Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Revisiting Gold for XP

In my games, I don't like the idea of characters leveling up on the spot. They need to take some time somewhere and do something productive towards their idiom. I call such actions Carousing Checks for simplicity, but they are actually quite disparate actions. They cost money to do properly. Thus, in my campaigns, experience points comes only from gold spent on Carousing Checks.
Basically, there are a few different Carousing Checks I have come up with:
  • Carousing as in epic partying (Conan, Fafhrd, etc. idiom)
  • Researching arcane, esoteric, or alchemical mysteries (wizard, librarian, etc. idiom)
  • Martial Training (ninja, fighter, ranger, specialist etc. idiom)
  • Sacrificing gold towards a god, ancestor, spirit, or demi-human clan hoard (cleric, demi-human, anybody idiom)
  • Establishing a keep (anyone)
  • Vision quests (psions, shamans)
Luck plays a role in all these checks, as we play the DCCRPG. Thus, when you roll a carousing check, you are going to add in your Luck modifier, be it good or bad. If the carousing check comes up as a 15 or better, you get to roll on a good bonus effects table. If you get a 1, you have to roll on a bad side effects table. Each kind of carousing check has it's own table.
If you are carousing with a specific goal in mind, you can skip the table when rolling a 15 or higher and opt for that goal instead (the DM may set a DC of 20 for very hard things, or refuse things beyond your level and background). I'll give some sample goals for each kind of carousing:
  • Carousing via parties: gain the eye of a fair lady, get some crucial gossip, case a joint, get rumors for a quest of your design
  • Research: figuring out the magical properties of an object, researching how to kill a legendary monster, creating a potion, doing a ritual, creating a spell, communicating with demons, get rumors for a quest of your design
  • Martial Training: learning the quivering palm technique, gaining knowledge of poisons, building resistance to something, get rumors for a quest of your design, get some martial followers
  • Sacrifice: Appeasing a ghost, establishing a congregation, cleansing a tainted site, ascertaining the will of the gods (get a quest), find a magic steed
  • Establishing: Building a new wing, gaining a library, ensorcelling/creating/hiring guardians
  • Visions: Learning a mystery, communing with spirits, unlocking a riddle, get rumors for a quest of your design 
How does one distinguish a carousing goal from a regular goal? By resources (gold) and time spent to do so. Each of the carousing actions takes hours if not days to accomplish, and time is another factor the GM can use to curb abuse of the system. Of course, the more frequently one carouses, the more frequently they may roll a 1, so a player who carouses every day is living on the edge...

Fighters get 10% again on training actions, and Thieves and halflings get 15% again on carousing. If you invite your leveled team-mates to a carousing action, they get 10% the experience you do, but they have to roll a Luck check to see if they fumble (no good results are possible if you are a hanger-on).

Another 10% to any PCs who've completed a quest or slain a boss-monster since they last caroused. So this is another reason to save up between parties.

Gold needed to be spent to level:
1st lvl @ 100 gill
2nd lvl @ 900 gill
3rd lvl @ 4,000 gill
4th lvl @ 6000 gill
5th lvl @ 10,000 gill
6th lvl @ 15,000 gill
7th lvl @ 21,000 gill
8th lvl @ 28,000 gill
9th lvl @ 36,000 gill
10th lvl @ 45,000 gill plus a quest to placate or overthrow the ever-jealous gods

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

New DCCRPG Cleric Toy: Invoking Gods With Worship Spells


A Worship Spell is the cleric's answer to the patron spell. One difference is that merely casting it invokes a wider range of cleric failure for the day, inverse of how good the cleric rolled. If you can't get the job done with what your god sent you, what good are you to that god? In addition, if you are casting a Worship Spell in a situation that doesn't seem to concern the god (you trying to live is an okay excuse though), that disapproval die is going to get a step worse.

Another difference: If you have already gotten a certain result for the day, go one step higher and take double disapproval. 

If your spellcheck result is 1, the spell fails, roll on the diety disapproval table, and you increase your daily disapproval range by 1d3.
If it is 2-11, the spell fails and your disapproval range increases by 1d4 for the day.
If it is 12-13, a success and your disapproval range increases by 1d5 for the day.
If it is 14-17, a success and your disapproval range increases by 1d6 for the day.
If it is 18-21, a success and your disapproval range increases by 1d7 for the day.
If it is 22-25, a success and your disapproval range increases by 1d8 for the day.
If it is 26-29, a success and your disapproval range increases by 1d10 for the day.
If it is 30 or higher, a success and your disapproval range increases by 1d12 for the day.

Sample Worship Spell for clerics of Cthulhu
1          Failure. Roll on the Deity disapproval table.
2-11     Mere failure. Cthulhu is sleeping.
12-13  Cthulhu snores! A psionic wave erupts from your position, making the area filled with shin-deep water and disorienting everyone, save yourself, who get a -d to attacks until the end of your next turn or as long as the player can keep up snoring sounds. The water never seems to recede...
14-17  Cthulhu stirs! All psionic creatures in the area take 1d5 damage. A tentacle grows on your back and gives you +2 AC for one turn.
18-21  Cthulhu has the munchies. All your foes make a DC 10 Reflex save. Those that fail get a bite taken out of them by unseen beings for 1d4+CL damage and must make a morale check. You can make this happen again each round for a turn if you make DC 10 Will save.
22-25   Cthulhu is drunk dialing. All portals, gates, and doors within 100' are flung open for 1 turn and strange apparations start to seep out of them. If anyone goes through such a portal, they will be transported to a random plane. Your enemies must make a moral check at -1d.
26-29   Cthulhu is dead, but even death may die. Every dead body in a ten-foot sphere centered around you comes back to a semblance of life as an intelligent, corporeal undead. They treat you as a friend and Cthulhu as a god who's will they now heed, but otherwise are the same being they once were.
30+      Cthuluu is awakening?! The ground cracks open and waters rush out, distracting everyone for at least one round as they suddenly find themselves swimming. 1d3+CL Innsmouthian fish-men pop out of the depths and fight your enemies. Roll a d%, and compare it against your disapproval range for the day. If you roll within that range, Cthulhu is really awake. An apocalypse is coming...