The Ever Expanding Dungeon: Session 12

[Q6. I had no idea what was going to be the challenge for the PCs with this question and then I rolled "levitating", "slime" and the frown-y face story cube, well there you go then, a floating 6' tall face made of slime]

As the party attempted to figure out just what to do, now that things had gone from bad to a whole lot more bad,  a hidden door slid open and through the passage flew the 6' tall twisted visage of a man’s face in dripping green slime, laughing maniacally. [AC 6, HD 3, # att: 1 either touch or vomit, all damage as ordinary green slime, MV: 60', F:3]

[I was starting to worry about the party's chance of survival and I opted to give Gelfat a chance to know that green slime can be damaged only by flame. After all, he's a few hundred years old and had plenty of time to study such things back in elf school right? In the event, he passed his attribute check.]

Gelfat recognized that it might be the kind of creature which can only be wounded by fire, but before he could tell anyone, the floating slime-face projectile vomited towards Perceval.  The slime blast landed far short and even with the splash, it did no damage.

"Everyone grab a torch!" yelled Gelfat.
The battle was quick and went to the party but as the last bit of the slime burned away, they could hear a laugh coming from the passage the floating green head had come, a laugh that sounded identical to that of the slime. 

[Q7] 

With surprise so far removed from the realm of the possible and with no way to exit the tower, the PCs pressed onward with Perceval and Feldspar in front, Sister Linkat close behind, followed by Gelfat, the worst armor of the bunch , torch in hand, just in case.

[ Will the wizard be in this room - near sure thing, 86,yes]

Seated in a carved stone throne, a bald man with a long white beard, dressed in a hooded black robe glared at them with white, pupil-less eyes. To a one, the PCs were suddenly thrown into doubt about the very nature of this evil.

“This is fun isn’t it?” he smirked. 

From behind the throne stepped four abominations clad in gilded armor, with the legs, lower torso and arms of a man and the yellow-green chitinous head with glowing red eyes of a mantis.

[I decided for ease of stats to treat them as orcs but with a morale of 12.]

Gelfat dropped his torch (the room like the previous rooms was lit) and shield and prepared charm person, while the rest charged the mantis-men, doing their best to stay out of Gelfat's line of sight.

Things started out well - Feldspar cleaved the first mantis-man in two, but then the party faltered. Sister Linkat and Perceval both failed to do any damage, and although Gelfat had a clear shot at the wizard, he was unable to charm him. [the wizard was 9th level and just barely made his saving throw. Victory was so close. So very close.]

The wizard had seen enough and disappeared behind his throne and up the stairs.

Meanwhile the building was still shaking and debris continued to fall, [There were a number of tests to see if anyone on either side was hit, but no one was.]

The savage melee continued - Gelfat was badly wounded and then, in a shocking turn, Feldspar was run through and dropped on the spot. The natural leader of the group, the party's strongest fighter, dead. It was a lot to take in.

[Here I had to pause. The loss was real - he had been a key part of my stable of PCs for two months. Even when he was laid up in bed thanks to the giant centipede bite, I made sure to check his status each session. I'm glad he went down fighting and not falling into some spiked pit trap or succumbing to poison gas. He was the last PC from the original party to die - Perceval was an NPC to start for those who are new to the story]

Several tense round of combats followed - a slogging match of close calls and near misses, until Gelfat too was slain. That he died giving his all to save a small village of strangers, and the lives of his new found companions, will be remembered by all who tell the tale of this quest to slay this evil wizard.

[Now I became truly disheartened. Bluebear Jeff had imbued Gelfat with just enough personality that I could run with him and easily put myself in his shoes, without feeling hampered by a complicated back story. I was sad to lose him so quickly. I'm glad he went down swinging and not like a chump.]

Enraged and desperate, Sister Linkat and Perceval fought on until the mantis-men lay in heaps upon the floor. 

Without missing a beat, they raced behind the throne and up the stairs to stop the wizard and end this madness.

[Q8  and what a costly bunch of Qs it's been!]

[My random generator gave me giant, mirror. And I immediately knew where this was going.]

Sister Linkat and Perceval bounded up the stairs only to find themselves standing at the top of the shaking, collapsing, tower on a large circlular open-air deck. An intricate wrought-iron railing being the only thing between standing on the tower and free falling to the ground below. 

Before them, a great glass lens of enormous proportions, mounted on a complicated brass and copper machinery appeared to be pointed at Woodsbridge [I decided the village really ought to have a name], barely visible in the distance. 

Standing behind the lens was the mage.

“You seem to have forced my hand. And here i was going to give the village 5 days of terror to meet my demand. Too bad for them that you decided to take this approach.”

He began to move his hands and speak the words of some ancient spell.

[Before I rolled initiative, I had to find out some stats for the wizard. He had to be 9th level for some of the spells I imagined he had access to. I also figured if he'd survived this long, he must have a ring of protection and a decent DEX. I rolled his DEX as 6 + 2d6. 15, and gave him a ring of protection +2. AC 6, not bad for a guy in a bath robe.)

[Perceval planned to charge the wizard while Sister Linkat would charge and try to smash the lens with her mace. I rolled the dice, and the wizard won: 6-3]
The wizard cast his spell at the lens and a bolt of electricity shot from his body, slammed into the lens and was immediately amplified to many times its power. A split second later the entire destructive force was released upon the village.

Or it would have been.

Unfortunately, the lens wasn't quite as accurate as the wizard hoped, and it exploded in a shower of trees and earth. [curiosity, which, as they say, killed the cat, forced me to ask, first if the device was accurate. I set the chances at 50/50 and rolled 63, a "no". Then if the dungeon had been hit.  I gave it a 50/50 chance and sighed with relief when I rolled a 73 which is also a "no."]

"Damn gnomes," he cursed under his breath.

Perceval charged and struck the wizard [10 points of damage,but the wizard is 9th level and quite 

alright].

Sister Linkat attacked the lens with equal success. 

[To determine the roll to hit for the lens, I asked if the lens had an  ac of 5 and got a no, so I asked if it was higher (i.e. better or in reality, lower)? 22, Exceptional yes. The ac is 2, and random event!  ambiguous event, elements, vengeance.]

As the lens cracked, the sky began to darken, lightning flashed and then thunder roared - the sky opened up and rain poured down.

[In the next round, I gave the wizard a chance to have a wand, since, as I take it, if he's engaged in melee he can't cast a spell. I figured it was very likely and got a yes, and rolled up a wand of illusion. I asked if he also had a magic dagger, and got exceptional yes, which I decided was a +1 dagger with poison on the blade.  To see which he'd use, I ruled 1-3 = wand 4-6 dagger, rolled 1d6 and got 6, dagger]

Perceval was lucky the wizard missed, he didn't realize how lucky, nor did he have t he time as he was already swinging. He struck the wizard again [a whopping 4 points. 14 points total and  he remained on his feet].

[I then asked Mythic, does the wizard stay in combat? 50/50 80, no]

The wizard took stock of the situation and decided to fall back to the railing to give himself some space.

[He then won the initiative and I asked does he cast as a spell or try to escape. I figured one doesn't get to 9th level as a magic-user without knowing it's better to live to fight another day, plus it makes for a possible recurring villain.1-3 spell, 4-6 escape, rolled 1d6 and got a 6, escape]

With a flourish he hurled himself over the edge. 

Sister Linkat and Perceval ran to the railing to watch the wizard's fall, but as the peered over the edge, they were met by an incredible flash of light and the wizard was gone.

There was little time to stand around and puzzle out what they had just seen, for the building began to crumble at an increasingly fast rate.

[Mythic, is there anyway for them to escape? 50/50 (you might scoff at those odds but it's an action adventure, surely the hero has a chance to escape certain doom. Otherwise, this would be Call of Cthulhu) , 36, yes.]

Perceval grabbed his rope, tied it to the railing on the side of the tower closest to ridge and he and Sister Linkat climbed down to safety. They continued running down the ridge as far from the tower as they could get, well, as fast as anyone in plate mail really can run, looking for a place to take shelter from the storm. 

Behind them, the tower collapsed into a spectacular pile of rock, dust and flame.

[Q9]

Early that evening, they arrived safely back in Woodsbridge already well involved in a joyous celebration - the villagers had seen the smoke from the collapsed tower and the explosion that tore up some of the pastures outside of town (no sheep were injured). The two were rewarded for their efforts, and for the loss of their companions, with free lodging as long as need be and each received a small sum of gold (10gp) as a token of the villagers thanks.

As a result of the threat they faced, however, anti magic-user sentiment will become prevalent in the communities within 10 miles of the ridge, as the story spreads of the fate that almost befell the small logging village.

And, of course, there’s no evidence the wizard was killed in the fall.

*****

I have a lot to say about these two sessions, but I'll save most of it for another post.

It was gladdening, after so much loss, to see that both PCs earned enough experience to push them into 2nd level. Finally!

That it was a Pyrrhic accomplishment does detract from it a little bit, but only a little bit.

The Ever Expanding Dungeon: Session 11

When we last left our heroes, the sheriff had approached them for assistance in dealing with an evil wizard who had targeted the village with extortion and threats of annihilation.

I decided this adventure would be another using JF's 9Qs available from SoloNexus, and the setup proposed at the end of session 10 would take the place of Q1. Be the GM First. Play would start this session with Q1. Be the Player Next.

The party grilled the sheriff and learned the town can't afford the payments demanded and frankly they had no plan, hence the need for the PCs to intervene. The sheriff pointedly observed that the village had hoped the dungeon would bring a boom of adventuring types eager to spend their coin, but they have been slow in coming.

"And well, to be frank, those that have come have joined your group and either died or are standing right here."

The truth does hurt sometimes.

[At this point I figured I'd poll the party to see if anyone wanted to veto this adventure and instead return to the dungeon - but surveying their motivations showed me that clearly, they would accept it. Both Sister Linkat and Perceval because they want to protect the villagers, and for Feldspar and Gelfat, it promised adventure. So, no check was needed.

However, I wasn't going to assume they'd all support the same approach.

I decided to think about it from each PCs point of view and imagine each one making their points, typing it out as I went. The result of the imaginary dialog was that no dice roll was needed.]

After much back and forth, the party decided they would attempt to mount a surprise attack (aka assassination) on the wizard.

The sheriff, who had been standing by awaiting the party's decision asked the obvious "Why not best the beast he threatens us with?"

"Even if we fight it as a group, which is in violation of the challenge, we could very well lose to this unknown creature, and if we fight fairly, it’s likely neither it nor the wizard will," explained Feldspar.

Satisfied, the sheriff left the party to their planning.

Unfortunately for the party, Feldspar could no longer afford the mysterious Trulhammar Gax, and when offered the same sum by Perceval, he declined the offer. Before the day was out, they would acquire a mule to carry their armor the majority of the trip to the wizard's tower.

As usual, they would leave at first light.

[Overnight Sister Linkat recovered from her wounds. Q2 starts here]

Or that was the plan at least, but as they finished loading the last of their gear, they heard a scream coming from direction of the village square.

As they approached, 100s, then 1000s, of small spiders spilled out of the central fountain and poured down the streets. It was as if each drop of water had been replaced by a tiny arachnid, until finally a fearsome and angry giant black widow climbed out.

The party, of course, was unarmored, all of it had been strapped to the mule.

"Everyone, grab your shields and oil! l And light torches! I'll try to occupy it in the meantime!" hollered Feldspar as he knocked an arrow.

The ensuing combat was chaotic and left the streets filled with billowing smoke from the burning oil. The foul creature was finally slain when Gelfat charged in after the spider misjudged the distance to Sister Linkat and crashed to the ground stunned 

[i rolled a 1 for the black widow's attack and then checked the table I use for fumbles]

With the final sword stroke, all of the little spiders turned back into water, leaving the dirt and stone streets a puddle-ridden mess.

[q3]

As the party stood about congratulating themselves, the black widow's body began to crack and flake into the sky like bits of burning paper until nothing remained of it. High above the village, the swirling black flakes transformed into a flock of ravens flying directly towards the wizard’s tower.

Realizing that they had just lost their chance of surprise, the party headed off as fast as they could.

[q4]

The party tied up the mule, donned their armor, and then cautiously approached the rocky crag upon which stood the wizard's tower. Creeping along the rocky surface, they sought a cave that might lead them into the tower.

Once again, the hand of fate provided. [the Fate Chart to be precise]

A long twisting passage led them to a large,slightly open, metal door.

Inside, the party found themselves in a large circular chamber lit with torches all around. In the middle, approximately 6’ tall and 12’ long, stood a giant brass, copper and silver statue of a beetle. Or what they had hoped was a statue.

With a frightening clicking sound, it jerkily sprang into motion and advanced on them.

[ I made this up on the spot: Clockwork Beetle(AC 3, HD 3, MV 20’, ATT mandibles or special, mandible 1d8, 1 on 1d6 shoots a jet of flame for 1d8, save vs. dragon breath to take 1/2 damage, range of 50’, F:3, Morale: 12) ]

The party split up into twos to find a staircase up, with each pair taking a door on the perimeter of the room.

It took opening all three doors before the party found the steps, and not before Sister Linkat and Feldspar were both severely wounded by the mechanized beetle. In the safety of the stairwell, Sister Linkat cast her Cure Light Wounds on herself. [and recovered a staggering 2 points. things were looking grim]

[q5]

The party followed the steps up into another open chamber, somewhat smaller than the previous.

On a large dais were two 7' tall glowing crystals, with arcs of electricity jumping from one to the other in a web of sparking light. There, in the gaps between the sparks, small bursts of blackness, like tears in the structure of the universe, appeared, accompanied by strange howling, screams of torment, growls and snarls which erupted from the darkness, then silenced a moment later when the tear closed.

Sister Linkat noticed that several symbols on the bases of the crystals belonged to evil gods and demons. Gelfat recognized many of the sigils on the walls as being magical though he himself couldn't read them, as his current memorized spell was charm person

Still, the purpose was easy to discern: the wizard was trying to bring or had already brought something over from another plane.

Sister Linkat suggested they topple the crystals, which was met with unanimous assent.

As the first crystal fell and shattered, the sparks and tears in the fabric of space and time ceased, the sigils glowed with a sudden intensity then disappeared from the wall, and the whole tower began to shake, loosened stones began to fall, and the steps they had just taken came crashing down. 

[stay tuned for the exciting conclusion aka Session 12 of The Ever Expanding Dungeon]

Five for Friday : Week of 2/8/13 - 2/14/13: Meteor Watch Edition

The Sky is Falling! (reported everywhere)

Big news today was that a meteor tore threw the sky over a city in Russia today and it was caught on video. Pretty amazing stuff. Not to mention how crazy powerful the shock wave was - putting a fair sized gauge in brick wall, shattering windows, flexing window frames, etc. Even without any kind of impact to the planet surface, it caused quit a bit of damage (most injuries due to shards of glass).

There has to be a way to work a meteor into one of my games.

Fantasy Background Generator Hack From Cyberpunk 2020 on Wrathofzombie's Blog
I love random generators. They're mini-games unto themselves (taken to the extreme, you get GDW's Classic Traveller where characters can die during generation). This one from Wrathofzombie is a lot of fun.

The B Team Can Relieve Your Campaign on Roles, Rules & Rolls

Roger the GS talks about having some second string characters to fill in on those days when one or more players are absent, and it's better to wait for their return than to move the campaign forward without them. It also works well when the main game has a lot riding on the PCs and the players or GM want  a game without worry about how much they've invested in the game and character so far.

How Can Impermanent Terrain Be Justified on SoloNexus

The idea is simple - terrain is not necessarily the constant we often take it to be. Artillery, weather and meteors can all reshape it. JF poses the question to his readers for ideas that can be used in a game to justify that change - to create new tactical challenges in play. The focus is on miniature gaming, but such things are not uncommon in the RPG world and the ideas mentioned are probably of use to both.

Mini Campaign II "Rear Guard" on The Wars of Wine and Cheese

This is eye candy pure and simple. The table and soldiers look beautiful. Hoping to get some time out in the garage this weekend to paint my own table top.

The Manor #3 and a Solo Gamer's Thoughts

It's been some time since The Manor #2 arrived in my mailbox and I had grown quite antsy waiting for issue # 3.

The Manor #3, cover by The Happy Whisk

Zines, of course, aren't generally produced with any regularity or schedule - it's the rare one that ever sees a 2nd issue - I'm speaking here of the broader "zine scene" and not specifically the recent abundance (OK, that's maybe a stretch of the term) RPG related zines, which seem to at least hit issue 2 before they evaporate.

So, when Tim Shorts announced issue 3 was, in fact, ready, I immediately placed my order for a physical copy.

For those of you who prefer them, a PDF is also available on DriveThruRPG . The print option includes a coupon code for a free download.



But, please, spend the extra $1.00 and get the hard copy.

It's only my opinion, but as I see it, the physical nature of a zine is as important aesthetically as the content. I do not feel that way about most books or serials.

In any case, I think I placed the order Friday and I got the download code a short time after.  I didn't have any time to pick up the PDF before Tuesday, which is when the print copy arrived. On top of that, although I was able to give it a quick skim, I spent the bulk of my Tuesday evening helping Lady Shadowmoss make invitations for the bridal shower she is throwing for her friend.

As an aside, may I never have to see pink card stock again.

Last night, I had significantly more time to spend with The Manor #3. After a good read-through, I set about playing the included adventure. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

For your money, you get: an adventure for low-level characters, a fun NPC, two silly jokes that actually made me laugh out loud, a poem about black dragons and a new class for Blood & Treasure (although you can easily mod it for your preferred system).

For the most part, I'm going to talk about the adventure, but I do want to address something about the poem.

According to Tim's introduction, including poetry in his zine is controversial, but he made the decision to print it anyway (if you missed the umber hulk poem in issue 1, go get it). Zines are labors of love and since it's his zine, I think this was absolutely the right decision.

Besides, without it, there wouldn't be a reason to include the bad-ass dragon illustration.

I'll step off my soap-box now. (Admittedly it wasn't much of a rant, but I needed a segue.)

The majority of the issue is dedicated to an adventure entitled, "Mine of Rot & Disease."  It's stat-ed out for Swords & Wizardry, but I have been itching to give Searchers of the Unknown a try and opted to go that route.

And, of course, I ran it solo.

From a solo perspective, I would have liked to have had either the player facing info or the GM info highlighted in grey, as Tim did with issue #1's short adventure, "The Salt Pit" (see my review). However, the entries are consistently organized with player information first, immediately  followed by GM info. While it's not ideal, it's easy enough to work with.

Given the layout, I first thought I'd run the game as a GM and use Mythic for the players, but part-way through, I opted to use the general method of the SoloNexus 9Qs of "Be the Players" , "Be the GM" and alternate. To prevent the experience from becoming a writing exercise, and to keep it game-y, I used Mythic for decisions on both sides, with PC characteristics to aid in decision making for the PCs.

I'm not sure how it happened, but by the end, I was playing the PCs and Mythic was controlling the GM side of things. Apparently, that's my natural inclination.

The party may have been better off with Mythic!

They didn't get past the 2nd cavern in the mine before they had to abandon the mission and get a severely injured comrade back to the village. That was after facing 4 skeletons and 5 zombies. The former they overcame easily, but they fled from the latter, using burning oil to aid in their escape. On the way back they encountered and dispatched a lone zombie - a random encounter.

Tim notes the adventure is for total of 6-8 levels. I had 4 characters, three were 2nd level and one was 1st, for 7 levels total, and basically, they got nowhere. I suppose they could have left their fallen comrade and pressed onward, but their personalities, Mythic, and I all thought otherwise.

So, at first blush, at least, this adventure is a tough challenge for a small party, even if they meet the suggested level rating - better suited might be a larger party of primarily 1st level characters. As my PCs in my own solo game tend to die with clockwork regularity, this is quite acceptable and part of the fun - but I couldn't run this for Lady Shadowmoss, with her new school sensibilities.

Tim does suggest a cleric would be helpful, and with plenty of undead, it's probably a good idea for the party to have or hire one. SotU does not have clerics as a class in the original version - they tend to temples, they don't go off exploring - so, my party did not.

Looking ahead (since I am the GM too, after all, even if Mythic ultimately controls the NPCs), I see that there are two fairly significant foes to face. Here, the higher level characters will be at an advantage, provided they have the HP. I'll be surprised if my small party of mostly 2nd level PCs survives to the end, considering only 1 has double-digit HP.

They'll make a trip back in regardless, as Tim promises states there's a related adventure to follow.

My only complaint about the "Mine of Rot & Disease", is that on page 5, the first sentence of the section labeled "The People of Aberton" reads, "The following villagers are most capable," but, there are none listed!

The NPCs are, in fact, present in the PDF file.

Although I recalled reading that the PDF had extra pages for NPCs, I hadn't realized they were for the adventure. A simple note to see the PDF would help avoid any confusion.

You can't go wrong spending $3.50 on The Manor #3. Even if are a joyless curmudgeon that can't see the fun in dropping Pog Nog the goblin into your game or you think a haiku ode to the black dragon is nonsense, there's an adventure w/ map, new magic items, and ideas and inspiration galore throughout.

RPG Madness: Recent Acquisitions

I've been doing a bit of bargain hunting lately for RPG related items and I've had some good luck including old issues of Dragon (they're "reading" copies, not collector's items) and GDW and Judges Guild Traveller materials (none of which cost more than $0.89)

In the foreground you'll see the recently published items - Gygax and The Manor were both full price, and well they should be. Indeed, I'd have paid more for The Manor if necessary.

Monsters of the Endless Dark was less than $1 and looks to have a lot of unusual monsters that I can drop into just about any game. It's d20, but that's easily adapted.

Although I'm happy to have acquired Robins' Laws of Good Game Mastering, let me say, save your money. If you must have it, get the PDF unless you happen to stumble on a reasonably priced print edition. Some of the prices this is listed for are just absurd and I haven't read anything in the content that justifies that.

Awarding Non-treasure XP in Solo Labyrinth Lord or Similar RPGs

One problem with removing XP-for-gold from a game where that is the driving force behind the level advancement mechanic, is that you're left figuring out how to award XP in a manner that allows for reasonably paced level-advancement

Actually, let's back up: the problem also was noticed that, in randomly generating the contents of The Ever Expanding dungeon, treasure has amounted to 600sp. That would be fine for a silver standard game, but I'm running it as a gold standard monetary system.

The majority of the party's gain, monetary and thus XP, came from the 9Q session during which the party found the treasure of the massacred gnoll village and the ogre's treasure - neither of which was inside the dungeon proper. 

Relying on random placement and generation of treasure, thus far, has made all of the character death seemingly pointless. If these were being run by players in a social game, I am sure that I would have a hard time convincing them to go back into the dungeon.

In a social game, however, I can give out role-playing awards in varying amounts to balance this.

Playing solo, as I primarily do, that seems a bit like cheating:

"Hey John, great job today playing Feldspar, loved the pantomime communication with the kobolds. 500 XP for him. And 600 XP for Sister Linkat, I really thought it was her at the table at times."

Yes, that seems just a trifle odd.

Ok, then, what to do? Turn to the interwebz, of course.

Here are my current guidelines for awarding XP, which I assembled before Session 10. None of the below is original to me, but unfortunately, I can't recall which sites provided which suggestions*:

Guidelines for the Standardized Awarding of Non-Gold XP

•  For every point of damage a PC deals out, they get 10 XP.  (I)
• Damage dealt via a natural 20 earns 20 XP per point of damage dealt (I)
• For every point of damage they suffer, they get 20 XP. (I)
• For every use of a class specific skill (casting a spell, turning undead, picking locks, etc.) successful or not - 75 XP * character's level (I)
• For every attribute check, pass or fail, 10 * result of the value rolled * character's level (I)
• For every saving throw, pass or fail, 10 * result of the value rolled  * character's level (I)
• For each new room discovered or stairwell located, 100 XP * dungeon level (P)
• For each encounter survived - 20 XP * dungeon level (I)
• Monster XP as given in rules - negotiating, turning, or killing earn same XP (P)

(I) = an individual award
(P) = a party award to be divided amongst the PCs and NPCs, the latter counting as 1/2.

In addition, I completely eliminated XP-for-Gold. That's right, not even XP on a fractional basis.

When session 10 was over, each PC came away with 200-300 XP each.

That might sound like I was overly generous - but I think the fact that, after the 9 sessions prior, only 1 PC was even half-way to 2nd level is enough to demonstrate that I needed to come up with a better method.

This is especially true if I hope to run LL or B/X as a social game again for players with advancement expectations shaped more by modern rules.

The awards have the added benefit of encouraging me to involve the PCs,  in a method consistent with their motivations, backgrounds and skill sets. I found it easier to have each PC participate in the narrative in a personality-centric way.

I plan to run a few more sessions this way and see how the XP awards play out. Thus far, I'm fairly satisfied that they're working as desired.


*EDIT: the damage for XP comes from The Tao of D&D 

Five for Friday: Week of 2/1/13 - 2/7/13: Space Marine Edition.

In the Future, All Space Marines Will Be Warhammer 40K Space Marines

MCAH Online

GW is throwing its weight around, claiming trademark infringement by an author using a term in use almost since the dawn of the sci-fi genre. Many, myself included, are not at all surprised by this action. Just one more reason for me not to purchase GW products.

Dwimmermount, 3x5 Geomorphs, The Tome of Adventure Design & Boring Adventure Design
Blood of Prokopius

FrDave covers a lot of stuff in this post, but what caught my eye was the mention of my favorite office supply: the 3x5 index card. He notes that "[he] challenged folks to start working on 3x5 geomorphs, but that, too, has thus far fallen on deaf ears."

I rather like the idea of geomorphs on 3x5 cards. 

When I was trying to run the Labyrinth Lord social game in November-ish, I drew up maps of the towns, as well as one dungeon map, on 3x5 index cards. They are so much easier to shuffle through than full size paper. I've got a pile of things I'm working on right now - but I find the appeal of doing dungeon-y goodness on a 3x5 is too hard to resist.

Morale & Fog of War

Saxe-Bearstein

Bluebear Jeff discusses his method of inserting fog of war into his tabletop games via morale by rolling varying numbers of average dice based on the unit's rating . Most interesting to me is that, after the battle, if one unit of an army improves their morale to a higher rating, another unit must consequently worsen. 

Savage Menagerie: Nosfrogtu

The Savage AfterWorld

The picture just cracked me up.

Lady Shadowmoss upon seeing it exclaimed, "You're not putting that in our game are you?" 

I denied any such intention, but of course, I can't help it if they show up uninvited.

On Gameplay in the Megadungeon

Hack & Slash

-C breaks down the key elements of play when traipsing through a megadungeon. If you already enjoy this kind of game, you probably won't learn anything new, but if you aren't familiar with it, you may be thinking: smash the door, kill the monster, take their loot. 

And, in that case, you really should read this.

Speaking of megadungeons, session 11 of The Ever Expanding Dungeon will have to wait until next week to be played. My parents will be visiting this weekend and there hasn't really been any time to game this week  (plus I want to write about why and how I changed XP allotment last session).

First Wargame of 2013: Proof that I Still Push Toy Soldiers Around

With all of the RPG related posts lately, I was starting to feel the need to demonstrate that I do, in fact, still enjoy wargaming.

For my 1/32 WWII gaming, I recently took a fall down the rabbit hole, toying around with a mash-up set of rules consisting of ideas from Featherstone's simple WWII rules, Morschauser's modern game rules, Risus! Skirmish (which itself is based on Crossfire), and Disposable Heroes: Coffin for 7 Brothers (which I'm really starting to like).

On Saturday night, for the first time in 2013, I broke out some little plastic men and vehicles and rolled some dice.

It doesn't look like much, but here's a picture from the "play test":

Dice indicate which units have activated - I was lazy and didn't feel like getting out the glass beads or making cardstock markers. Heck, I didn't even bother to put down a ground cloth!

The figure to man/vehicle ratio can be whatever you want it to be, but for this example, it was 1:3.

• The Germans had 2 troops of tanks, and 1 platoon of infantry - they had to hold the hill for 6 turns.
• The Russians had 2 troops of tanks and 1 company - 2 sections - they had to get the Germans off the hill.

The game was fun and since all the rules were in my head, it moved along rather smoothly. Although the Germans managed to keep the Soviet advance at bay, they were knocking at the door. 

I cannot overstate how much I love playing with the larger scale figures. Yes, they're impractical in some sense (storage mostly, from my point of view), but there is an overwhelming sense of nostalgia I get from them.

If it looks like I'm playing with toys, then I'm the right track!*

*with respect to the appearance of the game - specifically how close everything is. The figures will not remain unpainted forever. I have plans you see...

Update on New Year, New (Social) Game with USR

Last night, Lady Shadowmoss and I sat down for a character generation session for the post-apocalyptic science fantasy adventure(s) I'm going to run for her (and maybe some others if things work out) using  the awesome and free Unbelievably Simple Role-playing Game.

Although I just purchased a print copy of Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering, it hasn't arrived yet, so I was following the advice given in the free download, Gamemastering: The Essential Guide for Roleplaying Gamemasters.

After reviewing my concept of the game world with her, we walked through the character interview process described in the PDF using something of a cross between the action oriented player (thus a shortened set of questions) and the full version.

I am sold on this method.

By asking her questions and following up on her answers, offering my own ideas and getting her to elaborate more on her ideas, the end result was a collaborative honing of the game world and shaping of the character that left us both enthused. She noted that she understands her character's place in the world and the world itself, even more so than some of her LARP characters.

The character she is playing is the runaway daughter of a warlord, betrothed to another warlord's son - a political act to unite the two groups. She wanted nothing to do with the arrangement and broke the contract - with her father's support, despite the fact that it will bring the two clans to war. What none know, other than her father and her best friend, is that she was born with the gifts of a technomancer, and she has every intention of learning what she is capable of.

In story terms, she is something like a human trickle charger / generator, with the ability to power up electronic devices from a long forgotten age (she found a cell phone while scavenging, and it lit up when she picked it up, although the character doesn't know it's a cell phone of course) but she has some minimal mental manipulation of her power at this time (it will increase as her character goes up levels).

As her powers grow, she'll discover new abilities which we'll figure out through game play.

In mechanical terms, I'm treating technomancy like I treat magic for magic-users, a Wits based ability, due to the mental control factor.

I'm starting her at 2nd level. She  has Actions: d8, Wits: D10 and Ego: d6. Her specialisms include: Technomancy (Wits + 2), Stealth (Action + 2), Diplomacy (Ego + 2), Scavenging (Wits + 2).

With all of the details generated including goals - short term and long, friends and foes, and motivations, I have plenty of information to prepare a conflict (or two or three) to gain her character's attention, requiring her to utilize one or more of her specialisms and face numerous obstacles.

Group Decision Making in Solo Games

As I noted in the last write up of The Ever Expanding Dungeon, I tested out a mechanism for handling how the group makes decisions.

My rationale is that, as the only player in charge of 4 or more characters that make up the party, I need someway of making non-obvious decisions account for the individual desires of the various personalities, without sitting there arguing with myself. The latter, for all of the role-playing joy it would give, doesn't really remove my own preference from the equation.

In cases without a clear majority in favor or against an idea, the method I used, which emerged from the comments on this post, was:

1. Add up the CHR scores of those in favor, i.e. "yes"
2. Add up the CHR of those not in favor, i.e. "no"
3. For those that are 50/50 because I just don't know which they'd choose, but I believe they'd side one way or another, roll on the Mythic Fate Chart for 50/50 and then add their CHR to the appropriate side.
4. For those that are truly 50/50 because the character themselves wouldn't have a preference, ignore their CHR.
5. Subtract the smaller sum from the larger and the result becomes a modifier on the Mythic Fate roll. Add the value if the difference favors the "no" side, and subtract if favors the "yes."

In play, it's fast and easy to use, but being a typical gamer, I can't help think it could use some tweaking.

Primarily, I'm bothered by the fact that it doesn't really account for the strength of the preference. A "Very Unlikely" and a "Somewhat Likely" have exactly the same weight.

Here's an idea that struck me while riding the train to work this morning. It uses the following chart to modify the base Charisma score:

• Impossible: Charisma + 5
• No Way: Charisma + 4
• Very Unlikely: Charisma + 2
• Unlikely: Charisma + 1
• 50/50: Charisma does not get included in the test*
• Somewhat Likely: Charisma
• Likely: Charisma + 1
• Very Likely: Charisma + 2
• Near Sure Thing:  Charisma + 3
• Sure Thing: Charisma + 4
• Has to Be: Charisma + 5

*For those who are 50/50 but I roll for to find out their preference prior to rolling for the group - they are treated as Likely or Unlikely. That's arbitrary, but it seems to work.

Then just follow the steps 1-5 above, but use Charisma + modifier instead of just Charisma to account for the weight of their preference, in addition to their persuasive ability.

Normally, weighting is done with multiplication but with whole numbers, that resulted in some really huge modifiers that didn't seem at all correct. Using fractional weights worked well, but would necessitate the need slowing down to do the multiplication by hand or using a calculator, plus rounding the result (before or after the summation?).

I played with a couple of test scenarios and different CHR values, and simply adding whole numbers is far faster and gives a good result that I can work with.

One final option that I haven't tested:

If the PC is wounded below 50% of HP, then +1 (or +5?) to whatever they would choose. I figure, if someone who is badly wounded wants to continue, or to fight, or to run, or to rest, it seems like the party should give them some additional preference. After all, they're most likely to die if things go wrong.

Of course, this assumes a primarily Lawful or, at least, Neutral, party.

The Ever Expanding Dungeon: Session 10

Friday night was session 10 of The Ever Expanding Dungeon.

My table setup with Lord Vader watching to make sure i keep it honest:
 

Apple, glass of water, cup of coffee and a baby monitor. The necessary tools of the trade.

Not two days after the party returned to town did B say her goodbyes. The adventuring life, she said, wasn’t really paying off the way she had hoped. At least not here. Not yet. And frankly, it’d gotten a little out of hand, all of those people dying in there. For what? A pittance. She had robbed drunken nobles at knife point in dark alleys when they stopped to urinate out of site of the town guard and made more. And there, she noted, the worst threat was getting your boot wet.

Sister Linkat considered leaving herself, after all, she had joined this group for the kinship and the belief that at some point, they might head out across the land, where she could spread the joyful word of the sect of the Hedonistic Lumberjack. Unlike B, she decided to take a wait and see approach. Fendrick and Fader, her previous travel companions had both given their lives in the dungeon and she thought she should at least see the exploration of the first level through. Besides, the party had saved the town and surely that was a worthy effort in the eyes of her deity.

As fate so often has done in the lives of the members of this group, when one door shuts, another opens. Mysteriously. And at the first available opportunity.

A few days after returning to town, the party noticed a pointy eared fellow dining rather heartily for someone with said pointy ears. 

Gelfat* (E:1) had grown tired of his lot among his kind - as far as he could tell, life was meant to be enjoyed all 1000+ years of it even and that included welcoming richer foods than the wheat grass and lemon grass and piles of apples. Still, an elf is an elf, and time doesn't quite seem as pressing to them, and it took about 200 years being the butt of jokes before he decided to leave the secluded elven glen and venture into the world of men and monsters to find some way to earn honor, respect and love. 

His journey had taken him to the large coastal cities but those were too overwhelming and there was little to do there that would earn any respect among his own kind. He then moved  into more remote territory until he finally found his way to the Tenacious Dagger, on rumors that an entrance to a dark underground complex had been discovered some weeks ago, and where he was now being eyed up by a handful of humans, with bandaged faces, necks, arms and hands. Clearly adventurers.

A round of drinks, a brief discussion, more drinks, more talk and it was decided, Gelfat would join the party.

In the morning, the party made their way into what for lack of a better word, we’ll call the original entrance, and headed for the secret panel they knew to exist in the SW corner of room 1. They slid the panel open and made their way into the room where they had slain the adepts, fully expecting to see their dead bodies.

And they were there, only, they were a little more animated than expected.

The party managed to defeat the zombies, but both Trulhammar and Sister Linkat took heavy damage. Sister Linkat used her cure light wounds to bring Turlhammar almost back to full strength.

[First decision, does the party continue? 

Feldspar - Very Likely, 18 chr
Perceval - Somewhat Likely, 5
Sister linkat - Unlikely, CHR 12
Gelfat - 50/50 9

add Charisma scores for, add against, subtract. 50/50 doesn't get included.

If favors no, add difference to result, if favors yes, subtract

In this case, subtract 11

Roll = 33, yes (+ random event) = ambiguous event, delay element]

Gelfast heard it first, the unmistakable dripping of water which turned into a a louder steady sound. Beyond the door in the hall, the party could see water raining down from the ceiling. Most likely, it was pouring outside.

Sometime later, the party encountered a second set of zombies. This time Sister Linkat took watch while Gelfat entered into his first fight where he gave a good account of himself, destroying one zombie. Feldspar and Perceval took down the other two and the party escaped unscathed.

[Were the zombies guarding something? likely. no but 88, PC Negative, inspect dispute

I take this to mean, something or someone heard the sounds of the fight

Are they coming from the direction Sister Linkat is watching, 50/50 exceptional yes]

4 skeletons appeared rounding the corner from the south.

“We have company gentlemen!” hollered Sister Linkat.

She pulled out her holy symbol and managed her first successful turning - the skeletons fell back, retreating around the corner- Sister Linkat and Feldspar followed them driving them further away until the skeletons passed into a chamber and out of sight.

Still later, the party ran into 8 kobolds and Feldspar managed to talk the party out of a potentially bad situation. By the time the two groups went their separate ways, Feldspar had earned friendly fist pumps from the light blue skinned dog-like underground dwellers.

It appeared to the party, that, at this point, they had explored just about all they could of the first level but Feldspar noticed that they could leave the dungeon, trek to another entrance and then explore a section they had missed previously.

[Time for another decision for the party. Do they continue exploration?

Feldspar very likely 18
Perceval 50.50 - I rolled to find which way he'd vote and got No. He was thinking of Sister Linkat's wounds
Gelfat likely 9
Sister Linkat: unlikely 12

Roll, subtract 10, rolled 100, 90, definitely not - they’ll go back heal up and then come back for that section.

The 100 is doubles, remote event, communicate power

I then used Rory's Story Cubes: flashlight scale rainbow, theater masks, die, moon
clock, tee pee, sheep]

When the PCs arrived in town, they were quickly approached by the sheriff requesting the party's assistance:

An evil magic user, living in a tower on a rocky crag some 5 miles from town, has threatened that unless he is given several hundred gold pieces in protection money by the witches hour, five days hence on the night of the new moon, he will turn their joy to sorrow and destroy their homes. They will be like lambs to the slaughter.

*special thanks to Bluebear Jeff for creating Gelfat and giving him a great back-story

Five for Friday: Week of 1/25/13 - 1/31/13

For your Friday afternoon after lunch waiting for the weekend to start entertainment:

dndclassics.com? I don't need no stinking dndclassics.com! on Rended Press

Far and away the best response I've seen to the recent celebration over the return of classic D&D materials to PDF format.

I've always been a little hesitant to print and assemble downloaded booklets because my printer doesn't support double-sided printing. After reading this, I gave flipping the paper over and sending it through again method a try and it worked fine. I plan to put together some of my favorites now, too. Even if you're not interested in doing this yourself, there are plenty of great links in this post.

XP Evolution - The Orc on Alesmiter

A thought provoking (well, it was for me) look at the creep of XP for monsters across editions. Most interesting is the look at how many orcs a PC has to kill to advance a level.

Manor #3 Cover on Gothridge ManorThe Manor is easily my favorite zine effort associated with the OSR community. I have been eagerly awaiting  the completion of the 3rd issue and it looks like that's going forward now.

Warning Order #34 on Wasatch Front Historical Gaming Society
Everytime I stumble on the WFHG site and read Warning Order,I think, "I have to make an effort to get back here and look for new issues."And then I forget completely until someone/something reminds me to do so. A free PDF wargaming newsletter? Yes, please! Articles are well written and the photography is decent as well.

Basic Fantasy Role Playing Blog Appreciation Day on Tenkar's Tavern
23 different blogs took some time to post about BFRPG yesterday. If you haven't heard of, or thought to check this system out, take a look at any of the many posts listed at the link above. There's a lot of love out there for the "red-headed step child of the OSR" (as Tenkar described it).

Basic Fantasy Appreciation Day!

Today, January 31st, a number of bloggers, myself included, have decided to follow  the suggestion from Tenkar's Tavern to spend at least one post showing some love for one of the neglected children of the "OSR" gaming scene, Basic Fantasy Role-Playing (BFRPG). Follow the link for an obscene amount of free gaming goodness.

I'll start by noting that had I managed to find Basic Fantasy before I purchased LL + LL AEC, I'd probably be playing my current crawl in The Ever Expanding Dungeon with BFRPG. The game is a beautiful labor of open source love - the font and layout choices strike me as very b/x, while much of the art makes me think of AD&D, especially that cover.

And that, it seems to me, is exactly what BFRPG does as a game.

I've put together a little comparison of b/x, Labyrinth Lord, Labyrinth Lord AEC, OSRIC 2.2 and BFRPG, which you can get from my Dropbox Account. Some of it has to do with pricing and page counts and such, but some of it looks at some system specifics.

What I think it shows fairly clearly, is that Basic Fantasy straddles a  line between b/x (and Labyrinth Lord) and 1e (represented here most closely by OSRIC 2.2. I gave my AD&D books away a few years ago so I don' t have them for reference) in a way that differs from the approach taken by the LL AEC, and at a fraction of the cost for the print edition.

It is an approach, which, personally, suits my tastes better as it favors the b/x side of the equation. In terms of classes in the core book, it's everything you're familiar with from b/x but with a separation of race and class and the elimination of arbitrary level limits.

Now, those who prefer 1e classes, please don't fret.

BFRPG has a strong community of developers and you can pretty much find any class you can think of, classic 1e and classes frankly I'd never heard of, represented in the many free downloads on the BFRPG site. So, if paladin or heaven forbid, bard, are more your cup of tea, you're covered. I'm not aware of any similar magnitude of support, for free, for any other "clone."

What I think I like most about this system, besides the strong community support, is that it isn't slavish in its simulation of the past. Instead it accommodates more modern gaming concepts enshrined in the SRD from which it comes. Three areas that jump out at me are ascending AC,  ability rolls which take a "target number" approach that accounts for character level as well as ability bonuses, and its take on XP for gold.

The latter, to me, is astounding.

Basic Fantasy, in a clear break with tradition (at least for the world's most popular role-playing game), suggests that XP be tied to encounters, whether combat or not, with the latter in amounts at the GM's discretion. This is perhaps almost as monumental as the use of ascending AC (although some other clones also use ascending AC). Whether or not a given GM ran their game with XP for gold, it was the method documented in b/x and the 1e DM Guide. As someone who has been only relatively recently convinced that XP for gold is a bit superfluous, I like that BFRPG goes down the road less traveled for "retro-clones"

Enough fawning, you can make up your own mind.

If you don't want to take the plunge and grab the whole rulebook (it's free though and there's a lo-fi version that takes up about 1/4 of the disk space), at least check out the Beginner's Essentials. You'll get a decent sense of the game from that and it can probably serve as a player's handbook for new players.

Wargaming or the Absence Thereof

Looking back over my posts for January, I notice a distinct absence of miniature gaming. 

Ditto for December. Not since November have I played a wargame!

I did do several "play tests" of Morschauser's modern rules (inspired by this post on Two Up, One Back, and Featherstone's simple WWII rules from  War Games: Battles and Manoeuvres with Model Soldiers using my TSSD  GIs and Germans, and Airfix Russians and Germans. But this was mostly of the set up a situation and see what the result would be variety, not a true game.

I have an idea for a Pulp-themed WWII mission for my attempt at my own Wampus Country Under the Tree Challenge I mentioned in my goals for the year, but I have yet to set it up an play. The TSSD figures and Featherstone's WWII rules will be the rules of choice in that game since they were, in fact, under said tree this year.

I will definitely put something on the table in February!

Finally, and not unrelated,  I picked up these: 

Actual Dead Tree Copies

Both issues are cited for their Marlburian rules by the Junior General site's scenarios for the Great Northern War. Hence my interest in them. 

Issue 92 contains Featherstone's Marlburian Wargame Rules, but they seem incomplete to me even when I reference his rules in his War Games.  

Still, I'm happy to have acquired a copy - I've been looking for these since early 2012.

Neither issue is available in PDF from Don Perrin over on Wargamevault.com and my guess is, they probably won't be, since issues before and after have been available for awhile.

This brings my collection of possible rules for GNW (and other Horse &Musket games I suppose) in dead-tree to:

Individually Based:

• Featherstone's Marlburian Wargame Rules
• Pat Condray's Wargaming the Age of Marlborough
• Chalres S. Grant's The War Game Rules (will need modification for early 17th century)
• G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. (I'll wait for the purists to stop choking. Yes, I do think it's possible to modify G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. to handle this era. Possible. Is it likely I'll do it? 50/50 and roll on the Mythic Fate chart)

Multi-figure Basing:

• Warfare in the Age of Reason
• Volley & Bayonet (with modifications for GNW from MWAN 81 and a website I found on the subject)
• Corporal John - Rules for Large Marlburian Battles

I also have a handful I found on PDF, but I have to sort through them yet. I have plenty of time for that; the Russian infantry including officers and grenadiers should be finished in February.