Itching for a dungeon

I think that this coming Sunday that I'm going to try to run throught the prelimiaries as quickly as possible and get right to dungeoneering.   The last two times I DMed, I had to handle above ground events that gre out of Taglac's warlock connections.   Between those sessions, Jason was DMing.  I'm really itching to run a straight dungeon, and to spend as much time as possible running in the dungeon itself.

I think that this is going to have to involve a lot of prep work to shoot through some set up.  Especially since we are likely to have 3 new characters coming in, it may make the most sense to start the "rail-road", as much as I generally dislike that process.

Fargin Netflix and TiVo

I had thought that the combination of streaming Netflix and TiVo was the greatest thing since sliced bread.  But for the past week it just has turned to crap.  It goes into "retrieving" mode every 2 minutes, making it almost unwatchable, and now I find out that Neflix is going to yank "Babylon 5" on July 1st, right after I just got into re-watching the series.  Death to jerks.

Hackmaster Basic

I've been re-reading "Hackmaster Basic" which I got last year.  It isn't all too different from D&D in the big picture.   Hit points are a little different, CON plus either 5 or 10 bonus points plus a die from class.  But, you don't get a new hit die every level, just every second level.

The basic rules allow Fighters, Magic-users, Thieves, and Clerics (with alignment variation) and Humans, Elves, Dwarves and Halflings. 

Spells are similar to D&D but there's a different list of spells each level (so you get 2nd level spells when you get to 2nd experience level).   Magic-users use spell points, but clerics do a straight spell-choice each day.

The main things that are different are in combat:
1) Initiative:  this is the biggest difference, instead of turns or rounds, each action has a time value.  You start the combat at second 1 and count up.  So its much more of a "real-time" emulator.
2) Defense:  the defender rolls a defense roll against attacks instead of having a fixed AC number.  Armor absorbs damage, but makes you easier to hit.  Shields get really complicated to use, but are pretty useful.

Additionally, the game, even in this basic version, has an elaborate Skill System.   I'm sort of put off by complicated skill systems in theory.   It seems to me that a lot of skills you take never get used, and they substitute rolls for coming up with cool plans.

I don't know whether it would be worth it to play this game rather than a D&D version.  They Hackmaster Advanced Monster Book (rumored to be enormous) is supposed to be coming out this summer.  Maybe I'll have a look.

Return to blogging

After several months hiatus (mostly from getting out of the habit during my surgery and its recovery), I am going to start posting again.