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Saturday, June 16, 2012

Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG - Does a Patron By Any Other Name Still Smell Like Brimstone?


Alright, my random quest through the DCC RPG rulebook has brought me to the Patron Section.  Although half of the sample Patrons seem overwhelmingly evil, if not diabolical, in nature, the Three Fates is an example of power that is not evil.  So, if they were your patron you would have access to their power (and still possibly be open to corruption), but your patron would not be evil by nature.

Mind you, I'm not calling the Three Fates primarily good, but they seem to fall along the Order side of the Order - Chaos meter.  So, more like Lawful with Good tendencies (if we are looking at this through classic D&D eyes)

Four of patrons in the core book are evil, three are somewhat neutral and one is lawful with good leanings.

So, if one were to think up more patrons, would that ratio stay the same, or would one say that neutral and lawful patrons are under represented?

6 comments:

  1. I think the darker patrons have that "you're tampering with powers you cannot begin to control!" vibe, which is why they're heavily represented. And the basic patron/peon relationship seems generally devoid of generosity in either direction. (That would be more of a God/cleric thing...)

    So I'm guessing even the kindest patron should be enigmatic and somewhat unapproachable. It would be an interesting challenge to create patrons that weren't oozing evil, but still posed the same sort of mystery and danger.

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  2. Magic is pretty evil. The sword is just. Beer is neutral. We need a patron of be
    er

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  3. "With a smile that was almost tender Arioch looked down on Elric and a silky hand stroked Elric's cheek. Arioch had grown to twice his original size. 'Oh, you are surely the sweetest of all my slaves, ' said the Lord of Chaos."

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  4. So, if one were to think up more patrons, would that ratio stay the same, or would one say that neutral and lawful patrons are under represented?
    Well that depends entirely on your cosmology. Goodman's idea, though, is that these are beings willing to trade magical power for services with no ethical strings attached. He goes to some trouble to point up the differences between the cleric/god and MU/patron relationships. It makes a fair bit of sense to postulate that the majority of the beings willing to cut deals like this aren't the nicest guys around.

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  5. There was a fan-made angelic patron on the Goodman forums long ago. Even then it was more mysterious powerful being that can "corrupt" you with overwhelming order and zealotry.

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  6. http://www.indiegogo.com/Unusualsuspects?a=699890

    I guess you'll have a chance to see what I would come up with, anyway, if you are so inclined! (And, as only a portion of the book is written by me, what some other creative folks come up with as well!)

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