The group used the Purple Sorcerer Character Generator to make their cannon fodder. The stats were fairly easy to convert to ACKS - the only stretch was Luck which morphed into Wisdom, but it worked fine.
I used The Portal Under the Stars from the DCC RPG rulebook for the funnel. I've used it before for DCC, and it runs well and fairly quick - about two hours. I don't want tot give away too much of the adventure, as it is a fun one, and those that haven't had a chance to play it should still be able to enjoy the surprises.
The party went in with 12 PCs (4 for each player) and came out with 7 PCs. Everyone had at least one survivor.
Here's some observations:
In the short period of time, people became attached to their characters - well, at least the survivors. Even my players marveled at how the process actually worked in play. To paraphrase my group: "they've been trying to figure out 0-level characters in play for 30 years and Goodman finally did it right!"
My players think out of the box. Far out of the box. As in: "Take the Box, Cut Doors and Portals in the Sides, Top and Bottom - Then Step Out of the Box and Give It a Big Kick In the 'Nads From the Outside" type of thinking. Constantly forcing me to think out of the box. Challenging me as the DM - not my authority, but to keep up with them and be willing to go far beyond the text of the adventure. I had as much fun last night as I've ever had as a GM in any game, including games with the same players. They were literally hitting it out of the ballpark. F'n amazing!
DCC is as much D&D as ACKS is. and they are all a blast to play ;)
I read once "if you have to roll, you have already failed". There are times we make a lot of effort to not have to roll.
ReplyDeleteThe helmet trick was inspired, I'm proud of the guys (I was disconnected when they came up with it, but it was solid thinking).
I'm glad we figured out the (big fight ender), that could have gotten _ugly_.
I think the funnel really works because of the almost total lack of investment in the characters. A handful of ability scores, some generally crap gear (a pitchfork and a cow -- though you did mention the previous party you'd run through this adventure got good use out of the cow; I still have mine) and away you go. We didn't even _name them_, just referred to them by (player initial)(number on page).
Even more than in _Paranoia_, you are prepared to do dumb things. These are ignorant farmers who decided to take a chance, so you'll end up using some of them up in fairly believable manner ('shinies onna door! I use my knife to pull them off' 'you take 4 points of damage from a massive spark of power when your blade touches the door')
It was fun. Thanks Erik.