tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52552997051228308122024-03-19T09:10:08.011+09:00What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse...Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.comBlogger1551125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-64238904926747106762024-03-18T23:29:00.001+09:002024-03-18T23:29:12.701+09:00Emergent Characters vs. Bespoke Characters<p>When people create an RPG character these days, I'd say it's most common for folks to come up with their character concept first, then roll dice & arrange, or assign a standard array, or do point buy to try and 'build' that character. But back in the day, we mostly rolled ability scores first, then figured out what sort of character this one would be. Both have their place, and this post will discuss the merits of both methods. <br /></p><p>Last Friday, when I logged on to Discord for our CoC "session 0" (third round), I had a bit of interesting discussion with Richard (the Keeper). Although he's decided CoC is his game that he wants to stick with for most of his gaming, he was reading up on Original D&D, and was curious about some of the methods and the rationale behind the methods in those rules. We will, schedule permitting, get together and just chat about that hopefully some day soon. </p><p>One of the things we did talk about last Friday was relevant to the task at hand. We were generating characters. Richard prefers rolling dice to see what you get, and then crafting a character based on those rolls. I'm partial to that method myself, so we all did that. In the first adventure Richard ran, he just had us use standard array since that speeds up the process and we players were mostly new to the system. My previous Cthulhu experience was under the 3E d20 rules (which didn't really fit the bill). When that adventure was complete, one of the players, Brady, took a turn as Keeper, so we had to make new PCs. Some of the players used the standard array, but Richard and I rolled the dice. This time, Richard is back as Keeper, and everyone tried die rolling. </p><p>Even though we rolled randomly for our abilities, the other three players all had ideas for their character that they modified slightly to the rolls they received. Mostly, though, since CoC is so heavily skill based, the background chosen was more important to their character concept than what abilities they rolled. </p><p>My case was different. I rolled without any real preconception of what the character would be. I had briefly considered trying to remake my old d20 CoC character, a young seminarian convinced that all the eldritch horror was the work of The Devil, but had changed my mind on that before I started rolling. I looked at my scores (pretty poor ones for the most part), and decided that this would be a desk-jockey type analyst for the FBI-like government agency we would be working for on this adventure. He's the stereotypical nerd. Very poor physical stats and appearance (and luck, and power). Lots of 35s. But Education is very good (75 from the roll, bumped up to 84 by lucky die rolls for being in my early 30s), and Dexterity and Intelligence are both around 50. So a weakling, but full of useful skills. I think he'll be fun to play. </p><p>And so, Richard and I spent part of the session discussing the merits of rolling first then crafting the character's class/role and description/personality around those rolls. I'm calling this an Emergent Character. This works best when rolling in order, of course. Any sort of adjustment, including the OD&D through RC version of trading for Prime Requisite, or the BECMI suggestion to swap the highest die roll for the desired PR, move the process closer to the Bespoke Character, where the player comes up with the concept first, then tries to fit the concept around the game rules. </p><p>Honestly, as a veteran gamer, I understand well the allure of the Bespoke PC. Players with experience know what they like, or know what might be a fun new novel challenge for them, and like to come up with concepts first. I often do that myself. Especially in systems where there are point buy abilities, or even point buy skills, this makes sense. If you have to select all of your skills/abilities from a big old list of possibilities (like in WEG d6, GURPS or Palladium games), it speeds things up immensely to have an idea of what you want to play. Yeah, Palladium is technically a class & level system, but with so many sourcebooks and so many skills on top of the copious number of classes to choose from (some with just very minor differences...looking at you, <i>Ninjas & Superspies</i>), it might as well be a carte blanche skill purchase system. </p><p>Class & Level games obviously lend themselves better to a roll-first Emergent Character creation process. And the funny thing is, this method is both better for beginner players who don't really know much about the system, and for experienced veterans who are in for a challenge. The Emergent PC needs to be created on the spot, to reflect the rolls. This makes it easy for a new player. You have them roll, then you can advise them on the best class options for that set of rolls. Granted, sometimes the rolls might be best for a difficult class to play as a newbie, but often jumping into the fire feet first can be a good initiation to the game. And as I mentioned, for the jaded veteran who's tried it all, being able to roll randomly and THEN figure out who this weirdo adventurer is can be both fun and challenging. </p><p>Quite often, when I try to join a new game on RPOL.net, the GM wants players to submit their character concept in advance. This can be hard for me, as I don't always have a concept...or rather, I probably have many potential concepts that I'd like to play. For example, I've been hoping to join a d6 Star Wars game. But if I'm accepted, I'm not sure if I'd like to play a "wandering space cowboy" or a "Jawa scavenger" or a "Guardian of the Whills" type character. All three sound fun to me. Of course, in d6 Star Wars, you don't roll for stats so I could pick any of these that I like. So it makes sense for the GM to vett players by their concept(s) before they're added to the game. Bespoke is the way to go.<br /></p><p>In a D&D game, though, most DMs still require potential players to pitch their character before they're allowed to roll the dice. There are a few DMs I play under who will allow a change if the die rolls don't go the way you wanted, but mostly they want you to stick with your concept, even if the rolls don't really allow for that (of course, many want players to use a standard array, or point buy, so you can get your Bespoke PC). Sometimes, the dice fail to cooperate. I pitched an idea for a human paladin Champion of Kord, a consummate athlete turned adventurer. Then the my highest die roll for ability scores was a 14. My other scores were 12, 11, 9, 9, 9. Since this is 5E, I used variant human, and got the 11 up to a 12 and one of the 9s to a 10 so there wouldn't be a penalty, and snagged a feat. So my "amazing athlete" character had a middling Strength (14), just slightly above average Constitution (12), and an average Dexterity (10, because the other 12 went to Charisma), and below average Int and Wis. Not at all the character I'd pitched. </p><p>So I had to rework the idea into a young up-and-coming teen devoted to Kord, hoping to become that amazing athlete some day, rather than having that as the backstory to his adventuring. Honestly, I can't imagine the character giving up adventuring for sports, but that was what the rolls gave me. </p><p>While there is that down-side to Emergent PC creation, Bespoke PCs of course tend to fall prey to either the cookie-cutter effect, or the twinked-out CharOpBoards effect. System mastery tends to suggest certain builds for certain types of characters, and if you have full control (or nearly so) of the character's mechanics, it's easy to just go for the basic builds, and every PC trying to fill a certain niche will look pretty similar to the others in the same niche. And at the extreme end, you get the players trying to find the exploits in the system, designing the "ultimate" PC for whatever purpose, or the game breaking Pun-Pun the Kobold build. </p><p>Both Emergent and Bespoke PCs have their merits and their drawbacks. I tend to prefer the challenge of rolling the dice first and then fitting a character to the rolls. It's annoying to have to come up with all that first, just to have to rework it like my Champion of Kord. But I do also enjoy the dedicated Bespoke PC options in games from time to time. That is also a sort of challenge, trying to create a certain archetype or idea out of the elements allowed for that game. <br /></p>Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-66103124921045409382024-03-18T10:36:00.002+09:002024-03-18T10:36:13.256+09:00Getting the Groove Back Over the Weekend<p>So my <a href="https://lordgwydion.blogspot.com/2024/03/low-motivation.html">last post</a>, I was complaining that I just wasn't feeling it with RPG stuff, and hadn't been for a bit. Part of the reason I wrote that and posted it publicly was to see if it would jump start my motivation to game/work on game stuff. And I think it did. Also, thanks to JB and Dick McGee for sympathizing with me. I think it did what I hoped it would, but not completely. A few things that happened over the weekend got me fired up again. </p><p>My son started Korean high school this month, and hates it. I wasn't surprised. Korean high school is three years of suffering in order to get the highest possible score you can on the Korean version of the SAT test. Lots of stress, lots of late night cramming, lots of competition. So he asked if we could move up or scheduled plan for him to study in the U.S. My parents agreed, so we spent last week making arrangements. At the start of April, he and I will fly to Illinois and I'll get him set up to live with my folks for the next couple of years and finish high school there. Kinda stressful, but kind of exciting, too. </p><p>And I was so busy with those arrangements on Friday that I completely forgot that I was supposed to get on Discord to make a new Call of Cthulhu character with the guys for Richard's new adventure. Luckily, Richard texted me, and after getting Steven ready for bed, and finishing up the translation of Flynn's high school class schedule, I joined up. </p><p>I had no real idea what sort of PC I wanted to make, but everyone else did. I rolled for my abilities instead of using the standard array, and I'm glad I did. I rolled horribly overall, but Education was really good, so while my basic abilities are not good, I've got good skills for my super nerdy 1920s version of an FBI forensics/CIA analyst guy. And discussion with Richard about character generation and OD&D during the session gave me inspiration for my next blog post, about whether to roll and figure out the PC, or figure out the PC then try to build them. </p><p>On Saturday, I finally got to watch Godzilla Minus One, and really liked it. Good film. It makes you actually care about the people in the film, while having some great (if not quite enough) monster smashing Tokyo mayhem. And that's tickling a few ideas that I might also be able to work into some game-able material. And possibly a blog post. </p><p>Oh, and some of you may have heard that NASA put out a D&D (5E-ish) adventure! I downloaded it, read through it briefly, and unfortunately I don't think I'll be using it after all. </p><p>On Sunday, I had my TS&R Jade session coming up, so I got off my ass in the morning and wrote up another location on the map, and have been working on some ideas for another one. I want to do a fairly Jacquaysed map, with lots of verticality and multiple pathways for this second location, so that may take a bit of time to do. But I'm hyped by the possibilities of that map and location. The location I did add is fairly simple, a barbarian encampment that could be attacked (type A treasure, after all!) or could become a resource since they specialize in animal training. If the party makes good relations with them, they could buy trained animals from them, or capture animals to take to them for training. </p><p>And then the session was Flynn's final session before he heads to the U.S. We've got other things planned for the next two Sundays, so no more D&D. Going into the session, he was thinking of trying to go out with a bang, and get his PC killed in a fun and memorable way. But then in the game, he changed his mind and did his best to keep his PC and henchman alive, so that he can keep playing them whenever he comes back to visit. And after the session, we discussed some of the ways he could use the down time to improve his character (martial arts training, spell research, etc.) which we can do via emails or whatever while he's away. </p><p>So, yeah, I've got my gaming groove back. I'm looking forward to getting some content up here on the blog, as well as working on the campaign and my TS&R GM book this week. <br /></p><p><br /></p>Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-40183798061270455022024-03-14T09:14:00.004+09:002024-03-14T09:14:52.487+09:00Low Motivation<p>For the past two weeks or so, I've been struggling to get motivated. I keep telling myself I should work on developing my TS&R campaign world, or get ready for the next Star Wars adventure, or keep plugging away at my TS&R GM Guidebook, or work on the idea for the Gauntlet arcade game inspired tabletop skirmish game idea, or playtest my modifications to the BECMI War Machine mass combat rules for TS&R a bit more, or something. </p><p>I'm running my campaign. We had a good session on Sunday. But other than that, I'm not doing much gaming related stuff. </p><p>It's just a lot easier to sit down, when I've got some free time, to watch some political bullshit commentary on YouTube, or continue my watch through of <i>Star Trek Enterprise</i> (finished that the other day), or some other way to just waste my time. </p><p>The new semester has started, and I'm getting into the groove of the different classes and schedule this semester. Students are mostly people I've taught before, so that's always nice. </p><p>I did pick up a copy of the 5E DMG, finally. My friend Lisa is leaving Busan for Belgium, and had to sell off a lot of her board games and RPG books because it would be too expensive to ship them. So I got her DMG. I'm not gonna run 5E, but I did want to have it for reference/comparison purposes. I haven't really looked through it yet, though. For that matter, I've barely looked at the 4E books that I got from Pat when he left Busan last year. And I promised Joe Block that I'd read through his <i>Swords of Wuxia</i> book and post my ideas here. Maybe that's what I should do to get back into the mood. Do a bit of RPG reading, and post my ideas and reactions here. </p><p>Sorry for the mopey navel-gazing post, everyone. I'll try to get some new, interesting, gaming related content up here soon. <br /></p>Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-10682696988631138842024-03-06T08:43:00.000+09:002024-03-06T08:43:03.635+09:00Full Circle<p>I was reading the <a href="https://ravencrowking.blogspot.com/2024/03/preserving-statblocks.html?lr=1">new post on Raven Crowking's Nest</a>, and saw that he had stats for a monster from a poster of a Minneapolis ska band that my cousin had introduced me to. I thought, that's funny, I know I've posted that poster on my blog way back when. Is Raven also into ska? </p><p>Turns out, he was reblogging the comment he'd made on <a href="https://lordgwydion.blogspot.com/2013/06/someone-should-stat-this-guy-up.html">my old post about the poster</a>. </p><p>Anyway, if you need stats for a cyclops Deep One boxer, check it out (either link). <br /></p><p><br /></p>Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-76510667870969039362024-03-05T08:49:00.001+09:002024-03-05T08:50:10.687+09:00Movie Capsule Review: Dune Part 2 with bonus Lynch 84 Dune notes<p>Last Thursday, I showed the boys the 1984 David Lynch Dune movie. I hadn't seen it since I was pretty young (late teens or early 20s?). I'd forgotten or hadn't realized back then that it was acted and directed much like as if it were a stage production. Sparse sets, heavily enunciated, etc. And of course, watching it now, the personal shields make the characters look like Minecraft or Roblox characters. </p><p>Still, I enjoyed it. It is suitably weird, and while many of the effects do look dated, I think the sandworms hold up after all these years. Plus, you've got to love Patrick Stewart as Gurney. But this film's version of Duncan Idaho really gets treated poorly. If you hadn't read the books you'd wonder why we should even care about his death. </p><p>Oh, then on Saturday, Flynn and I went to see the new Villeneuve Dune Part 2. </p><p>I liked it, and so did he. It has good production values, and it's pretty well acted. In particular, Christopher Walken is restrained as Emperor Shaddam IV, which is good. Maybe it's his age, maybe it's the directing, but wacko Walken of yesteryear would not have worked for this. </p><p>The film follows the book more closely than the 84 film, but then being split into two parts allows for that. And it has been quite a while since I've read the book, so some of my memories of it could be off, but in this film, Paul is very reluctant to 'go south' and lead the Fremen for a good part of the movie, which I don't remember it being such a big character point in the book. Maybe it's time to read it again, though, I may be misremembering. Other than that, I enjoyed it. </p><p>Is it my favorite sci-fi movie of all time? No, but it was definitely worth the wait from part 1. And having just recently (finally) read Dune Messiah, I'm looking forward to the Part 3 coming in a few years. <br /></p><p><br /></p>Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-30640478756836299932024-02-27T10:16:00.003+09:002024-02-27T10:16:28.507+09:00Combat As War<p> On Sunday, I was running my TS&R game, and the party was exploring more of the mini-mega-dungeon. They were basically looking at their map, and trying to fill in gaps on the 1st level. </p><p>The party consists of: </p><p><b>Koles'</b> Human Wu Jen 4 and henchman <b>Holes'</b> Human Wu Jen 1 (my son Flynn's characters)<br /></p><p><b>Citizen Snips</b> Human Blade Mage 4 and henchman <b>Niko</b> Human Fighter 1 (my son Steven's characters)</p><p><b>Fei Mao</b> Crane Hengeyokai Kensei 4 and henchman <b>Snakebite</b> Human Mudang 2 (Denis' characters)</p><p><b>10 Bad Habits</b> Koropokuru Yakuza 4 and henchman <b>Savage Poko</b> Raccoon Dog Hengeyokai Fighter 1 (Justin's characters)</p><p>4 Men-at-Arms, wearing leather armor with axes and short bows. </p><p><br /></p><p>They returned to the Underground Garden and bought some fruits, vegetables, and flowers from the treants that tend the garden. They made peaceful contact with some tengu and got a tip that it might be possible to get some swordsmanship training at the tengu encampment south-west of town (I need to flesh out that spot on the map now!), fought some astral projecting evil spirits called berbalang and got some treasure, discovered a secret door that led to one of the areas they'd explored in the previous sessions where a black bear was snacking on dead goblin rat and giant rat corpses (they used some purchased fruits and flowers to discourage the bear from following as they retreated), and then they came to the first of several locked doors. </p><p>10 Bad Habits picked the lock, and there was a short corridor with another door. He was unable to pick this one, so they bashed it in after listening and hearing nothing. </p><p>This was a subsection of the level that has been taken over by bandits as their lair. And a random roll showed me that no bandits were in the common area, but that there were 60 bandits plus their leader, a 3rd level Xia (martial artist/monk) in other rooms of the lair. The bandits were in three rooms, 20 per room, and the leader in his quarters.<br /></p><p>Bashing the door made noise, but a surprise roll gave the players time to set up their forces. There were four doors into the common area that they could hear unlocking. They arranged their men-at-arms in the center of the room to fire arrows, and each pair of PC and henchman took a different door. Koles' and Holes' weren't next to a door, but they had spells prepared for the door the others hadn't covered. </p><p>When the bandits opened their doors, Koles' used phantasmal force to make the floor lava, and after 20 saving throws, all but three thought they were being incinerated and fell unconscious to the floor, as the arrows from the men-at-arms eliminated two more bandits in the 'lava' room. </p><p>Holes' turned to use his sleep spell at the southern door where 10 Bad Habits & Poko were waiting, and his <i>sleep</i> spell took out nine more bandits. 10 Bad's backstab missed, unfortunately, as did Poko's attack. </p><p>Meanwhile, Fei Mao used his Sweep ability to attack four times against 1HD opponents, and took out three of the 20 in the room he and Snakebite were at, while Snakebite went defense mode to avoid taking massive damage. </p><p>Finally, at the leader's door, Niko hit the leader with his magari-yari +1 doing some decent damage, and Snips used <i>cause fear</i> to make him run back into the room and cower. </p><p>With their leader running in fear and half their forces eliminated before they knew what was happening, I rolled morale for the bandits and they failed. They surrendered, and were all tied up. </p><p>One 4th level party took out an encounter with five times their numbers without taking a scratch. And the bandits had a Type A treasure, which was mostly jewelry and art objects, so it was easy to transport back to town with their captives. The treasure from the berbalangs and the bandits was around 34,000gp, so everyone but the Blade Mage leveled up, and Niko the henchman is 1xp shy of 3rd level due to the rule on gaining only one level per adventure. </p><p>And now that they have access to the bandits' secret entrance to the dungeon and that easy to seal off section of the dungeon, the players are thinking to convert that to their dungeon delving base. </p><p>This was much more fun and exciting than if it had been a 5E style "balanced encounter" with just a handful of bandits attacking at a time. Oh, and for anyone wondering how fair it would have been if the party had discovered this area while they were 1st level, the bandits aren't killers. They would have used non-lethal attacks, disarms, overbearing, etc. to try and capture the party and demand ransom from town if that had happened. I don't mind it when PCs die in my game, but I'm not out to kill them. That's just too easy. <br /></p><p><br /></p>Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-77819229586393827682024-02-23T10:46:00.000+09:002024-02-23T10:46:08.906+09:00TS&R GM Guidebook Progress<p>In the past week or so, I've made some good progress on my TS&R Game Master Guidebook.</p><p>I finished up rules for naval mass combat (modified and simplified from those in the module M1 Immortal Storm), wrote some general guidelines for high level epic quests, and revised the section on artifacts. I still need to write up some more sample artifacts. I had an example of creating an artifact from an earlier draft, so that got a touch-up, and I have a list of legendary items from various myths and legends that I plan to give the 1E AD&D treatment, describing the item and its purpose, but leaving the specific powers and drawbacks to the individual GM. </p><p>Oh, and now I'm working on describing the Planes of Existence. </p><p>Once I get the artifacts and planar stuff done, all I have left to do is outline some optional or alternate rules (like suggestions for different ways to do energy drain attacks, or using X in d6 for Thief Skills instead of percentages, or optional rules for multiclassing, or using BX/BECMI style race-as-class). I do have 1st drafts for some parts of this last section done already, as the ideas come to me. </p><p>Once that's done, I was planning to put in a section with quick reference charts from around the book, but I realized that I already intend to release a simple rules reference book for more experience GMs, so this might not be necessary. It would be roughly the same thing, and since the majority of people will own these as PDFs, it might be easier to have quick reference stuff in one document window and more detailed rules explanations in another. </p><p>Once all that's done, I'll give everything an editing pass, and see if I can get someone else to read through it as well. Sometimes I get to rambling and over-explain things, or make an assumption that some point is obvious and don't explain it well enough. When I'm teaching in class, I can tell from student reactions that this is happening and correct myself. When I'm writing, I don't have that luxury. So a pair of fresh eyes or two will help me to improve and clarify things a bit. </p><p>The book chapters are: </p><p><b>The Basics</b>: what is an RPG, how do you use these funny dice, what is the reward-feedback loop, player-centered play, etc.</p><p><b>Running the Game</b>: How to manage character creation, how to manage a game session, procedures for dungeon/wilderness/town-social exploration, rules for combat, advice on adjudicating rules.</p><p><b>Preparing the Campaign</b>: How to set up a campaign, create a home town, create dungeons, wilderness, NPCs and factions, and how to bring it all together into a campaign world.</p><p><b>High Level Games</b>: Running domains, mass combat, magical research, epic quests, planar adventures, artifacts. </p><p><b>Modifying the Game</b>: Advice on limiting races/classes/spells to fit the campaign, optional rules, alternate rules systems. </p><p>If I can keep up the pace over the next week (the final week of winter break for my university), I may be able to knock out the first drafts of the sections I still have to write. Then, if I can find a few people to give me some feedback, I will hopefully get this thing ready to release sometime over the summer or fall of this year, along with the Rules Reference book. And then I can consider compiling everything I've put out for TS&R into a print-on-demand volume, and also work on player and monster books for other genres besides Euro-fantasy and Asian fantasy. <br /></p><p><br /></p>Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-54575025746774798372024-02-18T22:02:00.000+09:002024-02-18T22:02:05.571+09:00Was rolling d20+Mod for skill checks the worst "innovation" of D&D in the past 25 years?<p>After a long, long break, today Steven asked to play d20 Modern. We got the book out, and I decided to quickly roll up a new PC. My Strong Hero/Martial Artist is cool, but the sorts of adventures we're running don't really play into the strong suits of my PC. So, I rolled up a new Dedicated Hero to join Steven's Fast Hero/Gunslinger. </p><p>While playing, we talked a bit about the rules, especially the skill system. He's gotten used to my old school D&D game, where either you don't need to roll because you describe what you do, you roll x on d6, or roll d20 equal to your ability score or less for stuff like this. He's only 9, not the best at math, but even he can see that rolling d20 plus a modifier sucks for skill rolls. </p><p>After the game, I remembered that there was a modern version of d20 Modern that came out recently. I went and looked it up. It's called <a href="https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/415709/everyday-heroes-core-rulebook">Everyday Heroes</a>, and it blends what was good about d20 Modern with 5E, according to its press and customer reviews. </p><p>And from what I can tell (I'm not shucking out $30 for a PDF just to answer a question), it still uses d20+Mod for skill rolls. And instead of the ridiculous bonuses you could get for a few trained skills in d20 Modern (with everything else sucking), they went with 5E's bounded accuracy to keep modifiers low. Yeesh. </p><p>I'm down for d20 Modern's take on classes. Basic heroic classes modeled on ability scores, with backgrounds, easy multi-classing, and later Advanced classes to customize your PC. Although it looks like Everyday Heroes may have ditched multi-classing. </p><p>At least the Character sheet is a free download, and from that I can see that they have a much more reasonable, shorter skill list. And from customer reviews, they took the 5E feat style, so there aren't dozens and dozens of feats that basically just give you small skill boosts, and ridiculously unnecessary feat chains to get your combat abilities halfway decent. </p><p>So it may have some things going for it, but that skill mechanic just sucks. </p><p>If I were to remake the game, I'd probably go with a 2d6 skill mechanic, like I did for Chanbara. Bell curve distributions make skills more reliable, at least if the target numbers for success aren't ridiculous. That flat d20 distribution is great for combat. You want combat to be swingy. That makes it exciting. Having swingy rolls when you're just trying to climb a rope or convince the security guard that you're supposed to be there, when you're the expert climber or fast talker, really sucks. </p><p><br /></p>Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-86184084722372183702024-02-14T23:12:00.002+09:002024-02-14T23:12:13.321+09:00Price Discrepancies<p>I'm continuing to work on the GM Guide for TS&R. I'm at the Dominion Management section now. I've never really come up against the prices for stronghold construction in the Expert Set/Rules Cyclopedia before, but while putting my version together (including some Asian style architecture and a few other things that I thought should be added), I checked out both the 1E DMG and the 2E Stronghold guide (one of the splatbooks...which I could only find in a fan-edited OCR version, not a scanned original PDF) and there are some big differences! </p><p>The BX/BECMI prices are generally a lot higher for most buildings compared to 1E. 2E goes a bit overboard IMO with a whole formula to calculate the type of terrain, climate, vegetation, available materials and workforce. So instead of a simple price list, there's a (badly formatted in the version of the book I found) table with lots of numbers that seem all over the place. It may be a list of prices for the example castle they present. It doesn't seem very usable to me. Maybe if I had the original version with proper formatting, it would make more sense. </p><p>Anyway, this leaves me with BECMI and 1E for my sources (and I suppose I could look at 3E+...but nah). </p><p>For the construction costs, I stuck to the numbers I know. It's more expensive, but castles and other strongholds should NOT be cheap. </p><p>However...in addition to structure costs, the Companion Set (and RC) have a list of monthly wages for various retainers and officials for your stronghold and the domain at large. Some of these seem very overly priced to me these days, and others are comically underpriced. Really, the Seneschal of the castle, the most important person you can hire, only gets Mercenary pay rates? Assuming it's a human knight (heavy horse), you only need to pay 20gp per month for this official. Meanwhile, the guard captain gets 4000gp per month. Say what? </p><p>1E doesn't actually provide listings for these sorts of officials, from what I've found so far. Maybe it's in a sourcebook I haven't looked at, or a Dragon Magazine article somewhere (I don't have the archive...maybe I should track that down). So I had to just adjust the numbers to something I thought was more fitting. Every official I list is given a price to hire them, and most have had significant reductions from the Companion Set numbers. </p><p>When we were kids, first making our own strongholds, our PCs were already pretty wealthy for their levels (my cousin Ben was a bit of a Monty Haul DM when he ran games), so paying the prices in the book for the various retainers didn't seem so bad. Besides, as we got up into the high teens and low twenties in level, we had copious amounts of treasure even without Ben giving out generous amounts. </p><p>But if, going by the rules, a PC were to start a domain in a <a href="https://lordgwydion.blogspot.com/2011/02/yes-wilderness-is-dangerous-but-not.html">Wilderness or Borderland</a> territory, it would take them a long time to build up the funds just from the domain income to hire many of these positions, so the money would have to come from adventuring spoils (as we did as kids). And going by the rates of treasure going to my group these days, by the time they reach Name Level, they will be spending most of their money on the strongholds, not leaving much for staff. So I feel fairly justified in reducing the staff costs. I may want to reconsider the construction costs as well... We'll see. <br /></p>Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-28648832726001702242024-02-10T23:33:00.003+09:002024-02-10T23:33:45.549+09:00Happy Lunar New Year!<p>It is the Lunar New Year, known as Chinese New Year in many foreign lands such as the USA. And to celebrate, we did what most Korean families do. Get up way too early, go to my mother-in-law's house, honor the departed family members, then eat a bunch of really good food! </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHPYZZPUNb4ADvfnG1Rk10E6KTtoK5XxLHyv0a0AFWlfG4PGFbemIeotmOpAkgaeNWbGAWhlqZmwwlR_6gDcqiIuTFmdUQ6IWS_1ltMIJg5u2N2DTr-xCwTa7ZU4DJ_E0noPxwt56-rUp_fBlkx_ZqTrB5Q9VycZUtiTpD5z4SbGJN9spoZ-ppDBhPy0w/s500/feast.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="500" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHPYZZPUNb4ADvfnG1Rk10E6KTtoK5XxLHyv0a0AFWlfG4PGFbemIeotmOpAkgaeNWbGAWhlqZmwwlR_6gDcqiIuTFmdUQ6IWS_1ltMIJg5u2N2DTr-xCwTa7ZU4DJ_E0noPxwt56-rUp_fBlkx_ZqTrB5Q9VycZUtiTpD5z4SbGJN9spoZ-ppDBhPy0w/w400-h300/feast.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>If you'd like to celebrate, why not pick up a copy of <a href="https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/427337/Treasures-Serpents--Ruins-Jade-Players-Rules">Treasures, Serpents, & Ruins Jade Players Rules</a> on DriveThruRPG? It's Pay What You Want, so pick it up for free and if you like it, come back and give me a tip. If you want to add Asian-style classes like Kensei (weapon masters), Wu Jen (Taoist sorcerers) or Xia (wandering martial artists) to your OSR game of choice, they'll fit right in. <p></p><p>And if you're the DM, you can pick up <a href="https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/429045/treasures-serpents-ruins-jade-bestiary-treasury">TS&R Jade Bestiary & Treasury</a> to get lots of Asian inspired monsters and magic items. Also PWYW so grab it for free or give me a little LNY gift if you like. <br /></p><br /><p><br /></p>Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-37348946782282860822024-02-05T10:48:00.005+09:002024-02-05T10:48:49.706+09:00More Monsters and Wizards! <p>It's been <a href="https://lordgwydion.blogspot.com/2019/10/its-like-mini-christmas.html">a few years since I added to my 1/72 scale miniatures collection</a>, despite getting many of them painted up. I actually need to re-paint quite a few of them, as the summer heat, and possibly the clear top coat I used, caused a lot of the paint to melt/blend, and the figures don't look anywhere near as good as they did when I finished painting them. Looking back through old blog posts, I don't think I posted pictures of the finished products, <a href="https://lordgwydion.blogspot.com/2020/03/coronacation-benefits.html">just a work in progress post</a> and this one from two years ago when I <a href="https://lordgwydion.blogspot.com/2022/04/down-time.html">finally painted the lizard men</a>. </p><p>Well, I had a set of Caesar Adventurers which covered a lot of LotR types, plus a few Conan style barbarian types. I had Caesar Elves, Dwarves, and Goblins as well. </p><p>And I had Red Hat Dark Alliance Cimmerians, Amazons, Half-Orcs, regular Orcs...</p><p>One problem, and a reason why I still hesitate to switch to 1/72 scale minis instead of standard 28mm minis (not that I'm using minis at all for D&D these days...) is that there just aren't enough spell-caster types. </p><p>I have a few from the Caesar Adventurers and Elves. I had a set of historical Vikings and one of Robin Hood characters (forget who made both of them) that had a few poses that could be a spell-caster. There's one Dark Alliance Cimmerian shaman. Definitely not enough cleric/druid/magic-user types. </p><p>Well, I ordered some more Red Hat/Dark Alliance figures for my birthday. They arrived today. And I'm pleased to say that the Red Hat historical Russian War Monk Artillery make for good spell-caster types! They're all male, but at least I've now got a bunch of robed, bearded little dudes that could be PC or NPC spellcaster types. The tamping rods and fuse-sticks look like magic staves.<br /></p><p>I also ordered the Dark Alliance Minotaur and Cyclops sets. I wanted to get their Southern Kingdoms Rangers set (based on Faramir's company in the LotR movies), which obviously are ranger/thief types, but my supplier was out (<a href="https://www.michtoy.com/">Michigan Toy Soldier Company</a> -- I always get great customer service from these guys on my international orders!).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWuQ9HQ6y3kSa_AI8-5d776cW7nfxF4EiBFWCBd38shfluToEPEvYFO4co0YB79F3g19QzBppMjxxxhfSMgNcDheKA361QS0Unl6htcOhnCUPEsfV3YCV953n01nTo8CuTEM1Ak3NjbhvPS5hG7ymugwT-jWxdPu1MQjSFLYWMSlH4zDWHQihEaAW676Q/s4032/20240205_102517.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1816" data-original-width="4032" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWuQ9HQ6y3kSa_AI8-5d776cW7nfxF4EiBFWCBd38shfluToEPEvYFO4co0YB79F3g19QzBppMjxxxhfSMgNcDheKA361QS0Unl6htcOhnCUPEsfV3YCV953n01nTo8CuTEM1Ak3NjbhvPS5hG7ymugwT-jWxdPu1MQjSFLYWMSlH4zDWHQihEaAW676Q/s320/20240205_102517.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>Here they are, with a few of the not so nice looking anymore Caesar Adventurers. The cyclopes are nice and big, and the minotaurs look fairly hefty next to them. </p><p>Red Hat figures tend to come with a lot of flash that needs cleaning off, but the cyclops figures are really clean. The minotaurs and war monks not so much.<br /></p><p>I compared these guys to a TSR (Dragonstrike board game) figure and a Reaper metal figure. The minotaurs look pretty wimpy next to them, but the cyclops set is still decently big by comparison. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRYLMSECEqxiUPJmTZFW8GCrJEXj4DkQDtJLlE6QVl_g1erue88ZR1fSdiywaLqEvQBIDQ7ykJ85oOlepp402jEsEAFg5bOSdvNiFECc_gXjL05WkHI5oJPwcBIU4uHvlabtPv_zj5mkG0RYMZE-pUvuhk-4HnT4wdZ-221HbMr_OIAEwmRDJ56sMFQdk/s4032/20240205_102310.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1816" data-original-width="4032" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRYLMSECEqxiUPJmTZFW8GCrJEXj4DkQDtJLlE6QVl_g1erue88ZR1fSdiywaLqEvQBIDQ7ykJ85oOlepp402jEsEAFg5bOSdvNiFECc_gXjL05WkHI5oJPwcBIU4uHvlabtPv_zj5mkG0RYMZE-pUvuhk-4HnT4wdZ-221HbMr_OIAEwmRDJ56sMFQdk/s320/20240205_102310.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />With either scale, I think these will make good additions to the <a href="https://lordgwydion.blogspot.com/2024/01/an-idea-for-simple-rpg-or-tabletop.html">Gauntlet-inspired tactical board game</a> rules I'm working on. <p></p><p>Time to get these guys off their sprues! <br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-34138332098647954552024-01-31T10:25:00.000+09:002024-01-31T10:25:02.467+09:00Fortune and Glory? Nah, just play some Elfgames.<p>I had a discussion last night with my older boy about gaming, marketing, and all that. He's got some game ideas (card games, board games, computer games) and was wondering about how successful he might be. </p><p>Interestingly, I'd just finished reading the recent (now pulled) article on how toxic the RPG online community is, and that definitely influenced the direction of our conversation. </p><p>We talked about how easy it is to promote games on DriveThru, how easy it is to run a Kickstarter or other crowdfunding campaign, and so on. </p><p>Want some numbers? Flynn did. In the past six years since I released Chanbara, I've sold just shy of 300 copies, and made $1600 from those sales. I've made less than that from the paper minis and TS&R. </p><p>All told, since 2015 when I uploaded my first printable paper minis file, including pay-what-you-want downloads that didn't pay anything, I've sold 2413 products on DriveThru, and made $2338.11. Not exactly the big bucks. </p><p>But then the bigger names in the TTRPG circles (many of them named in that article for being toxic presences in the community) regularly have crowdfunding campaigns that make tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. A few have topped the million mark. </p><p>Now, I'm not trying to cast any aspersions on the "big names." And this is not sour grapes. I was just being realistic to my son. Yes, it's possible to make good money by publishing games online, but to do so you really need to work on promotion, really need to get out there and get known, and need other big names to support and promote your work. But the bigger you get, the more of a target you can become. </p><p>So I'm happy to stay a little fish in a small pond. I really do appreciate all of you who read this blog, review and promote my offerings, and everyone who's purchased something I've put out there. But I'm also never going to put in the effort needed to become one of the luminaries of the hobby, because I don't need to. That $2000+ I've made over the past nearly a decade has helped me to buy other gaming goods, and every now and then a birthday or Christmas present. I don't need gaming money to support my family. I'm happy to do this just for the joy of creating stuff, putting it out there, and seeing positive reactions to it. </p><p>That's why TS&R is PWYW and I'll probably never get around to making the second edition of Flying Swordsmen, with actual new art from paid artists rather than public domain and donated art. </p><p>I'm happy with my place in the hobby. </p><p>But hey, if my son can create some board or card games that become a hit, I'll do my best to support him in his efforts. </p><p>And also, if Zak S. is reading this, my apologies. I don't think I jumped on the anti-Zak bandwagon, but I wasn't a big fan of his and took the words of others at face value when I shouldn't have. Looking back at some of my old blog posts, I was pretty much just dismissive of him at the time Mandy was accusing him of some pretty horrible (and not completely believable) stuff. I hope that the word gets out and he gets a chance to make a come-back. </p><p>I never had a negative interaction with him personally, and I should have been more critical of others claiming that they had had negative interactions with him rather than letting those claims color my opinion of him. <br /></p>Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-12922918605033307082024-01-26T09:46:00.003+09:002024-01-26T09:46:18.210+09:00Even a man who is pure at heart and says his prayers by night...<p><i> ...may become a grognard when the dice are rolled, and the gaming mood is right.</i></p><p><br /></p><p>Oh, wait, that's not the way that rhyme is supposed to go. Anyway, I'm going to do something today that I haven't done in quite a while, but should get back to doing semi-regularly. I've got a newish blog that I want to promote. </p><p><a href="https://weregrognard.blogspot.com/">Savage Lair of the Weregrognard</a></p><p>It looks like Weregrognard started the blog last year for the Dungeon23 challenge, and now that that has wrapped up, he's been blogging about his take on old school gaming. So far, I've found his posts on the topic to be interesting and entertaining. </p><p>I haven't read through all of his Dungeon23 posts, but of what he's written since then, I'm the only person who's left a comment. And I think he deserves more feedback on his Lessons from the OSR series. It's good. <br /></p>Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-4906648917314745832024-01-24T08:30:00.001+09:002024-01-24T08:30:39.501+09:00The 3E Nostalgia is Upon Us<p>I've been seeing all sorts of blog posts, YouTube videos, and memes re-examining Third Edition D&D, and especially 3.0 as compared to 3.5. Having played some d20 Modern with my son over the past year or so, and having dived into an aborted attempt at a d20 Star Wars game on RPOL (and currently into a Saga Edition Star Wars game on RPOL), I'm not really feeling the 3E nostalgia. Those games have reminded me of just how needlessly cumbersome the skill/feat system is in d20 games, and the limits of a "roll d20" for any task resolution is still with us in 5E today. </p><p>But there seem to be a lot of gamers who started on 3E, or started on 2E but found their jam with 3E who are feeling that nostalgia. It does make sense. It's been almost 24 years since the game was released, 21 since the 3.5 revision. </p><p>I've even had some people tell me that 3E is old school D&D. </p><p>Personally, I think "old school" is more about play style than age, but I may be biased. </p><p>Is it time to lump 3E, and the resulting d20 system boom games, in with the "old school" banner? Make it part of the OSR? Or is it "old school but not OSR"? </p><p>Peanut gallery, sound off in the comments! <br /></p>Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-20492539819452553012024-01-19T22:30:00.000+09:002024-01-19T22:30:16.122+09:00The Forgotten Magic Items<p>I realized I should go back and edit a bit of my dungeon creation advice to new DMs or those trying old school style play from newer school style games in TS&R. I should make it clear that there are a whole bunch of magic items, and a few spells, that exist in old school games but not in newer games. Why were they dropped? Because they're really made for helping to explore dungeons, especially megadungeons. And while Gary and Dave knew that they were useful for that, younger designers seem to have not realized their importance. </p><p>I don't blame these younger game designers. When I was a kid, we all thought these powers were lame. We wanted intelligent swords that could heal or teleport you, or wands that cast fireballs and illusions. We didn't realize just how useful these items are! </p><p>If you haven't already guessed, I'm talking about items like the wands of enemy/metal/trap detection, or intelligent sword powers like the above, mineral detection, shifting wall or sloping passage detection, etc. As kids, these seemed like the lamest things. I don't know why, exactly, we never considered that "mineral" detection meant <i>gems*</i>. We'd make jokes about swords that could help you point out the location of the nearest gypsum or limestone. Of course, there could be times when having some non-gem minerals could be handy, too. But as kids, that just seemed lame to us. </p><p>And a potion of treasure finding? Well, the treasure was down there, you just had to keep looking around! Of course, starting with Mentzer and not 1E AD&D, we didn't often hide the treasure in our dungeons. If you beat the monsters, the treasure was there, waiting, like in a video game. Well, not really, it was there all along, just sitting in piles on the floor or in chests, but not hidden behind loose bricks of the fireplace or under twenty barrels of rotten apples. There were some examples of this sort of hidden treasure in Mentzer's sample dungeon Castle Mistamere, but the advice on dungeon creation in the back of the Basic DM Guide didn't really go into that. </p><p>When treasure is hidden or concealed, powers like <i>detect metal</i> or <i>detect minerals</i> or a potion of treasure finding can help find it. Obviously, the powers to <i>detect secret doors</i> or <i>traps </i>help you get to the treasure. But the DM needs to be taught to hide some of that treasure. </p><p>Another reason that my friends and I scoffed at these powers, I think, was that we didn't make megadungeons often. A lot of our dungeons were fairly small. Mentzer's dungeon creation advice, which I just re-read recently, does talk about making dungeons with many levels, but most of the advice seems to be about what I'm terming scenario dungeons. Frank starts you off with a premise for the dungeon, such as "exploring the unknown" or "rescuing prisoners" which for me got me thinking dungeons were sites for a specific adventure or two, and then done. <br /></p><p>And even when we did from time to time make a bigger dungeon with multiple levels or a sprawling layout, they weren't campaign tentpole affairs. A lot of the typical powers of intelligent swords are designed to make megadungeon exploration easier (and save on magic-user and cleric spell slots), and repeat trips to the dungeon can make best use of these abilities, by careful mapping, triangulation, and trial-and-error use. </p><p>So, I'm going to edit my advice for GMs new to old school play and make all this explicit...but not as wordy as this blog post. This is to help me get my ideas sorted out before I edit the GM Guidebook draft. I'll explain the purpose of these powers, and that they're only really useful if the GM designs the dungeon in a way that <i>makes them useful</i>, similar to thief skills. </p><p><br /></p><p>*In TS&R, I changed the name of this to "Detect Gems" to make it clear. <br /></p>Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-2891952579529737302024-01-18T14:45:00.002+09:002024-01-18T14:45:36.540+09:00What to Roll and Which System to Use<p>A couple of recent posts by other bloggers got me thinking. Specifically, we're talking today about rolling ability scores, and the modifiers that you get from those scores depending on the system you use. </p><p>It's probably no surprise that the first post that got me thinking about this was one by <a href="https://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2024/01/4d6.html">Alexis over at Tao of D&D</a>: </p><blockquote><p>As a DM, I see AD&D's combat/survival structure relying on
characters possessing at least two stats above 14. There are no
benefits for any stat less than 15 with regards to strength,
constitution and dexterity, upon which the combat system depends. And
though spell-use can mitigate the need for these somewhat, a good mage
or illusionist really needs a +1 dex bonus at minimum (in my
experience), while a cleric whose going to wade in and fight needs at
least some bonuses in strength or constitution. A cleric who won't wade
in hasn't a good enough spell arsenal, and is therefore useless; which
is part of the reason why clerics who tried to style themselves as
"healers" and not "holy fighters" ended up crying for more healing
potential, as the original list doesn't allow this specialisation
effectively.</p><p>Thus, adding that extra die to 3d6 increases the
chance of rolling above 14 sufficiently to hit that window of
"practical" character. I know that many, many voices refuse to believe
there is such a thing; that the game needs to adjust for the character,
and not the reverse. Of course I could run a softer, more gutted game
for those players with mediocre stats, but having experienced the
lessened potential and drooling dullness of such a game, I'm not sold on
the concept. If the reader wants me to go into that, I will, drop me
an email, but for the present I'll assume most people here are aware
that having bonuses makes players happy, and I like happy players.</p><p>Too,
the 3d6 alternative produces too many "culls," my term for the
selective slaughter of players whose stats are too obviously likely to
get them killed. The penalties for stats of 7 and less can be tolerated
if they appear with rarity ... but when they're scattered among
multiple players in a party, sooner or later the randomness of unfudged
die rolls takes its toll. I see no reason to roll up characters en
masse for the purpose of creating an inferior stock. No, I prefer the
alternative. A nice collection of characters whose stats average around
73 or better makes a party more likely to survive, thus producing a
sustainable game.</p></blockquote><p>Up front, yes, I'm one of those DMs that Alexis talks about who thinks that high scores aren't absolutely necessary for an effective character. I like it when my players roll well for their characters. I like for them to have competent characters. But I've also played enough average characters in my life to know that while that extra 5% chance to hit or avoid being hit, or the extra hit point or extra point of damage on each attack can matter, it's perfectly feasible to run a character without them. </p><p>And this is slightly off topic, but I find it funny that a <a href="https://lordgwydion.blogspot.com/2021/02/a-small-paradigm-shift.html">commenter on a previous post</a> thought a 5% or 10% XP boost is really meaningless. Granted, we're talking a vastly different scale between a d20 roll to hit and the thousands of XP needed to gain levels, but a percentage is a percentage. </p><p>Anyway, back to the topic of ability scores and how we roll them. Alexis prefers AD&D's ability modifiers which, at least for combat bonuses, don't start giving bonuses until a 15 or 16. But scores of 15 or higher are really rare on a flat 3d6 roll, so he needs to use 4d6-L to give players a decent shot at getting not just one, but two scores with bonuses, and radically reduce the number of scores that get a penalty. </p><p>I have no problem with this. I use 4d6-L in my game these days, after experimenting with a few other options over the past few years. </p><p>But before I go on, I need to introduce the other blogger that spurred this post, <a href="https://mythlands-erce.blogspot.com/2024/01/streamlined-mechanics-arent-all-they.html">Anders H. of the Mythlands blog</a>, who was writing about not just discrete mechanics for different tasks, but discrete bonuses for different ability scores being a feature not a bug of AD&D design: </p><blockquote><p>AD&D in general however, revels in lack of homogeneity. There's a
ton of derived stats from ability scores and they are all different,
with different progressions and determining the math behind the curve of
progression is not at all transparent. </p><p>I suspect there is none
and that Gygax et al used a more powerful tool than mathematical
progression - Deciding on modifiers based on gaming impact. And this one
of the great virtues of game design that are lost with streamlined
mechanics. </p><p>Modern games, I posit, suffer from a tyranny of number
harmonies and easy calculation. Everything must be transparent, easy to
calculate and preferably limited to a few basic methods the recur
throughout the whole gaming engine.</p><p>But does the game actually
play better when STR gives the same bonus to hit as it does to damage?
Or CON an equivalent bonus to hit points? Does it yield the desired
results at the actual game table or simply look pleasing in the rulebook
and easy to memorise? Harmonies do not necessarily equal better game
play.</p></blockquote><p>I've gone on record before saying that I'm not a fan of the way AD&D does ability score bonuses. They are inconsistent across the different scores, there is way too big of a doughnut of scores with no adjustment up or down, and then there are things like Fighters getting percentile strength bonus on an 18, or only Fighters getting more than +2 hit points for a high Constitution, or the needlessly fiddly % to Know spells Int modifier for Magic-Users or Chance of Spell Failure for Clerics. </p><p>Exactly the things Anders is praising are the things that annoy me about AD&D ability scores. I do agree with him on most of his other points, though. Clerics and Magic-Users don't need identical spellcasting power. Different rates of advancement for different classes is a good thing. Categorical saving throws are cooler and more interesting than just rolling against your ability scores. And any complex calculation that can be boiled down to a simple hard number on a not overly complex character sheet is a good thing. </p><p>And again, let's get back to ability score adjustments and how to roll those abilities. </p><p>Anders makes the case that the diversity of adjustments in AD&D are due to the different roles that those abilities play in the game. Alexis makes the case that a playable character should have at least two scores with a positive adjustment. </p><p>This made me curious to compare the probabilities of rolling 4d6-L for AD&D adjustment bonuses vs. 3d6 flat for BX/BECMI adjustments. The website <a href="http://AnyDice.com">AnyDice.com</a> gave me the percentage chances to roll X or higher with each rolling method (yeah, I can do the math myself, but this was faster). And <a href="https://highdiceroller.gitlab.io/hdroller/ability_scores/?num_dice=4&die_size=6&reroll_dice=0&num_keep=3&modifier=0&num_ability_repeat=1&num_abilities=6&min_ability=3&max_ability=18&num_arrays=1">this website</a> has an ability score calculator that can show you the probabilities of getting certain scores or higher on sets of six ability scores, which is handy. </p><p>So to recap: </p><p>In order to get a +1 bonus to any score in Classic D&D, you need a 13 or more in that ability. That's a bonus to hit in either ranged or missile combat, a bonus to damage in melee combat, a bonus to AC, or bonus hit points per level.<br /></p><p>In order to get a +1 bonus to any combat relevant score in Advanced D&D, you need a 15 or 16 depending on the score and the variable being adjusted. </p><p>To get a -1 (improvement) to AC, or to get +1 hit point per level, you need a 15 to Dex or Con, respectively. <br /></p><p>To get a +1 to damage in melee combat or to hit in ranged combat, you need a 16 in Str or Dex, respectively. </p><p>To get a +1 to hit in melee combat, you need a Str 17. </p><p>According to the die rollers, if you roll flat 3d6, to get a score of X or higher on any particular score, your chances are: </p><p><b>13+ 25.93%</b> [+1 to any variable in Classic, no adjustment to any variable in Advanced]<br /></p><p>15+ 9.26% [+1 to any variable in Classic, +1 to HP or -1 AC in Advanced]</p><p>16+ 4.63% [+2 to any variable in Classic, +1 melee damage, +2 HP, +1 ranged attack, -2 AC in Advanced]</p><p>17+ 1.85% [+2 to any variable in Classic, +1 melee attack, +1 melee damage, +2(3) HP, +2 ranged attack, -3 AC in Advanced] </p><p>18 0.46% [+3 to any variable in Classic, +1 melee attack, +2 melee damage, +2(4) HP, +3 ranged attack, -4 AC in Advanced]</p><p>So about one in four rolls will get you a bonus rolling 3d6, on average you can expect one or two scores to be above average. </p><p>If we roll 4d6 and drop the lowest, to get a score of X or higher on any particular score, your chances are: </p><p>13+ 48.77% [+1 to any variable in Classic, no adjustment to any variable in Advanced]</p><p><b>15+ 23.15%</b> [+1 to any variable in Classic, +1 to HP or -1 AC in Advanced]</p><p>16+ 13.04% [+2 to any variable in Classic, +1 melee damage, +2 HP, +1 ranged attack, -2 AC in Advanced]</p><p>17+ 5.79% [+2 to any variable in Classic, +1 melee attack, +1 melee damage, +2(3) HP, +2 ranged attack, -3 AC in Advanced]</p><p>18 1.62% [+3 to any variable in Classic, +1 melee attack, +2 melee damage, +2(4) HP, +3 ranged attack, -4 AC in Advanced]</p><p>The 13+ on 3d6 and 15+ on 4d6-L are highlighted because they have more or less equivalent values. You've got about a one in four chance of getting at least that number on any ability score roll in either system. And while AD&D does grant a few bonuses better than 3 IF you're a Fighter and put that 18 in Con instead of Str or any character with 18 Dex, or you're a Fighter type and put that 18 in Str and roll well on the percentile dice, the Classic system is really more generous. </p><p>If it's imperative to have multiple ability scores with bonuses for characters, you're better off going with the Classic D&D style ability score adjustments, even if that takes away from the bespoke nature of what each score represents, or specialized bonuses for certain classes and not others as in AD&D. </p><p>One more thing. Looking at rolling an entire set of ability scores, according to the Ability Score calculator website linked above, rolling 4d6-L six times gives you a 9.34% chance to roll an 18, so about one in 11 characters should have one. If you need at least two scores of 15 or more, you have a 42.16% chance. To get at least one score of 15+ you have a 79.4% chance. So most AD&D characters rolled this way will be minimally viable, with only one in five not meeting Alexis's minimum threshold, but only 2 in 5 meeting his preferred threshold of two scores qualifying for a bonus. </p><p>And remember, that's looking at the score of 15, which in AD&D only affects hit points and AC, not chances to hit or damage inflicted. </p><p>Rolling 3d6, but needing only a 13+ on a single score, we get an 83.48% chance to get at least one of the six rolls to give a bonus, just slightly better than the chance to get a 15+ on 4d6-L. To get two scores with a bonus, we have a 48.79% chance, that's roughly half of all characters generated. It's not a big difference, but the difference does, I think, matter. One in two suitable characters compared to two out of five. Oh, getting at least one 18 has a 2.75% chance, or one in thirty-six characters. </p><p>Obviously, 4d6-L provides much higher chances of rolling the numbers above the threshold for a bonus, but if you're only concerned with getting at least one or two scores above the threshold, you've got roughly even odds either way, but with a slight edge to rolling 3d6 against the lower threshold of 13. </p><p>The biggest advantage to Classic characters, though, is the regular array of bonuses. Because you need at least a 16 or 17 for certain variables in Advanced, you really NEED to roll 4d6-L (or one of those crazy bucket-o'-dice methods from Unearthed Arcana). And for me, rolling 4d6-L but with Classic bonuses to rolls, most characters are going to turn out fine. </p><p><b>As an example</b>: Last Sunday, Jeff, who plays in my online West Marches and Star Wars games and is visiting Busan for the month, joined my face-to-face game. His highest score, rolling 4d6-L six times, was a 13. He made a Fighter, and did just fine in the session... although it was one without a lot of combat. But he didn't complain, and he put his usual effort into characterization and had a good time. <br /></p>Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-25189463667544481852024-01-15T14:09:00.004+09:002024-01-15T14:09:56.952+09:00Painting Update<p>Last week, I got called away to cover for a sick teacher at an English camp, so I didn't get much painting done, and didn't post about it. Before I went to the camp, I did finish up my paint job for the League of Malevolence figures. I posted <a href="https://lordgwydion.blogspot.com/2024/01/warduke.html">Warduke</a> the other day. Here are the rest of the figures. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgqCquISQesGEcE99iQzv28mRF0jZ3XQ0Cm2VslhBUEwWTQxBuZY9ZZ_pc0iWbh312L-0C8zh2OGJ5fHpGUwQN3C5e-bf0-P_zdam1BnqLC6u2Ifmc7L6RgHL3s2wB8qHiVPC2i9NutVa89p9S8jKqXu5sTROCo1LldLV8NpGxj0m5jcEfaoqJBVBcC6E/s676/20240103_143800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="676" data-original-width="615" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgqCquISQesGEcE99iQzv28mRF0jZ3XQ0Cm2VslhBUEwWTQxBuZY9ZZ_pc0iWbh312L-0C8zh2OGJ5fHpGUwQN3C5e-bf0-P_zdam1BnqLC6u2Ifmc7L6RgHL3s2wB8qHiVPC2i9NutVa89p9S8jKqXu5sTROCo1LldLV8NpGxj0m5jcEfaoqJBVBcC6E/s320/20240103_143800.jpg" width="291" /></a></div><p>Zarak the Half-Orc Assassin</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9MqKvBvJOGx5-0Vk3E1SmWo8T3IATT5ty94KbtDjHFXq65Gw3DwP6E32hbIfL3eR4nB1jLFwr_wzxbAPychL3F3CFkxOs-FfK_ON8oqgVp5MDPusyOltRatsGhPdYEDQd_ta7qDRN3EU9KrO2s7abZ0LXNBCWTO-n7kmbzlZL3fY-Wx0SAkX4RDFLi7E/s1008/20240105_110533.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1008" data-original-width="778" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9MqKvBvJOGx5-0Vk3E1SmWo8T3IATT5ty94KbtDjHFXq65Gw3DwP6E32hbIfL3eR4nB1jLFwr_wzxbAPychL3F3CFkxOs-FfK_ON8oqgVp5MDPusyOltRatsGhPdYEDQd_ta7qDRN3EU9KrO2s7abZ0LXNBCWTO-n7kmbzlZL3fY-Wx0SAkX4RDFLi7E/s320/20240105_110533.jpg" width="247" /></a></div><p>Kelek the Sorcerer</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaLJ9X9hyphenhyphenSFZjr6n-VvcM1lAoPe3AYOpeHAenlXqcNpk-pkzdyICktBrHn1uxDgw-KLDpqCoCnORDN1tzNfqZlUCjOmHrsdFBcaYOzi0jh5Fr0K2wD_nL9mRtIJLEmebw61QYqzet5y2GpM2wJYQ7ovMUK8yDVwZEjTUc9PvDE-CfrE7WKtQxzXYKXraw/s1137/20240109_134633.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1137" data-original-width="777" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaLJ9X9hyphenhyphenSFZjr6n-VvcM1lAoPe3AYOpeHAenlXqcNpk-pkzdyICktBrHn1uxDgw-KLDpqCoCnORDN1tzNfqZlUCjOmHrsdFBcaYOzi0jh5Fr0K2wD_nL9mRtIJLEmebw61QYqzet5y2GpM2wJYQ7ovMUK8yDVwZEjTUc9PvDE-CfrE7WKtQxzXYKXraw/s320/20240109_134633.jpg" width="219" /></a></div><p>Zargash the Cleric</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSC_cqecSWL4NamJtDESX2fvMmEKxpWjDo6iLhqt1SzBpkLw9Uykdu8SMHhwH1GyaKYJQ7a1yjyF6S6hbbgXtuXezFu178veL0rIKrxE-Lagpb1ioqRKSNzhtqpxWCbTL_FFaN9R-BKx8QG_Lg_znIPoTj7YaCt2vPtWUUU1vFLaRsgMWuEg_QLSqzKJY/s1143/20240109_134713.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1143" data-original-width="858" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSC_cqecSWL4NamJtDESX2fvMmEKxpWjDo6iLhqt1SzBpkLw9Uykdu8SMHhwH1GyaKYJQ7a1yjyF6S6hbbgXtuXezFu178veL0rIKrxE-Lagpb1ioqRKSNzhtqpxWCbTL_FFaN9R-BKx8QG_Lg_znIPoTj7YaCt2vPtWUUU1vFLaRsgMWuEg_QLSqzKJY/s320/20240109_134713.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><p>Scylla the Warlock</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1YtM5Kg-x3zuqo_B6Dk_8Uk-ePG6MBDWP6jqY314GasV6040AijhI_WIbxJklmIfRslQx48_539VGZhVfj1fOK3LtlHLAld1PPu_4qtstvViC8YNZac-22gH4f3tf5BxMidIWIKw-j9hcvfeJosXZ7nONQzau-yOQNiiZQs-5AHi9CFN6aMgE-dgiKyA/s4032/20240109_134816.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1816" data-original-width="4032" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1YtM5Kg-x3zuqo_B6Dk_8Uk-ePG6MBDWP6jqY314GasV6040AijhI_WIbxJklmIfRslQx48_539VGZhVfj1fOK3LtlHLAld1PPu_4qtstvViC8YNZac-22gH4f3tf5BxMidIWIKw-j9hcvfeJosXZ7nONQzau-yOQNiiZQs-5AHi9CFN6aMgE-dgiKyA/s320/20240109_134816.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>We're getting the band back together! </p><p> Painting on the Valor's Call figures will commence tomorrow. <br /></p><p><br /></p>Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-23476217553957403462024-01-14T00:05:00.000+09:002024-01-14T00:05:00.878+09:00TS&R Dungeon Design<p>I finished up the first draft of my dungeon design advice for new DMs (or those new to old school style gaming) today. I'll work on the Wilderness design section next, and let this section sit for a while before I read over it and make some edits. For now, though, I'm pretty happy with what I've got down. </p><p>While I was writing up the chapter, I did take a break and re-read the advice Mentzer gave in his Basic Set, which is how I learned to do it. My section isn't as concise as his, but it explains about more dungeon types and gives more of the rationale behind dungeons both as game elements and as part of the fictional fantasy world. I don't give as many specific examples of traps and specials, but in the age of the internet, I'm not to worried about needing to do that. I was more focused on the how and the why of these types of encounters, along with monster and treasure stocking, and general dungeon design for different purposes. </p><p>It's six pages long (A4 size). The section headings are: </p><p>
</p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in; page-break-before: always;">
<span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Dungeon
Creation</b></span></span></p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in; page-break-before: always;">
</p><p align="justify" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;">
<span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>I. T</b></span><span style="font-size: small;"><b>ypes
of </b></span><span style="font-size: small;"><b>D</b></span><span style="font-size: small;"><b>ungeon</b></span></span></span></p><p align="justify" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;">
</p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;"><span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>II. Megadungeons</b></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b> A. Dungeon
Levels</b></span></span></p><p>
</p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;"><span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b> B. The
Megadungeon as a Setting</b></span></span></p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;">
</p><p align="justify" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;"> <span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>C. The
Mythic Underworld</b></span></span></p>
<p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;"><span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>III. Scenario
Dungeons</b></span></span></p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;"><span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>IV. Lair
Dungeons</b></span></span></p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;"><span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>V. The
Purpose of the Dungeon</b></span></span></p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;"><span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>VI. Drawing
Dungeon Maps</b></span></span></p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;"><span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>VII. Stocking
Dungeons</b></span></span></p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;"><span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b> A. </b></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>W</b><b>andering
</b><b>M</b><b>onsters</b></span></span></p>
<p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;"><span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b></span></span></p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;"><span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>VIII. </b></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>T</b></span><span style="font-size: small;"><b>raps</b></span></span></span></p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;"><span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b> A. </b></span><b>Types</b></span></span></p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;"><span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b> B. Triggers</b></span></span></p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;"><span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b> C. Effects</b></span></span></p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;"><span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b> D. Hazards</b></span></span></p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;"><span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>IX. </b></span><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Specials</b></span></span></p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;"><span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b> A. </b></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Secret
Doors</b></span></span></p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;"><span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>X. </b></span><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Unguarded
Treasures</b></span></span></p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;"><span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>XI. Dungeon
Dressing and Sensory Information</b></span></span></p>
<p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;"><span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b> </b></span></span></p>
<p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;"><span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b></span></span></p><p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;"><span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b></span></span></p>
<p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;"><span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b></span></span></p>
<p align="justify" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.05in;"><span style="font-family: Soutane;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b></span></span></p>
Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-11485593442315242342024-01-09T09:59:00.001+09:002024-01-09T09:59:35.750+09:00An idea for a simple RPG or Tabletop Skirmish game?<p>Yesterday, a couple of things happened that proved serendipitous. Flynn, my older boy, has been trying to get a game development group started within the local independent (mostly expat) artist scene, a group called Liquid Arts. Some of you may remember the GoFundMe he made that I promoted a while back. Well, that failed. And yesterday he refunded the few backers that he got. But he's got an idea to start the Liquid Arts game design group working on board games, and if he has some success there, try again with the computer game design ideas. </p><p>I explained this, and the Liquid Arts group, to one of my friends, who was a backer. And it got me thinking about some of the simple board games my best friend and I designed back in elementary and middle school. One or two of the ideas we had may be worth re-developing. </p><p>Also, my younger boy Steven has been playing a lot of the GBA version of GTA on our Super Console X emulator lately, but yesterday he wanted to play some Gauntlet II with me. Which we did. And while playing, he was wondering about more modern versions of Gauntlet. I told him that there were a couple of 3D games during the PS1/PS2 era, Gauntlet Legends (for PS1, which I had), and Gauntlet Dark Legacy (for PS2, which I never had). He got me to look them up and see if we could acquire them for emulation. </p><p>Our box doesn't have (and apparently isn't a good enough processor to handle) PS2 emulation, but I found Gauntlet Legends, and also the arcade (MAME) version of Dark Legacy last night. </p><p>Anyway, ideas converged, and I started thinking about whether the way Gauntlet rates character abilities might work as the basis for a fantasy RPG. <a href="https://strategywiki.org/wiki/Gauntlet/Statistics">I found this pretty quickly</a>. And yeah, with a few tweaks, and the addition of some mechanics for outside combat activities, it could work. Or, it could be merged with something to make a tabletop skirmish type wargame. Something probably more simple than my ideas to use <a href="https://lordgwydion.blogspot.com/2023/02/tactical-board-crawl.html">4E just for tabletop skirmish</a> games. <br /></p><p>For a while now, I've been interested in what D&D would be like if Chainmail combat were used. But I've had too many irons in the gaming fire to start up a campaign using the Platemail 27th Edition rules or something of my own devising. </p><p>My thinking, as I was laying in bed last night not falling asleep, and this morning in the shower, were to maybe merge Gauntlet style character ratings with Chainmail man-to-man/fantasy combat (and the Dungeon! board game) 2d6 style combat. Maybe throw in something like the Classic D&D Turn Undead table for a resolution mechanic for non-combat tasks if needed. </p>Gauntlet ratings (taken from the original version) could be translated to: <ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Speed (how many spaces you can move per turn)</li><li>Armor (how much damage is reduced by your armor) </li><li>Attack Power (how easily you hit when you attack, melee)</li><li>Attack Strength (how many hits you inflict on a successful melee attack) </li><li>Attack Speed (how many melee attacks you can make on your turn)</li><li>Shot Power (how easily you hit when you attack, ranged)</li><li>Shot Strength (how many hits you inflict on a successful ranged attack)</li><li>Shot Speed (how many ranged attacks you can make on your turn)</li><li>Magic Power (how easy it is to successfully cast a spell) </li><li>Magic Strength (how powerful are the effects of the spells you cast)</li></ul><p></p><p>The above Speed, Armor, and Strength ratings would all be set numbers. The Power ratings would be modifiers to 2d6 rolls. The Strength ratings might have a few levels with variation, such as:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Lvl 1: 1 hit</li><li>Lvl 2: 1-2 hits (roll d6, 1-4=1 hit, 5-6=2 hits)</li><li>Lvl 3: 2 hits</li><li>Lvl 4: 2-3 hits (roll d6, 1-4=2 hits, 5-6=3 hits)</li><li>Lvl 5: 3 hits</li></ul><p>For the Attack/Shot Speed, I'd probably look to AD&D attack progression: </p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Lvl 1: 1 attack per round<br /></li><li>Lvl 2: 3/2 attacks per round<br /></li><li>Lvl 3: 2 attacks per round<br /></li><li>Lvl 4: 5/2 attacks per round<br /></li><li>Lvl 5: 3 attacks per round<br /></li></ul><p>Of course, one thing to consider would be that Gauntlet characters have hundreds or thousands of hit points, and can kill hundreds or thousands of opponents on each level (and with emulation, adding a "quarter" for more health is as easy as pushing the Select button on the game pad). Monsters do large numbers of hits compared to PCs, and armor reduces that damage. That's something that would need to be changed. If this were an RPG, it would probably be more difficult to scale it correctly. But for a tabletop skirmish game, it might work out alright. </p><p>A variation of this system may also work for one of those old games from my youth that I mentioned above. The game was probably the best (and most complex) game that Todd and I made as kids. We made a map of our home town. Since the home town is tiny, it was a fairly accurate map, as we had every actual house, store, and church on it, minus a few people's sheds and whatnot. The game was an alien invasion game. We over-complicated it by having just about every type of alien from UFO lore that we could think of, plus a few from sci-fi movies (little green men, Men-in-Black, Grays, Critters, robots, etc.). In the original, the aliens had the goal of planting bombs in buildings, while the heroes (us) had to raid buildings for tools/supplies/weapons (all on cards) to fight off the aliens and prevent the bombings. </p><p>It was a tough game, as we made way too many aliens, and we played them ruthlessly. </p><p>I was thinking as well that this might be an idea to revive. Instead of bombing the town, though, maybe it would be an abduction game. And it could be played either cooperatively (like our original game) or competitively, with one or more players as the Heroes and one or more players as the Aliens. </p><p>Again, I'm wondering if a 2d6 style mechanic like my Gauntlet idea above might be fun for this. Originally, I think we had just a regular d6 mechanic. It's been a LONG time, and Todd had our only copy of the game.<br /></p><p>So, it looks like this year I may be experimenting with some table top board/tactical game designs in addition to RPG stuff. <br /></p><p><br /></p>Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-35597418957206604762024-01-03T13:47:00.005+09:002024-01-03T13:49:14.435+09:00Warduke!I picked up the Official D&D League of Malevolence and Valor's Call miniature sets a year ago. <div><br /></div><div>I assembled them pretty soon after, but then put them aside. Last summer, I gave them base coats (black for the baddies, white for the goodies, obviously). Then put them away again. </div><div><br /></div><div>Today, I finally started painting. Here's the first one, the classic villain Warduke. Turned out pretty well, I think. <br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div><br /></div>Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-23296687255067252102024-01-02T22:18:00.002+09:002024-01-02T22:18:30.662+09:00Treasures, Serpents, & Ruins Game Master Guidebook<p>I've gone back to work on the GM Guidebook for my house rules of D&D. I figure I'll go ahead and keep what I've got written so far, which is mostly how I run things explained in a way that hopefully inexperienced GMs will find useful. After I'm done writing this, I'll condense just the rules bits into a shorter booklet as a reference for more experienced GMs to use at the table. </p><p>The past few nights, I've been reading over what I wrote before, and I added a "secrets of running a great game" section for those new to RPGs, or new to old school style play. I've decided rather than try to cater to all tastes, I'm just going to write this thing to show the way I run my game. I'm not trying to tell a story with my campaign. I'm not trying to lead the party through a series of staged and micromanaged encounters for an evening's entertainment. I'm trying to present a world to them that is full of challenges and problems, and allow them to seek out what they will. That's my authorial voice. That's the way the rules tell you to play. Feel free to disagree, but I'm not going to waste time telling people how to run D&D as a narrative game or a balanced challenge game. There are other games for that. The teacher side of me wants to do that, but I'm resisting the urge. <br /></p><p>That said, I am realizing there are quite a few things in Classic D&D that I don't really use (like the Caller or the Declaration phase of the combat round) so I'm ditching any references to those. I'll go back and edit my player (and monster/treasure) books later to match. There are a few mistakes here and there in those booklets that need to be corrected, as well. </p><p>It's not a revolutionary game. I don't intend it to be. But it will be nice to share it with the world. </p><p>Don't expect it to be done any time soon. I've still got a lot of things left to write, like all the rules for crafting dungeons/wilderness/settings and those for high level campaigns (domain formation and management, planar adventures, artifacts, etc.). I will probably include a few rules variants that I've toyed with or at least considered (XP for magic items found, alternate character creation methods, etc.) near the end. <br /></p><p>But I've got some steam built up for writing this thing, and I'm going to try and capitalize on it. Some day, this may actually be a complete game system that others can use. <br /></p>Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-13511213256822604582023-12-24T23:17:00.001+09:002023-12-24T23:17:24.952+09:00Movie Review: Rebel Moon (part 1)<p>On Friday, my older son and I watched the new Zack Snyder film on Netflix, Rebel Moon (part 1). </p><p>For those who don't know, this started out as a pitch for a Star Wars film that Lucasfilm rejected. </p><p>And for those of you wondering if it has curse words, not really. Other than the violence and one attempted rape scene (no nudity), it's pretty kid friendly. </p><p>Now I'm not a huge Snyder fan, but I've enjoyed some of his works in the past. So I was curious to see what he would have done with a Star Wars film. Obviously, this film has been changed. The serial numbers have been filed off, but I also assume some things have been changed story-wise as well since it was pitched to Disney/Lucasfilm. But the curiosity was there. </p><p>While watching, at first, Flynn kept puzzling over what era of Star Wars this would have been set in, if LF had picked it up. Was it Palpatine's Empire? The Sith Empire? Some future era? The opening narration tells us that it happens after 100 kings had ruled (or was it 1000?) but that could easily have changed from the original SW version. Were the Bloodaxe siblings originally Luke and Leia? Probably not. We never could figure it out.</p><p>Anyway, about the film itself: we were both disappointed by it. </p><p>I don't want to spoil things, so I'll just say this: the pacing was slow and plodding, which you'd expect from a more character driven piece. But there was little to no character development, and most characters were introduced in a way that didn't give us much emotional involvement with them. The ending wasn't a surprise, and didn't really leave me thrilled to have spent two hours watching this thing. </p><p>Snyder is known for his cool visuals, and this film was lacking in that as well. The CGI and the settings looked OK, but they used camera settings that hyper-focused certain things and left the periphery looking like vaseline was smeared over the lens. At first, I thought it was my eyes or a smudge on my glasses, but no, it was the way the movie was shot. And when there were big action/adventure set pieces, they weren't that amazing. Fairly run of the mill, really. </p><p>I'm not sure if I'll bother with Part 2 when it comes out in a few months. </p><p>Would I recommend it? Not really, but if you're already paying for Netflix and you've got a few hours to spare, it's not the worst thing you could watch. There are a few things you might be able to pull from it as gaming inspiration, but don't expect to be taken away to a place <i>long, long ago in a galaxy far away</i>. For all of George Lucas' faults as a writer/director, the worst of his Star Wars movies are still better than this. <br /></p>Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-16139111007299565552023-12-22T09:17:00.000+09:002023-12-22T09:17:05.323+09:00Thoughts on the Pre-Modern Mindset<p>I recently finished reading Juval Noah Harari's <i>Sapiens</i>. Yeah, it's a decade old by now. I'm behind the times. I may finally get around to watching <i>Black Mirror</i> or <i>Star Trek: Enterprise</i> now that I'm done with the book. </p><p>I received the book a few years back from a friend who was leaving Korea. He dumped a bunch of books on me. This one intrigued me, since a libertarian friend of mine had sworn up and down that the book was total garbage. I was curious about what the book might have said that would make him hate it so much, especially since I'd mentally lumped it into the "Oprah-lectual" category with books like anything by Malcolm Gladwell or Thomas Friedman. The sort of book that's a best-seller because it's just smart enough to make the uneducated in a particular field feel educated about that field after reading it, but it's really actually fairly superficial. People who've read it pretend they're experts on the subject at cocktail parties. That sort of book.<br /></p><p>Wow, I sound like such a book snob, reading that over again. Well, so be it. I'm not too particular about the fiction I read. B-class dreck, if it's entertaining, is fine with me. But I read way too much serious academic writing for work to be impressed by these pop-academic works. </p><p>Well, <i>Sapiens </i>was interesting, after all. I have some quibbles. Harari seems suitably cautious with some of his pre-historic claims early in the book, but presents other claims about pre-history as dead certain. That makes me wary of his historic claims as well. But overall, it gave me not so much better insight into humanity as a whole, but some ideas that might translate to better gaming. So that's a win. </p><p>The final third or so of the book, if you haven't read it, makes a big argument that the Scientific Revolution, Capitalism, and Imperialism are intricately linked and without all three happening in Europe around 500 years ago, the world would have just kept chugging along Medieval style until now. The reason is that people before that time, or in other areas of the world around that time and for some time after, were convinced that there was nothing new to be learned about the world. The Ancients had had it all figured out (or it had been handed to people by gods in ancient times) and so there was no need to be curious. No need to innovate. And even if people had been curious, without capitalism to fund it and imperialism to support capitalism, the science never would have caught on. </p><p>I'm a bit dubious of that claim. But I'm not a historian, so I'll not try to argue the point. </p><p>I will focus on that mindset Harari presents for the Pre-Modern. </p><p><i>There's no need to innovate, we already do things in the best way possible. We (as a society) already know all there is worth knowing. <br /></i></p><p>Obviously, that isn't true. Technology <i>did</i> advance over the centuries. People <i>did</i> learn new things. People <i>did</i> go out and explore beyond the horizon. Sure, the pace was slow, compared to the Renaissance through Industrial Revolution, and glacial compared to the rate of change these days. But there still were people who were curious, and who figured new things out. </p><p>But the vast majority of people were still pretty complacent. Really, the vast majority still are today. That's why you get people at school board meetings or elected officials saying things like "I didn't have to learn all this new-fangled gobbledy-gook when I was a kid. Readin', writin', and 'rythmatic is all the kids need to learn today."</p><p>So how does this relate to D&D (and other medieval-style fantasy games)? </p><p>First, I think it would argue against the idea of "magic as technology" seen in settings like Eberron. As post-moderns, we might like to think that trains and telephones and the like would inevitably be developed by industrious mages. But if we consider the pre-modern mindset as laid out by Harari (assuming it's true), that likely wouldn't happen. </p><p>Most wizards and clerics would be hoarding their magical powers, leveraging the rarity of them for their own benefit. Making magi-tech that benefits all in society, or assuming that there are hundreds of low level craft-mages making society chug along, would weaken the power of the mighty wizards and patriarchs/matriarchs. </p><p>Besides, those clerics have access to <i>commune</i> with the Powers that Be. Surely, if non-spell imbued religious leaders in our own history could make the real-world populace believe that all the insights of the Heavens had already been laid out in a book, clerics with actual spells and actual access to the words of the gods would foster that mindset even more strongly. </p><p>So even more so than in our own history, a fantasy setting's populace should be pretty set with the idea that society had its peak back in some fabled Golden Age, and it's all down hill from here. There's no progress worth working for, as we're already at or past the peak. We know all the spells that are worth knowing. We have all the weapons and armor we'll ever need. <br /></p><p>Second, it would help set the PCs as "adventurers" even further apart from society. What's over that hill? What's down in that dungeon? What's across the sea? What would happen if we overthrow the tyrannical dragon that plagues our town? Most people think it's a bad idea to even consider it. But not those pesky adventurers. And their meddling is going to bring us a whole lot of trouble down on everyone else. <br /></p><p>It would just make things a lot more interesting, I think, if the "spirit of adventure" wasn't lauded in the society of the D&D world. </p><p>Third, though, is the effect that those adventurers have on the society, which logically would go against the above. Following Harari's argument, it was the invention of the concept of 'capital' as a loan leveraged against the future profitability of a venture, rather than loans leveraged on established wealth, that led to the development of modern society/scientific revolution/imperialistic expansion. </p><p>Before that became a thing, the wealth of a society was relatively static. <br /></p><p>Adventurers going out and bringing back the long lost wealth is going to disrupt that. </p><p>Now sure, we've all seen the advice given to explain pricing in the various D&D editions as "boom town" pricing based on the influx of wealth from the megadungeon. And yes, some DMs do depict the disruption to society caused by the influx of wealth from adventuring. But in my experience, this is the exception not the norm. </p><p>Adventuring brings surplus wealth to the society, and it's surplus wealth (or the expectation of future surplus wealth, according to Harari) that allows for science to develop, but also creates the need for imperial expansionism of the European imperialist tradition, rather than those of earlier empires like Alexander or Genghis Khan. </p><p>Adventurers (and by this I mean specifically the player characters) are likely to be the impetus for all of this revolutionary change in the game world. They're going out and conquering new territory, plundering the wealth of the conquered areas, and through inventiveness and application of their resources, creating new spells and magic items, eventually becoming rulers of territories, and possibly setting up the magical industrial revolution -- or trying to, at least. </p><p>Society as a whole, especially if it's even more fanatical about the concept of "all that the world needs to know is known and was passed down from the Golden Age/the gods," is going to be dead set about stopping this from happening. </p><p>Religious groups and powerful wizards don't want their mystique shattered. Kings and nobles don't want their authority challenged. Wealthy landowners or merchants don't want their wealth devalued. And John Q. Serf doesn't want to deal with cognitive dissonance. All levels of society are going to be against a group of upstart adventurers trying to "make the world a better place" if they do go about trying to revolutionize things. </p><p>And if the players just go along with things the way they are, using their wealth simply to increase their own power/prestige, but not change the world, there will still be conflict over that, but it wouldn't turn the world into the magi-tech world of Eberron. <br /></p><p>Again, this is just from my limited gaming experience, but it seems like most campaigns never really touch on the political and social implications of adventuring. And this is most likely because of the mindset of the players and DMs being post-modern. We've all grown up with stories of plucky businessmen who founded simple businesses that became multinational corporations. Explorer/conquerors like Columbus, Magellan, Cook. Inventors and scientists as kooky geniuses creating marvelous gadgets and uncovering the mysteries of the universe. That's all normal to us. </p><p>And so, we make all that seem normal to the NPCs of our game worlds. But there's probably a lot more interesting game to be made if we stop giving post-modern world views to our NPCs, and start giving them pre-modern ones instead. <br /></p>Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-16084866734674497852023-12-16T00:02:00.001+09:002023-12-16T00:02:49.830+09:00Modifying the Mass Combat System (War Machine) again<p>As advised after a previous post on my War Machine modifications, I took a look at how Dark Dungeons does it, as well as the advice in the Stormbringer RPG, and some thoughts from internet commenters about some other RPG systems' mass combat rules. </p><p>As I think I mentioned before, Dark Dungeons X switches from d% to d20 rolls, so all the bonuses from War Machine are divided by 5. It also (I don't think I mentioned this) has a table look-up for basic troop quality as with War Machine, and a Troop Quality based on how much you pay for your troops. That gives you a number. I don't mind chart look-ups in general, but the original War Machine gave me a number without a clunky chart reference, and I prefer that. </p><p>Stormbringer basically says the DM decides who wins or loses the battle, and characters involved roll to see whether or not they took damage/died, and if not whether or not they improve their skills. Too abstract for me. I want something a bit crunchier, and out of the DM's hands. I like to be surprised. Plus, we're playing a game. Taking your character's forces into battle should pose some risk. </p><p>So I'm sticking with my basic idea, although this evening I went and streamlined a few things. This moves it a bit farther from War Machine (a good thing, if I want to publish this), and also hopefully makes things a little easier for the players to calculate. I've tried to stick to simple bonuses/penalties (+5, +10, -20, etc) for most things after the initial force calculations. </p><p>Another change that I made this evening is that for the tactical choices (engage, overrun, surround, feint, hold, withdraw), which is pretty much as in War Machine, certain armies will get an additional bonus. Archers help with normal engagement, heavy troops (foot or mounted) with overrunning, mounted troops with surrounding, magical/spellcasting troops with feints, pikemen/halbardiers with holding, and light troops with withdrawing. </p><p>That's something I think was lacking in the original rules. A more balanced force will get more bonuses for troop composition, but the specialized force gets a tactical bonus if you play to their strengths (but of course, the opponent may select a tactic that counters the optimal tactic...).</p><p>I'll try to play test these rules soon. <br /></p>Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-64702524513320463632023-12-14T20:53:00.000+09:002023-12-14T20:53:05.133+09:00Taking Unusual Skills<p>In our recent Call of Cthulhu campaign, the main Keeper, Richard, took a break for a few sessions to let his friend Brady try his hand at being a game master. For Brady's game, I rolled up a jazz drummer named Theo. He's running a module that requires all the players to have mob connections, so my jazz man is way in debt for lots of booze, drugs, and women. </p><p>In the session last week (the third session of Brady's run), our investigators have become trapped in the boarding house where the thief we're trying to track down lives. There are all sorts of weird things happening in the house. In one of the rooms, there was a young girl playing violin, and my PC and the mob hitman ended up in that room while other players investigated other rooms. The music she was playing was strange, and the hitman checked the bedroom to find the girl's parents dead with blood pouring from their ears. </p><p>It wasn't hard to put two and two together. As the girl (ghost? demon?) started to play again, my PC decided to instruct her on the finer points of jazz rhythms. After a bit of discussion, Brady had me roll my Arts: Jazz skill, and I got a hard success (less than 50% of my chance to succeed). So Brady decided that instead of the 2 minute performance she was supposed to give -- at which time bad things would happen -- my rhythm lesson sped up her performance and since it was over in only one minute, we were able to escape the room unharmed. </p><p>Yes, that's right. I was able to avoid catastrophe with jazz. </p><p>Never let a min-maxer tell you you're wasting your time selecting non-optimal skills or a non-optimal background. You never know when those oddball skills/proficiencies/knowledge may come in handy!<br /></p>Dennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.com4