I had two players drop below zero HP in Monday night's DCC session. The rules called for a luck check to determine if the PC actually was alive if not healed within a round, which was the case with one of the two.
I didn't recall reading about luck checks in the rulebook, and the index is non-existent in the book, so I made it a DC 15 throw, and the PC rolled a 14 +1 = 15. Yay, he lived!
Problem is checking the DCC forums it appears luck checks are a "roll under" mechanism, which goes against the grain of the rest of the checks, which are roll over. Not very intuitive. It also means the PC might have died if I had known the proper rule. Ah well.
I also defaulted to my ingrained AD&D knowledge if I couldn't remember a specific rule, as I felt pacing was more important than rules accuracy. That being said, I should have a bit tighter rules knowledge for the July DCC Arc I'll be running.
Supposedly the 2e of the DCC rules stomps out the typos and errata. Here's hoping the DCC RPG PDF is updated shortly.
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1 hour ago
I hate to say it, but I get stuff like this almost every game I run. Not every session, but with every rules system. Like you I try my best to make a call on the fly that seems fair, rather than try to find it in a rule book and break the flow.
ReplyDeleteOn occasion, the rule in the book has been clunky and far from intuitive, as you describe. in these situations, I tend to make my own notes on a post-it, and stick to the rule I made up on the fly, as long as it's fair when applied to all PCs and NPCs.
I don't think this rule is that unintuitive. Why did he get a +1? If he has a positive luck modifier, it should subtract from the overall roll, making it a 13. If it was negative, then it would have been a 15.
ReplyDeleteThat might sound hard to remember, but just treat lucks mods on attempts to revive characters like rolls on the fumble table.
it's unintuitive because all the other DCs are roll over (or roll high if you will).
ReplyDelete+1 was the modifier for a high Luck
If there was an index in the book, I'm sure we would have found the relevant rule.
Love the game - don't enjoy the lack of an index now that I'm actually using the book in play
The rule for Luck is easy enough, and now that you have had some experience with it, you are unlikely to ever forget it again.
ReplyDeleteBut, here's to an index in the second printing! (Not the second edition, because the rules are not changing.)
RC