Peril at Bluestone Village - My DCC Character Funnel

In addition to putting together the underpinnings of my game world, Aedoss (pronounced, EYE-doss), I have nearly finished my 0-level character funnel entitled "Peril at Bluestone Village".  It begins with a village under siege by local brigands who have been united together by a mysterious and otherworldly sorcerer.  There are several elements that I wanted to bring to the fore with this story...

Unlikely Heroes In Extraordinary Circumstances...

•  Of course this makes perfect sense as this is exactly what the character funnel in the DCC RPG is supposed to be.  The norm is not to begin play with heroes that have already come into their power.  Much the opposite, play begins with characters who are simple peasants or tradesmen with just a spark of the adventurer flame within them.  That being said, I thought that one of the best ways to give these common folk a brush with adventure would be for their village to be attacked by sinister forces.

A Threat From Beyond The Mortal Realm

• One of the most surprising bits of advice that is given to DCC judges in the core rulebook is that extraplanar encounters should start early.  This is contrary to my experience with running old school adventure games.  Generally, the extraplanar stuff is left until higher levels are achieved, mainly because of the high levels of the opponents.  Once I did a bit of pondering on this idea, I realized that it follows right along with the tenets of many of the stories from Appendix N.  Heroes come right out of the gate, facing some sort of threat from "beyond the worlds we know".  Consequently, my character funnel session will feature a villain from another reality.

Bits Of A Bigger Tale

• The character funnel session is at its best when it contains markers that will lead the 0-level mooks, not only to first level, but to further adventure as well.  The characters should learn some things that will give the survivors a path to travel, kick-starting their adventuring careers.  In my session, clues will be found about what is motivating the villain.  His interest in the seemingly insignificant village will be revealed.

Paths To First Level

• For those who survive the meat-grinder, there needs to exist avenues that can be traveled to make the steps to first level reachable.  It seems to me that for each character class, something needs to be interjected that could cause one of the characters to make the choice.  I plan to handle this by creating situations that could be resolved by magic, divine inspiration, melee, stealth, and problem-solving.  This will allow a potential turning point to happen, perhaps causing a character to choose a certain path.  Beyond this idea, I plan to have several NPCs in Bluestone Village that can guide a potential adventurer in their chosen class.

Hopefully these element will mix together and give the players something to create a great adventure around. We'll soon see as the playing of the first session of my DCC campaign draws near!