At first, I was thinking that maybe Feats should be gained on the same schedule as Weapon Proficiencies; so for the four main classes for the first 10 levels:
Fighter level 1: 4; level 4 +1, level 7 +1; level 10 +1 (7 total)
Cleric/Thief: level 1 2, level 5 +1, level 9 +1 (4 total)
Mage: level 1 1, level 7 +1 (2 total)
This would require much fewer adjustment to the henchmen deck. It would just mean adding 1 feat to each character.
So, maybe it would be better to smooth things out. Each class only gets 1 feat at first level:
Fighters: 1 feat every level (10 total for levels 1-10)
Clerics/Thieves: level 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 (5 total)
Mages: level 1,6 (2 total)
or maybe have only Fighters getting them at first:
Fighters: 1 feat for every level (10 total for levels 1-10)
Clerics/Thieves: 2,4,6,8,10 (5 total)
Mages: 2, 7 (2 total)
The question would be what to do with Monks and SubClasses. Clearly Illusionists, Summoners, and Canons would be treated as Mages. I'd treat Assasins and Bards as Thieves (although maybe they'd get one more, I don't know). I imagine it'd be best to treat Druids and Warlocks as Clerics for simplicity's sake, even though there is some minor argument for making druids a little worse and warlocks a little better.
The question of Berserkers, Rangers and Paladins is a little trickier. They have their own set of abilities which fighters lack. It might be better to give them slightly fewer feats, but should it be as few as Clerics, or somewhere between Fighters and Clerics.
Monks are also tricky. Maybe they should get the same as fighters, even though they have tons of special abilities already. On the other, they seriously suck at low level, so any little bit helps.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Revealed Map, post-game
After trying the fully revealed giant graph paper maps, I noticed a few good and bad things (but mostly good things) about it in practice:
Good Thing: it made process of dungeoneering much faster. We had 12 combat encounters, plus additional trap and exploration encounters and a trip to town in a single session. It eliminated all the mapping questions and the tile setting.
Good Thing: it made tracking of search and movement turns much easier. As they moved and explored, we put a poker chip on the map to mark the location of the first person in line, and held the miniatures in marching order to the side. We just moved the chip a number of squares equal to the slowest party member's speed each turn, and rolled for wandering monsters every other turn. Whenever an ecounter or trap happened, we slid the miniatures onto the map.
Good Thing: Combat tactics were generally more interesting. It was easier for characters and monsters to move around and use the set-up of multiple rooms and corridors for gaining advantageous position. When wandering monsters showed up in corridors, it was especially interesting because it was a large party with many hirelings. The party was getting very stretched out, especially in narrow corridors, and so an attack at the rear was more easily able to be clearly visualized.
Good Thing: for some reason it was much easier to remember to call for "Open Door" checks for ordinary doors.
Bad Thing: Secret Doors are less easy to administer. You either have to put thme on the map, or hide them in the "shaded" empty areas, either way you need to decide that up front.
Bad Thing (theoretically): getting lost and tricks such as sloping passages and false stairs are not of much use. I listed this as theoretical, because I never really focused on those things to begin with.
Good Thing: it made process of dungeoneering much faster. We had 12 combat encounters, plus additional trap and exploration encounters and a trip to town in a single session. It eliminated all the mapping questions and the tile setting.
Good Thing: it made tracking of search and movement turns much easier. As they moved and explored, we put a poker chip on the map to mark the location of the first person in line, and held the miniatures in marching order to the side. We just moved the chip a number of squares equal to the slowest party member's speed each turn, and rolled for wandering monsters every other turn. Whenever an ecounter or trap happened, we slid the miniatures onto the map.
Good Thing: Combat tactics were generally more interesting. It was easier for characters and monsters to move around and use the set-up of multiple rooms and corridors for gaining advantageous position. When wandering monsters showed up in corridors, it was especially interesting because it was a large party with many hirelings. The party was getting very stretched out, especially in narrow corridors, and so an attack at the rear was more easily able to be clearly visualized.
Good Thing: for some reason it was much easier to remember to call for "Open Door" checks for ordinary doors.
Bad Thing: Secret Doors are less easy to administer. You either have to put thme on the map, or hide them in the "shaded" empty areas, either way you need to decide that up front.
Bad Thing (theoretically): getting lost and tricks such as sloping passages and false stairs are not of much use. I listed this as theoretical, because I never really focused on those things to begin with.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Feats Progress
I roughed up a first draft of a document for adding Feats of Arms to our AD&D based rules. I need to figure out the schedule by which characters get said feats, but that'll come. I think my favorite new feat I've come up with is this one:
The entire document is on the Badlands main wiki page here:
http://www.lordsofhack.com/home/doku.php?id=badlands
Little Bastard (talent)
Prerequisite: gnome, Halfling, dwarf
Benefit: the character can break melee contact with an enemy without letting that enemy get a free attack against him, as long as that enemy is in contact with at least 1 other combatant on the escaping character’s side.
The entire document is on the Badlands main wiki page here:
http://www.lordsofhack.com/home/doku.php?id=badlands
Next game
Just so everyone knows, since you guys left the dungeon and decided to camp at Bastardville, heal up and sell treasure, we are going to advance the timeline to May 1st. That way we can draw for hirelings again, since you used up the April draws at both Bastardville and Portchester already. There's no huge hurry or timeline for the search, since the number of wandering woodsmen etc, hasn't reached crisis at the druid's house.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Preliminary List of Feats of Arms
I've been toying around with a list of Feats of Arms, many taken from 3rd edition, some inspired by 4th, others taken from Conan. I should have looked over Savage Worlds again. Well, take a look at the list see if there are others you'd like to see:
Aimed Shot
Blind Fighting
Cleave
Daggerman
Dodge
Great Cleave
Hack on the Run
Horse Archer
Inspiring War Cry
Lead the Charge
Mobility
Mounted Combat
Power Attack
Powerful Charge
Rampage
Rapid Shot
Ride-By Attack
Shield Attack
Shield and Pike
Shot on the Run
Sunder
Sweep Attack
Terrifying War Cry
To-The-Hilt
Trample
Two-Weapon Fighting
War Dogs
Weapon Focus
Friday, July 22, 2011
A question of Feats
I'm toying around with some ideas about Feats. I'm pretty definite on the idea that they will be strictly combat related. There won't be any magic-related feats at all. With the vast variety of spells, and the relative ease of making low-level scrolls, spell casting characters have enough options as it is, it's only the combatants that need some options to spice up their combat. Now, all classes will have access to some Feats, but they will be strictly combat based feats.
The first question that arises is whether they should completely replace the system of "Weapon Proficiencies" present in the PHB. I'm imagining that each class will get a free "Feat" that gives them the weapon selections that are germaine to their class, but can spend more to gain access to more weapons. War Dogs would now be Feat, rather than a proficiency, and we'd have to change the fighter's bonus damage for proficient weapons.
The first question that arises is whether they should completely replace the system of "Weapon Proficiencies" present in the PHB. I'm imagining that each class will get a free "Feat" that gives them the weapon selections that are germaine to their class, but can spend more to gain access to more weapons. War Dogs would now be Feat, rather than a proficiency, and we'd have to change the fighter's bonus damage for proficient weapons.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Combat Rules
I've been thinking a little a bit about the Gang-up bonus. While I really like it, on the whole, there are a few issues that may need a few limits or tweaks. I think we made need to put an upper limit to the bonus that can accrue. I think that +10 or +11 is just too much. There just isn't anything else in the game that gives any similar massive bonus. Perhaps, either a +4 or +5 as a maximum on the gang-up bonus would be a good idea. The problem is that large, single monsters are just at too much of a disadvantage against crowds. On the other hand, I would like to see a crowd of cave monkeys totally swarm a PC sometime. I guess it bears some further thought.
I do want to re-integrate the Shield Sacrifice rule, and the Knock-back on a natural 15. The shield sacrifice adds a bit of tactical balance (an immediate reduction on damage, in exchange for giving up the shield protection and possibly shield wall). The knock-back gives a chance to chance position and push through lines that can shake things up.
I do want to re-integrate the Shield Sacrifice rule, and the Knock-back on a natural 15. The shield sacrifice adds a bit of tactical balance (an immediate reduction on damage, in exchange for giving up the shield protection and possibly shield wall). The knock-back gives a chance to chance position and push through lines that can shake things up.
Monday, July 18, 2011
What I'd port in from 3rd edition D&D
There are 2 major things I would port in from D&D 3e
After plying around with the charts awhile, I do think the ascending AC and bonus system probably makes for a faster game. Although the repeating 20's and the maximum of -10 (equivalent of ascending AC30) from AD&D 1e help keep AC explosion under control, it still would be easier to do AC= target number.
Secondly, I'd like to use some sort of system of Feats. Having different combat guys having different moves and talents is fun. While spell casters get new stuff all the time, fighters have to depend on magic items for new abilities.
After plying around with the charts awhile, I do think the ascending AC and bonus system probably makes for a faster game. Although the repeating 20's and the maximum of -10 (equivalent of ascending AC30) from AD&D 1e help keep AC explosion under control, it still would be easier to do AC= target number.
Secondly, I'd like to use some sort of system of Feats. Having different combat guys having different moves and talents is fun. While spell casters get new stuff all the time, fighters have to depend on magic items for new abilities.
Friday, July 15, 2011
Hackmaster and its Uses
I thought I'd speak about Hackmaster for a moment. There have been 2 editions of Hackmaster. The first was called Hackmaster 4th edition. It was brought out when D&D was in its 3rd edition phase and was a licensed parody of AD&D first and 2nd edition. It was meant to be "the game the Knights of the Dinner Table actually play." As a piece of writing it's true genius. It really took everything that was AD&D and turned it up to 11. It blew everything way over the top. It's character flaws and quirks system made the characters into physical and emotional cripples, if you weren't careful, and it's alignment tracking and honor system were mind-numbingly fiddly and impossible.
Nevertheless, there are 3 things of real use in the books. First, the spell list. It contains all the AD&D spells, plus a bunch of more entertaining spells that are fully compatible with AD&D (skipping betty fireballs, sidewinder fireballs, and of course "Hurl Animal" spells all come to mind). Second, there are the magic items. Again, the GMG contains all the magic items from AD&D, but also a host of additional ones. I've used several of them as inspirations already, and plan to use some more. Third, there are the monster books, of which 9 separate volumes were published (I have about half of them, I believe). The good thing is that the monster stats are pretty much completely compatible with AD&D use, so they can be ported over with no trouble. There are a huge number of monsters in the books, and a large number of variants to standard monsters. So there aren't just orcs, there are Highland Orcs, orcs of the southern league, slaver orcs, orkin bandits, gibbering orcs and so forth. The monster selection can really get the creative juices flowing for adventure ideas.
In addition to the things that are actually useful for an AD&D campaign directly, there are some interesting features that I find interesting from a rules perspective. The central combat difference from AD&D was the "kicker", which was the process of giving every single monster, NPC, and character 20 extra hit points. So a Hackmaster bandit would have 20+1d6 hit points, an Ogre (common), would have 20+4d8+1. To balance this, there were several ways to increase damage inflicted: first of all there was "penetration damage", whereby anytime you rolled max damage on a die, you'd get another damage die (minus 1 point), much like Savage Worlds. Second, on a natural 20, you'd score a critical hit (now, the critical hit system required rolling a d10,000, and adjusting it with a crazy series of modifiers, and 9 times out of 10 in practice you'd end up doing double damage, but the other times, watch out).
I like the idea of the kicker, and used it a few times, because I wanted some way to make level 0 guys actually worth having around, and actually be able to stick around for more than 10 seconds. I think we've achieved that better in this campaign with the gang-up bonus and the "wound effect" roll for when people go below 0 hit points, but the kicker is an interesting method too.
The races and classes are a bit wilder too. They have a bunch of sub-races (from Grunge Elves to Gnome Titans) and a variety of classes, from Berserkers and Barbarians, to Battlemages. But, the thing I don't like is that the old AD&D "training for levels" is so darn integral to class balance (barbarians don't have to train, but have a hideously slow XP advancement rate) that you've got to use it.
The second edition of Hackmaster (5th edition), is what is coming out now. So far, they've issued Hackmaster Basic, about which I've written before, and just now the Advanced Hackmaster Hacklopedia of Beasts. I've gotten the PDF of the Hacklopedia, and have found it less useful than the older Hackmaster monster books. The 5th edition Hackmaster is scrubbed free of parody and of impossible systems, (although not of attitude), and is meant to be a straight, playable game, but likewise is not directly convertable to AD&D like 4th edition.
Nevertheless, there are 3 things of real use in the books. First, the spell list. It contains all the AD&D spells, plus a bunch of more entertaining spells that are fully compatible with AD&D (skipping betty fireballs, sidewinder fireballs, and of course "Hurl Animal" spells all come to mind). Second, there are the magic items. Again, the GMG contains all the magic items from AD&D, but also a host of additional ones. I've used several of them as inspirations already, and plan to use some more. Third, there are the monster books, of which 9 separate volumes were published (I have about half of them, I believe). The good thing is that the monster stats are pretty much completely compatible with AD&D use, so they can be ported over with no trouble. There are a huge number of monsters in the books, and a large number of variants to standard monsters. So there aren't just orcs, there are Highland Orcs, orcs of the southern league, slaver orcs, orkin bandits, gibbering orcs and so forth. The monster selection can really get the creative juices flowing for adventure ideas.
In addition to the things that are actually useful for an AD&D campaign directly, there are some interesting features that I find interesting from a rules perspective. The central combat difference from AD&D was the "kicker", which was the process of giving every single monster, NPC, and character 20 extra hit points. So a Hackmaster bandit would have 20+1d6 hit points, an Ogre (common), would have 20+4d8+1. To balance this, there were several ways to increase damage inflicted: first of all there was "penetration damage", whereby anytime you rolled max damage on a die, you'd get another damage die (minus 1 point), much like Savage Worlds. Second, on a natural 20, you'd score a critical hit (now, the critical hit system required rolling a d10,000, and adjusting it with a crazy series of modifiers, and 9 times out of 10 in practice you'd end up doing double damage, but the other times, watch out).
I like the idea of the kicker, and used it a few times, because I wanted some way to make level 0 guys actually worth having around, and actually be able to stick around for more than 10 seconds. I think we've achieved that better in this campaign with the gang-up bonus and the "wound effect" roll for when people go below 0 hit points, but the kicker is an interesting method too.
The races and classes are a bit wilder too. They have a bunch of sub-races (from Grunge Elves to Gnome Titans) and a variety of classes, from Berserkers and Barbarians, to Battlemages. But, the thing I don't like is that the old AD&D "training for levels" is so darn integral to class balance (barbarians don't have to train, but have a hideously slow XP advancement rate) that you've got to use it.
The second edition of Hackmaster (5th edition), is what is coming out now. So far, they've issued Hackmaster Basic, about which I've written before, and just now the Advanced Hackmaster Hacklopedia of Beasts. I've gotten the PDF of the Hacklopedia, and have found it less useful than the older Hackmaster monster books. The 5th edition Hackmaster is scrubbed free of parody and of impossible systems, (although not of attitude), and is meant to be a straight, playable game, but likewise is not directly convertable to AD&D like 4th edition.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Maps, Cards, and Retirees
Since we were only about 2/3 finished with the first level of the Cathedral Crypt, I large-scaled that one too.
Next thing I want to do is to map out on a bigger scale, the region in the Badlands where Boscovania is. I think we could get some serious action out of putting a focus on that region. It is sort of right where Portchester, the Realm of Dengwur, and the City State of Urvotz (the Old Ones) come together and with Bosco Tripod's out post there, it's the new Dodge City.
By the way, I'd like a few things from the players. From Bob, I'd like my own copy of the map of Boscovania. From Andrew and Jason, I'd like a 1-page (PDF) description of the establishments of your retired characters, enough that anyone DMing could use them. If Andrew could also do one for the Mystic McFarley horse ranch, that'd be cool too.
I've been thinking about the "Green Deck". I've added a few contacts (2 "fences" and 1 purchase opportunity). It's been bringing back my idea for an event deck. Orginally, it was going to be a separate deck that had a wide variety of events, from events that affected only 1 player, to events that effected the whole kingdom. It's conceivable that I could roll the event deck into the Green Deck, but then the events might get totally swallowed up by the goods and contacts. Should I proceed with the making the Event Deck, now that, for a while, I have the time?
Do we want to have a face-to-face DM pow-wow some time? Meet for coffee or a drink or dinner or something?
Next thing I want to do is to map out on a bigger scale, the region in the Badlands where Boscovania is. I think we could get some serious action out of putting a focus on that region. It is sort of right where Portchester, the Realm of Dengwur, and the City State of Urvotz (the Old Ones) come together and with Bosco Tripod's out post there, it's the new Dodge City.
By the way, I'd like a few things from the players. From Bob, I'd like my own copy of the map of Boscovania. From Andrew and Jason, I'd like a 1-page (PDF) description of the establishments of your retired characters, enough that anyone DMing could use them. If Andrew could also do one for the Mystic McFarley horse ranch, that'd be cool too.
I've been thinking about the "Green Deck". I've added a few contacts (2 "fences" and 1 purchase opportunity). It's been bringing back my idea for an event deck. Orginally, it was going to be a separate deck that had a wide variety of events, from events that affected only 1 player, to events that effected the whole kingdom. It's conceivable that I could roll the event deck into the Green Deck, but then the events might get totally swallowed up by the goods and contacts. Should I proceed with the making the Event Deck, now that, for a while, I have the time?
Do we want to have a face-to-face DM pow-wow some time? Meet for coffee or a drink or dinner or something?
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
No plot session
Once we get through the Cathedral Dungeon, I think we should think about having a no-plot session. Meaning, we would come into the session with no DM inspired plot at all. Each player has to decide what he wants to do for himself. We could have 1-2 guys exploring the wilderness, others doing business in town, others searching for buried treasure. We have enough tools to handle all this stuff on the fly, and can lead to a lot of interesting campaign development.
I realize now why I remember doing so much of that "in the old days" but not so much now. It's really a matter of time. In high school I could play several times a week, in college I could play for a very long time during the weekend and maybe once more during the week. Now, with the every other week schedule, it just seems prudent to get on to a capital A adventure.
I'd kind of like to see an ebb and flow, of like 2-3 DM-driven games, then 1 PC driven game, where we could expect to have some "time of our own" at an interval.
I realize now why I remember doing so much of that "in the old days" but not so much now. It's really a matter of time. In high school I could play several times a week, in college I could play for a very long time during the weekend and maybe once more during the week. Now, with the every other week schedule, it just seems prudent to get on to a capital A adventure.
I'd kind of like to see an ebb and flow, of like 2-3 DM-driven games, then 1 PC driven game, where we could expect to have some "time of our own" at an interval.
Fully Revealed Map, revisited
I took some time today to make a full-scale map of the 2nd level of the cathedral crypt for Sunday. I debated as to whether to include the secret doors/secret rooms, but finally decided just to put them on. I added a few locked doors too. I'm looking forward to trying the dungeon with a revealed map. I'm suspecting that it should speed up play and get the flow going faster.
I think that with our method of putting out the tiles, we might as well see the whole map. No one in the group maps any more, and we generally don't have enough empty areas to risk getting lost or disoriented.
I know I like to have between 20 and 30 rooms on a "level" of dungeon, and to have about 1/2 having monsters in them, the other half tricks, treasures or red-herring dressings. But, the other guys go for about a dozen rooms with monsters in all of them (more or less).
I think that with our method of putting out the tiles, we might as well see the whole map. No one in the group maps any more, and we generally don't have enough empty areas to risk getting lost or disoriented.
I know I like to have between 20 and 30 rooms on a "level" of dungeon, and to have about 1/2 having monsters in them, the other half tricks, treasures or red-herring dressings. But, the other guys go for about a dozen rooms with monsters in all of them (more or less).
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Nothing is what you'd expect
I rant the Awesome Squad through 2 trips into random dungeon land. Was surprised at a few things. First of all, I expected Waldahar to be the real star, a really butch fighter with great stats and all, but he got poisoned TWICE, and if it had not been for the Mighty Sword, probably the lamest character, having memorized Slow Poison, he would have died both times.
It also turned out that "terrain" was everything. When they encountered a group of 12 orcs and a 3rd level magic user, it should have been a slaughter. Tavish used a sleep spell and took out all the orcs, but then the enemy cast Stinking Cloud. Since the party was coming up a 5' corridor the cloud hit Waldahar, Tavish and the Mighty Sword, knocking them out for 5 TURNS (50 minutes). This also cut the party off from the enemies for 3 rounds, allowing the mage to get working on reviving the orcs. Then the 3 weakest melee characters were left to hold off the orcs. Tiberio used all his summoning spells to help, but since the corridor was only 5 feet wide, there was a lot of 1 guy vs. 1 guy fighting, and eventually the spell duration on the summonings ran out. The enemy wizard never really got to cast another spell, since he was around 2 corners from the party, and eventually the orcs morale finally broke, saving the party.
The expeditions were not as profitable as one might expect. They earned around 3000gp, but had to spend 2000 of that in saving Waldahar from poison. They got a bunch of minor magic items, but none of them terribly useful to the members in question.
The jury is still out on the bard. He had sleep spells, by random chance. But, he couldn't use them the first expedition, since he was wearing armor. The second expedition they were pretty useful, He never really got to try his charm power (the stinking cloud prevented that).
Lothar the thief did some good work doing the sword and dagger combination, but thieves still just live in the "I can almost fight" land. But there was plenty of lock and trap work for both he a Steve to do. I wasted Steve's phantasmal force in a ploy that really just tricked 2 orcs. He had a hypnotism spell (which is different from Nigel's hypnotic pattern), but it turned out to be no good when he needed it (he couldn't speak orc, and needed to do so to give them a hypnotic suggestion).
Tiberio's summonings were very useful. It's like hirelings in a jar you don't have to pay. I think it would be very useful for him to make some scrolls.
The Mighty Sword was the surprise hero. Even if your scores are crap, if you've got a sword, armor and a bunch of spells, you can save the day.
A full report can be found here:
http://www.lordsofhack.com/home/doku.php?id=the_awesome_squad
It also turned out that "terrain" was everything. When they encountered a group of 12 orcs and a 3rd level magic user, it should have been a slaughter. Tavish used a sleep spell and took out all the orcs, but then the enemy cast Stinking Cloud. Since the party was coming up a 5' corridor the cloud hit Waldahar, Tavish and the Mighty Sword, knocking them out for 5 TURNS (50 minutes). This also cut the party off from the enemies for 3 rounds, allowing the mage to get working on reviving the orcs. Then the 3 weakest melee characters were left to hold off the orcs. Tiberio used all his summoning spells to help, but since the corridor was only 5 feet wide, there was a lot of 1 guy vs. 1 guy fighting, and eventually the spell duration on the summonings ran out. The enemy wizard never really got to cast another spell, since he was around 2 corners from the party, and eventually the orcs morale finally broke, saving the party.
The expeditions were not as profitable as one might expect. They earned around 3000gp, but had to spend 2000 of that in saving Waldahar from poison. They got a bunch of minor magic items, but none of them terribly useful to the members in question.
The jury is still out on the bard. He had sleep spells, by random chance. But, he couldn't use them the first expedition, since he was wearing armor. The second expedition they were pretty useful, He never really got to try his charm power (the stinking cloud prevented that).
Lothar the thief did some good work doing the sword and dagger combination, but thieves still just live in the "I can almost fight" land. But there was plenty of lock and trap work for both he a Steve to do. I wasted Steve's phantasmal force in a ploy that really just tricked 2 orcs. He had a hypnotism spell (which is different from Nigel's hypnotic pattern), but it turned out to be no good when he needed it (he couldn't speak orc, and needed to do so to give them a hypnotic suggestion).
Tiberio's summonings were very useful. It's like hirelings in a jar you don't have to pay. I think it would be very useful for him to make some scrolls.
The Mighty Sword was the surprise hero. Even if your scores are crap, if you've got a sword, armor and a bunch of spells, you can save the day.
A full report can be found here:
http://www.lordsofhack.com/home/doku.php?id=the_awesome_squad
Fully Revealed Map and Corridors, and Doors
During one adventure in our "Fulton Horizons" campaign, "The Terrible Secret of Diceman's Fortress", and one adventure in the Slipstream campaign "Break Marlon out of Jail", I drew the whole adventure map out on the big 3 foot paper with 1inch grids and revealed it to the players and we used it like a board-game board. The conceit being that the players had computer access to the map of the compound in both cases and knew where they were.
It certainly does speed things up to do it that way. It could be done with fantasy dungeons, if the players have a treasure map of the dungeon too. It eliminates the need to fumble for tiles and makes the action clearer. I doing the same thing now with the Awesome Squad' solo game.
One thing I noticed while drawing "Treasure Map Dungeon A", is that I'm much more likely to draw 5 foot wide corridors than 10 foot wide corridors. The larger corridors look more like extended rooms or formal galleries than corridors when you draw them. However, fighting in 5 foot corridors is much nastier, brutish and drawn out than fighting in 10 foot corridors. It's somewhat surprising the difference it makes.
The other thing I found myself doing was putting in Locked Doors on the map. Maybe because Secret Doors didn't make sense for solo play, maybe because the mapping program I use for hidden maps doesn't have a locked door icon, so it seemed novel to put them in. Having locked doors makes thieves even more useful and having a Bend Bars Lift Gates score of note to be more useful too.
Finally, when I was doing some solo work on the map, I found myself having the party use their "Open Doors" number to be able to open the doors (the normal, non-locked doors), just as Gary (peace be upon him) Gygax intended. The idea being that dungeon doors are warped, rusted and stuck for the most part. The practical result is that if no one in the party can open the door, it doesn't get open, and if the first person who tries, fails, there's no chance for the party to surprise the enemy.
I think the fact that the map is already laid out and no time is needed for set-up makes me more willing to attend to the details of real dungeoneering.
There's definitely a trade off. Revealing the map takes away some of the mystery, but it does make the adventure easier and faster to manage
It certainly does speed things up to do it that way. It could be done with fantasy dungeons, if the players have a treasure map of the dungeon too. It eliminates the need to fumble for tiles and makes the action clearer. I doing the same thing now with the Awesome Squad' solo game.
One thing I noticed while drawing "Treasure Map Dungeon A", is that I'm much more likely to draw 5 foot wide corridors than 10 foot wide corridors. The larger corridors look more like extended rooms or formal galleries than corridors when you draw them. However, fighting in 5 foot corridors is much nastier, brutish and drawn out than fighting in 10 foot corridors. It's somewhat surprising the difference it makes.
The other thing I found myself doing was putting in Locked Doors on the map. Maybe because Secret Doors didn't make sense for solo play, maybe because the mapping program I use for hidden maps doesn't have a locked door icon, so it seemed novel to put them in. Having locked doors makes thieves even more useful and having a Bend Bars Lift Gates score of note to be more useful too.
Finally, when I was doing some solo work on the map, I found myself having the party use their "Open Doors" number to be able to open the doors (the normal, non-locked doors), just as Gary (peace be upon him) Gygax intended. The idea being that dungeon doors are warped, rusted and stuck for the most part. The practical result is that if no one in the party can open the door, it doesn't get open, and if the first person who tries, fails, there's no chance for the party to surprise the enemy.
I think the fact that the map is already laid out and no time is needed for set-up makes me more willing to attend to the details of real dungeoneering.
There's definitely a trade off. Revealing the map takes away some of the mystery, but it does make the adventure easier and faster to manage
Monday, July 11, 2011
Sample "Fence" or "Contact"
So, I tried to whip up a "fence" for the "green deck"
Contact: Brownleaf Bennarrix
neutral, half-elf, mu/thief, level 2/3
Location: forest elf village of Volen, Badlands F8
Silver Buyer: on a successful "employment" reaction check, Bennarrix will buy silver jewelry at full retail value.
I thought that since he is so far out of the way, he would have to make a good offer for the players to bother to go to meet him. But, if they have only a few pieces of silver jewelry it would be worth the trouble (seeing as jewelry is so expensive.
The question remains, is drawing the card a "one use ticket" or can the PC add him permanently as a contact? I'd say that there could be some contacts that are permanent, others are "one shots", so I reckon it would have to be noted one way or the other on the card.
Contact: Brownleaf Bennarrix
neutral, half-elf, mu/thief, level 2/3
Location: forest elf village of Volen, Badlands F8
Silver Buyer: on a successful "employment" reaction check, Bennarrix will buy silver jewelry at full retail value.
I thought that since he is so far out of the way, he would have to make a good offer for the players to bother to go to meet him. But, if they have only a few pieces of silver jewelry it would be worth the trouble (seeing as jewelry is so expensive.
The question remains, is drawing the card a "one use ticket" or can the PC add him permanently as a contact? I'd say that there could be some contacts that are permanent, others are "one shots", so I reckon it would have to be noted one way or the other on the card.
Buying and Selling
We've been talking about creating some NPC "fences" to add some variety to our treasure disposition. I thought I'd re-post the "Buying and Selling" section of the Gear Book for the campaign, to put some things into perspective:
Buying and Selling
We are thinking about creating a set of "special fence" cards to be shuffled into the henchmen/hirelings deck. These would presumably be more on the lines of personal contacts that would buy specific goods at a higher rate than the 1/3 "loot price" or the 10% "fence" price.
I'm starting to think that maybe we could put these contacts into the green "random items" deck, rather than the henchman deck. I've bought a bunch more green index cards and that deck, so far, has had things of more interest to the low-level adventurer. Of course, we'd have to change them to 3x5 from 4x6, but otherwise it would work.
Buying and Selling
List price: each item has a price listed in silver, copper or gold pieces. This is the retail price an adventurer can expect to pay in a town market or shop.
List price with an “R”: if the price has an “R” after it, it is either rare, restricted, or requires special arrangements. A player must get specific permission from the DM in order to buy the item and cannot just assume it is immediately available.
Loot price: items that have been captured as loot or plunder from raids or dungeon adventures can be sold at the town market for 1/3 of their list price. A player can attempt to make a harder bargain. Roll 1d20, add the character’s Charisma reaction bonus. If the total is 14 or greater, the character gets 50% of list price. If the total is 4 or less, he walks away with only 15%, shaking his head wondering how it happened.
Selling at Auction: players can put up lots of goods for wholesale auction. Find the total list price of each lot and roll 1d6 times 10% for the final value gotten at auction.
Fence price: goods that are stolen, illegal, or otherwise too hot to handle can be sold for 10% of their list price, assuming a fence can be found. A thief character can always find a fence in his home town. Thieves can find a fence in a new town 25% chance per week. Non-thieves have a 5% chance per week of finding a fence.
Pawning Goods: at a pawn-broker a character can deposit an item and get a loan equal to 25% of the list price. If he pays the pawnbroker back 10% of the amount loaned within 6 months, he returns the pawned item. If he fails to pay the money back, the broker puts the item up for sale (typically for 50% of list). If you buy an item from a pawn-broker there is a 1 in 8 chance that it will turn out to be defective.
Buying at Auction: sometimes rare goods are sold at auction (gems, jewelry, excellent wine etc). If a PC is interested, roll 1d6 for the number of interested bidders. For each bidder roll 3d6 x10% to get his maximum bid as a percentage of the list price, however, each “6” rolled results in another d6 added to the total (subsequent “6”’s result in additional d6’s). Run the auction out with the various bidders dropping out when their maximum is reached.
We are thinking about creating a set of "special fence" cards to be shuffled into the henchmen/hirelings deck. These would presumably be more on the lines of personal contacts that would buy specific goods at a higher rate than the 1/3 "loot price" or the 10% "fence" price.
I'm starting to think that maybe we could put these contacts into the green "random items" deck, rather than the henchman deck. I've bought a bunch more green index cards and that deck, so far, has had things of more interest to the low-level adventurer. Of course, we'd have to change them to 3x5 from 4x6, but otherwise it would work.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
More on the Awesome Squad
I also created a charter for the Awesome Squad. The scheme is that they maintain their headquarters together and take one share of treasure to spend on the guards and improvements to the headquarters. They always leave one party member at the headquarters to act as garrison captain, but that guy gets a share of whatever treasure the rest take when out on an expedition.
The charter is also posted on the wiki:
http://www.lordsofhack.com/home/doku.php?id=the_awesome_squad
The charter is also posted on the wiki:
http://www.lordsofhack.com/home/doku.php?id=the_awesome_squad
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Meet the Awesome Squad
I'm going to play some solo games during the next few weeks in order to get a feel for a few things and to help get the old brain working. I created a party of 6 guys, each with 7000 experience points (half of what Nigel has). If something happens to Nigel, I can then just pull in one of them instead. But, I worked up a bunch of guys that are the kind of guys I like to play.
I've put their character sheets on the Badlands wiki at this page:
http://www.lordsofhack.com/home/doku.php?id=the_awesome_squad
But here's a summary of the characters:
Lothar: human, thief, level 4. Decent stats, straight thief, should be very useful in a dungeon, we'll see. I've always wanted to do a straight human thief, but have never done so in D&D. I did a thief/fighter combo in Conan, and a bandit in Warhammer, but not a plain old D&D thief.
Waldahar, human, fighter, level 3: by far the best ability scores of the whole party (an 18, 2 17's and a 16), I've never rolled that well in my life. He's the leader-type and the beefcake rolled into one. I've set him up to either be able to attack with a pole-axe or a sword/dagger combo.
Steve McNasty: gnome, thief/illusionist level 3/2, another in a long series of gnome illusionists in my illustrious career. I think the combo (along with the mage-thief) to be one of the best.
Tavish Hardrock: human, bard, level 4; I really want to see how a bard works in practice. The bard class we're using is the 2nd edition bard, back-fitted to 1st edition (actually very similar to the original D&D bard from the early Dragon magazine) its sort of a thief/fighter/mage with various bits of each nerfed, with some additional charm and legend lore powers. We'll see how useful he is.
The Mighty Sword: human, gothi of Tiwaz, level 4: rolled really crap for stats. I originally was going to make him a Druid, but he has a 15 and a 12 as his 2 best stats, and as a druid, the 15 would have had to be Charisma. Making him a gothi (I wanted all the characters to be neutral, so cleric was out) at least allowed him to have 3 cure light wounds. I chose Tiwaz, so he'd get the +1 to hit and damage with a sword, which should make him of some use in combat. He's really just the party wound healer.
Terrific Tiberio: human, summoner, level 3: I wante dto give Summoner another try, since my first one was killed horribly in a solo adventure. I thought the party could use another member, and a dedicated caster to boot. He should be at least as useful as Nigel is.
I've put their character sheets on the Badlands wiki at this page:
http://www.lordsofhack.com/home/doku.php?id=the_awesome_squad
But here's a summary of the characters:
Lothar: human, thief, level 4. Decent stats, straight thief, should be very useful in a dungeon, we'll see. I've always wanted to do a straight human thief, but have never done so in D&D. I did a thief/fighter combo in Conan, and a bandit in Warhammer, but not a plain old D&D thief.
Waldahar, human, fighter, level 3: by far the best ability scores of the whole party (an 18, 2 17's and a 16), I've never rolled that well in my life. He's the leader-type and the beefcake rolled into one. I've set him up to either be able to attack with a pole-axe or a sword/dagger combo.
Steve McNasty: gnome, thief/illusionist level 3/2, another in a long series of gnome illusionists in my illustrious career. I think the combo (along with the mage-thief) to be one of the best.
Tavish Hardrock: human, bard, level 4; I really want to see how a bard works in practice. The bard class we're using is the 2nd edition bard, back-fitted to 1st edition (actually very similar to the original D&D bard from the early Dragon magazine) its sort of a thief/fighter/mage with various bits of each nerfed, with some additional charm and legend lore powers. We'll see how useful he is.
The Mighty Sword: human, gothi of Tiwaz, level 4: rolled really crap for stats. I originally was going to make him a Druid, but he has a 15 and a 12 as his 2 best stats, and as a druid, the 15 would have had to be Charisma. Making him a gothi (I wanted all the characters to be neutral, so cleric was out) at least allowed him to have 3 cure light wounds. I chose Tiwaz, so he'd get the +1 to hit and damage with a sword, which should make him of some use in combat. He's really just the party wound healer.
Terrific Tiberio: human, summoner, level 3: I wante dto give Summoner another try, since my first one was killed horribly in a solo adventure. I thought the party could use another member, and a dedicated caster to boot. He should be at least as useful as Nigel is.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Cash and Prizes
When it comes to handing out treasure, I'm struggling with the "prizes" part of cash and prizes. Sometimes I wonder why I should bother handing out treasure in anything other than gold pieces. Why give out a "gold and silver necklace worth 850gp" when it's just going to be hurled on the pile, sold and divided up?
There's a way to deal with it, of course. It requires me to be more of a hard ass and to be less lazy about treasure. The gold piece value should more clearly be stated to be "retail value." If it's but on the pile and sold it should be worth 1/3 of the retail value (watching "Pawn Stars" long enough, you know it can't fetch more than 1/2 value).
But, here's where the character traits come in. If someone is a jewelry collector, and gets the necklace, he would get 850 xp, as long as the jewelry was kept in his collection. If he was a Lady's Man, he'd get 850 xp if he gave it to his lady.
This solution would require me to be more attentive on the one hand, and would require us to "dice and choose" for all non-coin items, just like we do (sometimes) for magic items. I know that Nigel has pretty much shoved the "dice and choose" method for magic items on the party whenever he's there. That was deliberate, because I just freaking love doing that. For me, it adds a lot to the whole treasure business. I'd love to do it with all items too. It would make treasure a lot more interesting on the whole.
But, treasure division is NOT the DM's perrogative, it is an in-character player-only process. I can try to push it when Nigel is in play, but can't force the group to do it when I'm DM.
P.S. I would like to get some more options for the Character Traits, and get some more clarity about some of the types.
There's a way to deal with it, of course. It requires me to be more of a hard ass and to be less lazy about treasure. The gold piece value should more clearly be stated to be "retail value." If it's but on the pile and sold it should be worth 1/3 of the retail value (watching "Pawn Stars" long enough, you know it can't fetch more than 1/2 value).
But, here's where the character traits come in. If someone is a jewelry collector, and gets the necklace, he would get 850 xp, as long as the jewelry was kept in his collection. If he was a Lady's Man, he'd get 850 xp if he gave it to his lady.
This solution would require me to be more attentive on the one hand, and would require us to "dice and choose" for all non-coin items, just like we do (sometimes) for magic items. I know that Nigel has pretty much shoved the "dice and choose" method for magic items on the party whenever he's there. That was deliberate, because I just freaking love doing that. For me, it adds a lot to the whole treasure business. I'd love to do it with all items too. It would make treasure a lot more interesting on the whole.
But, treasure division is NOT the DM's perrogative, it is an in-character player-only process. I can try to push it when Nigel is in play, but can't force the group to do it when I'm DM.
P.S. I would like to get some more options for the Character Traits, and get some more clarity about some of the types.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Thoughts on Initiative, Charisma, and Wisdom
I've been thinking about the method of rolling initiative. What I wanted was to use the Old School method of rolling 1d6 by both sides and taking the higher of the two. That's how it was done in the old days, and that's what seemed right. However, having Charisma factoring into Initiative seemed to make a whole lot of sense, and helps to make it not a dump stat, so I allowed the highest Charisma character add a bonus based on his score to add to the roll.
In practice, however, I've been dissatisfied with the method. The d6 range is just too small and any bonus at all ends up with the PC's nearly always winning, since most monsters don't have ability scores. The last thing I want to do is give all the monsters ability scores, I mean that's one of the main reasons I decided to use first edition rather than 3rd or 4th.
I think maybe I'll switch to d12 instead of d6. That will make the chance for the bad guys to win slightly more often more within the realm of possiblity.
I've also been rolling some characters "The Awesome Squad" and noticed just how much Wisdom is the total dump stat. Unless you're a cleric, there isn't much use in wisdom. I don't know what could be done about that. I am generally reminded that I prefer the Basic D&D ability score progression to the AD&D one, but sic transit gloria mundi now.
In practice, however, I've been dissatisfied with the method. The d6 range is just too small and any bonus at all ends up with the PC's nearly always winning, since most monsters don't have ability scores. The last thing I want to do is give all the monsters ability scores, I mean that's one of the main reasons I decided to use first edition rather than 3rd or 4th.
I think maybe I'll switch to d12 instead of d6. That will make the chance for the bad guys to win slightly more often more within the realm of possiblity.
I've also been rolling some characters "The Awesome Squad" and noticed just how much Wisdom is the total dump stat. Unless you're a cleric, there isn't much use in wisdom. I don't know what could be done about that. I am generally reminded that I prefer the Basic D&D ability score progression to the AD&D one, but sic transit gloria mundi now.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Post Game Report Badlands 15
I enjoyed doing the In Medias Res open again for a change of pace. The intial battle with the Legion of the Damned was longer than I expected it to be. But, the fights inside the dungeon were all pretty fast. That's the thing about an old-school dungeon, you can get a surprisingly large number of battles in one session.
Original D&D, AD&D1e, AD&D2e, and Basic/Expert style D&D (all of which are essentially the same game) all have that particular virtue in common. It starts to slow down in the 3e era and afterwards.
Let's see we had: 3 fights vs. Legion of the Damned, 1 vs. Undead Ogres, 1 vs. Ochre Jelly, 1 vs. tiny spiders, 1 vs. Goblins, 1 vs. Yellow Mold and 1 vs. the Spirit of Holy Aurelius. 9 fights in one night. That's pretty good. If we had skipped the Legion outside, we probably would have had a lot more.
I guess to be fair, the dungeon was originally designed for level 2-3 characters, and we had 3-5, but it's still pretty close. If Peaches hadn't swiped those Keogtam's ointment last game, the body count would have been much, much higher, due to poison.
I must say that Marlon's Kuman really deserved to die in the Yellow Mold room. To keep poking the hangings after 2-3 guys were poisoned was bad enough, but to go back and keep doing it even after he was poisoned himself was really pretty boneheaded.
Speaking of boneheaded, I am really, really going to enjoy clubbing Mallak, Peaches, Badaxe and Kuman over the head, over and over and over and over again for desecrating the tomb of Holy Aurelius and attacking his manifested spirit (especially since they did it in front of a crapload of witnesses who are members of the Church of Bor to one degree or another).
Original D&D, AD&D1e, AD&D2e, and Basic/Expert style D&D (all of which are essentially the same game) all have that particular virtue in common. It starts to slow down in the 3e era and afterwards.
Let's see we had: 3 fights vs. Legion of the Damned, 1 vs. Undead Ogres, 1 vs. Ochre Jelly, 1 vs. tiny spiders, 1 vs. Goblins, 1 vs. Yellow Mold and 1 vs. the Spirit of Holy Aurelius. 9 fights in one night. That's pretty good. If we had skipped the Legion outside, we probably would have had a lot more.
I guess to be fair, the dungeon was originally designed for level 2-3 characters, and we had 3-5, but it's still pretty close. If Peaches hadn't swiped those Keogtam's ointment last game, the body count would have been much, much higher, due to poison.
I must say that Marlon's Kuman really deserved to die in the Yellow Mold room. To keep poking the hangings after 2-3 guys were poisoned was bad enough, but to go back and keep doing it even after he was poisoned himself was really pretty boneheaded.
Speaking of boneheaded, I am really, really going to enjoy clubbing Mallak, Peaches, Badaxe and Kuman over the head, over and over and over and over again for desecrating the tomb of Holy Aurelius and attacking his manifested spirit (especially since they did it in front of a crapload of witnesses who are members of the Church of Bor to one degree or another).
Saturday, July 2, 2011
I'm going to regret this
Of course, the In Medias Res open I have set for tomorrow depends on one particular player showing up. That person will almost certainly not show up. So, I guess I should be making contingency plans.
Lords of Hack page
I've got all of the logs and portchester news entries updated on the Lords of Hack page. I've also updated the characters page on the site. Take a look, and if there is anything about your character that is incorrect and you'd like me to fix, let me know.
I also put all my character info about Nigel Mysterio (and please log-writers, it's Mysterio, NOT Mysterioso) on a PDF character sheet and uploaded it to the page. Take a look, if you're curious. If anyone who doesn't know how to upload documents to the page and wants to have his character sheet there too, just mail it to me.
It took me a little longer than I thought it would to get all the various bits and hunks of paper into a single file, but It should make it easier to update between each session. I needed to buy a metric crapload of furniture to make my place liveable. It's going to cost me 54gp per month to pay all the varlets I need. I really should have some guards, but need to wait for the next deal-out.
I also put all my character info about Nigel Mysterio (and please log-writers, it's Mysterio, NOT Mysterioso) on a PDF character sheet and uploaded it to the page. Take a look, if you're curious. If anyone who doesn't know how to upload documents to the page and wants to have his character sheet there too, just mail it to me.
It took me a little longer than I thought it would to get all the various bits and hunks of paper into a single file, but It should make it easier to update between each session. I needed to buy a metric crapload of furniture to make my place liveable. It's going to cost me 54gp per month to pay all the varlets I need. I really should have some guards, but need to wait for the next deal-out.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)