For our co-GMed Funnel World game, we’re slowing down villagers progression to 1 Level using Class Warfare. In Funnel World, if a villager survives an adventure and has 5 XP, they level up. But what’s the rush? With Class Warfare, the fun can last three times longer!
Class Warfare splits classes into an archetype and two or three specialities. This makes it easy to break up zero to hero into three stages.
When you survive your first “adventure” and have 5 or more XP, follow the funnel world Level Up move. Except you’re not first level yet. Instead pick archetype and a speciality and start with 1/3 HP for 1 level (rounded down) based on that archetype with any speciality and Constitution modifiers. Also, add +1 to any stat (the score not the +mod). Don’t forget to -5 XP as per Funnel World Level Up move.
When you survive your second “adventure” and have 5 or more XP, follow the funnel world Level Up move. Except you’re not first level yet. Instead pick a second speciality, add 1/3 HP for 1 level (rounded down) based on your archetype with any speciality and Constitution modifiers. Also, add +1 to any stat (the score not the +mod). Don’t forget to -5 XP as per Funnel World Level Up move.
When you survive your third “adventure” and have 5 or more XP, follow the funnel world Level Up move. You’re finally first level so pick a third speciality, take the full HP for 1 level based on your archetype with any speciality and Constitution modifiers. Also, add +1 to any stat (the score not the +mod). Don’t forget to -5 XP as per Funnel World Level Up move.
“Surviving the adventure” could mean all kinds of narrative pauses. In our co-GMing funnel, we’re making the dungeon on-the-fly, so there’s no adventure module or even map that could trigger these stages. So we’re probably going to have make a call when it feels right.
For improving the damage die, consider the base damage for their archetype and any speciality modifiers.
D4: Same as villager. No change.
D6: Only get the d6 after third adventure when Level 1.
D8: Get d6 after second adventure and d8 after third when Level 1.
d10: get d6 after first adventure, d8 after second, and d10 after third when Level 1.
The idea behind +1 to stats is the villagers random generation often leads to poorly stated characters, and some speciality moves only work if the stat mod is at least +1. I’m not particularly sold on the idea. I don’t see good stats as particularly desirable, as they often lead to safe play, but I also don’t care if some PCs have über-stats. And it’d work in the fiction, part of the villagers rising to the challenge and surviving the intense trauma.
Still need to think about calculating load and choosing alignment at some point. But otherwise should work okay. Well if any villagers last that long.
Love it. I’m going to use this approach the next time I run a Funnel campaign.
really intrigued by this, will try it next time i get a group together to run a funnel.
Regarding the stat bump, maybe on the mini-level-up you let the player choose either +1 to one stat, or swap any two scores instead. This provides some flexibility to the player to fine tune stat allocation.
By they time they reach Level 1, they will have effectively been able to swap all six stats if desired, or have taken up to +3 to stats overall.
Edited below for clarity:
Have you made the archetype’s Starting Moves available to the villagers as well? I could see this making for interesting changes to the typical funnel….
Andrew Fish, opening Starting moves? I don’t know what you mean.
Oliver Granger It’s because i didn’t state it clearly! Sorry…
By opening, i meant ‘making them available’ –
I was wondering about the effect of letting a character take the archetype’s starting move on Levelling Up as well as changing stats/HP.
So at the first level up when they choose an archetype, they get that archetype’s starting move(s), and again with the second and third.
I could see it working out to be quite interesting. Especially if the move was modified or at least thematically flavored around the villager’s profession or the trials they’ve faced in the funnel thus far (i wanna see a Mason/The Fighter with a signature Spatula!).
Andrew Fish, if I understand you right, that’s our plan. Or at least almost.
Almost because, when a villager gets an Archetype in our plan, they’ll get a modified version of their Archetype’s Starting Move. I mean, Class Warfare’s Starting Moves are just choose three specialities (or two and a higher level specialty move). So our plan modifies Starting Moves so those three “specials” are not gained all at once but in stages.
Flavouring the advancements is one of the main reasons we want to prolong advancement, to eke out the most from each bildungsroman. I hadn’t actually thought of flavouring with professions quite like that, but it makes total sense.
Using the flavour of the trials they’ve faced is one we’ve definitely considered. I’m rather fond of using afflictions, for example. to make new specialties available. Kind of like taking the Compendium Classes in Justin Wightbred’s Numbers Appearing and making a monstrous archetype for Class Warfare. So you got bitten by a Dog-man, consider the lycanthrope archetype. Or something.