Card based mission generator for The Grind (sandbox-style, blog version)

Two in a row! Yay! The Grind gets its first GrindMeister tools (as I kind of talked about in my last post). It's basically a card based procedural that will help preparing sessions on short notice before the game and, to some degree, even during the session. It's a bit complex (while easy enough to use) and leaves lots of room for interpretation. As it should be :) 

Missions in The Grind - and why use cards?!

Demons own the world, have enslaved almost all of humanity and killed the rest, leaving them to rot in the ruins. Life nowadays is all about working for the Imperium in giant Fabriken among monsters and machines. It sucks. But there are those working from the shadows, not giving up. Petty Gods form little cells of Widerstand and hurt the establishment wherever they can. Sabotaging, robbing and killing as many of them as possible, where ever possible.

Those are the missions. The Grinders are at war and they are well advised to fight as unfair as possible. But there is no unity among Gods and groups more often than not fight each other instead of coordinating and make them really feel the punch. When you are out there, you are on your own. They will not even blink before they add your corpse to the piles they are sitting on.

So why use cards. Well, the game is basically fantasy steampunk and as that close to the 1890s as we know them: guns, industrial plants and cities with ever growing slums ... and cards. They fit the setting to some extent even more than dice would. And cards are flexible, while already carrying enough meaning that you can totally rely on them instead of using dice and tables (nothing against tables and charts, though).

Anyway, a third reason is that I had an idea that seems to work and fits what I want to have for the game (mechanics-wise). And all I need is a set of 54 cards with an idea how to use them and some d6 to play The Grind, which (lastly) helps keeping it simple in the resources part of things. Definitely something I like to have in this game!

The Basic Rules

A standard set of 52 french playing cards with 2 jokers will do fine for a start. They should be shuffled. Depending on how complex the mission is supposed to be, you either draw 12 (short), 24 (normal) or 36 (complex) cards*. Those cards are now as follows distributed from the top down:

• The first card is the leading card.
• Depending on what kind of card it is, others are grouped to that card until the pattern changes.
• Kings as leading card will get the next 6 cards associated to them (one pile).
• Queens as leading card will get the next 4 cards.
• Jacks as leading cards will get the next 2 cards.
• Every other card (Free Agents, see below) as leading card means that cards are associated with them until a face card or a Joker comes up and starts a new pile (so: one pile from the leading card until a face card is coming up).

What you get are several (at least two) piles of cards where the leading cards influence what the rest of the pile means in context.

The cards and their meaning ...

Each suit carries a different meaning: Hearts are locations, Diamonds are resources, Clubs are sentient beings, Spades are non-sentient beings and Jokers are other bands of Grinders. Aces are always objectives associated with the pile they appear in.

The Hearts (locations):

• King of Hearts = a underground structure (like a dungeon)
• Queen of Hearts = a flat structure (like a town)
• Jack of Hearts = a high structure (like a tower)
• 2 to 10 of Hearts = sum is the number of rooms, individual number is the state (2 means very much destroyed, 10 means highly functional, protected even), number of cards is number of complexes
• Ace of Hearts = Information/Survey (possible objectives)

The Diamonds (resources):

• King of Diamonds = Magic (industrial)
• Queen of Diamonds = Body Modification (industrial)
• Jack of Diamonds = Mundane Goods (industrial)
• 2 to 10 of Diamonds = sum is the Treasure Index (for now just estimate what it means, there will be a system in a later post)
• Ace of Diamonds = Object/Sabotage (possible objectives)

The Clubs (sentient beings):

• King of Clubs = Boss Demon
• Queen of Clubs = Demon Middle Management
• Jack of Clubs = Demon Operative Management
• 2 to 10 of Clubs = sum is the Monster Dice, number of cards is distribution (for now just estimate what it means, there will be a system in a later post)
• Ace of Clubs = Sentient Target/Enemy (possible objectives)

The Spades (non-sentient beings):

• King of Spades = Alpha Brute
• Queen of Spades = Pack
• Jack of Spades = Critters
• 2 to 10 of Spades = sum is the Monster Dice, number of cards is distribution (for now just estimate what it means, there will be a system in a later post)
• Ace of Spades = Ally/Prisoner (possible objectives)

Pattern Recognition

Now that we know what the card mean in general, we can think about what it means when they appear in certain contexts. For this the complete set of piles is seen as an area. The order of the piles is the order of significance. So the first pile you create is the main local feature of the area, the rest follows. Order of significance is also order of common knowledge, but lower piles may also well known if they are significant (an army patrolling the area, for instance). An easy rule is that the order of pile determines the difficulty to gather information about it.

To make that first pile significant, multiply all numbers that a pattern generates with the number of piles after determining what they mean (so if you end up having 3 piles and there are 2 structure cards indicating an underground structure (say the 3 and the 6), you'll have 6 complexes with 9, 9, 9, 18, 18 and 18 rooms).

Free Agents

Each pile is now considered separately. If the leading card is not a face card or a Joker, they are considered Free Agents that influence the whole area. Humanoids living there, some sort of pest dominant in the area. Depending on how those cards combine, you can already see how they might be connected. And having no face cards or jokers in those piles lets us interpret them just as features (unimportant people living there, herding animals or collecting some sort of resource, maybe living in ruins ... or just a single feature).

Free Agents always follow the same pattern: Structure before Function before Sentient Beings before Non-Sentient Beings before Objectives. The sums of the different suits give you some indications what's exactly going on there, like if it's underground, what kind of NPCs are there and what they do (see below for details).

Most important thing is, that if it's in one pile, it's also connected in order of significance (higher numbers being somewhat important, too) ...

Face Cards

When a face card turns up to be a leading card, it will always have a number of following cards connected to it and that leading card determines how the rest is interpreted. The leading card is the main feature of the pile, so to say, and all other cards correspond to that.

So if it's the King of Hearts, we have a Dungeon as the main feature. There might be some resources in it or a Boss Demon, whatever, the dungeon is the main thing. If a Diamonds face card is leading, you'll end up having some sort of industry at hand. The associated cards will always tell you what's going on.

Jokers

If a joker is a leading card, other cards are added to it until a face card is drawn. The reasons for them being in the area are manifold. If their pile came up before an objective in another pile, they are after that, too, and the other cards in their pile are what they already achieved in the area (snitches they might have, safe houses, resources, animals they somehow control). If their pile came after an objective, they have other reasons for being there.

If an objective shows up in their pile, they have already accomplished their goal and are somehow still in the area. Either way, that pile having an Ace means the character are after it now! In such a case they are considered local to the area if also a Heart is in the mix. And that means they'll also have a shrine**.

And finally, if a Joker comes up in a pile with a leading face card, it means that they are in open conflict right now.

Special Rules

If no objective comes up with the draw, destabilization is the mission. Look at the pattern and think about why it could be worth the trouble. If no objective arises but a joker is in the mix, the mission is to contact that other group. If the pattern doesn't help establishing a reason, you could for instance try to convince them to cooperate for the next mission.

If a pile with a leading face card can't be filled (end of the draw), the pile is considered as acting aggressive/destructive. The pattern will help you telling what the reasons could be (a structure could be on fire, demons could be invading). That means on the other hand that complete piles function as they should. Structures are used according to their functionality, demon hordes will patrol depending on their strength and so on ...

Pile hierarchy is always the first place to look at if you try to decide how a pile is related to the others. Basically piles are influenced/depending on higher piles or influencing/exploiting lower piles. The pile strength (the number of cards in a pile) gives you indications how strong those dependencies could be. If a pile lower in hierarchy has more than double the pile strength of the next higher pile, it's also the pile having the upper hand in the relationship.

Finally: if there are demons, there's also always a shrine (only exception would be if the pile wasn't complete to begin with and the demons are invading).

In the game

The information the grinders get for a mission is determined by the number of successes they have in the beginning (a handler roll*** gives main feature, leading cards and objectives). They'll always get all the objectives in an area, but objectives should be more obscure the deeper they are in the piles and most obscure if that layer of information hadn't been penetrated.

After that it's recon. Players get an idea what the area looks like and how it's structured. A GM will get the outlines (size of area, number of complexes, significant NPCs, resources and so on) by using this system, but not the actual maps. Again rolls will decide how much information they'll gather. For that it is important to keep the order in which the cards are drawn, as their depth in the pile gives the difficulty (number of successes) needed to get that information!

So recon is the players telling a GM how they approach the "piles" they know of. Rolling for that pile will tell them what they find out (like: 3 successes means they get precise information about the first 3 cards in the pile).

Third part is going into the area. If they change cards in a pile (killing bosses, fulfilling an objective, destabilizing free agents and so on), the status of a pile will turn aggressive/destructive sooner or later (depending on stealth and what the characters tried to achieve). This means the pattern will react to what the characters actually do in an area! It also means that by destabilizing free agents in an area, they could create a problem for the neighboring piles. A system here is making opposing checks with the pile strength as the number of dice and the winning pile getting cards from the one loosing. Piles will always try to attack weaker piles, of course ...

There should be ways for the GM to add cards to an area. So if a pile loses more than 2 cards, the GM is to draw one more card from the pile. If it is a black card, it'll mean reinforcements are on their way (card arrives the next turn). A red card would mean an obstacle needs to be dealt with. If it's a diamond, it means it needs a diamond from a neighboring pile, for instance. So they will act aggressive towards another pile to get a card. if that goal is met, they are allowed to draw a new card and the process repeats, but they are stronger now.

Face cards and jokers act exactly the same way they act when building the area. So there is a good chance that acting in an area will summon another element into the area. New areas to explore, new objectives.

But if the leading card of an area is neutralized, the pile isn't active anymore. To get there the group needs to terminate all the other cards first (pile strength) ...

It really needs some tactical thinking on the player's side to navigate an area effectively Stealth might go a long way in keeping thing calm for some time, but turn by turn a GM is to check if the changes (or the group) are discovered and piles turn aggressive/destructive (the pile strength of the pile they are active in giving the indication how many dice are used to oppose the characters).

A pile red flagged like this stays active until he has compensated his losses and hasn't been threatened for at least two turns (or didn't recognize it). The number of red flagged piles telly a GM how active an area is and, in turn, how much trouble the characters are in. If the characters are inactive for more than three turns, the GM is allowed to introduce a new card into the pile they worked on last. If that pile hasn't lost cards before and it's strength is higher than the next pile higher in hierarchy, it might start acting towards that pile.

Anyway, by keeping track of the cards, a GM gets an interactive environment for the players to run around in.

Example of an Area (24 Cards)

I shuffled a deck of 54 cards (standard 52 with 2 Jokers) and draw the first 24 cards without looking at them. Then I revealed the cards from the top down, starting a new pile every time a face card or a joker forced me to do so (as described above). This is the result:

Open in new tab for more details ...

By interpreting that pattern, we get an idea what the characters have to do in the area, what the area is about and how they might be able to interact with it. Let's start with the first pile, as it is the dominant one ...

1. One resource card, relatively high, but not a face card. This is a resource as a dominant feature. Seeing that the second pile (that means: depending on it) is an Alpha Brute would make it logic to have a big natural resource here that the Alpha Brute needs, so I'll make this a Forest. Since this is a fantasy game and I don't want the resource to be that mundane, I'll make that a crystal forest.
2. Next up we have an Alpha Brute with some smaller creatures associated with it. They live from the Crystal Forest and the first thing popping up in my mind are giant lizards, so I'll go with that. The Heart gives them somewhere to live, let's say those lizards are cave dwelling. There is lots of additional resources and some sentient being in between. So I'd say those lizards eat the crystals and whatever comes out at the end is valuable to men and there is a group of them mining that deep in the forest (fourth card in the pile could mean they are well hidden).
3. Third pile is a location with some resources with some sentient beings threatened/depending on pile 2, so this could be a small village at the border of the forest, maybe trading with some of the miners or living from the caravans coming through from and towards the forest.
4. The next pile has as many cards as 3, but is superior. The leading card is the Queen of Diamonds, so we have an industrial plant for body modifications needing the town for supplies. There is a Boss Demon and the first objective: kill an enemy. Let's say the characters are to kill that plants accountant to hinder production. The Jack of Hearts indicates that the plant is in a tower and the Queen of Spades adds some pack of creatures to it. Since a Boss Demon is managing the place, I'd say those are his flying ... ape demons, the stupid creatures guarding the place. There is a demon, so there is a shrine, too.
5. Fifth layer is another group of Grinders active in the area. They have another Ace with them, so there's another objective connected to them: an Ally. The group is to contact them. The third card is some sentient beings. All this connected to that industrial plant indicates they have some people in there (cards associated with Jokers are always cards they achieved in the area).
6. And finally we have an aggressive group of demons lead middle management demon in the area (incomplete Queen of Spades). Them being aggressive and the former pile being a Group of Grinders, means they are hunting them (only pile they could be aggressive towards), but are at a draw with them. Here is the last objective, at the very end of the piles and it is about survey. So finding the base of them is another objective in this area and the other group of grinders is looking for that, too (as they appeared before the objective appeared, see above). That second demon means there is a second shrine in the area!

There is a lot to do for the group and the area came together quite nicely, I think. The GM is now to hammer out some details and the characters are free to roam that little sandbox as they please. Maybe they make a deal with that other group and help them against the demons hunting them to get some intel about that industrial plant or contacts to get in there ... I'd play that :)

Now you got an idea what's happening in The Grind!

So this is it for now. Post is long enough as it is. But I will test this some more and I could post another example. This was very productive so far, producing lots of information every time. Another thing that needs to happen is testing it in the game, but I'm confident that it'll work as I think it will. And finally, what's missing is an exact key for what the numbers actually mean in the game. I have some ideas about that, but it would have made the post so much longer that I skipped it for this one. There will be a pdf of this system as soon as I get to make it (and tested it a bit more).

There's now a second example ate the end of this post. Have fun!

So what do you people think of this method for creating adventure locations? Is this helpful? It should translate well into other systems, right? Comments, impressions and ideas are, as always, very welcome!

* Or anything in between, but at least 12. I think it's good to have a pattern like described above and you will need additional cards later in the game, so don't burn them all.

** That's something specific for The Grind (the shrine, that is). If you use this system somewhere else, just treat them as local and ignore the shrine. Or let them have one. Whatever :)

*** The players will decide in the game how powerful their Petty God should be. One way to make him more powerful, is dedicating him more shrines. But the group is also allowed to give from their own resources to make him stronger, which will mean, of course, they won't have those resources (called "Solids" in the game). But the benefits should be obvious ...

See that BASTARD! go ... wait ... there he is again ... (yeah, what's up with that? Development Post!)

Some might remember that I started to write another game last year: BASTARD! ... with lots of wild theories what I'd like to see in it, a combat system, a setting, the high mark to use all the house rules I never got to use in Lost Songs. It turned out to be a bit, let's say, problematic. Combat was basically too bugged and clunky and that dungeonheist thingy, well, it didn't happen. Or did it? This is where I'm at (and maybe a bit about my process of creating).

Time ...

Time is one of the great advantages if you don't work towards anything but developing a game (or whatever). If you encounter a problem, you can just put the whole thing aside and let LIFE (tm) do the rest. Because that's what happens if you let things ... stew.

I originally started writing BASTARD! to get my fingers busy while I was hitting a dry spell in Lost Songs. Not a bad idea as long as you are able to switch gears, if my experiences are any indication. Problem was, I hit a wall in the wrong game. Combat didn't work and while setting and core system are still solid, I started realizing that if I kept going the way I did, I wouldn't end up with a light system. Or (worse) something I would never play myself!

So I started ignoring it, thinking about just doing the setting for some D&D or writing modules, getting those house rules into a more "solid" published form (pdf). not that I didn't already start something like this already years back ...

But to quote the classic: Time is on your side (da dada)! And looky here, I feel ready to talk about it again, because there are several new developments worth talking about.

1. Is it wrong to try to pick up girls in a Dungeon?

Sometimes it just needs a notch to get the old noggin ticking again. The anime series Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darō ka was the first notch, if you will. I won't spoil anything by saying that the show is about the Greek pantheon coming down to earth to build outfits that explore and loot a huge dungeon (babel) for them. Those gods are mingling, but basically they'll keep it in the background, even tuning their powers down. They are handlers.

They got some epic fights goin' ... [source]

I enjoyed the show for several other reasons, but what stuck with me was the similarity to ideas I had already formulated but not connected. In BASTARD! each group will have their own handler (the brains of the operation) and their own (petty) god. One of the basic ideas had been to let the groups cleric regain control over shrines ("hacking" them, because Cyberpunk ...), making his god more powerful shrine by shrine. That show made me realize the handler and the god might as well be the same entity (looking back now I think it's kind of obvious ...)!

So the demons invaded the world using temples and shrines everywhere. The mighty gods had fallen and only the petty gods managed to stay around, if in hiding. Now they build little guerrilla outfits to fight back with sabotage and urban warfare, one Dungeon at a time.

2. Centurion (2010)

This movie was the second notch. As I wrote above, the combat system didn't work as I hoped it would and the main reason to lay this game to rest had been that I didn't find a satisfying solution for that specific problem. I'm not even sure I already got the solution, but that movie showed me one thing that I want in the game: Splatter!

As with the anime above, I enjoyed the movie for other reasons (although gore is always welcome), but the relentless killing in that movie was ... inspiring. Let me explain: there seemed to be some sort of categories at work where the importance of a character made him die in a much more brutal way than those others merely standing by. Basically, if you had some screen time other than dying, you would die more spectacular.

That intense! [source]

Another thing that happened on a regular basis where the one-hit kills. No hp, just people getting cut down. This is not realistic, of course, but it got me thinking. I already have a resolution system where you collect successes and the same principles established for combat (somewhat). What, now, if it became a tactical decision if you spend the points to kill an enemy in a spectacular way (and gain way more xp!) or just get him out of the picture (for less xp, of course).

A system that welcomes cooperation (even more xp for combo actions with other players!) and where planning ahead is important because anything else is very, very deadly ... I'm not quite there yet, but I'm getting there. I can feel a solution lingering somewhere in the back of my head, teasing.

Anyway, BASTARD! will be all about bringing bloody doom to evil.

3. The Grind

At that point I had to sit down and start writing again. The first thing I changed, before tackling the rules again, was the name, though. For one, it helps seeing the game with fresh eyes. The other reason is that I try to find an own language for the game and I like playing with the possibilities.

Those breaking into dungeons to loot them for valuables and disturb the establishment are on "the grind" and that's what the game is called now. There are also lots of games already out there with "bastard" either in the name or close enough. I don't need that. And the Urban Dictionary tells me "the grind" means being on the job. I like that.

Now I need a new cover, too ...

Consistency is important, for the language of the rules as much as for anything else. I'm not sure I'll be able to pull it off completely, but trying is half the fun :)

4. DM Tools - What is a "Dungeonheist"

One more thing. One last thing, I should say. I think DM tools are not only necessary in every role playing game worth it's salt, they are also a great opportunity to add to the game close to the system already in place. In other words, it's easy enough to use something like the Monster Reaction Roll from D&D in every other game. it's ported easy enough. But having rules tailored to the system you are using can be so much better, right?

Well, nothing came to mind for The Grind. Until today. The trick, I think, is to find a way to allow a fast, flexible and deep system a GrindMeister (Bam!) could use on the fly. So what I did was writing a card based adventure generator. It's not tested yet and I need to fix one or two things, but it's looking good (if I may say so). I aim to release that at least into the wild as soon as possible, maybe next weekend.

It's also the last important ingredient for the Dungeonheist concept. So the handler gives the grinders a heist. Interpreting a set of randomly drawn cards (depending on how intense the mission should be) the GM already knows what the objectives are (macro stage), how well it is protected or if other parties are involved (among other things).

The next stage is planning (meso stage). For that the players will have a group sheet where they not only have their gear all in one place, but are also able to fine-tune their skill set as they see fit (fast or cautious, how armed, how protected, who in what function, the works ...). In some mission it might be critical to find and hack a shrine to get godly support (maybe for access or healing or protection ...), others might be hit and run.

The third stage is actually going on the grind (micro stage). It's where the shit hits the fan and nothing works as planned ...

Another inspiration: Reservoir Dogs [source]

So expect more about this soon!

I'm writing the game when I can't do anything else. Another week and I might be ready to test it and show it some friends (as I'm on a run right now), but I won't plan anything. Let's just see how this goes down. Right now I'm positive that I'll be able to show some results very soon (ha!).

I still aim to make this a quick and dirty exploration-based dungeonheist splatter steampunk role playing game with some urban warfare and anime trappings for good measure ... but I think this description isn't long enough just yet :)

OSR Freebies from the Library Part 2

And here we are, back again talking about "lost" gems of the OSR community. The things others did and nobody really talked about or that didn't get enough exposure. I already did one of those here (with more words about the how and why of this series and some stuff you might not have seen yet). This is totally subjective, of course, and I'm more often than not left wondering how it is that so many people stay (almost entirely) unnoticed despite the great work they are doing for the hobby. Especially when they are doing it just out of passion and not for the buck. It's strange. But on with it ...

For Gold & Glory (RPG by Justen Brown)

Have you heard of this one? You haven't? Same here. I happened to stumble across this by accident and I got to say: a huge oversight! This is the only free and complete revision of that advanced 2nd version of the game we all love and talk about. 382 pages and it's all in there, nicely packaged in one fine volume.

Where to get stuff & opinions from others: There is a free pdf on lulu and/or over at drivethrurpg ready for the download. Opinions? None. I kid you not. Some positive comments here and there and Tenkar shows the way in the right direction. Other than that? Nothing I could find, I'm afraid.

My thoughts: This is big. Someone took the time to condense the pinnacle of early D&D development into one sweet rulebook and somehow no one seems to care. I don't get it. Well, be that as it may, the thing exists and seems to work as it should. I'm a huge fan of HackMaster 4e, AD&D 2e and friends for many, many reasons, so finding out that FG&G exists, does what it aims to do and is readily available (free even!), made me happy.

So if your old books are falling apart or you always wanted to check out what those games are about, this is your opportunity to do something about it before you start hunting for out-of-print material. I'll take a closer look in the near future, review and all.

Small But Vicious Dog (RPG by Chris Hogan)

Not the cover, but it could be ... [source]

Not as hard a case as FG&G above, but published in 2011 and easily missed, since it didn't get a broad distribution, I thought it's worth mentioning here. SBVD is a B/X-Warhammer Fantasy RPG hack and 36 pages long at that. So it's basically old edition D&D with mutations, diseases and mohawk-sporting dwarves building death machines ...

Where to get stuff & opinions from others: Links to an introduction, the rules and additional material can be found here. I couldn't find a review, but I found some house rules for the game here (about advanced careers) and here (about greenskins).

My thoughts: This is a lovely little game about a grimdark fantasy world, with some great ideas and it's funny as a bonus. And it's compatible to all things D&D, of course. What's not to love? So if you haven't checked it out yet, you can't go wrong in doing so. In a worst case you'll have a good time and see something you'd like to use in your own game. It's like it says in that post linked above: Small But Vicious Dog Steals Heart, Humps Leg.

More of the same ...

As I wrote in that first post linked above: there is a wealth of games to be found online and if I find someone collecting it, I'll share a link. I have found that page. It's not all free, arguably not only games you could summon under the label DIY-OSR (some missing, some more, all D&D ...) and "only" (complete) role playing games, but damn, it sure is a lot. And up to date (I think). So if you need to get an idea what could possibly be out there, go and all the entries for D&D Retroclones over at the Taxidermic Owlbear blog (which obviously comes with four more games of its own). It's amazing! Again, not all of them are free, but many, many are, so I'd say it counts for Freebies from the Library :)

Anyway, there are many more things than complete games to be discovered. Adventures, zines, you name it. The DIY-OSR scene is diverse like that, so one more for the road ...

The Castle Triskelion (mega-dungeon by Tim Stypinski)

Look at it! Tim started  at the ground level and is filling
Upper Dungeon Level 3 right now. [source]

This is a sprawling, eight publications thick (since 2013) and still growing mega-dungeon about a giant castle full of crazy wizards and their experiments, new monsters, new items, new spells ... all you could expect in a project like this, really, all D&D compatible. And of course this description isn't doing it any justice at all. It's massive.

Where to get stuff & opinions from others: You can get all the published material for free here over at & Magazine. Tim also has a blog where he publishes the whole thing room by room, almost on a daily basis (or more .. is it more?) and you can find it here. I couldn't find any reviews out there and think it's a shame ...

My thoughts: I love it. This is so much material right there, you could play for years without seeing an end of it. You have traps, monsters, treasure, factions, puzzles, dozens of maps and hundreds of rooms to explore, a little bit of humor sprinkled here and there ... it's all there and it is completely free. Add a classic  and a printer-friendly layout to that and you really get a lot for free. People should not only check it out, people should play this! So take a look and give the guy some feedback and nice words for the great work he is doing here :)

Enough for today, folks

I'll leave it at that. If you where looking for something new (even if it's been around for some time now or is still partly in development) there should be plenty to go with at this point. I will update the page where I collect all of it and there might be another post or two like this in me. Some time in the future, of course.

If you know of any other old material that could need some more exposure or have any opinions about the games (and games material) I wrote about here, feel free to share them with us in the comments section below or on g+.

Two groups, one sandbox, some OSR musings and someone dies in the end ...

Dang, I'm busy right now. Started school again and I don't know how much time I'll have to post more regularly. But I'll work on that and experience tells me it's just a matter of time before I find a rhythm that allows me to write some more here. Anyway, testing LSotN is still on a good way and I have two face-to-face groups sharing the same sandbox. I wanted to share some thoughts.

Two groups ...

Originally I planned to have one group to test the game, but Leipzig is a great place for role playing gamers and I had way more feedback than I could have anticipated. After the first quite cozy session (I don't have that much room right now) we decided to split the group in two and see what happens. My main problem had been that they were from the same clan and were, after that first session, all headed in the same direction.

But more on that later. Another thing that came up during character generation and those first steps with the new characters were very different play styles. I knew only one player (my girlfriend) and none of the others. In this first session I was (naturally?) especially eager to make the game and my way of DMing work for each of them, not necessarily among each other.

It's a part of the whole deal, of course, but the way I saw it, the players needed to decide if they'd like to keep me as a DM in the first place, then there was me assessing with whom I will get along and only as a third part how they get along together as a group. In a way I could only tell by the feedback for the next session how the chips may fall. Again, this is to be expected if you start a new group in a new town.

Not the group, but some Frankish warriors that get the point across ...[source]

It would take until January to get them all together for a second session. By that time it had become clear that splitting the group would be the best option, having no room to play comfortably being the main concern. I also had some more requests of people to join the fray, so it turned out to be the only way to make it work.

It's good for a DM to have an idea (or feeling, if all else fails) how the dynamics are with a certain group of individuals might influence a campaign. So after that initial game, knowing that of the initial 5 new players 4 would like to keep going, with 2 more interested to join and a general idea who preferred which style of play, furthermore with the players themselves communicating their ideas openly, I ended up with two groups: one of 3 players with a more martial inclination and one of 4 players with what I may call a storyteller approach to the game.

I don't need to explain why I think that this is a rather perfect constellation for testing a game :) All in all there are 3 girls and 4 guys on the player's side and that's also something I'm happy to have. A good beginning.

... one historical sandbox

So this was the first time I planned on playing with the setting as a part of the experience. As much history as I could cram in my poor little brain and all that in a sandbox. Having two groups now in the same sandbox with the same background, the characters not only knowing each other, but also starting their journey to become heroes together, well, I really thought about not doing it, to be honest.

Anyway, both groups wanted to keep their characters and just go their separate ways. So that's what happened. And I gotta say, if you ever get the chance to do something like this, give it a shot. It brings the setting to life in a way that can be really satisfying for DM and players. But I shouldn't get ahead of myself here. We have a few sessions under our belts now, people will reach level 1 soon and both campaigns develop rather nice, if I may say so. Some of that is due to luck, another big part is having experienced players at the table that are interested in the setting.

My qualities as a DM (meager as they are) aside, two other things are tested here: the rules, of course, and the setting. The setting will be to some extend part of the DM tools in the final game, but the ideas themselves need to work at the table. It bears the interesting problem that I try to learn a lot about how people lived back then and what world views they might have had and also try to reflect that in the rules wherever I can, but it will always demand a lot from a DM and his players.

So during the preparation of the first sessions I read a bit about Roman architecture, since the characters were headed towards one of the remaining Roman cities in the area. It is an interesting topic how the Romans planned and structured those cities and you could go to any kinds of depths just by googling it. To some extent it's important to just get a feeling for the topic and some of the Latin descriptions. The questions I asked myself had been what it looked like, what it might have felt like (or how was it different from what one would expect) and what they called it.

This is very close to what I ended up with! [source]

Add to that some Germanic culture(s) and a realistic idea of the surroundings, the weather, the gear ... you get my drift. It's a lot. And it needs to be or it won't feel much different from your basic fantasy setting. in the last session we had one player actually said that we had to stop for the day (after 6 hours game, but anyway), because it's so much information and connections that it needed some digestion.

It is hard work, I guess, and because of that and the open world approach, I feel unprepared most of the time. But when it clicks, it's a beautiful thing to behold. I can't go much into detail, since the groups only have vague or no intel about each other and I intend to keep it that way, but I can tell a bit of it at least.

I'd like to stress again that I knew nothing of any of it as the game started. if possible, I decide things with the role of a die, so the adventure seeds were all random and "spur of the moment" events that gained momentum over the last few sessions (more on randomness further below).

Adventures in a Roman city

I'll keep that one short (and hope people are still reading at this point). The group had their rite of passage with the Easter festival (which seems to be as old as time, by the way). There'd been lots of drinking and games, as one would imagine for the beginning of spring. Drinking contests, brawls shield runs, hot coals and reciting poems had been among the tests the characters had to struggle with to get their blessing for the journey ahead (every player was to come up with a test for his character and it had been great fun).

The next morning they were to consult the oracle and go out into the world to seek fame and glory and the direction they had to take was over the great lake that served their young settlement as main source of food. Across the lake (ca. 50 km) was an old Roman city that clung to the now defunct Roman ways and one of it's merchants had been in town for the festivities.

Barbarous radiate ... ancient copper coins [source]

With no money and no possessions to speak of (other than what they needed, of course), they asked the captain of the ship what they could do to gain passage and it turned out that the captain's son was AWOL. If they track him down and bring him back to the ship, they'd be allowed to travel over the lake with them. Their first quest turned out to be easy enough and the first session closed with them on the ship, heading through a rough sea towards adventure.

In between sessions the group split up, we lost one player and gained two more. They arrived with bad weather. Ice rain, hail, you name it. The captain offered everyone willing to help unloading the boat a few copper pieces, so the group earned their first coin, made some sailors happy and followed them into different taverns out of the storm.

The first group meets a prostitute that lost her child to evil men and so far they found a reluctant father, some criminal activity a pimp offering them work they wouldn't do because of their honor and a Christian underground organisation helping those in need. They start to see the big picture and something evil is stirring the dark, waiting for them.

The second group meets a merchant in dire straits. He owes lots of gold to a loan shark, but he lost the money to a dishonest tribesman who claimed to know directions to a lost Roman silver mine in the mountains. They are body guards of that merchant right now, investigating the whereabouts of said tribesmen. But he's difficult to find and that loan shark starts getting restless. And then there is a possible treasure hunt ...

It's old school, all right!

Lost Songs of the Nibelungs, at it's core, is all about rolling ability scores/skills and saves. Ability scores will change as characters get scarred, combat and magic are systems of their own (as with most game, actually), but that's it. Seeing it like that makes the D&D heritage quite obvious, I think. But the game felt very different to what I thought was OD&D and I started to muse that lost Songs won't be recognized as OSR in the end.

That changed after the last two sessions, though. The sandbox approach and the very idea of randomizing as much as possible on the DM-side of things, ability scores and saves, although named different, as the main source of player-world interaction, getting xp for treasure (sort of), the necessity for player skill and the brutality of it all really start to feel "old school". And not to me either, but to the players.

To some extent that's how I DM the game, for sure, but a lot of it is the game itself. So I will describe this as an OSR game. Definitely with a high difficulty, some new ideas and demanding in many aspects, but old school nonetheless. Not only due to the mind-set it originates from, but also because it does what those old games did, only a bit different.

And then someone dies ...

Anyway, the players seem to like it, too. They are careful, avoiding combat if possible and try to get a feeling for the world and how to explore (or exploit) it. That Roman city gains more and more depth every time one of the groups gets deeper into the plot lines they decided to follow.

Two things happened recently that really brought across how the sandbox lets them interact with the environment and from group to group. The first was about one player using a chimney to suffogate some bullies to break their hands and loot them afterwards. No fight, just calculation. And quite efficient at that. I personally think it was way more cruel than actually slitting their throats, but who am I to say.

The second thing was that one character actually died in a fight. He'd been led into a trap by some criminals working for that loan shark I mentioned before and he was dead meat after facing those five cutthroats and rolling a critical failure.

Well, the other characters swore bitter vengeance and gave the dead (and looted) character the proper burial and player made a new character. He'd been back into the game half an hour later. Nice as that is, way better was the reaction of that other group, as they, too, swore bitter vengeance (even without me telling what the others did) and went to see where he died to pay their respect. I thought it was great.

Not only to let them explore a place the others had visited before (though that had been nice, too!), but also that they really took the character from that other game as one of their own. We are already planning how to bring those characters together to help each other in an epic show down, whenever it occurs. I'm thinking dream messages and rituals here ...

I'm really having a blast with those people, if you haven't guessed yet.

Well, hear me rambling :)

Sorry about that huge wall of text just to say I'm still alive, playing and kicking. I hope to write something a bit more meaty soon. Maybe next week. I got some ideas, but most of the time I'm too drained out to get anything done after school. Well, it's getting better already. Expect more of the same soon.

And if some of you have experience with running more than one group through the same sandbox at the same time, please share your thoughts about it. How did it go down? Is it something that can work for a campaign?

Loot! Part 2: S&W WhiteBox and Metamorphosis Alpha

Remember that post with 4 mini-reviews of stuff I got for my birthday? Here we go again talking about the rest (took me long enough ...) and some more stuff I got my hands on last year (still not all of it, but I promise I will get there eventually). Just like last time, I'll give a short opinion and/or impression with pictures and some ideas what you'll get and where you'd have to go to get it. Let's go to the LOOT!

5. Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox

Yeah folks, you got that right. I own that now. Part of one of the cornerstones (S&W family) of what is called the Old School Revival (or whatever, you know what I mean). I even read the piece by now and got to say I have ... opinions about it.

First things first: it's beautifully done. Layout, artwork, writing, the whole things feels, for the lack of a better word, right. It is very short and rules light and obviously a game of the D&D variety. If you know your (early) D&D it gives you a great frame to build your own game around. And that's just that: I wouldn't give this game to a newbie Dungeon Master, as I don't think it could be called "complete" in a sense that allows someone starting with rpgs to get all he needs to rule a game.

I know, I know, there are those out there that'd tell me that the first D&D didn't offer much more (less even!) than what is presented here. But I gotta say, move on, we are in the year 2016 by now and if one thing is known to be necessary to make a game complete, it's giving it the proper DM-tools to run it. It is one of the first things that got added to D&D as it was growing up back then and I think it's lacking here.

Just a few examples: morale is mentioned, but left to the DM to decide how it works and there is no Monster Reaction, no index, not even (!) a table of contents. As the person using the book the most (the DM) you are left with nothing to work it or create out of it other than being told to make it up (which I believe to be very problematic, btw). Again, if you know what you are doing, it's not a big deal (although I think that morale and Monster Reaction procedures aren't things you should leave out), but if you are new to it, you'd be lost.

It's a mixed bag for me, to be honest. Love it as an artifact and I can see how people would use it to build their own games around. It is compatible with all the other retro-clones out there and highly adaptable. But it's also for the "initiated" only and contrary to what they say in the introduction, I don't think it's for beginners and, in that sense, basic or complete.

Still, the pdf is free (here and, I kid you not, with a table of contents*). Well, you can't go wrong there. Same goes for the rest of the S&W family (get the core rules here). The print is on lulu ...

6. Metamorphosis Alpha

First things first: I'm utterly fascinated by this game. First of all, it's the first Science Fiction role playing game ever, so it has that whole "Buy me, I'm an artifact!"-thing going. But it also has this great premise that after a catastrophe involving lots of radiation on a generation ship, killing most of the crew. Lots of chaos, mutants all over the place and the rest of the humans on board struggle to survive and (this is the kicker) completely forgot that they are on a star ship headed somewhere or what that catastrophe had been. Player characters are sentient beings living and exploring the strange world surrounding them ... I think it's brilliant.

Now that I own it I got to say, it really doesn't disappoint. Sure, it has shitty layout, a very small font and no artwork to speak of (really, don't), but man does this game deliver in every other aspect. It is short (32 A4 pages) and it gives a DM everything he might need to (and I really, really love that) do it all by himself. The whole ship. There is some ideas how it could be structured and what a ship like this most likely will have, there are mutation tables and some items like robots or laser pistols and some rules to make it all work.

Again, this is a fairly light system, but the focus on the DM and how to make it work, all those tables and ideas, a sample ship area, a sample living area, some ideas about tribes and more mutations, all of it to the point and with no unnecessary fillers, make this a very inspirational read. Honestly, this is how it's done.

I believe they didn't think back in 1976 that more than the Dungeon Master would actually read or use that book, so it's written with that person in mind. A player might actually never touch that book and there are many reasons why that is a good thing, too (for one, the passengers aren't aware that they are on a giant space ship, so why spoil the players?). This works so well that it left me wondering why it isn't done more often today.

In fact, I'd go as far as saying that when the Dungeon Master is finished preparing his own ship there'll be no need to have that book at the table at all. And I can't help myself but think that this is how it should be. The DM makes the game his own and that's all a group needs. Metamorphosis Alpha comes highly recommended and you might get it at lulu or drivethrurpg.

Enough for today

There are more little reviews like this coming, but I'll leave at that for now. I was happy to get both books and I treasure them, if not for the same reasons.


*Alright, I just found out as I double checked my research (as I do from time to time) and this surprises me. It's a huge oversight. In a pdf it's next to useless, but in the print version, where you could actually use a table of contents, it wasn't deemed necessary? Yeah ...

Artwork: Lost Songs of the Nibelungs (Gallery of Ideas)

I originally planned to post something else, but then I got mail with the new concept art for the LSotN character sheet, saw it and thought "Damn, I gotta post this!" or something down that road. While I'm at it, I'd like to share some more things I've been working on. There's a lot more working behind the scenes than is happening at the blog right now. Anyway, here we go ...

New artwork for LSotN (concepts and ideas)

Feast yer eyes, me laddies! [original artwork by Vincent Leppert]

That's from the guy illustrating the book and I'm really lucky to get talent like this interested in this little Frankenclone of mine. Here's more:

WIP of a Roman aqueduct [by Vincent Leppert]

WIP of a combat scene for the rules [Vincent Leppert again]

Those are pretty clean, as you'd expect from vector graphics. Second stage (for the interior art, not the character sheet) is giving all that the feel of some old book illustrations. It'll look a bit like this in the end:

Vincent's sketch book ...

Again, it's not finished but it's all on a good way. I need to start with some work on the layout soon and there will be more posts like this in the (near?) future!

And some stuff by me at the end ...

What I got for now are some new ideas for the cover artwork. It's not as good as the stuff I get from Vincent, but here we go anyway. This is how the booklets for LSotN will look like for the pdfs (also WIP):

Covers I and IV will look like this. My main problem right now is deciding if the OSR sign should be on there, too. I'd like to have it (since it's the flag I rise here on the blog and all), but I'm not sure if the game would be recognized as OSR, as I really took a hard turn away from D&D and friends here. But that's maybe for another post (if you, gentle reader, have an opinion on the matter, please share it in the comments!).

That's it for now. Writing a game for publication is a long process, with lots of twists and turns, but it really feels like Lost Songs is getting somewhere, piece by piece (even started the play tests again, this time completely within the setting and it's looking good).

Opinions and feedback are, as always, very welcome. 

The Devil's Dare (Dungeon's and Drunkards: Deleted Scenes)

So this is a little something I wrote some time back for my part of the Dungeon & Drunkards community project and it didn't make the cut for some reason or another. Now, reading it again, I started thinking it could be fun to allow it in a friendly game of D&D, maybe if beer is already a heavy motivator for the game anyway. I kept it for an occasion where I hit a dry spell on the blog. There are several other posts in line to get done (some I went as far as announcing them even), but I'm way behind right now (or: as usual) and thought this made a nice filler ...

The Devil’s Dare (a house rule for being dangerously drunk): This might produce all kinds of involuntary actions, but might also result in characters just boasting what they’d really like to do before they end up lying in the gutter puking their guts out. This is intentional. Players should lose some control over their character’s actions if they decide to go on a binge and there should be a good possibility to get into trouble, too. A DM should start this as a harmless enough drinking game of daring and go from there, escalating it as much as possible. To make this work, all parties involved have to agree that the characters already are a bit plastered and are willing to do stupid things ...

It's all about bad ideas ... but with beer! [source]

So here goes. Every time in an adventure when the characters decide to get drunk, they may dare each other into stupid actions (it works fine to start an adventure, too). This is a mix of many of the ideas in the original post (linked above), inspired by movies like Hangover or Project X and a players' gambit as they (somewhat) decide how drunk they want to be to attempt the dare. The payoff (xp) gets higher the more drunk they decide to be, but comes with a chance to pass out before it even started. 

A failed save vs. poison -2 initiates the daring and decides which characters get in the mood. At this point the characters already have some buzz going (-2 to attributes/attacks/ saves/damage, +2 to AC and HP)*. The characters that made their save suggest the dare, those that failed agree to it. If all failed their save, the DM is to suggest the direction of a dare. In both cases start with rolling 1D6 to suggest something:

• (1) dangerous
• (2) embarrassing
• (3) illegal (by law or religion)
• (4) story/rumor-related
• (5) destructive
• (6) reckless

If a player won’t have the dare for his character, another save is allowed, but with a -3 this time (being a bit more drunk and all that, they never stopped drinking ...). Failing this second roll will result in adding another complication to the roll (roll another 1D6 on the table above). There’s no upper limit to the number of saves, but it’s getting the character more and more drunk and adds a suggestion every time and every fail with a -4 or more will send the character under the table. A passed out character might be carried along for the fun and might even gain back some consciousness to participate, drink on or run for his life ...

Multiply every xp gained with the penalty the characters got. A player may decide to get more drunk and still get through with the dare, but has to make a save for every penalty of -4 or higher to not pass out on the way there. A penalty of -x always goes with -x to attributes/ attacks/saves/damage, +x to AC and HP. So yeah, if a character manages to kill a dragon being stupid drunk (say, -4) he gets four times as much xp as he'd get sober. And if he passes out, he gets funny pictures tattooed on his face or burned to a crisp (dragons not being known for their humor and all that).

If all of them manage to pass out, they’ll wake up with no idea where they are or what they've done (DM’s discretion).


I hope +Charles Akins approves. This is (as written above) wildly untested, but every role player or DM worth his salt should be able to make something out of this. People should be harsh, relentless and creative about what they suggest for the other players to do. Make it tough, make it illegal or make it embarrassing, but remember it's all about having fun. Doesn't hurt to be clear about those rules at the beginning of a game.

Other than that, tell me what you think or, if you went as far as testing it, how it went. 


*Following a concept described in that post linked above (and now here, too) and based on the rules for being stunned from the D&D Rules Cyclopedia (page 150), but assuming that it involves a gradual process, starting at -1 for a slight buzz and stopping wherever a character decides to pass out, with getting sober being the reversed same process. For more detail read the RC or/and the original post about alcohol in the editions of D&D ...