Bor prevents the game

I had to cancel the game this Sunday.  First, storm water started to leak into the bathroom downstairs in the game room.   It wasn't catastrophic, but from past experience, I knew that the basement was going to be a bit less than useful for game time.   It turns out things got even worse, about an hour before game time would have started, the power went out and we were in the dark for a few hours.

Everything's dry and re-lit now, and we'll try again in two weeks.

Almost went

I almost went to see the new Conan movie today.   But, finally chickened out when I read this quote in a review  "the audience I saw it with didn't so much leave the theatre as recoil from the theatre."

Deadly Disease for Druids

Last session people were freaking out about druids not being able to cure the tick disease.  I guess everyone at the table was completely blind, because Cure Disease is a 3rd level Druid spell, right there under Call Lightning.

Shopping Trip

I ordered the various volumes of the Hackmaster monster books that I don't have.  I guess waiting till now, I saved a whole bunch of money, since I paid about half the cover price, even including shipping.  All hail amazon.

Behind the Screen, Session 18

General Notes
I think that the feats went pretty well.  It makes fighters much more interesting.  Got ot see "Little Bastard" in action, that was fun.   Still, the guys really needed a wizard when taking on the orc horde.
What's with the inability to hit with a stupid javelin three times?

I was kind of disappointed that we didn't finish the dungeon this week.  I extremely enjoyed myself the session before when they were exploring level 2.  A giant set piece is fun now and again, but I like getting a whole bunch of encounters and pokings and proddings in.  Although, the guys missed two big treasure hauls that week in the dungeon level.

Below 0
The orc battle was a really narrow victory for the PCs.  There was a serious beat down of PC's-1 mortal wound and 1 killed.  Luckily they had the resources to reverse both results.  I must say that I'm really satisfied with the rules for falling below 0 hit points we've been using.   I want that delicate balance between instant-death and never-dead.  

The base rules for D&D was 0 hit points equals dead, but that's just a bit too rough, and doesn't model life or literature very well, there's no chance of having a wounded dude who needs to be carried or rescued.  It comes from miniature war games where you just want to know if a figure is on the field or not.

The alternative that evolved in the main rules was the slow bleed to -10 hit points, but I've found that most of the time this made it nearly impossible for anyone to get killed in combat. 

I like how since there's about a 1 in 3 chance of dying once you hit 0, it is very scary to do so, but it allows most to survive it.  It especially helps mercenaries and henchmen survive, while keeping everyone on their toes.   I think 50/50 would be too much, maybe 1 in 4 would be okay.

Literary Notes

I read a pretty good set of historical novels recently.  It was called "The Conquest Trilogy", consisting of three novels:  Mercenaries, Warriors and Conquest all written by Jack Ludlow.  They deal with the story of the sons of Tancred deHauteville, a minor Norman noble in the generation before William the Conquerer.   The sons, most importantly William "Iron Arm", Robert "Guiscard", and Roger made their way to Southern Italy as mercenaries but eventually conquerered all of Southern Italy and Sicily.  It's a true story and a rather incredible one.   Some of their children will go on to be major leaders of the first crusade as well.    I'd give the series a big positive reccommendation.

I've started watching the SyFy series "Haven", and noticed that it says it is based on the Steven King novel "The Colorado Kid", so I read the novel to see how it hooked up.   Man,  they were using the words "based on" in the most general sort of sense. None of the weird supernatural stuff in the series has anything to do with the book.  The town in the book isn't even called Haven.  None of the major characters of the series are in the book.  I think two minor series characters are based on the 2 main guys from the book, but they really don't do much.  I don't know why they bothered trying to link the two.

If you feel like reading the bible from cover to cover some time, I'd suggest that you can probably skip the book of Leviticus.   It's all descriptions of how to perform various sorts of burnt offerings, a little bit of law, and no action.

News from London

Here's an interesting and important game-related story out of the London riots:

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/looters-return-stuff-to-games-workshop-201108124191/

Feats of Arms Final Draft

I've gotten the final, "this is what we're going to use" draft of the Feats of Arms document ready and uploaded it to the usual place:

http://www.lordsofhack.com/home/doku.php?id=badlands

To this draft, I've added:
Jason's "Drinking Man" feat
A feat that allows you to chop the head off a horse
A proficiency in Siege Weapons

Also, I added a few notes about rules changes that are needed because of adding some of the feats.

So, everybody start picking feats for Sunday (but no picking feet on Sunday).

Best...Monster...Ever

Hack Master, Hacklopaedia of Beasts (4th edition), Volume VI, p66

"PHANTOM FOLLOWER (a.k.a. Wuss Spirit)

Description:  A Phantom follower appears as a ghostly apparition of its former self.  These undead creatures are the spirits of dead hirelings, followers, and level-0 NPC's.

Combat/Tactics: Phantom followers have returned from the Land of the Dead to accomplish a mission that could not complete in life.  Sometimes it is to exact revenge on a cruel master who mistreated him.  Other times it is to warn a good master of an impending doom.

Should it be prevented or misunderstood it becomes and wails a Howl of Despair.  All those who hear the the howl become profoundly sad.  Those affected get -4 to all morale rolls, save against Fear at -2, and get -2 to their AC."

Anyone seen Godric lately?

THIRD TIME FOR FEATS

Alright, I've made one more draft for the Feats of Arms document, and put it on the Badlands wiki at the usual place, replacing the previous draft: http://www.lordsofhack.com/home/doku.php?id=badlands

I've added a bunch of feats that Andrew and Jason asked for, and made a few notes to clarify a few things here and there.   I've added a couple more feats here and there too,   So, have another look if you are so inclined, and I'll put up a final draft at the end of the week before our next session.

I'm reckoning that we'll start using the feats of arms with our next game.

Summer Movie Round-up

THOR:  needed more smashing, less yacking.

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS:   first class indeed.

GREEN LANTERN: not bad, not amazing, would have loved it when I was 15

CAPTAIN AMERICA:  best of the comic book films for the summer, not quite Batman Begins or Iron Man.

HARRY POTTER:  not as good as the previous, not as bad as the one before

COWBOYS AND ALIENS:  next time, more Keith Carradine.

To Feat or Not to Feat

I've replaced the first draft of the Feat of Arms document with Draft #2 on the Badlands Main page: http://www.lordsofhack.com/home/doku.php?id=badlands

I've added a bunch of new feats, from Bitchslap to Spear Catching to Unarmed Master.

I've also changed the text of some of the feats.

I added the Berserker's rage class ability as a mandatory first level Feat choice for Berserkers.  

I've also took the Fighter/Paladin/Ranger/Berserker ability to make multiple attacks against low-level opponents and turned it into a feat of arms.  So, warriors will have to chose it instead of getting it automatically.

I meant to get a feeling from the assembled crew as to whether we are ready to apply the feats of arms rules to the campaign at the next session.   Read over the document, and tell me whether we should use feats or not next time.

If anyone has comments on any of the feats of arms or are missing something we could add to the list please let me know.

Behind the Screen Session 17

MAP
I'm still pleased with the fully revealed map.   Although, there were a few problems with the map this time.  The two rooms where the Old Ones were encountered, were just a bit too small.  This was partially due to the fact that the maps were originally map on the "Campaign Mapper" software program, and when I moved them onto the large scale map, I had to squeeze things in a bit, or else each level would need more paper on the table, and 2-sheets seems a functional maximum.  It just so happened that those two rooms got squeezed more than I would have liked.   I should have been monitoring contents more closely as I transferred the map.  Nevertheless, narrow rooms do make things interesting, and help to negate some of the PC's numerical edge.

Mercenaries
I really think the players ought to confer about how many mercenaries they take into a dungeon.    Occasionally, I think they go a bit overboard.   In the early days, the party was mostly spell casters, and low on beef.  Now it's mostly beef and low on casters.  Having 12 mercenary troops seemed to me to be too many this time, and they ended up getting in the way much of the time.  I think that going for henchmen and cultivating them would be a smarter use of money, but it's up to them how they want to do it.  If they want to take in 50 raw recruits with clubs, they can do it.  The game is set up to handle them.  There are tales of Old School D&D where parties had bands of 60 berserkers following them around.  And on second thought, if they decide to keep moving and not leave the dungeon right now, they are still adequately staffed without needing reinforcements.

Totally Amazing Gnorris----NOOOOOOOOO!!!   
I was really disappointed.  He was a super character with awesome stats and a lot of potential.  The party needed another caster (although his initial spells kind of sucked) and really needed a thief.   Yet he gets head-critted by an arrow in an ambush by lousy goblins and dies.   Bummer.

Mercury and mercury, breaking Chekov's Gun
The puddle of mercury and the "place set for Mercury" had absolutely nothing to do with one another. Mercury (capital) is of course one of the old Ardean pagan gods, so he's likely to appear in this old pagan shrine.   As for the puddle, I just wanted something interesting to have poured out of the broken amphorae in the tick room, to draw players in.  I rolled on some random table until something useful came up--mercury. 

The writer Chekov said "If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there."   This is the common literary trope called "Chekov's Gun."

When it comes to making a dungeon, however, I say "Fooey".  When you have a bunch of guys trying to figure things out, to unlock mysteries and finding treasure--as participants---then the more red herrings, inicidentals and unconnected details you can cram in the better.  The more predictable it is the worse it is. 

For example, when the players needed someway to attach the chair to the ceiling,  I never would have expected them to use the "Sticky Black Wax" from the covering of the stone jar to glue it up there.  I was delighted.  The wax was strictly there to cause paranoia about possible poison, but they found a use for it.   It's the genius of RPG's that any item is useable, new uses for any object can be devised, and the surprising is just around the corner.