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Post by tetramorph on Oct 20, 2017 20:59:30 GMT -6
I don't usually go in for "0 levels" or for "funnels."
But tomorrow I am hosting a bunch of kids with their parents to introduce them to D&D.
I've got about 8 kids showing up, with 8 parents! That is a large party. So I decided I would make the kids the real adventurers and turn their parents into their lackeys: torch-bearers, porters, meat-shields, etc.
So I invented a "Lackey Pre-class" to quickly roll up some lackey characters for the parents:
Here is my wife's lackey character:
Name: GIL
HP5
Shield AC8
Dagger
Large Sack
Pole 10'
Rations (1)
Waterskin
Torches (6)
GP: 9
Fight on!
(NOTE: I edited the above based upon feedback in the discussion below. AC is now determined by d3+6. I had previously suggested d4+5.)
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Post by waysoftheearth on Oct 20, 2017 22:55:21 GMT -6
Great work tetramorph  A couple of quick questions to maybe throw into the mix... * Is "Lackey Pre-class" really another word for Arneson's "Flunky"? * Shouldn't they all just be AC 9? * Would it be "nice" to generate a Lackies/Flunkies with a single throw of 3d6? (kinda like training for the real deal). Perhaps first die is for hp, second and third dice are for gear, and sum of all three dice is for silver pieces? Fight on! |
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Post by DungeonDevil on Oct 20, 2017 23:44:12 GMT -6
I like the idea of a ready-made NPC "porter/bearer/linkboy" class. Their AC should be the absolute worst (9), very low hps (1 or 2), IOW, one hit should easily equal a kill. No saving throws. Impose strict morale/fear rules when encountering monsters. Thus their feebleness, their timorousness and relative ineptitude should make even 1st lvl PCs look surprisingly stalwart and capable. |
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Post by hamurai on Oct 21, 2017 2:00:01 GMT -6
Nice idea! I'd give them all worst AC too, though. Maybe they live long enough to find a shield somewhere...
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Post by Scott Anderson on Oct 21, 2017 9:33:10 GMT -6
People don't play D&D to be crappy. They play to be awesome.
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bravewolf
Level 4 Theurgist
I don't care what Howard says.
Posts: 109 
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Post by bravewolf on Oct 21, 2017 12:46:00 GMT -6
People don't play D&D to be crappy. They play to be aweysome. Bah! Point taken, but my mates play awesomely with suck-award PCs as well as "heroes". They turn lames into epic figures. Still, it's largely a matter of taste. Oh, and most of my mates learned on 5e, being 10-15 years younger than me. They still like the challenge of 1e and 0e better. \○/ The take away is to know and inform one's audience before playing. |
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Post by Scott Anderson on Oct 21, 2017 13:44:04 GMT -6
Sorry, I could see it was coming out wrong when I wrote it. I mean to that it is important to still let them be awesome, regardless of the class abilities or stats. Clearly you do!
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Post by tetramorph on Oct 21, 2017 13:47:02 GMT -6
* Is "Lackey Pre-class" really another word for Arneson's "Flunky"? * Shouldn't they all just be AC 9? * Would it be "nice" to generate a Lackies/Flunkies with a single throw of 3d6? (kinda like training for the real deal). Perhaps first die is for hp, second and third dice are for gear, and sum of all three dice is for silver pieces? I don't know about Arneson's "flunky," or how he used the term. But, from a place of ignorance, it sounds about right. I have played a lot of D&D with austinjimm and his Planet Eris campaign. In his campaign he has actually mechanically defined roles such as "torch-bearer," "shield-bearer," "porter," "cook," etc. He stats out men-at-arms and shield bearers as AC 7 or 8. So I am used to being able to hire folks with at least some kind of bare minimum of armor. However, because you and others (like DungeonDevil and hamurai) mentioned this, I changed it to a d3+6 roll (instead of d4+5). I do love the idea of rolling 3d6 for everything. That would be especially easy if I also took some of the advice in the thread not only to give them only AC9 but also only 1HP. Then it could just be: weapon, equipment, supply, sum = gp. Very cool! I stuck with my basic approach, though, as I wasn't having them roll it, they were all pretty much pre-gens. So I wasn't using it to "teach" anything. Besides, most of these guys have played a lot of D&D with me before. By the way, it went really well. There were 4 "lackeys." They all made it to be able to declare a class! 3 FM and 1 CL! |
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Post by tetramorph on Oct 21, 2017 13:49:03 GMT -6
I like the idea of a ready-made NPC "porter/bearer/linkboy" class. Thus their feebleness, their timorousness and relative ineptitude should make even 1st lvl PCs look surprisingly stalwart and capable. :) Thanks, man. Read my response to waysoftheearth, above, which addresses some of your points. They did indeed help the kids to see that they were the real heroes. It worked pretty well. |
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Post by tetramorph on Oct 21, 2017 13:51:36 GMT -6
I mean to that it is important to still let them be awesome, regardless of the class abilities or stats. Clearly you do! They were awesome! They all somehow made it out alive, got about a couple of hundred XP and I let them roll a new HP die and roll up stats. The result was that three had HP6 and one had HP5. The stats meant that three chose FM and one chose CL. Fun times! |
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bravewolf
Level 4 Theurgist
I don't care what Howard says.
Posts: 109
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Post by bravewolf on Oct 21, 2017 18:26:48 GMT -6
Sorry, I could see it was coming out wrong when I wrote it. I mean to that it is important to still let them be awesome, regardless of the class abilities or stats. Clearly you do! No big, mate. One of my occasional players is firmly in the awesome camp, to the point of superhero D&D PCs at level 1. There is no one true way to game. I also have to say that I dig your Treasure Hunters blog. |
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Post by Scott Anderson on Oct 21, 2017 18:48:44 GMT -6
Thank you Bravewolf. In glad you enjoy it. Use what you want!
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Post by hamurai on Oct 22, 2017 6:17:34 GMT -6
Here's an idea for a quick one-roll-generation of "townsfolk" I came up with for a big battle where civilians were involved:
Roll 3d6 for a stat I called "survivability / dumb luck" (you can also call it skill, if you like). Whatever the townsfolk had to do, be it feats of strength or dexterity, common sense or knowledge, they'd roll under that stat. Those with higher stats quickly left those with low stats for dead. AC started at 9 but since it was a battlefield they could (after starting with nothing but cutlery or a pitchfork) loot the dead for weapons and shields and even armor, if they were lucky enough to find a fitting set which was still good to use, and if they found some time to don it. From the surviving townsfolk, hirelings and heroes (if they had accomplished something other than just survive, for example kill an enemy)were made.
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Post by Scott Anderson on Oct 22, 2017 17:27:59 GMT -6
Here's an idea for a quick one-roll-generation of "townsfolk" I came up with for a big battle where civilians were involved: Roll 3d6 for a stat I called "survivability / dumb luck" (you can also call it skill, if you like). Whatever the townsfolk had to do, be it feats of strength or dexterity, common sense or knowledge, they'd roll under that stat. Those with higher stats quickly left those with low stats for dead. AC started at 9 but since it was a battlefield they could (after starting with nothing but cutlery or a pitchfork) loot the dead for weapons and shields and even armor, if they were lucky enough to find a fitting set which was still good to use, and if they found some time to don it. From the surviving townsfolk, hirelings and heroes (if they had accomplished something other than just survive, for example kill an enemy)were made. So... everything you do is a saving throw against that one number? And if you survive you get actual stats? Like that? |
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Post by hamurai on Oct 23, 2017 1:36:11 GMT -6
Yep, that's the idea.
I wanted to keep it simple for me - I had to write down just one number per NPC. Money and possessions was not interesting for my purpose, just to see if they survived or not. I made a numbered list (1-100) so each survivor had a number (to be the random d% target of something), behind that number I wrote the one stat. A little space behind that number allowed me to add more details, like when they found a weapon or armour, or when for some reason some background story came up I wrote down their name or family ties or whatever.
In battle the townsfolk also just rolled the one stat, to keep it as simple as possible when handling about 100 people at once. They used the stat to attack and they dealt 1 damage when unarmed and 2 damage with any sort of weapon.
After the battle the survivors gathered in the caves and started to tend to the wounded, to mend arms and armour, to fortify their position and to explore the cave system. Then it "turned out" some of the survivors were actually rather capable of these things, like a healer/cleric had survived, and some discovered their talent for handling weapons and killing stuff (FM), or it turned out there was a wizard's apprentice among the survivors (MU) and so on.
I have also once used that system as a funnel, and by the time the survivors gathered in the cave system, the players already had some favourites among the townsfolk who they'd choose as their characters as they already had names, a thing or two to brag about from the first battle, some items and coins they'd looted and so on.
They rolled the stats and I allowed to replace one of these stats with the "townsfolk stat" if they wanted to, to have some link to the survivor ("My wizard's apprentice survived by his intelligence alone!").
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Post by Scott Anderson on Oct 23, 2017 20:41:07 GMT -6
hamurai that is such a wonderful story!
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Post by hamurai on Oct 23, 2017 23:22:40 GMT -6
Glad you like it! Hopefully others can draw some ideas for their campaign, too.
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