AX&X: The Funnel

The Zero Level

Before a character is a Fighter or a Thief they are just a person with a trade and a bad idea. That is the zero level, and it is one statline shared by three kinds of nobody: the peasant mob of a funnel, the torchbearer you hire at the gate, and the porter who hauls your loot. All three are built the same.

• Abilities and Kindred: Roll 3d6 in order for the six, and take a kindred. Its one trait applies even now: a dwarf still sees in the dark, an elf still shrugs off Sleep.
• Hit Points: 1d4 + CON, minimum 1. A zero level is one bad blow from the grave.
• Defense and Attack: AC 10, or better with scraps of armor. Attacks at +0: no class, no Level. A pitchfork, sling, or torch is a light weapon, improvised at −2 unless it is a real one.
• Saves: 1d20 + ability, 12+. No Level to add and no class bonus, though a kindred save still counts.
• A Past Life: Roll on Occupations below. It grants a knack, +2 to Checks that life would cover, and the one odd thing you carried out of it.
• They Leave the Story: A zero level never pops back up to fight on. At 0 HP they are out of the tale for good; the roll only tells how they go. Roll Brush with Death, or a table of your own, and read it as their exit: Slain is a death, and every other result is a maiming, a breaking, or a body dragged from the field, retired from the funnel all the same, a survivor if the party wins free, a corpse if it does not. Draw your next body from your own mob first; roll up fresh zero levels only when a player’s pool runs dry.

1d20 Occupations

1. Farmer. Beasts, weather, and long labor. A stout sickle.
2. Hunter. Tracking, game, and the wild. A short bow and a half-quiver.
3. Woodcutter. Timber, climbing, and brute work. A felling axe.
4. Fisher. Water, boats, and patience. A net and a gutting knife.
5. Blacksmith. Metal, mending, and raw force. A smith's hammer.
6. Mason. Stone, walls, and what is sound. A heavy maul and a chisel.
7. Tanner. Hides, knots, and foul work others refuse. A flensing knife, and a stench that turns dogs.
8. Herbalist. Herbs, poisons, and simples. A pouch holding one Remedy.
9. Beggar. Cities, rumor, and going unseen. A tin cup, and a copper that always finds its way back.
10. Minstrel. Performance, lore, and winning a room. A lute with one sour string.
11. Cutpurse. Locks, pockets, and slipping a grip. A thin blade and a set of picks.
12. Acolyte. Rites, letters, and the names of the dead. A holy token, warm near the unholy.
13. Gravedigger. The dead, soil, and what should stay buried. A spade, and a skull that was facing the wrong way.
14. Miller. Grain, gears, and honest weights. A heavy pestle.
15. Chandler. Wax, tallow, and light. A dozen candles that gutter blue near the dead.
16. Rat-catcher. Vermin, drains, and tight places. A terrier, loyal and loud.
17. Peddler. Haggling, roads, and what sells. A pack of oddments, and a map to nowhere that keeps proving right.
18. Ferryman. Rivers, crossings, and tolls. A long pole, and a coin a dead man paid.
19. Charcoal-burner. Fire, smoke, and the deep wood. A tinderbox that never fails, once.
20. Orphan of the host. Camps, drill, and making do. A notched sword too big for you, once your father's.

Running a Funnel

A funnel opens a campaign with a crowd of zero levels and ends it with a few heroes. Each player rolls up a little mob of three or four, a dozen or more to the table, and marches the lot into one deadly dungeon. The dungeon does the choosing. Whoever crawls out the far side has earned a class.

• The Mob: Everyone runs their handful at once. Track them in a row and expect to cross names out. A zero level hauls light, fights poorly, and dies easily, so the play is cleverness, caution, and numbers, not heroics.
• Spend the Bodies: Send the expendable to prod the floor and open the door. That is the funnel’s grim joke and its honest lesson: the survivors learn the dungeon is the enemy, long before the goblins are.
• The Dungeon: It ships as rules, not a map. Bring your own deadly place and stock it with the core procedure, pitched a notch crueller than a Level 1 party would meet.
• Graduation: Live to the end and the character becomes Level 1. Pick a class, your kindred and past life already yours: take the class Hit Die at maximum plus CON for new HP, gain its features, keep the knack and whatever gear and scars you carried out, and roll a Tie. The past life colors the choice, a cutpurse leans Thief, an acolyte Cleric, but never binds it. The funnel’s XP carries over.

Hirelings

A hireling is a zero level you pay by the day. Build a torchbearer or a porter exactly as a funnel peasant, kindred, past life, and all; a man-at-arms is a cut above, a trained hand at Level 1.

• The Hired: Torchbearer or porter 1 GP/day, a zero level. Link-boy, bearer, and camp-hand are the same. A man-at-arms at 5 GP/day is Level 1: HD 1, a weapon and light armor, Atk +1.
• Shares: A hireling draws its wage and a half share of XP. Let that XP ride and a hireling can reach the Level 1 threshold and graduate just as a funnel survivor does, choosing a class and coming up a henchman.
• Loyalty: Asked first to risk death, a hireling makes a CHA check, yours, or balks, flees, or quits. After that it tests morale like any creature: 1d6, breaking on 1 to 3 when the blood runs. Fair pay, fair shares, and not being spent as bait all weigh for you, and the GM may shade the roll.
• Specialists: A trade expert, an alchemist, a sage, a sapper, costs more and bargains harder, but brings a knack no slot-filler has. Price it to the job.

Henchmen

A henchman is not hired but won: a loyal adventurer who throws in with you for a share and a cause, levels at your side, and may one day carry the torch when you fall.

• How Many: You may lead henchmen up to your CHA modifier + 1, minimum one. A charmer draws a following; a boor leads no one.
• Where They Come From: A funnel survivor you kept, a captive you freed, a Lifepath Comrade or Retainer, a faction’s gift, or a likely sort won in a tavern with a CHA check. Each is a full character, rolled up, entering at Level 1 or a Level below you.
• The Deal: No wage. A henchman takes a half share of loot and XP and levels on it, and gets a say in how both are split. The share is theirs by right, not your largesse.
• Loyalty: Loyalty is won by use. Share fairly, spend them as comrades not fodder, and they hold. Cheat or risk them past reason and loyalty frays: a CHA check or a morale test when pushed, and a broken henchman walks, or turns, a ready-made Rival or Enemy.
• The Succession: When your character dies, a henchman is the replacement the core already promises: leveled, equipped, and tied to the party. Promote one, and roll a fresh henchman in their place.

From Peasant to Hero

One ladder runs under all of it. A zero level is the bottom rung, peasant, torchbearer, and porter alike. Earn a half share through a funnel or a hired season, cross the Level 1 threshold, and pick a class to graduate. Throw in for a cause and a share, and a graduate becomes a henchman who levels with you. Outlive your patron, or strike out alone, and a henchman becomes a hero in their own right. When the whole crowd takes the field, the Warband supplement runs them as one host, the funnel’s mob mustering under a banner.