TSR-East Classes: Ninja

Ah, the ninja. Staple of many 80's* cheesy movies, video games, and comic books! Oh, how we love thee! The question with the ninja is not one of describing what a ninja IS to the player. It's capturing what a ninja DOES in game mechanics. And the fact that ninja can be masters of stealth and martial arts, hordes of faceless and easily dispatch-able mooks, mystical badasses, or even in an earlier age of the internet guitar-shredding decapitating madmen.

*and 70's, 90's, 00's, 10's...

For my take on the ninja (round 5 since I've already done four versions in Chanbara!), I modified the Halfling class. It's a bit of a power-up over the traditional Halfling. No weapon restrictions, they can rise above 8th level, I increased their indoor hide chance a bit, gave them Dwarf trap/sliding wall detection and Elf secret door detection, and Thief's backstab! What do they give up for that? Heavy armor (plate equivalent) and shields, bonuses to hit with ranged weapons and AC vs larger than man-sized creatures. Oh, and their saving throws don't improve quite as fast, but they're still good (equal to the Dwarf/Hwarang). Actually, I might change that, and put them back at Thief saves since they do have some nice extra powers over the Halfling. I'll think about it.

Here is the Ninja:

Ninja (Spy) AKA Cìkè, Amsalja, Shinobi

Requirement: Con 9

Prime Requisite: Dex [13 +5%, 16 +10%]

Hit Die: d6 to 9^th level, +2/level after

Arms: all weapons, medium armor

Special Abilities: stealth, perception, backstab

Ninja Advancement
Level	XP	BAB	Abilities
1	0	+1	Stealth, Perception, Backstab
2	2000	+1
3	4000	+1
4	8000	+3
5	16,000	+3	Backstab x3
6	32,000	+3
7	64,000	+5
8	120,000	+5
9	240,000	+5
10	360,000	+7	Backstab x4
11	480,000	+7
12	600,000	+7
13	720,000	+9
14	840,000	+9
15	960,000	+9	Backstab x5

Stealth: A ninja can conceal themselves when out of doors 1-9/d10. Indoors, they can hide 1-3/d6. They may not move while hiding without giving away their position.

Perception: A ninja has a chance to detect traps 1-3/d6, secret doors or sliding passages 1-2/d6, and hear faint noises 1-2/d6.

Backstab: A ninja that surprises an opponent or attacks from hiding gets a +4 bonus to the attack, and deals double damage if successful. The damage increases at 5^th, 10^th, and 15^th level as shown on the Ninja Advancement chart.

	Hwarang, Ninja
Save Level:	1-3	4-6	7-9	10-12	13-15
Death Ray/Poison	10	8	6	4	2
Magic Wand	11	9	7	5	3
Paralysis/Turn to Stone	12	10	8	6	4
Dragon Breath	15	13	11	9	7
Rod/Staff/Spell	13	12	10	8	6

Campaigns I'd like to run someday

I usually come up with more ideas for what I think will be fun campaigns than I can actually manage to run. Currently, my West Marches game is going great so I've got no desire to change it. And realistically I shouldn't be running any more face to face games. The occasional test of Caverns & Cowboys is the exception to this.

But if I could, I'd be running all kinds of games. I'd need to be independently wealthy to run them all, of course. Maybe when I'm retired this will be a way to spend my time and keep my mind sharp as I get older.

In no particular order, here are ideas I have that I've never gotten to run, or ideas that I attempted but got cut off due to my schedule, lack of player interest, or problems with the execution on my part (which I think I could do better now).

The Maritime Campaign. Back in 2010, I worked up this campaign and started it off. But the players and I had differing expectations of what the campaign was to be about. I set it up as an island hopping treasure-seeking band of heroes with a ship (like Jason and the Argonauts, or Sindbad). One player wanted it to be a mercantile simulation, another wanted it to be a game of piracy and fleet building. Other players were pretty uninterested. It died because I lost interest in figuring out markets for fleece in foreign lands and dropped it.

With the right group of players, I still think it could be a blast.

Terminator: War Against the Machines. This would be a game set in the "future flashbacks" of the Michael Biehn character in the first Terminator (and other films in the series). A short term campaign with a set goal of either to take down Skynet or die trying. Not sure what game system I'd use. d20 Modern/Future could work, but it's a bit clunky in areas. Stars Without Number might be a better fit, except without the psychics. There's also the venerable Star Frontiers, or maybe something generic like the WEG Open d6 system.

Land of 1000 Dragons. This is a fairly new idea I've had. Pretty sure I've mentioned the Terminator idea before, and I posted over 20 times about the Maritime Campaign. This game would probably be best with a modern 'high power PCs' system like 5E, or if run in old school D&D we'd need to start at 5th or 6th level. In Land of 1000 Dragons, there is an open sandbox world, and EVERY lair or dungeon is the home of a dragon. Of course there will be other monsters cohabiting (or lurking and scavenging the leftovers). But the whole game would be focused on dragons. Lots of dragons.

Some sort of Supers game. I'm not sure exactly what the hook should be for this. Supers as a genre is really about preserving the status quo, while most RPGs seem to work best around groups that work outside the system and upset it. If I ever do run a game, it would probably be best to set it in some sort of Sin City type setting, where everyone and everything is corrupt except for our heroes. Or, flip it and run a supervillain game! Let the players run amok until the local heroes get on their tail, then come up with plans to foil the caped crime-fighters! That could be fun.

East Marches. I mentioned this the other day. My West Marches game is going so well. The format makes it really easy for players to buy in, and for me to prep for games. I'd love to run a second game in this format, but with Asian fantasy themes (there are some in my WM game, but it's for the most part standard D&D fantasy). I could easily use the TSR-East classes I'm working up now for this. But I really don't have time to prep and run TWO Marches-style games at the same time.

Fiendish Pits of Dr. Lao. This is an idea I had many years ago. An Asian fantasy themed megadungeon. I'm less keen to run this game these days (and I realize I must have gotten the name Dr. Lao from an old Tony Randall movie -- reading the description I don't remember seeing it before, but I probably heard of it somewhere along the way). I think East Marches would be a better game. But I could probably throw a smaller version of the Fiendish Pits into the East Marches. Or work this idea up as something to try and sell some day.

TSR-East classes: Mudang

The second class is the Shaman. 1E OA called them Shukenja, but 3E OA wanted to call the Rokugan sorcerer class Shugenja (the proper spelling) so they got renamed as Shaman. Dragon Fist also called them Shamans. So might as well go with that name. But in Korean. Because I can.

The trick with this class is that I wanted to use both a shaman-type Cleric and a warrior-monk (sohei) type Cleric in the game. So I have two versions of the Cleric. It wasn't so hard to rearrange the class basics, but the spell lists are still a work in progress. I want to try and differentiate them a bit more.

Well, that shouldn't be so hard, right? I've got regular D&D Cleric spells, Druid spells, and Magic-User spells. I've got Flying Swordsmen Shaman spells and Chanbara Onmyoji/Soryo/Yamabushi spells to work with! Don't forget original OA's Shukenja (and possibly Wu Jen) spells.

But honestly, a lot of the "original" spells in my two games are just renamed versions of regular spells. Or slight tweaks of original game spells.

For the Mudang, I tried to keep all the "nature" or spiritual spells of the Cleric, and added in more spells to fill the gaps. Sohei, as you'll see later, are more battle-focused in their spells. And since they are less of a combat class, I gave them 10 spells per level so they get more to choose from. At the higher levels, it was pretty easy to differentiate them from Sohei spells. It's just at level 1, there are so many basic spells that seem to fit for both styles.

Mudang (Shaman) AKA Shugenja, Wū

Requirement: Wis 9

Prime Requisite: Cha [13 +5%, 16 +10%]

Hit Die: d6 to 9^th level, +1/level after

Arms: blunt weapons, light armor and shields

Special Abilities: spells, turn unholy

Mudang Advancement
Level	XP	BAB	1	2	3	4	5	6
1	0	+1	1	–	–	–	–	–
2	1500	+1	2	–	–	–	–	–
3	3000	+1	2	1	–	–	–	–
4	6000	+1	2	2	–	–	–	–
5	12,000	+3	2	2	1	–	–	–
6	25,000	+3	3	2	2	–	–	–
7	50,000	+3	3	3	2	1	–	–
8	100,000	+3	3	3	3	2	–	–
9	200,000	+5	4	4	3	2	1	–
10	300,000	+5	4	4	3	3	2	–
11	400,000	+5	4	4	4	3	2	1
12	500,000	+5	5	5	4	3	2	2
13	600,000	+7	5	5	5	3	3	2
14	700,000	+7	6	5	5	3	3	3
15	800,000	+7	6	5	5	4	3	3

Spells: A mudang can cast a number of spells of the levels shown on the Mudang Advancement chart each day. The mudang must prepare their spells in advance, but may select from any spells of appropriate level from the mudang spell list.

Turn Unholy: The mudang may attempt to force undead, evil spirits, or demons to flee. If the target has fewer than ½ the mudang’s level in hit dice, 2d6 HD worth are automatically destroyed. If they have fewer hit dice but more than ½, 2d6 HD worth automatically flee. If they have hit dice equal to or greater than the mudang, the mudang must roll 2d6 to see if they are affected. If the creatures have HD equal to the mudang’s level, roll 7 or better. If the targets have up to double the mudang’s level in HD, roll 9 or better. If the targets have more than double the mudang’s level in HD, roll 11 or better. If successful, 2d6 HD of targets will flee. The mudang may use this ability as often as desired in an encounter until it fails, then it may not be used again in that encounter.

	Mudang
Save Level:	1-4	5-8	9-12	13-15
Death Ray/Poison	11	9	7	5
Magic Wand	12	10	8	6
Paralysis/Turn to Stone	14	12	10	8
Dragon Breath	16	14	12	10
Rod/Staff/Spell	15	13	11	9

Spells

 

First

1 Cure Light Wounds*

2 Detect Evil

3 Detect Magic

4 Light*

5 Protection from Bludgeons

6 Protection from Evil

7 Purify Food and Water

8 Remove Fear*

9 Resist Cold

10 Sanctuary

Second

1 Bless*

2 Channel Spirit

3 Cloud Feet

4 Fresh Air

5 Hold Person*

6 Resist Fire

7 Silence 15' Radius

8 Speak with Animal

9 Spirit’s Vengeance

10 Voice of the Dragon

Third

1 Call Lightning

2 Cure Blindness

3 Cure Disease*

4 Exorcism

5 Growth of Animal

6 Invisibility to Spirits

7 Locate Object

8 Omen

9 Remove Curse*

10 Speak with the Dead

Fourth

1 Control Winds

2 Create Water

3 Cure Serious Wounds*

4 Detect Shapechanger

5 Dispel Magic

6 Earth Grave

7 Neutralize Poison*

8 Pro. from Evil 10' radius

9 Shield of Spirits

10 Speak with Plants

Fifth

1 Cloud Trapeze

2 Create Food

3 Cure Critical Wounds*

4 Dispel Evil

5 Hold Monster*

6 Insect Plague

7 Quest*

8 Raise Dead*

9 Spirit Storm

10 Weather Control

Sixth

1 Aerial Servant

2 Animate Objects

3 Commune with Spirits

4 Create Normal Animals

5 Cureall

6 Earthquake

7 Invulnerability

8 Lower Water

9 Speak with Monsters*

10 Word of Recall

TSR-East Classes: Hwarang

My "heartbreaker" house rules document is named Treasures, Serpents and Ruins. It's got a nice acronym, what can I say? It's Classic D&D (BE of BECMI mostly) with some AD&D and later additions that I like. 

I mentioned the other day that I've started a more general Asian fantasy themed set of classes for TSR. The first class is the Hwarang. Historical Hwarang were a sort of aristocratic youth organization of the Silla Kingdom in ancient Korea (1st century BC to 10th century AD). Because the aristocrats made up the armed forces (or at least the officers), many of the hwarang were soldiers. Over time, the idea of the hwarang evolved in legend to sort of a "knights of the round table" type group. That's probably not historically accurate, but it's how some people remember them today. And that's good enough for my purposes of naming a class which is a strong, dependable warrior type.

Based on the Dwarf class, I dropped the dwarven detection abilities and infravision. Instead, all weapons are fine for them, and they can maximize their damage a number of times per day equal to their level. TSR uses AD&D hit die types (d10 Fighters, not d8 as in BX/BECMI) so these guys also get a d10. I think I said all this the other day. And they also get the very good Dwarf saving throws. They aren't flashy, but they are tough. 

I've listed an English name and alternate names for each class, by the way. Some names are Chinese, some Japanese, some Korean. I should probably add some Mongolian and Vietnamese as well... So if you don't want to call them Hwarang, you can use one of the others.

Here's the class as it stands right now:

Hwarang (Knight) AKA Zhànshì, Bushi

Requirement: Con 9

Prime Requisite: Str [13 +5%, 16 +10%]

Hit Die: d10 to 9^th level, +3/level after

Arms: all weapons, all armor and shields

Special Abilities: maximize damage, multiple attacks

Hwarang Advancement
Level	XP	BAB	Abilities
1	0	+1	Maximize Damage
2	2200	+1
3	4400	+1
4	8800	+3
5	17,000	+3
6	35,000	+3
7	70,000	+5
8	140,000	+5	2 Attacks
9	270,000	+5
10	400,000	+7
11	530,000	+7
12	660,000	+7	3 Attacks
13	790,000	+9
14	920,000	+9
15	1,050,000	+9

Maximize Damage: When a hwarang hits in combat, instead of rolling for damage they may automatically deal their maximum damage for that weapon. This ability may be used a number of times per day equal to the hwarang’s level.

Multiple Attacks: A hwarang may attack twice per round at 8^th level, and three times per round at 12^th level. 

	Hwarang
Save Level:	1-3	4-6	7-9	10-12	13-15
Death Ray/Poison	10	8	6	4	2
Magic Wand	11	9	7	5	3
Paralysis/Turn to Stone	12	10	8	6	4
Dragon Breath	15	13	11	9	7
Rod/Staff/Spell	13	12	10	8	6

Monster Roster Sheets

I've been going through TSR modules again, looking for dungeons to stick in my West Marches.

Partly, I'm lazy. I do make my own dungeons, usually small ones. But having a few larger dungeons here and there is nice, too. Places they can't clear out in a single session. Since I use a variation of Jeff Rients' table of nearly certain doom to make sure each session ends with the players in a safe haven, it becomes a choice for the players whether to return to a location and further explore it, or not. The Caves of Chaos have been pretty popular. Quasqueton so-so. Xak Tsaroth not so much. One player really wants to go back to Castle Ravenloft, but keeps getting voted down.

Partly, it's that I grew up playing D&D, and hearing about these famous modules. TSR advertised them in the backs of rule books, in the Endless Quest books (and some EQ books were based on famous modules), and in the Mail Order Hobby Shop catalog that I would occasionally send away for but never once placed an order from. I heard other players talk about them. I read the descriptions in the catalog or other TSR products. But I never got to play in any other than Isle of Dread (which came with the Expert Set). I had a few of the less well known modules (Drums on Fire Mountain, Test of the Warlords, The Endless Stair, Into the Maelstrom). One of my cousins had Against the Giants but we never played it.

And since I have a ton of old TSR modules in PDF form, I thought it would be fun to play through them with my players, if in slightly (or sometimes heavily) modified form.

Anyway, going through Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth the other day, I got to thinking about the Monster Record Sheets that some modules have. The one page with a listing of all the monsters and their basic stats. Like this:

I think Endless Stair was the first module where I encountered this. But since monster stats were also listed in the encounter area descriptions, I don't remember referring to it that much when we ran the module. I did run a one-shot game many years ago (I was still living in Japan) where I made up something like this for my monsters in that dungeon. It was pretty handy.

And now, in my West Marches game notes, each area or zone has its own random encounter list. And I put the important stats on the wandering monster tables similar to this. It's pretty handy. Unless the monster has lots of spells or weird abilities, I can usually run encounters just with that. And that's pretty handy. Especially since when I first started up the campaign (using 5E) I would just note the page number in the 5E MM and then look it up. So I'd be juggling my maps, encounter notes, and the MM which was not so handy.

No big observations or enlightening discoveries today. This post is mainly just so I will remember to make monster rosters like this in the future. If you've got any thoughts on using monster rosters like this, positive or negative, I'd love to hear about them in the comments.

Silly Rules -- Recovering Ammunition

I'm rolling up a new character for a 5E game I'm in, and I noticed that on the entry for sling bullets, there is the rule that spending a minute after a battle allows you to recover half of your spent ammunition. Boy, that's a ridiculous rule.

First of all, owning a bow and arrows, I can tell you that in a wilderness situation, even if your arrow doesn't go that far, it's pretty easy to lose it. I imagine sling stones would be even harder to locate, considering they don't have brightly colored fletching to make them stand out. Or maybe you use day-glo colored sling bullets for that reason. I have literally spent an hour trying to track down arrows after a round of shooting before I finally found them all. Usually the arrows were still in good condition, but they sure weren't easy to find.

Indoors, sure, it will be easier to locate the ammo. But still, impact with your target or with a wall is very likely to damage your ammunition. Arrows break or at least crack from hard impacts. Sling bullets will be warped by the force of the impact.

There was a video on YouTube that I watched a few weeks ago from Tod's Workshop -- some of you may know this channel, as he makes and discusses medieval arms and armor. They were testing fairly authentic Medieval arrows versus an authentic steel breastplate. None of the arrows pierced the armor, and the ones they could locate after the test were ruined. I saw another video from Tod's Workshop yesterday where he was testing the force of a sling stone and comparing it to a 9mm round. I don't think he even tried to recover the bullets. A third video I saw last week was of a guy shooting a steel plate from a tactical vest with shotgun slugs. Some of the slugs managed to put dents in the plate, but none pierced it. And he did recover a few slugs and showed how deformed they were from the impact. I assume a lead sling bullet would have a similar reaction to hitting a breastplate or even chain armor.

No, the idea of spending a "minute" to recover three or four arrows is ridiculous. Either the time it takes to locate the ammunition is way too short, or the amount of usable ammunition that can be recovered is unrealistic.

And ammunition is cheap anyway! If you're worried that you will run out, buy more before you head out adventuring.

Asian-Inspired Melting Pot Settings

I'm best known in the OSR as the creator of Flying Swordsmen and Chanbara. Or, I should say, people know FS and Chanbara, whether or not they know me. The DM of the PbP AD&D game I'm in was a contributor to Chanbara (he helped edit). He sent me a message the other day that he started working part time in a FLGS and met a guy who has Chanbara. Not sure how the game came up in conversation, but when the dude found out that my DM's name was in the book, he came back and asked the DM to sign it!

Now, that got me thinking of two other projects I've had on my mind for a while. One is revising Flying Swordsmen to be less like Dragon Fist and more like Chanbara. Not sure I'll actually tackle a second edition of FS any time soon, though. Another was an idea to make an Oriental Adventures style supplement for Labyrinth Lord AEC. But I wouldn't want to just clone 1E OA. There were some game design choices I think that would be best avoided there, and it's a bit too heavily Japan-centric.

Which leads me to this. Yesterday (or maybe it was Friday when I started thinking about it) I was considering what sorts of classes would work well for an Asian fantasy-inspired setting. Not "fantasy China" like FS, or "fantasy Japan" like Chanbara. A game that, like normal D&D does for European/Near Eastern fantasy, mixes the best elements for a game together in an "unholy goulash" as James Mal once said.

Today (well, this morning I spent most of the time playing Gauntlet II emulated on my computer until I got bored/controller thumb and quit around level 44) I wrote up eight classes for such a game. I still need to write up the spell lists for the casters, but I've got the classes all lined up from levels 1-15 (to match my current house rules of D&D). I haven't thought of what races to include, but it will probably be a mismash of the original OA, 3E OA, and the optional races in Chanbara.

The classes, and a brief summary of each, are as follows:

Hwarang (Knight): Fantasy Korea needs some love! Historically, hwarang were knights of the Silla kingdom. In this game, they are basically BX/BECMI Dwarves (any weapons, any armor, good saves), but I also gave them the ability to maximize their damage a number of times per day equal to their level (which is from the 1E OA Kensai class). Oh, and a d10 hit die since I use AD&D hit dice for characters in my homebrew. They don't get the dwarf's infravision or detection abilities, of course.

Mudang (Shaman): Again went with the Korean for the name. These guys are based on the Cleric class, but with a few alterations. Their prime requisite is Charisma (since they draw power from spirits/The Spirit Realm). Like Labyrinth Lord, they get spells from level 1. They can use blunt weapons, but only light armor and shields. I tried to simplify the Turn Undead ability, but explaining it makes it sound more complicated. First of all, it also affects evils spirits and demons.
HD less than 1/2 the mudang level: 2d6HD destroyed automatically
HD less than mudang level: 2d6HD flee automatically
HD equal to mudang level: roll 7 on 2d6 to make 2d6HD flee
HD greater to mudang level: roll 9 on 2d6 to make 2d6HD flee
HD greater than double mudang level: roll 11 on 2d6 to make 2d6HD flee

Not sure if this will work out well, since the high level mudang will be able to automatically turn a lot of undead, but then so could the Cleric so we'll see. I may change the 11 to mudang level +4 hit dice.

Ninja (Spy): Instead of basing these guys on the Thief class, I based them on the BX Halfling class. That makes them better in combat, and better at hiding (Halfling hiding is good!), but not able to do all the other thiefy stuff. I took away the Halfling combat bonuses and gave them backstab instead. Along with good noise detection, I threw in detect secret doors, sliding walls, traps, etc. from the BX Dwarf and Elf classes (slightly better odds to detect traps, 1-3/d6). They can use any weapon, but are limited to light and medium armors.

Ronin (Wave Man): Because samurai should be serving their lord, but ronin can go out adventuring any time they like. Based on the Fighter, but I stuck to the BX/BECMI d8 hit die for them. They can use any weapon or armor, but not shields. They get to pick a fighting style that grants +1 damage with a weapon group (swords, spears, bows, axes, bludgeons, chains), with a second style at higher levels, and at even higher levels getting to bump one style up to +2 damage.

Sohei (Warrior-Monk): Again based on the Cleric class, but more martial than the Mudang with a d8 hit die, and slightly slower advancement (1750xp to level 2). They can use any weapon, but only light or medium armor, plus shields. And spells are their only special ability. Their spell list will be a bit more aggressive than the standard Cleric/OA Shukenja spell list.

Wushi (Wizard): Like the Wu Jen of 1E OA, but the name means "magical learned gentleman" where wu jen just means "magic person." Oh, and no wu jen taboos, just the Magic-User with a slightly different spell list. Spellbooks and all.

Xia (Gallant): My take on the wandering do-gooder martial artist type, based on the BX/BECMI Elf class. They can fight (all weapons, light armor only, no shield, and d6 hit dice), and get unarmed damage like a Monk/Mystic. Plus they can cast spells (max at 4th level though). I intend to make the spell list using ideas from the player in my West Marches game who was playing a Muscle Wizard -- spells that would make him better in melee combat. And since it's the wuxia-themed class, flying around on wires and dancing on bamboo branches type spells too.

Yakuza (Gangster): Based on the Thief class, but again moving away from d% specialized skills and instead x/d6 skills. I gave them a find traps 1-4/d6 and a combined disarm traps/open locks of 1-2/d6. They can backstab just like the Thief (and ninja), and at every even level they get a tattoo. I have 20 tattoos that grant various magical effects like bonuses to saving throws, magical resistance, or a 1st level spell effect once per day.

Using this, you could have an East Marches sandbox type game of wandering heroes, or a megadungeon, or whatever. Killing monsters and taking their stuff, Slaughter-Vagabond style, if you like. Or of course getting into the fun politics and urban intrigue/competing martial arts schools, all that jazz.

When it rains, it pours

Yesterday I ran West Marches again. Having just secured five magic weapons in the previous session, they set out to gather up some extra fertile mud they'd heard about in a rumor (the local alchemist said he could use it to devise a formula for potions of growth) and an abandoned "centaur" temple with a flame that could enchant arrows.

They found both (and a few other things as well). And one of the random encounters they had was with a manticore. They managed to kill it (Goldie's wand of magic missiles helped a lot, removing 2/3 of its hit points! It shoots 3 missiles, and she rolled 6's for two of them). Then they thought of looking for its lair. I gave them a 2 in 6 chance of finding it, and they rolled it.

So I broke out the treasure tables and my d% dice. It had 4000cp. No silver. No chance for electrum. No gold (despite a 60% chance), no chance for platinum, no gems, now jewelry. Pretty meager haul. And then, yes, you saw this coming, magic items appeared.

2 items, plus one potion.

Roll 1: swords
Roll 2: ranged weapons
Roll 3: potion of levitation

Roll on swords table: normal sword +2
Roll on missile weapons table: longbow +1

So they've got even more magic weapons now. And they did manage to kill an ogre with some gold and nabbed some giant bee honey as well. And the alchemist will produce one potion of growth for them for free, and add that to the list of potions he can brew on demand.

Revisiting Deathstars and Droids

Five long years ago, I posted about a super simple way to hack Classic D&D to play in a Star Wars universe game. I called the post Deathstars & Droids.

The idea was to be able to quickly sit down and play.

I've occasionally given the idea thought over the years, but I've never had the time or inclination to actually try and run it. One of these days...

I was still thinking of using the Cleric class and the Elf class as Jedi/Sith respectively. Or a Sith could be a Magic-User if they wanted to be all force, no lightsaber, I guess. Or a Jedi Magic-User who follows the MU class but uses the Cleric spell list. But since in Star Wars fiction, the Force is not something that's limited to a few uses per day, I came up with this idea to repurpose the Turn Undead table.

In this variant (and it might be something interesting to try for a more high-powered, anime-esque D&D game too), a caster's Spells per Day are Force Powers that can be used automatically (but must still be prepared). The Jedi/Sith/Force Adept can attempt to use any Force Power up to a certain level at any time by making a Force Power check (using 2d6 on the Turn Undead chart). If the check succeeds, they can use the Force Power. If it fails, they can't attempt to use that particular Force Power again for the rest of the day.

On the Turn Undead chart, instead of lists of the undead monsters, we have the spell levels.

It would work like this. A first level Cleric can Turn Undead as such: Skeleton 7+, Zombie 9+, Ghoul 11+. They can't attempt to turn more powerful undead.

A first level Jedi Padawan trying to use a 1st Rank Force Power (1st level spell) would need to roll 7+ on 2d6 to use that power. They could attempt a 2nd Rank Force Power (2nd level spell) but need to roll 9+ on 2d6. And to attempt a 3rd Rank Force Power, they must roll 11+. The Padawan couldn't even attempt to use a 4th Rank or higher Power.

If we use BX/BECMI, that's all the Force that a beginning Padawan can use. If we use Labyrinth Lord or AD&D, they could prepare one Force Power per day (or more with high Wisdom) that they could use without needing to roll. But they have to prepare it in advance, while the rolling method lets them attempt any Power they like. 

Now, at second level, the Padawan can automatically use any 1st Rank Force Power, needs 7+ for a 2nd Rank Force Power, 9+ for a 3rd Rank Force Power, and 11+ for a 4th Rank Force Power.

Obviously we need a limiting factor on this to keep Force Users from becoming overpowered and using cure light wounds, magic missile, sleep, etc all day. And taking a cue from the d20 Star Wars game, using a non-prepared Force Power costs a number of hit points equal to its rank. So yes, your 1st level Padawan can attempt to use a Third Rank Power, but it will cost him 3 of his 6 hit points to do it.

I'd probably be generous and say a failure does not expend any hit points. That encourages attempts without further penalizing failure.

Also, since this does appear to significantly increase the power of casters despite the cost, I'd ignore giving bonuses to this system when the chart reaches D or D+ results. A pair of Jedi could keep each other going with cure light wounds for a long time with this system. And I'd put a limit that a Jedi could only cast a prepared CLW on themselves. Non-prepared use could only be done on others.

This does add quite a bit more complexity to the Force users in the game. But it seems like it would better emulate the source fiction.

And also, this allows a Jedi to be tempted to dabble with the Dark Side. Yes, a Jedi could use the Force to "Magic Missile" or "Fireball" while a Sith could dabble with the Light Side and use "Remove Poison" or "Striking." Consequences of that I would leave up to individual DMs.

I might also slightly rearrange the spell lists for Light-side/Dark-side Powers.

Oh, and I'd probably need to include a mage hand type spell since telekinesis is so high level.

No where near as "ready to play out of the box" as my original idea, but probably closer in feeling to the source material for Force users.

Random armor thoughts for TBH

Jeremy has been running the Rad Hack off and on, and it's obviously a variant of The Black Hack.

There are some things I like about TBH system and some things I don't. One that I'm not too fond of is how they handle armor. And apparently it's not just me, because apparently lots of TBH variants use different rules for armor. The Rad Hack uses the standard rules. Here they are, taken from this website: https://the-black-hack.jehaisleprintemps.net/english/

ARMOR POINTS¶

Armor provides protection by reducing all incoming damage. Each type will reduce damage by a limited amount. Armor Points are regained after a character rests. Once the player or monster has used armor to absorb its maximum amount, they are too tired or wounded to make effective use of it again - they then begin taking full damage.

TYPE	POINTS
Gambeson	2
Leather	4
Chain Mail	6
Plate & Mail	8
Small shield	2
Large shield	4

Monsters have 1 point of armor for every HD above 1, to figure this out quickly simply -1 from their HD - They can also carry shields. (All to a maximum of 10)

 Now, Rad Hack, being post-apoc mutant weirdness rather than medieval fantasy, uses generic light/medium/heavy armor, which you assume is probably cobbled together from sports gear and S&M bondage gear, like in a Mad Max movie. That's just cosmetic, though. The rules are the same.

So in TBH, armor provides damage reduction, but only once or twice (maybe three or four times if you have really good armor and are fighting low level mooks) per encounter. But then you rest, and the next encounter it's back to its full value again. It works, but the rationalization behind how it works is strange.

Now, the most popular innovation of TBH (and maybe it's not their original innovation but it seems to be one reason why people love the system so much) is the Usage Die. Instead of tracking every arrow, bullet, wand charge, or number of times per day you've used a special ability, they come with a usage die. After you use the item, you roll the die. If it comes up a 1 or 2, it drops to the next lowest die type the next time you use it. And if it's a d4 and it comes up 1 or 2, it's depleted (until you can buy more, rest for a day, put in a new power cell, or whatever makes sense for the resource being depleted).

Now I don't scour all the various hacks of TBH the way Jeremy seems to, but I'm wondering if anyone has set up armor to provide a smaller amount of damage reduction, but on every hit taken, but every time you get hit you need to roll a usage die for it. It might make more sense that way.

I'd probably set it up as every type of armor reduces damage by 2. Or maybe 1/2/3 for the armor types, plus one more if you have a shield. Light armor (gambeson, leather) and shields get a d4 usage die. Medium (chain) gets a d6. Heavy (plate) gets a d8. Once the armor is depleted, you don't get the damage reduction any more. You need to either get it repaired or replaced.

Of course, I'm running a Robot character, who has built in 2 points of armor.  I'd probably be needing a lot more repair than I do now in this system. But I think it makes a bit more sense from an in-game fiction standpoint, uses existing game mechanics, and still provides a good amount of damage reduction.

Ten (or six) second combat rounds

I started playing D&D with Classic D&D, so it's probably no surprise that I'm a fan of the six ten second combat round, rather than the 1 minute combat round of AD&D.

Sumo is on now (watching it as I type even). And I think sumo shows us a good example of why combat rounds should be short in man-to-man combat systems. OD&D and AD&D's one minute rounds came out of the game's wargame roots, where a minute of mass combat makes sense. But for smaller scale battles, it's too gross a measurement.

Here's a sumo match from last year between Kaisei (orange) and Ryuden (black). I picked this because I actually know the winner of the match, Ryuden. He was my student when he was a middle schooler. Yes, I'm name dropping a name hardly anyone who reads this blog has heard of before. But I enjoy watching him as he's risen through the ranks over the years.

Anyway, the match starts at the 0:48 mark, and finishes at the 0:58 mark. 10 seconds only.

I think I remember hearing somewhere that the average length of a sumo match is 6 seconds. That means many of them don't even go on this long!

In D&D terms, that means whoever gets initiative usually pulls off an attack that either knocks the opponent down or out of the ring in the first round. And in AD&D terms, that's in the first segment!

Granted, sumo isn't deadly combat. But I think it provides a good example of why a very short combat round is a good thing.

[And I'm surprised that after 10 years of blogging, and 21 years of watching sumo, I'm just creating my "sumo" post label today!]

The Pendulum Swings Back

I've been using my house rules to Classic D&D for many years now. Call it a Franken-game, call it D&D Mine, call it a heartbreaker. It works for me. But I'm constantly tweaking it. Sometimes based on how the rules play, sometimes just based on my feelings.

Ever since I started this blog 10 years ago, I've been using additions to Classic D&D based on AD&D and WotC editions. Ever since Gamma World 4th Edition came out in the early 90's, I've been a fan of ascending AC. Yes, the math is the same. But there's one less step involved compared to descending AC. And I've been using it so long that if I use a module with descending AC, I'm instantly converting the number in my head to the ascending value.

It really does save time, as sometimes you know just based on the die roll that it's a hit before the math gets applied. So I don't think I'll ever move my house rules back to descending AC, even though sometimes the nostalgia of having an AC 2 or AC -1 makes me reconsider.

Recently, for fun and as a bit of an experiment, I did start a (play-by-post) game using the RAW. OK, there are still a few house rules. But just the classes from BX/BECMI, descending AC, all that. And it's been pretty fun. Of course, being PbP it's slow at times. If I'm busy, or the players are busy, we end up waiting around a long time for things to move forward. But the main thing is, I'm playing it mostly by the book. And the house rules I'm using are as follows:

Spell Progression -- not technically a house rule, but my printed edition of Mentzer has different spell progression for Magic-Users, and Elves than the PDF version or the RC (print or PDF). So I'm using the version in the printed book I have, which give more low level spells earlier. And for Clerics, I'm using the BX spell progression. This gives more high level spells earlier, but limits them to 5th level spells.

Fighters (but not Dwarves, Elves or Halflings) get the AD&D ability of one attack per level against 1HD or weaker creatures.

Thieves use the BX advancement table for their abilities, which again is a bit more generous than BECMI.

And that's it. That's the extent of my house rules. Nothing is actually made up or cribbed from an outside source, it's just taking a few pieces of other old school TSR versions of the game. And as I said above, it's been fun.

So now I'm looking at the Gothic abbey that is my house rules document that I've been tinkering with for over a decade now. At the moment:

9 Races: Human, Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, Gnome, Half-Elf, Half-Orc, Dragonborn, Changeling

12 Classes, divided into the 4 main classes and 2 subclasses each: Cleric [Cavalier, Druid], Fighter [Berserker, Ranger], Magic-User [Bard, Illusionist], Thief [Acrobat, Assassin].

And yes, there's a chart with what races can be what class, and what level they can rise to in each class. And each race has a list of allowed multiclass options.

Humans can dual class as in AD&D. I also gave them a perk where each level above 1st they roll twice for hit points and take the better result.

I won't go into all the minutia of the other races and classes here. But Fighters  have a list of combat styles and they get one at 1st level and more as they level up, plus the BECMI high level combat options when they get to 9th level. So they're not the simplest class to play any more.

For spells, Bard spells are all pulled from the Cleric or Magic-User lists. Druid spells are mostly as in BECMI (most Cleric spells plus a few special unique spells), although I think I added in a few of the unique spells from AD&D as well. Illusionists have  simplified lists based on the AD&D spell lists. Cavaliers just use Cleric spells [didn't call them paladins because they're not forced to be lawful only].

For gear, I've slightly expanded the weapon list from BECMI. And I added some general equipment from other editions of the game. Nothing too noteworthy. Except for one thing. I added large shields that grant a +2 to AC instead of a +1. But since I'm using old school modules for a lot of my West Marches adventure locations (and my monsters & treasure house rule document was made before I added the large shields) all of the magic shields found so far or placed so far (2 found, a few more placed) in West Marches aren't tagged for size. So I'm defaulting to small. And players are wondering why they would give up a normal large shield for a magical small shield +1. Good question.

So even though I think large shields deserve to be in the game, and shields really deserve more than a +1 to AC, the way the game has been designed I'm seeing some small problems with this addition. I think I'll do away with it in my next revision.

And all that blather brings me to my point. I'm having fun with my heavily house-ruled game. I'm having fun with my barely house-ruled game. And I'm feeling like it's time to simplify. Go back to Race-As-Class. Get rid of the extra classes and races. Reduce the amount of pondering players do when they roll up a new character (having just come off a TPK, I realized how much faster it would have been to get everyone up and rolling again if it had just been the seven classes of BX/BECMI to choose from).

But if I pull another switch like that on the West Marches, I don't think it will go over so well. So I'll probably just save the simplification for the next campaign.