Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Tcho Tchos as Player Races in Dungeon Crawl Classics

I proposed this DCC rules tweak some months ago, and it's been waiting in my "drafts" since then, another unfinished thing that weighs on me on a tiny way every time I look at the list. To prove it's entirely possible to crank bloggery out without recourse to fluff and Groupthink, here's what you get on my lunch break

I had a discussion about alternate character classes that could be used to muck over the Tolkien-y Token Hobbit/Halfling that drips from fantasy roleplaying. Frankly I understand neither it nor the elf - for some reason I'm not big on dwarves but I like 'em better than the others.  With a literally infinite number of bookmarks for "small/cute/quick/deft", why do people want one that is essentially a little human?  Dwarves have their thing and gnomes have theirs - one good thing that DCC gives halflings is the Luck thing so every party wants a token halfling to keep them alive when the chips are down.

Dave allows skaven/ratlings in his iron canyons thing

I also thought about froglings, bug-folks, Yazirians and Dralasites a la the Star Frontiers game.  Speaking of Thri-Kreen and Vrusk, they make good elf replacers. Just me.

I'd find a copy of Talislanta if I could.

Anyways - back to the original premise. Tcho Tcho!  Evil halfling cannibals!  Steeped in magic and madness and white ganglion paste!

My idea was to have the Luck burn work in a manner opposite from the Halfling's - that is, burn a Luck point and get double the amount to reduce rolls that impact the player character or party members, e.g. attacks by enemies/spell rolls. You have to have a by-the-book DM and pretty good trust and the agreement that once the roll is known you can reduce it with the burn and purchase.

I haven't drawn up a document like I did with the Deep One Hybrid - that was sort of a "whole cloth" thing and this is just twerkin'

Maybe I could throw in a "quick regeneration of Luck points with the consumption of human/demi-human flesh" mechanic but I think I just did it.  Maybe access to one bad spell every couple of levels and some way to add a greater amount of corruption associated with casting (increase the corruption threat to include successes and not-disastrous failure)

Blow guns, garrotes, sacrificial knives, poison (needs poison skills, obviously)

I even went so far as to draw a thing for this when I was thinking of it... It's around here somewhere. Will add captions and fun links for later.

Scratch off "Tcho Tcho" and add Yazirian and Dralasite and Vrusk. Me and Evan worked out a Mok already

They file their teeth down, those Tcho Tchos, for bitin'

Edit: add on (possible halfling alternates) Robear-berbils, any of the shorty races from the Fiend Folio, mephits (if you're adventurous), goblins/kobolds/redcaps/kappa/Tenku
Ewoks
Gummi bears (duh!)
I proposed a couple of anthropomorphic animals a couple of weeks ago (Otter, fox, raccoon, possum, armadillo)

I don't know, these aren't even particularly creative ideas but they beat the endless parade of Frilbo Saggville-Hagginses

Your mileage may vary, of course.

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