Getting The Gang together for a Heist

You know what adventure model works best for virtually any version of Dungeons & Dragons? 

The Heist.

The more old school your rules, the more the game supports heists too. 

If you are playing the original game, Basic/Expert, and AD&D prior to 2nd edition experience points meant getting gold pieces. Fighting monsters is a 2nd rate means to gain EXP (after the original greyhawk supplement) if playing by the rules the game is best played as a heist game. PC's don't have enough HP to really make combat a good option unless the players are darned careful in deciding when, where, and who to fight.

The very idea of character classes supports the heist as ideal play. Watch a heist movie and there's a team of assembled specialists ... those are characters with different classes.  Even with just 3 or 4 classes there's enough differentiation to support a heist setup. Everyone has a role and everyone gets a chance to shine and best of all...you can split the party and focus on briefly on one or two characters working towards advancing the heist for the whole party.

When adventures are heists and not saving thr world from unending evil it actually adds the chance for depth in play. There's less reason for characters to be murder-hobos. They are encouraged to bribe and trick NPCs into helping out on the heist not just killing everything and everyone while the experience points pop out. This allows for a much wider cast of foils and foes which may be against a successful heist but aren't threatening the lives of everyone in the campaign world.

I'm jumping about here but check out the spells from the 2nd Basic set and how they add to heist play.

First Level MU spells
1.  Charm Person- compromise a guard or foil.
2.  Detect Magic- not just for identifying scrolls and magic items, also good for spottign magical traps and alarms (which should be part of some heists).
3. Floating Disc- got to move that loot after all
4. Hold Portal- getting in and getting out are key features of a heist and those pesky doors are certainly an issue.
5. Light- when it's dark you have to see
6. Magic Missile-  this is a lousy heist spell unless there's some key guardian that must be taken out with magic and is easy to beat that the MU knows about.
7. Protection from Evil- not as big a deal in heist play.
8. Read Languages- research montage
9. Read Magic- to use a high level spell slipped to the PCs by a patron or contact at the wizards guild
10. Shield-  not so useful in heist play unless you want to have someone distract guards and draw a few arrows while the loot goes the other direction.
11. Sleep- Defeat a bunch of guards youhave no actual motivation to kill, they aren't likely to be going on a rampage and slaughtering a village after this and they are probably hired men-at-arms or draftees that have no strong need for revenge.
12. Ventriloquism- the opportunities this spell gives for a heist game give it much more utility than it has in default dungeoncrawling or world saving.

SencondLevel MU Spells
1. Continual Light-  a useful tool and a foil the PCs may have to defeat to sneak away with the loot.
2. Detect Evil- not a real biggie in heist play unless it can be used to detect people who are goign to con you.
3. Detect Invisible- pretty darned useful in a competitive heist or the mark uses invisibility.
4. ESP- very useful for planning, scouting, and look outs.
5. Invisibility- Much more useful to grab loot and scoot than it is to enable a sneak attack, also obviously useful for scouting ahead.
6. Knock- get that door open!
7. Levitate- get in that window or over that wall.
8. Locate Object- surely useful if the goal of a heist is a specific McGuffin.
9. Mirror Image- distraction is the a major part of the art of heist.
10. Phantasmal Forces- as above but even more so.
11. Web- another spell for neutralizing a number of foes without killing them.
12. Wizard Lock- a foil and a useful tool for covering up a theft.

Not a perfect summary but in those 24 spells there are 19 with direct and obvious utility in a heist.


The heist is a much more survivable adventure model for low level play than typical smash and grab dungeoncrawling. The game rules have always supported that style of play really. Just look at the reaction table, it's a little wonky in a dungeon bash but of great utility in a heist adventure. Played RAW a heist adventure works great with the reaction table. If the whole world isn't in the balance and not every NPC is an evil monster it makes sense fights will be rare and NPCs may help out the PCs on a whim.

Another cool thing from the DM point of view is the heist doesn't have to be a level-specific to allow PC to survive. You want a dragon in the heist go for it...defeating the dragon is not the goal. A troll guard on the front door..go for it, the party pulling a heist shouldn't be fighting their way through the front door. It's actually possible to have a campaign with a bit more verisimilitude by not having everything level specific.

The adventure can be quicker too. Want a quick adventure for a session or two? Have a heist where the Players have a map of the place, at least of the areas you want to feature. There's less bumbling around and fights with random monsters to deal with, motivations are clear and the whole campaign isn't over of the heist fails. A failed heist sets up a rescue from a dank cell or before execution.

The heist opens up a wider range of opponents and place for Dungeons and Dragons campaigns where the goal is loot and world-building instead of world saving or murder hobo hijinks.

Embrace Your Hate

A suggested hate mechanic for old-school games.
Hate: Intense or passionate dislike that engenders a loathing, aversion, and a desire for revenge.

A player can either randomly generate a score for how hateful they are or designate what the character hates or if the DM wishes a set of backgrounds and related hates can be established.


Random Hatred: Roll 3d6 that score determines how much hate a character has. For each 3 points of Hate (or fraction there-of) the player should generate one thing that is hated.
So a character with a hate of 3 would have but one thing they hated, while a character with a Hate of 16 to 18 would have 6 things they hate. Players can choose what the character specifically hates or roll it up randomly.

The generic Hatred table starts with a specific hatred and narrows it down if that score is rerolled

Sample Generic Hatred Table
1- Dragons
2- Insects
3- Giants
4- Avians
5- Wizards & Withces
6- Clerics
7- Dwarves
8- Goblinoids
9- The Same Sex
10- The Opposite Sex
11- Elves
12- Halflings
13- Gnomes
14- Fairies
15- Knights
16- Nobles
17- A Foreign Ethnicity
18- Thieves & Bandits
19- Berserkers & Barbarians
20- Slavers

Designated Hatred: in this method a player is free to specifically choose what a PC hates.
Each particular hatred earns a character 3 points in the hate score.

Campaign Background Specific Hate: this requires more work on part of the DM (and player) who should establish background options for characters along with associated hates that come with those backgrounds. This is useful as there is campaign building involved and eventually players will learn details like The Gabberclap Clan of the North Hills hates Lord Raticus of Darkhold and the Guttergut Mercenary Company that serves him. This is campaign specific stuff that really shouldn’t be generic and as such can’t be covered in detail here.




Using that Hate
 While a player is free to have a character act as they wish sometimes hate can get the best of them or prove a useful tool.

Embracing Hatred: a player must roll their hate score or less of 1d20, if successful the character gain a +2 bonus to actions against what they hate. On a failure no benefit is gained but the player is still free to act against the source of the PC’s hatred. Chaotic characters may get an EXP bonus for acting on hatred.

Controlling Hatred: There are situations where self control is important and comportment must be maintained and individual hatred set aside. Mechanically one must roll over their Hatred score to avoid worsening short term reactions with a source of hatred. If a hatred is commonly known both sides have a 1 pt reaction penalty but if one can not contain themselves the reaction is one step worse. Lawful characters may get an EXP bonus for controlling hatred when it benefits others.

Specific Hatred (optional): a character can have a general hate that get’s more and more specific. By Example: A character could Hate Dragons, hate chromatic dragons, hate red dragons and hate the dragon Embyr that roasted mom and dad. this would count as 4 hates and could be recorded as Hate Dragons>Chromatic Dragons>Red Dragons>Embyr.
Outside of the benefit of fine tuning who a character relates to things in the campaign it also allows for more serious hatred granting additional bonuses against the target of hatred. A DM might allow additional bonuses to actions for each step after the first. But the problem here is intelligent foes will use that hatred against a character and on a successful saving throw may be able to gain temporary houses equal to those of a characters hatred.

Targeting Hate Adjustments (optional): the bonus for hatred might not be palatable to a player or campaign as a flat adjustment vs a target of hatred. It may be appropriate to restrict that hatred to a specific bonus such as to-hit rolls, initiative, damage, armor class,saving throws, or similar mechanical functions in the game.


Defeating a hated foe: If a specific individual is hated it is recommend that an experience bonus be granted for defeating that hatred. Less specific hatreds challenged and defeated may be awarded a minor bonus to experience gained but if a character has a strong hatred against a group and completes a major act against that group the reward should be substantial. Getting revenge against a hated foe does no in itself reduce the hate score.

Acquiring new Hates:A player may add one new Hate per character level directed against foes that have foiled them or destroyed allies of the character. This does not change a characters Hate score.

Reducing Hate: A player may consult with healers, sages, and clergy to get over their hatred (this may require an expense of time or action) or have a sudden insight following a beneficial encounter with the subset of their hate. Strike the Hate from the list of hates when so done and reduce the hate score by 1d3.

Resisting the Temptation to Exact Revenge (optional): It is possible for a character to find themselves in situation where they have the capacity to exact revenge against the target of their hate but they genuinely do not wish to do so at the time to resist taking the attempt a character must control their hate (as above) by rolling over Hate on 1d20. Good or Lawful characters may be rewarded for avoiding the temptation immediate base revenge.

Wanton Hatred(optional): A player may choose to have a character be very active and wanton in the degree of hate they have for targets of their hatred. For every vile act of hatred they commit they are allowed to add one point to the Hate score (once per character revel max). Wanton hatred will be acts that would inspire disgust an disdain from others and may in some campaigns be considered Alignment violations. DMs should not punish a player directly if they violate alignment but associations and grouse they belong to may demand redemption.

Longer Living (possibly) with HTK

A complaint about old-school RPG is how gosh-darned lethal it is at low levels and while I completely understand the and even appreciate the brutal campaign model that helps establish there are other ways game play can go with minor adjustment to rules and in this case what HP are.

Here on out in this post HP are going away  as the definition of a charter and monsters durability in combat  to be replaced with an old time alternative of HTK (Hits to Kill), Hit Points are the degree of damage a blow, effect, or situation inflicts upon others.

Alternative HTK based Combat
HTK serves to measure two things: durability and a threshold for being defeated in a single blow.

Whenever a character, NPC, or monster suffers damage equal to or in excess of their current HTK score said charcter, NPC, or monster is Killed.

Whenever a character, NPC, or  monster suffers damage under their current HTK score they are Hit and theHTK score is reduced by 1 point.

Natural Healing occurs gradually, 1 HTK is restored per day of rest. This might seem slow but it is an entire hit thus a wound that is being shaken off and recovered from.

Magical Healing works as normal with 1 HTK being restored per traditional HP that would be restored by a spell. Magical healing is a bit more magical as it isn't just healing portions of wounds but entire wounds, likely multiple wounds.

So a massive blow will still eliminate a combatant but minor blows will wear away slowly at combatants.  This gives Pcs a little more room to be heroic at lower levels as (by example) 2 successive blows for 3 pts of damage each do not vanquish  a character with 6 HTK but instead inflict 2 hits that reduce the HTK score to 4.   Protracted combat becomes more and more dangerous but the threshold from living to dead may take longer to be breached.

It should also be obvious that higher HTK characters and monsters are going to be around longer in fights unless some really big guns are brought into play. Clever play and tactics should involve combats that are more than simple attrition on abstract HP abd maybe even encourage non-combat resolution to potential threats in a game. A 44 HTK dragon under this alternate combat variant would be be pretty fearsome if there was no way a party could deliver 44 or more pts of damage in a single blow.


Possible Elaborations

Non-lethal combat-
Non-lethal damage. Non-lethal damage still wears a combatant down in the same manner as potentially lethal blows and makes it possible for lethal attacks mixed in to slay combatant but if the blow struck that overcomes a combatants HTK is non-lethal they are knocked out instead.

Recovering from non-lethal damage is quicker with 1 HTK being restored by 10 minutes of rest or incapacity.  Once a character has regained 3 HTK or more while knocked out they may make a saving throw to recover their sense and function again.

Note: knocking your ally out is not an option to save their life when they are down to 1 HTK  only ht non lethal damage is restored at 1 HTK per 10 minutes. 


Serious Wounds-
When ever a character is wounded once HTK are reduced to 1/2 HTK or less previously they must make a saving throw or suffer from a Serious Wound.  Serious wounds could either be specific effects like broken hands, severed arms, or more generic like the temporary loss of ability points.

Serious wounds should typically be recovered when HTK are recovered in excess of 1/2 HTK but some campaigns may be well served by longer lasting grievous injuries which while someone hasn't suffered enough Hits to Kill them they are still in a very bad state.

Not Just Damage

One of the annoyances with D&D combat over the years is the seemingly limited nature of common D&D combat resolution: Roll to hit, if hit roll is adequate roll damage.  It makes combat feel very...repetitive.  Here's some simple guidelines for making combat a bit more dynamic without a ton of extra rules.

Knock Back-  If you roll exactly the score required to hit the foe may be knocked back. If the targets level is less then the attackers level/HD they are knocked back(and away) 10'.  Foes of same level or higher are a allowed a saving throw to avoid this. The foe is still injured as normal by this random knockback.
If a combatant is knocked back and they have not attacked yet this round they lose their attack. The attacker that scores a knockback on a foe may follow them and draw no instant counter attacks from allies of the foe.

Knock Down- if you roll a 20 on the D20 and a score of 19 or lower could score a hit you may have knocked down the foe. Knockdown is automatic against foes of lower level, those of same or higher level get a save. If knocked down a combatant is now prone, if that combatant has no adjacent allies the attacked and adjacent allies of the attacker may be allowed a free strike against the prone foe.  The knocked down foe is still injured as normal. The attacked may choose to stand above the foe immediately if they so choose and keep the foe from getting up if the foe is roughly the same size or smaller.

Don't worry about knocking back and knockdown down on the same strike, knockdowns take precedence.


Trying for an intonational knock back or knock down-
A combatant with superior initiative can try to purposefully knockback a foe. On an intentional  Knockback the attack is made at -2, any successfully hit roll will cause but one point of damage and foes of any level are allowed a save -2 for foes of lower level, +2 for foes of higher level (they can see it coming). other wise rule as knock back above.

A combatant with superior initiative can try to purposefully knockdown a foe. On an intentional KnockDown the attack is made at -4, any successful hit will inflict half normal damage and a foe of any level is allowed a save, foes of higher level will gain a +4 to the save (they can see it coming). otherwise rule as knock down above.

Note: Fighters are allowed as many intentional knock back or knockdown attacks as they have levels vs a body of foes 1HD or less.

Additional notes for a bit more brutality and verisimilitude
* if combatants roll 1 one on that save vs knock back they drop the weapon in hand.
* if combatants roll a 1 on that save vs knockdown they are stunned until the end of the following round.
* large creatures are +4 to save vs knock back and knockdown

T&T stats for a few Tekumel beasties

I posted a version of these over at http://trollbridge.proboards.com/index.cgi some time ago. Here are a small handful of Empire of The Petal Throne Monsters presented with mostly the same stat style as my last T&T monster post.

Aqaa "the worm of the catacombs"
MR: 36/72/108 Speed: 12
ATK: +18/+36/+54
Armor: 8pts
special: swallow man sized prey SR 3/6/9 to avoid)
stats given for small/medium/large specimens
IQ: 3

Birdlu "the mantle"
MR: 25 Speed: 9
ATKs: +12 armor: 5pts
special: Constricting crush, SR 4 to break free.May not be cut with chlen-hide weapons.
IQ: 3

Dlaqo "the carrion beetle"
MR: 18/24/54 Speed: 6
ATK:bite +9/+12/+27
Armor: 8pts
special: cowardly
IQ:4

Hliir "the beast with the unendurable face"
MR: 48 Speed: 12
ATK: +24
armor: 8pts
special: looking at it causes insanity; Sr 4 save to avoid insanity.
IQ: 6

Hra' "the blood sucker"
MR 42 Speed: 12
ATK: With Weapon +21
Armor: 2 pts
Special; reanimate in 2 turns following "death" unless touched by the amulet of the greater god.
Priests of Ksarul have 15% chance of controlling any Hra' they meet.
IQ:13

Huru'u "the howler"
MR: 15 Speed: 9
ATK: +18*
Armor: 2 pts vs chlen-hide weapons only
Special: may be driven off by protective magics (vs good/evil) or by fire.
Constant howling deafens all within 10' of them. (SR 4 each round to avoid)
IQ: 10

Slaughter and fortune in the underworld

Tonight on Tekumel we had 2 character deaths .
On the first level of the dungeon while traveling the mapped route to the second level the party ran into a shape-changer that collapsed into a pile of rope like tendrils when defeated but not before claiming one of the parties fighters (the replacement for last sessions loss).

The party pressed on and discovered a small party of MUs on the second level and were able to overcome them quickly (thanks to surprising the MUs and being murderous) killing 2 and gaining an excellent ruby eye in the process. The MUs were escorting a warrior to be sacrificed in a temple of Vimuhla (hello PC replacement), the party negotiated his surrender for escorting them to the temple. The cleric of Avanthe in the party suspected the MU of being up to no good at one point and attempted to bashed the fellows brains in, the new member of the party was happy to aid his new found allies in dispatching the villain.

The party ran into a wickedly tough encounter on the second level of the underworld of three 8th level Ssu Magic-users, luckily the newly acquired excellent ruby eye was instrumental in defeating this overwhelming force. One of the parties warriors was slain by a wall of blades shortly after immobilizing 2 of the SSu with the excellent Ruby eye, prompting the party to flee while pursued by a single Ssu who fell to a lucky double roll of 20's (an instant kill).
Much wealth was gained from the looting of the Ssu. It was all almost quickly lost by an encounter with a party of Shen who also fell victim to the excellent ruby eye.

So two deaths and enough funds to buy a couple of slaves and rent a flat in the foreign quarter along with one steel item per PC being located for purchase (I was feeling nice).

Last Night on Tekumel

...from the tunnel the party sprang up through the trap door. The MU tried to distract the Hlutrgu with an illusionary beast and while this didn't work the warriors still somehow got the upper hand and melee was joined. The five swamp-frogs were slain in a desperate fight and one warrior was incapacitated by wounds so the party quickly searched the chamber and fled the underworld (missing treasures beyond that chamber I must add).

The party sought out a physician for their badly wounded ally but could find none that would provide a price they could tolerate so they spent their precious coin resting in the foreign quarter.

During their rest he players met a new dashingly handsome priest of Avanthe. They agreed to escort him to a nearby temple and were accosted by a party of foreigners wearing redbasket hats trying to purchase the priest. The party fled through a door opened by a slave girl charmed by the priests looks and escaped a battle that would surely mean their doom. Fearing the priest would be kidnapped by the redbasket hatted foreigners the priest stayed low with the rest of the PCs and they traveled into the underworld to seek fortune there as danger enough with no reward could be found on the streets of the city.

In but 10 minutes into the underworld the party was embroiled with a small number of emboldened Kurgha (nasty 6 legged scavengers) and dispatched the disgusting creatures before travelling on (luckily not going back to the chamber with the dead Hlutrgu where they would find far more of the beasts).

Thw corridors proved to be empty for a good span with many chambers others had looted in the past and then a horrible stench assailed the party as they encountered a pair of Shunned Ones. The party held firm if a bit sickened and resisted a spell one of the Shunned Ones cast (or so they think) and the Shunned Ones simply walked off as if the PCs were of no concern to them. The party waited for the stench to past and then followed the route they though the shunned ones followed and they quickly discovered a way down to the second level of the underworld.

Upon the second level of the underworld they disovered longer runs of corridors then on they had found on the first level. The party was alerted by lights in the distance and investigated with stealth discovering a small party of men searching a large chanber. Deciding a turned back was too tempting a target the party struck their unwary foes. A desperate fight followed the MU was incapacitated and a warrior in the party was slain before the other party was overcome. With the modest coin found on the other adventurers the party set off for the surface carrying their wounded party member after stripping a few choice items from their foes and dead ally. The return to the surface was successful and had little to note.

Notes:
I'm using a HP variant inspired by some conventions notes of Mr. Gygax wherein PCs are incapacitated when brought to 0 or less hp but are not lain until negative hp exceed their level.

Taykoomel What's that?

Not getting my more traditional campaign into shape to my satisfaction just yet I decided to start an underworld crawling Empire of The Petal Throne mini-campaign to get some dungeon crawling action in but have it be a little different.

I whipped up maps for a 3 level section of the underworld beneath Jakalla using dungeon geomorphs from A Character For Every Game and a little bit of photoshop work.

I managed to place some temples and shrines to various gods on each of the levels of the underworld and get skeletal listings for all of level one and part of level two done before we started play.

I gave the players a quickie setup of Tekumel and the EPT to get the players focused, it seemed to work.

It took a surprisingly long time to roll up characters. A lot of time was spent selecting the small number of background and professional skills for the characters and buying initial equipment took a while. We ended up with one magic-user and three warriors in the party. One warrior is hideously ugly but no one ended up with an unplayable character.

It was getting late but we started the exploration of the underworld directly after character generation. The players managed to stumble about into the first few empty rooms and were starting to get bored when they discovered a secret trap door in a floor and the three warriors ventured on to discovered it led to a tight and low tunnel that lead into another room via trapdoor in a chamber occupied by a 5 Hlutrgú that slammed the trapdoor down on the PCs who retreated a short way back the tight tunnel and they hesitated unsure what to do while the magic-user moved up to ready one of his meager spells to aid the party in a possible assault...

and we stopped there for the night.

Fight On! No.7

Just purchased the pdf download of Fight On ! Number 7. This is the first issue of this old school fantasy gaming zine that I've purchased. I'm enjoying it so far, I'm certainly tempted to pick up back issues now.

This 88 page zine has about 2 dozen pieces of old school goodness, several adventures, some good advice, some nasty critters and a good amount of evocative art. I'm not going to review everything in here but I'll cover some of what I like. This issue also has a number of articles for Tekumel/Empire of the Petal Throne.

Knightly Orders by Robert “Treebore” Miller is a 2 page article on knightly orders meant as a way for knightly PCs to personalize their fighters. Two Solid examples are given and should serve well as a jumping off point for other knightly orders.

The Shaman a class for the original EPT by James Maliszewski provides a new "uncivilized: spell casting class for EPT games with a new list of professional skills and a tailored spell list for the class. The class also provides the opportunity to play something different in Tekumel an outsider spell caster that isn't' tied up directly to the mythology of EPT but doesn't clash with it.

Details: Pé Chói by Baz Blatt provides 5 pages of rules, background and examples for more detailed play of Pé Chói in EPT even other old-school games. I'm fond of the format of the article and the use of random roles to assign background details and special abilities.

The Song of Tranquility is an interesting looking adventure by Jerry Stratton. The adventure is inspired by a variety of certified old school sources and the site is marked by a wooden cross that could possibly reveal the resting place of Noah.

Tables for Fables by Age of Fables provides some random charts for Pits, Teleportation, Lingering Effects of Being Raised and more.

The Wandering Harlot Table Compensated Companionship for Mutant Future by Adam Thornton generates the specifics (and oh boy is it specific) for Mutants of the Red Light District for customers of all tastes (or poor eyesight), it's an eye opener and certainly in the adult end of gaming.

Notes from (the Tekumel) Underground by Aaron Somerville provides descriptions and summaries of portions of the authors campaign within his version of the underworlds of Tekumel. Good stuff covering a number of interesting situations with Description, the authors notes and what happened in his campaign when the players got to the encounter.

There is a one page Tekumel Adventure and a longer 9 page adventure neither of which I've had the pleasure to digest just yet.

Taking It With You by Lawson Reilly covers the hiring and bearers from The Guild of Porters.

The above is just a portion of what is in Fight On #7 there are adventures,articles, variants, monsters and spells I just haven't had the time to read yet but what I have read leaves me recommending this to fans of Old School gaming.