A matter of Luck

Luck is one of my favourite aspects of DCC RPG and it comes from a long tradition in TTRPGs (such as from the good old Fighting Fantasy games). That said, I have one little problem with the Luck rules as stated in the DCC RPG Core Rulebook: the whiff factor. Let me try to explain this better.

I like rules that move the session forward, particularly those that make the players hold their breath before rolling the die. In certain ways, this is how I see the themes of luck, chance, fate, and doom. I remember this particularly from the classic D6 System (of Star Wars), which its Wild Dice, Force points, and Character Points. I would like that same feeling in DCC RPG when PCs spend Luck.

Actually, this topic came to my mind because what usually happened at my table is that players would roll their die and then I would ask if they were happy with the result or would like to spend Luck. And here we have two “difficult schools”. The “first school” is that of the “transparent Judge”, who lets the PCs know all the DCs and necessary stats. So, if you like to tell your players a check’s DC before they roll, then the player would just do some math after the roll and decide if spending Luck is worth it. However, if you follow the “second school” (the “secret Judge”) then that means that you do not reveal DCs (perhaps just communicating to the players that one action is difficult, easy, practically impossible, etc.), which means that PCs don’t know how much Luck they have to spend to succeed. The first school turns Luck into a matter of mathematics; the second school is a shot in the dark, which usually results in considerable frustration for players. After all, they are spending a resource for maybe no result. To make matters worse, most Judges of DCC RPG that I know (including me) use a “mixed school”: they reveal the DCs for skill checks, but not monsters' stats (such as their AC). In the end, the result is the same: either the players are doing math between rolls or spending Luck blindly.

OK, so I decided to change that. What I’ve been doing for almost two years is this: each time a PC burns Luck, they can only burn 1 point at a time. Each point of Luck is either a +1d4 or +1d6. We usually prefer 1d6s because we love to roll them, but some tables might prefer 1d4s. Why might some prefer a 1d4? Because the die explodes. That means that if roll the maximum number, you get to roll a new die and add the result (and if the second die explodes too you keep rolling).

My players so far are loving this house rule. Why?

1) It speeds up our table dynamics. I usually like to tell the skills checks DCs but not monster stats. So most of the time (with skills checks) they know right away if they want to risk burning Luck. And if they do, they don’t have to think about how much they spend: they just burn 1 Luck and roll +1d6.

2) It is clearly a risk mechanic. The idea that you know that you die might not explode works better for my players than burning blindly “X points of Luck” and feeling that it was for nothing. There is still a chance that they will burn Luck and not get enough points, but they feel the risk here is more “honest”.

3) When the dice explode, the entire table cheers! They love it! (Particularly in spellcasting checks and damage rolls).

How about Thief PCs? When they burn Luck, I let them roll +1d6 plus the Luck Die indicated by their level. Just the 1d6 can explode. So, a 1st level Thief burning 1 Luck gains +1d6+1d3.

Halfling PCs? They roll +2d6 and pick the best die.

This house role of course is not perfect (and it requires adjustments when using optional Luck rules, such as Fleeting Luck, or classes such as those from DCC RPG Dying Earth). That said, so far it has worked really well at my tables and we are not thinking on changing it for time being.

Augury: Black Star

100% Recommended!

Recently my daughter discovered Clone Wars and to my total delight she devoured all the series like there was no tomorrow. Then she jumped to Rebels with equal enthusiasm and we both watched Ahsoka together – with made the experience something that I will treasure for the rest of my life., She then asked (no… demanded!) that I run a Star Wars RPG for her and my boy. Being a “old school” Star Wars gamemaster, I immediately recovered my Star Wars d6 (2^nd Edition, Revised & Expanded) and used Bill Slavicsek’s house rules to de-crunch it a bit (you can find his excellent advice at the end of Defining a Galaxy: 30 Years in a Galaxy Far, Far Away, a must read for fans!).

Our first Star Wars d6 session was (of course) a mission for my daughter’s padawan and my son’s clone soldier. They enjoyed the narrative but complained that they felt limited by the rules. While I deeply love and still run Star Wars d6 I do admit that it is better suited for a level power close to Rogue One and Andor than Clone Wars (I mean, you can run it for Clone Wars with Jedi and Clone Commandos, but it requires character that are a lot stronger than traditional initial PCs… which also means rolling lot of dice all the time).

So, I started searching for another option. I am running a Dragon Ball Z FKR campaign for my kids, so I didn’t want to use the same approach for Star Wars. I briefly considered the awesome Star Wars Saga (d20) or using my old Star Wars FATE hack. I was tempted to dust off my Star Wars books that used Genesys (I love those dice), but I didn’t have the time to read the rules again. While I felt that my daughter might enjoy any of those options, my younger boy would get bored quickly. So I went looking for something not overly minimalist but also avoided traditional systems – and this is where I found Black Star.

LakeSide Games' Black Star is a not-Star Wars rules light player-faced game. All checks are made with 2d6 against a difficulty of 9, but the game also incorporates a lovely success with cost rule based on a limited resource: Resolve. Resolve is literally “dramatic hit points”. As long as you have 1 Resolve you still can do stuff, but if it hits 0 you are at the mercy of the opposition. Mixing traditional hit points with metagame currency is never a safe bet, but for the pulpy feel of Star Wars (especially the Clone Wars series)… damn, it works like a charm. Of course, it is a fine balancing act. I saw myself in situations where my kids faced the choice of either burning Resolve and trying something cool or not burning Resolve but suffering Resolve as damage. However, that kind of situation is a natural consequence of such systems and I never felt that it “broke” the game (more importantly, it never shattered the narrative reality). But it remains perhaps the weakest point of Black Star if you don’t like that kind of mechanic.

The rest of system use positive and negative die do adjudicate difficulty (kind like D&D 5E’s advantage and disadvantage, but cumulative). Gear, ships, and NPCs use a clever tag system that builds upon that system. Characters are defined by a set of universal skills, their archetypes, and their talents. Gear is part of the narrative but when it really matters mechanically then it is a talent, and that is a design decision that I totally approve (and which screams Star Wars!).

The book provides a cool set of not-Force powers, adventure samples, and everything you need to start kicking your campaign in a far, far away galaxy. I have already run 4 sessions for my kids and we are having a total blast. I cannot recommend enough this game for people that are looking for a rules light Star Wars option but who find things closer to FKR (like the awesome Galaxy Far Away) too light.

A typical Black Star player character.