechanism for gaining new knowledge/skills or acquiring items "on layaway.")
He wants to play tonk and roll the dice, see if he can pick up a little scratch. (Integral game of chance, here?)

What does he love?
Joe really loves a good bar brawl. (I probably would not use this. No combat without player involvement.) He also likes betting of the gladiatorial games. This expense can vary, wildly, depending on his Luck (Integral gambling mechanic rears its head again. I should leave this one to Adam M. Hey, Adam, invent a game of chance native to Ur-Hadad, and a mechanic for resolving it, preferably opposed rolls.)

What does he love a bit too much?
Joe really loves the ladies of the night just a little too much. He's just a simple guy and hadn't seen a lot of pretty, sophisticated ladies before he got to Mustertown. He gets infatuated with particular girls every once in a while, and some of them are infatuated with him as well, whether for his dashing charm or his steady supply of silver and other gifts. (This could involve both Personality and Luck checks in DCC. Could have Charisma and Wisdom in D&D. I don't have a clear picture in my head at this point how to approach this mechanically.)

How are you living when you're not on the road?
Right now, he sleeps in an inn. He likes to get a private room when he can, but often has to settle for the common room. He hates the common room. It's full of thieves. So, where you sleep has a variety of potential outcomes (I'm not sure I want to get into the mechanics of how particular physical effects based on rest actually work. However, if one rests in a place of one's own, one may recover faster in various ways--e.g., from Spellburn or wounds, or what have you). The food may be better or worse, and the booze as well. (I could see random diseases, hangover, and other fun stuff happening with this. It should have a distribution curve with a very strong central tendency. The extremes should be rare but with actual impact on the PC.) The accommodations can be more or less secure. (Want to sleep in the common room? There's a chance you get robbed.)

So, there are some motivations leading to some mechanics. Still kind of sketchy, and leaning in the direction of waaaaay too many little fiddly bits. I'd like it to be a bit more streamlined, something that can be handled in 15 minutes, not an hour). Well, let's start with things that exist in threes. Three is a magic number, as you probably already know, so that's auspicious. Three categories is what we need: Goals, Needs, and Vices.


Those three broad categories are useful for my purposes, in that they also provide three areas into which points can be put, once bought. That's right. There's a point-buy system in the offing, with points bought affecting the which die in the chain you get to use.

I'm thinking that it might be nice, especially with DCC, to allow characters with less potential (in terms of stats) to benefit more from this system than those who are more gifted. Seems like a fair trade to me, and makes this guy (STR 4, AG 7, STAM 3, PERS 5, INT 6, LUCK 4) feel a little bit better about his lot in life.

However, we must consider that the broader functions of this mechanic should provide some tensions among themselves.

Goals

Goals are force multipliers: They are capable of helping the character out. Generate a positive number here.

Things you can put your money into, long-term. Things you can put effort into, long-term. Things that you can build for the future (and to improve your current situation). Every PC should have at least one of these. These outcomes, if invested in, should pay off in the long term (how long, ultimately, depends on the goal). This interacts with Vices, and is its opposite. Good outcomes here negate bad outcomes there, and vice versa.

This should be a base d6, with a dice chain, and the potential to explode.

Needs

Needs are constants. They may be set at a level and produce fairly steady results for that level. This is either a positive or negative number.

You need to eat and drink, to have a place to rest, to be entertained in some way or to improve oneself or to acquire things you need to live your life. Every PC should figure out what they need to spend money on when they're not munching iron rations in a dungeon somewhere. This should include choices for room and board, which may change if a housing Goal is met, for example. It should also include other things. Maybe we can bring in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs here:

Bio-basic needs (food, drink, sleep)
Safety needs (shelter and clothing)
Belonging (being in a gang or club, being part of a fellowship or family)
Esteem (for self and from others)
Self-Actualization (being all that you can be)

This hierarchy is so thoroughly Modern, that it seems silly to apply it to a fantasy RPG setting, but whatever. Joe's self-esteem will not be undermined by such concerns. For sake of ease in application, I'll simply say that Esteem and Self-Actualization get dropped. They're harder to model. The others equate, roughly, to:

Bio-basic: Your lodgings and food. Spend more money to avoid problems. Spending excess money can, in rare cases, make it easier to meet Belonging needs (potential contacts, more loyal henchmen, club dues, etc.)

Safety: This reduces simply to either getting robbed or not. The more you spend, the less likely the outcome. It gets subsumed in the same roll with other needs.

Belonging: This has to do with the company you keep. Good company means you have more and better friends to help you achieve short and longterm goals. Bad company means you tend to pursue your vices more than your goals, with predictable consequences.

In any case, meeting needs means avoiding negative outcomes. You gotta pay a certain amount to make that happen. Failing to, or being unable to, means that it's more likely you'll have a negative outcome.

This should generate a small number that affects the Goals and Vices in some way. I think maybe when you spend money to deal with what you really need, it affects the dice chains for Goals/Vices.

Make this a 2d6 mechanic, with 7 being the "neutral" outcome. Anything higher, and you get to add to the Goals dice chain. Anything lower, and you add to the Vices dice chain.

Vices

Vices are force multipliers in a negative sense: They can undermine a character's ability to take care of him or herself, and thwart the accomplishment of goals. Generate a negative number here.

This is where you spend your money in ways that don't really advance your goals and needs. A PC may be a drunk or an addict, bet too much on games of chance, dabble in arcane magics of dubious utility, or whatever it is that he or she does to blow off steam. A PC should always have at least one vice.

I think these get modeled like Goals, but in a negative sense. With goals, the more you spend the more likely a good outcome. With Vices, the less you spend in this category, the more likely a bad outcome. So, it's not so much that you're spending to indulge your vices, more more that you are spending NOT to indulge them.

Again, like Goals, we start with d6, but this time spending money makes the die chain go down. We have the potential for exploding dice as well.

Putting It All Together

Between adventures, have the players tell you what their PCs are doing with their wealth.

First deal with needs. A certain amount must be spent to avoid bad outcomes by satisfying Needs. Make this approximately 10% of wealth held by the PC. This will get you in at d4.

Spending more can move the dice chain up to d6 or even as high as d8. Spending less can drive it down. Spending only 5% drives it down to d3 and spending 0% drives it to d2

Roll the resulting die plus a d6. Anything higher than 7 allows you to either (a) increase the Goals dice chain one step or (b) reduce the Vices dice chain one step.

So, the default would be d4+d6. Spending and extra 5% would get you 2d6. Spending an extra 10% would get you d6+d8. Spending an extra 15% would get you d8+d8. Make this the upper limit.

Spending only 5% would reduce the die to d3. Spending 0% makes it a d2. It would be really hard to have good things happen if you don't spend money.


Next, the PC can "bet" an additional 10% to move the dice chain in either Goals or Vices. For Goals, this would move the dice chain up. For Vices, it would move the dice chain down. Thus, each dice chain would vary from d4 to d8. The die used is also affected by the "Needs" roll, as described above.

These two dice (on for Goals, one for Vices) are rolled as opposed, and as exploding. Each point of one cancels out one point of the other. If the total is anything other than zero, then either Goals or Vices is activated, and there's a table of outcomes which I've not written yet.

Example:

Berzerker Joe decides he's not going to spend any extra money on his Needs. He'll go the bare minimum (10%). He gets a d4 to go with d6.  He rolls a 2 and a 3, respectively. That's a 5. A five is less than the 7 he needed. It will drive his Vices die chain from d6 to d8.

Joe decides go ahead and spend the extra 10% at this point, hoping to generate a better outcome, despite his bad choices (this could represent things like bribing authorities or buying drinks for a group of people who might otherwise beat and rob you). He chooses to use that to drive his Goals die up to the d8 level. He could also have driven the Vices back down to a d6.

So, now there's an opposed roll between d8 and d8. He rolls a 7 for Goals and a 3 for Vices, so neither of them "exploded." The final result is a net +4. This is a positive outcome. Presumably this will contribute toward the accomplishment of a Goal or, alternately, get converted into a financial or other material gain. He did something moderately successfully and gets modestly rewarded.

Now, I'm not entirely sure where to take it from here. I'm thinking that a table is needed, one going from a central zero-point, out to +20 and -20. This would for the most part cover the dice chains used for Goals and Vices, even taking exploding dice into account. I'll work on that later.

In basic outline, I'd like to give players options for both learning new things, adding or subtracting from their material wealth, causing or curing various ailments. Adding to or subtracting from attributes (in rare cases). There are a host of possibilties. Mainly, though, it's like to see it result in them being able to make (a) a choice about what happens and (b) convert the outcomes into something that is about the character's ongoing story, for good for for ill. Maybe he makes a friend or enemy. Gains or loses wealth. Get a discount or a markup on some materials or on a piece of property. That sort of thing would have to be determined specifically according to the PC's stated Goals/Vices.

So, what do you think about this mechanic? Is it fun? Is it boring? Is it fucking stupid, and why don't I just shut up already? Any ideas of other things to do?