It's an age old issue in RPG land, brought up by recent near TPK, those pesky HP and healing. Healing and the nature of Hit Points is a little muddy.
Hit Points are an abstract value to track abstract resolution of combat and the trauma it inflicts. Only problem is I don't care much for abstract arrows and for an "abstract" score Hit Points tend to be very tightly defined.
Common Complaints about HP:
1. Why does it take longer for my 6th level fighter to recover back to full HP than it does for his 2nd level henchman?
2. Why does "Cure Light Wounds" bring us back from the brink of death... those don't seem like very light wounds ?
3. Why can my 10th level fighter survive being riddled with arrows?
4. If a melee round is an abstraction of several thrusts and blows why do I have to count my arrows?
let me answer in reverse order:
4. Becasue melee round "abstraction" is an abstraction as to how much is worth resolving and book keeping. Sword blows don't have a recognizable finite utility like an arrow. Sword blows don't have an associated weight, like arrows. Sword blows don't have a related per application cost, like arrows. Arrows counting is easy put a dozen of 40 little marks on you paper an cross them off as yuo loose arrows: problem solved, nothing left to reason, it's all part of the supply an resupply element of dungeon exploration.
3. Your 10th level fighter can survive being riddled with arrows because your 10th level fighter is now a bad-ass due to being 10th level. If your 10th level fighter is a bad-ass your 10th level fighter had best stop standing there and getting riddled with arrows or yuo will in fact discover how many arrows it takes to slay your 10th level fighter. This goes back to the "abstract" argument again.... the arrows aren't abstract, the holes they poke in a 10th level fighters armor aren't abstract what is abstract is how bad-ass your fighter is; if you have 55 hp compared to 2hp you are definitely much more bad-ass in regards to being an arrow catcher at those 55 hp. Your character can survive lots of littel jabbey pokey things so your character will act outrageously heroic and fight hordes of bad guys and have some chance of surviving the attempt.
2. "Cure Light Wounds" brings you back from the brink of death because the spell is poorly named and there are no rules which relate how a wound is defined as light or not. It would take only a moment to redefine what a light wound is:
Any wound that inflicts HP damage equal to or less then a targets level+1 in damage is considered a light wound. Cure light wounds spells will only restore damage suffered by such light wounds.
That would do the trick but it creates more book-keeping but it also limits the very limited healing abilities low level parties will have access to, that's just being a stinker.
What about the brink of death deal again? Well, the spell is poorly named again... it sure isn't a light wound when you go from almost dead to not-dead. This is much less of an issue when death greets your heroes at 0hp as opposed to say the negative value of 1/2CON + level *(or some other formula). Rules that stretch how long characters stay alive after getting knocked on their asses stretches the healing mechanisms of the game (which were originally written when 0 hp = death), healing spells have never really caught up.
What's "light" about "Cure Light Wounds" is the magical oomph behind the spell not the impact on recipients wounds.
1. It takes longer for your 6th level character to heal than it does for his 2nd level henchman becasue most people aren't going to pay attention to the henchman for as long as they will their actual PC... no really, more important characters tend to have more HP, it's only reasonable that paying attention to the results of them being wounded would get more camera time.
Still don't like that answer? Have characters heal according to their level, 1 hp per level per day of rest after the first would do the trick nicely for quicker level based recovery. But just how fast does one heal up after not being killed by being roasted by dragon breath, raked by a dozen ghouls, falling 60 feet onto some rusty spikes and being shot full of arrows even if all that isn't lethal? When you think of all that maybe it is reasonable it takes a month or longer to heal up from all that bad-ass damage suffering a lesser character wouldn't be healing up from at all.
Hit Points aren't a measure of how much trauma a character can suffer they are a measure of how bad-ass a character is and that's certainly much more abstract than defining how many arrows does it take to slay a 10th level fighter (the answer of which is always, regardless of level: that last arrow).
Showing posts with label style. Show all posts
Showing posts with label style. Show all posts
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Alt Hexcrawl- Description Keeping the Players Involved
One reason for the Alternative Hexcrawl concept I brought up in a recent post is to keep the players involved with travel.
"We move 3 hexes north, anything happen, do we see anything worth investigating" over and over again isn't the most exciting player input nor is sitting at the game table and watching the DM roll a dozen random encounter checks .
By applying travel scores to leave a hex the DM has more to tell players about the travel they are facing and is giving them some choices. And dice rolling keeps the players hands and minds enaged even if a bit. Players could take turns rolling the travel dice or have the parties leader (if any) or scout/point man roll the travel dice.
How to give the player choices:
Let's look at two parties on the sample map.
Party A is situated in hills. With Open land to the south, mountains to North and North East and Hills to all other points.
Party B is in Forested Swamp terrain with Swamp to the South and South East, open terrain to the North East and Forest in the other directions.
By applying the Travel scores the descriptions that can be offered to the players varies.
Party A is situated in hills. Travelling to the open land downhill looks easy. To the south east alogn the hills the route doesn't look particularly challenging. To the north east the terrain rises to the mountains presenting the most challenging route from the party location. Northward trave into the moutains is certainly more difficult then continuing in along the hills but not as difficult as traveling northeast. North west and South West there is hilly terrain more challenging than traveling south east would be but not as difficult as moving towards the mountains would be.
PC questions: why does the route North look better then going northeast?
DM answer: the slope seems gentler and there are a number of minor trails you can spy hear and there.
Party B is situated in a Forested Swamp and has poor visibility as such. The party can't see what is in adjacent hexes unless they climb a tree or have other means to get a good view but some information can be shared. The ground to the South is wetter with more drowned and fallen trees. To the southeast the trees seem to thin out without as much hazard presented as to the South . The ground looks seems drier to the North, NE and NW with the trees thinning out more towards the north east. a dense barrier of sunken trees makes travel to the South West look difficult.
PC actions: Smillo looks for a good tall tree to climb so he can get a good look of the surrounding terrain.
DM reply: to the S & SE more swamp with less trees, open ground to the northeast and forest in all other directions.
Some of those descriptions could certainly be generated from the terrain types dominating each hex but the travel numbers do offer a way to quickly gauge relative difficulty of specific directions.
Don't tell the players everything or let them know the travel scores out of each hexside unless you are shooting or more boardgame style of play (which isn't a bad thing at all if you have attractive maps you want to share with the players, it does reduce mystery and the thrill of discovery). The trick of it is leaving little bits of information out that the players can fill in with questions and actions.
If they players have more to do then crossing off rations as they are consumed and reacting to random encounters the game is more dynamic and there is more to do.
"We move 3 hexes north, anything happen, do we see anything worth investigating" over and over again isn't the most exciting player input nor is sitting at the game table and watching the DM roll a dozen random encounter checks .
By applying travel scores to leave a hex the DM has more to tell players about the travel they are facing and is giving them some choices. And dice rolling keeps the players hands and minds enaged even if a bit. Players could take turns rolling the travel dice or have the parties leader (if any) or scout/point man roll the travel dice.
How to give the player choices:
Let's look at two parties on the sample map.
Party A is situated in hills. With Open land to the south, mountains to North and North East and Hills to all other points.
Party B is in Forested Swamp terrain with Swamp to the South and South East, open terrain to the North East and Forest in the other directions.
By applying the Travel scores the descriptions that can be offered to the players varies.
Party A is situated in hills. Travelling to the open land downhill looks easy. To the south east alogn the hills the route doesn't look particularly challenging. To the north east the terrain rises to the mountains presenting the most challenging route from the party location. Northward trave into the moutains is certainly more difficult then continuing in along the hills but not as difficult as traveling northeast. North west and South West there is hilly terrain more challenging than traveling south east would be but not as difficult as moving towards the mountains would be.
PC questions: why does the route North look better then going northeast?
DM answer: the slope seems gentler and there are a number of minor trails you can spy hear and there.
Party B is situated in a Forested Swamp and has poor visibility as such. The party can't see what is in adjacent hexes unless they climb a tree or have other means to get a good view but some information can be shared. The ground to the South is wetter with more drowned and fallen trees. To the southeast the trees seem to thin out without as much hazard presented as to the South . The ground looks seems drier to the North, NE and NW with the trees thinning out more towards the north east. a dense barrier of sunken trees makes travel to the South West look difficult.
PC actions: Smillo looks for a good tall tree to climb so he can get a good look of the surrounding terrain.
DM reply: to the S & SE more swamp with less trees, open ground to the northeast and forest in all other directions.
Some of those descriptions could certainly be generated from the terrain types dominating each hex but the travel numbers do offer a way to quickly gauge relative difficulty of specific directions.
Don't tell the players everything or let them know the travel scores out of each hexside unless you are shooting or more boardgame style of play (which isn't a bad thing at all if you have attractive maps you want to share with the players, it does reduce mystery and the thrill of discovery). The trick of it is leaving little bits of information out that the players can fill in with questions and actions.
If they players have more to do then crossing off rations as they are consumed and reacting to random encounters the game is more dynamic and there is more to do.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
The Race Version 1
My last post I offered up an idea for playing out the classic hexcrawl with a variant set of mechanics. This post there is going to be an example using a race to a treasure by two different parties of adventurers.
Neither party is overly encumbered and both will have 4 move rolls a day. I'm using 5 mile hexes here.
Party A is confident and determined to make progress with the most direct line of travel possible.
Party B has a guide who knows the local terrain well enough for a +1 bonus, he recommends the party stays well and clear of the mountains and amazingly enough they take his advice.
For this example I'm going to use a planned route assuming the players behind each party have access to a map which shows the hex terrain but not the travel scores (and can oddly enough follow a plan no matter what happens).
Route Map:
Day One Roll One:
Day one starts off easy enough for both parties, neither finds road travel particularly difficult or hazardous at the start of the day. Party A rolled 7 and Party B rolled a 10, both meeting or beatign the travel score of 3 required to move from their hex of origin into the next hex.
Day One Roll Two:
The second roll of the day and both parties are moving along the road. Party B almost didn't make it but were able to carry on without incident thanks to the guide they have employed.
Day One Roll Three:
Continuing on Party A travels into the hills making for the mountains and their quarry and party B continues on into easy terrain following their guides advice.
Day One Roll Four:
Party A has entered the mountains and party B has entered the hills following their guide.
Day Two Roll One:
Party A finds itself unable to press on with significant progress. Party B has entered the forest.
Day Two Roll Two:
Party A is still having difficuly making progress even with a bonus of 2 to their roll for carrying on along in the same direction. Party B is covering lots of ground within the forest.
Day Two Roll Three:
Party A has pushed on along it's route and made it further into the mountains in the north, they would have gotten a +4 bonus for their continuing travel along the same direction but rolled well enough it did matter. Party B has left the forest.
Day Two Roll Four:
Party A just isn't feeling very lucky and is unable to make it's way out of the mountains. Party B is doing well.
Day Three Roll One:
Party A has made through the mountains and down into the hills where they may find their goal. Party B has made progress but their overall route proved to be too long to beat party A.
Party A took a direct route and found it to be difficult but not difficult enough to thwart victory. Party B made some small benefit from their guide but took too wide route to beat their competitors (maybe they can waylay the other party and take the loot?).
This race may have indeed played differently if there were random encounters along the way and there were potential consequences to failed travel rolls beyond a lack of meaningful progress.
Neither party is overly encumbered and both will have 4 move rolls a day. I'm using 5 mile hexes here.
Party A is confident and determined to make progress with the most direct line of travel possible.
Party B has a guide who knows the local terrain well enough for a +1 bonus, he recommends the party stays well and clear of the mountains and amazingly enough they take his advice.
For this example I'm going to use a planned route assuming the players behind each party have access to a map which shows the hex terrain but not the travel scores (and can oddly enough follow a plan no matter what happens).
Route Map:
Day One Roll One:
Day one starts off easy enough for both parties, neither finds road travel particularly difficult or hazardous at the start of the day. Party A rolled 7 and Party B rolled a 10, both meeting or beatign the travel score of 3 required to move from their hex of origin into the next hex.Day One Roll Two:
The second roll of the day and both parties are moving along the road. Party B almost didn't make it but were able to carry on without incident thanks to the guide they have employed.Day One Roll Three:
Continuing on Party A travels into the hills making for the mountains and their quarry and party B continues on into easy terrain following their guides advice.Day One Roll Four:
Party A has entered the mountains and party B has entered the hills following their guide.Day Two Roll One:
Party A finds itself unable to press on with significant progress. Party B has entered the forest.Day Two Roll Two:
Party A is still having difficuly making progress even with a bonus of 2 to their roll for carrying on along in the same direction. Party B is covering lots of ground within the forest.Day Two Roll Three:
Party A has pushed on along it's route and made it further into the mountains in the north, they would have gotten a +4 bonus for their continuing travel along the same direction but rolled well enough it did matter. Party B has left the forest.Day Two Roll Four:
Party A just isn't feeling very lucky and is unable to make it's way out of the mountains. Party B is doing well.Day Three Roll One:
Party A has made through the mountains and down into the hills where they may find their goal. Party B has made progress but their overall route proved to be too long to beat party A.Party A took a direct route and found it to be difficult but not difficult enough to thwart victory. Party B made some small benefit from their guide but took too wide route to beat their competitors (maybe they can waylay the other party and take the loot?).
This race may have indeed played differently if there were random encounters along the way and there were potential consequences to failed travel rolls beyond a lack of meaningful progress.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Alternative Hexcrawl Concept
Here's a map for an alternative hexcrawl technique I'm knocking about:
Each hex side has a score for getting out of the hex in each direction (along a hex side). A party will have a given number of rolls each day/outdoor turn based on their movement rate and can only leave a hex if they get or beat the required roll (for now I'm considering 2d6 to be the roll). Multiple attempts to go in the same direction could get a bonus. Any number of modifiers could be applied to the roll such as travel mode, weather, guides, racial abilities and class abilities along with clever planning.
Just a notion for now but one that I felt like sharing as it looks like it could expand on the nature of hexcrawl play by having routes and specific terrain having an impact on play.
Each hex side has a score for getting out of the hex in each direction (along a hex side). A party will have a given number of rolls each day/outdoor turn based on their movement rate and can only leave a hex if they get or beat the required roll (for now I'm considering 2d6 to be the roll). Multiple attempts to go in the same direction could get a bonus. Any number of modifiers could be applied to the roll such as travel mode, weather, guides, racial abilities and class abilities along with clever planning.
Just a notion for now but one that I felt like sharing as it looks like it could expand on the nature of hexcrawl play by having routes and specific terrain having an impact on play.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
The Naked Warrior or Diapers in the Dungeon
Mythmere posts here in Diaper, Helmet, ADVENTURE on a cool Erol Otus pic that appeared on the back of the AD&D module White Plume Mountain that seemingly has a fighter wearing a horned helmet and a diaper . A simple mechanic is posted that suggests fighters are always considered to be of an AC equal to that of chainmail even when sub-optimally armored (like in a diaper and a helmet) to support the sword and sorcery naked warrior look.
Sure there were times in real life when naked warriors charged into combat and it unnerved foes but generally an under armored warrior is a dead warrior. The following are a few rule suggestions to encourage the diaper wearing dungeon bravo without giving them constant undue advantage in combat.
The I'm A BAD-ASS EXP rule-
Give fighters a 10% exp bonus for adventuring for an entire session wearing no more armor then a helmet and a shield.
If the fighter can survive long enough to become a better fighter by gaining a level ahead of his better armored colleagues he's a better fighter in the mammoth-hide diaper and horned helmet.
(NOTE: in some adventures and settings this may back-fire and induce reaction penalties and even an exp penalty.)
Is this guy nuts, he's naked? rule-
Whenever an npc is facing a foe of equal or greater level who is naked (shields and helms are okay) they must make a morale save or be shaken causing them to lose initiative for the next two rounds before they can gird themselves again for the rigors of battle.
The Agile Banana-Hammock wearing delver rule-
Whenever a virtually naked warrior is unencumbered by additional gear they are far more agile then overburdened and heavily armored fighters. Such fighters may climb walls as well as a thief of 1/2 their level and are +2 to save vs attacks where agility and lighting reflexes may save the day. Any degree of encumbrance that inflicts a penalty in your favorite game system causes the loss of this bonus.
The Wooing the wicked witch in your underwear rule-
The naked or nearly naked warrior is better at swaying the attentions of the potentially amorous gaining a 2 point bonus (or it's equivalent compared to a 2d6 roll) to reaction adjustment. Such characters are also more likely to be captured for...uh..."interrogation" later as opposed to being slain outright. Those who make no RPG attempts along amorous line lose this advantage.
Uh, pardon me miss but I can see your breasts rule-
In some lands men-folk are foolishly fascinated by breasts or are prone to underrate the competence of women warriors. When confronted by a nearly naked female warrior a male warrior must make a wisdom check (or save) or fail to judge the danger they are in. One who fails such a check is unable to act meaningfully for a round on confronting the nearly naked female warrior and will be -2 to hit her until they see her kill an ally or are themselves harmed for more then 1 pt of damage.
Sure there were times in real life when naked warriors charged into combat and it unnerved foes but generally an under armored warrior is a dead warrior. The following are a few rule suggestions to encourage the diaper wearing dungeon bravo without giving them constant undue advantage in combat.
The I'm A BAD-ASS EXP rule-
Give fighters a 10% exp bonus for adventuring for an entire session wearing no more armor then a helmet and a shield.
If the fighter can survive long enough to become a better fighter by gaining a level ahead of his better armored colleagues he's a better fighter in the mammoth-hide diaper and horned helmet.
(NOTE: in some adventures and settings this may back-fire and induce reaction penalties and even an exp penalty.)
Is this guy nuts, he's naked? rule-
Whenever an npc is facing a foe of equal or greater level who is naked (shields and helms are okay) they must make a morale save or be shaken causing them to lose initiative for the next two rounds before they can gird themselves again for the rigors of battle.
The Agile Banana-Hammock wearing delver rule-
Whenever a virtually naked warrior is unencumbered by additional gear they are far more agile then overburdened and heavily armored fighters. Such fighters may climb walls as well as a thief of 1/2 their level and are +2 to save vs attacks where agility and lighting reflexes may save the day. Any degree of encumbrance that inflicts a penalty in your favorite game system causes the loss of this bonus.
The Wooing the wicked witch in your underwear rule-
The naked or nearly naked warrior is better at swaying the attentions of the potentially amorous gaining a 2 point bonus (or it's equivalent compared to a 2d6 roll) to reaction adjustment. Such characters are also more likely to be captured for...uh..."interrogation" later as opposed to being slain outright. Those who make no RPG attempts along amorous line lose this advantage.
Uh, pardon me miss but I can see your breasts rule-
In some lands men-folk are foolishly fascinated by breasts or are prone to underrate the competence of women warriors. When confronted by a nearly naked female warrior a male warrior must make a wisdom check (or save) or fail to judge the danger they are in. One who fails such a check is unable to act meaningfully for a round on confronting the nearly naked female warrior and will be -2 to hit her until they see her kill an ally or are themselves harmed for more then 1 pt of damage.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
The Sandbox Works
Sandbox play works well when people realize they are not constrained. Granted many people may enjoy being constrained, sandbox play isn't for them.
If you see a pile of blocks, a pad of paper and a few pencils or bucket full of toy soldiers and start wondering what you could do with that to have some fun then a sandbox style game is for you.
A sandbox game is right for players that can be shown a partially filled in map, given a hint of the rules and told to go explore and build. They'll discover and build the world together and learn the rules on the way. The DM builds expands and elaborates framework provided by the rules and puts a light on how the sandbox can be approached by the players and adapts to what the players do and fills in the empty corners the players decide to explore.
Real life is cold and callous and one must live with the consequences of their actions. In a sandbox one gets to hurl themselves against the world and even redefine it. Successful (read enjoyable ) sandbox play is dependent on the players ability to assess situations that are discovered by being proactive and interacting with the creations of the DM.
Maybe there is some relation to how one was raised or reacted to their upbringing. Those who were taught (or realized) that the world is a big place full of wonder and it's up to ourselves to get out there and discover what it holds may do well with sandbox play.
Playing it safe in the real world has some clear and simple rewards. Moderate comfort and a relatively clear path. Sandbox gaming gives some a chance to play beyond the real life limits or get a glimpse of things they would rather really not do in real life. In sandbox play failure sets up future adventures, real life is seemingly not so kind.
Real life is seemingly laid out for us, we live with this fiction for the illusion of comfort. We play RPGs for the illusion of adventure and companionship with other folks that enjoy the illusion. Everyday of our lives adventure is just a left turn instead of that same right turn we take everyday. play in a sandbox game is enhanced by not taking the same right turn everyday and the players and DM embracing this.
Sandbox play is a vacation from our everyday lives. A good vacation where we don't miss home and our minds wander to on a "normal" day. Our real life vacations can get dragged to the sandbox and elaborate play for everyone else at the table. Having almost drowned by being swept away while snorkeling in shallow water, building a raft and floating down a canal, hunting, getting in a fight, climbing a mountain, knowing the sense of dread when you are stuck in a tight crawl-only tunnel, feeling the rope of the sailboat cut your hands as you are the only thing keeping you and your friends from being dumped in the ocean, jumping off a rope swing to plummet just for the fun of it are all things I can share with my fellow players in a sandbox game and we all get to walk away from it whether we fail or succeed. Sandbox play succeeds if we get to smile about our exploits no matter how well they went.
Some think D&D players are all social drop-outs and I always felt such folks were really just a fraction of the players and a great many people weren't paying attention to the fact that getting together with the same people over and over again is being pretty darned social. The folks I play with have ranged through a diverse range of personality and career types even if a goodly number seem to tend towards the technical and professional end of things I've still gotten to meet and befriend people I may not have in other ways. RPGs can be a great way for people to meet and retain relationships that might not be without the game at hand.
Here are some of the professions of some of the people that have been in my D&D groups over the years a retired cartographer, a number of computer programmers and I.T. techs, an M.P., prison guard, youth-worker, landscaper, school-bus driver, psychologist, manager of a mall eatery, laser technician, an air-plane mechanic (two actually), nurse, lawyer, deli-worker, retail manager, heating/cooling tech, actors, teacher, optics manufacturer, technical illustrator, graphic designer and housewife. Getting all those people together week after week sometimes for years on end would be tricky and unusual without RPGs.
RPG play for many players is a means to escape the rut. For me (as I usually DM) it's an excuse to create things I want to create and watch people interacting with them because they want to do so. It's a grown up game of make believe. The sandbox is a great place to let ones imagination run free.
One gets plenty of chance to fail in sandbox play without screwing up the campaign for everyone else and without ruining their life. The sandbox campaign gives us room to safely build and adventure and return to the real world when we want to.
If you see a pile of blocks, a pad of paper and a few pencils or bucket full of toy soldiers and start wondering what you could do with that to have some fun then a sandbox style game is for you.
A sandbox game is right for players that can be shown a partially filled in map, given a hint of the rules and told to go explore and build. They'll discover and build the world together and learn the rules on the way. The DM builds expands and elaborates framework provided by the rules and puts a light on how the sandbox can be approached by the players and adapts to what the players do and fills in the empty corners the players decide to explore.
Real life is cold and callous and one must live with the consequences of their actions. In a sandbox one gets to hurl themselves against the world and even redefine it. Successful (read enjoyable ) sandbox play is dependent on the players ability to assess situations that are discovered by being proactive and interacting with the creations of the DM.
Maybe there is some relation to how one was raised or reacted to their upbringing. Those who were taught (or realized) that the world is a big place full of wonder and it's up to ourselves to get out there and discover what it holds may do well with sandbox play.
Playing it safe in the real world has some clear and simple rewards. Moderate comfort and a relatively clear path. Sandbox gaming gives some a chance to play beyond the real life limits or get a glimpse of things they would rather really not do in real life. In sandbox play failure sets up future adventures, real life is seemingly not so kind.
Real life is seemingly laid out for us, we live with this fiction for the illusion of comfort. We play RPGs for the illusion of adventure and companionship with other folks that enjoy the illusion. Everyday of our lives adventure is just a left turn instead of that same right turn we take everyday. play in a sandbox game is enhanced by not taking the same right turn everyday and the players and DM embracing this.
Sandbox play is a vacation from our everyday lives. A good vacation where we don't miss home and our minds wander to on a "normal" day. Our real life vacations can get dragged to the sandbox and elaborate play for everyone else at the table. Having almost drowned by being swept away while snorkeling in shallow water, building a raft and floating down a canal, hunting, getting in a fight, climbing a mountain, knowing the sense of dread when you are stuck in a tight crawl-only tunnel, feeling the rope of the sailboat cut your hands as you are the only thing keeping you and your friends from being dumped in the ocean, jumping off a rope swing to plummet just for the fun of it are all things I can share with my fellow players in a sandbox game and we all get to walk away from it whether we fail or succeed. Sandbox play succeeds if we get to smile about our exploits no matter how well they went.
Some think D&D players are all social drop-outs and I always felt such folks were really just a fraction of the players and a great many people weren't paying attention to the fact that getting together with the same people over and over again is being pretty darned social. The folks I play with have ranged through a diverse range of personality and career types even if a goodly number seem to tend towards the technical and professional end of things I've still gotten to meet and befriend people I may not have in other ways. RPGs can be a great way for people to meet and retain relationships that might not be without the game at hand.
Here are some of the professions of some of the people that have been in my D&D groups over the years a retired cartographer, a number of computer programmers and I.T. techs, an M.P., prison guard, youth-worker, landscaper, school-bus driver, psychologist, manager of a mall eatery, laser technician, an air-plane mechanic (two actually), nurse, lawyer, deli-worker, retail manager, heating/cooling tech, actors, teacher, optics manufacturer, technical illustrator, graphic designer and housewife. Getting all those people together week after week sometimes for years on end would be tricky and unusual without RPGs.
RPG play for many players is a means to escape the rut. For me (as I usually DM) it's an excuse to create things I want to create and watch people interacting with them because they want to do so. It's a grown up game of make believe. The sandbox is a great place to let ones imagination run free.
One gets plenty of chance to fail in sandbox play without screwing up the campaign for everyone else and without ruining their life. The sandbox campaign gives us room to safely build and adventure and return to the real world when we want to.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
What's Campaign Scale ?
In developing my next serious campaign I've stumbled across something that matters to me and really impacts a lot of the game: Campaign Scale. By Campaign Scale I mean what the play sessions and in-between time are focusing on and what importance those events have on the overall picture. This is often expressed to GMs as time management for a campaign and a lot of it does indeed involve time but it goes beyond measuring time on a real-world or campaign calendar. It's about giving players and GMs a way to balance adventure and non-adventure in a campaign meaningful fashion.
Players will sometimes lament all the difficulties and troubles their characters are exposed to in a session of play and may ask; "how can we ever get anything done"? My usual reply is we don't often watch movies about those times Indiana Jones spends weeks teaching and researching or the times when everything is boring and modestly profitable for the crew of the Firefly. But if play sessions seem to only focus on a constant stream of detailed and frenetic activity one really must wonder...when the heck do PCs get anything done?
I suppose it's a matter of focus and time management which I've chosen to express as campaign scale. Sure when we game at the table top adventures flow by quickly in ten minute segments, sometimes days pass in moments and the resolution of actions resolved in minutes can actually take an hour to play out now and again. But the time experienced by the PCs is jam-packed offers little opportunity for anything other then conflict and unlikely survival. When and how do we resolve affairs of state and economics that could and should flow along with the heroic action in a campaign where adventurers can become lords and ladies?
The answer to the last question is to provide a lot more time between sessions. Does one day pass between game sessions? Is the passage of time between sessions flexible or fixed? Do we focus strongly on every moment of the PC's lives?
Notice I keep raising questions in this discussion? It's because the goals of the GM, players and their PCs have to be considered along with what will be supported by the rules and campaign.
We all want to have fun, that's why we're playing a game. The players and GM have to agree or be ready to play in a campaign where the PCs are more or less involved with events that happen outside immediate heroic action. Players have to know what resources they are going to have on hand to be involved in campaign relevant but not immediately adventure producing options. If character have jobs or demands that don't involve regularly kicking in doors and killing orcs they need some time to get those things done even if in the background. If in possession of holdings one must wait for development of estates, the construction of buildings and fortifications. The depth of involvement and desire to be involved with such things requires a campaign scale that supports these actions.
Outside of non-adventuring demands there are more adventure situations such as training time, research time, recovery from disease, healing of wounds, time to scribe scrolls and brew potions. Players need a chance to get some of this done and it's often more fun if it doesn't eat into or severely limit table time fun.
It's dependent on campaign scale.
A GM has to decide if the campaign scale is flexible or rigid and if it follows the real world at all. The dynamics of this can impact the campaign greatly.
one must also consider how play time eats into this time frame.
Campaign scale can have a time scale fixed between sessions regardless of the amount of action that occurs in a session. By example if a group meets once a week or 4 times a year they will know in the campaign 3 weeks will pass between sessions regardless of how much time a play session involved. This gives a consistent and regular amount of time for players to plan for.
The time scale of a campaign can be structured to flow at a regular rate and player actions will offset the players position in time. By example each real world day can be 3 campaign days and adventuring activities will eat up some of the days that will pass relative to the real world. Actions of players will separate PCs by time in such a campaign.
A campaign scale can be established where time relative to the real world is fixed and players aren't displaced in time by their actions but time itself is consumed. By example a campaign can be set where each session and the time that follow is one month and play at the table rats into that amount of time leaving the remainder to resolve non-adventuring options. Adventures that require multiple sessions to resolve will free up a lot of non-adventuring time if the session resolve a lot of furious action in just a short amount of time per session. So if a campaign scale is established to mean 4 weeks per session but an adventure requires 3 sessions to play out no more then a week worth of game time the players will find themselves with 9 weeks of non-adventuring action to deal with afterward.
With a campaign scale the GM gets to also pace how things develop outside the immediate interest of the PCs (but not so much it's wasted work). The time frame of campaign scale can greatly impact what happens in the rest of the campaign world.
Armies can march across borders and besiege towns and be worn out if weeks pass between play sessions or wars become an almost constant background for a campaign where only a few days pass between each pay session.
Resource management is impacted by the campaign scale. Pennies in ones pocket aren't so important the broader the campaign scale. One needn't fiddle with the costs of mead vs beer in tavern A or tavern B if weeks pass between sessions.
Players or GMs can establish a standard of living or a readiness cost that will consume wealth but provide a baseline of supplies to always be ready during those adventuring sessions. Resources rise or decrease in importance depending on campaign scale.
This certainly expanded to a much longer piece they I intended and I only touched on a few elements above. I'm certainly going to have to focus on more specific elements of campaign scale in future postings. Any input or questions would be immensely appreciated.
Players will sometimes lament all the difficulties and troubles their characters are exposed to in a session of play and may ask; "how can we ever get anything done"? My usual reply is we don't often watch movies about those times Indiana Jones spends weeks teaching and researching or the times when everything is boring and modestly profitable for the crew of the Firefly. But if play sessions seem to only focus on a constant stream of detailed and frenetic activity one really must wonder...when the heck do PCs get anything done?
I suppose it's a matter of focus and time management which I've chosen to express as campaign scale. Sure when we game at the table top adventures flow by quickly in ten minute segments, sometimes days pass in moments and the resolution of actions resolved in minutes can actually take an hour to play out now and again. But the time experienced by the PCs is jam-packed offers little opportunity for anything other then conflict and unlikely survival. When and how do we resolve affairs of state and economics that could and should flow along with the heroic action in a campaign where adventurers can become lords and ladies?
The answer to the last question is to provide a lot more time between sessions. Does one day pass between game sessions? Is the passage of time between sessions flexible or fixed? Do we focus strongly on every moment of the PC's lives?
Notice I keep raising questions in this discussion? It's because the goals of the GM, players and their PCs have to be considered along with what will be supported by the rules and campaign.
We all want to have fun, that's why we're playing a game. The players and GM have to agree or be ready to play in a campaign where the PCs are more or less involved with events that happen outside immediate heroic action. Players have to know what resources they are going to have on hand to be involved in campaign relevant but not immediately adventure producing options. If character have jobs or demands that don't involve regularly kicking in doors and killing orcs they need some time to get those things done even if in the background. If in possession of holdings one must wait for development of estates, the construction of buildings and fortifications. The depth of involvement and desire to be involved with such things requires a campaign scale that supports these actions.
Outside of non-adventuring demands there are more adventure situations such as training time, research time, recovery from disease, healing of wounds, time to scribe scrolls and brew potions. Players need a chance to get some of this done and it's often more fun if it doesn't eat into or severely limit table time fun.
It's dependent on campaign scale.
A GM has to decide if the campaign scale is flexible or rigid and if it follows the real world at all. The dynamics of this can impact the campaign greatly.
one must also consider how play time eats into this time frame.
Campaign scale can have a time scale fixed between sessions regardless of the amount of action that occurs in a session. By example if a group meets once a week or 4 times a year they will know in the campaign 3 weeks will pass between sessions regardless of how much time a play session involved. This gives a consistent and regular amount of time for players to plan for.
The time scale of a campaign can be structured to flow at a regular rate and player actions will offset the players position in time. By example each real world day can be 3 campaign days and adventuring activities will eat up some of the days that will pass relative to the real world. Actions of players will separate PCs by time in such a campaign.
A campaign scale can be established where time relative to the real world is fixed and players aren't displaced in time by their actions but time itself is consumed. By example a campaign can be set where each session and the time that follow is one month and play at the table rats into that amount of time leaving the remainder to resolve non-adventuring options. Adventures that require multiple sessions to resolve will free up a lot of non-adventuring time if the session resolve a lot of furious action in just a short amount of time per session. So if a campaign scale is established to mean 4 weeks per session but an adventure requires 3 sessions to play out no more then a week worth of game time the players will find themselves with 9 weeks of non-adventuring action to deal with afterward.
With a campaign scale the GM gets to also pace how things develop outside the immediate interest of the PCs (but not so much it's wasted work). The time frame of campaign scale can greatly impact what happens in the rest of the campaign world.
Armies can march across borders and besiege towns and be worn out if weeks pass between play sessions or wars become an almost constant background for a campaign where only a few days pass between each pay session.
Resource management is impacted by the campaign scale. Pennies in ones pocket aren't so important the broader the campaign scale. One needn't fiddle with the costs of mead vs beer in tavern A or tavern B if weeks pass between sessions.
Players or GMs can establish a standard of living or a readiness cost that will consume wealth but provide a baseline of supplies to always be ready during those adventuring sessions. Resources rise or decrease in importance depending on campaign scale.
This certainly expanded to a much longer piece they I intended and I only touched on a few elements above. I'm certainly going to have to focus on more specific elements of campaign scale in future postings. Any input or questions would be immensely appreciated.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
The End Game?
Over at Greyhawk Grognard Joseph Block asks Is the End Game it's Own Game? it's a good question and it and the general attitude towards "The End Game" is how we often play the game at the beginning of a campaign and ignore the ongoing end game the PCs may be striving to enter (or avoid). If the daring-do, desperate sword fights and masterful break-ins all occur in a setting where lords are battling it out with each other and the players are involved (even if just occasionally) at low levels "The End Game" really wouldn't seem as separate and alien endeavor as it seems to be in many a campaign.
If what draws the characters to a remote virtually lawless frontier are the endeavors of one who has just become a lord themselves it defines a goal and sets-up a logical point for 1st level characters to get in on the action from day one. Surely a newly established lord is in need of specialists and brave souls to battle monsters and clear the lands he would claim as his domain.
it profits him to encourage such bravoes to face forces that would cost him resources at virtually no cost at all leaving him free to deal with bigger fish. When the domain is pacified and the PCs are bigger fish the local lord might seek deeper involvement with them, seek their ruin or be happy to see them on their way to the next frontier.
The march of armies, the fall of castles, assassinations, scouting missions, sanctioned piracy, religious crusade are all ways the end game can be brought into low level heroic play. The DM need not await for a culture shock to be thrust upon players at level 9 or so but can profit from making The End Game the game players have been part of the entire life of the campaign.
There could and should be aspirations and positions of power the politically minded can reach before name level and fortunes that will be coveted (and maybe buy the favor) of those in power.
There is much room in low level play for PCs to seek Knighthoods, curry favor with thieves guilds, come to business arrangements with merchant princes, become engaged with the machinations of wizards, to gain influence with or dodge the wrath or religious sects. Empire builders can start at the bottom and worktheir way up before the name level switch is flipped and the wandering hero can learn what to avoid.
The End Game need not be place at the end. It was always written into the game and waiting for the players in the wilderness encounter charts in forlorn castles that held belligerent lords, high priests serving unknown gods and wizards wishing they had time to complete their research.
The End Game, needn't be the end of the campaign as it has been and players can be engaged from day one within the limits of their abilities and aspirations.
If what draws the characters to a remote virtually lawless frontier are the endeavors of one who has just become a lord themselves it defines a goal and sets-up a logical point for 1st level characters to get in on the action from day one. Surely a newly established lord is in need of specialists and brave souls to battle monsters and clear the lands he would claim as his domain.
it profits him to encourage such bravoes to face forces that would cost him resources at virtually no cost at all leaving him free to deal with bigger fish. When the domain is pacified and the PCs are bigger fish the local lord might seek deeper involvement with them, seek their ruin or be happy to see them on their way to the next frontier.
The march of armies, the fall of castles, assassinations, scouting missions, sanctioned piracy, religious crusade are all ways the end game can be brought into low level heroic play. The DM need not await for a culture shock to be thrust upon players at level 9 or so but can profit from making The End Game the game players have been part of the entire life of the campaign.
There could and should be aspirations and positions of power the politically minded can reach before name level and fortunes that will be coveted (and maybe buy the favor) of those in power.
There is much room in low level play for PCs to seek Knighthoods, curry favor with thieves guilds, come to business arrangements with merchant princes, become engaged with the machinations of wizards, to gain influence with or dodge the wrath or religious sects. Empire builders can start at the bottom and worktheir way up before the name level switch is flipped and the wandering hero can learn what to avoid.
The End Game need not be place at the end. It was always written into the game and waiting for the players in the wilderness encounter charts in forlorn castles that held belligerent lords, high priests serving unknown gods and wizards wishing they had time to complete their research.
The End Game, needn't be the end of the campaign as it has been and players can be engaged from day one within the limits of their abilities and aspirations.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Men-At-Arms ranked flunkies
The Man-at-Arms has been part of old school fantasy gaming since the birth of the game. The man-at-arms is a common man with some training and willingness to enter combat but no real capacity for heroic action or lordship. Here are some proposed 0-level aids for adventurers to hire to fill a wider range of support roles.
Some of these fellows could prove very useful for a low level party and possibly into mid levels but they shouldn't alter the power of PCs too significantly and their low saves and hp certainly limit effectiveness at higher levels where more capable and dedicated henchmen should be employed.
Friar: brothers of an order trained to support their religion and spread the faith. They may use arms and armor allowed to clerics of their faith, they may use magical items allowed to clerics and may turn undead twice per day as if a 1st level cleric.
(4 to 6 hp) morale 9, wages- 25 gp
Initiate: members of a faith schooled in rituals and rites. It is their duty to aid the more powerful clerics. An initiate may pray for 1 st level spell a day that may be cast with the assistance of a cleric. They are not able to cast the spell themselves. They are not trained in the use of weapons and armor but may otherwise use all items allowed to clerics. (2 to 4 hp) morale 7, wages- 50 gp
Scribes: educated individuals able to identify and read scrolls 90% of the time. They may use scrolls written by MUs or Clerics. if they fail to properly use a scroll there is a 10% chance of mishap per spell level. (2 to 4 hp) morale 7,wages- 75 gp
Sapper : locate traps, disarm traps and open locks on a 1-2 on a d6. They can open any \normal sealed portal (unless sealed by magic) after 2 turns of (noisy) labor on a 1-4 in 6 chance. They wear armors lighter then mail. (4 to 6 hp)morale 9, wages- 25 gp
Shield Bearer: specialized men at arms, equipped with a large or tower shield they improve the AC of their master by 2 when adjacent (if they make no attacks). Up to 2 shield bearers may defend a single person. (5 to 8 hp) morale 10, wages- 50 gp
Urchin: may move, hide. locate traps and listen as a 1st level thief. often used as scouts in dungeon environments. no thieves in your rules set: they have a 2 in 6 chance of success per task. (3 to 5 hp)morale 6, wages- 2 gp
Yeoman: men at arms that are trained archers, they attack with bows as well as a 1st level fighter. They have no skill with arms other then the bow and may not use shields against trained foes. (3 to 6 hp) morale 8, wages- 10 gp
AC should be as per armor worn. Wages per month or week depending on campaign, includes upkeep costs.
Some of these fellows could prove very useful for a low level party and possibly into mid levels but they shouldn't alter the power of PCs too significantly and their low saves and hp certainly limit effectiveness at higher levels where more capable and dedicated henchmen should be employed.
Friar: brothers of an order trained to support their religion and spread the faith. They may use arms and armor allowed to clerics of their faith, they may use magical items allowed to clerics and may turn undead twice per day as if a 1st level cleric.
(4 to 6 hp) morale 9, wages- 25 gp
Initiate: members of a faith schooled in rituals and rites. It is their duty to aid the more powerful clerics. An initiate may pray for 1 st level spell a day that may be cast with the assistance of a cleric. They are not able to cast the spell themselves. They are not trained in the use of weapons and armor but may otherwise use all items allowed to clerics. (2 to 4 hp) morale 7, wages- 50 gp
Scribes: educated individuals able to identify and read scrolls 90% of the time. They may use scrolls written by MUs or Clerics. if they fail to properly use a scroll there is a 10% chance of mishap per spell level. (2 to 4 hp) morale 7,wages- 75 gp
Sapper : locate traps, disarm traps and open locks on a 1-2 on a d6. They can open any \normal sealed portal (unless sealed by magic) after 2 turns of (noisy) labor on a 1-4 in 6 chance. They wear armors lighter then mail. (4 to 6 hp)morale 9, wages- 25 gp
Shield Bearer: specialized men at arms, equipped with a large or tower shield they improve the AC of their master by 2 when adjacent (if they make no attacks). Up to 2 shield bearers may defend a single person. (5 to 8 hp) morale 10, wages- 50 gp
Urchin: may move, hide. locate traps and listen as a 1st level thief. often used as scouts in dungeon environments. no thieves in your rules set: they have a 2 in 6 chance of success per task. (3 to 5 hp)morale 6, wages- 2 gp
Yeoman: men at arms that are trained archers, they attack with bows as well as a 1st level fighter. They have no skill with arms other then the bow and may not use shields against trained foes. (3 to 6 hp) morale 8, wages- 10 gp
AC should be as per armor worn. Wages per month or week depending on campaign, includes upkeep costs.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Split the Party
An old RPG adage runs "never split the party". It's both to make life easier for the belabored DM and increase the odds of PC survival and effectiveness. It makes some sense indeed for the players to always have their PCs pool resources and capabilities, that's why there are adventuring parties after all. For the novice DM or one with a host of immature players it's a good tactic to keep everyone in the same mob sometimes DMing can indeed feel like "herding cats". After years of play it's my considered opinion that never splitting the party is cheating the players and the DM of a wider range of adventure experiences.
The DM needs to master 2 techniques to make splitting the party work: record keeping and the cut scene. With record keeping the DM must keep track of where and when PCs are active, PCs will quickly displace themselves in time given the opportunity to do so and the DM has to be accurate and firm in keeping track of this.
Note doors kicked in and bodies and loot left behind.
The cut scene should be used to create cliff hangers without otherwise upsetting the flow of play. A random encounter is much more exciting presented as a cliff hanger then the standard presentation and pretty easy to pull off with careful record keeping aiding the DM.
Additional tricks to keep splitting the party fun:
Verisimilitude in encounters: have encounters that make sense, more low level monsters present as opposed to high level monsters that always conveniently are the right level to challenge 6-10 adventurers of the dungeon level. Big tough monsters that folks get plenty of warning about so they can decide to gather the adventurers together since they can't be tackled by just 1 or 2 PCs.
A pair of ghouls is short work for all but the most inexperienced of parties but a lone fighter or 1 or 2 thieves will feel very differently about such an encounter than an entire party would.
Small treasures worth winning for 1 but not for 1 dozen.
The chance to harm allies. Keep descriptions of folks trying to creep down tunnels and go unnoticed vague. "You see three shadowy figures sneaking down the corridor avoiding the center of the passage. " gives a lot more room for misunderstandings and accidental assaults on fellow adventurers than dose "you see Mort, Nelson and Valdra walking down the hall". Check for surprise for each party, if surprised allow for a save of some kind and on the first round the surprised party can act they will act as if they were in a typical dungeon encounter (flight or fight). You have to be loose and fancy free with this and every now and then someone is getting fire balled by a friend.
Scouting missions. The quiet sneaky guys can move ahead of the rest of the party and check things out an hopefully not have to deal with major encounters. This is the easiest method of split part to encourage
Have players play some monsters. You want to see the dungeon beasties attack with cunning and awful ferocity, let one of the uninvolved players take the role of one or more monsters during an encounter; the fight will be more memorable for everyone involved.
When a wandering encounter comes chasing some of your friends down the hall it's a lot more exciting. Since folks can move around over a larger area of the dungeon they are going to be encountering more foes if they are not careful and possibly bringing them to their friends to deal with.
Let players do what they want. Don't let players act on knowledge their characters couldn't reasonably be privy to. It's safe to assume all the PCs at a table know about a trap when all the adventurers meet up at the local tavern but not while they are in two separate parties crawling about the depths until they are able to meet up in space and time. By letting players do what they want with the knowledge they have when the party is split up the actions of one player do not always immediately impact the play experience of everyone else at the table. The pesky thief doesn't' have to be ruining the game for everyone at the table with his exploits and failed pick pocket rolls if the whole party isn't present (the last one thief was seen in a campaign was his boots on the feet of a beggar a day or two after he went on a pub-crawl)
Get the players used to giving up time. Keep one fraction of the adventurers to no more then 15 or 20 minutes of table time.
Multiple characters per player. Let players run multiple characters if they wish but encourage them to split up by time sharing, the folks that can't bear losing table time will split up their characters or face large swaths of waiting for their turn.Sometimes players can end up playing the retainers and henchmen of other players, I like this arrangement but it's a tricky method that one shouldn't forcefully encourage.
With these techniques I had PCs running about on different continents, three time zones and multiple planes of existence all in the same gaming session, in a campaign that lasted for years.
The DM needs to master 2 techniques to make splitting the party work: record keeping and the cut scene. With record keeping the DM must keep track of where and when PCs are active, PCs will quickly displace themselves in time given the opportunity to do so and the DM has to be accurate and firm in keeping track of this.
Note doors kicked in and bodies and loot left behind.
The cut scene should be used to create cliff hangers without otherwise upsetting the flow of play. A random encounter is much more exciting presented as a cliff hanger then the standard presentation and pretty easy to pull off with careful record keeping aiding the DM.
Additional tricks to keep splitting the party fun:
Verisimilitude in encounters: have encounters that make sense, more low level monsters present as opposed to high level monsters that always conveniently are the right level to challenge 6-10 adventurers of the dungeon level. Big tough monsters that folks get plenty of warning about so they can decide to gather the adventurers together since they can't be tackled by just 1 or 2 PCs.
A pair of ghouls is short work for all but the most inexperienced of parties but a lone fighter or 1 or 2 thieves will feel very differently about such an encounter than an entire party would.
Small treasures worth winning for 1 but not for 1 dozen.
The chance to harm allies. Keep descriptions of folks trying to creep down tunnels and go unnoticed vague. "You see three shadowy figures sneaking down the corridor avoiding the center of the passage. " gives a lot more room for misunderstandings and accidental assaults on fellow adventurers than dose "you see Mort, Nelson and Valdra walking down the hall". Check for surprise for each party, if surprised allow for a save of some kind and on the first round the surprised party can act they will act as if they were in a typical dungeon encounter (flight or fight). You have to be loose and fancy free with this and every now and then someone is getting fire balled by a friend.
Scouting missions. The quiet sneaky guys can move ahead of the rest of the party and check things out an hopefully not have to deal with major encounters. This is the easiest method of split part to encourage
Have players play some monsters. You want to see the dungeon beasties attack with cunning and awful ferocity, let one of the uninvolved players take the role of one or more monsters during an encounter; the fight will be more memorable for everyone involved.
When a wandering encounter comes chasing some of your friends down the hall it's a lot more exciting. Since folks can move around over a larger area of the dungeon they are going to be encountering more foes if they are not careful and possibly bringing them to their friends to deal with.
Let players do what they want. Don't let players act on knowledge their characters couldn't reasonably be privy to. It's safe to assume all the PCs at a table know about a trap when all the adventurers meet up at the local tavern but not while they are in two separate parties crawling about the depths until they are able to meet up in space and time. By letting players do what they want with the knowledge they have when the party is split up the actions of one player do not always immediately impact the play experience of everyone else at the table. The pesky thief doesn't' have to be ruining the game for everyone at the table with his exploits and failed pick pocket rolls if the whole party isn't present (the last one thief was seen in a campaign was his boots on the feet of a beggar a day or two after he went on a pub-crawl)
Get the players used to giving up time. Keep one fraction of the adventurers to no more then 15 or 20 minutes of table time.
Multiple characters per player. Let players run multiple characters if they wish but encourage them to split up by time sharing, the folks that can't bear losing table time will split up their characters or face large swaths of waiting for their turn.Sometimes players can end up playing the retainers and henchmen of other players, I like this arrangement but it's a tricky method that one shouldn't forcefully encourage.
With these techniques I had PCs running about on different continents, three time zones and multiple planes of existence all in the same gaming session, in a campaign that lasted for years.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Put Something in the corridors.
I can't say this enough, put something in the corridors of your dungeons/redoubts/space stations. Far too many RPG adventures reserve the corridors for wandering monsters and the occasional pit trap. You can tell by how seldom one sees keyed corridors on a dungeon map.
It will cut down on the "there's a door there must be an encounter" syndrome. It'll make your adventures more interesting.
Some suggestions for the typical underground fantasy world labyrinth beyond placed monsters:
* Chalk marks showing direction and maybe warnings. These can be in a commonly known argot, simple pictograms or directional arrows.
* A square clearly drawn in chalk, ink or blood on the floor. Just try keeping players away from that or conversely try to get them to step on it.
* Tracks that are easy to notice. There is nothing wrong with using this technique to warn the players about impending dangers or lead them into a death trap. This is an excellent harbinger for
* A wall built up across the corridor. this shouldn't block the corridor and clearly isn't original construction and makes a good spot to post guards for a nearby chamber.
* A pile of dung or garbage. Refuse has to end up somewhere, the contents of the refuse could provide clues as to what us lairing nearby and or dangerous diseases and parasites.
* A Body. (See : http://aeonsnaugauries.blogspot.com/2009/07/well-bob-is-dead.html )
* A stray weapon. Simply a weapon layign in the corridor, mayhaps it is a cursed item or someone dropped it during a fight?
* A tangle of roots. A harmless enough feature most of the time but it can reduce vision or tangle up folks trying to pass through quickly.
* A broken up uneven patch of floor. Unstable footing can prove dangerous and is an even more difficult spot to identify hidden traps.
* Cobwebs. Plain old cobwebs, no one passed this way recently or mayhaps strands of old webs are attracting lots of dust.
* A corridor wall lined with shelf fungus.
* Walls lined with torches, lanterns, sconces lit or unlit. Lit sconces indicating someone nearby is keeping them lit and imagine the reaction if they spontaneously extinguish.
* Scattering Vermin. Cockroaches, mice and centipedes scatter as the noise and lights of the party draw near.
* A barricade. Not a clearly well built wall as above but certainly enough to provide some defense to folks manning the barricade and it will certainly slow an advance. Picture the alarm if the party discoveries themselves coming up on the defenders side of the barricade.
* A spike driven into the wall. Good old iron spike driven into a crack in the wall.
* A rope tied to a spike driven into a wall. There has to be some reason to drive spikes into the wall.
* A puddle on the floor. thsi puddle can be very shallow and harmless, maybe makignthe surface underneath dangerously slippery. If the puddle isn't water the material may be far more dangerous then dirty dungeon water.
* A change in the floor surface, gravel, dirt, mud, sand.
* The ceiling is clearly propped up with extra timbers and beams. This area may tumble at any moment if the supports are disturbed. The timbers and beams could be recent indicating the activity of residents maintaining the dungeon or they could be ancient and mouldering.
* A rivulet of water, sewage or chemical waste runs down the side or middle of the corridor.
* A drain in the floor. This drain could lead to virtually anything but shouldn't' usually be wide enough to allow PC races entry, it most likely leads to a pipe which empties into some sort of nearby cistern.
* Furniture set up in the corridor, table, benches, stools. Could be stacked for storage or recently used by residents.
*Barrels or crates lining the corridor. Unlike video games these shouldn't explode or have anything all that interesting inside that would aid adventurers...at least not all the time.
* Water fountain. Drink it if you dare ! Could be a magical fountain but typically it isn't.
* Potted Plants.
* a beast of burden or incongruous relatively harmless animal just standing there. This animal may flee on first sight, follow the party, be easily captured or be downright grumpy. Some pack animals may have some supplies strapped to their backs.
* A short run of stairs going up or down no more then 2 or 3 steps.
* Mural
* Fresco
* Bloody hand print on walls. Bloody footprints on floor.
Additional features for modern/futuristic corridors:
* Television screen/monitor mounted in wall or near ceiling. Good place to drop clues or window dressing.
* Mirrored lined section of wall. Nothing to worry about, unless it is a two way mirror.
* Security Cameras. Seemingly dead or certainly active and following the party.
* Cork-board/notice- board mounted on wall. A spot to find clues about the recent residents or the origins of the structure.
* Trashcan.
* Fire extinguisher/hose or fire axe in recess in wall.
* Flashing lights.
* Warning alarm.
* Hand truck leaning against wall.
* Safety/police tape blocking corridor or laying on the floor.
* Water bubbler.
* Coffee nook. Either fully stocked or a bunch of empty containers and no usable grounds.
* Map of complex. Legible or illegible, defaced or pristine. Might just be a corridor guide which reveals nothing but main corridors and emergency exits.
* Warning/notice sign.
* Leaking ceiling.
* Loose wires. These can lay on the floor, across the floor or hang from the ceiling.
* Exposed ducts.
* Exposed plumbing.
* A pile of garbage bags.
* A bunch of empty plastic bottles.
* Paint cans, tarps and a ladder.
* Hall Lockers. A greet place to find random junk and clothing if it hasn't' been looted before.
* Body outline. Surrounded by chalk or tape indicating foul play under investigation.
* Stained rug.
* A big lump under a rug. Dare anyone look at what is underneath?
* Ceiling tiles overhead are loose or in disarray.
* Grate from air duct lose or on the floor. Is there any indication of the duct being used for covert travel?
* Graffiti on the walls. Warn folks about the nearby gangs or related threats.
* Beer cans and cigarette butts.
* Trip wire running across corridor. could lead to a simple alarm, explosives or nothing at all.
* An old mattress lie son the floor or leaning up against the wall.
Every corridor need not have a special feature but dropping them in now and again makes the runs of corridor more interesting then their width, height and length until the next door is reached.
It will cut down on the "there's a door there must be an encounter" syndrome. It'll make your adventures more interesting.
Some suggestions for the typical underground fantasy world labyrinth beyond placed monsters:
* Chalk marks showing direction and maybe warnings. These can be in a commonly known argot, simple pictograms or directional arrows.
* A square clearly drawn in chalk, ink or blood on the floor. Just try keeping players away from that or conversely try to get them to step on it.
* Tracks that are easy to notice. There is nothing wrong with using this technique to warn the players about impending dangers or lead them into a death trap. This is an excellent harbinger for
* A wall built up across the corridor. this shouldn't block the corridor and clearly isn't original construction and makes a good spot to post guards for a nearby chamber.
* A pile of dung or garbage. Refuse has to end up somewhere, the contents of the refuse could provide clues as to what us lairing nearby and or dangerous diseases and parasites.
* A Body. (See : http://aeonsnaugauries.blogspot.com/2009/07/well-bob-is-dead.html )
* A stray weapon. Simply a weapon layign in the corridor, mayhaps it is a cursed item or someone dropped it during a fight?
* A tangle of roots. A harmless enough feature most of the time but it can reduce vision or tangle up folks trying to pass through quickly.
* A broken up uneven patch of floor. Unstable footing can prove dangerous and is an even more difficult spot to identify hidden traps.
* Cobwebs. Plain old cobwebs, no one passed this way recently or mayhaps strands of old webs are attracting lots of dust.
* A corridor wall lined with shelf fungus.
* Walls lined with torches, lanterns, sconces lit or unlit. Lit sconces indicating someone nearby is keeping them lit and imagine the reaction if they spontaneously extinguish.
* Scattering Vermin. Cockroaches, mice and centipedes scatter as the noise and lights of the party draw near.
* A barricade. Not a clearly well built wall as above but certainly enough to provide some defense to folks manning the barricade and it will certainly slow an advance. Picture the alarm if the party discoveries themselves coming up on the defenders side of the barricade.
* A spike driven into the wall. Good old iron spike driven into a crack in the wall.
* A rope tied to a spike driven into a wall. There has to be some reason to drive spikes into the wall.
* A puddle on the floor. thsi puddle can be very shallow and harmless, maybe makignthe surface underneath dangerously slippery. If the puddle isn't water the material may be far more dangerous then dirty dungeon water.
* A change in the floor surface, gravel, dirt, mud, sand.
* The ceiling is clearly propped up with extra timbers and beams. This area may tumble at any moment if the supports are disturbed. The timbers and beams could be recent indicating the activity of residents maintaining the dungeon or they could be ancient and mouldering.
* A rivulet of water, sewage or chemical waste runs down the side or middle of the corridor.
* A drain in the floor. This drain could lead to virtually anything but shouldn't' usually be wide enough to allow PC races entry, it most likely leads to a pipe which empties into some sort of nearby cistern.
* Furniture set up in the corridor, table, benches, stools. Could be stacked for storage or recently used by residents.
*Barrels or crates lining the corridor. Unlike video games these shouldn't explode or have anything all that interesting inside that would aid adventurers...at least not all the time.
* Water fountain. Drink it if you dare ! Could be a magical fountain but typically it isn't.
* Potted Plants.
* a beast of burden or incongruous relatively harmless animal just standing there. This animal may flee on first sight, follow the party, be easily captured or be downright grumpy. Some pack animals may have some supplies strapped to their backs.
* A short run of stairs going up or down no more then 2 or 3 steps.
* Mural
* Fresco
* Bloody hand print on walls. Bloody footprints on floor.
Additional features for modern/futuristic corridors:
* Television screen/monitor mounted in wall or near ceiling. Good place to drop clues or window dressing.
* Mirrored lined section of wall. Nothing to worry about, unless it is a two way mirror.
* Security Cameras. Seemingly dead or certainly active and following the party.
* Cork-board/notice- board mounted on wall. A spot to find clues about the recent residents or the origins of the structure.
* Trashcan.
* Fire extinguisher/hose or fire axe in recess in wall.
* Flashing lights.
* Warning alarm.
* Hand truck leaning against wall.
* Safety/police tape blocking corridor or laying on the floor.
* Water bubbler.
* Coffee nook. Either fully stocked or a bunch of empty containers and no usable grounds.
* Map of complex. Legible or illegible, defaced or pristine. Might just be a corridor guide which reveals nothing but main corridors and emergency exits.
* Warning/notice sign.
* Leaking ceiling.
* Loose wires. These can lay on the floor, across the floor or hang from the ceiling.
* Exposed ducts.
* Exposed plumbing.
* A pile of garbage bags.
* A bunch of empty plastic bottles.
* Paint cans, tarps and a ladder.
* Hall Lockers. A greet place to find random junk and clothing if it hasn't' been looted before.
* Body outline. Surrounded by chalk or tape indicating foul play under investigation.
* Stained rug.
* A big lump under a rug. Dare anyone look at what is underneath?
* Ceiling tiles overhead are loose or in disarray.
* Grate from air duct lose or on the floor. Is there any indication of the duct being used for covert travel?
* Graffiti on the walls. Warn folks about the nearby gangs or related threats.
* Beer cans and cigarette butts.
* Trip wire running across corridor. could lead to a simple alarm, explosives or nothing at all.
* An old mattress lie son the floor or leaning up against the wall.
Every corridor need not have a special feature but dropping them in now and again makes the runs of corridor more interesting then their width, height and length until the next door is reached.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
A Variant Saving Throw System
Here is a variant saving throw system that I've used in the past. A threat with a save allowed has a level and an ability score it's related to.
Example: Poison N 4th level Con Save.
All or most saves in the game have a die score which must be met or exceeded. there is a lot of room for fiddling here and a high or low score can really set the tone for how deadly and frequent situations that warrant a saving throw are within a campaign.For light fantasy adventure I find a 13 or higher rolled on d20 does it for me. A campaign with a target score over 15 would make things very tough for characters facing higher level threats.
So for a player to save versus that poison N mentioned above they have to roll a 13 or higher to make a saving throw if the target number was 13 for the campaign.
Saving throw rolls are modified by level and ability modifiers.
If a character has a level equal to or within 1 level of the level of the save there is no modifier to the roll.
If a character is 2 level or more greater then the level of the save they get a +4 to their saving throw roll.
If a character is 2 level or less then the level of the save they get a -4 to their saving throw roll.
Ability modifiers are added to the die roll.
If an ability score is a "Prime Requisite" as defiend by the game you are using allow +2 to the roll.
our victims for the examples (using LL ability mods)
Able 6th level Fighter
Str 17, Int 5, Wis 8, Dex 15, Con 14, Cha 5
Zed 3rd level MU.
Str 6, Int 16, Wis 12, Dex 10, Con 15, Cha 10
Example 1:
Able and Zed are exposed to a threat of poison.
Poison N 4th level Con Save.
Able is 6th level so he gets a bonus of +4 to the saving roll and has a Con of 14 for another bonus of +1. He gets a total bonus of +5 to the savign roll.
Zed is 3rd level so he gets a penalty of -4 to the savign roll and has a hardy Con of 15 so he gets a +1 bonus for that. Zed has total penalty of -3 to the saving roll.
Example 2:
Zed and able are beign confronted by an illusion.
Illusion 3rd level INT save.
Able is 6th level so he gets a bonus of +4 to the saving roll. He has an INT of 5 for a penalty of -2. Able has a total modifier of +2 to the saving roll.
Zed is 3rd level so he gets no bonus or penalty for his level. An INT of 16 gives him a +2 bonus. INT is also his prime requisite so he gets another +2 bonus. Zed has a total modifier of +4 to the saving roll.
I like this method becasue it's fairly easy to be a tiny bit fiddly; It reflects charcter levels, ability scores and classes (if prime requisites are a factor). It's also infintely scalable but has a reasonable cap on modifiers.
DMs that worry about "how tough is this save ?" really can relax and key it to the level of the module in question with a minor shift in the score hera and there. 6th level of the dungeon, well it's a 6th level save unless it sdhould be tougher. Bit by a 8HD monster with toxic fangs , it's an 8th level save. Some saves shouldn't get more difficult with dungoen level but DMs should really call that for their own games.
NOTE: Swords and Wizardry has a flat save score for all catagories that varies by level. this score can serve as the target number for making saves.
I'd recomend altering the spread for difference in levels vs the threat and the modifier as well since some of this is built into a save score that already changes by level.
I've used a 3 level spread but the same modifier.
3 or more levels above the threat is a +4 to the roll.
3 or more level under the threat is a -4 to the roll.
so a 5th level charcter would have no modifiers vs 3-7th level saves but would be -4 vs 8th level and above saves and +4 vs 1st& 2nd level saves.
Example: Poison N 4th level Con Save.
All or most saves in the game have a die score which must be met or exceeded. there is a lot of room for fiddling here and a high or low score can really set the tone for how deadly and frequent situations that warrant a saving throw are within a campaign.For light fantasy adventure I find a 13 or higher rolled on d20 does it for me. A campaign with a target score over 15 would make things very tough for characters facing higher level threats.
So for a player to save versus that poison N mentioned above they have to roll a 13 or higher to make a saving throw if the target number was 13 for the campaign.
Saving throw rolls are modified by level and ability modifiers.
If a character has a level equal to or within 1 level of the level of the save there is no modifier to the roll.
If a character is 2 level or more greater then the level of the save they get a +4 to their saving throw roll.
If a character is 2 level or less then the level of the save they get a -4 to their saving throw roll.
Ability modifiers are added to the die roll.
If an ability score is a "Prime Requisite" as defiend by the game you are using allow +2 to the roll.
our victims for the examples (using LL ability mods)
Able 6th level Fighter
Str 17, Int 5, Wis 8, Dex 15, Con 14, Cha 5
Zed 3rd level MU.
Str 6, Int 16, Wis 12, Dex 10, Con 15, Cha 10
Example 1:
Able and Zed are exposed to a threat of poison.
Poison N 4th level Con Save.
Able is 6th level so he gets a bonus of +4 to the saving roll and has a Con of 14 for another bonus of +1. He gets a total bonus of +5 to the savign roll.
Zed is 3rd level so he gets a penalty of -4 to the savign roll and has a hardy Con of 15 so he gets a +1 bonus for that. Zed has total penalty of -3 to the saving roll.
Example 2:
Zed and able are beign confronted by an illusion.
Illusion 3rd level INT save.
Able is 6th level so he gets a bonus of +4 to the saving roll. He has an INT of 5 for a penalty of -2. Able has a total modifier of +2 to the saving roll.
Zed is 3rd level so he gets no bonus or penalty for his level. An INT of 16 gives him a +2 bonus. INT is also his prime requisite so he gets another +2 bonus. Zed has a total modifier of +4 to the saving roll.
I like this method becasue it's fairly easy to be a tiny bit fiddly; It reflects charcter levels, ability scores and classes (if prime requisites are a factor). It's also infintely scalable but has a reasonable cap on modifiers.
DMs that worry about "how tough is this save ?" really can relax and key it to the level of the module in question with a minor shift in the score hera and there. 6th level of the dungeon, well it's a 6th level save unless it sdhould be tougher. Bit by a 8HD monster with toxic fangs , it's an 8th level save. Some saves shouldn't get more difficult with dungoen level but DMs should really call that for their own games.
NOTE: Swords and Wizardry has a flat save score for all catagories that varies by level. this score can serve as the target number for making saves.
I'd recomend altering the spread for difference in levels vs the threat and the modifier as well since some of this is built into a save score that already changes by level.
I've used a 3 level spread but the same modifier.
3 or more levels above the threat is a +4 to the roll.
3 or more level under the threat is a -4 to the roll.
so a 5th level charcter would have no modifiers vs 3-7th level saves but would be -4 vs 8th level and above saves and +4 vs 1st& 2nd level saves.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Saving Throw Catagories
You may have heard this critique of Saving Throws in D&D and related games in the past "the saving throw categories are just random, illogical and incomplete ". My answer...Change them.
That's it, come up with your own saving throw categorizes if you can't bear the ones that come with the rules.
There are three good reason to do this in my book: 1 you just can't stand it that staves and wands are in two separate categories, you are a totalist who needs everything spelled out or you just want your current campaign to feel different from campaign X (the last is the best of the three reasons really).
A Revised List of Saving Throw Categories (for a different Feel):
Bindings, Runes, Symbols and Power Words:
saves versus magical compulsions, elder symbols, wards and spoken words of true power.
Glammer, Deception and Phantasms:
saves versus minor magical trickery, shady misdirection and illusuinary influences.
Elemental Forces, Gases and Exposure:
saves versus Dragon Breath, Fireballs, Noxious Gases , Freezing cold and Searing Heat.
Petrification, Transformation and Confinement:
saves that would change ones form, shape or physical freedom.
Necrosis, Poisons and Paralyzation:
saves versus Death, Mummy Rot, Poisons (Ingested and Injected) and the Paraylzing Touch of Ghouls.
Passion, Ill Humours and Domination:
saves versus emotional assaults, diseases and other effects related to the humours and mental domination.
There is certainly some cross over on these categories. I recommend one go with the source over the effect to determine which save category to use.
Magical items, charms and player precautions may provide a bonus versus a single subcategory but generally shouldn't involve the entire category.
The above list is just a suggestion, not dogma. Feel free to ignore it or more hopefully be inspired by it to work up a list of your own that will develop a unique flavor for your own games.
That's it, come up with your own saving throw categorizes if you can't bear the ones that come with the rules.
There are three good reason to do this in my book: 1 you just can't stand it that staves and wands are in two separate categories, you are a totalist who needs everything spelled out or you just want your current campaign to feel different from campaign X (the last is the best of the three reasons really).
A Revised List of Saving Throw Categories (for a different Feel):
Bindings, Runes, Symbols and Power Words:
saves versus magical compulsions, elder symbols, wards and spoken words of true power.
Glammer, Deception and Phantasms:
saves versus minor magical trickery, shady misdirection and illusuinary influences.
Elemental Forces, Gases and Exposure:
saves versus Dragon Breath, Fireballs, Noxious Gases , Freezing cold and Searing Heat.
Petrification, Transformation and Confinement:
saves that would change ones form, shape or physical freedom.
Necrosis, Poisons and Paralyzation:
saves versus Death, Mummy Rot, Poisons (Ingested and Injected) and the Paraylzing Touch of Ghouls.
Passion, Ill Humours and Domination:
saves versus emotional assaults, diseases and other effects related to the humours and mental domination.
There is certainly some cross over on these categories. I recommend one go with the source over the effect to determine which save category to use.
Magical items, charms and player precautions may provide a bonus versus a single subcategory but generally shouldn't involve the entire category.
The above list is just a suggestion, not dogma. Feel free to ignore it or more hopefully be inspired by it to work up a list of your own that will develop a unique flavor for your own games.
Friday, July 10, 2009
You want me to go where?
Fantasy RPG heroes spend a lot of time striding dungeon corridors that are 10' wide with ceilings that are 10' or more above their heads. There is generally plenty of room to do some maneuvering. Real life "dungeons" seldom offer such luxuries of space.
A few situationa that follow have examples of LARPing experience and the terrain features mentioned, I gernally call this semi-real-life as the weapons and armeo still aren't generally as heavy and restricitve as real gear).
The sizes of corridors and doors and heights of ceilings can do a lot to provide players with a wider range of decisions in equipment selection, tactics and even character races. I'm inspired by previous gaming experiences, "Cities of the Underworld" on the History Channel and home repair I've been engaged in of late (crawling about under my porch). Things just aren't conveniently built to make life easy for men about 200 lbs in wieght and 6' tall to maneuver about under things.
A Few years back a small dungeon complex in my game was about a yard wide and 4' to 5' high. After the whole party trying to muscle it's way into the complex the (very large) party sent the small folk in the party down into the depths to sort things out.
Corridors but 2' wide will have prove ultimately unnavigable to people with large back packs, bulky armor and larger weapons. Speeds will be greatly diminished and combat options decidedly limited. It's an excellent situation to send a gnome of halfling adventurer ahead of the party.
People tend to build things that are barely just big enough for peple to navigate a goodly amount of the time. Imagine how tight traveling could get if the locals were only 3' tall. Treasure chambers, redoubts and escape tunnels would surely be off limits to the typical adventuring party.
Doorways:
Narrow door ways slow down how many people can pass through the portal at a given time. A low doorway forces the person passing though the portal to bend and provide advantage to anyone defending the portal against intruders.
A murder hole adjacent to a narrow/low door should prove to be more effective against the intruder with restricted movement.
(LARP: I've stood on one side of a door way with only a pair of other folk and was abel to fight off an increddible number of opponents that literally filled the doorway with weapons but had great difficulty passing through to harm us, suicide tactics and magic were the only things that allowed the enemy access.)
Ceilings:
The height of ceilings can have a lot of impact on travel and combat within a room or tunnel. Low ceilings clearly force one to duck down to pass through but they also limit the effectiveness of large weapons which can't be swung effectively with the low ceiling. The center of a ceiling may be higher then the sides, only those moving through the center and fighting within it will have optimal mobility. Small defenders would be able to move more quickly about man-sized foes if those men were to keep to the center of a corridor with a arched ceiling.
Flying beings will be a distinct disadvantage the lower a ceiling the less room they have t maneuver, they may be challenged in a traditional dungeon chamber but lower that ceilign further and mobility is threanted.
A change in the height of ceilings as an intentional defensive feature is very effective. A low door could then lead to a low portion of the chamber beyond whch forces one to continue to stoop, defenders beyond the lowered section of ceilign would habe full mobility and decided advantage afgainst intruders.
(Larp exposure to the lower ceiling: followign the entry into a "dungeon" we discovred the way blocked by a short but wide segment of corridor that was only 4' high, o the other side stood a small number of defenders in a chamber with a high ceiling. It was a very tough fight tying to stoop down and bring our weapons to bear against the polearm equipped enemies who seemed to be able to poke at us with impunity.)
Corridors:
The height of a corridor applies as it does for all ceilings but it will also slow movement and adds t the atmosphere of oppresion for those trying to pass through them. Men can pass each other in a 5' wide corridor whne walking but one man can easily block the corridor in combat and even narrower corridors greatly limit which weapons can be effective (or even possible to carry around corners).
It's not uncommon for coridors leading to shrines or other holy places to force man0sized folk to stoop and even crawl slightly to add to the majesty of the holy space beyond and to make the person traveling the corridor to be humbled before they gain access.
Worker comunication and travel corridors to provide service to areas of a complex will only necessarily be wide enough to allow travel from one point or another by a single file of labourers and will not aid an aggressive attack force, travelign through a low and narrow corridor in armro and with a shield may indeed be impossible in such a space.
Stair Steps:
The steps one tread on a staircase may be designed to restrict speed of travel and ease of access. A person is slowed traveling up or down a shallow set of steps with a severe pitch. Little folks may be more able to travel such a staircase but larger folks will be at a disadvantage.
Spiral staircases can also be built to diminish the effectiveness of weapon used from those either ascending or descendign the staie depending on the direction the stairs turn again giving the advantage to thge defender.
Holes/Spider Holes:
Intnetionally tight and small spaces much smaller then an ordinary door makes the ever popular "kick the door in and charge " style of dungoen riomping all but impossible. A clothed adult male can pass though a 18" by 12 " gap but thee is no chance someone in any type of armor is doing such a thing.
(Larp:In the dungoen in th eprevious example the party I found myself with stumbled into a chamber where a pair of warriors were doing battle with a air of undead beings that hopelessly outclassed our capabilities, we were fleeing a pack of goblins all seemd lost when one of the memebers of my party spotted a tiny crawl tunnel and everyone jumped in, I followed in the rear beimgn the most capable of holding off the undead long enough for everyone else to escape. The hole was small but we all splipped in quickly. Halway down the corridor I discovered it had gotten narrower and I was stuck as I was alos the largets memebr of the party. It took me a while to relaxe and figure out how to wiggle on.)
How to use this stuff. It all depneds on the game system and your playing style. Weapons could be outrght resticted or be penalized in to hit or damage chances if they are too large. Defenders could gaina bonus to attack vs intruders and small folks may be unhindered when larger folk most certainly are. I worked up chart with sizes and modifiersfor dungeons in the past but have yet to fidn an optimal set of modifiers, it's likely best to note the poetential hiderances and go with what feels right.
Keep track of size of features within a dungeon and all of a sudden gmones and halflings look wise and viable choices in tunnels 6' tall knights couldn't bring their weapons to bear against opponents.
A few situationa that follow have examples of LARPing experience and the terrain features mentioned, I gernally call this semi-real-life as the weapons and armeo still aren't generally as heavy and restricitve as real gear).
The sizes of corridors and doors and heights of ceilings can do a lot to provide players with a wider range of decisions in equipment selection, tactics and even character races. I'm inspired by previous gaming experiences, "Cities of the Underworld" on the History Channel and home repair I've been engaged in of late (crawling about under my porch). Things just aren't conveniently built to make life easy for men about 200 lbs in wieght and 6' tall to maneuver about under things.
A Few years back a small dungeon complex in my game was about a yard wide and 4' to 5' high. After the whole party trying to muscle it's way into the complex the (very large) party sent the small folk in the party down into the depths to sort things out.
Corridors but 2' wide will have prove ultimately unnavigable to people with large back packs, bulky armor and larger weapons. Speeds will be greatly diminished and combat options decidedly limited. It's an excellent situation to send a gnome of halfling adventurer ahead of the party.
People tend to build things that are barely just big enough for peple to navigate a goodly amount of the time. Imagine how tight traveling could get if the locals were only 3' tall. Treasure chambers, redoubts and escape tunnels would surely be off limits to the typical adventuring party.
Doorways:
Narrow door ways slow down how many people can pass through the portal at a given time. A low doorway forces the person passing though the portal to bend and provide advantage to anyone defending the portal against intruders.
A murder hole adjacent to a narrow/low door should prove to be more effective against the intruder with restricted movement.
(LARP: I've stood on one side of a door way with only a pair of other folk and was abel to fight off an increddible number of opponents that literally filled the doorway with weapons but had great difficulty passing through to harm us, suicide tactics and magic were the only things that allowed the enemy access.)
Ceilings:
The height of ceilings can have a lot of impact on travel and combat within a room or tunnel. Low ceilings clearly force one to duck down to pass through but they also limit the effectiveness of large weapons which can't be swung effectively with the low ceiling. The center of a ceiling may be higher then the sides, only those moving through the center and fighting within it will have optimal mobility. Small defenders would be able to move more quickly about man-sized foes if those men were to keep to the center of a corridor with a arched ceiling.
Flying beings will be a distinct disadvantage the lower a ceiling the less room they have t maneuver, they may be challenged in a traditional dungeon chamber but lower that ceilign further and mobility is threanted.
A change in the height of ceilings as an intentional defensive feature is very effective. A low door could then lead to a low portion of the chamber beyond whch forces one to continue to stoop, defenders beyond the lowered section of ceilign would habe full mobility and decided advantage afgainst intruders.
(Larp exposure to the lower ceiling: followign the entry into a "dungeon" we discovred the way blocked by a short but wide segment of corridor that was only 4' high, o the other side stood a small number of defenders in a chamber with a high ceiling. It was a very tough fight tying to stoop down and bring our weapons to bear against the polearm equipped enemies who seemed to be able to poke at us with impunity.)
Corridors:
The height of a corridor applies as it does for all ceilings but it will also slow movement and adds t the atmosphere of oppresion for those trying to pass through them. Men can pass each other in a 5' wide corridor whne walking but one man can easily block the corridor in combat and even narrower corridors greatly limit which weapons can be effective (or even possible to carry around corners).
It's not uncommon for coridors leading to shrines or other holy places to force man0sized folk to stoop and even crawl slightly to add to the majesty of the holy space beyond and to make the person traveling the corridor to be humbled before they gain access.
Worker comunication and travel corridors to provide service to areas of a complex will only necessarily be wide enough to allow travel from one point or another by a single file of labourers and will not aid an aggressive attack force, travelign through a low and narrow corridor in armro and with a shield may indeed be impossible in such a space.
Stair Steps:
The steps one tread on a staircase may be designed to restrict speed of travel and ease of access. A person is slowed traveling up or down a shallow set of steps with a severe pitch. Little folks may be more able to travel such a staircase but larger folks will be at a disadvantage.
Spiral staircases can also be built to diminish the effectiveness of weapon used from those either ascending or descendign the staie depending on the direction the stairs turn again giving the advantage to thge defender.
Holes/Spider Holes:
Intnetionally tight and small spaces much smaller then an ordinary door makes the ever popular "kick the door in and charge " style of dungoen riomping all but impossible. A clothed adult male can pass though a 18" by 12 " gap but thee is no chance someone in any type of armor is doing such a thing.
(Larp:In the dungoen in th eprevious example the party I found myself with stumbled into a chamber where a pair of warriors were doing battle with a air of undead beings that hopelessly outclassed our capabilities, we were fleeing a pack of goblins all seemd lost when one of the memebers of my party spotted a tiny crawl tunnel and everyone jumped in, I followed in the rear beimgn the most capable of holding off the undead long enough for everyone else to escape. The hole was small but we all splipped in quickly. Halway down the corridor I discovered it had gotten narrower and I was stuck as I was alos the largets memebr of the party. It took me a while to relaxe and figure out how to wiggle on.)
How to use this stuff. It all depneds on the game system and your playing style. Weapons could be outrght resticted or be penalized in to hit or damage chances if they are too large. Defenders could gaina bonus to attack vs intruders and small folks may be unhindered when larger folk most certainly are. I worked up chart with sizes and modifiersfor dungeons in the past but have yet to fidn an optimal set of modifiers, it's likely best to note the poetential hiderances and go with what feels right.
Keep track of size of features within a dungeon and all of a sudden gmones and halflings look wise and viable choices in tunnels 6' tall knights couldn't bring their weapons to bear against opponents.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
A Lesson from Carcosa
What follows isn't a review but an observation based on reading the original un-purged version of Geoffery McKinney's Carcosa.
Carcosa taught me a lesson in campaign design, one which I fear many of us playing fantasy RPGs have forgotten. Magic should be magical. Granted the magic in Carcosa is certainly dark and terrible and casts deep shadows on the entire campaign if one ponders them too deeply but it is certain that rituals of the Carcosan sorceror are Carcosan Magic.
The magic within that setting defines it and is built into it. It feels like magic that belongs there. When a sorcerer is involved in dark rituals, well the sorcerer most certainly is involved in dark rituals. Rituals that are written into the campaign. There are places that must be visited for their bits of lore, beings to be dealt with and rare goods to be gathered that are campaign defining.
In Carcosa the magic isn't a bolted on extra it's part of every character and is woven into the land. Too many games and campaigns treat magic as just another option another set of gear, skills or FX, just some gloss to make 6d6 damage a bit more stylish. It could be more, it could be a part of the campaign woven into the landscape and into the beings of the campaign.
Every setting need not be dark as Carcosa and magic doesn't have to be terrible but I can't help but imagine as immerssive a treatment of magic could work for a great many campaigns. Magic should be noticeable and mean something. Players of Wizards shouldn't skate by treating the acquisition of magic spells as if they were hunting down mere recipes. Telling someone you are a wizard shouldn't get as little notice as telling someone you are a carpenter. The practice of magic shoudl mean somehting within the campaign.
So when next I am working up a fantasy campaign, magic shall actually be a part of the game beyond the concerns of one or two players in the group and a set of powers to bolt onto villain #105. I want Magic to be Magical and makign magic a definign element of the campaign looks like a lesson learned well from readimg Carcosa.
Carcosa taught me a lesson in campaign design, one which I fear many of us playing fantasy RPGs have forgotten. Magic should be magical. Granted the magic in Carcosa is certainly dark and terrible and casts deep shadows on the entire campaign if one ponders them too deeply but it is certain that rituals of the Carcosan sorceror are Carcosan Magic.
The magic within that setting defines it and is built into it. It feels like magic that belongs there. When a sorcerer is involved in dark rituals, well the sorcerer most certainly is involved in dark rituals. Rituals that are written into the campaign. There are places that must be visited for their bits of lore, beings to be dealt with and rare goods to be gathered that are campaign defining.
In Carcosa the magic isn't a bolted on extra it's part of every character and is woven into the land. Too many games and campaigns treat magic as just another option another set of gear, skills or FX, just some gloss to make 6d6 damage a bit more stylish. It could be more, it could be a part of the campaign woven into the landscape and into the beings of the campaign.
Every setting need not be dark as Carcosa and magic doesn't have to be terrible but I can't help but imagine as immerssive a treatment of magic could work for a great many campaigns. Magic should be noticeable and mean something. Players of Wizards shouldn't skate by treating the acquisition of magic spells as if they were hunting down mere recipes. Telling someone you are a wizard shouldn't get as little notice as telling someone you are a carpenter. The practice of magic shoudl mean somehting within the campaign.
So when next I am working up a fantasy campaign, magic shall actually be a part of the game beyond the concerns of one or two players in the group and a set of powers to bolt onto villain #105. I want Magic to be Magical and makign magic a definign element of the campaign looks like a lesson learned well from readimg Carcosa.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Starting Funds
It's my general belief that far too many RPGs start the PCs out with too much in starting funds. Where is the hunger to drive oneself into treasure seeking if an adventurer starts with several years pay in his pocket before the game even starts?
One has a fair chance of starting most old school RPGs with 90-120 gp to acquire equipment and folks often bemoan this as "not enough". It's actually too much, It does little to cause one to carefully ponder a characters initial gear and the play opportunities that each thing carried into the wilderness or underworld can represent.
I've been playing Swords and Wizardy on and off as a fill in non campaign game and have been limiting starting characters funds to 3d6+12 gp, that's it 15-30 gp. There's been wailing and gnashing of teeth and then folks calm down and carefully consider their purchases from the equipment list. And then they get to the underworld and discover how effective their limited choices may have been and so far they've been realizing it's actually fun not having the right tool for every job immediately at hand and a sack of 200 sp is a thrilling find, not to mention the wealth that the ruby ring on the strangers hand in the tavern really represents.
I'm not encouraging adventures where characters can only hope to upgrade their clothing by looting the high hard leather boots from fallen opponents but they should start a little lean and be able to see their early success as that, a success.
One has a fair chance of starting most old school RPGs with 90-120 gp to acquire equipment and folks often bemoan this as "not enough". It's actually too much, It does little to cause one to carefully ponder a characters initial gear and the play opportunities that each thing carried into the wilderness or underworld can represent.
I've been playing Swords and Wizardy on and off as a fill in non campaign game and have been limiting starting characters funds to 3d6+12 gp, that's it 15-30 gp. There's been wailing and gnashing of teeth and then folks calm down and carefully consider their purchases from the equipment list. And then they get to the underworld and discover how effective their limited choices may have been and so far they've been realizing it's actually fun not having the right tool for every job immediately at hand and a sack of 200 sp is a thrilling find, not to mention the wealth that the ruby ring on the strangers hand in the tavern really represents.
I'm not encouraging adventures where characters can only hope to upgrade their clothing by looting the high hard leather boots from fallen opponents but they should start a little lean and be able to see their early success as that, a success.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Old School-New School-My game
If one is old-school or new school or not is all the rage the past year or so. I enjoy old-school style, I like simple rules but I like a little bit of granularity now and then. My campaign isn't just me behind the screen there are 5 or more other people and their tastes and desires impact how the game is played.
I started the current weekly campaign with family and friends using B2 and the BFRPG rules about 2 years ago. We had a total neophyte and a semi-neophyte (my son and another players son) along with 3 veteran players(including my father). Eventually the group grew to include my wife (a regular) and for a time my daughter (who dosen't care much for D&D anymore but wants to play more Mutant Future).
The campaign grew to include the Temple of Elemental Evil, Rappan Athuak, the necromancer release of Wilderlands and a bunch of old Wilderlands stuff. We added on some of the optional BFRPG rules for a while and then as an experiment we started using the 3.5 rules in the same setting. For a while I worried about the rules.
But I had been using OD&D, D&D, AD&D, 2nd ED and 3.x adventures pretty much from the get go and converting on the fly is pretty much constant in such a situation. I've always been an omnivorous DM who wasn't' afraid to lift stuff from other game system. I eventually just chilled out.
So my players are using 3.5 and I'm using whatever the heck I want to and talking to them in 3.geek. Most of my adventures have been using encounter tables from judgesguild modules or old dragon magazine articles. I spend a lot of time just making up the numbers as I go. None of the players are 3.x gearheads or devoted d20 zealots so none of them accuse me of playing the game wrong. There are certainly some issues I'm having with the rules but in truth it's been working fine. Attitude and campaign style goes a long way to making an RPG campaign what it is.
Old-school, new school...I graduated a long time ago and play games to have fun.
I started the current weekly campaign with family and friends using B2 and the BFRPG rules about 2 years ago. We had a total neophyte and a semi-neophyte (my son and another players son) along with 3 veteran players(including my father). Eventually the group grew to include my wife (a regular) and for a time my daughter (who dosen't care much for D&D anymore but wants to play more Mutant Future).
The campaign grew to include the Temple of Elemental Evil, Rappan Athuak, the necromancer release of Wilderlands and a bunch of old Wilderlands stuff. We added on some of the optional BFRPG rules for a while and then as an experiment we started using the 3.5 rules in the same setting. For a while I worried about the rules.
But I had been using OD&D, D&D, AD&D, 2nd ED and 3.x adventures pretty much from the get go and converting on the fly is pretty much constant in such a situation. I've always been an omnivorous DM who wasn't' afraid to lift stuff from other game system. I eventually just chilled out.
So my players are using 3.5 and I'm using whatever the heck I want to and talking to them in 3.geek. Most of my adventures have been using encounter tables from judgesguild modules or old dragon magazine articles. I spend a lot of time just making up the numbers as I go. None of the players are 3.x gearheads or devoted d20 zealots so none of them accuse me of playing the game wrong. There are certainly some issues I'm having with the rules but in truth it's been working fine. Attitude and campaign style goes a long way to making an RPG campaign what it is.
Old-school, new school...I graduated a long time ago and play games to have fun.
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