Jun 18, 2013

Posted in Featured, Podcast | 14 Comments

Episode 2: Welcome to the Funnel

This week on Spellburn we take a look at one of the system’s distinguishing features, the character funnel, in which many level zero peasants will meet their untimely demise. But with some luck, pluck, and and a few blows well-struck, a select few will gain the first glorious level of experience and become true dungeon-crawling adventurers.

Links mentioned in this episode:
• Into the Demon Idol: http://www.metagamemastery.com/2013/05/01/one-page-dungeon-2013/
• Sailors on the Starless Sea: http://www.goodman-games.com/5066preview.html
• High Quality Role Playing: http://www.tao-games.com/?p=29
• Attack of the Frawgs: http://www.thickskulladventures.com/products/attack-of-the-frawgs/
• Perils of the Sunken City: http://www.purplesorcerer.com/sc1.htm
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk: http://www.purplesorcerer.com/sc2.htm
• A Gathering of the Marked: http://www.purplesorcerer.com/sc3.htm

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14 Comments

  1. Doug says:
    June 19, 2013 at 10:52 am

    I always do 3d6 down the line…picking a character seems lame to me.

    I add story when you level up. Why is you farmer now an Elf?

  2. Rick Hull says:
    June 19, 2013 at 1:37 pm

    That pre-DCC RPG zero level adventure Jim mentioned is DCC #0 “Legends are Made, not Born” (http://www.goodman-games.com/5100preview.html).

  3. Jim says:
    June 19, 2013 at 1:39 pm

    Thanks, Buddy! I knew you’d have our backs : )

  4. Stephen Newton says:
    June 19, 2013 at 7:11 pm

    Hey gents, thanks for the shout out in today’s podcast. That was quite the honor to hear the adventure described at “Arnesonian adventure.”

    And for what it’s worth, my home-brew rule with 0 level characters is I actually roll them up with 1d4+2 hp. That way none of the funnel characters have just 1 or 2 hit points. That provides them a bit of chance to live (somtimes) through at least 1 hit by a monster or trap. I noticed that people took absolutely no interesting in a 1-hp character.

    Thanks for the great show!

  5. johnber says:
    June 22, 2013 at 9:08 am

    Hey Guys, awesome ‘cast. I have only run 2 sessions of DCC (my first ever as DM in any RPG) so far but loving every minute.
    On the subject of 0 level – my guys survived ” Perils of the Sunken City” with a total of 5 characters, nearly all who had only 1 or 2 hp. As I had forgotten to let them burn luck during the adventure, I decided that at levelling up, the PC’s with 1 or 2 HP, could choose to roll their HD for their HP score, or if they preferred they could take half of the HD max, ie 5 if D10, 4 if D8, etc.
    This was done to try and avoid a party full of 2 – 3 HP PC’s
    In the end they all chose to roll the dice and all got average scores anyway.

  6. Hrevelax says:
    June 25, 2013 at 11:56 am

    Can’t wait for the next one.

  7. Mario garcia says:
    July 25, 2013 at 12:13 pm

    My group was wondering since we ran portal under the starts for the first time playing DCC. Do the charachters get XP for encounters in the funnel ? so will the gain a level during the adventure? or is it not until they finish it that they gain 1st level.

    thanks

    • Jim says:
      July 25, 2013 at 12:16 pm

      This comes up a lot, and my own group actually played it incorrectly at first. Level-0 characters should receive XP for each battle during a character funnel, making it possible, if not probable, that they will level before reaching the end…

  8. Ben Lehman says:
    August 4, 2013 at 6:36 am

    I just took the HQRPG link down! Uh, shoot. I guess I should put it back up?

    Thank you for the mention!