Weekend stuff

Been busy with grad school stuff, so no blog posts the last couple days.  My wife and I have tickets to see Thor tomorrow, though, so expect a review sometime Sunday night Korea time.

As for gaming stuff, I've got a few things on the back burner, but until I get these papers and presentations finished in a couple weeks, expect posting to be light around here.

V is for...um...V

No, I'm not suddenly jumping on the A-Z Blogger Challenge.  As Jesse Ventura once said, "I ain't got time to bleed."  Just funny that my blog roll is reading lots of other people's "V" posts, and here I am posting about V.

My wife and I watched the first two episodes of season 1 of the new V series last night.  We both loved the original mini-series as kids, and a few years ago we found both the original and "The Final Battle" DVDs for sale at a local shop in Japan and picked them up and re-watched them.  Good times.

So far, the new version is looking good.  It's just similar enough to be familiar, but different enough to be its own thing.  And I'm liking the 'reptoid masters' conspiracy theory link they seem to be doing with it. 

Spell Presentation in Rulebooks

Traditionally, D&D had spells for Cleric and Magic-Users (and other classes that used spells in that edition) organized by level, with all spells of first level presented together alphabetically, followed by second level alphabetically, etc.

3E took the encyclopedic approach, with all spells, regardless of level or class, arranged alphabetically in one big list.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both.

In the old setup, it's easy for players to peruse the spells they can access early on and compare them to each other.  If all the first level spells are on one or two pages, it's easy to get a grip on them (of course when you get up to 30+ spells as in AD&D it takes a bit more space, but they're still all there together).  And as your PC gains levels, you can digest the new spells in manageable chunks.  For learning your character's options, it's very convenient to have it this way.

The newer setup, however, also has its advantages.  If spell X is listed in a monster writeup, magic item description, or a module, you can look it up easily without having to remember if it's an M-U or Cleric spell, and what level of spell it is.  Also, for spells that are on multiple spell lists, they only need to include the text once.

I'm partial to the first way, because that's what I started with, and since I mainly play Classic where there are only 8 or 12 spells per level, it's not that hard to keep track of them all in my head.  Despite having played 3E for seven or eight years I never read through every single spell description in the PHB.  I have done that with all the spells in BECM (multiple times).  I don't remember if I ever did with AD&D but I may have.

My Love/Hate relationship with Safari

Safari the makers of plastic models of animals, not treks through African wilderness (something I've yet to experience).

They've put out another dragon, this one is an Ice Dragon.

So I'll be able to finally add a large white dragon to the minis mix.  As soon as my wife allows me some discretionary funds that is...  She's getting a little annoyed at my constant buying up of dragon figures from Safari, Schleich and Papo, even if I do play with them with our son.

And I'm still waiting for a black dragon mini that doesn't have two heads.

XP for Outwitting

In my post about XP for HD last night, my buddy Josh makes a good point in the comments.

My goal of increasing XP per HD at the low end of the scale was not to increase the value of fighting (so you only need to kill 20 orcs to level up instead of 400), but to increase the speed of leveling.

My preferred style of play is to encourage creative ways to get the treasure without resorting to combat more than it's necessary.  So why not stick to the original XP values for combat, but institute XP awards for outwitting/outmaneuvering/trapping monsters than killing them?

Of course, in this case, I'd not want to give XP for the combat prowess of the monster, which is what XP per HD (bonuses for special abilities) does.

Taking a look at AD&D's descriptive levels of monster intelligence, it wouldn't be hard to institute something like this:

Nonintelligent--0 xp
Animal Intelligence--25 xp
Semi-Intelligent--50 xp
Low Intelligence--100 xp
Average Intelligence--200 xp
Very Intelligent--500 xp
Highly Intelligent--1000 xp
Exceptionally Intelligent--2000 xp
Genius--3000 xp
Supra-Genius--4000 xp
Godlike Intelligence--5000 xp

Of course, these would be awarded per group, not per individual outwitted.

Other useful side effects would include more XP for using a Sleep spell but not slitting throats immediately after, making me as a DM pay much more attention to the Int. level of all monsters when I roleplay them, allowing more ways for the Thief to shine, and giving more reasons for M-Us to memorize non-combat spells.

The downside?  Big HD but low intelligence creatures.  If you're out for XP, why try to outwit the 20HD T-Rex (other than to avoid its terrible bite and almost guaranteed chance to hit each round) if outsmarting it is only worth 25 xp? 

I'll need to think about this a bit more before implementing it, obviously, but it may be a step in the right direction.

Revising the XP per HD tables

So two years ago, when I started compiling my own version of the Classic D&D monsters to be able to print out and use in my games, I decided to use the original OD&D version of XP per hit die, 100 per.  For special ability bonuses, I used a straight +50.  This is nice and simple, and allows low to mid-level characters to rise in power faster.  For me, playing as rarely as I do anymore, that's a good thing.  Yes, it makes combat more lucrative, but that's a price I'm willing to pay.

The unfortunate side effect of this is that high level monsters can get devalued.  Monsters without special abilities aren't much different after 9 hit dice, but those special ability bonuses get big fast.

So in order to increase the value of powerful monsters with special abilities a bit, I'm considering the following:

Less than 1 hit die: 50xp, bonus 25xp
1 full hit die or more: 100xp per hit die base
1 to 5 hit dice: bonus +50xp
6-10 hit dice: bonus +100xp
11-15 hit dice: bonus +250xp
16+hit dice: bonus +500xp

Bonuses are counted for any asterisk after hit dice or the monster's name (only hit by magic weapons), and for any bonus hit points on top of hit dice.  So a hobgoblin, 1+1 hit dice, is worth 150xp. 

It's still a lot lower than the normal tables, though.  I may increase it further after I think about it a bit more.

I'd rather not have monsters more valuable to fight when PCs are most vulnerable, and less valuable to fight when they actually may stand a chance (or can more easily bring those fallen back).

I never knew them in their prime

But I've gotten to know them in the past few years.

Here's my Megadungeon Level 3 NPC party, based on the stats given for the two Fighters in Moldvay Basic, then extrapolated for the party members mentioned in the examples of game play and combat later in the books.

Borg, Lawful Fighter 3
Str 17, Int 8, Wis 10, Dex 7, Con 15, Cha 6; AC 3/17, HP 18
Sword, 2 Daggers, Shortbow, Platemail, Shield, 20 arrows, 50' rope, backpack, 11 arrows +1, Potion of Clairvoyance
Personality: Plodding and rude

Morgan Ironwolf, Neutral Fighter 3
Str 16, Int 7, Wis 9, Dex 13, Con 14, Cha 8; AC 1/19, HP 26
Maul of Aias* (2-handed warhammer +1), Shortbow, 20 arrows, 6 silver arrows, 2 vials of holy water, Brynhild's Mail* (chainmail +3), Elven Boots
Personality: Seductive yet cutthroat

Silverleaf, Neutral Elf 3
Str 14, Int 14, Wis 11, Dex 9, Con 12, Cha 12; AC 2/18, HP 15
Spells: Sleep, Hold Portal, Mirror Image
Herculean Club* (club +2), Sling, 30 stones, 6 sling stones of dispelling, Platemail, Shield, Potion of Flying
Personality: Picky but courageous

Fredrik, Lawful Dwarf 3
Str 15, Int 9, Wis 8, Dex 12, Con 12, Cha 10; AC 2/18, HP 15
Chain Whip* (flail +1), 3 Hand Axes, Potion of Giant Strength, Platemail, Shield, 1 sprig Wolvesbane, 4 flasks of oil
Personality: Efficient and remorseless

Sister Rebecca, Lawful Cleric 3
Str 13, Int 6, Wis 16, Dex 15, Con 15, Cha 14; AC 1/19, HP 16
Spells: Cure Light Wounds, Protection from Evil
Mace, Sling, 30 stones, Holy Symbol, Platemail, Shield, 2 vials of Holy Water, Potion of Growth, Scroll: Cure Light Wounds
Personality: Friendly and devout

Black Dougal, Chaotic Thief 3
Str 11, Int 11, Wis 10, Dex 14, Con 10, Cha 8; AC 6/14, HP 11
The Golden Bow* (Longbow +1, Translating), 40 arrows, Sword, Thieves' Tools, Leather Armor, Potion of Treasure Finding, Mirror
Personality: Brash and sly


*all magical weapons and armor are from my Unique Magic Items documents, downloadable over there on the right sidebar.