Is it OK to be arbitrary?

Working on Chanbara again today, and I'm almost done with the revisions to the actual game-play parts.  I decided to do this part first this time, to better build the classes and special abilities.  Last time, I did the classes first and then tried to match game play rules to the classes.  It's going much faster this time, partly because I only need to rewrite or tweak sections of the previous version, rather than construct it whole cloth.

And I'm now at the part about rewards.  The game will allow standard D&D style play, where you go fight monsters and bring back loot.  It's a good way to run a fun game, so Chanbara supports it.  But since this is a Japanese fantasy game of samurai and ninja, I want the game to do more than that.

I mentioned a while back that I was re-inspired to do more than just D&D in funny hats with this by some posts by Tedankhamen.  I want to reward players for behaving in genre appropriate ways, but without needing to go into pages and pages of blather about Confucian societies, Bushido, etc.  Because really, I'm not an expert on that stuff, so it would be blather.  Maybe better blather than someone who's only experienced Japan through anime, but blather nonetheless.

Giri, or duty/obligation, was easy.  I'd figured that one out before Ted penned his pieces.  PCs have allegiances to their feudal lord, high abbot, jonin ninja, sensei, family, comrades in arms, peasant association, etc.  The norms of a Confucian culture expect one to respect these bonds.  In game terms, the simple way to do that is to award gold for XP, but ONLY for gold donated to one of the (NPC) groups a character is allied with.  Of course, story awards can also be given for performing some duty or quest, but the fastest advancement comes from giving up your hard earned loot to advance the goals of the group in which you are a member.

Ninjou, or humane/compassionate acts, is harder.  As a GM, you can't railroad your players into behaving that way.  At least, not if you want the campaign to go anywhere.  So there needs to be some system to recognize and reward such acts.  But again, assuming the average person who buys Chanbara* and plays it won't have a strong grasp on Japanese culture and genre traditions, it's going to be hard for them to figure out what constitutes an act of "ninjou" and what doesn't.  And how to reward it?

At first, I thought about an Action Point or Story Point mechanic as a reward.  But I don't think having meta-game mulligans will add anything to play.  So that leaves us with XP awards and in-game rewards.  In-game rewards should of course be possible, but then they are also possible for acts in line with Giri as well as acts that aren't in line with either giri or ninjou.  So there's no point in trying to codify them.  The XP rewards, though, are trickier.

In adventures I write and publish, I could always include examples of how an encounter could be resolved to earn a "ninjou" reward.  But that doesn't really help the GM making his or her own adventures a lot.  I could do a bunch of research and blather on for pages and pages in a (probably vain) attempt to get the reader to understand a foreign cultural concept - but I won't.

Instead, what I'm thinking of now is something like this.  Acts of "ninjou" will have a set reward level, something like 5% or 10% of the XP needed to reach the next level.  I'll give a brief example of the idea of what acts of ninjou are like (similar to Ted's post linked above).  During play, any player may elect ANOTHER player's actions as deserving of a "ninjou" award.  Arbitrarily.  All other players and the GM must agree that the action was in-line with their understanding of the concept.  If they agree, the player earns the bonus XP for their character.  Again, arbitrary.  And while it means that some groups will misunderstand the concept and award things that a Japanese person might feel doesn't qualify, I think it won't matter.  It will be as rare or as common as the group wants, and will hopefully get players thinking of ways to RP their character so as to earn the award.

And groups that just want to loot ruins full of bakemono and rokuro-kubi can ignore it and have fun hacking and slashing through their adventures with nothing lost from the game-play.

Best of both worlds, I think.



*yes, I'm going to have it for sale, which means a PDF and a PoD version since so many people asked me for print versions of Flying Swordsmen.

Adjusting the classes in Chanbara

At the moment, here is my thinking on what classes to include in the game:

Budoka (Martial Artist): expert at weaponless hand-to-hand combat, will be customizable to emulate karate, jujitsu, aikido, sumo, or whatever.  Will have access to some weapons, probably no armor.  Special Abilities: a mix of Maneuvers and Tricks.  Spells: none.

Bushi (Warrior): all around combat expert class, can be a samurai, ronin, peasant hero, or what have you.  Will have access to all weapons and armor.  Special Abilities: lots of Maneuvers.  Spells: none.

Kagemusha (Shadow Warrior): stealthy warrior with some mystical training, for the ninjas who want cool magical powers.  Will have access to some weapons and light armor.  Special Abilities: a mix of Tricks and Secrets.  Spells: none.

Kensei (Weapon Master): combat specialist devoted to a single weapon.  This could be a melee weapon, ranged weapon, or even unarmed combat.  Will have access to a small number of weapons, no armor.  Special Abilities: only Maneuvers, fewer than the Bushi but with faster advancement for the specialized weapon (probably).  Spells: none.

Ninja (Spy): an expert at espionage, sabotage, and infiltration.  This will be the more traditional "gadget" oriented ninja class.  Will have access to all weapons and light armor.  Special Abilities: lots of Tricks.  Spells: none.

Onmyoji (Exorcist): diviners and experts trained in combating spirits and demons.  Will have access to all weapons and no (maybe light) armor.  Special Abilities: a mix of Maneuvers and Secrets.  Spells: yes.

Sohei (Warrior Monk): religiously trained fighters with some mystical abilities.  Will have access to most weapons and all armor.  Special Abilities: a mix of Maneuvers and Secrets.  Spells: probably none, maybe a few.

Soryo (Priest/Monk): religious figures who have a knack for dealing with social situations.  Can be used to emulate mendicant monks, shrine maidens, etc.  Access to limited weapons and limited armor.  Special Abilities: a mix of Tricks and Secrets.  Spells: yes.

Yamabushi (Mystic): religious hermits who practice asceticism to gain physical endurance and magic powers.  Access to limited weapons and limited armor.  Special Abilities: lots of Secrets.  Spells: yes.

As always, Maneuvers are combat related abilities, Tricks are for exploration and interaction, and Secrets are magical abilities.

Progress on Chanbara

I figured out the changes I wanted to make to the game system.

First of all, instead of d6 rolls for most exploration/interaction rolls, which skill dice give too big bonuses for, I've switched them to 2d6 rolls (similar to Classic D&D turn undead rolls).

Second, I figured out how to make the spellcasters non-Vancian but (hopefully) not overpowered.

Spellcasters know X number of spells by their level.  They can cast any spell they know once per day, and may make a 2d6 roll, possibly with a skill die bonus if the skill die they rolled matches the domain of the spell, to be able to recast the spell.  The target numbers for recasting get higher with each casting, up to a maximum of 5 times for 1s through 3rd level spells, 4 times for 4th level spells, and 3 times for 5th level spells.  TNs are also more difficult for higher level spells.

Additionally, in order to allow for "quests" for spells, or spells to be taught as rewards, caster classes get a number of "spell points" each level based on their primary ability score's skill die.  When they encounter a teacher, a spellbook, or something else they might be able to learn a spell from, they can spend 1 spell point per level of the spell, and one devoted day of study, or a bit of study every day for a week for each spell point spent to learn a new spell.

I think this should work the way I want it to, allowing casters a bit more power, but without allowing them to run away with spells.

___
In other news, while searching for the image above in Google, there's a lot of Soviet space race propaganda posters that would make good illustrations in a retro-future sci fi RPG.  Maybe once I get Chanbara done and Flying Swordsmen revised (and maybe do a bit more work on Presidents of the Apocalypse), I'll get to work on "Rockets & Saucers."

Mentzer Cover to Cover: Fighters

The Cleric class took four pages (2.5 of class description, 1.5 of First Level Spells), but the Fighter class takes only one.  And doesn't really need more.

As the descriptive text tells us, every party of adventurers should have at least one Fighter, with more being better.  Fighters don't have special abilities, but their normal abilities (to hit and damage monsters, to take hits and damage, to use a variety of weapons, their generally high Strength) make them self-sufficient and more likely to survive than other classes, especially in solo or small group adventures.

I can agree with that.  And the advice also dovetails nicely with some other advice to new players - Fighters are a simple yet effective class.  As a veteran gamer, I can appreciate efforts like 3E and 4E D&D to give the Fighter more options (I do a bit myself with my current set of house rules, and Flying Swordsmen/Chanbara are all about options to customize your fighting style).  *And now I'm failing in my Google search to find the artifact I'm looking for.  There was an ad from Dragon or Dungeon magazine or some such, giving advice to beginner players to ignore what the group says about needing such and such class to fill a gap, in your first game insist on playing a Fighter.  Maybe someone out there can help with a link, I'm not finding it.*

Anyway, Fighters are simple to play yet effective for a reason.  I like that.  They're also the fantasy trope most likely to be familiar to new players.  We all have heard stories of King Arthur and his Knights, or Greek heroes like Theseus and Hercules, or Conan, John Carter, and other pulp heroes, not to mention that aside from Gandalf the Company of Thorin Oakenshield and the Fellowship of the Ring are mostly made up of what in D&D would be Fighters.  Swords & Sorcery and High Fantasy/Romance alike tend to feature the guys with swords as the heroes and the guys with sorcery as the villains.

On the text itself, one thing that jumped out at me on reading this that didn't upon reading the Cleric entry is in the "XP" section.  When you collect the listed number of XP, you automatically move up to the next level.  Again, this is a point of the rules that became ingrained in me from the start.  I've never liked the "training" rules in AD&D.  Yes, it's more realistic to need to train (and it can siphon off excess cash), but I'm not sure that I find those rules to be fun.  Much better to just let the characters level up when they have the points, and stick to the adventure, IMO.

Another interesting tidbit is at the end of the description.  It advises players of Fighters to seek out magical weapons, and also especially potions of healing, since they're more likely to need them.  Funny that the other Basic Set potion that is most useful to Fighters, the Potion of Growth, is not mentioned.  Magic armor is also not mentioned.

Movie Review: Ender's Game

On New Year's Day, the family and I went to the cinema.  My wife and son saw a dubbed into Korean kids' movie called "Dinosaur Adventure" (may have a different name in English, I didn't check, that's the Konglish name anyway), while I went all by my lonesome to see Ender's Game.

And I liked it. 

Short digression about the political BS, feel free to skip to the next paragraph:
Now, I know there are many people who said they were boycotting this movie for political reasons.  They don't like Orson Scott Card's devout Mormonism and his political activity against homosexual equality.  But just like I don't let Robert E. Howard's or H. P. Lovecraft's personal views on race detract from my enjoyment of their fiction, similarly I don't care that OSC may take a fraction of the $8 I spent on a ticket and possibly use it to lobby against equal treatment for gays/lesbians.  He's got a right to free speech, even if I disagree with him. 

Now that that's out of the way, on to the movie review itself.  Since the movie's been out for two months or so already in North America (it just opened here in South Korea), and since a lot of readers of this blog may also be familiar with the books, please forgive any spoilers I may have in here.

The movie opens quickly, with Ender's first confrontation with a bully after getting his monitor removed, and before you really know it, he's headed off to Battle School with Colonel Graff.  Already there are some elements being condensed, such as Bean being in Ender's launch group (or maybe I'm misremembering the novel?).  Soon, Ender has earned his launch group's respect and he's graduated to Salamander Army.  The plot moves along quickly, but yet it still manages to hit all of the important parts.

Personally, I wish they'd had more time for more of the Battle Room, but we see enough (barely) to set up some of the things Ender will be doing later when he's in Command School.  And if Battle School seemed condensed, the parts at Command School really get cut short, but it makes the movie flow well.

We skip some of the subplots.  Bernard is there, but downplayed.  We don't see anything of Valentine and Peter's subplot back on Earth, which actually was just as well.  It may play into the book sequels (haven't read them yet), but in this film it would have just been a distraction.  This is Ender's story, and they stick with him.

There were a couple of places where they soft-balled a few issues, a bit of Disney-fication.  But while I think that takes a bit away from Ender's internal struggle, the film-makers did have a lot on their plate, and this may make Ender a bit more sympathetic to a general audience.

The characters were all true to their depictions in the novel, and I think that's important.  If the plot is condensed, and the ending is modified slightly (not the salient parts, really just condensing two locations into one), the film still felt true to the source.

This is not your standard style "military sci fi," but it was well done, moving, and relays the message of the novel.  One bone to pick is that the trailers for the movie pretty much showed the whole ending of the film.  But considering that's the most "action packed" part, I can see why marketing people did it that way.  If you haven't seen it yet, and haven't read the novel, just be warned that it's not an action movie, it's a coming of age drama with a military sci fi backdrop.  Don't let that keep you away from it.  It's worth seeing.

Compared to the last movie I saw, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, this movie feels like the creators really cared about the book and wanted to bring it to the screen, rather than just making something full of sound and fury signifying nothing that would rake in a big box office.

Is it third thoughts or fourth thoughts by now?

Was gonna title this little post "Second thoughts on my second thoughts" but I'm not really sure what iteration of the current redesign process this is.

Yes, talking about Chanbara again.

Just the other day, I posted about having three base classes, each with a pair of subclass options.

Now, I'm thinking of just going with seven or eight simple base classes, which can then be customized with the combat maneuvers, tricks, and secrets special abilities.

Now, to decide what exactly those classes should be!

Got an opinion?  You're on the internet, you'd better have one!

When you think of feudal/fantastic Japan, what are the character tropes/archetypes that spring to mind?  Leave a comment.

If I get enough variety, maybe I'll post a poll later.  But I'll likely ignore the results unless there's some archetype that everyone just loves that I hadn't made its own unique thing.

Outcasts of Ur

Justin ran another session of Vaults of Ur last Saturday, the last game of the year for me.  Fitting that the play report of it then becomes my first post of 2014!

We had some new players joining us.  Gord has been in our Facebook group for a long time now, but finally got around to playing with us, as ...crap, maybe I should have posted this earlier, I forgot his character's name, but he was a gecko-like Beastman. 

Gino, who is new to Busan, also joined us, as a Tengu Thief named ...again I forget.  Sorry, guys.  Usually I write them down.  I will for sure next time.

And while Dean couldn't make it (and Elder Karl's character sheet was lost in his computer crash), Alexei was there playing Maya the Elf (with more or less the same retinue from my megadungeon game the week before), Jeremy had Noctis the Orc with new sidekick Sadaauk the Orc (more of an assassin type than gladiator type), and I was playing both Thidrek the Sleestak and Thomas the Visionary. 

I joined a bit late, with the party having been sent through one of the teleportation pools out of Fort Low into exile.  We were in a large chamber that was apparently part of the old orcish civilization's underground city.  We explored quite a bit, and had a battle with garbage.  Living garbage.  Or maybe it was a magical construct of some sort.  Thidrek got pretty beat up by it, but managed to give it the killing blow in the end. 

Every round in the combat, Justin had Thomas the Visionary up first on the roster, so he kept asking what Thomas was doing.  The answer every round was - staying the heck back.  Thomas has divination type spells, and lots of useful knowledge, but other than a shield spell, he has on combat prowess at all.  :D

We didn't find any loot, so we continued our explorations.  Thomas's Locate Object spell did cue us in that there was a large source of water across a chasm, so we made our way towards the bridge.  Across it, Gino's thief scouted ahead and heard a large force.  He was less than perfectly stealthy coming back, and the force sent some of their men our way.  After a brief parlay in orcish done by Noctis, we made peaceful contact with a merchant and his savage, tattooed guards and mutant white ape pack beasts. 

After discussing our options and trading the undead captain's helmet for information (with Thidrek using one of his ESP potions for insurance purposes), we decided we could trust this guy well enough, and plan to travel with him to the "City of the Veiled Ones" (apparently the freak masked orcs we fought just before getting framed for murder by the ogres). 

Should be interesting, but Justin will be back in the States most of January, so it will be a while before our next adventure.