DCC Level 0 Character Funnel is a Bad Concept

[payn]

Our time we get together weekly (biweekly, etc) with potentially some of our best friends to create stories worthy of remembrance is limited. Spending it in a meat grinder of death largely played for comedic effect isn't what I'd choose to do.
(Goodman is also the same company that just made a hardcover commemorative re-release of Grimtooth's Traps, so that kinda says the mentality of their design.)
Even beyond the funnel, their art is of the nasty variety of a 1970s pizza place that's never been updated, their gimmick dice roll terribly and are unnecessary for the system, the book is bloated and sloppy with pointless charts.

Folks reading this are nodding and saying sign me up!

If you are talking about me, I can assure you I'm considered a Killer DM by my players. They get no social treatment. I've probably killed more characters than the average poster on here.
I just don't do it in character funnels.

Is it that you prefer to kill characters that took a lot of effort into making?

 

[MichaelSomething]

Is it that you prefer to kill characters that took a lot of effort into making?

Fattening the calf before the slaughter??

 

[The Sigil]

Not all that related but I was in a FLGS recently with a banner above the game room door that read “How Deadly is YOUR DM?” and it had names and tally marks under each name on the banner. Asking the staff about it, they confirmed this was a real thing they tracked.

 

[overgeeked]

Not all that related but I was in a FLGS recently with a banner above the game room door that read “How Deadly is YOUR DM?” and it had names and tally marks under each name on the banner. Asking the staff about it, they confirmed this was a real thing they tracked.

The character sheet in Mothership lists a player's high score. This tracks the highest number of sessions one of your PCs has survived. This makes me love the game even more.

 

[Dumnbunny]

One thing I love about Fate of The Norns - Ragnarok is that players want their characters to die well in combat, ideally after achieving some glorious deeds.

 

[CapnZapp]

Random death comes under "2) ... drain resources ...".

Also, as @overgeeked noted, you need to approach a funnel as a rogue-like - the whole point is to see how far your characters get before they die, on the built-in assumption that yes, they're all gonna die. And then, if one or two manage to survive anyway, it's a win!

Going in on the assumption that your character(s) will survive is the wrong approach; and I posit that D&D in all versions would be better were this assumption also made redundant there.

The purpose of a funnel is related to character generation: instead of rolling up one character using "cheats" to avoid atrocious scores, you roll up four (or more) sets of scores, one per character, and later on choose to make one of the survivors your main character that levels up.

Treating it like a roguelike where everyone is supposed to die is fine (if for no other reason that everything that's fun for those involved is fine) but not the original purpose of the concept.

 

[CapnZapp]

.

 

[Mannahnin]

Also, as @overgeeked noted, you need to approach a funnel as a rogue-like - the whole point is to see how far your characters get before they die, on the built-in assumption that yes, they're all gonna die.

Nah.

To me the DCC funnel is just a sped-up (and hyped-up) version of what happens in typical low-level 0e-1e play anyway, as each player churns through several characters until one or two hang on long enough to become relevant.

The purpose of a funnel is related to character generation: instead of rolling up one character using "cheats" to avoid atrocious scores, you roll up four (or more) sets of scores, one per character, and later on choose to make one of the survivors your main character that levels up.

Treating it like a roguelike where everyone is supposed to die is fine (if for no other reason that everything that's fun for those involved is fine) but not the original purpose of the concept.

Yes!

Rolling four PCs with 3d6 down the line is a toned-down version of Method IV from the 1E DMG (roll up 12 stat blocks and keep one), but having three meatshields for your best stat block means more durability.

 

[MichaelSomething]

But the funnel is the perfect example of simulationious design. The whole subsystem is designed to recreate a certain experience.

 

[aramis erak]

I see nothing wrong with the funnel conceptually.
Not being a DCC player, nor really a fan of D&D mechanics... The funnel is not for me. That said, back in '81, if we'd had the concept, we'd have played the hell out of it.

And, as Lanefan mentions, it's not much different than the repeat weedout of AD&D, or even BX, in levels 1···3.
Or even 5e as released with the opening chapters of Horde of the Dragon Queen. (30% death rate with the no-favors-to-PCs style I used.)