tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37500015446338851712024-03-13T13:09:43.858-08:00Vedron's Potion ShopFrustra laborant quotquot se calculationibus fatigant pro inventione quadraturae circuliVedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.comBlogger261125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3750001544633885171.post-41646674582965385182023-03-12T13:45:00.001-08:002023-03-12T13:45:09.440-08:00Campaign Journal: B2 "Keep on the Borderlands! The Shunned Cavern...<p> This is the next part of our campaign journal, discussing B2. You should be able to use the tags to find previous posts about B1. For those just joining us, we are adventuring with three heroes: Dragonwing (F3), Magic Hands (MU3), and Flowing River (Druid 3). The players are all kids, pre-k through early elementary, and they're doing great.</p><p>We've had a few sessions so I will just hit the highlights.</p><p><b><span style="color: red;">SPOILERS FOR B2 AHEAD</span></b></p><p><b>PAPERS AND PAYCHECKS</b></p><p>The players arrived at the keep and spend much of a session exploring the outer bailey. They were flush with loot from B1 so they upgraded armor, paid a travelling witch to learn a new wizard spell or two, and paid taxes (scutage to avoid 40 days of service to the keep). They secured lodging and heard a few lurid tales of danger and wealth at the keep. The kids had never interacted with NPCs like this so it was worth dragging out a bit.</p><p>Of course, a friendly jovial priest staying in an apartment had breakfast with the new folks in town and sized them up. The merchants and sergeant at arms complained of raids on caravans and patrols and suggested starting with some of the caves near the mouth of the canyon.</p><p><b>FIRST EXPEDITION -- OWLBEARS, OH MY!</b></p><p>The players ignored the suggestion to start with the caves near the front of the canyon and instead went straight down the middle, all the way to the back. Despite several fairly ominous warning descriptions, they ventured into the owlbear cave. Oh my!</p><p>Luckily, the players had faced an Owlbear in Hero Kids, a simpler fantasy RPG, so they were familiar with the trope and recognized they had a dangerous foe on their hands once they blundered into the nest. Dragonwing landed a few lucky max damage hits which quickly whittled the monster's HP down. Magic Hands threw up Shield which saved him from a few nasty hits, drawing attacks from the creature. When Dragon Wing went down, Flowing River was able to throw a timely Cure Wounds on the warrior, getting him back in the fight... Flowing River then went down and needed a Healing Potion. After a tough fight that used up most of the resourced, the Owl Bear was defeated! Huzzah!</p><p>The players continued exploring the shunned cavern. They found the room with the pool and slimes. Magic Hands, wearing no armor, boldy dove right into the pool and snagged the treasure without hesitation. I used a 2d6+STR roll for swimming and he rolled boxcars -- sounds like a great dive to recover the loot! Dragon Wing and Flowing River got "glopped" by some slime, drew them off for a round, enabling Magic Hands to escape with the loot. All three heroes beat a hasty retreat, not bothering to stick around to fight the slow moving slimes.</p><p>Not a bad start to B2!</p>Vedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3750001544633885171.post-87956346984085911272023-02-17T13:22:00.001-09:002023-02-17T13:22:00.225-09:00Donjons & Drakes: Ability Score Generation<p> One of the hallmarks of "old school" design is random dice rolling for character generation, vs. a point buy or stat array. After having played a lot of D&D, I think the primary advantage of randomly generating a character is that the dice can guide you to what you should play. Roll a 17 WIS? Cleric it is! 16 STR, 16 CON, 8 INT? Dust off the Conan the Barbarian memes, we are making a fighter.</p><p>That said I also think there is some value to statistics being somewhat balanced between characters. You are stuck with these rolls for a long time, and while I am sure some grognard will be along to correct me, it isn't fun to play a character with all mediocre stats. Something above and below average creates variety!</p><p>So I have taken a few steps in character creation to address all these objectives.</p><p><b><u>How it Works in a Nutshell</u></b></p><p>Roll 2d6+6 for a score associated with a prime requisite (STR/INT/WIS) and 2d6+6 for a secondary score (DEX/CON/CHA). Roll 3d6 in order for the rest. </p><p><b><u>Archetypes</u></b></p><p>In my edition, players select an archetype by drawing playing cards; they pick from a small pool of choices. Each archetype will give bonuses to generate one or two of the six ability scores (typically by rolling 2d6+6 for the indicated scores rather than 3d6 as described above). For example, the Jack of Clubs yields above average Strength and Dexterity -- probably a good start for a fighter or perhaps a rogue, but not guaranteed. Each of the archetypes is also linked to an astrological sign and one of seven patrons/factions, giving an immediate instant roleplay hook possibility.</p><p>If you don't like the archetypes rule, you roll 4d6 drop the lowest for all of them and ignore bonuses granted by your species (so the average comes out the same).</p><p><u><b>Reducing the Range and Importance of Ability Scores</b></u></p><p>Ability score modifiers in my game typically range only from -2 to +2. And anything more than a +1 or -1 is a little unusual. </p><p>The impact of ability scores on primary class functions has also been softened. A character with a high ability score has a jump start early in their career but the bonus is eclipsed by level-based modifiers later on. For example, all characters add their strength modifier to hit with melee weapons; fighters get to add their strength modifier or a modifier based on their class level, whichever is greater (but not both). Thus the fighter with average strength will eventually catch up through acquisition of experience and skill by mid or late career with his more naturally gifted peers. You aren't crippled forever as a fighter without that awesome 18 in STR.</p><p><b><u>Ability Score Mercy Rules</u></b></p><div>I expect statistically speaking a character in my edition to have a summed modifier of +2: usually one score with a -1 modifier and three with +1 (or one with +2 and one with +1). Characters which have lower scores than this add to their LOWEST score of constitution, dexterity, or charisma. Those scores are selected for buffs as they are the "secondary" scores -- not a prime requisite for anything (except rogues), so changing them doesn't change the fundamental logic of what character class a given stat array is well suited for.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>Making Humans Great</u></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Humans add +3 to their lowest score. Again this won't change what class you're suited for (keeping the decision space narrow) but is a solid perk that makes them worthwhile vs. the low level benefits of demihumans.</div>Vedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3750001544633885171.post-43335150066590697612023-02-15T13:22:00.002-09:002023-02-15T13:22:07.977-09:00Donjons & Drakes: Fantasy Heartbreaker Intro<p> I have been working on my own Fantasy Heartbreaker, currently named Donjons & Drakes, for some time. Many of my early musings are in this blog. Starting to play again has spurred me to get the game to a playable state. I'm not quite exactly where I want it to be (especially with higher level stronghold management), but it is certainly playable. The game is heavily based on The Original Fantasy RPG from the 1970s, but I have pulled in ideas from other editions and other games throughout where they make sense. Especially now that 5E is in a Creative Commons license, there is a lot of flexibility to borrow material.</p><p>I intend a series of posts about core mechanics and rules. This is an excerpt from the front material that lays out what its all about.</p><h2><span style="font-family: Souvenir; font-size: 16.0000pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Premise</span><span style="font-family: Souvenir; font-size: 16.0000pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></h2><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">In this game, characters begin as eager adventurers eager to find their way in the world. After some introductory adventures where experience is gained, they find themselves deep in the depths of a fantastic dungeon. Success brings riches, magic and power. Failure brings ignominy</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> or even death</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">. Eventually, successful characters have the opportunity to establish strongholds, raise armies and vie for control of the known Realms. Will your character bring an age of weal, be a harbinger of woe, or maintain the balance? How will the journey change them? Adventure on to find out…</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></p><h2><span style="font-family: Souvenir; font-size: 16.0000pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Scope</span><span style="font-family: Souvenir; font-size: 16.0000pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></h2><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The game you hold before you is based on the Original Fantasy Role Playing Game (OFRPG)</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"> and its earliest basic versions</span><span style="font-family: 'Tw Cen MT'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: SimSun; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">. However, this version is unique for it adds emphasis in several areas.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: "Tw Cen MT"; text-indent: -21pt;">Incorporation of elements from the Original Fantasy Miniatures Wargame. The Original Fantasy Miniatures Wargame was used in a number of places for inspiration to round out the capabilities of player characters and monsters alike.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "Tw Cen MT"; text-indent: -21pt;">Modern, streamlined mechanics. Universal saving throws, an ascending armor class system leveraging the base attack bonus, and other such mechanics have been incorporated to greatly reduce the need to constantly reference tables in play. Mechanics have been designed such that only D20 and D6 dice are generally needed. The emphasis is on relatively fast play.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "Tw Cen MT"; text-indent: -21pt;">Historical accuracy. Where possible, the game draws from historical sources. For example, prices have been adjusted to a silver standard, where one silver coin is a groat and three silver pieces equal a historical medieval shilling. This allows easy conversion of new items from real world sources into the game. Another example has been to further develop the details of domain management for high level characters, looking to historical examples as a guide. Units of weight and measure are another example, where historical real world measures such as weight in </span><span style="font-family: "Tw Cen MT"; text-indent: -21pt;">“stones” provide a simpler and more flavorful method than the OFRPG.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "Tw Cen MT"; text-indent: -21pt;">Heroic mythos. The alignment system has been modified to include elements of heroic mythology, borrowing from astrology, tarot, and other arcana. These elements add a bit of depth to heroic character development, allowing the players to draw inspiration from a rich tapestry of mythic inspiration.</span></li></ul><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Tw Cen MT";">The author has been able to benefit from modern statistical analysis tools to analyze the OFRPG and other games, as well as years of personal experience with various editions of role playing games games, to develop this set of rules. It it is a never-ending labor, but one that has finally resulted in a codified set of playable table rules with a unique spin on a familiar genre. I hope that you enjoy these rules.</span></p>Vedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3750001544633885171.post-19388913076256871522023-01-23T16:47:00.001-09:002023-01-23T16:47:00.229-09:00B1 Retrospective and Review<p><b> WARNING: SOME SPOILERS AHEAD FOR B1</b></p><p><br /></p><p>This is the last of a series of posts on B1, "Search for the Unknown." My players may opt to go back but I think they're ready to move on.</p><p>I've had B1 for years and skimmed it a few times but this was my first time running it. I modified the module, in that I used my own home brew random encounter and treasure tables (heavily based on the 3LBB) to stock the dungeon. Otherwise I ran it pretty much as is.</p><p><b>THE GOOD</b></p><p>B1 has a good mix of early D&Disms: There's some combat, a few traps, plenty of secret doors, and a number of interesting "trick" rooms. The advice for a new DM is reasonable, even a few decades later. Given that it is intended to train new DMs, I like that the module comes "unstocked." For an experienced DM, there is plenty to work with here, and if you let the tables be your muse, you can get an interesting dungeon ecology.</p><p>The atmosphere in this module is also great. The players get to see what being a great adventurer is all about -- you build your own place, get some awesome trophies to hang on the wall, build your own throne room, etc. There's a bit of delightful neutrality and ambiguity here -- the builders on the stronghold were not some goody two shoes types.</p><p><b>THE BAD</b></p><p>It isn't all roses:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>No hook. There is a rumor table but there's really no hook, plot or goal for the adventurers in this module other than exploring and looking for loot. I grafted a bit of a plot onboard with an elvish treasure to recover but there's nothing there if you run it stock.</li><li>No plot. Unless you can build emergent dungeon ecology out of the tables, there's not much depth here. Again, very dependent on DM skill and experience. I'd contrast this with B2, which has a good dose of basic monster politics and factions baked right in.</li><li>Little advice for balancing encounters. The new DM is expected to stock this dungeon but there's little advice on how many creatures should appear.</li><li>No base camp. Unlike other introductory modules like T1 or B2, there's no village, castle, or camp here. I created a safe elf-approved forest camp for the PCs to return to in between delves, but there's nothing stock in the module.</li><li>No surround/wilderness. Again, unlike T1 and B2, we get no surrounding wilderness. B2 doesn't have much but there is at least a bit. I dropped B1 into the middle of a dark fey-and-goblin infested forest, but this requires some DIY.</li></ul><div>On the plus side, B1 can be dropped into your campaign pretty much where ever. You can drop it next to Hommlet, or the Keep on the Borderlands, or whatever you like. My B1 is just down the road from the Keep on the Borderlands and B2.</div><div><br /></div><div>As far as introductory modules go, it would have been nice if there was a rudimentary base camp -- even just a page or two with a remote wilderness outpost -- and the barest sketch of a wilderness hex around this (even just random encounter tables). I did fine as an experienced DM but if this is truly for new groups then those would be nice additions.</div><p></p><p><b>THE UGLY</b></p><p>I've mentioned these before but will hit them again in this summary.</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Mapping. I understand in the old school, it was a thing to verbally describe every twist and turn of the dungeon then see if the players could map it accurately. This dungeon has some of the secret rooms tucked into spaces you'd only find with precise mapping, teleportation trick rooms, warrens of tunnels, etc that thrive on those sorts of mapping games. I don't love those mapping games. This dungeon is just a PITA to map. I ended up simplifying some parts of level 1. I get how this is a thing but it just wasn't my cup of tea.</li><li>Room descriptions. These room descriptions are quite extensive, but they don't make it clear what is player-facing and GM-facing info at a glance. So as a consequence, I as the GM have to re-skim the whole room description, find the parts the player should know, and then find a way to explain them. It is not convenient or user friendly.</li></ul><div><b>VERDICT: B</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Overall, I'd give B1 a solid "B" as a grade. It is a solid old school module with swords & sorcery vibes. Because you can key it yourself, you can easily drop this into your campaign at literally any level -- there's no reason you couldn't stock the place with monsters and treasures off of any two levels of the dungeon matrices. Plan on pairing it with a starting location such as B2 or T1. While it needs a little work, its definitely usable.</div><p></p>Vedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3750001544633885171.post-57263761562266741072023-01-22T15:16:00.004-09:002023-01-22T15:16:34.096-09:00Finishing B1<p> Last week my intrepid players finished off B1. Spoilers ahead for B1!</p><p>This was their most focused adventure yet. They knew they needed to find stairs down, then find a specific piece of jewelry. After some quick and somewhat lucky poking around, they found the stairs down. Huzzah!</p><p>The first room in the basement level has some random mining equipment and spoilage about. For some reason they were convinced there might be something of value here and they spent many turns searching every inch of wall for a secret door or other remarkable item. This delay was punished with an eventual "1" on a random encounter roll, generating their first Level 2 Wandering Monster: a Ghoul. The ghoul got the drop on them, charged in, paralyzed brave Dragon Wing the Fighter, and started tearing at him. Luckily the other heroes quickly dropped the ghoul, but they are now respectful of the power of the undead!</p><p>The heroes then poked around in the basement for a bit. They knew they needed to work their way to the north but weren't quite sure how the paths connected so there was some exploration. They battled an ogre (an encounter which could have been avoided with more care, but it went ok) and found a few minor treasures. </p><p>The heroes then found some minor camping supplies which they pilfered. They were surprised by Sir Lancesome, third cousin to the more famous Knight of the Round Table, a valiant Lawful Fighter 4. Having had a number of run ins with short kobolds, and suspecting these tiny adventurers of taking his things, Lancesome interrogated them from the darkness about his quest objectives (he was out to slay a band of hobgoblins and rescue the fair maiden Melissa, whose chambers are on the first floor). The heroes did not know about any hobgoblins and told him of the lady's chambers upstairs, and then Lancesome evaded them, not looking for a fight himself.</p><p>Shortly thereafter, the heroes had a run-in with a wandering patrol of hobgoblins. Only two strong and outclassed by the party, the hobgoblins rolled a reaction check (uncertain) and extorted a "toll" of 20 SP each from the heroes (one paid gladly for everyone, the others were more reluctant), then beat a retreat to tell their chief. Encounter avoided.</p><p>Finally, the heroes linked up with their previous map. They quickly raced to the known secret door, had their wizard fire up "locate object" to look for secret door mechanisms, and found their way to the hidden treasure room. Huzzah! Within after a brief encounter, the treasure was found, and the heroes began to escape... During their escape, they felt <i>watched; </i>the druid cast faerie fire and outlined a humanoid silhouette who then dashed off... a band of fighters with levels and a treasure including an invisibility potion were also on this floor, and perhaps they will follow the adventurers to their next destination...</p><p>Having retrieved the elvish crown of quest completion, the heroes returned to their camp and met with the elves. The elves granted the druid a reincarnate spell to restore an unjustly slain neutral fighter (who came back as a faun), the fighter three javelins of lightning and identification of his magic sword, and taught the wizard a new spell. </p><p>B1 complete! Next stop: B2 -- Keep on the Borderlands. Also, later, a review on B1.</p>Vedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3750001544633885171.post-54580892730131543692023-01-03T20:06:00.038-09:002023-01-03T20:06:00.213-09:00B1 Campaign Journal: Pools & Kobolds!<p> This post is part of a multi-post series. You can read the previous one here:</p><p><a href="http://vedronspotionshop.blogspot.com/2023/01/b1-in-search-of-unknown-campaign.html">http://vedronspotionshop.blogspot.com/2023/01/b1-in-search-of-unknown-campaign.html</a></p><p><b><span style="color: red;">SPOILERS AHEAD -- B1 "INTO THE UNKNOWN"</span></b></p><p><b><span style="color: red;"><br /></span></b></p><p><b><span>THE MAGIC POOLS</span></b></p><p><span>The players recently learned from a captured NPC about the path to some interesting pools. So, off they want to check it out. First, there was a brief fight -- two giant lizards (level 2 monsters) had taken up residence in there for some reason. They were quickly dispatched.</span></p><p>The players then carefully examined the pools. Astrid our cleric was not able to attend so this was just young players going solo, and I'm impressed at their thoroughness and caution vs. risk taking. They were good about poking water with spears before investigating further, taking very small sips rather than big gulps, and not touching stuff that was clearly Really Icky (like slimes). They did try to carry off as many of the potion-y waters as they could, and were disappointed when they lost their glamour upon leaving the room. The only one that really tripped them up for awhile was some illusory treasure. </p><p>They also had an absolute ball in this room. I actually set this one up with minis using little round circle wood disks for the pools and they had a blast moving them from pool to pool. There was a chance for total disaster here but they avoided all the major missteps.</p><p><b>THE WIZARD'S APARTMENTS</b></p><p>The next place they stumbled into was the great wizard Z's chambers. They had a brief fight with some giant spiders which went pretty well for them. I did tone down poison for my game -- instead of an instakill, it deals 1-6 points of damage per hit die of the victim on a failed save. These nasties had a moderate bite (2 points per HD) which hurt plenty, especially as we are all using D6 hit dice (+1 per die for fighters, +1 for high con). Again, like the mapping last game, an OSR heresy -- but I don't find insta-kill poison on common monsters found at low levels before anyone has any countermeasures (Neutralize Poison) to be particularly fun.</p><p>After a thorough search of the apartments, the players found a clue that I added to the adventure: among the wizard's invoices was a receipt for a "special door" associated with the "vault" along with the name of the craftsman. I'd decided the treasure was well hidden behind a secret door and there was little chance of them finding it without some assistance. If the players wanted to there was also an easy little town sidequest there for them to look up the guildmaster and then find and interrogate the masons.</p><p>The illusory treasure trick really threw them for a loop. They really got onto the idea that perhaps the treasure in the pool and the treasure in the wizard's room were linked. I linked a simple trap to this trick -- a magical gong that would sound three times after someone messed with the loot (of course, triggering a wandering monster check).</p><p><b>DER KOBOLDS</b></p><p>The kobolds popped up again on said wandering monster check. I decided that the wards that the wizard had put in place kept them bound to the stronghold but also prohibited them from entering certain rooms, like his chambers and the library.</p><p>The kobolds had a great reaction check and I decided that they'd want to bring the adventurers to meet their chief and parlay. So they left a trail of breadcrumbs back to the kitchen/dining room and dashed off.</p><p>The characters opted to go to the kitchen which I had as a bustling place with two kobolds cooking up a storm. Everything of course was a fairy illusion. A little overwhelmed by the bustle, the characters opted for the dining room. In the dining room, the chief was prepared to receive the adventurers. Had things gone ugly, he was ready to make a quick escape via the salon and a secret door, but there was no need.</p><p>I decided the kobolds had a problem: they were magically bound to the place and they wanted out. The wizard's McGuffin of Binding was in the library, which they can't get into, and so they needed someone else to go in and get it for them. In exchange they would help the adventurers find treasure. I played the kobolds as shifty, uncertain, and terrified of the lawfully aligned magical sword (cowering in its presence and refusing to talk if it was not covered up), but generally telling the truth or half-truths (NEVER TRUST THE FEY!).</p><p>A deal being struck, the kobolds led the adventurers into the dungeon... but they couldn't help themselves. Instead of going a direct route to the library, they led the adventurers to a maze-like area that happened to be infested with undead. They figured they'd let the adventurers go through the maze and meet them on the other side, (1) because it'd be entertaining and (2) to wear the adventurers down, just in case. But primarily because if you're a 2' tall chaotic fey creature that's been trapped in a dungeon for awhile its hilarious to watch a Zombie/Adventurer cage match.</p><p>The heroes were less than amused, although they did survive the maze. Dragonwing fumed: "They tricked us! And wasted our time!"</p><p>The heroes caught up with the giggling kobolds and demanded to be taken right to the library, right now. So off they went again. The kobolds started plotting in dwarvish to each other. Dragonwing and Flowing River told each other, "They're going to trick us again, we know it..." Luckily, the party wizard -- invisible -- spoke dwarvish! Magic Hands snuck up behind the kobolds and listened in.</p><p><i>"We'll take them to the library... and then they break the thing... then we trap them with the cage trap... then we run away! Hee hee hee!"</i></p><p>Magic Hands relayed the conversation to his comrades and they all whispered: "They're totally going to trick us! But we know how! Hah!"</p><p>The Kobolds took the crew to the library, where the old Chief was waiting with another of the group. He explained that the Kobolds were not permitted into the room. The heroes broke open the door easily enough, and found the McGuffin -- a purple magical glowing lava lamp. The Chief tried to touch it and got zapped with magic, so he asked the heroes to break it. All three eagerly agreed and threw it on the ground to shatter it. A burst of magical energy filled the stronghold, and the Kobold's binding was released!</p><p><b>THE TRAP</b></p><p>The kobolds then agreed to lead the heroes to the treasure room. Instead, they took them to a certain corridor which has a nasty portcullis trap. "There secret door that way!" urged the little chaotic imps (technically true -- not at the end of the hallway, but if one looks at the map, there is a secret doorway in that general direction).</p><p>The heroes were skeptical. Flowing River looked at the map and it definitely did not make sense for a secret door to be there. Dragon wing and Magic Hands were muttering "its a trick, they're going to try to trap us."</p><p><i>"Ummm. No we aren't. Definitely not trapping you right now." </i>(technically true -- they'll trap them in a few seconds)</p><p>Flowing River asked how they would find it.</p><p><i>"You're a clever hoo-man hero! I bet you find toooons of secret doors! It will be easy!"</i></p><p>The heroes asked the kobolds if they were sure.</p><p><i>"Oh yes! Very sure. Many secret doors are magic. Like the voices at the entrance! Easy to find!" (again, a half truth and not outright false)</i></p><p>Well, that settled things. All three heroes ran to the end of the hallway and started searching. CLANK! Trap deployed. Heroes trapped. The kobolds ran off giggling.</p><p>"Those things actually tricked us! We knew they would! And they still did!"</p><p>The players were equal parts laughing hilariously, proud that they'd seen it coming, and now worried about being stuck in a trap. I "bent" the module rules a bit to let one of them escape through the bars (there is a picture of a halfling working out through the bars in the module art, so its not too far off...), and after a brief outnumbered battle against some giant rats, Dragonwing rescued his companions by hauling on a lever and resetting the trap.</p><p>They went back to the kitchen only to find it completely abandoned, all the delicious banquet food actually long rotten. The dining room where they had parlayed with the chief much the same, except for a note left there for them.</p><p><b>THE CLUE</b></p><p>Luckily for our heroes, the kobold chief thoughtfully left them a note because as obnoxious as the fey are, especially the chaotically inclined ones, a deal is a deal.</p><p>It explained that they were scared of hooman adventurers so they ran away (true), that they didn't know where the crown was (true) but to be careful in case its cursed (its not, but the kobolds are scared of all things elvish and lawful and good), that there is a hidden treasure room in a secret passage in the basement near the flying mice (true -- they're bats though), that there is a powerful bad hoo-man warrior in the basement that the adventurers should be on the look out for and ambush if they can (sort of true -- he's a lawful Fighter 4 I rolled up, so of course the Kobolds are terrified of him -- and wouldn't mind sowing a little more discord among the forces of weal on their way out). And if they want to meet up again the heroes just need to leave out silver and sweetcakes on Midsummer's Eave, because the last few days have been absolutely hilarious entertainment for bored chaotic fey house spirits and these adventurers put up with their constant and potentially lethal shenanigans, unlike most other visitors (true -- I'll let the heroes summon them later that way, its how one would traditionally appease/summon their local Der Kobold House Spirit).</p><p>The players puzzled over this for awhile and pieced it together! Now they just need a safe way to return to the basement level, for they know exactly the spot to look.</p><p><b>THOUGHTS THUS FAR</b></p><p>The pool room and copious "Tricks" in B1 are great for low level adventure. It really keeps the lethality down but has definitely kept our young player's interest. The game has a lot of exploration, interaction, puzzle solving, and just a tad bit of combat. We have busted out a battle map for the fights but barely need it, as B/X style combats are a quick and simple affair. This is a big departure from later editions, where even simple fights can take a half hour or more.</p><p>As a GM B/X is awesome. Most things happen on a roll of 5-6/6 or 6/6. If I want more fidelity I roll 2d6 -- 6 equals neutral result, 9 equals success. Snake eyes are critical failure and boxcars critical success. Monsters are easy to improve -- AC13, does 1d6 damage, has 1d6 HP. If it is beefier than that it goes up a level (fewer in number), deals 1d3 or 1 HP damage instead of 1d6, or has only 1 HP. Works great. Super easy to improvise on the fly.</p><p>For dice rolls I've started converting as many player facing modifiers as possible to different dice combinations. 1d6+2 becomes 1d10. Instead of adding +2 to hit when charging, roll 1d20 and 1d4 and add them together. Stuff like that. I'm finding it makes the player facing math much faster. The odds are somewhat different but close enough, and players of all ages love rolling dice. I think I am going to go through my rules and full-on embrace the 5E style "advantage/disadvantage" (for big modifiers) and a +/- 1d3 or 1d4 (for small modifiers) to the maximum extent possible. There is a purity in using a D6 for as much as possible that I appreciate but its just plain faster to have players chuck 1d10 instead of 1d6+2.</p><p>Dynamic storytelling and emergent worldbuilding is great. From the simple decision to treat the kobolds I generated as mischievous, chaotic, and somewhat evil house spirits run amuk I got two sessions of adventure and the heroes had to really work for a clue. We also have established what kobolds are in this game world. I thought about making the Binding McGuffin harder to find or destroy but due to pacing just wanted to keep things moving -- it would have been easy to say that it needed to be destroyed in one of the pools for instance though (like acid). As much as the kobolds wanted to be free, it was in their nature to impulsively put the heroes through potentially lethal side jaunts just for chaotic funsies, so they did so. I've also had them carefully tell half truths or mostly truths in typical fey fashion, again setting the character for kobolds going forward. I would not have had all these plot threads, tricks and traps, or other things thought up in advance had I sat down and tried to do it -- it all came together from random rolls which is pretty awesome.</p><p>I was impressed at how B1 is being handled by very young players. They have continued to have a good mix of caution with tricks balanced with boldness when needed (valiant Dragonwing slaying the rats to free his friends!). Things that might seem a played out trope for more experienced players in B1 are fresh for the true novice, which is who the module is intended for, so its hitting the mark with the target audience.</p><p>I think we will get 1-2 more sessions out of this module, depending on thoroughly they search the entire place. At the pace they're at it feels like they are about halfway through. Also of help in the quest, Magic Hands picked the "locate object" spell to learn so that he can help find the crown. Very clever that little pre-k kiddo. Between the clues and the spell they'll be well on the track.</p><p>The PCs also gained just enough XP to hit level 3. Had they missed the gems on their first session they'd be just hitting level 2 now which is fine. They'll probably be knocking at the door of level 4 depending on how much they find. I don't love the lowest levels, frankly and getting to the sweet spot of level 3-7 is great. Also the player's experience here checks with what I remember from Random Megadungeon Meat Grinding in AD&D back in the day -- much of your survival depends on getting an early, easy score of gems/jewelry, preferably on a high risk/high reward run to level 2 of the dungeon where you roll the dice on finding jewelry without running into an ogre or something similarly nasty.</p><p>I have not been pulling punches with random dice, encounters, etc. The only real things I'm softening are insta-die poison and mapping, which I would do for any group. </p><p>Finally it was a good chance to learn an important lesson that you should <u>NEVER TRUST THE FEY</u> and that dealings with them never go as expected. Luckily the heroes didn't eat any of the faerie food being prepared in the kitchen...</p>Vedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3750001544633885171.post-10457618659604116432023-01-02T17:20:00.003-09:002023-01-02T17:20:25.637-09:00B1: In Search of the Unknown Campaign Journal Introduction & Initial Delve<p> </p><p> This is the first in a series of posts cataloguing a delve through B1, "In Search of the Unknown," by Mike Carr. I'll wrap up at the end with a review, and in the mean time there will be a campaign journal.</p><p><b><span style="color: red;">SPOILERS AHEAD!</span></b></p><p><b>THE MODULE, SETTING AND TWEAKS</b></p><p>My players really want a Norse theme, so we went with that. There's a druid in the party so I set the dungeon in the midst of a great fey-filled forest. The elves are slowly leaving to sail away, and goblins are taking over, so there's a bit of a fey-humanoid brawl going on that the players are in the midst of. A fortress nearby (probably the Keep on the Borderlands) is on the edge of the wood.</p><p>Instead of stocking the dungeon with the suggested monsters and treasures, I used the random tables from my home ruled Donjons & Drakes, which are heavily inspired by the 3LBB. Luckily everything is compatible. The monsters are very similar. The 3LBB are more generous for monetary treasure and stingier for magic items. As an example, the B/X list gives a whopping 10 magic items, two of which are bogus. My tables (based on 3LBB) give an average of 1-2 items, which is exactly what I came up with. On the flip side, 3LBB will give at least 1-2 good caches of gems & jewelry each level of a dungeon, and each cache is hundreds or thousands of GP equivalent -- enough for low level types to gain a level.</p><p><b>THE PLAYERS & THEIR CHRACTERS</b></p><p>Dragon Wing, a Lawful Human Fighter with remarkable strength and constitution, played by a first grader.</p><p>Magic Hands, a Neutral Human Wizard with exceptional intelligence, played by a pre-K kiddo.</p><p>Flowing River, a Neutral Human Druid with great ability scores all around, played by a third grader.</p><p>Astrid, the traditional cleric with mace and Cure Light Wounds, played by your hostess. Astrid is there as a character who can hold the line with heavy armor, heal up the others when they need a curative spell, and provide some helpful guidance... not as one to drive the adventure.</p><p>The kids all have experience with hero kids and miniatures wargames as well as other tabletop games, but as you can see this is a young group. You'll see how they do!</p><p><b>THE HOOK</b></p><p>Our party began on the forest track, heading a Keep on the Borderlands for a warm bed and safe place. On the road they encountered centaurs who warned of dangers on the road, some goblin wolf riders chasing a white quadruped (they assumed to be a uniorn), and finally some elves leaving for the ships. The elves shared knowledge of a nearby fortress (that of B1) and provided directions. They asked if the adventurers would help find and recover an elvish Moon Crown which had been wrongly taken and could likely be found in the fortress; the group agreed. The elves provided guidance to a safe campsite clearing nearby where the party can rest between delves, four rumors off the module table, and warned the players not to trust the house spirits which were out of control.</p><p>The Moon Crown isn't in the B1 module, but its easy enough to add it in as a piece of jewelery. Bam, done!</p><p><b>THE FIRST DIVES: FEY AND BANDITS</b></p><p>The first delve into the dungeon was a pretty straightforward. The magic mouths at the entrance spawned great curiosity -- the players are convinced that there are two tricksters shouting!</p><p>The group spent a fair amount of time poking around the entrance area, delighting in finding a few secret doors to alcoves. They also explored most of Rogahn's apartments, fighting a few minor encounters along the way.</p><p>More notably, I had rolled a group of Kobolds living in the kitchens and dining room. I decided that Kobolds in this game would hew closer to their fey/faerie origin as house spirits (not little mini-gnolls or dragon things), so I played them as devious, trick-loving, dark, and chaotic leaning gnome types who would delight in playing dungeon inhabitants against each other. I also decided that Zelligar had bound them to the stronghold by some magical McGuffin which is why they could not just leave. While poking around, we had a random encounter with kobolds which was our first set up. The two kobolds, clearly outmatched, parlayed with the group. They told the players that "bad hoo-mans" had taken over the throne room and conveniently provided directions.</p><p>The party busted in to the throne room and on the word of the kobolds attacked a neutral Fighter 1 who was reclining on the throne and willing to parlay. He made a run for a secret door but didn't make it. </p><p>The party then busted into the bedroom and found a second F1, unconscious on the bed. The treasure in this room was a Lawful Sword +1, and I decided that the neutral fighter had knocked himself out taking damage from it (in old school D&D, swords are often aligned, and if you don't match, you take damage) and was resting. The party tied up and revived the hurt fighter and questioned him. After a very high reaction roll, the NPC shared three rumors off the module rumor table, shared what he knew about the sword (not much), cautioned the players not to trust the small house spirits, and gave directions to the pool room in exchange for his freedom. Dragon Wing, lawful fighter, happily scooped up the sword.</p><p>Point this round: Chaotic Fey. The kobolds got some of the tougher monsters of the first level cleared out, got to observe the capabilities of this new group in a fight, and got a great show to boot. </p><p><b>TO THE BASEMENT</b></p><p>After this the party continued poking around. After a few unremarkable encounters with marginal treasure that cost a few HP and spells, they ended up taking a hidden slide trap to the basement where the armored characters narrowly avoided drowning in a pool. Once in the basement, Astrid guided the rest of the group to start looking for a way out immediately. The party was already at a point where it would be prudent to start thinking about leaving, and being dumped on the totally unmapped second level with no way out was no bueno.</p><p>After some exploring, characters found themselves in a large cavern full of bats. Normally this is a baneful encounter for the party, but the druid thought to use his Speak with Animals spell, which lets the bats be conversed with and makes them somewhat friendly, and offered them food from his rations. He got a great reaction roll so they were quite helpful. From the bats the druid got directions to a series of secret doors that led to a way out. Excellent use of a spell resource, equipment resource and roleplay from a kiddo!</p><p>After finding the way out, the party poked around a bit more and found a trapped chest near a statute. Luckily for them, this was one of the few huge hoards in the dungeon -- two pieces of jewelry worth enough XP for everyone to make it to level 2!</p><p>With jewelry in hand and spells and hit points running low, the party wisely made their escape.</p><p><b>MORAL REFLECTIONS & EMERGENT GAMEPLAY</b></p><p>I just let the dice fall for they may for the slain neutral Fighter 1 on the throne room. Guy failed a system shock roll, he dead. In retrospect, for kids, I should have softened the blow and moral ambiguity by letting him survive. But here we are.</p><p>That said its all working out. The oldest kids are feeling major regret over doing a Very Bad Thing, even though the house spirits said it was ok. They now want to seek a Raise Dead or Reincarnation spell from the elves, and have themselves on the clock to find the Moon Crown before its too late. Its actually worked out ok with a bunch of age appropriate conversations about make-believe and reality, appropriate vs. unjustified use of force (i.e. "is it ok to hurt someone if a third party says to do it?"), and good and bad. </p><p>Its also a great example of emergent old school play. There's no way I would have come up with a plot where the players would be on a desperate race against time to find an elvish artifact that they could parlay into a reincarnation spell for some rando bandit found in the dungeon. Yet that's a plot we're on, and the players are really invested in it, and we'll see where it goes.</p><p><b>DM'S THOUGHTS ON B1 THUS FAR</b></p><p>The old school tables result in a dungeon that is mostly empty. That actually works reasonably well. It lets groups, for example, get lost on the second level of the dungeon without it being an auto-TPK because there's a good chance they won't run across too many monsters. It puts a focus on exploration. This matches the guidance in B1 -- the module tells you to use only 15-20 monsters to fill the 60-something rooms.</p><p>I do not care for the very compact map layout of B1 as a judge. I'm a softy but I am mapping for the players. Even if they were adults I have no desire to play the game of verbally translating a map to words so the players can then draw a map. I know that some OSR folks view mapping as an integral part of the game, I just can't derive much love from it the technical process of it. So while the tight layout of B1 (which if accurately mapped is useful for providing clues to secret rooms and the like) makes sense, it is a pain to map.</p><p>The room descriptions are wordy, and info for the players and judge is mixed in each paragraph. I'd prefer to have an initial paragraph with the things the players see, with amplifying info for the DM in follow on paragraphs. As it is, I need to read the entire room entry (sometimes half a page) and then break out what to tell the players.</p><p>Some of the tropes while tiresome to experienced players are </p>Vedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3750001544633885171.post-17629710268232003062023-01-02T17:18:00.002-09:002023-01-02T17:18:14.277-09:00We're Back!<p> Its been a long while, but I'm going to start firing up this blog occasionally.</p><p>Its been awhile, life and gaming wise. We have been super busy with work and a young family and didn't do much gaming for awhile other than quick 20-30 minute euro and card games. Our kids are old enough now to enjoy some longer fare so we have started some Hero Kids and light wargaming (one hour wargames as a starting point). I've gotten more into miniatures and have some little to fair skill at painting them now.</p><p>As far as writing projects go, this is the quick update:</p><p>- Tin Cans and Battlewagons: WW2 Naval Combat Rules (complete, vetted, they work)</p><p>- Flat Tops and Silent Service: An expansion for the above with airplanes and submarines. Less thoroughly vetted but seems to work ok.</p><p>- Double Quick! This started as my house rules for One Hour Wargames but is now an independent system in its own right. This is a two page ruleset for quick play miniatures wargaming across multiple eras. Its sort of a mish mash of La Salle 1.0, DBA, One Hour Wargames, and a few other things. Moderately vetted.</p><p>- Unnamed WW2 Rules. I started painting WW2 minifigs and needed rules to use. I started with One Hour Wargames and have been heavily adapting from there. Lightly vetted.</p><p>- Donjons and Drakes. This is my fantasy heartbreaker. Originally it started as heavily inspired by the 3LBB, but I've moved more towards B/X. I have the rules in a playable "beta test" format and am running them now.</p><p>This blog will have some games rules musings, draft rules, rules explanations, and campaign logs. I'll endeavor to use the tags more faithfully to help sort through them.</p>Vedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3750001544633885171.post-74265960792709384232016-12-04T21:39:00.003-09:002016-12-04T21:41:26.795-09:00Abilities and SkillsI've been refining ideas for broad organization of character creation -- linked to a resolution system I like -- and really have it narrowed down to three broad COAs.<br />
<br />
The core resolution system remains a dice pool mechanic:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Roll a number of D6 equal to your Skill rank. Typical pools range from 1 to 4.</li>
<li>Retain the single best die.</li>
<li>Add a modifier (ranging from +2 to -2) based on Attributes.</li>
<li>Compare against a Target Number (typically 5) or opposed roll if contested.</li>
</ol>
<br />
With this system, the attributes are essentially "classes." They are very important and define roles in the game. You can think of them as "hardware" baked into a character -- tough to change during play and role-defining.<br />
<br />
The skills allow focus and customization but with diminishing returns, thus making it inherently difficult to "min-max." They are like "software" -- upgradeable in play and giving better, more consistent results with investments.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><u>OPTION ONE: </u></b><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Three Attributes: <i> These are aligned with key skills and the astrological qualities</i></li>
<ul>
<li>Speed ("Move") - <i>Cardinal</i></li>
<li>Strength ("Shoot") - <i>Fixed</i></li>
<li>Savvy ("Communicate") - <i>Mutable</i></li>
</ul>
<li>Four Broad Skill Areas: <i> These are aligned with domains of human knowledge and the astrological elements</i></li>
<ul>
<li>Martial Arts - <i>Fire</i></li>
<li>Mechanical Arts - <i>Earth</i></li>
<li>Liberal Arts - <i>Air</i></li>
<li>Ritual Arts - <i>Water (aka "Sacraments")</i></li>
</ul>
<li>"Survival" is independent of character statistics, based solely on something like "level" or "grittiness" of setting with few if any modifiers.</li>
</ul>
This option has several advantages:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>The attributes -- or character roles -- apply across all domains. Whether the scene is a fight, a race, a verbal sparring match, or a race against time to defuse a trap, someone with "speed" will find something useful to do. Its easier to deal with a weak skill rank than with a weak attribute.... No player will be forced to sit out a scene because it isn't occurring in the setting their character has specialized in.</li>
<li>Alignment with the qualities and elements is reasonably straightforward.</li>
<li>No character will be abysmal at surviving. It will be essentially impossible to create a dump stat in CON (never a good idea in any system). All characters will have roughly equal "hit points" or robustness. Linking survival skill strictly to general level is also true to the earliest roots of D&D and the Outdoor Survival board game.</li>
</ul>
<div>
The disadvantages include:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Each of the skill areas has a list of seven possible specializations. That's 28 different sub-skills to manage. All of them are tight too except for the rituals, which are admittedly somewhat weakly defined in practice.</li>
<li>Some players LIKE having fragile "glass cannons" or hard to kill "uber tanks" so making "survival" fixed solely on level with little variation between characters can be a bummer for some folks I suppose.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<b><u>OPTION TWO: </u></b><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Three Attributes: <i> Aligned with elements of human experience</i></li>
<ul>
<li>Body (Martial Arts)</li>
<li>Mind (Mechanical Arts)</li>
<li>Spirit (Liberal Arts)</li>
</ul>
<li>Four Broad Skill Areas:<i> Aligned with broad activities</i></li>
<ul>
<li>Strength ("Shoot")</li>
<li>Speed ("Move") </li>
<li>Savvy ("Communicate..." and all C4ISR functions)</li>
<li>Survival ("Survive")</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Pros of this option:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>The skill specialization lists are tied down to the tightest three, with only 21 options linked to the three attributes. Its tighter than the 28 sprawling specializations of the first option.</li>
</ul>
<div>
Cons of this options:</div>
</div>
<br />
<ul>
<li>Based on ability score, some players may have little to do that's effective in a scene. For example, in a physical altercation, the bookworm character with -2 Body is at a loss for effectiveness barring some weird mechanics. This might be ok in a very storyteller-ish game where you can expect to have lots of different critical scenes involving the three areas, but even then I suspect most people will prioritize "body" as the consequences of losing a physical altercation are usually "death."</li>
<li>The nicely focused specialty lists are linked to attributes, not skill areas. For example, someone who has strong "body" is by default good at all martial arts, regardless of their skill training. This is likely to be counter intuitive to some players.</li>
<li>Survival can be a dump stat which can cause problems for balancing the game.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<b><u>OPTION THREE:</u></b><br />
<div>
<br />
<ul>
<li>Four Attributes</li>
<ul>
<li>Strength ("Shoot")<i> - Fire</i></li>
<li>Speed ("Move")<i> - Air</i></li>
<li>Savvy ("Communicate..." and all C4ISR functions)<i> - Water</i></li>
<li>Stamina or Survival ("Survive") <i>- Earth</i></li>
</ul>
<li>Three Broad Skill Areas: Linked to Domains of Human Learning</li>
<ul>
<li>Martial Arts <i>- Fixed</i></li>
<li>Mechanical Arts<i> - Cardinal</i></li>
<li>Liberal Arts<i> - Mutable</i></li>
</ul>
</ul>
<div>
This option basically flips the previous one around, turning skills into attributes.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Pros:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Neatly addresses the biggest cons of the above COA 2.</li>
<li>Puts nice focus on the specialization lists which are in turn linked with domains of learning in a very logical manner.</li>
</ul>
<div>
Cons:</div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>With four attributes, you are basically up from three classes to four character classes. That means it requires more players to cover down on all the roles and the likelihood of a gap existing is higher. Now, that's not a show-stopper: D&D has four classes and is tremendously popular. But one of my design goals is to create something that can be executed with fewer people at the table.</li>
<li>Linkages to astrological elements are a bit weaker but still somewhat reasonable.</li>
</ul>
</div>
Vedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3750001544633885171.post-21527588358887121552016-12-04T21:09:00.000-09:002016-12-04T21:09:00.065-09:00Wow, its been awhile!It has been forever since I updated this. "Life" has gotten in the way. I've done a little gaming over the past few years but not as much as I'd like... Lots of theorizing though. Some more to come.Vedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3750001544633885171.post-31742725208041786732015-11-15T15:31:00.004-09:002015-11-15T15:31:50.201-09:00A more coherent to-hit & damage systemThis post builds upon <a href="http://vedronspotionshop.blogspot.com/2015/08/kinetic-energy-of-strikes-vs-armor.html">this last one</a>. The combat system I threw out there was somewhat "off the top of my head." This one is a bit more thought out.<br />
<br />
In this system, the general procedure for "to hits" is:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Determine if the attack hit the target.</li>
<li>Determine where the attack hit the target (optional in some cases).</li>
<li>Determine if the attack's <i>Damage </i>meets or exceeds the target's <i>Soak</i>.</li>
<ol>
<li>If so, then then the target is <i>staggered</i>.</li>
<li>If so, and if the target was already <i>staggered</i>, it takes a <i>wound</i>.</li>
<li>If the <i>Damage </i>does not exceed the <i>Soak </i>then there is no effect.</li>
</ol>
</ol>
<div>
<u>STEP ONE: DETERMINE IF THE ATTACK HITS THE TARGET</u></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This is a "to hit" roll.</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>D20 Attacker: Attacker rolls 1d20+Standard Attack modifiers</li>
<li>D20 Defender: TN 10 + Dexterity Bonus + Shield Bonus + other Misc Modifiers <i>(notice: no armor here!)</i></li>
<li>D6 "Septimus" Attacker: Attack rolls xd6+Savvy, where "x" equals their skill ranks in Martial Arts and Savvy equals their modifier (+2 to -2) for that ability score</li>
<li>D6 "Septimus" Defender: Use Defender's <i>Dodge </i>score. Typically "Dodge" is equal to 2+1/2 Martial Arts skill ranks+Savvy Modifier. <i>High encumbrance (typically caused by hearing heavy armors) can penalize Dodge.</i></li>
</ul>
<div>
If the attacker meets or exceeds the defender's target number, then proceed to step two. If not, then the attack misses completely.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Sidebar: Encumbrance and Dodge Effects</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Load capacity = 4+/-Stamina measured in "stones" (~15 lbs)</li>
<li>< x1 Load: 12" move, -0 to Dodge</li>
<li>< x2 Load: 9" move, -1 to Dodge</li>
<li>< x3 Load: 6" move, -2 to Dodge</li>
<li>< x4 Load: 3" move, -3 to Dodge</li>
<li>< x5 Load: 1" move, -4 to dodge</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
<br />
<div>
<u>STEP TWO: DETERMINE WHERE THE ATTACK HITS</u></div>
<div>
<u><br /></u></div>
<div>
Roll 1d6 and compare to the following table to determine the hit location and any effects that will occur if the Soak is exceeded in step 3.</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>1: Legs -- Target lower extremity armor (greaves, etc). <i>Instead of inflicting a Wound, attacker may opt to Cripple victim. Cripple = drop prone, unable to move. Penalty persists until target is no longer Staggered.</i></li>
<li>2-3: Torso -- Target torso armor (breastplates, jacks, etc). <i>No special effects.</i></li>
<li>4: Arms -- Target arm armor (gauntlets, bracers, etc). <i>Instead of inflicting a Wound, attacker may opt to Disarm victim. Disarm = drop all carried items, unable to manipulate objects until no longer Staggered.</i></li>
<li>5: Head -- Target head armor. <i>Instead of inflicting a Wound, attacker may opt to Disorient victim. Disoriented victims have a -1 penalty to throw off the Staggered condition.</i></li>
<li>6: Critical Hit -- Found a chink in the armor! <i>Ignore Armor Soak except for that from natural "Stamina."</i></li>
</ul>
<div>
<i>Special: </i>For non-humanoids, build or modify the special table. Typically, 5 is always a "head" shot if the creature has a head, and 6 is always a critical.</div>
</div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>Special: </i> Targets who don't have names (i.e. "mooks") typically wear uniform armor all over and can take only one wound before being incapacitated. Against mooks who have no, light, or medium armor, skip this entire procedure. If a mook is wearing heavy plate mail then this procedure may be necessary to allow attackers to find chinks in armor. Mooks in plate armor are rare in most settings.</div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>Special: </i>Sometimes players want to make a "called shot." In that case, they must declare a desire to do so prior to attacking. The called shot will hit the arms, legs, head, torso, or a chink in the armor as the player desires. Impose a -1 penalty (D6 Septimus) or -4 penalty (D20) to the "to hit" roll for called shots targeting anything other than the Torso.</div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>Rationale: This table is needed for two primary reasons:</i></div>
<div>
<ol>
<li><i>As you'll see with the Soak numbers of armor, most light weapons have no way to penetrate heavier armors. Historically, this was dealt with by finding chinks in the armor, or targeting unarmored body parts.</i></li>
<li><i>A desire to have an option for mix-and-match armor parts (less compelling).</i></li>
</ol>
<div>
<i>If I could find a good way around problem #1 I would ditch this step in the name of simplicity.</i></div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<u>STEP THREE: DETERMINE DAMAGE AND COMPARE TO SOAK</u></div>
<div>
<u><br /></u></div>
<div>
This is a damage roll.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Damage: </b> Most weapons deal 1d6 damage modified by the attacker's strength and weigh 1/3 of a stone.</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Two handed weapons to include heavy war bows deal 1d6+1 damage and all strength modifiers are doubled. They weigh 1 stone.</li>
<li>Light weapons deal 1d6-1 damage. They weigh 1/6 of a stone.</li>
<li>Bows deal 1d6 damage at point blank range, 1d6-1 damage at 200 yards, and 1d3 damage at 300 yards.</li>
<ul>
<li>Heavy bows deal +1 damage at all ranges (and double strength modifier as 2H weapons)</li>
<li>Light bows deal -1 damage at all ranges.</li>
</ul>
<li>Early modern black powder long guns (muskets) deal 1d6+16 damage (yes, 16) at the muzzle with no strength modifiers. They deal 1d6+8 damage at 25+ yards, 1d6 at 50+ yards, and 1d3 at 100+ yards, and 1d2 at 150 yards.</li>
<li>Early modern black powder pistols ("handgonnes") deal 1d6+4 damage at the muzzle, 1d6+2 at 25+ yards, and 1d6 at 50+ yards.</li>
<li>Ranged weapons deal less damage at range: Point Blank (full damage), 25 Yards (</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Soak: </b> "Soak" is primarily based on a defender's armor, modified by their Stamina modifier. These values should be pre-recorded and noted on the character sheet. As mentioned above, "mooks" wear uniform armor and have only one "soak" value. Special characters or monsters may have different soaks over different parts of their body.</div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Padded Armors: Soak 1 (may be worn underneath and add to any other armor's soak; weighs 1 stone)</li>
<li>Leather: Soak 1 (Weighs 1 Stone)</li>
<li>Light Plate: Soak 2 (Weighs 3 Stone)</li>
<li>Chain: Soak 3 (Weighs 2 Stone)</li>
<li>Standard Plate: Soak 6 (Weighs 4 Stone)</li>
<li>Heavy Plate: Soak 12 (Weighs 6 Stone)</li>
</ul>
<div>
<i>Example: Conan has great stamina (+2) and prefers to wear a standard steel breastplate over a padded jack. He wears leather greaves and bracers, and dons a mail coif as a helm. His Soak is:</i></div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><i>Torso: 8 (6 steel plate + 1 padded + 2 stamina)</i></li>
<li><i>Legs: 3 (1 leather + 2 stamina)</i></li>
<li><i>Arms: 3 (1 <i>leather </i>+ 2 stamina)</i></li>
<li><i>Head: 5 (3 mail + 2 stamina)</i></li>
<li><i>Critical Hits: 2 (0 + 2 stamina)</i></li>
</ul>
<div>
<i>Example: Joe Blow the Redshirt pro is an elite foot soldier. He is equipped with a chain mail ensemble by his liege lord over a padded jack. His soak is 4 (3 mail + 1 padded + 0 stamina). There is no need to roll hit locations on him (which speeds combat) as his soak is always 4.</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<b>Compare</b>: Treat the soak as a Target Number for the damage roll. If the damage roll meets or exceeds the Soak Target Number then the attack deals damage.</div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>If the target is already staggered, then a wound is inflicted.</li>
<li>If the target is not staggered, then the target is staggered.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>"Staggered:"</b> A creature which is <i>staggered </i>may move at 1/2 speed and suffers a -2 penalty on <u>all </u>checks. As a full action, the creature can roll a skill check (Martial Arts + Stamina, minus the -2 penalty) against TN 5. This attempt counts as the character's action for the round. Success removes the <i>staggered </i>condition. Failure indicates the creature remains <i>staggered</i>. <i>Staggered </i>creatures return to normal after a scene is over (assuming they eventually make their check).</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>"Wounds:"</b> Most characters can take a number of wounds equal to 2 + 1/2 Martial Skill + Stamina.</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>A character whose wound track is full suffers a -1 penalty on all actions.</li>
<li>A character whose wound track is full <i>and </i>who is also staggered is <i>incapacitated</i>. This means they have been knocked out and are out of the scene. An <i>incapacitated character </i>may be slain by any foe with a weapon, and is at the mercy of the victors.</li>
<li>Mooks (like Joe Blow, the Red Shirt Pro we introduced earlier) have only one wound.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Massive Damage:</b> Most strikes only inflict either a staggered condition or a wound. If the damage roll exceeds the soak by 5, then an extra wound is inflicted. This massive damage threshold can also be precalculated and written on character sheets.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>Example: Joe Blow the Redshirt pro has Soak 4 from his mail armor over padded jack. Conan hits him with a two handed greatsword. Conan has great strength (+2 modifier). He rolls 1d6+1 for the sword; rolling maximum damage, his player shouts "7 damage!" The GM reminds Conan's player to add double his strength bonus (+2x2) for a total of 11 damage. This exceeds Joe Blow's Soak of 4 by seven! Joe Blow is staggered and then suffers an extra wound, taking him instantly out of the fight.</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>System Note:</i> <i>Massive damage can occur against unarmored characters occasionally using any one-handed or two-handed weapon. If targets have just medium armor like Joe Blow above (Soak of 3 or 4), then massive damage will typically only be inflicted by those with above-average strength wielding two handed weapons or on a critical hit which ignores Soak.</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<u>SIMPLER ALTERNATIVE</u></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
For those who dislike tracking hit locations and different types of armor, this alternative is provided as a faster, simpler option.</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Do not check for hit location.</li>
<li>All characters have uniform "soak" all over (Padded, Leather, Chain, or Plate) based on their armor type. There are no partial suits of armor.</li>
<li>Heavy Plate gives only 6 points of Soak (as Standard Plate) but grants +1 Dodge.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
Vedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3750001544633885171.post-32422496884403537462015-08-17T20:51:00.001-08:002015-08-17T20:51:06.152-08:00Kinetic Energy of Strikes vs. ArmorI want to capture some data here about kinetic energy (Mass * Velocity ^ 2) of various strikes as well as armors. This is important data about wounding and penetration capability.<br />
<br />
<b><u>STRIKES</u></b><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/39/10/710.abstract">Olympic Boxer Punches</a>: 121 J (each st dev is +/- 25%)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=25576&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=20">Vernon Morten Record Punch: 354 J</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.uml.edu/docs/Determining%20Baseball%20Bat%20Performance%20Using%20a%20Conservation%20Eqns_tcm18-60854.pdf">Baseball Bat, Composite</a>: 305 J</li>
<li><a href="http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/692/1/Bleetman00PhD_A1a.pdf">Knife, Underhand</a>: 40 J to<a href="http://willscommonplacebook.blogspot.com/2006/12/armor-vs-muscle.html"> 63J</a> (typical is 20-30J)</li>
<li><a href="http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/692/1/Bleetman00PhD_A1a.pdf">Knife, Overhand</a>: 100 J to 115 J (11.3 M/S with 0.6 KG dagger), Horsfall</li>
<li><a href="http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?p=275517">Greek Spear, Underhand or Couched</a>: 44.3J <i>(likely lowball by 50% or more)</i></li>
<li><a href="http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?p=275517">Greek Spear, Overhead</a>: 29.8J <i>(likely lowball by 50% or more)</i></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><a href="http://willscommonplacebook.blogspot.com/2006/12/armor-vs-muscle.html">70 lb bow: 52-55 J (Hardy)</a></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><a href="http://willscommonplacebook.blogspot.com/2006/12/armor-vs-muscle.html">70 lb bow: 46-47 J at 10 m</a></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><a href="http://willscommonplacebook.blogspot.com/2006/12/armor-vs-muscle.html">80 lb bow: 70-83 J (61 J at 50 m)</a></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><a href="http://willscommonplacebook.blogspot.com/2006/12/armor-vs-muscle.html">140 lb bow: 99-104 J (Calculated from Soar et al)</a></span></li>
<li><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=rcJW7hyV_e0C&pg=PA110&lpg=PA110&dq=150lb+bow+kinetic+energy+joules&source=bl&ots=PSxo2HdW6s&sig=Hbqr0fQMq75SAQcgEybvUh4hsIw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAWoVChMInf64mM2xxwIVVjKICh1KIgXV#v=onepage&q=150lb%20bow%20kinetic%20energy%20joules&f=false">150 lb bow: 111-146J</a></li>
<li><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=rcJW7hyV_e0C&pg=PA110&lpg=PA110&dq=150lb+bow+kinetic+energy+joules&source=bl&ots=PSxo2HdW6s&sig=Hbqr0fQMq75SAQcgEybvUh4hsIw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAWoVChMInf64mM2xxwIVVjKICh1KIgXV#v=onepage&q=150lb%20bow%20kinetic%20energy%20joules&f=false">165 lb bow: 138J</a></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><a href="http://willscommonplacebook.blogspot.com/2006/12/armor-vs-muscle.html">Olympic level javelin throw: 360 J</a></span></span></li>
<li><a href="http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=25576">Sword and Axe: 60-130J</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=25576&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=20">Sling: 30-128J</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=25576&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=40">Polearm: <i>At least</i> 100-120J</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?p=217794">Crossbows: </a><ul>
<li>Springalds- 1782 J</li>
<li>Windlass Crossbow- 627 J</li>
<li>2 foot crossbow-331 J</li>
<li>crossbow-126 J</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b><u>ARMOR</u></b></div>
<ul>
<li>Modern Spike 1 -- 90th Percentile of Males striking with knife: 33 J (85th is 24J, 95th is 43J)</li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><a href="http://willscommonplacebook.blogspot.com/2006/12/armor-vs-muscle.html">Arrowhead vs. Buff Leather 30 J</a></span></li>
<li><a href="http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=25576">Jack Alone: ~20-50J</a></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><a href="http://willscommonplacebook.blogspot.com/2006/12/armor-vs-muscle.html">Lance vs. Cuir-boulli 30-20 J</a></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><a href="http://willscommonplacebook.blogspot.com/2006/12/armor-vs-muscle.html">Arrow vs. Modern Mail (mild steel) alone 80 J</a></span></span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;"><a href="http://willscommonplacebook.blogspot.com/2006/12/armor-vs-muscle.html"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">Arrow vs. </span>Modern Mail & Jack Penetration 100 J</a></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><a href="http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=25576">Arrow vs 1mm Plate 55J</a>*</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><a href="http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=25576"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">Arrow vs </span>2mm 175J </a>*</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><a href="http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=25576"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">Arrow vs </span>3mm 300J </a>*</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><a href="http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=25576"><span style="line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">Arrow vs </span>4mm 475J </a>*</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><a href="http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=25576">"about 200J to defeat mail with an edged weapon, more against plate"</a></span></li>
<li><a href="http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=25576">Arrow vs Flesh: 30J is enough for 20-40 cm of penetration</a></li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
* For different irons/steels, you can multiply these energies by: </div>
<div>
<i>Munition quality iron: 0.5 </i></div>
<div>
<i>Low-carbon steel: 0.75 </i></div>
<div>
<i>Medium-carbon steel (Milanese): 1.1 </i></div>
<div>
<i>Hardened steel: 1.5 </i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<b><u>DISCUSSION</u></b></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
So... How is all this useful?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
It informs a discussion of damage and armor systems. We know that strikes inflict between 20J (average person with a knife) and ~350J (professional baseball player with two handed grip, world record boxer) of kinetic energy. Typical break points include:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Light Knife, Underhand: 20-50J</li>
<li>Punches and Overhanded Strikes by strong people: 100-121J</li>
<li>One handed Weapons: On order of 40-130J</li>
<li>Two Handed Weapons: On order of 100-305J</li>
<li>Light Bows: 50J</li>
<li>Long Bows: 100J</li>
<li>Heavy Long Bows: 140J</li>
</ul>
<div>
Armors likewise protect against varying penetrating blows:<br /><ul>
<li>Padded: 20-50J (stacks with other armors)</li>
<li>Leather: 30J</li>
<li>Chain Mail: 80J</li>
<li>1mm Plate: 55J (reasonable typical for lightly armored areas)</li>
<li>2mm Plate: 175J (minimum for breastplates, helms)</li>
<li>Signficant Flesh Penetration: ~30J</li>
</ul>
<div>
Slashing blows are about half as effective when defeating armor.</div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Those numbers are all rather large, so let's divide them by a common denominator, say, <b><u>25J</u></b>, to get something more usable.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Modified numbers for strikes:<br /><ul>
<li>Light Knife, Underhand: 1-2</li>
<li>Punches and Overhanded Strikes by strong people: 4-5 (each standard deviation is +/- 1)</li>
<li>One handed Weapons: ~2-5</li>
<li>Two Handed Weapons: ~4-12</li>
<li>Light Bows: 2</li>
<li>Long Bows: 4</li>
<li>Heavy Long Bows: 6</li>
</ul>
<div>
Modified numbers for armors:<br /><ul>
<li>Padded: 1-2 (stacks with other armors)</li>
<li>Leather: 1</li>
<li>Chain Mail: 3</li>
<li>1mm Plate: 2 (reasonable typical for lightly armored areas)*</li>
<li>2mm Plate: 7 (minimum for breastplates, helms)*</li>
<li>3mm Plate: 12 (not unreasonable for breastplates)*</li>
<li>Significant Flesh Penetration: 1+</li>
</ul>
<div>
<i>*Cut plate defenses by 1/2 for cheap pot metal. Increase by +50% for high-grade metal.</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
Interestingly, those numbers look a lot like usable numbers for damage rolls in a gaming context, do they not? As a caveat, most of those damage numbers are high-end maximums (if only one number is given). Most are also for penetrating force. A slashing blow can do a more damage, but is less effective against armor by about half.</div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Strength Modifiers: From the data on olympic boxers, we also have the data that each standard deviation adds or subtracts +1 (25J). Now, olympic boxers are already above the bell curve, likely at least two standard deviations, but it is a reasonable modifier.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b><u>A SYSTEM</u></b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So now we start to get to a usable system.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<u>Weapon Damage (average adult male):</u></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Punch, Unarmed: 1d3</li>
<li>Light Weapon (Dagger): 1d6-1</li>
<li>One Handed Weapon: 1d6</li>
<li>Two Handed Weapons: 2d6</li>
<li>Light Bow: 1d6-1</li>
<li>Long Bow: 1d6</li>
<li>Heavy War Bow: 1d6+3 or 2d6-1 (or just 2d6 for simplicity's sake)</li>
</ul>
<div>
Strength bonuses: Each standard deviation +/- 1 to above figures.</div>
<div>
<i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">0-1 (-3), </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">3-5 (-2), </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">6-8 (-1), </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">9-12 (0), </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">13-15 (+1), </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">16-18 (+2), </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">19-21 (+3)</span></i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>*As an optional rule, two handed weapons deal 1d6 (perhaps 1d6+1) damage as well but all strength modifiers are doubled.</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Slashing weapons and strikes: Roll one extra damage die and retain best against unarmored targets; roll one extra die and retain the <i>worst </i>against targets in chain or plate mail.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Bludgeoning weapons and strikes: Bludgeons always do "bruising" damage, not lethal damage, but ignore the "soak" of armor.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<u>Armor:</u></div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Armor mitigates incoming damage. Characters select either to wear a helmet and either full or half armor. Full armor protects the torso and extremities. Half armor protects only the torso, like a breastplate or coat of mail.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Characters may layer lighter protection for extremities (such as greaves for legs and gauntlets for hands) as desired with half armor. For example, you could choose a steel breastplate for the torso and leather gauntlets/leggings for the extremities.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Cloth padded armor may be layered with any other type for more protection.</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Cloth: Soak 1</li>
<li>Leather: Soak 1</li>
<li>Light Plate: Soak 2</li>
<li>Chain Mail: Soak 3</li>
<li>Medium Plate: Soak 7</li>
<li>Heavy Plate: Soak 12</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
With this system there are several checks:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Attacker checks "to hit." This is based on defender's agility.</li>
<li>If there is a hit, defender gets to "save" and see if their armor helped out. Roll 1d6:</li>
<ul>
<li>1: Head (Helm)</li>
<li>2: Arms (Gauntlets)</li>
<li>3-5: Torso (Armor)</li>
<li>6: Legs (Greaves/Chausses)</li>
</ul>
<li>Attacker rolls damage. Armor, if present in the targeted area, "soaks" incoming damage.</li>
<ul>
<li>If the damage roll is less than the "soak," the defender takes a bruising hit.</li>
<li>If the damage roll is greater than the "soak," the defender takes a lethal wound.</li>
<li>Extra Damage:</li>
<ul>
<li>Hits against the head and torso result in +1 Wound (i.e. two wounds).</li>
<li>If no armor is worn, a damage roll of >=5 also results in +1 Wound.</li>
<li>If armor is worn, a damage roll that exceeds the soak value of the armor by >=5 also results in +1 Wound.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<li>Cover: The "save" system above also factors cover into effect. Decide what part of the body is protected by cover and negate hits to that area. For example, a low stone wall covering half of a warrior's body would protect against any roll of 4-6.</li>
</ul>
<div>
Wounds & Damage:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Lethal vs. Bruising:</li>
<ul>
<li>Most weapons deal lethal damage. Bludgeons as well as unarmed strikes deal "bruising" damage; armor can also "soak" incoming damage, converting potentially lethal strikes into bruises.</li>
<li>Bruises recover rapidly. Enough bruises stack up to lethal damage.</li>
<li>Lethal wounds recover slowly.</li>
</ul>
<li> Characters have the following hit points:</li>
<ul>
<li>6+/-CON Bruises</li>
<li>4+/-CON Lethal Wounds</li>
<li>If a character can no longer take bruising hits, then all future "bruises" become lethal wounds. This represents a badly battered character having ribs cracked, suffering concussion, and other serious and life-threatening wounds.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
The wounds and damage system needs some work, but it could be ok. As an alternative, you could simply use the damage and soak values as is, subtract the "soak" rating from the incoming damage, and use normal D&D hit points.</div>
</div>
Vedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3750001544633885171.post-46988129377232762852014-04-11T06:04:00.002-08:002014-04-11T06:04:25.018-08:00More on Char Stats & GenAwhile ago I wrote about some char stats and gen methods I'd like to flesh out further.<br />
<a href="http://vedronspotionshop.blogspot.com/2014/02/character-stats-gen.html">LINK!</a><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>SKILLS</b><br />
<br />
If you didn't realize, the four skills loosely relate to the four elements:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Mechanical Arts = Earth</li>
<li>Martial Arts = Air</li>
<li>Liberal Arts = Water</li>
<li>Sense = Fire (may rename this one "passion" or "faith" or "zeal")</li>
</ul>
<div>
As written, having Sense/Zeal/Passion/Faith above two is fairly pointless. Mathematically, a rank of 2 Common Sense is better than zero ranks in another skill (obviously), and equivalent to one rank with a lower chance of a critical fail to boot. After that, more ranks in Common Sense just reduce your critical failure chance until you get to Rank 5.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I was toying with letting the character gain one rank in a skill bundle for each rank in Common Sense/Zeal -- with the caveat that they must all be the same bundle. This requires characters to commit to a patron/planet to get the benefit, of course. I have to think on it though and see what it does to game balance/power though. It also increases complexity at character creation, as players would have to commit to a relatively important choice (patron) fairly early on.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>ABILITIES</b></div>
<div>
Abilities are intended to create a semi-flexible "class" straightjacket of role differentiation. I have a few concerns.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
1) What if you get cruddy rolls after investing a ton of points in "potential" that doesn't pan out?</div>
<div>
2) Did I pick an appropriate trinity?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The first one is easier to mitigate. I think some sort of rule that allows increasing ability scores could help. Alternatively, using the "potential" as a Dice Pool ("rank") for certain rolls could also work. For example, you could have people roll the Potential as a dice pool if no skill is relevant, perhaps for saving throws.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The second is harder. I wanted to go with a "holy trinity" model. Three broad classes allows a party of two characters to cover everything if they "major" and "minor" (hybridize) in two different things each. With my gaming trends today I'll rarely if ever have a large group, so three core roles instead of four or more to cover helps.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>The "heal/tank/DPS" model is well established and easy for players to grok. It also has the advantage of not needing a battle map. I haven't entirely thrown that out yet. I could sub out the three ability scores I have now for something like "Spirit (Heal)," "Stamina (Tank)," "Strength (DPS)" without a problem. Stamina needs to be linked to an aggro/mark mechanic. Still, this is overdone and I rather dislike aggro mechanics.</li>
<li>"Armor/Firepower/Mobility" would be entirely appropriate for a tank/armored vehicle game. I don't know if it fits for other genres.</li>
<li>"Speed/Stamina/Strength" is roughly drawn from physical conditioning, with stamina being aerobic and strength being anaerobic endurance.</li>
<li>"Mobility/Endurance/Firepower" matches with 19th century Napoleonic warfare. Think "cavalry, infantry, artillery" or "light infantry skirmishers, line infantry, and grenadiers." It also kind of lines up with the Speed/Stamina/Strength.</li>
<li>"Cardinal/Fixed/Mutable" fits my astrology theme better and links to ancient archetypes. The trick is defining what those abilities actually do. I tried to do this with the above Speed/Stamina/Strength model but am not convinced I got it right. There is some trickiness here, especially with the treatment of mutables. Mutables are flexible, perceptive, and adaptable. They also can bring death (as at the end of a season; fall dies and the cycle begins anew in winter). So, do they do the "utility"/"support" role or are they the strong DPS types?</li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
The easy solution is just to go with Heal/Tank/DPS. I don't particularly care for "heal" as nobody likes to be the healbot so that could be eliminated, give everyone some healing, and broaden the role to "support." Alternatively, you could axe DPS, give everyone credible offense, and make the third role something like "mobility."</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I definitely think this is homing in, though...</div>
Vedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3750001544633885171.post-77193465001956134042014-02-09T22:28:00.001-09:002014-02-20T16:38:09.238-09:00Character Stats & GenI'm having a bout of insomnia so figured I'd throw something out there that has been rattling around on some notebook scraps for awhile. Basically it is a way to describe a character's core capabilities.<br />
<br />
<b>SKILLS</b><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Martial Arts / Physical Domain (Riding, Tilting, Fencing, Wrestling, Running, Leaping, Throwing or Archery)</li>
<li>Mechanical Arts / Mental Domain (<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">Fabric Making, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">Hunting, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">Commerce/Navigation, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">Armaments/Smithing, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">Surgery*, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">Agriculture, Cooking)</span></li>
<li>Liberal Arts / Emotional or Spiritual Domain (Logic, Grammar, Rhetoric, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, Astronomy)</li>
<li>Common Sense / Catch-All</li>
</ul>
<div>
Each skill is rated from zero to five points. Each point in a skill represents about six years of study. For example, a single point in liberal arts could represent a grammar school education, two points a secondary education, and three some sort of time at a university or college. In the mechanical arts, progression might follow the apprentice-journeyman-master model. While a theoretical maximum of five (or even more!) is possible, most people will have one or two points in a skill.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Common sense is a "catch all." If the GM is unsure what skill applies, common sense should fill the gap. Additionally, anyone may make any other check with "common sense" at a -1 penalty (or the target number is increased by one).<br />
<br />
Note that skill training has diminishing returns -- the first point invested has a more likely payoff than the second.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>*Surgery is a mechanical art or trade and generally deals with trauma. Internal medicine is a liberal art and deals with disease.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b>SKILL SPECIALTY BUNDLES (OPTIONAL RULE)</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Some groups may want more refined skill sets that the bundles described above. This variant rule is perfect for such groups!<br />
<br />
Gaining skill specialty bundles:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Option A (power neutral): Expend one character point that would otherwise be used to improve a skill set or potential ability to gain two bundles.</li>
<li>Option B (higher power): All characters get one bundle at character creation</li>
<li>Option C (power neutral): All characters may take one bundle, but in turn, take one bundle as a "flaw." The flawed bundle receives -1 to all checks.</li>
</ul>
<br />
Available bundles (<i>All bundles list skills in the order liberal art, mechanical art, and martial art):</i><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>SATURN: Astronomy, Agriculture, Riding</li>
<li>JUPITER: Geometry, Architecture, Mounted Combat*</li>
<li>SUN<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>: Arithmetic, Surgery, Climbing</li>
<li>MARS: Music, Armament (Smithing), Melee Fighting</li>
<li>VENUS: Rhetoric (Inform, Persuade, Motivate), Fabrics (weaving, tailoring, etc), Swimming</li>
<li>MERCURY: Dialectic (Logic, Argument), Commerce, Dancing</li>
<li>MOON: Grammar (Languages, quotations, history), Hunting & Tactics, Shooting</li>
</ul>
<div>
<i>*At the GM's discretion, for cultures which lack mounted combat experience, this skill can cover regional tournament games such as Bull Fighting in a Spanish campaign.</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
Effects of skill specialties: Gain a bonus die on all checks relevant to the skill, as if you had +1 rank in that skill.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>ABILITIES</b></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Speed</li>
<li>Stamina</li>
<li>Strength</li>
</ul>
<div>
Each ability is given a "potential" from zero to five points. The "potential" is used to generate an actual score from 3 to 18. Not all people live up to their potential, after all! Note that potential has diminishing returns -- the first point invested has a more likely payoff than the second.</div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Zero Potential: Roll 4d6 (avg 8.76), sum the lowest three. Below-average potential.</li>
<li>1 Potential: Roll 3d6 (avg 10.5). Typical potential for most people.</li>
<li>2 Potential: Roll 4d6, sum the highest three (avg 12.24). Significantly above average potential.</li>
<li>3 Potential: Roll 5d6, sum the highest three (avg 13.43). Dramatically above average potential.</li>
<li>4 Potential: Roll 6d6, sum the highest three (avg 14.27). Extraordinary potential.</li>
<li>5 Potential: Roll 7d6, sum the highest three (avg 14.9). Legendary potential.</li>
</ul>
<div>
After rolling the ability score, apply the following standard modifiers:</div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;"><i>0-1 (-3) </i></span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.333333015441895px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;"> -- only used in special cases</i></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">3-5 (-2)</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">6-8 (-1)</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">9-12 (0)</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">13-15 (+1)</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;">16-18 (+2)</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.799999237060547px;"><i>19-21 (+3) -- only used in special cases</i></span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<b>POINT DIVISION & STARTING AGE</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Each character has ten points to divide between starting skills and starting potential. The division, at the GM's discretion, is linked to character starting age. It is recommended to start each character at an age of about 30.</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>18 yrs of age (3 skills / 7 potential)</li>
<li>24 yrs of age (4 skills / 6 potential)</li>
<li>30 yrs of age (5 skills / 5 potential)</li>
<li>36 yrs of age (6 skills / 4 potential)</li>
<li>42 yrs of age (7 skills / 3 potential)</li>
<li>48 yrs of age (8 skills / 2 potential)</li>
<li>54 yrs of age (9 skills / 1 potential)</li>
<li>60 yrs of age (10 skills / 0 potential)</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
Variant: For more mundane characters, use a total of 8 points rather than 10. 10 points is intended to create well rounded characters who are somewhat above average.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>ASSIGNING POINTS</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Players may choose to assign points. Alternatively, they may use the following random method:</div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Pull only the face cards from a deck of playing cards.</li>
<li>Draw five cards (for a 30 year old character). Each card represents six years of training and development.<br />Jack = Speed<br />King = Stamina<br />Queen = Strength<br /><br />Aces = Martial Arts<br />Diamonds = Mechanical Arts<br />Hearts = Liberal Arts<br />Clubs = Common Sense<br /><br />For example, if the first card I drew was the King of Aces, I'd place one point in Stamina and one in Martial Arts.</li>
</ol>
</div>
<div>
<b>MAKING STANDARD CHECKS</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
To make a check, roll one D6 for each point in a skill, retain the highest die, then apply any modifiers from your ability score. Treat "boxcars" (two sixes) as a natural seven. Treat three sixes as a natural eight, and so on.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>For example, say the GM calls for a Martial Stamina check. My character has three ranks of training in the martial arts and a +1 modifier from a stamina score of 14. I roll three D6 and get a 2, 4, 5. The best die is a 5, so I retain that then add my +1 modifier for a total of six.</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
If you are entirely untrained in a skill, roll one die (c.f. "critical failures" below), or you may substitute "common sense" but must subtract -1 from the result. While success with "common sense" may be less likely, it mitigates the chance of a critical failure.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Critical Failure: If all of your dice come up with a "one" showing ("snake eyes") your character suffers a critical failure. <i>If you are entirely untrained, any failure is considered critical.</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As you can see with this mechanic, training reduces the odds of getting a poor roll and creates more predictable results. Training does have diminishing returns though, particularly above three ranks. Some degree of natural ability is needed to get the best results.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>DETERMINING STANDARD CHECKS</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In general, use Domain + Ability for all checks.</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Speed: Used to determine who acts fastest or first, and for rapid activity.</li>
<li>Stamina: Used to resist the actions of others, or for sustained activity.</li>
<li>Strength: Used to overpower obstacles or others.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
The domains and training are self explanatory. Here are some typical combinations:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Martial plus...</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Speed: Initiative in physical combat -- who acts first in combat?</li>
<li>Stamina: Resist physical damage or attacks. Use a martial skill over a long period of time ("aerobic"), such as swimming in calm water for a long duration.</li>
<li>Strength: Hit someone, or surge aggressive use of a martial skill ("anaerobic"), such as swimming through a difficult obstacle.</li>
</ul>
<div>
Mechanical plus...</div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Speed: Initiative in mental challenges, puzzles, or craftsmanship problems.</li>
<li>Stamina: Resist mental fatigue. Use a mechanical skill over a long period of time, such as focusing on making some sort of item.</li>
<li>Strength: Solve a challenging problem or use a feat of skill, such as making an extraordinarily complex item.</li>
</ul>
<div>
Liberal plus...</div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Speed: Initiative in social situations -- who acts first at a party?</li>
<li>Stamina: Resist social or emotional fatigue. Use a social skill over a long period of time, such as staying out through a long party or looking for recruits for an army.</li>
<li>Strength: Solve a social problem, such as making a strong favorable impression at a party or rallying troops to your cause.</li>
</ul>
<div>
As discussed previously, common sense is a catch all; it can also be used to substitute for any of the other specialized skills at a -2 penalty.</div>
</div>
Vedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3750001544633885171.post-47370503530374436302013-12-26T07:25:00.001-09:002013-12-26T07:26:07.612-09:0018th Century MusingsI've lately been on an 18th century kick. The American Revolution, Napoleonic wars, etc.<br />
<br />
There are a few basic problems of scale associated with this era, though, for man-to-man adventuring. The most obvious is that of range. Here are some typical ranges for 18th century arms, rounded off for easy usage:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Musket: Point Blank 60 yards / Effective 120 yards / Max 240 yards</li>
<li>Rifle: Point Blank 100 yards / Effective 200 yards / Max 400 yards</li>
<li>3 lb light cannon: Point Blank 200 yards / Effective 400 yards / Max 800 yards</li>
</ul>
<div>
Compare those to your typical medieval game. Long bows vs. point targets are typically effective to about 100 yards. Most hurled weapons are being used far closer, and with indoors scenes dominating, hand to hand melee is king. Moving the action to larger outdoor venues with firearms definitely changes the necessary scale.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The other issue is the rate of fire of such arms. A musket could be fired around 4 times a minute by a well trained regular.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Marshal Maurice de Saxe wrote: "Light infantry should be able to fire 6 shots a minute, but under the stress of battle 4 should be allowed for."</span></i></blockquote>
<div>
Finally, rates of march remain similar across the eras. The quick time march is about 85 yards/min, and double quick is 150 yards/min. This is actually fairly rapid; it is a 5 MPH pace or a 12 minute mile. Obviously a dead run is faster, but sustaining a 12 minute mile while loaded with gear on battlefield terrain under fire in formation is pretty legit.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
With that data in hand, here are some examples of scales that could be appropriate:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b><u>1 figure = 1 man, 1" = 10 yards, 1 round = 20 seconds</u></b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
With this scale, a "quick time" march would cover 3" per round, and a "double quick" about 5" per round.</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>I really like this as if you wanted to add a bit of randomness to movement, you could determine move distances with the roll of a D6. For example, at the quick march, roll 2d6 and retain the best; at the double quick, roll 3d6 and retain the best. Double sixes equals a move rate of 7" (8.5 minute miles), and rare triple sixes equals 8" move.</li>
<li>There is also a happy coincidence that the number of inches of movement equals the rate of move in MPH, which allows for easy conversion to overland adventuring scale. "Quick time" = 3 MPH.</li>
<li>Horses would cover about 8-10" per round at a trot or gallop, which again is easily derived by rolling a D6+5 and allows similar conversion to MPH.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
Conversion of weapon ranges to tabletop distances is easy; divide by ten. For example, musket range would be 6/12/24". Ranges would fit fairly easy on a typical table. A yardstick worth of play area could probably be sufficient for most engagements.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The problem here is granularity of action and reloading rate. With each round being 20 seconds, you need to allow a proficient musket user to load and fire <i>at least </i>once each round. Even that only gets you three shots per minute, which we know is shy of the historical case of 4-6 shots per minute. So clearly we need some sort of provision to allow well-drilled regulars to occasionally squeeze in an extra shot; say, a 1/3 chance per round.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
We also need to allow multiple actions per round (load <i>and </i>fire). This is familiar to D&D players of 3E ("move & standard" actions) but I prefer simpler systems where everything is a full round action, personally.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
One could do a variation on this for 1" = 10 yards, 1 round = 15 seconds. This would change your march rate to 2-4" per round, but could solve the rate of fire issue.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
<b><u>1 figure = 1 man, 1" = 5 yards, 1 round = 10 seconds</u></b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
With this scale, again a "quick time" march would cover 3" per round, and a "double quick" about 5" per round. Conversion of weapon ranges to tabletop distances is a bit harder; divide by 20. For example, musket range would be 12/24/48".</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The shorter rounds helps solve our rate of fire problem. If we allow load & fire each round, then we get six shots per round; if we throw in some sort of random "x" factor to occasionally mess up the process (say, loading requires passing a relatively easy skill check, but one which is failed from time to time) we can throttle that down to fewer shots per minute fairly easily.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
With a more granular system of actions, you could require "load" and "fire" to each be full round actions. That would still allow three shots per round. We'd have to have some sort of "feat" or rules exception for well-drilled regulars that let them accelerate the load & fire process to get back up to our six-shots-per-minute best case, though.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The problem here is tabletop real estate required. Now I need six feet of table to cover most probably scenarios. Youch!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<b><u>1 figure = 1 man, 1" = 10 yards, 1 round = 10 seconds</u></b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
With this scale, again a "quick time" march would cover 1.5" per round, and a "double quick" about 2.5" per round. Conversion of weapon ranges to tabletop distances is easy again. Loading is easy too.</div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The problem here is the move rates are very slow and small. It almost necessitates some sort of battle grid, and even then we'd probably have to either round up to 2"/3" moves, or have some sort of mechanic that allows an extra 1" space to be moved every other round. It would also be very difficult to work in any sort of reduced move rates, say, from difficult terrain.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<b><u>1 figure = 1 man, 1" = 5 feet, 1 round = 6 seconds</u></b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
With this scale, again a "quick time" march would cover 5" per round, and a "double quick" about 9" per round. Conversion of weapon ranges to tabletop distances is a bit tougher, as we're going from yards to feet, but you could round the weapon ranges off. Musketry would be at 36"/72"/144" though, which is the fatal flaw of this scale: you need the length of a room just use use muskets, much less rifles or cannons!</div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This scale does resolve the granularity of action issue in that you could have loading be a full round action, and firing be a full round action, and get about five shots per minute.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
<b><u>Rules Lite Abstraction</u></b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
You could also dispense with such scales altogether and go rules lite with some sort of range abstraction. Say that characters are either in range, or they're not. </div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I can see why man-to-man action is not popular to model in the 18th century context, except perhaps for naval battles where these issues are easier to manage!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Vedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3750001544633885171.post-20192762614981737842013-10-09T17:56:00.001-08:002013-10-09T17:56:21.325-08:00Interesting Post on the "Trinity" vs. RPSIn my previous post I explored some class/role ideas. It turns out that Richard Bartle, of MUD fame, has a <a href="http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2010/QBlog190810A.html">post </a>reaching similar conclusions.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Now if, back in 1978, you'd told me that there were going to be three main character classes in future MMOs, I would probably have assumed some kind of rock/paper/scissors relationship among them for reasons of balance. Archers beat infantry, cavalry beat archers, infantry beat cavalry — that sort of thing. I don't believe for a moment I'd have gone with what we have, which is the "trinity" of tank, heals and dps....</i></span></span></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px;">He goes on to explain that the "tank" role came from MUDs (early online RPGs) that lacked positional systems. Everyone was either in a room, or not in the room. Therefore, there was a need for aggro management: ergo, the tank.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px;"><br />D&D has traditionally handled this as wargames do, with pathfinding or keeping track of locations. This requires greater granularity and fidelity, though, in that you need to track locations of pieces, usually with minis. It also starts to break down in some scenarios.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px;">I am reminded of G2, Gary Gygax's module about frost giants. Maybe I am a huge jerk, but as DM I used a lot of missile fire (as the dungeon key suggests) from the giants, and I played the ogre magi to their maximum potential. Heavy missile fire which can essentially ignore the strong "front line" tanks and the threat of flying invisible ogre magi with AOE spells like Cone of Frost made some sort of "taunt" ability necessary. The player running a paladin role played this to the hilt and sought out a magic sword with the "Taunt" spell built in. The other fighter went with the "whack giants with a two handed sword dealing 3d6 damage" route so they had to pay attention to him.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px;"><br />The point is that if the system allows enemies to ignore the tank for some reason then we're back in the early-MUD DPS-Tank-Healer trinity conundrum again.</span><br />
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<br />Vedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3750001544633885171.post-62944007233902564282013-09-23T18:19:00.000-08:002013-09-23T18:19:00.518-08:00Class Roles: Quartets, the Trinity, and DualityOne of the topics I brainstormed on was the idea of character classes. A lot of my game design ideas are focused around character creation. Classes are an integral part of that, obviously.<br />
<br />
Right up front, I want to acknowledge that it is possible to have fun games with class-less systems, or systems which have loosely defined roles such as World of Darkness. However, for the lighter sorts of games I am enjoying these days, a class system is helpful because it helps everyone find their role in the game quickly, speeds character creation, and generally helps everyone "grok" what is going on.<br />
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<b>FOUR CLASSES</b><br />
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D&D 4E was an interesting example of a lot of ideas. One of the core character creation rules in 4E was character roles. Each class filled one of four niches: Striker (DPS), Defender (Tank), Leader (Healer/Support), and Controller (debuffer/crowd control). Characters could generally "lean" towards a second role, in effect "majoring" in one and "minoring" in a second.<br />
<br />
One problem that becomes apparent rapidly though is that if you have four roles, and each are considered vital, then you need more players to fill them all. At a minimum, you need two players and they must each Major and Minor in different roles: for example, a Paladin (Defender/Leader) could pair up with a striker that minors in controller (or vice versa). Really, most typical groups will need five folks to cover each of the core four roles adequately.<br />
<br />
1E AD&D was similar in that the core four roles were cleric, fighter, magic-user, and thief. In reality, you could often dispense with several of those, though, as there were more ways to skin a cat. For example, if you were short on fighters it was usually possible to hire men-at-arms as bodyguards.<br />
<br />
Personally, I play RPGs rarely these days and often with a small group. I would prefer a mechanical system with fewer roles so that two or three players can cover down on everything. That means that the classes need to be less rigid, or you need fewer of them.<br />
<br />
<b>THREE CLASSES OR THE "HOLY TRINITY"</b><br />
<br />
MMOs like WoW have popularized what has come to be known as the "holy trinity" of DPS, Tank, and Healer. This allows a smaller group to cover all the roles, in theory. In practice, it seems like the average group size in WoW still tended towards five, with a common line up being three strikers, a healer, and a tank.<br />
<br />
The Holy Trinity has a few strengths. As mentioned, you need fewer players for a viable group (more on that later). Due to recent popularity, it is easily understood by players and GMs alike, and players know immediately what they are "supposed" to do. Even players who don't do MMOs can figure it out rapidly: I personally think immediately of American football, which has an offensive team, a defensive team, and a special team.<br />
<br />
Some downsides include:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>These roles don't really match historical combat lineups. For example, in ancient combat you had heavy infantry (like pike formations), medium infantry (Roman legions with swordsmen), light infantry (velites), cavalry (of various types), archers, and so on. In the Napoleonic era you had light infantry skirmishers, line or medium/heavy infantry, artillery, and cavalry. They don't necessarily fit neatly into a trio. The trio is entirely based on game rules, not reality.</li>
<li>The roles fall apart in a PvP environment, or if the "enemy" uses the same system. I'm not a big WoW player, but as I understand it, healers and tanks are fairly useless in PvP. You'd have to balance the trio more like "Rock Paper Scissors" for it to work in a PvP setting.</li>
<li>The "tank" role only makes sense with an artificial aggro mechanism to force foes to attack the target which is hardest to kill. Traditional D&D uses minis and battlefield positioning to allow tanks to block an enemy; MMOs used aggro due to poor pathfinding algorithms and latency issues.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">TWO CLASSES</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
Two classes would be the minimum to have a non-trivial choice in character creation. EVE Online does this, with basically choices between tank (defense) and spank (offense).</div>
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<br /></div>
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I find such a system to be a bit too simple, personally.</div>
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I've got a few more thoughts on this front but my wrists are killing me, so I'm calling it quits for now.</div>
Vedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3750001544633885171.post-86251607970306368422013-09-22T17:48:00.002-08:002013-09-22T17:48:46.403-08:00Back -- a little!I just wanted to announce that the blog is back. A little.<br />
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It has been a busy year. I traveled out of the country on business for months, moved into a new position at work, and got some carpal tunnel syndrome which is really cutting into computer time. I was able to manage a rocking summer road trip though and did a lot of talking with old friends and brainstorming on game stuff. I'll see what I can put down onto useful paper here, if my wrists allow.Vedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3750001544633885171.post-79836063279547615992012-12-18T23:43:00.004-09:002012-12-18T23:43:45.401-09:00NewtownI don't normally intrude into the real world on this blog as that is not the intent.<br />
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The events at Newtown elementary were shocking and obviously terrible. They hit close to home as I have close family members who work in elementary schools. I want more than anything to see effective solutions that reduce the threat of violence to kids and people who work in schools.<br />
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I know that many people are asking a lot of questions and wanting solutions and dialogue. I am professionally in the risk assessment and threat mitigation business, have qualified on and carried bona fide "assault rifles" for work, and personally know about losing friends and coworkers to violence. My wife works with children, but on the weekends she is a certified firearms safety instructor (and a better marksman than me and many badge toting professionals, I might add). We are familiar with the legal environment in Connecticut. Please email me if you want facts or information that you feel the media are not providing accurately or clearly.<br />
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I won't ask you to join the NRA or donate to the Brady Campaign; I won't tell you how to vote or what to tell your Senators. I can answer questions like, "What's the difference between an automatic assault rifle and a semiautomatic assault weapon?" or "how do you as a risk management professional mitigate the threat of random mass violence?" or "what is the likely risk impact/effect of proposal X?"<br />
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Post a comment with your email address and I'll be happy to have a private dialogue to answer questions.<br />
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Back to your regularly scheduled intermittent gaming posts.Vedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3750001544633885171.post-29433003858161194582012-12-18T23:32:00.002-09:002012-12-18T23:32:23.872-09:00Where has your RPG hobby helped you out in life?<br />
<a href="http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=59034&p=1311989#p1311989">My post from Dragonsfoot:</a><br />
<br />
I met my wife and the best man at my wedding through a gaming group.<br />
<br />
I learned to quickly and intuitively apply statistics. Most people cannot figure the results of this type of problem: "Ok, I have a 4/6 chance of opening the door first try... Then a 2/6 chance of getting a surprise round... Then a 45% of landing a hit... And an 80% of it being a one-hit-stop before the goblin takes otu the hostage. So what are the chances of getting this done in one or two rounds?" Obviously that exact problem does not come up too often in life except for those on the SWAT team, but there are many events involving probabilities in life and most people suck at the math.<br />
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I learned to turn verbal descriptions into graphical maps/diagrams, and back again (mapping 101 and room description 101!).<br />
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I learned to put myself in the mind of another type of character -- or even a hideous cunning monster. I now do threat analysis professionally as a living. Most people are unable to even imagine how a suicide bomber or assassin or even common criminal thinks. Being able to break out of your own frame of reference is very helpful.<br />
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I learned how to game out multiple courses of action, including detailed tracking of costs/consumables/durations (name level magic user spell planning! AAAGH!) and determine which is best. THis is helpful for many things, whether it be figuring out how to plan a family vacation or a major business move.<br />
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I have been able to slip "antithesis of weal" into conversation a few times. I get to smile every time. That phrase is like a secret uber geek handshake, by the way.<br />
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I learned that knowing when to commit your last reserves, and knowing when to cut your losses and NOT open that "one last door" are keys to success. Not just in games, either. The key skill in D&D, I think, is having the judgement to balance risk and reward in both the short and long term. That is what "one more door" is all about. Evaluating risks and rewards in a rational, cool headed manner is an important life skill, but so is knowing when to gamble and hope for a natural 20.<br />
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Finally, I learned how 1E initiative works. It took four years and enough time to have earned another minor in my undergrad but I think I finally have it licked.<br />
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Vedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3750001544633885171.post-11735068439197113652012-12-01T22:08:00.000-09:002012-12-01T22:08:00.236-09:00Exploration System Design Notes Part II wanted to pile on my previous post with a few explanations behind the choices I made.<br />
<br />
SCALE: My desire was to allow groups to make use of a wide variety of existing graphics and maps. The 1:250K is a fairly common scale that allows a fairly large area to be depicted on a sheet. These maps will often display an area about 60NM (1 degree of latitude) on a sheet 15" tall. One of them should display about nine counties of terrain, making them perfect for exploring the area around an isolated community in a "points of light" type setting. One could easily pick up some maps of a rural area like the hinterboonies of Afghanistan or Iraq (in a JOG) or remote Alaska (from USGS) and use those maps for a campaign. I've found the USGS maps as cheap as $1 each.<br />
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RATE OF MARCH: With this scale, a character moving at 12" (max human normal) covers 4" on the 1:250K map which is about 16 miles in eight hours for a pace of 2 MPH. However, as you will see, the system allows double moves to be taken, putting these characters at a pace of 4 MPH. This is a bit fast but most parties will be moving a bit slower and most terrain will be restrictive, substantially slowing movement. It is not unreasonable given that some Army units (such as Airborne, Rangers, etc) conduct foot road marches with rucks at a 4 MPH pace (12 miles in 3 hours). Obviously such a pace is not necessarily sustained day in and day out but we are in the right ballpark before modifiers.<br />
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<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
MOVE IN INCHES VS INCHES ON THE MAP: Obviously, the 4:1 reduction in pace (12" move = 4" on the map) is a bit confusing. I could have gone with longer turns of 24 hours or so each, and then just done a straight 1" move = 1" on the map. Indeed, that would work just fine as a variant rule for groups that want to accelerate overland travel. However, I found this undesirable for a few reasons. First off, if groups are covering almost a foot of space on the table every turn then you will rapidly need another map. They will be off the 1:250K page in just two or three moves. Next, the longer scale requires a higher degree of abstraction. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
With the party only moving a few inches on the map, a single sheet should last for several iterations of play. Specifically, a party at 9" move will cover 3" on the map each iteration, which means it will take at least five turns to march from one side of the map to the other. Factor in winding indirect routes, pauses for detours/shelter/rest, rough terrain, weather/night factors, and you're talking... Hrm... 7+/-2 turns to cross the map. You can play for days of campaign time on a map that easily fits on a corner of the typical kitchen table.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
ECONOMY OF ACTIONS: <a href="http://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/2010/05/granularity-in-turns.html">Dan Collins makes</a> a good case for granularity in turns. Specifically, he thinks if characters are taking multiple actions in a turn then the turn should be shortened until they take only one. I chose to use the "standard" minor/move/standard action economy instead.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
To increase granularity of turns and allow only one action, I would either need four hour turns with the same distance scale (12" move = 4" on the map), or I would need to keep the eight hour turns with twice the movement (12" move = 8" on the map), or some other ratio would be needed (12 hour turns with 12" on the map?). Of those options I tend to like the four hour one the best.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The problem with allowing only one action per turn is three fold.</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>First, you get "slow poke" syndrome. An entire party, fleet of foot at 12" move, is dragged down to 6" move when the dwarf comes along. This either leads to crazy work arounds (how many mule-mounted dwarves have you seen?), handwaving of overland march speeds, heavy burdens for everyone ("Well, we're at six inch move anyways... Plate mail for everyone, all the time!"), and racial discrimination for new characters ("No dwarves need apply... Move along, sir...").</li>
<li>Next, players get an incentive to do nothing more than <i>move </i>every round. After all, the party is trying to get somewhere, right? Why would you spend an iteration doing anything other than moving in most cases?</li>
<li>Most of the scales other than the four hours and 12" move = 3" map cause issues with needing a really big map on your table, or necessitate going to a 1:500K chart which lacks the detail I'd want.</li>
</ul>
<div>
So, I decided to try out the old tried & true "Minor/Move/Standard" economy. The way I envision a lot of groups using this economy is as follows:<br /><ul>
<li>A few folks use Minors</li>
<li>Everyone uses a move action</li>
<li>Slow Pokes use their Standard to Force March so as to keep up with the faster folks</li>
<li>Faster folks use their Standard to attempt a more interesting exploration option</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div>
This may be a bit boring for the Slow Pokes, but even they get to make a die roll for their Standard Action.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Well, that is enough for now. I certainly envision putting more thoughts down later.</div>
Vedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3750001544633885171.post-4858005076121286462012-11-26T22:29:00.000-09:002012-11-26T22:29:00.349-09:00Exploration System<br />
Over the last few posts I've explored some of the issues folks have with exploration. So, enough griping -- let's take a stab at a solution. This is my idea of a system that tries to address some of the issues with overland adventuring which can be plugged into WhiteBox or some other similar system.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">SCALE OF PLAY</span></b><br />
One Watch or March = 8 Hours<br />
3" of character move = 1" on the map = 4 miles (or a bit over a league)<br />
Map Used = Any 1:250K scale map, such as a <a href="http://store.usgs.gov/b2c_usgs/usgs/catalog/z_matnrdeterminationandqtyvalidation/(xcm=r3standardpitrex_prd&layout=6_1_61_50_2&uiarea=2&itemPageSize=10&page=&ctype=areaDetails&next=setPageSize&carea=0000001916&citem=)/.do?areaid=workarea">USGS 1 deg x 2 deg map</a> or a <a href="http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/jog/afghanistan/">Military Joint Operational Graphic</a><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">OVERLAND ACTIONS</span></b><br />
Each 8 hour Watch or March is broken into four actions which the character may take in any order.<br />
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<b>Minor Action</b>: Minor actions are administrative tasks which taken little time to accomplish but do require some attention, thought, and effort. An example would be a tasking taking around half an hour either all at once or in several smaller chunks. They typically (but not always) do not have any chance of failure. Specific examples include but are not limited to:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Breaking (departing) camp; one person can break camp for a small group.</li>
<li>Preparing a hot meal for a small group.</li>
<li>Significant changes to the order of march for any hirelings, henchmen, bearers, or pack animals.</li>
<li>Mark unusual area on the map. The area can then be returned to without having to search for it.</li>
<li>Gather and purify water from readily available source (stream, lake, reservoir, etc). You do not suffer any attack by thirst this turn.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Move Action</b>: Move actions take up substantial time. About half the eight hour turn is spent on movement. To determine a character's movement speed on the 1:250K map, take their speed and divide it by three. For example, a character at 9" move will cover 9/3 = three inches on the map. The party moves at the speed of the slowest individual. Apply the following cumulative modifiers:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Inclement Weather: Reduce base move by 25%</li>
<li>Extreme Weather: Reduce base move by 50%</li>
<li>Night, Fog, or Other Reduced Visibility: Reduce base move by 50% (unless mitigated)</li>
<li>Crossing Significant Contour Lines (up or down): Movement Costs x 2</li>
<li>Crossing Stream: Movement Costs x 2</li>
<li>Any off-road movement (with wheeled vehicles only): Movement Costs x 2</li>
<li>Forest, Marsh, or Other Difficult Terrain: Movement Costs x 2</li>
<li>Extremely Difficult Terrain: Movement Costs x 3</li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Example of Play:</i><br />
<ul>
<li><i>A party is moving at 9" during a sunny day. They cover 3" on the map (9/3; 12 miles) when walking down a well-worn path.</i></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><i>If they decided to depart the path and move through the forest, then they would cover 1.5" as forest moves cost double.</i></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><i>If the movement through the forest is also night time movement, they would cover just under an inch (0.75" or about 3 miles to be precise) as their base move would be reduced by 50%.</i></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><i>If the nocturnal movement through the forest was also up a hill, movement is reduced to 0.375" on the 1:250K map.</i></li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Optional Rule: "All or Nothing" Fractional Movement</b><br />
Some groups may dislike measuring out fractions of an inch on the map. In this case, determine how many sixths of an inch the group is entitled to move. Roll a six sided die. If the die is equal to or less than the number of sixths to be traveled, the group moves a whole inch.<br />
<i>Example: After calculating all modifiers, our nocturnal forested hill climbing adventurers can cover 0.375", or about 2/6 of an inch. They roll a die. It comes up 2, so they can move an entire inch. If it had come up 3-6, then the group would have stayed in place with no movement at all.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Optional Rule: Trading Move Actions: </b> Instead of moving, a character may trade their move action for a minor. After taking the minor action, roll 1d6 (1 = move action expended, 2-6 = move again!). </blockquote>
<div>
<b>Standard Overland Action</b>. Each character gets one standard action per eight hour period. Much like movement, this is an action that takes several hours of time to complete.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><i>Standard Overland Action Resolution</i>.</b> Any action involving uncertainty below is resolved by rolling 1d6+ABILITY SCORE modifier (this is predicated on a White Box style +1/-1 modifier system). The target number is 5 unless modified by terrain or circumstances. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Special Case -- Fighters & Demihumans & Name Level Characters.</i> Fighters who have names (PCs and key NPCs) roll twice and take the best result. If a fighter rolls doubles, immediately add one to the roll (indicating success on as low as a pair of 4s); if they succeed, then they gain bonuses as well. Elves roll twice like fighters in wooded terrain, halflings roll twice in hills, and dwarves roll twice in mountains. Finally, any name level character rolls an extra die when on their own claimed stronghold's land (a name level fighter would thus roll 3d6 on his home turf, taking the best result). <i>In the rare event that a character rolls triples, add two to the pips shown before checking for success or failure. For example, a name level fighter who rolls 3-3-3 has an adjusted role of 5 (3+2).</i></blockquote>
<div>
<ul>
<li><b>Double March. </b>Move your speed again. Characters who do not have names (hirelings, red shirts, mounts, etc) <i>can only use this action unless some other rule allows (for example, some monsters or specific types of NPCs or classes of soldiers may have some other special ability).</i></li>
<li><b>Force March (STR)</b>. Take a second move. Instead of using your normal move, your base speed equals 3d6+STR inches (roll only 2d6+STR if at 6" or less). Characters with bonus dice roll them and retain the best three (or two, for those at 6" or less). This can be done to improve the overall speed of the group. For example, a heavily burdened character at 6" move can Force March in order to try and keep up with fleet of foot lightly burdened comrades at 12" move. Assuming the laggard rolls at least a result of six the whole group moves at 12".<br /><i>Doubles (can only be claimed by those entitled to bonus dice): Increase everyone in the group's base move by 3". This bonus applies only once even if multiple people force march.</i></li>
<li><b>Forage (WIS)</b>. The character searches for food and water sources while on the move. Success indicates food and water found for the day for one person and that character doesn't suffer any attacks from thirst or hunger. <i>Doubles: Locate sustenance for the a number of people equal to the number of pips shown + WIS.</i></li>
<li><b>Hide Tracks (WIS). </b> The number rolled is the TN for anyone to follow your tracks. <i> Doubles: Add +1 to the number of pips shown. No other effect.</i></li>
<li><b>Overwatch (DEX)</b>. The character provides security by conducting overwatch, skirmishing ahead or to the flank of the party and checking likely ambush spots. If the party is not moving, then it represents a watch post being manned. Success indicates that the chance of surprise for the whole party is reduced by 1/6 (does not stack with multiple individuals on overwatch). <i>Doubles: If the party is not surprised during an encounter, take an extra combat round of action before anyone else can act.</i></li>
<li><b>Look for Trouble (INT).</b> The character scours the area for anything unusual such as a lair, signs of a strange monster, a dungeon entrance, or a forgotten temple. This skill can also be used to look for a specific hidden item or area. Compare the die roll to this table:<br /><i>0: Something terrible, awful, and baneful.<br />1-2: Negative terrain feature or hostile random encounter<br />3-4: Neutral terrain feature or random encounter<br />5-6: Helpful terrain feature or helpful random encounter<br />7+: Critically helpful terrain feature or positive random encounter</i><br /><i>Doubles: No special effect other than improving the roll by one.</i></li>
<li><b>Navigation & Cartography (INT)</b>. If the group is traveling in uncharted lands with no map, then the character makes one which is correct in all essential details with a success and the group navigates with no problems. With failure, in uncharted lands the group moves one map inch (4 miles) in a random direction due to being lost; halve the distance in rough terrain. <i>Doubles: Add a terrain feature to the map... How convenient to stumble across a stream/path/clearing/cliff/sheltered campsite/abandoned hunting cabin just when you needed one!</i></li>
<li><b>Easy Does It (CHA)</b>. The character takes it easy, using frequent breaks to stay fresh, unfatigued, and protected from the elements. Gain a 1d6+CHA bonus to Survival Class until the start of the next turn, and everyone else in the small party gains a +2 bonus (does not stack). <i>Doubles: Gain an additional +1 bonus over the pips shown.</i></li>
<li><b>Make/Find Camp (INT)</b>. The character looks for a perfect campsite then sets up a protected shelter with all the creature comforts in the right spot. With success, all members of the group gain a +3 bonus on Survival Class so long as they remain stationary. This check is not cumulative if multiple characters succeed. <i>Doubles: Gain a +6 Bonus.</i></li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Full Turn Action</b>. This action consumes all time and precludes any actions other than a <i>single </i>minor action.</div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><b>Rest (CON)</b>. Gain a 1d6+CON bonus to Survival Class until the start of the next turn. Regain HP and spells per your edition's rules. If sleep is interrupted, there is a 1/6 chance to lose rest for each hour awake, modified by +/- CON. <i>For example: A character stands watch for three hours. There is a 3/6 chance that they will not have a restful night. With a +1 WIS modifier, there is a 2/6 chance they will not have a restful night.</i></li>
<li><b>Thorough Search (INT)</b>. Make a Standard Overland Check. Any hidden items (TN based on concealment of item) within a one inch map square (4 NMx4NM) are revealed. If multiple individuals search the same area then pool all their dice together and take the best result. Any "x2" terrain modifier or "-50%" movement modifier increases the TN by one. Restricting the search area to 1/2" square grants a +1 bonus. Restricting the search area to 1/4" grants a +2 bonus. <i>Doubles, Triples, Four-of-a-Kind, etc: Consider the result to be a 7/8/9, etc.</i></li>
<li><b>Adventure. </b>Any delve into the dungeon or other similar lair is assumed to take a full 8 hour overland Watch. Even if the group goes into the lair, skirmishes a few monsters then withdraws after just a few minutes, the remaining time is assumed to be spent donning armor, preparing gear, conducting inventories, counting treasure, binding wounds, etc.<br /><i><b>House Rule: </b> Count up the number of hours spent adventuring. Roll 1d6. If the d6 result is greater than the number of hours then the action is not expended.</i></li>
</ul>
<div>
<b><span style="font-size: large;">THE ENVIRONMENT STRIKES BACK!</span></b></div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Exposure, thirst, starvation, disease -- these historically have been the bane of all explorers. And thus they are the bane of explorers in our system as well. Just as melee combat features foes clad in iron, exploration brings its own challenges. Players should see the environment itself as a significant adversary which tries to kill them every turn (every eight hours). Just as the players get a chance to take actions, so does the environment. While the environment is usually random and uncaring, it can sometimes be manipulated for good or ill by powerful beings with their own agenda...</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Character Defenses & Survival Class (SC). </b> Just like foes try to hit a character's "armor class" to inflict injuries, the environment challenges a character's "survival class." Survival Class and Hazards attacking it are rolled on a D6 sc rather than a D20.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Survival class has a base of 10, just like AC, but can be boosted or penalized by equipment and actions.</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Constitution Modifier: Apply bonus or penalty</li>
<li>Cloth or Leather Armor: +2 SC against Exposure</li>
<li>Oilskin Parka (1 stone): +2 SC against Exposure in inclement or extreme cold/wet weather; can be worn over armor (except plate)</li>
<li>Boots (1/3 stone): +1 SC against Exposure</li>
<li>Wide Brimmed Hat (1/6 stone): +1 SC against All Hazards. Cannot be worn with helm.</li>
<li>Fur Hat (1/6 stone): +2 SC against Exposure in extreme cold conditions. Cannot be worn with helm.</li>
<li>Survival Kit (1 stone): +3 SC against all Hazards. <i>What's in it? Who knows, but it sure helps keep you alive.</i></li>
<li>Pocket Survival Kit (1/3 stone): 1 SC againt all Hazards.</li>
<li>Tent (1 stone): +3 SC against Exposure in inclement weather</li>
<li>Tier: +1 against all Hazards per every three levels (Level 0-2 = 0, Level 3-5 = +1, Level 6-8 = +2, etc)</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<b>Attack. </b> The environment will try to inflict harm. Each of these "foes" attacks each character each turn in the wilderness. The baseline attack is 1d20 + 1 per tier (every three levels) above the first. All confirmed hits do 1d6 damage per tier of the environment.</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><b>Exposure & Fatigue</b>. Exposure & Fatigue strikes every Watch/March at +3.</li>
<li><i>Bonuses to hit: Constant Bonus (+3), Inclement weather (+3), Extreme Weather (+6)</i></li>
<li><b>Thirst</b>. 2/6 chance to attack each Watch/March.</li>
<li><i>Bonuses to hit: Inclement Hot weather (+3), Extreme Hot Weather (+6), Raining (-3).</i></li>
<li><b>Starvation</b>. 1/6 chance to attack each Watch/March.<br /><i>Bonuses to Hit: Character Force Marched this turn (+3)</i></li>
</ul>
<div>
<i>Example: The PCs are adventuring in Sunshine Meadows, which is just a few miles outside a small sleepy starting town in an environment much like that of Jolly Olde England (Tier 1). It has been cool and drizzly (inclement weather). Each character gets hit with a Fatigue/Exposure Attack at +6 (+3 constant, +3 inclement weather), a Thirst Attack at -3 (rain), and a Starvation Attack at +0. If any attacks are confirmed hits then the characters suffer 1d6 damage per hit.</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>Example: The PCs are adventuring in the rocky barren hills outside Snurre's Lair, home of the Fire Giants and a suitable adventure locale for name level characters with challenging terrain (Tier 3 territory). They are moving quickly along on an exposed, barren, windswept hillside in a choking volcanic landscape. They suffer a Fatigue/Exposure Attack at +8 (+2 Tier, +3 constant, +3 terrain), a Thirst Attack at +5 (+2 Tier, +3 Hot Choking Weather), and a Starvation Attack at +5 (+2 Tier, +3 Force March).</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<b>Preventing Damage. </b> Characters have a few tools to avoid these hazards.</div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><b>"A Good Offense:" </b> Just like it is viable to take out foes before they can grind you down, characters should take pre-emptive action to remove the threat of environmental hazards. With a minor action, characters can gather water from a terrain feature shown on the map such as a river and remove the threat of thirst. Foraging, a standard action, can remove the threat of both thirst and starvation. The Weather is harder to control, but characters should try to avoid negative modifiers by seeking covered terrain in bad weather. </li>
<li><b>"A Good Defense:" </b> Proper outdoors gear (boots, hat, and clothing, survival kit) grants a +7 bonus to SC against Exposure, the most dangerous Hazard. Such an outfit is like being in Chain Mail with a Shield for outdoor exploration hazards. Finding and making camp, a standard action, grants a +3 bonus to groups which remain stationary, which stacks with protection provided by a tent (+3). Resting, a Full Action, grants an additional ~4.5 point bonus as well. A properly equipped team in camp should be able to ride out most storms.</li>
<li><b>Consuming Supplies</b>. After having a hit assessed but before damage is rolled, players can consume expendable supplies to cancel any damage. Remove one stone of water or of food to totally negate the hit from thirst or starvation, respectively. Once the hit is confirmed, however, this option is gone. There is no option to do this for exposure damage, making pre-emptive action critical for fatigue and exposure threats.</li>
<li><b>Lodging in Civilization.</b> Lodging in an inn or similar accommodations negates any environmental threats except in the most extreme or unusual of conditions.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Weather</span></b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Each Watch/March, there is a 1/6 chance for a change in the weather. If it is time for new Weather, consult the procedures below.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
To generate totally new weather at the start of the adventure (or if you've forgotten the old weather), roll 3d6, discard the highest and lowest results and compare to the chart below. If it is time for a moderate change then set one die out with the current result already showing and roll two new dice as well, then apply the same procedure.</div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>0: Heat Wave (extreme weather)</li>
<li>1: Dry & Hot (inclement weather)</li>
<li>2-3: Sunny</li>
<li>4: Cloudy</li>
<li>5-6: Rainy (inclement weather)</li>
<li>7: Stormy (extreme weather)<br /><br /><i>Example: It has been rainy and the DM determines it is time for a change in the weather. He puts out one die reading "5" as it is currently rainy and then rolls two more dice. The results are "3" and "5." One of the 5s and the 3 are discarded -- the rain continues!</i></li>
</ul>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b>Optional Rule -- Seasons</b>: In Winter, discard only the lowest result and retain the two highest. Boxcars equals a result of "stormy" (7). In Summer, discard only the highest result and retain the two lowest. Snake eyes equals a result of "heat wave" (0). Note that without this rule extreme weather will never come up except by DM fiat. With this rule and the above weather patterns, one can expect a day or two of extreme weather each season, representing a terrible hurricane, nor'easter, or drought.</i><i><br /></i><i><b>Optional Rule -- Climate</b>: Modify the table above for extreme climates. For example, the volcanic area around the Fire Giant King Snurre's hall should have a higher distribution of extreme hot weather. Alternatively, the DM can add or subtract "one" to all results.</i></blockquote>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
Vedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3750001544633885171.post-76544730323292500372012-11-20T22:36:00.000-09:002012-11-20T22:36:00.292-09:00Exploration<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-pathfinder/331127-exploration-rules-youd-like-see-8.html">I found an interesting threat about D&D Next/5E on Enworld regarding exploration rules</a>.<br />
<br />
Apparently 5E has identified three core game tasks: combat, exploration, and interaction. The problem is that the game has historically focused on different pillars (I'd argue OD&D on Exploration and later editions more on Combat).<br />
<br />
The thread identifies a few problems with exploration type tasks or skill challenges (whatever you want to call them). I distilled them down into a few key points here and added a few of my own.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Participation -- Only Weakest Matters. Historically exploration tasks are dominated by the LEAST capable member of a party. It doesn't member of four of the PCs have sneak checks of plus three million if there's a stinky dwarf in plate mail clunking along. In all editions I've seen this mitigated by either (A) copious amounts of spells (i.e. the wizard casts invisibility, fly, and silence on the dwarf...) or (B) "Team Sneaky" (the 100% elf & halfling party in 1E, a bunch of optimized characters for 3E or 4E, etc). Even more simply, having a 12" move is irrelevant if there's a 6" move person trundling down the trail with you. This is different from combat -- every D&D party that wants to someday have <i>Sleep </i>figures out how to keep the pointy hat wizard (useless in combat) alive for at least a little while in 1E.</li>
<li>Participation -- Only Strongest Matters. Alternatively, some exploration tasks are capable of being handled by one PC (example -- climb a cliff to affix a rope for everyone to climb). Then everyone else is pretty much irrelevant.</li>
<li>Lack of mechanics. 1E had a good number of mechanics for exploration but they've kind of dropped off. Without concrete mechanics, player skill exceeds character niche in importance.</li>
<li>Lack of dynamism or two parties. In a fight, the orcs swing back. In exploration, the environment rarely gets a vote. Who has honestly cared if it rained in an RPG? This makes things very static and unsatisfying.</li>
<li>Risk/Reward problems. Often exploration is harshly punished. "Thou shalt not split the party!" is a hard learned lesson of 1E. It also neuters the scout types. Meanwhile, poor exploration often results in resource sapping random encounters. The incentives need to be set up properly.</li>
<li>Details... and irrelevant details. Sometimes there is a huge emphasis on exploration related logistics. I remember spreadsheet upon sheet for 1E adventuring parties tracking food, water, etc. Sadly, once casters reach level X, various needs become irrelevant. Create Water? Create Food? Heck, at some levels, you even get Airy Water (create Air). Once the cleric has Create Food & Water the fiddly starvation rules are goneskies. Likewise, "Knock" makes rogues fairly irrelevant for many tasks.</li>
</ul>
<div>
Up next: some ideas to address these issues.</div>
Vedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3750001544633885171.post-10182691659188324032012-11-16T22:23:00.000-09:002012-11-16T22:23:08.014-09:00Still Around... Kind OfHello readers,<br />
<br />
Sorry for my long and unannounced absence. I have been very busy with real life. I have not had the chance to do much gaming, either.<br />
<br />
I am still tossing around some ideas for games and may get around to some posts here. However I'm pretty aggressively scheduled from a work point of view so we'll see what happens.<br />
<br />
In any event just wanted to briefly check in.Vedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3750001544633885171.post-57914733549470963782012-08-09T15:52:00.000-08:002012-07-31T06:35:03.148-08:00Whitebox: Elements<b>PURPOSE OF THIS RULE:</b><br />
This house rule attempts to cultivate a player typology which then allows players to pursue -- and be rewarded for -- activities which they find personally satisfying. All too often, a player who is primarily interested in, say, interpersonal relationships with the other players gets punished for table-talk, banter, exploring backstories of other PCs, etc at a table where Hard Core SWAT-style Dungeon Clearing is the order of the day. Likewise, some tables focus heavily on role playing and the one player interested in clearing dungeons like its her job is punished for failing to talk about the feelings of the PCs.<br />
<br />
The fundamental premise is that players can be described on two axis: quality of interaction with the game world and with other players. On each axis, players can either<i> interact with</i> or <i>act on </i>the respective aspect of the experience. By identifying that axis explicitly, interesting abilities and rewards can be tailored for each player.<br />
<br />
There is no need to balance these among the group. The entire group may be one or two elements. In solo or two player games, in particular, the interpersonal elements (air/fire) should probably be de-emphasized or avoided.<br />
<br />
<b><u>ELEMENTS</u></b><br />
<br />
Characters may select one element to be their foundational basis. The classical elements should be based more on player -- not character -- characteristics. Elements determine two important things: quests (used for gaining "bonuses" when levelling up) and a few special benefits related to focus and action points.<br />
<br />
<b>QUESTS: </b>At the start of each main quest, randomly determine (draw/roll) a side quest related to your character's element. The quests have been linked. This side quest can remain a secret (i.e. you don't have to tell other players). If it is fulfilled <span style="background-color: white;">at the end of the main quest, you gain one of the following rewards:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Action Hero: Start next adventure with +2 Action Points (or class based equivalent)</li>
<li>Loot: Cash reward equal to LEVEL*4^2, or appropriate magic item</li>
<li>Long Haul: +1 to ability score of your choice</li>
</ul>
<b>STATUS (Expend Action Point): </b> Each element lets the character spend a turn to gain access to or influence an institution or potentially helpful NPC. A normal reaction roll should be made. There are three different forms:<br />
<ul>
<li>Add wandering NPC of same tier (+/- 1 level) who comes to the PC's current location.
The NPC will stay in the general area and may make a few more spontaneous appearances until the completion of the current quest.</li>
<li>Add fixed NPC of one tier (no more than +3 levels) greater who has a fixed place of business in a local town. The NPC will stay in business until at least the completion of the current quest.</li>
<li>Gain favor of NPC of up to two tiers (no more than +6 levels) greater; this is not a charm but the NPC will be favorably disposed (at least granting an audience) for the duration of the current quest.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://vedronspotionshop.blogspot.com/2011/09/mini-quests-phlegmatics.html">WATER</a></b><br />
<ul>
<li><b>Theme</b>: Interact with the game world.</li>
<li><b>Status </b>(Expend Action Point): Clergy (Priests, Monks, Nuns, etc) and Sages
</li>
<li><b>Know Creature</b> (Expend Focus/Full Round Action): Target a creature within 12". If the target fails a saving throw, you learn their current and maximum HP, HD, AC, the type of monster, broad emotional state, and major special abilities. If they pass the save you learn nothing.</li>
<li><b>Treasure Map</b> (Expend Action Point/Turn): Gain a treasure map showing the way to some unique treasure or a key to solving a major quest. The map could be a literal scroll, or it could be in the form of a useful guide or clue.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b><a href="http://vedronspotionshop.blogspot.com/2011/09/mini-quests-melancholics.html">EARTH</a></b></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><b>Theme</b>: Act on the game world.</li>
<li><b>Status </b>(Expend Action Point): Merchants (traders, moneylenders, caravaners)
</li>
<li><b>Expend Focus</b>: ???</li>
<li><b>Cache </b>(Expend Action Point/Turn): Establish a secure cache, hideout, or small stronghold where a few people or valuable goods may be secured. It could be a secure safe deposit box at a bank in town, a barricaded strong room in the dungeon, or a secret shack deep in the Black Marsh.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<b><a href="http://vedronspotionshop.blogspot.com/2011/09/mini-quests-sanguines.html">AIR</a></b></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><b>Theme</b>: Interact with other people at the table.</li>
<li><b>Status </b>(Expend Action Point): Nobles (Knights errant, landholders, aristocrats, etc)
</li>
<li><b>Expend Focus</b>: ???
</li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;"><b>Language</b> (Expend Action Point): Your character learns a new language. You will have an accent and lack proficiency of a native speaker but can interact with many more NPCs in the adventure.</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<b style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://vedronspotionshop.blogspot.com/2011/09/mini-quests-cholerics.html">FIRE</a></b></div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><b>Theme</b>: Act on other people at the table.</li>
<li><b>Status</b> (Expend Action Point): Commoners (farmers, shepherds, smiths, laborers)
</li>
<li><b>Command </b>(Expend Focus/Full
Round Action): Move one of your allies a normal move which must end closer to you, or have one of your allies make a normal attack. The forced move must not expose the ally to obvious undue harm or instant death (i.e. it is not a magical compulsion or domination).</li>
<li><b>Share Quest (Expend Action Point)</b>: All other player characters may add your current side quest to their list of quests. They can receive credit for fulfilling the quest. You remain the focus of the quest (for example, if you have to convince the others to attempt a quest your way, they only gain credit for the quest for trying it your way -- not for trying it their way).</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></div>
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<br />Vedronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17734788809479835449noreply@blogger.com0