the DCC play style and world-building

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CapnZapp
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the DCC play style and world-building

Post by CapnZapp »

I have found the DCC game rules and they appear to be a fresh breath after many years of 5E/PF2 gaming. I had been searching a long time for the perfect game rules for a "classic" Sword & Sorcery themed campaign (the shortest way to explain what I mean: "watch the 1982 Conan movie"), and now I think I have found them :)

One thing, though - world-building. I realize it is deliberate that many DCC adventures are meant to be dungeons you can place anywhere at any time. So that's fine. Still, I need content that binds these delves together, content that features cities and neutral NPCs, as opposed to dungeons and "NPCs there to be killed" :)

I'm looking at fine S&S-y adventures like "The Spider God's Bride and Other Tales" and I miss the DCC quality of being directly useful gaming material, skipping the boring backstory (at least until it is needed)...
Last edited by CapnZapp on Fri Dec 10, 2021 5:43 am, edited 2 times in total.
CapnZapp
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Re: the DCC play style and world-building (Spoiler Alert, possibly nsfw)

Post by CapnZapp »

Take the eponymous adventure from that collection as an example: The Spider-God's Bride, an adventure for 2nd to 3rd level characters.

SPOILER ALERT (I would have used spoiler tags if they worked here)

A short summary of the adventure: The PCs get hired as caravan guards to a priest, his body-guard and his slave-girl Daniya. They travel to the priest's home city, where they get attacked by ninjas(?). Retreating to the cellars beneath the house, Daniya backstabs her master and gives birth to a spider-thing, which the PCs are left to handle. The End.

Everything is right with this module conceptually. Everything is also wrong with this module, execution-wise.

Why does the scenario withhold the big secret from the players? Why are decisions taken by NPCs instead of being given to PCs to make? Why not give the players the adventure?!

A much more cool approach would be to establish that the destination city is oppressed by a cruel ruler. Poor folk occasionally do desperate things to improve their lot in life, including dabbling into the forbidden.

Furthermore, give the PCs a hated foe in the destination city, a foe normally too strong or guarded to attack (its ruler, for example).

Now, set up the journey to give the PCs a reason and a way to find out, first that Daniya is pregnant and due any week now, and then to uncover her secret: she's a desperate cultist that let herself be impregnated by the Spider-God. She's on the run from Flame cultists who believe her very existence is blasphemy, but when she sought the protection of the priest, he promptly captured her intending to sell her once they arrive in the city. Unfortunately he was delayed and derailed by those pesky Flame fanatics, and he's left with no choice but to hire the PCs as sellswords if he is to hope he will reach the city in time (while he still has something to sell)...

Now, the choices are put squarely where they belong: in front of the players!

Do they get rid of the slave-girl and her abominable spawn? (Perhaps they turn her over to the Flame cultists; perhaps they dispatch of her themselves)
Do they split the gains from the sale with the priest?
Or do they help her achieve her real goal - which is to infiltrate the castle and assassinate the ruler, the very same person the PC hates! She's an attractive slave-girl, and the murder weapon is concealed in a way no palace guard will ever find!
Or [insert random outcome only a player could come up with]?

Zapp

PS. Again I wish spoiler tags worked -- Not Safe For Work SPOILERS --

Instead of featuring a spawn that just works every time in the sad D&D tradition of turning everything supernatural into a reliable tool, how about:

When Daniya is revealed to be a heavily pregnant bride to the Spider-God and decides to gives birth, roll a d6:
1. Daniya is screaming out defiant curses as she is consumed by a swarm of diabolical spiders each the size of a child's fist. The spiderlings lack cohesion and the assassination target (and everybody else) is safe, relatively speaking.
2. Daniya gives birth to a spider swarm, which scuttles forth to consume the person(s) Daniya appears to hate the most. The swarm is capable of consuming one person each round, leaving only a skeleton and equipment behind. After consuming 10d6 hit points in total the sated spiderlings scatter harmlessly. There is no defense, no save - only a timely area attack or an immediate and clever retreat can save you. Only if the swarm cannot find anyone else to consume will it turn on its mother.
3. Daniya gives birth to a spider swarm as above, but each round she gets a 50% chance of taking control of her brood. If she manages to control her swarm before it has consumed its fill, it does not scatter - instead it loyally follows Daniya wherever she goes. Each day it leeches blood equal to 1d6 points of unhealable damage to her, and its daily consumption capacity is reduced by 2d6 as individual spiderlings shrivel up and die, exposed to the unfamiliar environs of the prime material plane. If Daniya dies before the swarm disintegrates (when its consumption capacity is reduced to zero dice), it scatters harmlessly after consuming her body.
4. Daniya goes into labor, but the strain is too great: she dies of exhaustion and blood-loss 1d6 rounds later, defiantly cursing under her breath. Twin spawns of Yot-Kamoth then springs forth, attacking randomly until each is defeated. If Daniya's bloated form is attacked during labor, each twin takes half damage.
5. Daniya goes into labor, and 1d3 rounds later the Spawn of Yot-Kamoth springs forth, defending its mother and otherwise attacking everyone until defeated. If Daniya is attacked during labor, the spawn takes equal damage.
6. Daniya goes into labor, and 1d3 rounds later a version of Daniya transformed into a spawn of Yot-Kamoth springs forth, killing its mother. This spawn retains Daniyas mental faculties and personality, and doesn't attack indiscriminately. It takes but a single point of unhealable damage a day from its fundamental incompatibility to the prime material plane, and so an expedient quest might permanently save its life. (In D&D terms, the characters might have found a Drider ally)


This way the PCs are turned from bystanders to protagonists. If there's any betrayal to be had, it isn't pre-scripted - it is left up to the players.
Last edited by CapnZapp on Fri Dec 10, 2021 6:32 am, edited 8 times in total.
CapnZapp
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Re: the DCC play style and world-building

Post by CapnZapp »

My point here, is that I wished there were more modules that came to the point, and put PCs first and foremost, yet weren't exclusively set in combat-heavy dungeons. Nothing wrong with them, just I need scenarios to "set the table" in-between them. :)
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Re: the DCC play style and world-building

Post by Father Goose »

You are free to modify the adventure any way you like. My understanding of DCC (and its modules) is that it assumes the Judge will tailor the game to the needs of the table. This is why so many elements are left undefined or under defined.
Most modern games spoon feed you everything they want you to know so you can run/play the game exactly the way the creator envisioned.
OD&D, AD&D, Palladium, and DCC (as well as genre-free games like GURPS and FATE) don't do that. DCC, IMO is the best at leaving such tailoring to the Judge. That freedom is hard baked into the core rules.
So if you have a specific idea for an adventure (and you clearly do), write it. You obviously are not short on creativity, so apply it at your table and rely less on someone else's ability to predict how you want your game to run.
CapnZapp
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Re: the DCC play style and world-building

Post by CapnZapp »

Sure, but that doesn't change the point of this thread - me lamenting there's too few scenarios that combine DCC sensibilities with overland or city locales, NPC intrigues, and attempts to build a much larger world than the "drop this dungeon anywhere" standard.

Death-Slaves of Eternity manages to evoke a thousand percent classic Conan-y sword & sorcery, despite being "nothing more" than a dungeon, essentially.

While Bride of the Spider-God has a brilliant S&S-y set-up, but a completely formless and far too directed execution. Formless in that there's no set up for clever play; it's all up to the GM or Judge. DCC adventures excel in providing specific descriptions complete with exactly when and where you suffer insta-death, etc. Too directed in that the adventure is too tied to one specific course of action instead of leaving choices to players.

I'm not complaining, exactly. Just wanted to discuss the subject, really. Of course, if there are any hidden DCC gems I would love to hear about them; I certainly haven't read them all! :)
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Re: the DCC play style and world-building

Post by Father Goose »

I can see your point, and I can appreciate where you are coming from. Personally though, the issues you lament are what I see as strengths. One of the things that started to frustrate me when playing D&D and Pathfinder was the level of completeness to the settings. So much was fleshed out by the writers (and known to my players) that I either had to conform to what was written (thereby stifling my own creative ideas) or rewrite portions of the setting to accommodate my ideas (leading to a one-two combo of frustrated players who felt betrayed by the world not being as advertised, and the inevitable dominos effect when one change requires another change and then another and so forth to maintain continuity).
I have stated elsewhere that I don't perform well running premade adventures. While this is not 100% accurate, it does hold true in most situations. So for most games, I bypass modules entirely. For DCC, however, the "plug and play" approach leaves so much room for the Judge to tailor that I am finding that I enjoy mining the few modules I have read for inspiration to then write my own adventure for my players. I can take a god I like (Ira), a creature I like (Hound of Hirot), a map, an encounter, a theme, etc and present it in the way that best fits the world I am building with my players, rather than having to run the adventure as written.
I could not do that nearly as well with other systems, largely because of the interwoven context in which they were written.
All that said, yes, it would be nice to see some "Spotlight Location" material written that can give a sense of flavor to enrich a game. Maybe even include some Palladium style "hook, line, and sinker" adventure seeds that fit the local and themes.
Would that be something you would appreciate?
Father Goose
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Re: the DCC play style and world-building

Post by Father Goose »

You may also appreciate checking out https://www.knightsinthenorth.com/
There is a wealth of material there to mine, including some urban locations and a write up of Crom as a DCC god.
CapnZapp
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Re: the DCC play style and world-building

Post by CapnZapp »

Thank you.
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Re: the DCC play style and world-building

Post by GnomeBoy »

The DCC Lankhmar boxed set should have you covered for DCC-ified city visitation and dwelling... It's rife with plot hooks and leads.
...
Gnome Boy • DCC playtester @ DDC 35 Feb '11. • Beta DL 2111, 7AM PT, 8 June 11.
Playing RPGs since '77 • Quasi-occasional member of the Legion of 8th-Level Fighters.

Link: Here Be 100+ DCC Monsters

bygrinstow.com - The Home of Inner Ham
CapnZapp
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Re: the DCC play style and world-building

Post by CapnZapp »

GnomeBoy wrote: Sat Dec 11, 2021 10:00 pm It's rife with plot hooks and leads.
CapnZapp wrote: Fri Dec 10, 2021 5:45 am My point here, is that I wished there were more modules that came to the point, and put PCs first and foremost, yet weren't exclusively set in combat-heavy dungeons. Nothing wrong with them, just I need scenarios to "set the table" in-between them. :)
Thanks, though I was hoping/dreaming of ready-made modules - fully featured city* adventures still in the DCC house style :)

(I will of course check out any Lankhmar scenarios - I have not had time to fully digest all the hundreds of DCC scenarios :P )

*) doesn't strictly need to be a city, just anywhere that contrasts with the usual dungeons: places with factions and diplomacy and NPCs you don't know if you should kill ;)
Father Goose
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Re: the DCC play style and world-building

Post by Father Goose »

This may also be of value to you:
https://goodman-games.com/store/product ... print-pdf/
I have not read it yet, but I came across it while looking for something else and thought of you.
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