The Double Damage Question

As Jason and I were discussing it, we go all excited about having double damage from various sources be multiplicative and also having the doubling include the bonus damage from magic and strength too.


So, a swordsman with +3 sword and 18 strength (+3) who scored a critical hit, would roll 1d6+6 and double the entire result.


If the same swordsmen were a beefy thief and got a critical hit (x2) on a backstab (say x3) he would roll 1d6+6 and multiply the result by 6, which could result in up to 72 points of damage.  


That's a lot, but it requires sneaking around unseen and scoring a critical hit (natural 20 usually).  It really isn't anymore out of line than throwing a polymorph other spell or the like.


I'm a little concerned about if we added a Girdle of Giant Strength into the mix for a doubling again.  Maybe we could limit the Girdle to a simple doubling of number of weapon dice rolled, since that (and Growth spell too) are used on every single attack roll and aren't extraordinary like a backstab or critical.


Thoughts?

Adjustments to Thieves

Thieves just totally blow in ACKS, RC D&D and even to a degree in AD&D.   I'm proposing the following adjustments to the RC D&D thief:


Hit Die:  increase from d4 to d6


Dex Bonus:  add 5% times DEX bonus to most Thief skills


Back Stab:  in RC it is limited to x2 forever.   I propose making it match other forms of D&D:
level 1-4   x2
level 5-8  x3
level 9-12  x4
level 13+  x5

Adjustment to Mystics

First set of adjustments to the classes is to the Mystic (i.e. Monk).   The RC D&D Mystic is slightly better than the ACKS monk, but needs a little punching up.  


Major Addition:  Stun Fist or Throw:  When a mystic makes an unarmed attack and scores a natural high result (unmodified) as follows:


vs. lower HD enemy:  18+
vs. same HD enemy:  19+
vs. higher HD enemy 20


Then he either stuns the enemy, causing it to loose its next action in addition to damage, or can elect to throw it for 1d4 inches and slam it to the ground prone in addition to damage.  If the target is larger in size or has greater HD than the mystic then it gets a saving throw vs. paralysis to avoid the stun or throw.   If a natural 20 is rolled, the attack will also be a regular critical hit.   Perhaps the stun/throw effect might not apply to anything larger than an ogre, and certainly won't apply to non-living enemies.


Minor Adjustment:   the formula for a mystic's Acrobatics check is very complicated.   Perhaps adjusting it to rolling DEX on less on D20, or Level or Less on d12 might be better.


Comments, additional suggestions, complaints?

New Campaign Rationale

We should be starting a new D&D campaign on July 17th, as I've said on the Club blog.   I just thought I'd explain why I decided to change things up.   It's really just a case of mood.   I was ready for some Traveller at the end of the summer, and had the time to prepare it.  However, we never really got into the actual campaign and just ended up playing 3 sessions of "Grand Theft Auto in Space."   It was actually fun, but we got further and further away from the adventures that I wanted to run, and then with my family troubles and chaos in general, the campaign momentum disappeared. 


Then over Christmas I read a rather disappointing biography of Gary Gygax, titled Empire of Imagination,  and then a much better e-book series about the first 5-6 years of D&D, both about the publishing side and the early campaigns of Gygax and Arneson (the series titled Hawk and Moor).   This got me really into a D&D mood again.  It specifically got me thinking about the Judges Guild material I have in the basement.


However, I didn't want to pick up with ACKS as written again.   There were things I liked, but things I didn't.   I also didn't want to jump right back into Gatavia again or spend time on setting materials rather than play material.


So, when Jason showed up we just started hacking through a list of questions concerning what's the most fun way we've handled various spheres of D&D play.   The Hackmaster Spell list was just a must, what with the Rigor Mortis spell (a paralysis spell that also works on undead), the Hurl Animals spell, the dozen or so different fireball spells and so forth.


I just got more and more excited and more and more into it as we went, so actually as of now I'm more excited about doing the whole rpg thing as I have been in a while.

The Struggle With Deckplans

For combats on starships, having a printed, large-scale deckplan of the ship is very handy and generally useful.   

The printer/copier I have in the basement had a button on it that you could set for "poster" and during the last campaign, I printed out a usable large-scale deckplan for a 100-ton scout and a 400-ton merchant vessel.   I haven't been able to find those plans yet, and the printer I believe has given up the ghost at last.

I tried using 2 on-line programs that allow you to make Tile Posters.   However, they came out too blurry.  However, it may be because I used an image of a deckplan from Google images and the image might have been poor quality to begin with.

I was more successful by photocopying a deckplan of a System Defence Boat, cutting it into sections 2 inch by 2.5 inches and then photocopying each section at 4 times magnification, making each section 8x10, perfect for a standard sheet of paper with a border.   I then trimmed it and taped it together.  It is eminently useful.   The only downside is that I would have to do it at work, since the working copier/printer I have at home doesn't seem to have a magnify/zoom feature. 

If anyone has a simpler and equally cost efficient way of making tile posters or blowing up copies from a PDF, I'd like to hear it.

Traveller Aliens

I've put up some information about the Simioids in a previous post and on the LOH Traveller wiki.    That's really not a huge issue for integration in the Official Trav universe, since various uplifted species are present in small numbers (there may even be official uplifted apes somewhere).

I also added our old friends the Span-Kee and Mavorians to the mix over at the wiki.  It's not too much of a stretch to figure that the Zhodani might have a few allied minor races, especially psionic ones.

I guess I should explain Minor/Major Races in Traveller.    A species that invented Jump Drive all on its own is called a Major Race.  The Major Races include 3 sub-species of humans:  The Vilani, The Zhodani and the Solomanni (i.e Earthmen);  also the Vargr (dog-men), Aslan (lion-men), K'kree (a centaur-like race), Hivers (weird octopus-like aliens) and the Droyne (small flying winged lizard-like guys).   All the major races have their own space empires except the Droyne who exist only on scattered planets across the galaxy.  The Imperium the players live in is most a mixture of Vilani and Solomani humans, with a huge number of minor races here and there.    In the corner of the galaxy we are playing, we will likely encounter Zhodani, Vargr and Droyne, but it is vary unlikely that we'll see K'kree or Hivers, who are on the other side of the empire.

I left the Aslan off the list.  They have colonies nearby, but they are the ones I'd like to change.   Instead of a race of Klingon-like Lion men,  I think I'd prefer to change them into a coalition of various reptilian and amphibian type aliens.  For one thing, I have lizardmen aplenty in miniature, but only like 3 lion men.  For another thing, what's more fun than blasting space lizards?  I know it sounds pretty weak sauce, but I guess the Aslan always seemed super-lame to me.

Card Stock Models for Traveller Campaign

The following site has some neat-looking card-stock models (it looks like they're free) of vehicles from movies and TV shows that might be totally excellent for Traveller


Dave's Designs

Here are a few pictures:

#1  an ATV from "Captain Scarlet"

#2 An ATV from "UFO"

A hover cop car from "Fifth Element"
There are many, many more, including just about any Batmobile you might imagine.

Haven't tried them yet, but they look pretty cool