DCC Level 0 Character Funnel is a Bad Concept

[payn]

I don't think so - sure, the funnel is a big part of their sales pitch, but it's usually just one or two sessions out of a whole campaign. I've been playing in a DCC campaign for more than a year, we reached 5th/6th level. I went into that campaign with a whoppin 3 characters left over from the funnel (not always playing all 3 of them) and subsequently lost only one of them, and it felt very much like a "normal" campaign in a gonzo setting and with lots of magical mishaps. I really liked it. You can cut out the funnel if you don't like it and still enjoy the rest of the campaign.

This. I played DCC a good number of times before I even knew about the funnel.

 

[payn]

I totally agree - I just feel that some very good reason must exist for the characters to toughen up and see it through (usually that they don't have a choice); going into a dungeon and just shrugging of dozens of deaths to search for more treasure makes the whole thing too abstract for me, I stop believing in these characters.

I always from the start viewed the game as an episode of Heavy Metal with how twisted it is. Its pure skill play for me, the characters are mere avatars. I didnt really take it seriously as attempting to honestly play a real person in these messed up realms. I can get it if folks have a default mode of role play, and find this a bridge too far. I'm not saying you have to play DCC so cartoonishly, but it worked for me. If I were to jump into a different system the next session, i'd likely treat it much different.

 

[Swanosaurus]

I can get it if folks have a default mode of role play, and find this a bridge too far.

I think my default mode is too deeply ingrained ... I just feel bad about all the dying and think that the characters should probably feel the same way. The good thing is, I still enjoy the rest of DCC for it's weirdness; the settings and NPCs are usually wonderful, and there's a real sense of danger. But I actually tend to take it all pretty seriously in terms of how the characters interact with it.

 

[MichaelSomething]

I mulled making a My Little Pony themed funnel. The Mane Six are trapped and only Derpy Hooves/Muffins can save them. But there's no way Derpy can save them all alone?
But thanks to the doubling pool or some other plot device, one Derpy multiplied into twenty five! Can this herd of Derpies save the day? How many will survive??

 

[Von Ether]

My claim to fame is that I ran a DCC Funnel for a geeky bachelor party and it was a hit. For DCC in general, I use the app to avoid looking up the various spell charts/crit/fumble charts.

 

[Aldarc]

DCC is not my cup of tea but I'm glad that it exists for the people who do enjoy it.

 

[Lanefan]

I'll refrain from my usual hyperbole and give you the straight assumptions that I have about the character funnels, having read the rulebook and a few of the published adventures. Let me know if I'm way off base.

1) You completely roll randomly for your ability scores, race, and occupation. (Or get a scratch-off lottery character.) There are no mulligans, adjustments, rules for discarding "bad characters," etc. You play what you roll, regardless if it's nonsense, unviable, or a living god.
2) You create a stable of these characters - usually around four of them (but that can vary depending on the number of players).
3) More than likely one hit from anything will kill your 0-level character. One failed saving throw will also very likely kill your character.
4) You've got no real class abilities (because you don't have a class yet). You try to survive on your wits and the luck of the dice.
5) If you think there's a monster or other danger in the room, throw in your worst character to be the meat shield. After that character dies, your more capable character can try to attack from a range or run away.
6) You get to the end of the adventure and get to "level up" your surviving character. Because he was rolled randomly, he might not be what you wanted to play and may not be useful to the rest of the party.
7) If you're unlucky enough to lose all characters in your stable during the character funnel, I guess you just sit out the rest of the time? Hopefully you get to level up another player's survivor.

Points 1-5 above would seem to be roughly how it's supposed to work; albeit it there's a way to easily modify it to a) give the characters a better chance of survival and b) point them toward their intended class. That modification? Allow rearranging of the initial stat rolls.

Your point 6 garners no sympathy from here, in that the point of the exercise isn't to play what you want to play but to play what luck gives you and try to make the best of it while it develops into somehting you maybe do want to play.

Point 7 can be solved by the GM setting things up such that new characters can enter the funnel at more or less any point. Lose your first four? Bang out another three and chuck 'em in. Or, if you've lost all four of yours and another player still has all four of hers, maybe cut a deal such that you end up with two each?

 

[Lanefan]

I live the dice chain and if I'm playing in person I would want the physical "Zocchi" dice.

The one thing to keep in mind is that some of those odd-shaped dice couldn't pass a chi-squared test if you gave them the answers.

 

[Mannahnin]

I think my default mode is too deeply ingrained ... I just feel bad about all the dying and think that the characters should probably feel the same way. The good thing is, I still enjoy the rest of DCC for it's weirdness; the settings and NPCs are usually wonderful, and there's a real sense of danger. But I actually tend to take it all pretty seriously in terms of how the characters interact with it.

Yeah, there should be some funnels which force the characters to basically try to escape, so you avoid the "why would we keep on going" question. I have an OSE funnel module called Zed and Two Noughts which works like this.

I do agree that while some folks really love the zany funnel, it really is optional. Starting from 1st level is fine and reasonably common.

 

[MNblockhead]

Talking about funnels where it makes sense that the characters have to see them through, whatever the cost - does anyone know published ones? I really only know Sailors on the Starless Seas and Danger from the Air, and those are both examples of: "Actually, on the first death, at least some of the characters should by all logic get out and maybe try to save their mortally wounded friends."

In Portal Under the Stars, the funnel adventure in the DCC Core book, isn't it see up so that the characters are basically stuck in the dungeon until they figure out how to get out? I don't have the book with me, though, so I'm not sure if I'm remembering it right.