Thursday, January 31, 2013

The Luck Rubric (a DCC RPG Thing)

At the end of my DCC RPG sessions, I've been giving out the opportunity to earn luck. Basically, if you get a chance to earn luck, you just have to roll a d20 and beat your permanent score.

The rationale is that the gods watch the players and slip them luck when they put on a good show.

So here are some things that engender a chance each:
  • You burned luck this session (this is the most important one, I've found)
  • You are voted MVP for the session by a blind vote (my players keep nominating characters for some reason, and the sometimes vote for NPCs. Hurm.)
  • You have fulfilled a quest (sub-parts of a quest listed below; they overlap for one chance)
    • Cleared a dungeon
    • Retrieved a relic
    • Defeated an evil
    • Saved an NPC in distress
    • You did something important to the cosmic struggle between Law, Chaos and Neutrality (overlaps with quests though) 
  • You have role-played an insanity or curse to a notable degree
  • You have done something truly clever
  • You leveled up (and didn't already get bonus luck from a high level-up role that my house ruled leveling involves)
  • You did something that was obviously a bad idea and survived (Chaotics only)
  • You saved someone at risk of almost certain personal peril (Lawfuls and Neutrals only; combat maight not count)
  • Faithful obedience to a god or maybe a patron (leveling actions don't count)
  • Pleasing a powerful supernatural (fickleness not withstanding)
  • You do an in-character report on the last session
However, you might lose luck (as suggested by the core rules) if you  can't roll at or under your Luck score! To make matters worse, these are rolled with a d24. If your Luck score is 13, you fail automatically. Things that engender bad luck rolls:
  • Offending a devil, demon, or god
  • Betraying your alignment
  • Refusing a patron's edict
  • Not spending any luck this session (use it or lose it).
Edit: Finally, I am considering doing the Fate points thing, after a fashion. If you have a vice and the DM knows about it, they can offer you an additional chance to gain luck if you indulge in that vice. These kind of indulgences will have to be at dramatic junctures though...