It's worse than that, it's physics, Jim!

Thanks to Typhoon Bolaven, we had the day off.  Of course, it also meant we spent the majority of it indoors.  What to do? 

Well, first of all, in the morning my son wanted to listen to his new favorite song, Star Trekkin' by The Firm.  This is an old novelty song from the 80's that I included on a CD to use with my kindergarten students.

After listening to it about 5 times, I answered a few questions, and before you know it, we were watching an episode of TOS (Space Seed, the one where they find Khan in cryogenic sleep).  We also watched an episode of the D&D cartoon.

My son is now a big fan of James T. Kirk, mostly thanks to them sharing the name James.

Just before bed, we watched some Land of the Lost and a bit of Super Friends. 

Thank you, Typhoon Bolaven!

Nothing special gaming-wise to report, although Tenkar's Tavern is featuring my little contribution to the OSR, Flying Swordsmen, this week.  Thanks, Erik!

OSR Obituaries?

Some people have been reporting the death of the OSR.  In reply, I say:

It had to be Python or Twain.  Python won.

Beast of the Week: Space Monkey

Having a little fun this week with the beast.  I've been watching the old Super Friends cartoon, as well as some Cartoon Planet, with my son.  Both feature heroes with cosmic simian sidekicks. 

Should I start a poll?  Who is better, Blip or Gleek?

Space Monkey
Armor Class: 1 (19)
Hit Dice: 1
Move: 120 (40) Climb 120 (40)
Attacks: 1
Damage: 1d4 or by weapon
No. Appearing: 3d4 (3d8)
Save As: Fighter 1
Morale: 9
Treasure Type: N
Alignment: Lawful
XP: 10


Space Monkeys are simian creatures from another world.  They are extremely agile and their long prehensile tails can be used for many purposes.  They are intelligent, but speak only their own strange language of grunts, hooting, and cries similar to that of normal monkeys.  They can understand Common, however, and often communicate with sign language.  Space Monkeys may become fond of certain heroic individuals or duos, and serve them.  If a Lawful character of at least level 4 or Charisma 16+ gains a Very Friendly reaction from a group of Space Monkeys, one of them will become that character's sidekick.


Dual Stats for Star Frontiers


Space Monkey
Type:  Small Omnivore
Number: 3-30
Move: Medium
IM/RS: 8/80
Stamina: 40
Attack: 40
Damage: 1d10
Special Attack: none
Special Defense: none
Native World: unknown

D&D Next Spells - some problems

I'm not quite halfway through the Spells document of the updated play test, but already I'm seeing some potential problems, WotC.

The very first spell on the list, Aid.  A third level Cleric spell that gives three targets d8 damage reduction on the next hit they take within the next minute.  Seriously?  Third level?  The orignal Aid spell in AD&D Unearthed Arcana (unchanged for 2E) gave the benefits of Bless, as well as d8 temporary hit points.  Not damage reduction on a single hit, temporary hit points.  And it's only second level.*  Granted, it only affected one target, not three.  But still, this version sucks.  Even if the Cleric's player rolls well and gets an 8, by the wording of the spell if something dings you for only 1 point of damage, the other 7 points are then wasted.

Meanwhile, Crusader's Strike on page 5 is a first level spell that gives +2d6 damage to a weapon on its next attack, and even if you miss still does 1d6 damage.  Obviously this is a 4E power converted into a normal spell.

It looks to me like Mearls and Co. are continuing their nerf of the Cleric at least with regards to any spells with pedigree.  Anything that they developed for 4th and are carrying over is allowed to be overpowered.

It's just a first impression.  I really need to go through the document completely.  It would help if they'd organized the spells in the old fashioned way, divided by class and level.  Makes for easier comparison.

A little voice in the back of my head is wondering if they organized them this way on purpose to make it difficult to compare...

*Update - Just checked the 3.5 SRD.  In that edition, it was still second level, and gave the benefits of the AD&D version (Bless + 1d8 temp. hit points to one target) PLUS +1 hit point per level of the Cleric up to level 10.  3E made it better.  5E is making it demonstrably worse (maybe it was 4E, I'm not gonna waste time checking that one).

Double Feature: The Murder Machine/The Apes of Wrath

Got to play games on G+ both Friday and Saturday night this weekend.  My wife was in a good mood.  ;)  Here's a double feature summary of events.

Friday, Jeremy ran a game set in Eberron using his own simple Microlite/Risus hybrid 2-page system, Super Simple 20.  [Jeremy, you should update your blog with your recent pictures and your system!]

Playing were Dean as Bumblesnick d'Sivis the Gnome Illusionist, Adam as Nurzhanbek the Wand Wizard, and myself reprising my old Eberron PC from the Ebisu Group 6 years ago, Ysberir d'Medani the Half-Elf Ranger.

We were sent to Thrane to investigate a series of murders.  The victims were all human, with no apparent links to who they were or where they were murdered.  We did our best to track down clues to the murderer's identity, and were sent on the path towards a heretical cult of the Whisperer in the Flame (for those not familiar with the setting, Thrane is the home of paladins who worship The Silver Flame, and don't take kindly to thoughts of demon worshipers worshiping their sacred fire).  Also Bumblesnick had a wine-induced dream of small creatures in the sewers worshiping giant albino cockroaches.

A helpful paladin sent us on the trail of the local cafe-lounging wizards.  One of them was making creepy racist remarks at Bumblesnick, which freaked him out and sent him back to the guild hall early.  Ysberir and Nurzhanbek followed the younger wizards to a frat-party style bar, where after drinking contests and head-butting contests (I won the drinking, Nurzhanbek lost the head-butting), the same creepy wizard led us to a goblin information merchant named Scuttle. 

At Scuttle's, we learned some information about the cults, and then Ysberir noticed something hanging from a wall above us.  It was humanoid, with a pale bone-white face and six eyes.  We fired on it, with Nurzhanbek's spell causing it to fall.  It landed heavily.  Ysberir (his bow string again broken - Steve, laugh away!) hit it with his axe.  It took the hit and didn't flinch.  Then it just stood there examining me.  Nurzhanbek blasted it again.  Ysberir tried his longspear, but the creature snapped it in half.  Nurzhanbek started running, and it started following, making only a brief pause to once again examine Ysberir only to find too much Elf in the Half-Elf to bother killing.

It chased Nurzhanbek to a Paladin Temple, where the priests and monks thought he must be a crazy drunk.  And that's where we ended things for the night.

____________________________________________________________

Last night, we continued our Vaults of Ur game, Justin of course is the DM.  We had a big group: Jeremy as Ripper the Resurrected, Tedankhamen as Digger the Orc, Alexei as Maya Culpar the Elf, Dean as Elder Karl Cleric of the Great Bear, and myself as Thidrek the Sleestak.

Our previous adventure to resurrect Ripper left us indebted to the Priests of the Great Bear.  They asked us to investigate and exterminate a pack of giant carnivorous apes.  A renegade heretic priest of the Bear had thought to use them in a power play, but instead released them on the city. 

Scouring the ruins southwest of the Obelisk, we encountered some relatively fresh bodies of three adventurers.  They seemed to have been rent by animals as well as slashed by blades, within the past 48 hours or so.  Following a blood trail south through the ruins, we came to a warehouse that was still mostly intact.  There was one door, no windows, and the blood went right up to the shut doors.  On the roof, Thidrek noticed some holes in the wood, and looking in, saw a pair of boots.  Calling down, there was a cry for help followed by someone muffling the voice. 

Wasting no time, Elder Karl used his stone fist to blast open the door.  We rushed inside, through the door we thought led to the people.  There were three battered humans with two trussed up and unconscious Orc Magi.  Not sure who were the good guys and who were the bad guys, we struck to subdue, and soon knocked the three humans out.  Searching them revealed Spiked Circle necklaces, so we quickly trussed them up.  The Orc Magi were adventurers from Fort Low, companions to the three we had found earlier.  The Spiked Circle set upon them and captured these two.  Then the Spiked Circle were set upon by the apes. 

We thought we'd make sure the building was clear then rest there before heading back to Fort Low (the orcs wanted to high tail it out right away).  Karl and Maya's torchbearer went to repair and lock the front door.  Thidrek stayed with the orc magi to guard the prisoners.  Ripper, Digger and Maya went to the next room, and found a giant spider, which they quickly dispatched.  The door secured, Karl joined them in the third room.  This time, a gigantic beetle attacked from under the floor.  Karl got pulled half under the floorboards and bitten several times.  Thidrek and the orc magi finished off the Spiked Circle guys and Thidrek rushed to help as everyone stabbed furiously at the beetle to save Karl.

Thidrek (thanks to a natural 1) also fell in with the beetle, as did Digger.  One chicken from Thidrek's bag later and the beetle decided it had taken enough punishment and had enough to eat in the bird, and turned tail.  Last minute strikes from Elder Karl and Maya dropped it, and a natural 20 on the corpse allowed Ripper to decapitate the dead bug in one swing. 

Thidrek and Karl explored the beetle's tunnels, and found a bag of gems and a scroll case (but no dead halflings wrapped in mithril coats - Elder Karl's holy grail of treasure).  Following the tunnel to the surface, we used the stone fist again to close the hole.  That's when we noticed the building surrounded by apes.  8' tall apes!  Backing away, Elder Karl made some noise, and the apes were on us.  Karl used the stone fist one more time to knock a wall over on them.  We screamed and yelled to attract the attention of the others.

With Karl and Thidrek in melee with the five apes, and the others peppering them with arrows, we took down two and the other three turned tail.  We followed them a bit, but they seemed to be calling for help from more apes, so we retreated to the warehouse, gathered the orc magi and a barrel of very nice wine we found in the spider room, and headed back to Fort Low.

Thoughts on character creation in D&D Next

My commute reading today is the D&D Next play test update stuff.  So far, I've made it through the races and classes documents, and skimmed the backgrounds and specialties documents.

First up, the change in name from "Themes" to "Specialties" gets a big thumbs up from me.  The word theme reeks of artifice.  Books, music, paintings, movies, etc. have themes.  Political campaigns have themes.  People do NOT have themes.  My character does not have a theme, although the adventures in which that PC participates may have one.  Ditching that term takes the game one step farther away from the dissociated wargame that was 4E.  Bravo.

Next, rolling for ability scores.  Yea!  Of course it's 4d6-L arrange to taste, but at least point buy is not mentioned and the "default array" is mentioned that it's just there for speed and convenience.  Roll them dice!

Hit points have returned to AD&D/3E levels.  Max HP at level 1 is still the default (as in 3E), but then I've been using that since my Mentzer Red Box, so I have no quibbles with that.  The option to take a set amount of HP at each higher level is there, or you can roll.  I still haven't looked at the monster document to see how the monster HP fare, though. 

Races - wow, a whole heaping ton of fluff about the races, that basically says the generic stereotypes of the races anyway.  Dwarves dig tunnels, drink beer, like to fight, are grumpy and stubborn.  Did you need to spend a page and a half telling me all that?  Sub-races are a default mechanic.  Not a good thing.  It's just one more choice needed at character creation and looks to only serve min-maxers (for example, High Elf gets you +1 Int for your Wizard, while Forest Elf gets you +1 Dex for your Rogue or Ranger).  I don't expect that you'd see many Hill Dwarf Clerics when Mountain Dwarf gets you a +1 Wis.

Classes - some interesting things here.  First of all, Level 10 spells.  Really?  REALLY???  With level 0 spells (Orisons/Cantrips) the game will now have 11 levels worth of spells.

Clerics - an interesting magic mechanic.  Memorize your X spells per day, but then you can choose any of them to cast up to X times per day.  Sort of like the 3E Sorcerer, but you need to limit your spells known.  You always have your Domain spells and Turn Undead prepared without taking up slots.  I don't like that Turning takes up a spell slot to use, but oh well.

Fighters - the expertise die mechanic.  You get a d6 each round (more and bigger dice as you level) that you can use each round for extra damage, damage reduction, or to pull off a special maneuver.  Interesting.  Not sure if it will prove overpowering or not.  It may be a nice simple way to give Fighters that edge they've always supposed to have had over Rangers, Paladins, and the like.

Rogues - I didn't notice too much different about them.  Sneak Attack starts at +2d6 dice, though.  Is that new, or was it in the first play test doc?  Don't remember and I'm too lazy to go look it up.  The Rogue scheme basically gives you an extra Background plus what amounts to a feat tree, so Rogues will have six trained skills total (Fighters only get 3, I think, while Clerics and Wizards get 4).

Wizards - Pretty much as before.  Cantrips are at will powers (including Magic Missile), while other spells are standard Vancian magic. 

General Impression - Better than the first iteration.  If they continue with what they've got here, I'd buy a copy of the PHB to have for reference if someone wanted to run this game.  Like Pathfinder, I would happily play, but doubt I'd ever run the system.

Now, the really bad news.  Whoever is writing the copy for these playtest documents needs to be taken out back and shot.  And I'm not complaining about the abundance of useless fluff (if they had new takes on the races, I wouldn't consider that fluff useless, but as it stands they're not telling me anything new about them so it's just a waste of space).  The style of 4E, with its overly complex faux legalese is annoying and makes it hard to comprehend in a few places. 

Ex. one of the Fighter combat maneuvers is a "dead eye" ranged attack thing.  What it does is let you roll an Expertise die when shooting at a target with cover, but the bonus cannot exceed the penalty to hit from cover.  The way it's worded makes it sound like you're better at shooting people with more cover.  Also, since other maneuvers let a Fighter simply exchange the die for an automatic effect like knocking prone or pushing the target 10' away, why not just expend the die to ignore the cover penalty, rather than making it a chance to ignore the whole penalty, but with a high chance to "roll over" and "waste" that extra accuracy? 

Mike Mearls and WotC (OK, I realize you're not reading this, but I'll address this to you anyway), seriously, stop writing the rules in overly detailed but dense ways just for "that one guy."  Nobody likes to play with "that one guy" anyway, and the rest of us are intelligent and mature enough NOT to abuse the rules just because they're written in plain English instead of near gibberish faux legalese.

On my next commute, I'll look at the Backgrounds and Specialties, plus equipment and spells.

Beast of the Week: Calopus

A rare beast from Medieval heraldry, likely inspired by legends in the Ancient Middle East, the Calopus.

Calopus
Armor Class: 3 (17)
Hit Dice: 3+1
Move: 180 (60)
Attacks: 2 horns
Damage: 1d10/1d10
No. Appearing: -- (2d6)
Save As: Fighter 3
Morale: 7
Treasure Type: C
Alignment: Neutral
XP:75

A predatory beast with the body of a wolf, head of a boar, serrated goat horns, and reptilian rear legs.  Calopuses are usually found in forests and plains, where they hunt in packs similar to wolves.  Their favorite tactic is to chase prey up into trees, then saw down the trees with their horns.  A calopus can cut down a tree trunk 1' thick in one Turn.