Review: Star Trek Into Darkness (Spoiler Free)

While waiting for Mr. Plinkett to review it properly, I thought I'd talk a little about the new Star Trek movie.

1) Error in the Credits:   it said it was directed by J.J. Abrams, but I think it was actually directed by Rodney the Action-Man.

2)  All Height, No Depth:   honestly, I can hardly imagine a movie being more emotionally shallow than this one.   I can hear the pitch meeting:
Boss: "Okay, let's keep conversations to 90 seconds or less",
Flunky:  "How much time do we have for explaining back-story?"
Boss:  "I think 2 minutes, strechted over the entire movie, should do it."
Flunky:  "Sounds like a plan."

On the other hand, I can hardly imagine a movie being more exciting than this one, it bowls you over with constant ACTION ACTION ACTION:  and it's all really, really good.

3)  The Big Reveal:  it turns out that the bad guy is really a different guy.  That revelation adds absolutely nothing to the progress of the movie.   It has an impact on Star Trek fans, but for non-trek people, it just means they start calling him by a different name.

4) Sherlock kicks ass:   the bad guy really is frightening when he busts people up, it was awesome.

5) Overall:   as long as you aren't looking for deep thought, deep feeling, real character development, it really was super-beyond awesome.   I'd have to say it was the second best Star Trek movie ever.
Anything else starts to wander into spoiler country.

Things he should have put in the actual book

The ACKS author added this on their forums lately:

"Based on the average frequency of encounters, the average spotting distances of encounters, the average percentage chance of an encounter being in a lair, and the average distance traversed per encounter throw, I worked up the expected number of lairs per hex.
You can use the following table to determine how many lairs will appear in each hex:

Terrain	Lairs Per Hex
Inhabited	1d4
Clear, Grass, Scrub	1d4
Hills	2d4+1
Woods	2d4+1
Desert	2d4+1
Jungle	2d6+1
Mountains	2d6+1
Swamp	2d6+1

Each day of searching, allow one encounter throw to find a lair."

This seems to be super-duper, key, monstroso important information if you actually wanted to clear territory to start a domain to me.


 

Side Games

I was thinking of perhaps doing a side game, a mini-campaign or something like that to test out ACKS during the summer.   It depends on my wife's work schedule and what people I could scrape together during off hours.  Current thought is one afternoon or morning a week from June to August, but there are other possibilities.

Two schemes:

Bandits of Orchester:   PC's are a group of bandits around the southern city of Orchester in the Gatavia province.   It would use a card-based encounter system (I'd play a character too).  Heavy on the Risk and Reward system: you'd increase danger directly for increased chance at loot.

Dungeon of Mulfando:  again, set around the southern city of Orchester, it would be a more traditional dungeon exploration game, again a random system of dungeon rooms and encounters, seeing how the encounters work out. (Exploring the dungeon of the founder of the Wizard School at Orchester).

Sorry No postings

I've been wicked sick since Thursday evening, finally light at the end of the tunnel today.

HALFLING PUMPKIN QUEEN

I worked up a Halfling Race for ACKS, and then made a few classes:  the Burglar (basically a halfling thief;  the Scout: basically a halfling explorer (fighter subclass))  and the Halfling Pumpkin Queen.   Making classes is a right proper pain in the ass for ACKS, but I persevered and here is the Pumpkin Queen (I've not included the experience table, spell progression table and spell lists for space's sake)

CUSTOM CLASS: HALFLING PUMPKIN QUEEN

Prime Requisite: Wisdom

Requirements: Dex 9+

Hit Dice: 1d4

Maximum Level: 13

The majority of the halfling people are peaceful, quiet and stay at homes. Their religious needs are likewise tended to by a class of peaceful halflings known as the Pumpkin Queens.

Halfling Pumpkin Queens are poorly trained combatants, at first level hitting an unarmored enemy (AC0) with a 10+. They increase their attacks and saving throws 2 points every six levels, as mages. Halfling Pumpkin Queens may not wear armor and may not use shields. They may only use staff, club, sling, or bolas for weapons.

As all halflings, Pumpkin Queens are Difficult to Spot: if they remain motionless and under cover in forest or undergrowth can become undetectable on a proficiency roll of 3+, in dungeons on a roll of 14+. Likewise, halflings are known to be Lucky Bastards, gaining +3 on saving throws vs. Blast and Breath, and +4 on all other saving throws (included in the chart below). Futhermore, they are Natural Throwers, gaining +1 to hit with all thrown weapons and slings. Finally, their small size and peaceable demeanor puts folk at their ease, making all elves, orcs, humans, hogoblins, ogres and trolls roll reactions to individual halflings or groups of them at a +1.

Their harmony with the spirits of nature gives them an aura of protection, providing +1 to AC and to saves against those with evil intentions. Given divine favor to heal and protect the halfling folk, the pumpkin queen can Lay on Hands, healing 2 hp/level once per day. The holy regard the pumpkin queens have in the halfling community cause any halflng fighting for her to gain +1 bonus to morale whenever she is present due to Holy Fervor. Finally, her Strength of Spirit makes her immune to magical and normal fear effects. At 5th level the Pumpkin Queen can research spells and make potions and scrolls. At 9th level she can make permanent magic items, and at 11th level, she can make constructs and cast ritual spells.

At 9th level, a halfling pumpkin queen can establish a Halfling Shire and will attract 1d6 halfling pumpkin queens of level 1 and 3d6x10 level 0 halfling militia to defend it.

Class Proficiencies: animal husbandry, animal training, beast friendship, command, contemplation, craft, diplomacy, divine blessing, divine health, elementalism, healing, knowledge, laying on hands, leadership, lore mastery, magical engineering, magical music, naturalism, passing without trace, prestidigitation, profession, quiet magic, sensing evil, sensing power, theology, tracking, unflappable casting,

The Restrictions: a Halfling Pumpkin Queen is bound by certain mystical restrictions. First, they may never enter a building that contains a dead body. Second, they may not wear any garment that is tied with knots. Third, if they meet anyone who is tied up, shackled or chained, that person must be immediately released. Fourth, they may never handle and object made of iron (items of bronze are usually substituted, which cost 2 to 5 times the equivalent iron item). If the Pumpkin Queen breaks any of these restrictions she loses her spell powers until she is ritually purified by an atonement spell performed by another Pumpkin Queen

GATAVIA III

When we start the Gatavia III campaign for ACKS, whensoever it might be,  I'm thinking that I need to be much more explicit of campaign goals.  I know I'm notoriously bad for keeping the overall goal of any campaign too hidden and too implict rather than explicit.  I also prefer the players to set the goals, but you guys are notoriously bad at setting your own goals (apart from making the largest piles of severed heads).

This campaign, I'm seriously interested in the ACKS 'endgame", the building of fortresses and establishing territory.    The previous Badlands campaign, that was my goal as well, the explortation, clearing and settling of the Badlands (but I kept it too close to the vest, and too far off in the future). 

So, I'm wondering whether some sort of beginning structure might be in order.  Perhaps the initial crew works for one of the minor players, or a secret society, or all receive a divine revelation of the stakes should the remenants of Dengwur's empire should reform, or the Old Ones conquer the Badlands, or Lucius Bastardo becomes the overlord. 

The trouble is that this might entail limiting character choices as to class and/or alignment and/or attitude.   I suppose I should just come up with a scheme whereby random psychopaths unite for justice, but I don't know.   I'd like it if the players formed a more formal adventuring band, with a name and a headquarters, but you guys always seem to be ridiculously stubborn in refusing to do something like that  (and I don't indeed want it turning out like the crew of the Death Ranger and the mess that was). 

I need to bat a few things around in my head and come up with a unifying direction, much like we have for Mutants and Muskets, wherein we don't have to come up with "adventure hooks".  On the other hand, I'd like to get to a place where one guy is running a smuggling ring, another is building a temple on the borders etc.

ACKS experience continued

4) Reserve Fund:
You can build up a reserve fund of experience for your successor if you should happen to die.  You do this by spending money on things that have no in-game benefit.   And, Marlon, it means just that, if you try to weasel it to something useful for your adventuring, you are missing the point, and don't get the XP.   The interesting thing I had realized before was that you aren't depriving yourself of the XP value of the treasure spent, only of the purchasing power.  
    This reserve fund might be something we could tinker with.  Perhaps if we run several characters, like we are doing for Mutants and Muskets, you could use the reserve fund for your other characters as well as just for an heir.

5) Campaigning
You can get XP for various Campaigning things.  Whereas the XP from Mercantile Income, Land  Income and Hijnks are pretty straight forward, XP from cash earned--above a level-dependent "deductable", the XP from Construction is different, here you get XP for money you spend on fortress construction (1 XP per 2gp).  You don't get the XP until the fortress is done, and here's the rub, you lose the XP if you lose the fortress.   The interesting thing is, like the reserve fund, you are getting XP for treasure you've already gotten XP from while adventuring.



So, I suppose we should start by playing as written.  But, I am going to miss the wrangling that goes on with treasure distribution.  I know other people like coming to quick, even, amicable treasure splits, but it does my black heart good to see chiseling, scheming and bad feelings when it comes to splitting the loot.

ACKS experience by the book

I was looking at the way ACKS handles experience point distribution by the book.  It runs something like this:

1) The Dungeon Haul
Total for Monster XP, and for Treasure XP (gold piece value brought home) is added up.  Then it is divided equally among all surviving PC's and Henchmen (with henchmen getting a half share).

The interesting bit:   you don't get Treasure XP based on how much of the loot you actually end up with, but rather your share of what the group takes.   This would tend to decrease squabbling over treasure and XP driven individual greed.   But, I like squabbling over treasure and XP driven individual greed.

2)  Magic Items:
Magic items work differently.  If you use it at all, then you never get any XP for selling it.   If you sell it for cash, then you get the XP value of the cash.  Presumably, the item must be sold more or less right away, and the XP value would be divided among the party, just like treasure XP from the regular treasure XP.   I've always hated when PC's want to sell magic items.  It seems dirty and wrong, so I really don't know how I feel about this.  The other factor is that it might be pretty hard to sell a magic item, especially an expensive one, since the chance of finding a buyer for a high-value item can be pretty low.  It looks like most permanent items are going to have at best a 25% chance of finding a buyer per month in our campaign area.

3) Scavenging Normal Items:
This is both better and worse than our traditions.  Normal equipment found scattered about or in the hands of dead enemies in our old ways were sold for 1/3 or 1/2 retail.   Under ACKS, they're at full retail (in the days without mass production that makes a certain amount of sense), unless there's something wrong with them, and there's almost always something wrong with them.  Yet, those defects won't lower the price more than 20-40% most of the time.

Digging

I finished a large portion of my miniature backlog.  Basically, I painted all the new stuff I bought over the last 2 months and a portion of the old backlog.  I still have to paint my mounted knights and Viking infantry, but they are all nicely boxed and shrink-wrapped, so they aren't a really pressing matter (plus King Theoden and Bullroarer Took).

After I finished painting, I went to work cleaning and ordering the Hack Lair.  You probably won't notice much difference, but I threw out a metric crapload of stuff; I was really pretty ruthless with cardboard, junk and play aids we don't use, like battle mats, hex paper, character sheets for games we don't play. I also had to add several new boxes for miniatures on the shelf when adding my new stuff.  It turns out I already had lizardmen after all; so now I have a lot of lizardmen.  I packed away all the 4th edition D&D stuff, since we haven't played that in 4 years or so.   I also have a nice spot on my top shelf for the Savage World stuff and the ACKS stuff.  

I did find the maps for the dungeon complex for the Aquila Campaign (a.k.a. the Brown Trousers) for Castles and Crusades.  It was a true old-school dungeon complex, with 8 levels of dungeon and a half a dozen above ground ruins.   Once again, I think the players spent 90% of the campaign ignoring the dungeons and wandering around the outdoor map, and I think they only ever really explored 1 or 2 levels.  It really is a neat set of maps.

Map problems solved and discovered

I went around town this morning looking for a solution that didn't involve extortion-level shipping.   I couldn't find 12" cardboard squares, but I did discover that the scrap-booking universe works in a 12"x12" mode.   I thought perhaps that 12"x12" card stock might do the trick.   I was going for the 12x12 in the first place because for transferring maps from graph paper to table top in the "slow reveal" method, a square would be slightly more convenient, but more importantly if one wanted to do something geomorphic, where the maps could be rotated and combined in different orders they would produce different layouts, a square rather than a rectangle would be absolutely essential.

So, I did pick up some 12x12 card stock packs (40 sheets for about $5 at good old Walmart).  I think they should do the trick, and I'll give them a whirl for the guano caves.

I was thinking about my ACKS first dungeon.   Then it hit me, on the graph paper I was using the traditional 1 square equals 10 feet scale.  But on the table we use a 1 inch (or 1 square) equals 5'.  I've already said that the map is big.  The graph paper in question is 5 squares to the inch.  The dungeon area covers about 10 inches by 7 inches.   That would translate to 100 inches by 70 inches on the table top (my tables total 60 inches by 60 inches).   It would take approximately 48 of those card stock sheets to draw out the map in total (just guessing, but it would be at least 4 of the big pieces, maybe more).

Hmmmm.   Methinks I need a smaller dungeon, or an alternative plan for that site.

Paging the "Answering your own question" Department

Okay, it took me all of 30 seconds to answer my own question.   "Mr. Box Online" has bundles of 50 12"x12" cardboard sheets for about $10.   Looks like I have a solution.  I just have to order up somewhere  between 1 and 4 bundles, depending on how confident of the scheme I am and hell, just draw the dungeon right on the square and use a ruler for movement, or paste down the cut sections of big grid paper.  At 20 cents each, I could even just chuck 'em when we're done.  I think it might be a good idea to make up some spell effect templates for common ACKS spells, like incredibly handy Savage Worlds templates.

Mapping Scheme

My current thought for a dungeon scheme is to make 12"x12" squares and draw dungeon sections on them.  They could be specifically designed for the adventure, and/or made geomorphically and reused in different circumstances.

I'm thinking right now about drawing the dungeon on the big 1" square grid paper, cutting it into 12 by 12 pieces and gluing the pieces onto some kind of backing.   Cutiing out cardboard would be the least expensive, but I don't know if I want to be cutting out huge numbers of cardboard squares.   These 1 foot cork shelf-liner squares from Lowe's might do the trick ($9 for 4 squares is a little steep, so I'll keep looking)



12x12 floor tiles are actually about the same price, and actually a little cheaper.  The problem is weight and storage.  Our current 2x2 tile system is cool, but the tiles are heavy and bulky.  Big tile squares I think would get prohibitively heavy. 

I suppose I could just look for pre-cut 12" cardboard squares.  That shouldn't be impossible, should it?

How big are lizardmen supposed to be anyway?

I got some Reaper Lizardmen, and they seem about a head taller than most of my dudes.   I'm just wondering whether Lizard-men are supposed to be big, or is it just a case of Reaper making their miniatures bigger than a regular 25mm?

Vikings review, post script

One more thing about the Vikings show.  It has a totally kick-ass theme song.  It's super spooky-creepy kind of thing:

Viking Theme Song

Converting the Gatavia setting to ACKS progress

I've started to convert some of the setting background information from AD&D to ACKS.   The Badlands material is the main thing I lost, document-wise, in my big hard drive crash last year (or was it the year before? OLLLLDDDDD).  Fortunately, I had many of the important docs in PDF on the WIKI site.  I was afraid they'd uneditable, being PDF's and all, but found I could copy and paste from them.  It takes a little work to re-format the pages before editing, but it proceeds apace. 

I've converted the main Religions and Magical Orders over.  The religions weren't hard, I just needed to re-define what classes the various clergy belonged to.   I decided to take the ACKS Priestess class, and open it to men as well (Priests), and use them for the "Canon Clergy" class I had created for the Badlands AD&D.  They are functionally analogous, characters who fight like wizards, but use Cleric spells, and who get cleric spells in greater supply than standard clerics.  It was far simpler to just say "Men can be Priestesses" rather than create a new class.  Druids, Gothi and Shaman, of the AD&D Badlands, are now just ACKS shaman class examples.   The chaos cults now can be led by Warlocks, Chaotic clerics, or some sorts of Witches.

I've converted over some magical orders as well.   I dropped the Violet Lotus, since we never used it in the Badlands campaign.   The main benefit for joining one of the orders is access to magical libraries and laboratories (which can be a huge deal).  It gives some purpose to the Collegiate Wizardry proficiency beyond the occasional reading of glyphs or ciphers.

In the Badlands campaign, I gave each magician who was in one of these orders a minor magic wand, which could shoot the equivalent of a cantrip, a minor damage effect that usually required a to hit roll.  I figured that magicians out to be using magic in combat more frequently, and it was more wizard-like to shoot a magic beam than to throw a dart, even if the results were the same.  I don't know whether to bother with these items again.  I don't really recall the PC's using them all that much in practice, and since we will be starting at 2-3rd level, it's not so crucial to give the wizards a leg up to start.

Monkeys Painted

I've finishes painting my 8 little monkeys.  Now that leads me to the task of creating a spell for ACKS:   "Summon Chaos Monkeys".   My first run through makes it a 2nd level spell, but it doesn't seem all that better than "Summon Berserkers" which is a first level spell.  Sure, there are more monkeys, but they are half the hit points each.   I'll keep fiddling.

Dungeon Finished

I've wrapped up the dungeon, including NPC's, adventure hooks and rumor tables.  I'm pretty happy with it, and I think it ought to be good for 2-3 sessions at least.  All sorts of weird stuff could happen, depending on which hook you take, and which if any NPC's you might join (if I actually ever use this particular dungeon, it was more of a design exercise than anything).  I'm a little concerned on one issue with one particular monster, but I can't spill any beans.

I do wonder whether, if we use it, I should transfer the map onto (several) of the big sheets of paper and thus skip all the map-making, getting lost jive.   It's part of the whole dungeon experience, but maybe it's just played out.  On the other hand, the ACKSystem assumes the calling/mapping system and some proficiencies and abilities are tied to it (I'm thinking of some of the Dwarven Delver stuff).  On the third hand, when we've done dungeons on "the big maps" in the Badlands campaign, it didn't really seem to lose anything, in fact, it made for some more tactically interesting game play.  One would of course need to be careful of secret doors and secret treasure rooms.  

Random Dungeon Near Completion

The random dungeon rooms and other keyed encounters are all filled in and complete.   I need to make up a wandering monster table and the stats for a dozen or so human or demi-human NPC's.   Finally, I need to make a list of adventure hooks.   I suppose I need to pick a location first and then work from there.  Actually, there are some neat possibilities for adventure hooks that will have the PC's go deep into the level.

I did like the method they suggested for stocking the dungeon:  you randomize the "What" all at once first, then decide on all the "Where".  That made it easier to make the whole thing hang together.    I'm used to either crafting both the Where and What, or randomizing the Where and What, but randomizing the What and placing the Where makes a lot of sense.

I really need to dig out the Hackmaster

I was reading the latest Knights of the Dinner table, and in it, Brian's mage has a "Chaos Monkey" jumping on his back, interrupting all of his spells.  I'm staring at my 8 unpainted colobus monkeys and "chaos monkey, chaos monkey, chaos monkey" keeps going through my head.  Now I just have to dig out which ever Hackmaster book the Chaos monkey is described...

The Random Dungeon So Far

I used my new random dungeon dice to create a dungeon level with 50 some rooms in it.  This is big for me, since I usually go for about 20-30 rooms on a level.   I decided to use ACKS random stocking rules to see how they actually function in practice.   I've gotten as far as placing all the monsters, traps and treasure locations throughout the dungeon, and getting all the details nailed down for just about half the rooms.   

It is a "2nd level dungeon" which in ACKS means it's made for 2-3rd level characters.   It would definitely be too hard for first level guys, and you would probably need a good, strong party with henchmen to take it.  There is a major lair of Lizardmen as the heart of the level, but there are smaller groups of various other monsters scattered about.

One thing that is very noticeable in the ACKS stocking system is that the dungeon section is fully integrated with the monster statistics and the treasure tables.  This is vastly different from the old D&D rules.   You are expected to use the % in Lair and the Treasure Types listed under the monster stats in order to hand out treasure to the encountered monsters.   Basically, if the monster isn't in its lair, expect there to be no treasure.   D&D had treasure types and % in Lair, but they seemed always to be Wilderness Encounter features, and nothing to do with dungeon encounters.  ACKS has integrated the whole scheme. 

Therefore, it's in your best interest to avoid encounters when you can to get to the treasure pile at the creature's lair.   It's all very different from stocking an old school dungeon using the Monster/Treasure assortments or the AD&D 1e random dungeon creator, where treasures could happen just about anywhere.

Bastards!

Agghhh!
They said that new Venture Brothers were going to start on May 19th, but last night's re-run said that now it's June 2nd.   Lazy cartooning jerks.

Random Dungeon Dice

Bob suggested I'd get these "random dungeon dice" for making maps.   I ordered a set and they arrived yesterday.   I made my first dungeon level map with them today.   It is certainly faster and easier than Gygax's "Random Dungeon Generator" from the back of the 1st edition AD&D DMG.  There's no jumping around tables, flipping from page to page and all that jazz;. just roll your dice, mark it down.   Since there's no actual grid on the dice, you have to eyeball everything, so it is a little hard to get it exact when transferring to paper.  It takes about 8 die rolls to fill up a sheet of graph paper, although you might be able to fit 12 if you were really inclined to.

It would be pretty useful for making up dungeons on the fly if we wanted to do some Judge-free sessions sometime.  All in all a good purchase.

One of the Biggest Deals in ACKS

I think that one of the biggest effects on gameplay with ACKS is going to be this:

Equipment Availability by Market Class
Price	Class I	Class II	Class III	Class IV	Class V	Class VI
1gp or less	1,700	585	260	65	30	10
2gp–10gp	100	30	15	5	1	1
11–100gp	15	5	2	1	25%	10%
101–1,000gp	7	2	1	25%	10%	5%
1,001–10,000gp	2	1	25%	10%	5%	1%
10,001gp or more	10%	5%	2%	NA	NA	NA

Since it looks right now that the campaign is going to mostly in Class III cities at best,  there is only going to be 2 suits of chain mail in the town for purchase at a time.  Wow.

ACKS CLASSES SUMMARIZED

CORE CLASSES: (need no explanation)

FIGHTER              CLERIC                 THIEF                    MAGE

ADDITIONAL HUMAN CLASSES

ASSASSIN, ANTI-PALADIN, BARBARIAN, BARD, BLADE-DANCER, EXPLORER, MYSTIC, PALADIN, PRIESTESS, SHAMAN, VENTURER, WARLOCK, WITCH

The assassin is a little more fighter-like and a little less thief like than AD&D.  Blade-dancer is a female sword-using cleric, Explorer is a weaker fighter with a lot of wilderness powers,  Mystic is like a more effective D&D monk,  Priestess is a cleric with better spell powers, but crappy in combat,  Shaman is like a druid,  Venturer is a crappy thief whose good at business,  Warlock is a mage with demon contacts and powers,  Witch is a cleric-type with some special features.

DWARF CLASSES:

CRAFT-PRIEST, DELVER, FURY, MACHINIST, VAULT-GUARD

Craft-priest is a dwarf cleric, vault-guard a dwarf fighter, delver is sort of a fighter-thief expert at caving exploration, Fury is a dwarf berserker, and machinist makes robots for a living.

ELF CLASSES

COURTIER, ENCHANTER, NIGHT-BLADE, RANGER, SPELL-SWORD

Courtier is an aristocrat, weakish fighter with some spell powers.  Enchanter is more or less a straight elf wizard, night-blade is a mage/assassin cross, ranger is a wilderness fighter, and spell-sword is a standard fighter-mage.

OTHER NON-HUMAN CLASSES:

GNOME TRICKSTER, NOBRIAN WONDER-WORKER, ZAHARIAN RUIN-GUARD

Gnome Trickster is a illusionist more or less;  Nobrian wonder-worker is a cleric-mage multi-class with divine ancestortry,  and a Zaharian ruin-guard is like Elric.

CUSTOM CLASSES BY ME:

GNOME TITAN, HALFLING BURGLAR, HALFLING SCOUT, LACKEY, ORKIN BANDIT

Gnome fighter, halfling thief, halfling explorer, Henchman, bushwhacker respectively.

THINGS I’M THINKING ABOUT:

HALFLING PUMPKIN QUEEN, HALF-ORC THUG (orkin), ORKIN HEX-MASTER

Meaning halfling priestess,  half-orc assassin, and cleric-mage half-orc mutliclass (Like Marlon's old guy) respectively.