Friday, February 17, 2017

Training, Research, Carousing, Gifting, and Sacrifice. (part 1)

Training, Research, Carousing, Gifting, and Sacrifice.

Turning coin looted on adventures into experience points for old-school dungeon fantasy games.

The original dungeon crawling RPG awards 1 experience point per gold piece hauled away on an adventure. This original method works fine for a simple campaign but in a complex and enduring campaign the PCs end up with incredible treasure hoards and little to spend all that treasure on in they aren’t empire builders.  The following outlines more explicit methods for turning treasure into experience points.

What changes and what doesn’t change in awarding experience points should be noted first. Experience points for defeating monsters, overcoming challenges, and specific mission awards are given to PCs as normal under the campaign rules used. No experience points are granted for the specific value of treasures gained during an adventure. For those GMs that wish to award experience points (hereafter  to be noted as exp) for magical items it is recommended to consider only awarding exp for utility as opposed to monetary value (it may be possible for some players to gain multiple awards from discovering magical items). Earned exp should be given as normal for the campaign but converting money to experience points requires specific actions on part of the PC/player.

Keeping track of downtime is essential as this shall be a resource as precious as coins when converting treasures won to exp. It is recommended that the campaign  be structured to allow for 2 to 4 weeks of downtime to occur between adventure sessions. It is during this downtime period players will make decisions on how to spend their treasure and the time required to do so.

Health and preparation are also essential to the entire process and recovery from injuries and other maladies will reduce the time a character has to convert wealth into exp.  Aside from Gifting and Carousing a character must be over 50% of their normal HitPoint total to benefit from the following methods of exp gain.





Throughout these guidelines "coins" will be used to express treasure costs. This is done to fit the coinage used in a campaign and is meant to be the common coin of value used in a campaign, so in a typical "gold standard" campaign all coins are gold pieces and in a "Silver Standard" these would be silver pieces of course. One should feel free to adjust fees as appropriate to the campaign economy of course as the suggested pricing assume lots of coins flowing even if the specific type may vary.

All of the methods of exp advancement require a 2d6 die roll with appropriate modifiers to determine the success and quality of the attempt to gain experience points. This roll may be made per week or at the end of multiple weeks depending on the campaign.

Experience Point Reward Table
2d6+mods
Result
3 or less
Unsuccessful*
4 to 6
Limited Success
7 to 10
Typical Success
11 to 12
Unexpected Success
13 or more
Amazing  Success**
 
 * a roll of two “1’s” on the 2d6 roll will always be unsuccessful regardless of modifiers applied.
 ** a roll of two “6’s” will always be a success  regardless of modifiers to the contrary but will only be an amazing success if the total score indicates it to be such.

Training
Training is study and exercise dedicated to a character’s class and skills. The time span for training is based on the week. The definition of training here is meant to cover potentially tiring and stressful exercises.

A character may spend a maximum of 100 coin per current level each week spent in training. A specific trainer may be employed if a character so wishes but the costs will be greater and may not contribute to exp gained.   

Training prohibits spending time on Research but does not interfere with Carousing, Gifting and Sacrifice in and of itself (those methods may prohibit or reduce time allowed for Training however).

Training Modifiers

-3 for self training.
-1 if character has inferior prime attribute.
+1 for prime attribute of 13-16
+2 for prime attribute of 17 or higher
+1 if Trainer employed is at least 2 levels/ranks above character
+2 if Trainer employed is at least 6 levels/ranks above character
-2 for Training during long term travel.
-1 if training in a space not dedicated to training
+1 if training in superior training space.
-2 to +2 depending on relationship with trainer

Training results:

Unsuccessful Training: No Experience points are gained and there is the possibility of injury or stress being inflicted upon the character, check on training mishaps chart to see what fate befalls character. A character’s relationship with a trainer declines during this training.

Limited Success:  Earn experience points equal to 50% of coin spent on training. Extra fees paid to trainer are excluded from these exp.  (Example: 150 coins are spent on training and 100 coins spent to employ a trainer and the character would gain  75 exp)

Typical Success: Earn experience points equal to coin spent on training. Extra fees paid to the trainer are excluded from these exp. (Example: 150 coins are spent on training and 100 coins spent to employ a trainer and the character would gain  150 exp). The relationship with the Trainer will improve.

Unexpected Success:  Earn experience points equal to coin spent on training. and 50% of fees paid to trainer up to normal weekly limit allowed.(Example: 200 coins are spent on training  by a 2nd level fighter and 300 coins spent to employ a trainer . The character earns 200 exp for initial coins spent and an additional 100 coins (half of the 200 allowed per week)).

Amazing Success: Earn experience points equal to coin spent on training. and 50% of fees paid to trainer. (Example: 200 coins are spent on training  by a 2nd level fighter and 300 coins spent to employ a trainer . The character earns 200 exp for initial coins spent and an additional 100 coins (half of the 200 allowed per week)). The relationship with the trainer will improve. Consult Training Boons chart to see if additional benefits are received.

Relationship with trainer

A character’s relationship with training will impact the benefits of training. A trainers disposition to a character will impact fees, training roll, actual experience points rewarded for training, and
the benefit or severity of boons and mishaps.

Initial Relationship with trainer.
If the relationship with a trainer isn’t defined by social relationships within the campaign roll 2d6  and apply the appropriate modifiers to determine that relationship.

Initial relationship modifiers:
-1 if CHA of student 6 or less
+1if CHA of student 15 or more
-2 if of opposing alignments
+1 if of same alignment
-1 if student prime attribute is inferior
+1 if student prime attribute is 15 or greater


Initial Relationship with Trainer
roll
Initial relationship
3 or less
Dislike
4-5
Unfavorable
6
Mercenary
7-8
Polite
9-10
Favorable
11 or more
Friendly



 
Impact of Relationship with Trainer
relationship
minimum trainer fee
Training Roll
Impact on exp
Mishap or Boon
Hostile
200/level
-2
-10%
-25
Dislike
150/level
-1
-10%
-10
Unfavorable
125/level
-1
-
-
Mercenary
110/level
-
-
-
Polite
100/level
-
-
-
Favorable
75/level
+1
-
-
Friendly
50/level
+1
+10%
+10
Mentor
none required
+2
+10%
+25



Training Mishaps
Only roll on this table when an unsuccessful training session has been completed.
+10 to roll in a superior training space
-10 to roll in a makeshift training space
+1 per point of prime attribute over 14
1d100 roll
Training Mishap
1 or less
Permanent loss of Prime Attribute. Character loses 1 point in prime attribute. 
2-10
Grievously Injured during training. Character’s Prime attribute is halved for next 8 weeks. Recovers 1 point per week of complete rest (final points only recovered after all rest). HP reduced to 1.
11-25
Seriously Injured during training. Character’s Prime attribute is reduced by 2-5 points Recovers 1 week owe week of complete rest. HP halved.
26-40
I’ll fated. All saving Throws and Class actions are at -2 for next 7 weeks.
41-50
Strain/Stress reduce Prime attribute by1 point for 2 weeks.
51-60
Forlorn. All saving Throws and Class actions are at -1 for next 2 weeks.
61-70
Down the wrong road. Next three training sessions -1 to roll.
71-75
Took a wrong turn. Next training session is -1 to roll.
76 or more
Mishap avoided


Training Boons

Only roll on this table when an Amazingly Successful training session has been completed.
+10 to roll in a superior training space
-10 to roll in a makeshift training space
1d100 roll
Training Boon
25 or less
No Boon Granted
26-40
Insight gained, +1 to next training  session roll.
41-60
Good Student, +1 to next 3 training session rolls.
61-80
+1 to all die rolls until a failed saving throw, skill check, or hit roll.*
81-90
+1 to all die rolls until a failed saving throw, skill check.*
91-99
+1 to all die rolls until a failed saving throw.*
100 or more
Character Permanently gains 1 point in prime attribute.
 * Temporary bonuses do not stack.

Some campaigns may not handle permanent ability score gains well, treat this a bonus that will last for the next month of game time if a permanent increase fitting.


(more to come in future posts)


Friday, February 3, 2017

How Tough are Ogres?

Years back the PCs in my campaign leveled 1st to 2nd jumped a pair of Ogres and the fight was over in 2 or 3 rounds, only one PC took any damage. One player quipped “I thought Ogres would be tougher”. Looking back on that I have to wonder…just how tough are Ogres?

The situation above happened using a house-ruled set of rules that was still essentially Swords & Wizardry so my analysis will start there. I’ll pit 2 average Ogres against 2 different sample parties of 5 characters.

Here’s the sample Parties stated using Swords & Wizardry complete.

The B team, all level 1. All Ability scores 9 to 12.
Agon the Fighter, 5 hp AC5[14] chain, attacks two handed sword(1d10)

Bruli the Dwarven Fighter, 5 hp AC4[15] chain and shield, Attacks: Battle Axe(1d8 or 1d8+1 if used 2handed) and LtCrossbow (1d4+1)

Castro the Magic-User, 3hp AC9[10], Attacks: Daggers
spells: Magic Missile.autohit 1d4+1

Denny the Cleric, 4hp AC4[15] chain and shield, Attacks: Mace

Ernie the Thief, 3hp AC7[12] leather, Attacks: Sword and Shortbow



The A team, all level 1. Exceptional ability scores that impact combat are noted and everyone gets max HP. This is a maxed-out power party.
Floyd the Fighter, 8hp AC4[15] chain attacks two handed sword(1d10+3)
STR 18 +2 to hit, +3 to damage, DEX 16 Parry… -3 to enemy attacks, improve Ac by 1.

Gorddi the Dwarven Fighter, 9hp AC4[15] chain and shield Attacks: Battle Axe(1d8+1 or 1d8+2 if used 2handed) and LtCrossbow (1d4+1)
STR 16 +1 to hit and damage, Con 17 +1 hp

Hallucis the Magic-User, 5hp AC9[10] Attacks: Daggers
Con 15 +1hp
spells: Magic Missile.autohit 1d4+1

Ignatius the Cleric, 6hp AC4[15] chain and shield Attacks: Mace

Jack the Thief , 4hp AC6[13] Attacks: Sword and Shortbow
DEX 17, improve AC by 1, +1 to hit w/missiles


The 2 Ogres
Average Ogre HD:4+1, 19hp, AC 5[14], Weapon 1d10+1