[3.5] 1st level - now with reduced life expectancy.

[Ernir]

You know how stuff like "rocket tag", "random character generation", "railroading", "unrepentant TPKs", "limited source selection" and "poorly balanced houserules" are considered bad form at best 'round these parts?

I did all that yesterday. I ran a 1st level adventure with the following houserules:
Ability scores are determined by rolling 3d6 in order, according to the Random Average Characters variant rule in the DMG.
You roll for HP on your first HD.
Death occurs at 0, not -10.
Starting gold is determined randomly, according to the PHB guidelines. Aside from weapons and armor, you may buy no more than 1d6 items.
The allowed sources are the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and the Monster Manual.
Character death must be celebrated and viewed as an opportunity to try a new character.
Optional: You may roll randomly on the following table to determine your race and class.

{table=head]d%|Race|d%|Class
1-10|Human|1-10|Barbarian
11-19|Dwarf|11-19|Bard
20-28|Elf|20-28|Cleric
29-37|Gnome|29-37|Druid
38-46|Half-Elf|38-46|Fighter
47-55|Half-Orc|47-55|Monk
56-64|Halfling|56-64|Paladin
65-73|Kobold|65-73|Ranger
74-82|Orc|74-82|Rogue
83-91|Goblin|83-91|Sorcerer
92-100|Hobgoblin|92-100|Wizard[/table]
(This turned out to be the most common way to determine your race and class)
Critical puns. Every time you cast a spell, roll 1d20. On a result of 1 or 20, we find a pun relating to the name of the spell. On a 1, this is bad for your character, on a 20, it is good for your character.

And I don't think I've heard as many laughs around the table for ages. It was a complete meat-grinder. After three fights, one TPK, a handful of instakills by crossbow bolts, everyone picking Toughness as the feat of choice, Entangle cast on the armpits of a moss-grown goblin cleric, a halfling monk kicking down a door, several explosions, and one death by bluff check, they managed to bring down the level 2 Kobold Sorcerer.

The hall of fame includes:
Fabio, half-elf ranger (Death by crossbow bolt.)
Gilon, dwarf rogue (Actually managed to find a trap! Death by crossbow bolt.)
Bergljótur Blöndal, half-orc Fighter (strength 9. Death by deafness, crossbow bolts, and a 20' pit trap.)
Fahrlangia, goblin Cleric (Female, cha 4. Managed to cast a Cure spell before she died.)
Muller, halfling druid (Death by crossbow bolt.)
Rex, riding dog animal companion (Death by Dire Weasel)
Joachim, halfling monk (Death by Dire Weasel. Didn't hit anything, but he did manage to kick up a door.)
Moser, halfling Sorcerer. (Arguably the Biggest Badass of the evening. Killed 8 kobolds, not one of them by casting a spell (even indirectly). Crit-fumbled his casting of sleep, summoned a sheep instead. Bluffed a kobold into thinking he wasn't actually there. Used alchemist's fire unwisely. Death by crossbow bolt.)
Gúllíver, human Bard (Didn't hit anything during his lifetime except for the sheep. Which he hit twice. Managed to spend his bardic music, though. Death by crossbow bolt.)
SURVIVOR! Glob, Orc Paladin. (The other candidate for the Biggest Badass, this guy, with his massive 13 hit points, survived a crossbow bolt, as well as not one, not two, not three, but FOUR CL 2 Burning Hands. Had strength 11 and int 6, though, which was a bit awkward. "Strength is not Glob's biggest strength".)
SURVIVOR! Heimlich, Gnome Druid. (Cast Entangle on the corpse of the goblin cleric. Ruined Glob's attempts to negotiate with the kobolds due to racism.)
Karl-Heinz, badger animal companion (Death by snake, fire, and a critical crossbow it.)

We intend to finish this next weekend if possible. I have a boss they have yet to grind their way through.

Seriously, I recommend this. xD

[Merk]

This sounds hilarious. I usually run higher-power adventures, but I'd like to try running this at some point.

[Ormur]

I was on my third character. There was a steady stream of incompetent adventurers into that godforsaken mine.

It was a lot of fun playing in a game where optimization is taking toughness or weapon focus as your only feat for a change and a critical hit can kill the hardiest character.

Even a comparatively overpowered druid was snuffed out by bad luck. I could have taken cover but surviving isn't really the point unless it's through pure luck.

[Daftendirekt]

This is made of so much win. Linked it to my DM, told him we have to try it.

[VirOath]

Many might bark at you for it, but I like it. Moreso, the simple fact that I could write up a quick script to do quick and dirty characters since everything would be random rolled anyways.

Making a character up to actually play in a standard game, these rules would infuriate me to no end. Mostly because the ability of the character wouldn't do well compared to any decent backstory or reason.

But with the goal being just to survive, that changes the game entirely.

[Kittenwolf]

I love it!
Must organise some kind of session for my group like this, it would be hilarity!

[LordBlades]

This is sooo awesomely hilarious for a ione-shot. Must try:smallbiggrin:

[Kumori]

At my next IRL session (next sunday I think) I'm gonna show this to my DM and playgroup, and see if we can give this a shot sometime in the near future....

[sambo.]

back in the day, we called this ADnD, 1ed.

my first ever character was a dwarf fighter swinging a bastard sword two handed and riding a war-dog.

his very first encounter, he charged in, took out one ghoul with a crit, got paralysed, died.

edit: i actually rolled up a Paladin in 1ed using the 3d6 straight down the page Method I character generation (yes, i spiked the 17 charisma and 12 strength! iirc he had a decent Con and Wis but an Int of 7). *sigh*, that character was great fun. i wonder if the char sheet is still around the house somewhere. somehow, i doubt it.

[drebb]

Sounds like FUN!

[Zaq]

Sounds rather like a D&D version of Kobolds Ate My Baby. There's really nothing wrong with this style of play in and of itself. It's just when you try to combine it with standard 3.5 assumptions that things get very bad very quickly.

[Baldin]

took out one ghoul with a crit, got paralysed, died.

Critting a ghoul =O that has to be an epic paladin to be able to do that!=D

[Doktor Per]

Zaq, you are incorrect. Things get very good, very fast. (Especially when you blow your funds on a sling and alchemical items...)

Also, heroes are much more epic when the average assumption is that the survival rate for adventurers is incredibly low :smalltongue:

[Ormur]

I'd never play in a campaign with those rules but one or two sessions are incredible fun.

[Quietus]

Yeah, I think the difference here is that the game was A) Not intended to be a long term story, B) spelled out beforehand that this is NOT a typical game, that expectations should be different, and C) Approached with humor rather than seriousness. These things add up to silly shenanannaanigans and a good time, over a couple of sessions. Regardless, kudos, that sounds like a fun game.

[Noneoyabizzness]

wow kinda feels like 2e

wanna be a paladin hope you roll it

only instead of stats its nicely random

[Morph Bark]

Definitely awesome for a one-shot. Got two players already willing to try. First gonna finish the campaign though. :smalltongue:

[Xodion]

This looks like it was a lot of fun, it reminds me of a very brief forum game my friend ran and I played in a few years ago - 3d6 stat rolls, NPC classes only. Sadly it didn't run for very long, as one of the five players had to drop out due to lack of time and another two dropped out because it was 'too hard' - even though my friend had explained several times that the point was that it would be ridiculously hard. I guess the Adept with a club who tried to take on two well-armed goblins by himself wasn't listening... :smallconfused:

[Swooper]

Albi Heimlich the racist dragon druid here. Came in after the first TPK and managed to survive the rest of the evening, somehow. I hold no illusions of that status quo remaining though, in the next session. I'm now down to no spells except a Detect Poison, my animal companion is dead, I have some minor injuries and I'm running low on sling bullets...

My backup character? A dwarf wizard with int 11 and wis 3. :smallcool:

Used alchemist's fire unwisely.
Only if "unwisely" means "tossing it into a room that is full of wheat, kobolds and only a few of your friends". The explosion from the combusting wheat killed at least three kobolds and left us only mildly singed! Totally worth it! :smallbiggrin:

[Blisstake]

Someone needs to start a game like this in the forums :smalltongue:

[Qwertystop]

This. Is. Awesome!

I agree, someone needs to start a game like this.

[flabort]

Let us know how the next session goes/went, please. This sounds High-Larry-ous.
Uh... please tell me there isn't a guy named "larry" in your groop. he may take offense if there is one.

Anyways, counting what you've posted so far, your players have rolled three halflings, and one each of dwarf, human, half elf, half orc, orc, and a gnome. I see the RNG favors halflings. :smallamused:
Oh, I've so got to find players for a game like this. (I could even use just the SRD for such a game!)

[Ormur]

Anyways, counting what you've posted so far, your players have rolled three halflings, and one each of dwarf, human, half elf, half orc, orc, and a gnome. I see the RNG favors halflings. :smallamused:

And the gnome player "cheated" and picked it instead of the halfling race he originally rolled for, so four halflings rolled. :smalltongue:

As for stat deficient characters my first one was a ranger with 6 in wisdom, the second a druid with 11 in wisdom (I refused to play a sorcerer with 9 in cha) and the aforementioned Paladin with 11 and 10 in strength and charisma respectively.