First Flying Swordsmen game

Dean and Jeremy just left.  We had a fun evening trying out Flying Swordsmen.  Character generation was not as bad as I thought it would be, although we did detect a small glitch (a remnant of Dragon Fist) that I'll edit out in a revised edition [to be released sometime in the future, after more actual play-testing is done].

One other legacy feature of Dragon Fist that I worried about was the initiative system.  Depending on which section you read, Dragon Fist actually had two systems.  The first was that everyone just goes on their action's speed (so everyone going on a medium speed 4 would go together, but an Insight stunt would add to your initiative).  The second, the one I thought was more "intended" is the one I went with: your action's speed, plus your stunt roll is your initiative.  But that requires everyone to declare actions and roll stunts, then the GM has to order everyone's actions, and then everything gets resolved. 

As we found out tonight, playing through a 5 Round combat between 4 PCs and 4 NPCs took a LONG time.  Like 4th Edition D&D long.  Part of that is because we're all (even me) getting used to the game system.  There were lots of spell lookups and questions about various things.  Part of it was that the declaration phase really slowed things down, and resulted in a lot of wasted actions.  Not exactly fast paced action like in a Jackie Chan movie, here.

So I've got a few options for changing Initiative.

Idea 1: Go back to the other "by the book" way from Dragon Fist.  The problem is Insight rolls, but since the only other thing they effect is saving throws, that might not be a problem.  Just declare an Insight stunt during the initiative phase.  Everyone else can declare their stunts on their turn.

Idea 2: No initiative.  Everyone gets an action in a round in which they begin with at least 1 hit point.  It's all simultaneous.  Seems like that might best simulate fast and furious martial arts action, actually, but is it practical at the game table?

Idea 3: d20 style initiative.  Roll once at the beginning of combat, with an Insight stunt bonus to the roll, then set the order from there and just cycle through.  Fair, but takes away the thrill of wondering if you can pull off your Mighty Iron Eagle Strike before your opponent casts a Withering Plum Blossom Palm spell on you.

Idea 4: some sort of integrated system where you roll d20 plus a stunt each round, and use that as your initiative AND your to-hit roll (if you make a to-hit roll). [Jeremy's idea]

Idea 5: A chart of maneuvers, your d20 roll tells you what you pull off, but your stunt allows you to shift up or down the chart by the number of the stunt.  [again, Jeremy, taking an idea from one of the swashbuckling games - Black Vulmea, if you're reading, you likely know the one he's talking about.]

Finally, I also may want to slightly rework some of the spells.  The NPC wizard, if I hadn't been trying to test out all three of her spells, likely could have turned the tide of battle by using her auto-hit damage dealing spell every round.  But it was Jeremy's Wizard who won the battle, by charming 3 of the 4 opponents.

Beast of the Week: Storm

This week, a dual stat beast of the week.  Inspired by movies like Big Trouble in Little China and Storm Riders, we've got yet another "Men" type that will work just as well in standard D&D type games, but also is one I should have put into Flying Swordsmen.  So the first dual stat Beast of the Week, the Storm!

Storm
[Classic D&D]
AC: 5 (15)
HD: 3**
Move: 120 (40) Fly 120 (40)
Attacks: 2 fists or 1 weapon
Damage: 1d4/1d4 or by weapon
No. Appearing: 1-4 (1-4)
Save As: E3
Morale: 9
Treasure Type: A
Alignment: any
XP: 65

[Flying Swordsmen]
AC: 15
HD: 3
Move: 60 Fly 60
Att: 2 weapons (+2)
NA: 1-4
Save: W3
Mle: 9
Stunts: M d4, A d4, I d3
XP: 325

Storms are men who have undergone rigorous mystical training to become martial artists in tune with the forces of nature.  [In Flying Swordsmen: Storms have the following Martial Arts Maneuvers: 4/2]  Each typically takes on two of the following traits, usable three times per day unless noted otherwise:
1. blast of wind (60' cone, 30' wide at far end, all in blast suffer 2d6 damage and must Save vs Spells/Earth or be knocked prone)
2. thunder clap (20' radius sonic blast, 4d8 damage, Save vs Breath/Fire for half damage)
3. lightning bolt (60' long, 5' wide line of electricity, 5d6 damage, Save vs. Spells/Earth for half damage)
4. ice storm (20' cube, 5d6 damage, Save vs. Spells/Water for half damage)
5. obscuring mist (100' radius cloud, provides cover)
6. cone of cold (60' cone, 30' wide at far end, deals 3d8 damage, Save vs. Spells/Water for half damage)
7. speed of the wind (haste/hasting tattoo, as spell)
8. deluge (90' cone, 40' wide at far end, deals 2d6 damage and pushes all in blast back to far end unless a Save vs. Paralysis/Metal is made)
9. water breathing (freely breathe water or air, always active ability)
10. lightning immunity (take no damage from electrical attacks, always active ability)
11. cold immunity (take no damage from cold attacks, always active ability)
12. gas immunity (take no damage from poison gas attacks, always active ability)

I really just don't care

Monte's out?

Public playtests?

Another re-release?

Stinky cheese?

Meh, says I.  I'm gonna be playing some Flying Swordsmen this weekend.

Everyone else is going on and on with speculation about this and that.  I'm working on a take home short essay midterm, but even if I weren't, I likely couldn't be bothered to write more than the above.  Cause once the midterm's out of the way, I've got a few more NPCs to stat up for Saturday's game.

Don't you have something better to do, too?  Bet you do.

The Last Rhagodessa

30 minute pencil sketch of a scene from our Vaults of Ur game last Saturday.  From left to right: Thidrek the Sleestak, Caradoc the Mumbler, Ripper, Rhagodessa, and Father Karl.

Of Pack-Beetles and Soap-watching Deities

Last Saturday night, we yet again ran a session of Justin's Vaults of Ur game on G+. 

---interuption: Damn you Google.  Where are all the hyperlinks for me to right-click/open new tab?  It's gonna be a pain in the ass adding hyperlinks if I have to do it all manually again.  Now back to your regularly scheduled blog post.  This has been a test of the emergency blog-rant system. ---

This week was a treat, because Brian, who ran our Pathfinder game, joined us from sunny Canada!  Brian had rolled up a Cleric, Caradoc the Mumbler, Blessed of Gormah the Crone.  Whenever the dice were rolling badly, Justin narrated that Gormah was too busy "watching her programs" to answer prayers from her Clerics.  When the dice were hot, it was a commercial break.

I, of course, was playing Thidrek the Sleestak (now a level 2 Sleestak Warrior!).  Jeremy had Ripper the Orc (Justin's Orcs use the BX/LL Dwarf), and Dean returned with Father Karl the Cleric.

In our last session, we'd fought some rhagodessa for the Hive, but one had gotten away.  We decided to go try and finish it off, plus do some more exploring in the caverns.  The Hive were more than happy about that.  Ripper showed up for the expedition carrying nearly his load limit in gear (lots of rope, oil, torches, rations, etc.) in a big bag.  So we asked the Hive members if they could loan us a beetle to haul around his stuff.  They agreed.  Red the beetle, the survivor of our previous mission, was once again assigned to us.  Father Karl asked for some of their glow-in-the-dark fungus to smear on his shield (which has a Grateful Dead bear device).  Into the tunnels we went.

It didn't take long to find the rhagodessa.  It was still slightly injured from our previous encounter, and apparently very hungry.  It attacked us on sight.  Luckily, we managed to take it down without any of us getting hurt.  It had been hiding on a ledge, and Thidrek climbed up to investigate, but there was nothing there.  Just a nice ambush spot.

We decided to cross the subterranean river next, and found a passage with stairs leading up.  With my infravision (on the first mission) I'd seen the lizard men "coming down the wall" and apparently they were just coming down the stairs.  At the top, we could go left or right, and the left passage had a strong smell of rot and decay.  Of course we chose to go that way first!

Found a very dead lizard man (like the bikers wanted to do to Pee Wee Herman, he'd been stomped, hung, stabbed, shot, tattooed, and then killed, after Cassandra Peterson had her way with him, or something.  The remains weren't pretty.)  Of course, hiding camouflaged against the wall were some Troglodytes, who attacked from the rear.  They got in a couple of blows against us, but Ripper and Thidrek's better armor helped lessen the damage they could do, as did the "trippy black light effect" of Father Karl's shield.  The last one tried to run away (well, his companion couldn't due to a critical hit by Thidrek in the first round that sent a crossbow bolt through his knee), but Ripper chased and tackled him, pummeling him with the pommel of his sword.

Going the other way, we found a temple of some sort, with lots of snake imagery.  Secret door detected, we crawled through a tight tunnel into a burial chamber (except for Ripper, who didn't want to take off his armor to crawl through unless absolutely necessary).  Despite being wary of traps, we opened the stone sarcophagus and found a mummified body that didn't jump up and try to level drain us.   Also scored a necklace.  


A stairway leading down from that chamber led to the river, which we followed, tied together like mountain climbers to prevent accidents.  When we got back to the sandy area near where we fought the Rhagodessae the previous expedition, more Troglodytes attacked.  Ripper and Thidrek were able to cut the rope easily enough, but the two Clerics, with only blunt weapons, were stuck to each other.  Being lightly armored as well, they both took some hits, but we overcame the Trogs in the end.


Going further, we found a well-constructed room with another carven demon face, similar to the temple or shrine above.  Once again, hidden Troglodytes attacked with surprise.  This was a tough battle.  Thidrek was the only one to come out with his shield unsplintered (using Trollsmyth's houserule), and Caradoc, who didn't have a shield, was taken down to -1 (Justin's death's door rules being that you can go to negative your level in hit points without dying).  After the last Trog fell, we looted another necklace from their leader, noted the contents of the next chamber for our next expedition, then carted the dead Rhagodessa and some Trog tails up to the Hive to claim a reward.  Got another gem for our services, and an offer to let us stay and rest up in The Hive.


A bit leery, we decided to take them up on their offer.  Didn't get converted/enslaved by their beetle overlords this time, and learned a bit more about the Hive as well.  Also, they agreed to heal us.  So it looks like next time the rag-tag crew will continue the exploration of the tunnels beneath the Hive.


Oh, and for the record, it was established that within Ur, the Sleestak (being Beastmen created as slaves) are not related to Troglodytes, although there could be some Trog DNA in there somewhere.  The Sleestak of Ur also have a Library of the Skulls.  Wicked.

Beast of the Week: Nihilist

I was going to save this one for later, but since it came up in the game last night (report to follow sometime later tonight or tomorrow), here they are.  Another "Men" type for your old school (or new school) game.  Inspiration of course from The Big Lebowski.

Nihilist
AC: 9 (11)
HD: 1*
Move: 120 (40)
Attacks: 1 weapon
Damage: by weapon
No. Appearing: 1-6 (2-20)
Save As: F1
Morale: 7
Treasure Type: nil
Alignment: nil (see below)
XP:13

Nihilists are people who believe in nothing.  As such, they have NO alignment, not even Neutral.  This grants them their signature special ability: complete immunity to all forms of Clerical magic*.  Such spells (and magic items) simply do not work on Nihilists.  Magic-User spells work normally.

*includes Druids, Paladins, the druidic spells of Rangers, and any other "divine" or "holy" magics in the campaign.

I blame Zhu AND Coop

The current OSR meme, make your blog into an 80's fan-zine.  Here's mine: