You have cheated death one too many times and now you're going to get Final Destination'd. Or you have cheated on Death and now he's throwing all your belongings out the second-floor window. Either way, your favour with the Gods has dwindled to nil, so now there's a divine target on your back.
DCC RPG (p. 96) states that a character who reaches zero luck suffers such constant, bizarre mishaps that they are effectively unable to get anything done. It's worth noting that falling to zero in any other stat effectively incapacitates a character entirely. Falling unconscious or becoming a babbling mess might as well be a death sentence under any circumstances where you're likely to take that ability score damage to begin with. In this spirit, it seems entirely fair that if a character falls to zero Luck the consequences are just as bad.
On the flip side, this is a situation a player chooses to get into. Not in the same way that someone chooses their death by making poor decisions that lead to taking damage. Players would generally need to actively choose to burn their Luck down to zero. At first glance, this seems like further justification for the consequences to be deadly. It's your own fault, don't do it if you don't want to die. You are literally out of Luck, after all.
The problem is, that's a choice nobody will ever take, which makes it a boring choice. It's really a non-decision - nobody is going to just press the suicide button. Burning Luck is for getting out of a jam. As such, the consequences for reaching zero Luck should be really bad but not guaranteed death. To further encourage it, it should have an element of fun. I recommend using a random table of bizarre occurrences that frequently hassle the PC until they make it up to the Gods they've offended by restoring at least 1 point of Luck - however that happens at your table. Some results should be potentially deadly, some should be relatively harmless but funny.
It doesn't need to be a huge table, because it shouldn't come up often and shouldn't last very long - in fact, increasing the likelihood of being struck by lightning three times in a row will only drive home just how unlucky this character is. Plus it's hard to come up with unlucky events that aren't just total bullshit.
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When a player's Luck score hits zero, the Judge rolls on this table at least once per in-game day. If the party is actively adventuring, such as in a dungeon, increase this to every six exploration Turns (1 in-game hour). These rolls are to continue each day/hour until the character returns their Luck to 1 or greater. The first roll should be made immediately when zero Luck is achieved. The Judge should keep the result a surprise until it occurs, as the surprise is part of the fun with these unfortunate events.
If the event is a singular occurrence without a specified condition or timing, the Judge may determine its timing randomly throughout the day/hour or simply choose an inopportune time for it to happen. If it cannot happen at that moment (for instance, lightning striking while underground) it happens instantly at the first possible opportunity.
Bizarre Mishaps (d12):
- At the beginning of your next combat, you drop your weapon and it lands 5' away from you.
- At the beginning of your next combat, your armor comes unfastened and falls off. It takes at least a Turn to reequip it and make sure it is fastened such that it won't happen a second time.
- You are surprised in your next combat, even if you snuck up on them. They saw it coming.
- You slept wrong (or if mid-adventure, an action or attack triggers this), and a twinge in your shoulder forces you to attack at -1d for 1d3 days. This can stack.
- You can't find the next item you try to use. Later you will realize it was exactly where you left it all along.
- An arrow falls from above, from an unknown source. 1d6 damage.
- A Wizard's failed teleport causes him to land directly on you, knocking you prone. He quickly apologizes, dusts himself off, and teleports away.
- Spontaneous combustion. Take 1d6 fire damage per round until you succeed on a DC 10 Reflex save.
- Struck by lightning. Take 1d12 damage and have a 50% chance of catching fire.
- A meteor falls from the sky and lands on you, and only you. Take 4d8 damage and be knocked prone.
- Stepped on a snake - subject to randomly selected snake poison from Appendix P (p. 446), 1d4: (1) adder, (2) asp, (3) cobra, (4) viper
- It rains on you and only you for several hours.
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