D&D General Has anyone ran a level-0 character funnel for 5e?

[Clint_L]

As far as my experience, I ran two: one went great, the other was good but not everyone was in the spirit of it.

Yeah, your players have to really be on board with the likelihood of irreversible character death. This can be an issue if they get too attached to a particular character concept.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

Yeah, your players have to really be on board with the likelihood of irreversible character death. This can be an issue if they get too attached to a particular character concept.

Yeah this is one of the reason's I'm doing it as a one shot. It allows people to go nuts without worrying about losing their character. Some players do seem to be struggling to understand the premise though.

(The other reason I'm doing it as a one shot is due to not being very good at DM'ing. There is no way I could run a campaign.)

 

[MNblockhead]

My last 5e campaign (which lasted 6 years) started with a funnel used the rules in the Adventurer's League module DDAL-ELW00 What's Past is Prologue, which I bought from DMs Guild: DDAL-ELW00 What's Past is Prologue - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild

The rules for level-0 characters are simple and I've copied them below.

I had each player create four level-0 characters using these rules. The first session included a highly deadly encounter to normalize character death early in the campaign. Still most of the players had at least two survive. They chose one to be their main character and the other stayed back "on the bench" at home base (first a small village near the megadungeon featured in the campaign) and later their stronghold. If a PC died later in the campaign, the player had a backup character ready to go (backup characters level up throughout the campaign to be a level lower than the lowest-level PC in the main group of active PCs).

I used the first four bullet points in the level-0 rules in the DDAL-ELW00 module. The final bullet was specific to the Adventure's League Last War campaign season and not relevant to my home campaign. I also didn't let them start with a common magic item as suggested in the third bullet.

Level 0 Games

This adventure uses pregenerated characters that are all “level 0.” This means:

• The character has chosen a name, race, and background.
• The character has NOT chosen a class.
• The character has gear plus weapons, up to one common magical item, and proficiencies granted by their race and background.
• A level 0 character has 6 + their Constitution modifier for hit points, 1d6 hit dice, and no proficiency bonus. Weapon and armor proficiencies may be granted by race and background; those are fine!
• You have communicated to the players that their characters will become NPCs in the upcoming campaign, and the events here are part of the story of the Last War – guaranteed to shape events for years to come! Encourage them to explore high heroics, play in their environments, and get cinematically narrative with their actions!

Level 0 games assume that the characters are more focused on roleplaying than critical, crunchy numbers. Feel free to adjust this content to suit the needs of your game. Characters at 1st level or above are not permitted in this adventure.

 

[TheSword]

What is the virtue of a character funnel? Why is it a good thing to do. I must admit I’m perplexed.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The thing with this is players don’t create characters, the DM allocates them. Then, without builds or backstories, there is no reason for the players to be attached to them.

Should they survive, they can then be developed into full characters.

 

[Nikosandros]

What is the virtue of a character funnel? Why is it a good thing to do. I must admit I’m perplexed.

With a funnel, you can have a very high lethality game and still let players participate until the end. Also, you can get characters that are hardened survivors. There is also typically quite a bit of randomness. If you enjoy this style, it is a lot of fun. If you don't, I don't recommend it.

 

[CreamCloud0]

It wasnt a funnel per se but we did a session where everyone just used Backgrounds, a Feat and D4 HP. The PCs were survivors of a deliberately wrecked ship, who had to escape before the wreckers came down to raid the ship and capture them to sell as slaves.

maybe it's just me but not having species included in that list is extremely bizzare to me, like, these characters don't suddenly transform into an elf or a dwarf after surviving their first adventure.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

maybe it's just me but not having species included in that list is extremely bizzare to me, like, these characters don't suddenly transform into an elf or a dwarf after surviving their first adventure.

They can have a race, they just don't get any racial abilities until they reach 1st level.

But the OP is talking about a one-shot here anyway.

 

[CreamCloud0]

They can have a race, they just don't get any racial abilities until they reach 1st level.

But the OP is talking about a one-shot here anyway.

maybe it is a one shot, but it still feels weird to me, alot of the stuff they'd have from species i'd mostly expect to be innate or learnt long before they ever became an adventurer(or rather got thrown impromptu into these circumstances), as well as the fact that this minimal-power classless environment is the perfect place for species traits to shine and be bringing their most impact to the table.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

maybe it is a one shot, but it still feels weird to me, alot of the stuff they'd have from species i'd mostly expect to be innate or learnt long before they ever became an adventurer(or rather got thrown impromptu into these circumstances), as well as the fact that this minimal-power classless environment is the perfect place for species traits to shine and be bringing their most impact to the table.

That's the point. In an environment like this "I have a cantrip" makes you a superbeing. These characters are supposed to be weak cannon-fodder. If a race has no weak and powerless commoners, they simply cannot work in this type of scenario.

Generally, when the lights go out in a horror movie, the hapless potential victims do not shout "I have darkvision!"